Jonah 2 & 3 - The Joy of Repentance

Good morning. Today reading is on the book of Jonah and is on page 928. We are reading Jonah 2 and 3.

! Now the Lord provide a huge fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, and he said,

In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the rail of the dead, I called for help, and he listened to my cry.

You heard me into the very heart of the sea, and currents swore about me. All your waves and breakers swept over me.

I said, I've been banished from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

The engulfing water threatened me. The deep surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my head.

To the root of the mountain, I sunk down. The earth beneath buried me in the forever.

But you, Lord, my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I remember you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.

But I, with shout of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed, I will make good. I will say, salvation come from the Lord.

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah unto dry lands.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I gave you.

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.

Now Nineveh was a very large city. It took three days to go through it.

Jonah began by going a day journey into the city, proclaiming,

Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

The Ninevites believed God.

A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off Israel's robe,

covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust.

This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh.

By the decree of the king and his noble.

Do not let people or animal, herd or flock, taste anything.

Do not let them eat or drink.

But let people and animal be covered with sackcloth.

Let everyone call urgently on God.

Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

Who knows?

God may yet relent and wish compassion turned from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways,

he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had treated.

Amen.

Great. Thank you.

Alexandra, let's pray as we come to God's word.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we are so very conscious of your greatness and your glory.

You are the God who dwells in unapproachable light who no one has ever seen or can see.

And yet we come now to listen to your word.

To think on you.

To ponder what our response to you should be.

So we pray that with a right sense of humility, you would give us ears to hear what you're saying to us from your word by your spirit.

Help me to preach clearly and faithfully.

Help us all, we pray, to listen and to respond in obedience and faith.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's begin looking at Jonah 2 and 3 by having a quick scan through the story.

You might be very familiar with the story of Jonah.

But if you were here last week, you will know that Jonah was sent to the Assyrian city of Nineveh.

Andrew told you last week that it was a terrible, terrible place.

And so Jonah's response was to go in the opposite direction.

In the Hebrew, it's emphasized, Jonah chapter 1 verse 2, God asks Jonah to go up to Nineveh.

Jonah 1:2

And instead, he goes down to Joppa to find a boat to Tarshish.

He runs from God in disobedience rather than walking with God in obedience.

Now, as you might expect, and as you found last week, running from God did not work out for Jonah,

as it doesn't for anybody who tries it.

And God sends a storm, a great wind on the sea, as it's put in chapter 1 verse 4,

so bad that the sailors who Jonah is with end up throwing Jonah overboard to save themselves.

And they're not effectively sacrificing Jonah for their own salvation, his life for their life.

They throw Jonah into the chaos of the sea.

I was listening to catching up with the sermons as I was driving back from the Lake District yesterday.

And I think it was Yannick who pointed out to you that sea is chaos in the Bible.

And Jonah is thrown into the midst of the chaos.

But that is not the end of the story.

Because when all appears lost, God rescues Jonah by sending a giant fish to swallow him whole.

And that's where we find Jonah at the beginning of chapter 2,

in the belly of the fish that God sent to save him.

And chapter 2 verse 1 tells you that there in the belly of the fish,

from inside the fish, Jonah prays, prays.

Now, I don't know when Alexandra read it, whether you noticed,

but much of what Jonah prays would sound familiar to you if you've read much of the Psalms.

Jonah here basically picks up his book of Psalms.

We don't really, because he probably didn't have it on him in the belly of the fish.

And for sure, the fish had not swallowed the book of Psalms.

But anyway, he is remembering the book of Psalms.

And he is praying prayers lifted directly from the Psalms.

So Jonah is sort of imagining himself hurled down to the depths like the Psalmist.

But the way it's laid out, Jonah really sounds a little rich praying like this.

Notice he quotes Psalm 42 about being in the deep,

and the waves and the breakers sweeping over him.

But when you actually read Psalm 42,

that the Psalmist in Psalm 42 is looking for and longing for God.

Psalm 42 starts with,

As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you.

And then the Psalmist is sent trouble instead.

And so Psalm 42 is the prayer of an earnest God seeker

who has found themselves in the midst of dryness and struggle,

which really is the opposite of Jonah's story, isn't it?

Jonah has not been panting after God like a deer panting for water.

Instead, he is running from God and basically throws himself into the sea.

Now, that perhaps explains why in verse 5,

he has to use his own words to say that he's tangled in seaweed and ready to drown.

None of the Psalmists ran from God quite like Jonah did.

But despite his awkward use of Psalm 42,

God mercifully doesn't leave Jonah in the belly of the fish.

Instead, after three days and three nights,

according to chapter 1, verse 17,

the fish vomits Jonah up.

So that when in chapter 3, verse 1,

he's told again,

Go to Nineveh.

This time he goes.

So you can contrast, can't you,

the beginning of chapter 1,

which begins with Jonah's disobedience,

with chapter 3, verse 3,

which begins with Jonah's obedience.

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord,

chapter 3, verse 3.

Now, preaching to this city of Nineveh is no mean task.

It's a big city.

It takes three days to walk through it.

And so Jonah does just that.

He does it with a very brief sermon.

It's only five words in the original Hebrew.

It's there at the end of verse 4.

40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

Now, I don't know if you've ever been to preaching class,

but that isn't a brilliant sermon.

It's not really very persuasive.

He has no illustrations.

There are no parables.

There are no examples of what they're doing wrong.

It doesn't really seem as if Jonah's trying very hard

to persuade anybody.

He's like the guy with the sandwich board on

that says, you know,

repent or perish.

He's probably looking more for a fight

than he is looking for fruit.

Yet remarkably, Jonah's five-word sermon

is incredibly effective.

And from the king on his throne

to the peasant in the field,

the Ninevites repent.

They proclaim a fast.

They put on sackcloth.

They turn from their evil ways and their violence.

And at the end of verse 8,

are pleading with God to relent

and turn from his judgment.

It's an incredible turnaround.

And it's met with the mercy of God

who verse 10 says this,

when God saw what they did

and how they turned from their evil ways,

he relented and did not bring on them

the destruction he had threatened.

Now, that's not quite the end of the story.

Nathan is going to finish it off

in a sermon at the end of August.

But what are we to think about the story so far?

What do you think the story is about?

What is the big idea?

Well, if you jump forward in your Bibles,

we're given a massive hint by Jesus himself

because Jesus picks up this story,

these chapters,

in Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

So if you've got a Bible,

you might want to turn with me

to Matthew chapter 12 and verse 39.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

It's on page 978.

978.

Matthew chapter 12, verse 39.

Matthew 12:39

Let me read to you these verses.

Let's pick it up in verse 39.

Jesus, speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees,

he answered,

a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign,

but none will be given it

except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights

in the belly of a huge fish,

so the son of man will be three days

and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment

with this generation and condemn it,

for they repented at the preaching of Jonah

and now something greater than Jonah is here.

Notice what Jesus is saying here.

He reads Jonah two and three

and speaks of it to the scribes and the Pharisees

and he says, doesn't he effectively,

listen, I'm like Jonah, just better than Jonah.

And there is a judgment coming,

just like there was a judgment coming on the Ninevites.

And you too also need to repent,

just like the Ninevites did.

So let's just pick up those three points

and use them to walk back through this story.

Let's firstly think about Jesus being better than Jonah.

Jesus is better than Jonah.

Now, we don't have loads of time

to get into all the detail of it,

but really, as I said earlier,

you could summarize the book of Jonah

by being remarkable fruit from a terrible preacher.

So not only is Jonah reluctant at the start,

running the way and ending up in the belly of a fish,

but also chapter four will show you

that despite eventually going to Nineveh,

he hasn't really changed at all.

Three days in the fish and praying like a psalmist

all seems to be very skin deep for Jonah,

who ends up in as big a mess as he starts with.

And then even in chapter three,

the writer wants you to notice

that his preaching is rubbish.

This five-word sermon is obviously a summary of what he said.

I'm sure he said more than that.

But the way it's written is just underlining

this lack of conviction or compassion from Jonah.

He doesn't care.

He doesn't care.

In fact, I think he's quite keen on the idea

of them being destroyed.

And yet there's something about the message

spoken by a guy who probably looked quite rough.

I think if you've been in the acidic belly of a fish

for three days,

you probably look a bit rough as you come out.

There's something remarkable about this rough-looking guy

preaching for three days

that did a work on the hearts of the Ninevites.

Now contrast that to Jesus.

You know that the darkness and half-heartedness of Jonah

makes the brightness and whole-heartedness of Jesus

shine even more brightly.

Think about it.

Jesus, the preacher, did not run when he was sent.

He came willingly.

And he wasn't just leaving the relative safety

of the nation of Israel for the wickedness of Nineveh.

He was leaving the perfection of heaven

for the brokenness of this world.

And he wasn't just visiting for a three-day preaching tour.

He was putting on weak human flesh,

becoming one of us,

taking 30 years to live, walk, talk, eat.

And Jesus didn't die as a sacrifice for his own sins

to calm the storm that resulted,

but really he came and sacrificed himself for the sin of others.

He was not three days dead in a fish.

But as Matthew 12 points out, he was three days dead in the earth.

And Jesus rises,

and Jesus rises, not bleached by stomach acid,

but with wounds on his hands and his feet,

marks from the sacrifice that he's made for our sin.

And he preaches not a five-word sermon of condemnation,

hoping that we don't listen,

but a whole Bible full of compassion and love and grace and persuasive mercy,

pleading with us to listen and not refuse him,

saying to us that if we refuse to listen to him,

we'll be worse off than the Ninevites.

Now, of course, the point of all this is that we should listen to Jesus.

If Nineveh listened to Jonah,

then the priests and the scribes,

so the Pharisees and the scribes,

and you and I this morning,

we should listen to Jesus even more than the Ninevites listened to Jonah.

Let's just be really clear about this so that we know what's going on.

You know, don't you,

that when you read your Bible

or when you listen to the Bible taught faithfully and preached faithfully,

it is Jesus' voice that you're hearing.

These words, my words this morning, are his words,

not because I'm special or better than anybody,

but because these words are from his book.

It's a book that's not just about Jesus,

but it is from Jesus.

It's an extraordinary claim, isn't it?

And I can't prove it to you in a way that would fully convince you,

I'm sure, if you don't yet believe it.

But really, all the evidence points this way.

The Bible itself is written over thousands of years

by multiple different authors from a diverse range of backgrounds

on the most controversial and contested subject in all of life.

And yet they agree with one another.

Why?

Well, because God is the author of the scriptures.

Jesus is speaking through the Bible.

One voice, one story,

one promise of salvation in Jesus Christ.

So the story of his death and resurrection

is modeled 800 years before he comes in the life of Jonah.

And so we get to listen to Jesus as his word is opened

and as it's taught.

Jesus walks off the pages of the Bible.

He calls out to us,

listen to me, he says.

I have an urgent message for all of you to hear.

That's the first point.

Jesus is like Jonah, only much, much better.

And we get to hear him.

Secondly, then notice the similarity in their message.

Both Jesus and Jonah say judgment is coming.

If you're still in Matthew 12, look down at verse 41.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment

with this generation and condemn it.

For they repented at the preaching of Jonah

and now something greater than Jonah is here.

Notice Jesus' point.

The judgment that Nineveh avoided

is not, he says, the only judgment.

There is another judgment to come.

And in this coming judgment,

these 8th century BC Ninevites

will stand alongside these 1st century scribes

and they will condemn them

because they repented

and the Pharisees and the scribes didn't.

Condemnation will be received, won't it,

for all those who do not listen

to the warning of God's messenger.

The Ninevites listened to Jonah.

The Pharisees did not listen to Jesus.

The Ninevites believed in judgment for themselves.

The Pharisees did not.

And this is really the heart of all this.

Okay, so the book of Jonah

is really a book about repentance.

Repentance.

It's about turning from our sin

and turning to God.

Turning is all over these chapters.

You'll notice that we see it in Jonah.

He turns from running from God

to now going back to Nineveh

where he was supposed to.

But we learn that his repentance is skin deep.

And then we see true repentance

in the Ninevites.

Turning back to God.

And what's really clear

is that genuine turning,

genuine repentance happens

when we listen to the warning of future judgment.

Perhaps you could put it this way.

Real repentance is always thoroughly persuaded

of future judgment.

Put it negatively.

If you are not persuaded of future judgment,

you will not repent properly now.

If you do not hear the warning,

if you do not believe the warning,

you will not repent.

Not truly.

You see, there might be all sorts of reasons this morning

why you might be sat there thinking,

do you know what I could really do

with turning my life around a bit?

You know, you might be persuaded

that your life would be a bit happier,

a bit more pleasurable

if you made a bit more moral effort,

if you spent a bit more time with the kids,

or if you kind of dialed down your social media use,

if you try to spend more time in the real world.

Let me tell you,

like two weeks in the countryside

where mobile reception is dodgy,

it's brilliant for you, right?

You come back a new person.

What are we doing?

And maybe you're persuaded of that.

You might be persuaded,

do you know what,

I just think actually my life would be better

if I made a regular effort to go to church.

I really think I'd be better

if I was free from this addiction

or that addiction,

if I could break from my troubled past.

And all that is great as far as it goes,

but none of them on their own

will lead to biblical repentance.

Biblical repentance,

the kind of repentance you see

modeled by the Ninevites,

the kind of repentance

that the Lord Jesus is calling us to here

is thoroughly persuaded

that without God's mercy,

it's not that it's going to be

a little bit worse,

but that all will be lost.

Biblical repentance

starts with the conviction,

doesn't it?

That each one of us in this room

will find ourselves one day

standing before God as judge

and he will not care

and will not ask you,

have you been true to yourself?

Did you try your best?

Did you go to church?

He won't, he can't tolerate,

can he, even the smallest

and slightest immorality

and still be a good, pure, holy God,

the kind of God that we all need.

And so every unrighteous thought,

every immoral action,

every selfish desire,

every wicked deed

will be condemned

along with the guilty party.

And you and I,

we might not be the worst people

that we know,

but we're not the perfect people

that we need to be.

And so Jonah's message,

Jesus' message,

stands as a warning,

doesn't it?

40 more days,

maybe 40 more years,

maybe 40 more minutes,

who knows?

Whatever it is,

the time is coming

when judgment will be here

and sin will be overthrown forever.

And you might think,

well, goodness,

really,

is that really what Jesus says?

Is that really his message?

No, I can see that,

I see that Jonah preached

this kind of turn or burn

kind of message,

but was that really

what Jesus said?

Didn't Jesus say,

do to others

as you would have them do to you?

Well, he did say that, yes,

but he warned of judgment

more than anybody else.

Let me just read to you

a snapshot of Jesus' warnings

from Matthew's gospel.

You don't have to turn to them,

I'll just read them out to you

so you can get a sense

of Jesus' preaching.

Matthew chapter 5,

Matthew 5:22

verse 22.

I tell you that anyone

who is angry

with a brother or sister

will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says

to his brother or sister,

Raka,

is answerable to the court,

and anyone who says,

you fool,

will be in danger

of the fire of hell.

Matthew 13,

Matthew 13:39

verse 39.

This is how it will be

at the end of the age.

The angels will come

and separate the wicked

from the righteous

and throw them

into the blazing furnace

where there will be weeping

and gnashing of teeth.

Have you understood

all these things,

Jesus asked.

Matthew 18,

Matthew 18:8

verse 8.

If your hand causes,

or your foot causes you

to stumble,

cut it off

and throw it away.

It is better

for you to enter life

maimed or crippled

than to have two hands

and two feet

and be thrown

into eternal fire.

If your eye causes you

to stumble,

gouge it out

and throw it away.

It is better for you

to enter life

with one eye

than to have two eyes

and be thrown

into the fire of hell.

Matthew 24,

Matthew 24:50

verse 50.

The master

of that servant

will come on a day

when he does not expect him,

an hour when he's not aware of,

he will cut him to pieces

and assign him a place

with the hypocrites

where there will be weeping

and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25,

Matthew 25:41

verse 41.

He will say to those

on his left,

depart from me,

you who are cursed

into the eternal fire,

prepared for the devil

and his angels.

For I was hungry

and you gave me

nothing to eat.

I was thirsty,

you gave me nothing to drink.

I was a stranger

and you did not invite me in.

I needed clothes

and you did not clothe me.

I was sick

and in prison

and you did not look after me.

Before we went away

on holiday,

I got to spend

about three days

by myself.

I've done it before

just like that

but I went away

just me,

a Bible,

a couple of books,

a dog

and I read through

these passages

and passages like them

and it struck me

with probably

a greater clarity

than it has

for a long, long time

that so much

of my repentance

is so weak

and half-hearted

because my belief

and consciousness

of future judgment

is so weak

and half-hearted.

That I don't

spend the time

turning to God

and saying

that I'm genuinely

sorry,

owning my sin

and my mess

is because somewhere

in my heart

I've persuaded myself

that judgment

is not coming.

but Jesus

is really clear

and notice

he's not only clear

is he that

hell is a reality.

That's a part of it,

right?

But what we need to see

is not just that

hell is a reality.

What we need to see

is that hell

is what I deserve.

That should be

my destiny.

I deserve to be lost

in the sea of chaos

as Jonah pictures it.

You see this

in the Ninevites,

don't you?

They understood

not that judgment

was coming

in some sort

of general sense

but they understood

it's coming for me.

It's coming for us.

A specific

our city

is going to be judged.

Rich and poor.

The king on the throne

and the servant

washing the boots

in the yard.

So perhaps I can ask you

if you've seen this.

Maybe you wouldn't

call yourself

a Christian this morning.

Perhaps you're just

trying to work out

what it's all about.

Can I ask you

do you see this?

Has God granted you

the eyes of faith

to see this judgment

and to believe

in its coming?

You know,

God opens our eyes

as we listen

to his word.

So can I ask you

to listen

and to think about this?

Might you consider

that the guilt

that you carry

that you feel

in your kind of belly

when you've done

something wrong

is an echo

of the righteousness

of God

who made you

and that just

as your thoughts

and your actions

condemn you

in your own heart

so they will be

for a holy God.

And if you're

a Christian this morning

don't lose sight

of this.

Of course

the joy of the

Christian life

and we'll come

and think about

this in a moment

is that we are

free from fear

of condemnation.

Jesus is thrown

into the sea

of the chaos

of hell for us

to save us

from our sin.

He frees us

by his sacrifice.

He pays for our judgment.

It's not that we're

let off sin

is it?

Rather that

sin is already

judged in Christ

for us.

It's already been paid.

It can't be paid again

and say that I'm free.

And yet still

the reality

of our Christian lives

must be

that we are conscious

that it is only

the mercy of God

that's done it

for us.

There is nothing

in me that deserves

this.

I will stand

before the Lord

and on that day

it will be

Jesus' righteousness

alone that will be

any hope for me.

So Jesus is better

than Jonah.

Judgment is real

and coming

and then the final

point

repentance is miraculous.

Repentance is miraculous.

I think the way

the story is told

is meant to just

point this out to us

over and over again.

The Ninevites'

response to the

preaching of Jonah

is nothing short

of miraculous.

You see that

don't you?

Because you cannot

explain the Ninevites'

response by the

quality of Jonah's

preaching.

Yeah?

We've seen that.

Nor can you explain

their response

by their heritage

or their moral

leanings.

I listened to

Andrew's sermon

from last week

and he pointed this

out really helpfully

didn't he?

That actually

the Assyrian city

of Nineveh

was a city of blood.

But it was a

terrible place.

It was not that

he went to a city

that had sort of

kind of moral

inclinations that

were going to

you know oh yeah

that's a city that

would definitely

turn to God.

Not at all.

Their heritage was

wickedness and

ruthlessness.

No notion of a

belief in God.

Rather it seems as

if this massive

turnaround of heart

was brought about

by God.

That God sends

the warning of

judgment for the

purpose of turning

the hearts of the

Ninevites back to

him.

Performing that

miracle in their

hearts to bring

repentance.

And you see the

miraculous nature of

it in their

thoroughness don't

you?

The writer underlines

this over and over

showing how they

extended their

repentance even to

the animals.

The herds and the

flocks.

It's as if everyone

and everything needed

to change.

I have no idea.

You want to ask me

later.

I don't know.

I have no idea how

you enforce a fast on

a cow.

Right?

Or why you would do

that.

But I think the writer

records that because

he's just saying to

you look how thorough

their repentance is.

Look how deep this

goes.

It goes right down to

the cattle in the

field.

This is how serious

they are about it.

But the other

miraculous thing about

it as well is that

it's not just thorough

but it also doesn't

pull them from God

does it?

It draws them in

towards God himself.

It's remarkable

isn't it?

In normal circumstances

we deal with the

potential of judgment

by running and

hiding.

Don't we?

So you run

from the police.

Yeah?

Not to them.

We hide from the

teacher the fact that

we've not done the

homework that we were

meant to do.

we don't walk up to

them and tell them

do we?

We cover over our

sins.

The things that we've

done wrong.

The things that we've

broken at home from our

flatmates or from our

parents.

Because we don't want

them to discover it.

You know we lie about

what we really did when

we are put under

pressure because we

don't want people to

notice what we really

did.

But this miraculous

repentance does the

very opposite of that.

Despite it being God's

judgment that is coming

for them still the

Ninevites don't run

from God but they

turn to him for

mercy.

Wholeheartedly with

fasting and sackcloth

saying listen this is

what we want more than

we even want food.

We want mercy from

God himself.

We're not going to

cover up.

We're going to lay

ourselves bare before

God and say God

God will you show us

mercy.

And that's remarkable.

I think the other way

that the writer of

Jonah underlines this

miraculous repentance is

by contrasting it with

the fakeness of Jonah's

repentance.

So notice Jonah has

this amazing experience

of the fish.

He's not just warned of

future judgment.

He if you like has

gotten to taste future

judgment in the sea

water and then in the

fish.

fish.

And God speaks to him

directly.

Jonah knows his Bible.

He clearly knows it well

enough to be quoting it

back even under the

pressure of being inside

a fish.

And yet still despite all

of that he is reluctantly

obedient at the beginning

of chapter three.

He is not really repentant

and he ends the story in a

worse mess than he was at

the beginning where really

he hates the idea that God

is merciful to people.

And so this is the sting

isn't it of Jesus mini

sermon on Jonah two and

three.

That it is be it is

possible for us to be so

dressed up in Christian

language that we fail to

repent properly.

the very first point of the

Christian life to turn to

God and own our sin and

say we're sorry.

So perhaps you pray the

Psalms.

Maybe you know your Bible

really well.

Maybe you sing the songs.

But if you do not confess

your sin and own it before

the Lord.

miraculously repenting.

You have not repented.

You know perhaps you preach

the gospel to others.

Maybe you're known as a

Christian but you don't

believe it for yourself.

Well don't be like a Jonah.

Be like an Ninevite.

Let me ask you.

Have you repented like that?

Now because we've seen that

repentance is miraculous.

We need to ask.

It's not so much have you

generated inside yourself

enough sorrow and guilt at

your sin that you feel like

this.

It's not that is it?

It's have you received

repentance from God?

Have you said to God please

give me a heart like this

for my sake?

Please Lord help me to see

who you are and what you're

like.

Have we responded to the

warnings of judgment with an

earnest turning to God.

Living in this ongoing

dependence on God's mercy.

You know perhaps you come to

church each week and you

think well we have that weird

prayer of confession don't we

in the beginning of our

service.

Why would we do that?

Why not mix it up a bit?

I once had a church leader who

worked with me in another

church not in this one.

He would say why don't we mix

it up a bit Steve?

Why don't we put the sermon

people come late to church

don't they all the time?

If we put the sermon at the

beginning there'll be so miffed

that they missed the sermon.

They might come on early next

time.

Why don't we do that?

Well we don't do that because

our very instinct as Christians

as we walk into the worship of

God and are called by him to

worship him is to go Lord we're

not worthy.

We fall at your knees in

repentance and trust in your

mercy again.

Please forgive us.

Please show us mercy.

That's what Christians do.

The Christian life is really the

ongoing recognition that in

every conceivable way there is

nothing that I could do or have

done or will do that could earn

what I really need from the

Lord which is his mercy and his

grace.

And so it is the instinct of

every believer to throw

themselves not on their efforts

or their goodness but on the

mercy of God.

Mercy found at the cross of

Jesus Christ.

One of the books I read while I

was away was a book on

repentance by a guy called

Chris Brawns.

It's a brilliant book.

I'd recommend it to all of you

if you want to know what the

book is you can come and ask me

afterwards.

And one thing that he points out

over and over again is that

repentance is not simply sorrow

at your sin.

Everyone is sad aren't they at the

things that they've done wrong.

But genuine repentance is sorry

for sin but it also rejoices in

God's mercy.

Right?

You see this at the end of Jonah.

I'm going to steal a bit from

Nathan's sermon but Nathan's on

camp this week.

He doesn't know.

He won't know.

And I'll ask for his

forgiveness.

Jonah is miserable at the end of

the story and wants to die.

Right?

That's how Jonah ends up.

Why is Jonah miserable and

wanting to die?

Because he does not repent.

The Ninevites end up rejoicing.

Why?

Because they repented and they

enjoyed the mercy of God.

And so for us repentance is what's

needed because mercy is what is on

offer.

And by definition you cannot earn

mercy.

You have to receive it.

And so we repent and we're not

only sorrowful for our sin but we

are rejoicing in the mercy of God.

Because if you turn to him you find

that he is this merciful God.

He is this gracious loving God who

sent his son to this world to preach

this gospel of mercy, grace and

forgiveness.

He was dead.

He's now alive.

He's paid for our judgment that we

might receive mercy and grace.

And for you to know that, for you to

be full of that kind of joy, you must

repent with a miraculous repentance

that sees future judgment, sees that

Jesus is better than Jonah and puts

its trust in him.

Let me pray and then we'll come and

sing in response.

Perhaps we'll just take a moment, just

a moment of quiet in our own hearts

as we respond to God's word.

Thank you.

Father, we turn to you in repentance. We know that we deserve your judgment. We know that there is nothing in us that deserves your mercy or your grace.

We know, Lord, that there's no point hiding from you or running from you because you know us, you see us, you know all about us.

And so we turn to you in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that he took our sin upon himself and died on the cross.

That as we turn to you in repentance, we don't turn just in a vague hope that you might be merciful, but in confidence that you love to show mercy in the Lord Jesus to repentant sinners.

So we pray that this miracle of repentance would go on and on in our hearts, that we would find ourselves turning to you and trusting in you day by day.

And pray, please, Lord, that you might continue to do that work for your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.