The Character of Compassion

Good morning. My name is James. I have a lovely wife. I have three children. But you probably

know most of those things. Here are some things that you might be surprised to learn. I've

been, you might actually know this one, I've been trying to learn Mandarin for many years

and I'm pretty terrible at it. I love K-pop music. Do you know what K-pop music is? It's Korean

pop music and it's wonderful. I can educate you later, don't worry. And I really like this

Chinese sauce. It's called Lao Gan Ma. Does anybody eat this? Yes, this stuff is delicious.

You can try this on your jam and cream scone later on. This is really nice. As we get to

know each other as people, we get to know what people like, but not just the positive things.

We also get to know the negative things about people, the things that are more sad than surprising,

the hidden sins, the personal struggles. When you get to know these parts of me, these might

drive you to drive you to anger instead of joy. What about when it comes to God? As we get to know

God, are we surprised that God can be angry, that God can be full of compassion? What if God is not

as we expect him to be? For Jonah, God wasn't what he expected. God showed a character that Jonah was not

very happy about. How do we react when we find out something new about God or when we see a truth?

How do we react when we thought he was going to be different? What happens when we are confronted

with an aspect of God that we weren't prepared for? Do we run and hide? Do we allow God to reveal

himself to find out more about him? As we conclude our series on Jonah today, at the end of mission

month, we are going to be confronted with a God of wrath and a God of compassion.

And we're going to be asking the question, how do we respond as we get to know our God?

And today we're going to be challenged by our view of God and our view of other people.

And we're going to do this in an attempt to understand God better. So as we do this,

let's pray as we look at Jonah chapter 4. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this journey through the

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

book of Jonah, that you have not only revealed yourself to us through your word, but you reveal

who we are and what we are like as people. Father, help us come before you in dependence upon you.

And Lord, help us not run away when we learn more about you, but run to you instead. Amen.

As we've seen over these four short chapters in the book of Jonah, Jonah has been called by God to go

to Nineveh and preach. Instead, he fled in the opposite direction. And then he was swallowed by a fish.

And finally, he went to Nineveh. He preached about the coming of God's wrath. And Nineveh repented.

They turned from their ways, from the people at the very top of society, the king, all the way down to

the very bottom. This is wonderful. It is great news. God's word has been proclaimed.

And people have listened and responded. It's what every prophet, it's what every preacher dreams and

prays would happen. That people would be confronted by God's word and have their lives impacted.

What better response to Jonah's preaching than the whole entire city repents. They change their ways.

How many prophets and preachers have had that kind of impact? And it's a bit of a surprise that

this book doesn't actually end in chapter 3 with Nineveh repenting and turning to God.

This seems to be the high point of the book. Why did it not end there?

At this point, we think Jonah, he should be joyful. He should be amazed at God's word has been preached

and people have repented. He should be joyful. But he's not. Have a look with me. Jonah chapter 4,

Jonah 4:1

verse 1. But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong. And he became angry. It seems like a bit of a two-year-old

temper tantrum meltdown. Verse 2, he prayed to the Lord,

Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to

Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in

love, a God who relents from calamity. Jonah is saying, you know, God, I knew you would pull this

kind of stunt. These people are evil. They should have been wiped out. Nothing is going to change.

They're just going to act scared for a little while. And while you show the mercy,

God, you're just hopeless. They don't deserve your love. Your love is for Israel. No one else.

And because you've done this, verse 3, take away my life. It is better for me to die than to live.

Now, this seems like a bit of an overreaction from Jonah. God's grace and mercy to Nineveh has revealed

Jonah's real problem. God has turned out to be a different God than who he thought.

Jonah had built this box and put God in it. Jonah wanted God to be someone who had exclusive love

and compassion for Israel, for his people. And it was wrath and anger for other countries.

He's seen Assyria with its capital at Nineveh. They've risen in power. They've invaded others.

They've been incredibly violent, brutally killing many others. And Jonah wants God to show his wrath to

them and not his love and compassion. That is why in chapter 1, he flees from Nineveh.

He doesn't want God to get the opportunity to relent and show compassion, to reveal his love and mercy.

He was worried that God would show his compassion. And so Jonah's response to God being different,

to not being the God he wanted, is that he wanted to die. Jonah's effectively saying,

God, if you're not going to give me what I want, if you're not going to be the God that I want,

then do you know what? My life has no meaning and it may as well end right now.

Nineveh's repentance was pleasing to God, but it was threatening to Israel's political interests.

They were the massive superpower at the time. They were invading other countries and crushing

other countries. And it was very likely to happen to Israel. And in fact, it would later.

Jonah didn't want Nineveh to repent. He wanted them wiped out as a political enemy. Because Jonah

cared more for his interests, the interests of his people, than for the salvation of this city.

He valued God blessing his country over anyone else. And I think part of this comes down to racism.

We're going to take a brief tangent from Noah. We're going to take a short sidestep. I'm going to

talk about racism for a moment. Firstly, I don't believe that within humanity, there are different

races. I don't believe that there are different races within humanity. I believe that the idea of

race was created to justify one skin color being preferred over another skin color.

And traditionally, the lighter the skin color, the better, the darker, the worse. Racism, race was

created to justify slavery. I believe that there are humans and that within humanity, there are different

ethnicities. Ethnicities are good. Ethnicity is a biblical term. Our ethnicity is actually going to

endure and continue into heaven. We see this in Revelation chapter 7. At the end of all time,

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

where all nations, tribes and people and languages will be praising God. And this is something that

we love. This is something we celebrate here at St. Paul's, that it is our transcultural identity,

that we are people from different ethnicities and we get to praise God together just like it will be

in heaven. All of our ethnic backgrounds are different and we are all shaped in God's image

and we all, all of our ethnicities have value, but no one culture is the culture. None of us have

the right God culture. God wants all of our ethnicities and all of our cultures to be shaped and grown to be

more like God, to be more like the way He wants us to be. But I think our ethnicity, it is so tightly

related to our identity. You know, for me, I'm an Aussie, I love cricket, you know, we might say I'm

Chinese, I'm Sri Lankan, and we can hold so tightly to our ethnicity that it pits our ethnicity against

somebody else's ethnicity, to somebody else's people group. A proper way of describing racism would be

ethnic pride. My group's way of doing church is the best. My group's food is the best. You know,

Lao Gan Ma, I agree, that stuff is delicious. It's my people's way of doing things is better than your

people's way. It's pride, it's arrogance that is a defense of our people group. And I think it is

something that is very dangerous and it's something that we need to be aware of and to avoid.

Jonah has fallen into a trap of ethnic pride. The God of Israel, His people would have compassion

only for Israel. We need to be aware here as a church that the things we desire to see, the way

we want to see church done, is the best for all of us. And it's not just ethnic preferences. It's not

just my people's way of doing things. It is something that we as a church are journeying towards,

becoming trans-cultural, becoming a culture defined by the cross, as we want to treasure Jesus together.

Now that is a brief but important tangent on racism. Please come and talk to me later about that.

But coming back to Jonah 4 with his problem of racism, he has the audacity to quote God back to God.

The God that he knew that he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,

in verse 2, it's a quote from Exodus 34 that John Sock read for us before, where God reveals himself to

Moses. And it's interesting because Jonah here, he reads God's words selectively. He ignores the last part,

which says from Exodus 34, yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

Jonah just remembered the part about God's love and compassion and said,

I knew you were that kind of God and I didn't want you to be that kind of God to Nineveh.

He forgot that God was also a God of wrath who would punish those who are guilty.

He uses God's words to justify his position of anger, but he doesn't read the whole paragraph.

He just chops out a verse at the end that he doesn't like.

He forgets who God revealed himself to be. And he makes himself look silly.

It's very dangerous to pit God's word against God.

One of the other people, I think it's the only other person in the Bible,

guilty of twisting and quoting God's word against God is Satan himself.

Remember in the Garden of Eden, Satan twists God's word to Adam and Eve,

and he does it again to Jesus, tempting Jesus.

While Jonah had been down a couple of chapters ago in rock bottom when he was in the belly of the fish,

he saw his need for God's grace.

Jonah has forgotten God's word and only remembered part of it that he liked.

And he's created a simplistic picture of God who just loves everyone without any judgment on evil.

He was so worried that God's character of compassion, he fled instead.

This is a danger for us.

This was a prophet who spoke with God himself,

who forgot about what he said,

and then got so angry with God he wanted to die.

How much more careful do we need to be there?

Our God is bigger than we know.

He is more complicated than we know.

We can't put him into a box like Jonah did.

We can't simplify him into a stereotype of a God who doesn't judge but only loves.

It is possible to use the Bible selectively to justify our actions,

to create a version of God that suits us.

It's possible to read the Bible selectively confirm our opinions against those who don't follow Jesus,

or those who are different to us,

or those who don't hold the same views.

It's easy to think that our understanding of God,

our theology is superior to anyone else's.

It can be easy to read the Bible and think,

yes, I'm right.

I always knew I was right.

You know, we shouldn't have voted that party in last week.

Or I'm so glad we did vote that party in last week.

If we read the Bible and it makes us feel that we are right,

that we are righteous,

we are reading it wrong.

Go to the book of Romans.

Be reminded of our sin and our dependence on God.

When we read the Bible, it should humble us.

It should change how we view our God.

It should encourage us with God's love and grace despite our flaws.

It should remind us that our God is loving and compassionate and generous

more than we could even know.

As we draw closer to God throughout our lives,

His different aspects will be revealed to us.

Our God doesn't change,

but our understanding of Him does.

Back in February earlier in the year,

we did a month-long series on prayer.

And ever since that,

I've been reading through the Psalms.

I aim for every night to read a Psalm

and then to pray through that Psalm.

And there was this one week,

I can't remember,

it was maybe about two months ago,

where every single night,

the Psalm was about the same thing.

It was about David praising God

about how great God was.

And let me surprise you

by you all getting to know me a little bit more

and getting to know my sinful heart a little bit more.

After a week of the same theme,

praying about how great God was,

I was sick of it.

I just kind of had had enough with that theme

and thought,

it's time to move on to something else, David.

I had a moment of being in bed.

It was about 11 o'clock at night,

I remember it.

And I was just in that in-between stage

between reading the Psalm,

meditating on it,

and then praying.

So I was in this in-between stage

and I was just grumpy.

Not full-blown Jonah angry,

I want to die.

But I was just a bit annoyed with God.

Ah, why do I need to praise God again?

I've had a week of this.

Come on.

And I sat in this funk for a minute.

And then God hit me.

I can't describe it as anything other than God

just revealing himself to me in that moment.

That he is so awesome

and he is so amazing

that he deserves not just a couple of minutes

of a week's night of prayer,

he deserves every moment of praise.

He deserves to be praised every day.

Every moment of my life.

And in that brief moment,

my view of God was changed.

Now, I knew he deserved all the praise before that,

but God surprised me.

Our view of God will change,

not because he changes,

but because we seek to grow and move closer to him.

And when we do that,

we can see him more clearly.

Are you growing closer to God?

Have you had your view of God challenged?

Have you been surprised at God's wrath against sin?

Have you been surprised by God's love and compassion?

Brothers and sisters,

let me encourage you to do something like what I've been doing,

which is trying to spend some time in prayer every single night,

going through the Psalms.

That's been wonderful for me

so that I can be getting to know God better.

Jonah's been angry with God,

and now we see God respond.

Have a look with me.

Chapter 4, verse 4.

Is it right for you to be angry?

God starts to deal differently with Jonah here.

When Jonah fled,

God was very firm with him.

He sent a storm to him.

He was thrown into the ocean,

swallowed by a fish.

Now,

God deals gently and patiently.

It's like a parent who started with,

you know,

go clean your room.

Come on, man.

Come on.

I'll help you.

He's changed his tack,

and he asks him the type of question

a therapist might pose to someone.

Is it good?

Is it right for you to be angry?

And Jonah doesn't respond to God's gentle prodding.

Instead, verse 5,

he heads out of the city,

and he sits down.

It seems that Jonah,

still angry with God,

he's gone and sat down outside of the city,

maybe to see what would happen.

God has decided to relent,

to show compassion and mercy.

Maybe these people would slip up.

Maybe they would change.

Maybe they wouldn't stay repenting.

Maybe they were going to revert to their own old ways,

and God is going to send a meteor against them.

And I want to be here to watch that happen.

Maybe that's Jonah's motive

for sitting outside the city.

Making his stay more comfortable,

God sends a plant.

A plant grows up.

It's a big leafy plant

that grows up and gives Jonah shade.

It eases his pain.

It makes him happy.

And after a horrid couple of chapters,

he's fled from God.

He's been on a ship in the middle of a storm.

He's been in the belly of a fish,

spat out,

preaching repentance to a city

who didn't want it.

Now he has a moment of joy

and happiness and peace.

It's that moment of finally sitting down

with a tea or a coffee

and taking that first sip.

Oh, joy.

But verse 7,

At dawn the next day,

God provided a worm

which chewed the plant

so that it withered.

When the sun rose,

God provided a scorching east wind,

and the sun blazed on Jonah's head

so that he grew faint.

He wanted to die

and said,

It would be better for me to die than to live.

Jonah placated for a moment.

He is now angry to die again.

Angry enough to die.

Life was good for those,

you know,

couple of moments

with that plant over his head.

He couldn't even leave me in peace.

It seems God has done

all of this in preparation

for God to teach Jonah

something about who God is.

This is the moment

that the book has been leading up to.

God asks him again,

Is it right for you to be angry

about this plant?

Jonah sulking,

I can't help but picture him like a child,

arms crossed,

humping around.

It is.

It is right for me to be angry,

and I want to die.

God reveals something about himself

in verse 10.

But the Lord said,

You have been concerned

about this plant,

though you did not tend it

or make it grow.

It sprang up overnight

and died overnight.

And should I not have concern

for the great city of Nineveh,

in which there are more than

120,000 people

who cannot tell their right hand

from their left?

Jonah had compassion

and wept over a plant.

God has compassion

over a city of people.

Jonah became attached

to a plant

that he had nothing to do with.

He didn't even water it,

but his heart was attached

to it in some way,

so that when it was destroyed,

he was destroyed too.

God says that he does

the same thing

with this city of Nineveh.

He attaches his compassion,

his concern,

and his heart

to these people.

Jonah,

because he's a human,

attaches his love

and affection

and his emotional dependence

to a plant.

He didn't look at it

and make a mental choice.

Oh, this plant

is giving me shade.

I'm going to choose

to love it.

It's leafy and green.

It meets his need

and he gets attached.

If you've ever seen

the TV show

with Marie Kondo

about cleaning clutter

out of your house,

this is what she is

working against.

You know,

we get attached to things

and we need to,

you know,

get rid of them.

Alyssa and I

have been cleaning out things.

We cleaned out

a lot of coffee mugs recently

and it was really difficult

because I was attached to them.

Didn't use a lot of them.

You know,

this is like one coffee mug I use.

We have so many novelty coffee mugs

that we just ended up

throwing out.

But I find them hard

because I attach myself to them.

But God doesn't need anything.

God doesn't need a coffee mug

that says,

world's best God.

He doesn't need a plant

to give him happiness.

He doesn't need people.

God doesn't need

to get attached to things

for no reason.

God is totally happy

within himself,

within the Trinity.

The love between the Father

and the Son

and the Holy Spirit,

that is enough

because that is love.

He doesn't need anything.

The only reason

that he can

love other things

and show compassion to them

is because

he wants to.

God willingly chooses

the things

that he will attach

his love to

and compassion

and grace.

It's amazing

that the God

who created

the universes,

the stars,

the galaxies,

the planets,

who can say,

I care

about these little people

on this little rock.

what happens

to them

moves

and grieves

me.

God is saying

to Jonah,

I am weeping

and grieving

over this city.

Why aren't you?

If you are my prophet,

why don't you

have compassion?

Because

the reality of it

is Jonah

is just not

a very good prophet.

prophet.

And Jesus

is the prophet

that Jonah

leaves us

wanting him to be.

Jonah didn't

weep for the city.

He left it

and was angry.

He went outside

of it

hoping to see

its destruction.

If he'd stayed

and kept

preaching

to this city,

maybe

they would have

followed God

and not

just briefly.

Jesus went

into the city

unlike Jonah.

He went

into Jerusalem

and he wept

over those

who would not

follow.

Jesus

didn't stay

outside.

He went

into the city

and he

was destroyed.

He died

on a cross

so that the city,

so that we

could be saved.

God has

chosen to

concern himself

to attach

his joys

and his pains

to us.

So much

so that he

became like us.

He became

human,

able to

weep with us,

able to

laugh with us

out of

compassion.

He not only

grieved to

see people

lost,

but was

subject to

the agonizing

pain of

crucifixion

to take

our place.

Jonah,

full of

racism

and self-righteousness,

cannot imagine

God saving

anyone else.

Jesus,

full of

love

and selflessness,

cannot do

anything but

sacrifice himself

to save

people far

from God.

Jonah

wanted to

hate,

wanted God

to hate the

foreigner and

only have

compassion on

Israel,

but God's

surprise character

should not have

been a surprise.

What surprises

him is how

his wrath and

compassion play

out together.

For us,

are we surprised

that our God

is a God of

wrath who will

judge the

guilty,

or that he is a

God of

compassion who

will show

mercy?

I've often

heard people

pit the God

of the Old

Testament against

the God of

the New

Testament.

The God of

the Old

Testament,

he's all about

wrath,

and the God

of the New

Testament,

he's all about

love and

mercy.

Many people

in the West

would expect

God to be

a God of

mercy,

because we

find it hard

to accept that

God should

judge people.

Maybe you've

thought that

yourself.

Other people

who come from

maybe a

damaged or

war-torn

area,

they have a

background where

they want to

see God

bring justice

and wrath

who punishes

those who do

evil.

that person

can be

surprised at

God's free

offer of

forgiveness.

Ultimately,

God binds

these two

seemingly

contradictory

parts of

his wrath

and his

compassion

together,

and they're

combined in

the cross,

the place

where his

wrath is

carried out

on his

son,

so that

his compassion

and love

can be shown

to us.

The story

of Jonah

has a bit

of a strange

ending.

After God

gently prods

Jonah to

have compassion

on the right

things,

we don't hear

any more.

We don't find

out what

happens to

Jonah.

I wonder

if it's

possible that

God surprised

him with his

compassion for

the Ninevites,

and Jonah

went away

and repented.

I wonder if

he was changed

and that led

him to write

this book.

I wonder.

The question

at the end

leaves us

to ask

ourselves and

to put

ourselves into

that very

place.

Will we

respond like

Jonah?

Will we

be angry

out of racist

national arrogance?

Will we see

God's compassion

on other

people to be

sent to preach

a word of

compassion and

repentance?

Will we

not just see

mission month

to be something

that is nearly

finished,

mission month's

nearly over,

but as

something to

spur us on

for the year

to see God's

message of

repentance go

forth to this

city and to

the world?

Will we let

our own

expectations of

who God is

get in the

way of

revealing,

of God

revealing himself

to us?

let me pray

for us.

Dearest

Heavenly

Father,

we thank

you for

how you

have indeed

revealed your

compassion and

your mercy and

your love to

people who do

not deserve it

that it invites.

And Lord,

we thank you

that you have

revealed that to

us as well,

people who are

not deserving of

your love.

Father,

we ask that we

would continue to

get to know

you, to know

who you are as

our God, that

you are a God

who will punish

the unjust,

but you also

show us mercy

in the cross so

that we can be

brought into your

family.

Heavenly Father,

help us to

continue to

journey to get

to know you,

to love you

more, to

praise you

more, and to

have a

willingness, a

desire,

to see your

compassion and

mercy spread out

from here into

Chatswood, into

Sydney, and

across the world.

And we ask

this in your

Son's name and

for your glory.

Amen.