When God’s Mercy Offends | Jonah 1:1-4 | Pastor Bob Erbig

Now, this morning, as Amy also mentioned, we're beginning a six-week series on the book of Jonah.

Our focus is going to be the question: what does Jonah teach us about God's heart for the nations?

I also want to point out, I did put together a study guide that's in the back where the outlines and the small group questions are.

If you'd like to pick that up, if you'd like to go deeper in your study on Jonah, there's resources.

There's also a reading plan for the uh the series.

If you want to uh use that for your devotional time, that is part of this packet in the back.

Also, I will say Jonah has has a little bit of a special place in my heart.

We uh we preached Jonah about 10 years ago in the fall of uh 2016.

It was during the time that uh my wife was pregnant with our first daughter, and uh I was gonna preach on Jonah 2 uh on one October morning when uh Amanda went into labor and I had to call Ed Williams out of the bullpen.

Is Ed here?

Ed's not here.

Ed stepped in and preached uh Jonah 2 back the first the first time we went through it.

Uh but Jonah is just a wonderful book, and the challenge with preaching Jonah is that everybody knows the story.

Everybody knows about Jonah, what it's about.

They've seen the Veggie Tales movie, they've watched the flannel graphs.

And I want to challenge you this morning.

Maybe you think you know about Jonah, or do you?

Right?

See, when I say Jonah, most people think about what?

They think about the big fish, right?

That's what Jonah is about.

But what is it about, really?

Well, throughout this series, we're gonna see Jonah is not primarily about a big fish, but about a big God with a heart to reach those furthest from him.

He is a God who sends his followers all over the globe to reach the least, the last, and the lost.

And that is what compelled Peter and Rebecca Stafford to move their four children to Africa in the fall of 2019.

Uh, Peter is a doctor, Rebecca is a doctor, they're serving as missionaries with the group Surge in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Now you may know their names because Peter is one of the first Americans to test positive for the Ebola virus in the latest epidemic that's happening over there.

While he was operating on a patient, he unknowingly contracted the virus.

Once he developed symptoms, he quarantined himself.

They evacuated him to Germany for specialized treatment.

And as he was getting on the plane, barely able to stand, his wife and his children watched him as he left them behind.

Now, I want you to imagine this morning that you're Peter's wife and children.

You watch your husband, you watch your father board a plane with a deadly virus, uncertain if you'll see him alive again.

That's the risk of Ebola in this part of Africa.

And that current outbreak is growing.

Now, why would a family, you might ask, why would a family take this risk?

And the answer is for the sake of the gospel.

For the sake of the gospel.

Would you be willing to risk your life for the sake of the gospel?

Now, by God's grace, on June 6th, Peter was released from the hospital in Berlin after recovering from the virus, but he could have easily died.

Ebola is no joke.

Now, as I share this story, I imagine some of the room are divided.

Some of you right here might be thinking, well, that man has had and his family, they have incredible faith.

They have incredible faith to do that, trust in God.

But then others might be skeptical and you say, well, that's reckless.

You know, why would he risk his life, let alone his wife and children, for missions?

I mean, isn't that a bit extreme?

He could make a lot of money being a surgeon here in the U.S.

In fact, as a missionary, he probably had to raise his own support, and he almost died.

See, many of us think that when it comes to missions, I could never do that.

And underneath that skepticism is sometimes a darker thought, a quiet feeling that those people over there, that that place isn't worth an American surgeon's life.

And that's not caution, that's rather an offense at that which God has aimed his mercy.

And so, church, I would argue today that we live in a missions skeptical world.

Now, what do I mean by that?

Well, the second half of the 20th century saw a surge in U.S.

based mission agency.

In fact, uh, once our services are done today, I'll be hopping on a plane to Colorado to attend a board of directors meeting for our primary mission agency, World Venture.

Now, World Venture, originally Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society, was uh founded in 1943, later changing their name to World Venture, and they send missionaries all around the globe to share the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, I've only been on the board for a year, but one message has been clear.

Missions is changing.

Right?

Younger generations see global missions differently, and organizations like World Venture are trying to discern and adapt and recruit new missionaries.

Now, what is the attitude shift that's going on?

Well, research shows that many millennials in Gen Z increasingly view global missions negatively and would argue that missions causes cultural harm to the people we're trying to reach.

So the research group, Barna, discovered that one-third of younger Christians are uncomfortable with words like convert and winning souls.

The demographic is open, yes, to traveling on short-term trips, but for long-term efforts, they question whether missions are ethical or necessary.

I'll say that again.

They question whether missions is ethical.

Now, here's the tension with all this.

If you talk to missiologists, they would estimate that roughly 40% of the world's population still has little or no access to the gospel.

And that is billions with a B of men and women and children who don't have access to churches or online sermons or Bibles in their language.

And so I want to be clear, we live in a cultural moment when an American doctor is willing to risk Ebola in the Congo, while at the same time many Christians wonder if his choice was ethical or necessary.

There's a disconnect there.

And almost half the world's population doesn't know Jesus.

Now, what do we do with this?

Well, in the World Venture headquarters, there is a statement on the wall, and it's this billions of people don't know Jesus.

We're not okay with that.

So, church, my question for you this morning and throughout this series is are you okay with that?

Well, now you might say, and you might disagree, that you think this is a problematic statement, but what does your life show?

You see, if God called you to a dangerous mission field, would you go?

It's into this tension that I just described that the magnificent story of Jonah speaks.

Yes, the great fish is an integral part, but don't miss the bigger picture.

That Jonah is a story about God doing something bigger in the world.

A story of God telling the nations, the central message of Jonah, chapter 2, verse 9, salvation belongs to the Lord.

Jonah 2:9

And it's that message that's not just for us, but for the nations.

Would you risk your life for the sake of the gospel?

That's the topic of Jonah 1, 1 through 4A.

I invite you to join me there this morning.

We're going to look at just those first three and a half verses.

And I want to challenge you as we go through this book to read this book as if you've never read it before.

Right?

These four opening verses, if you knew nothing about Jonah's story, would both shock and challenge you at the same time with God's, what I'll call offensive mercy.

So the opening section unfolds in three scenes.

Number one, we're going to see the word that sends.

Number two, we're going to see the prophet who runs, and then finally, the God who pursues.

So let's pray and then we'll look at each of those today.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace, for your mercy, Lord, which many times doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense that you would show mercy to somebody like me, a sinner.

It doesn't make sense that you would show mercy to a people who can be so evil that they've turned away from you and done atrocities, and yet your mercy can still come to a people like that.

It doesn't make sense that your mercy might come to somebody in this room who's been running from you for their entire lives.

And yet, Lord, I pray that you would help us today to lean into your offensive mercy, that you would show us through the story of Jonah, that you are a sovereign God who reaches all people to the ends of the earth.

Help us to answer that call today, and may you get the glory for it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So Jonah opens with a statement.

A statement about God's sending word.

Now let's pretend again that you've never read this book and you don't know the ending.

You know nothing about Jonah.

You're picking this up for the first time, you start to read this book, like a really good short story.

What are the questions that would arise in your mind?

Jonah 1.1 says this.

It says, Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai.

Now, naturally, if you've never read this before, you're going to probably ask yourself, well, who's Jonah?

Right?

And what is this word from the Lord?

And why is it coming to Jonah specifically?

His dad is mentioned.

Is his lineage important?

Well, we'll get a quick answer to the word from God in verse 2, but let's answer the first question.

Who exactly is Jonah and why does this book bear his name?

Well, Jonah, son of Amitai, is a real historical figure mentioned in 2 Kings chapter 14, verse 25, during the reign of King Jeroboam, the second in the northern kingdom of Israel.

2 Kings 14:25

Jonah's name means dove, and Amitai means faithfulness.

So he's the dove of faithfulness, I guess if you put them together.

You may remember from our study of Isaiah last fall that the northern kingdom of Israel was wiped out by the powerful Assyrian Empire.

Remember that because it will be very important in Jonah's story.

Now, most conservative scholars believe the book was written by Jonah in the mid-eighth century BC.

Now, what was the context of his ministry?

Well, it's worth exploring 2 Kings chapter 14 for just a moment to give you some background on Jonah 1 and the whole book.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

So we read this in 2 Kings chapter 14, starting at verse 23.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

In the 15th year of Amaziah, king of Judah, that's the southern kingdom, Jeroboam, king of Israel, the northern kingdom, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned 41 years.

And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Now again, at this point, Israel's been divided into that northern kingdom of Israel, that southern kingdom of Judah.

And while Judah, if you remember, produced some good kings, every king in the north was really, really bad.

They all did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, including Jeroboam II.

Now his reign was marked by simultaneous military expansion and spiritual decline.

It was a favorable time, economically and culturally speaking for the northern kingdom because surrounding nations like Egypt were very weak, and Assyria, the main, the big guy on the block, they were very distracted during this 40-year period.

Because these stronger nations left Israel alone, Jeroboam was able to expand, to restore Israel's borders, to fulfill a prophecy that we read about in verse 25.

He, Jeroboam II, restored the border of Israel to Lebohameth as far as the Sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant, Jonah, the son of Amitai, the prophet, who was from Gath Hefer.

Now the inclusion of Jonah's name confirms that he was the same prophet during Jeroboam's reign, and God spoke through him.

Now we don't get much information about his family, but we do find out that he's from this area, Kathhefer, which is located in the region of Galilee.

Now, interesting fact that God might be foreshadowing something later in redemptive history.

So Jeroboam's reign was a time of wealth and prosperity for Israel, a type of golden age, if you will, but it's masked by deep corruption.

Because it's only the privileged people who benefited, and the poor people were denied justice.

And the worship, the worship was corrupt.

It was syncretized with worshiping Baal, the false gods in the time.

So you might ask, why does Yahweh God allow this prosperity in the northern kingdom if everything is so corrupt and wicked?

Look at verse 26 and 27.

For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter.

For there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel.

But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash.

So it says the Lord saw their affliction.

Now what affliction?

Well, prior to this time, God had allowed punishment to come to the northern kingdom for their disobedience through foreign invaders like the Assyrian Empire.

In fact, they were almost annihilated.

But Yahweh God graciously intervened.

And so this was not a reward for Jeroboam's faithfulness to God, but it was God's mercy delivering them from oppression for a period of time.

And if you notice, Jonah later on, or even here, never filed a complaint about this mercy.

God, how dare you show us mercy.

This undeserved grace for his own people, his own king, his nation.

No objection from Jonah.

And I want you to remember that because later on it's going to be pretty important.

So let's recap.

Jonah chapter 1, verse 1.

Jonah 1:1

God's word comes to Jonah.

We know from the history that Jonah was a prophet who spoke to the northern kingdom of Israel during a time of gracious prosperity.

God showed mercy to his people during their time of need.

Now, what is this word of the Lord that comes to Jonah?

Look at verse 2.

We read, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying what?

Saying, Arise, go, get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

Alright, so God has given Jonah a mission.

You can cue that mission impossible theme song right now.

Now again, pretend, again, you've never read this book before.

What are the questions you start to ask?

You say, Well, okay, now I get who Jonah is.

Well, what is Nineveh?

Where is it?

Why is it evil?

And why is Jonah the one going to it?

Great questions.

You all are Bible scholars.

That's the way you should be asking the question.

Now, Nineveh, of course, was a very influential city in the Assyrian Empire.

Later during the reign of King Sennacherib, the king from Isaiah's time, if you remember, the one who surrounded the city.

Nineveh became the capital of Assyria.

And while it was not the capital during Jonah's time, the book uses it to represent the growing Assyrian Empire.

Nineveh frequently represented Assyria's imperial expansion, its national pride, its indiscriminate use of power.

That's what Nineveh just, people thought of Nineveh, that's what they thought of.

Now the reason I gave you the background on 2 Kings 14 was to make clear that Assyria was the sworn enemy of Israel.

In fact, they had done horrific things to Israel as they were trying to conquer the nation.

And so to understand Jonah's reaction to this call, you have to understand how horrific the reputation of the Assyrians was.

Once they captured their enemies of any nation, and I'm going to be deliberately graphic, what they would do is they would take their enemies and they would cut off one arm and both legs, and they would leave one arm left so they could shake the hand of their enemy as they mocked them during their death.

They would force friends and family members to parade around with the decapitated heads of their loved ones on poles.

They would flay open the bodies of their enemies and they would drape them over city walls.

They would burn adolescents alive.

So even the front row, you're going to be burned alive.

Horrible.

Horrible.

Horrific stuff.

They were brutal.

They were considered the terrorist state of the ancient world.

And so it's not shocking that Nineveh was located near the current city of Mosul in northern Iraq, where recently ISIS terrorized infidels.

Nineveh was a great city, an important city, and it was indeed the epitome of evil in the ancient world.

Those two words are going to be repeated throughout the narrative of Jonah.

So I'll ask you again: would you be willing to risk your life for the sake of the gospel?

Now, if you were Jonah and this word of God came to you, would you start packing your bags, buying the first ticket to go to Nineveh?

And by the way, Yahweh God is not asking Jonah to go to Nineveh discreetly, under cover, putting something else on his visa.

No, he is saying, he's not saying, go and wear a cloak and disguise yourself.

He is saying, go to that great city, stand in the equivalent of their time square, cry out against it with a bullhorn, and tell them to repent because they're evil.

That's what he's saying.

That phrase, call out against it, means to condemn.

In fact, commentator Kevin Youngblood puts Jonah's commission this way.

He says, the trip to Nineveh is merely prerequisite to the main task of publicly and unequivocally expressing Yahweh's holy wrath against the ancient city.

So the Assyrians would know he's there.

They would know who this guy is.

But this city is so evil, it's so wicked, it's so breathtakingly bad that God has taken notice and divine intervention is now required.

The evil it says has risen up to him.

Now we'll see what happens with that in Jonah chapter 3, but for now, just ask yourself, what would you do?

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

Would you go if you were Jonah?

Now it's worth noting that Jonah's call is rather remarkable.

From a New Testament perspective, we're used to assuming that missionaries go to dangerous areas.

But in Hebrew prophecy, commissioning a prophet to visit and preach to a foreign nation, let alone an adversarial one, was really unprecedented.

And that's why I think Jonah is so fascinating.

It's a fascinating book.

Not because of this big fish, I mean that's kind of cool too, but God calls him to do something so dangerous it had never been attempted before.

And just imagine how earth-shattering it would have been if Nineveh repented of their ways.

How would that have changed the ancient world, this evil city, if all of them had turned their hearts to Yahweh God, the true God?

That would be something.

And so Jonah's teaching us here that missions, global missions, even missions local, can can transform societies.

That when people give their lives to Jesus, they they go back to their families, they go back to their jobs, they go back to their communities with a transformed mind, with a heart aligned with Jesus Christ.

And notice how God commissions Jonah.

He says, Arise, go.

In other words, lift up your eyes to me, trust me, obey me.

In fact, Jesus himself offers us the same command in what we call the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

What do we read?

Jesus says, Go, therefore, arise, go, Christian, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you.

And I'm gonna be with you always to the ends of the earth and to the end of the age until I come back.

See, Jonah was really before his time, but his reaction, as we're about to see, often mirrors our reaction.

I don't want to go to those people.

Conversion?

Winning souls?

Oh, that's unethical.

See, maybe you're a parent right here, and the thought of your child going to serve Jesus overseas is terrifying.

And then Jesus tells us, go.

Make disciples of who?

All nations.

Not just the people we like, but the people God loves.

Friends, God has offered the same word to us as He did to Jonah.

Arise and go.

But our reaction is the same as.

Jonah.

We run and not in the right direction.

So, second, we see now the prophet who runs.

The word that sends, the prophet who runs.

So, after all that background, perhaps you could understand why Jonah is not chomping at the bit to get to Nineveh.

Well, verse three is an extremely interesting verse.

A lot in it.

I'm gonna read it in chunks and break it down for you.

So Jonah, the first part of Jonah 3, we read, but Jonah rose, right?

So God says, Arise, go, Jonah rises up.

And it says, he arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah rose.

It's almost intended as a bait and switch right here.

Again, you're reading this for the first time.

When God gives a command, especially to a prophet, you expect him to get up and what?

And obey, right?

Instead, Jonah flees to Tarshish.

Now, to make it clear how intentional this statement is, let me just show you a map right here.

So Jonah is most likely in Jerusalem.

He's about to go down to Jappa.

Nineveh is 500 miles to the east.

Again, current day Mosul, Iraq.

Tarshish is most likely the area of Tartesos in southern Spain, and that's about 2,500 miles to the west, the complete opposite direction of where God is calling him to go.

Now let me show you another map to bring it to the U.S.

So let me just put it in our terms.

The distances I'm going to show you are accurate are pretty accurate here from where we're sitting.

It's about 500 miles west to go to Detroit, Michigan.

So imagine God says to you, get up, go to Detroit, right?

Metro Detroit, where an area called Dearborn, Michigan is, and it's the home of the uh one of the largest Muslim populations in the U in the north in North America.

Hundreds of thousands of men and women and children, our neighbors 500 miles down the road, most of whom have never heard the gospel, who are probably resistant to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They're our mission field, right?

Image bearers.

God loves them, near enough to drive to.

Maybe what, eight hours?

Ten hours?

So imagine God says to you right now, it says, Arise, so-and-so, and and go to Detroit.

I got people there.

And you prayerfully consider it, you say, okay, all right.

I heard that call from God, and then you go and buy a one-way ticket to the southern tip of Greenland.

Which is, and I checked, about 2,500 miles the other way.

Population, about 56,000.

Polar bears outnumbering gospel conversions.

And when the airline agent asks you, Are you going for business or pleasure?

you say, I'm going for theological exploration.

Friends, this is exactly what Jonah did.

Right?

God said, Go 500 miles to the east to people who need to hear my word.

And Jonah, and we're gonna see, he spent some serious money going 2,500 miles the opposite way to the edge of the map, where nobody knew God and nobody would ask questions.

So that's Tarshish.

It was at the time the edge of the known world, a place where Yahweh had not revealed his glory.

We read that in Isaiah 66, it's named.

Jonah isn't just fleeing the assignment, he's fleeing the assigner.

He's going to a place nobody would ever ask him, hey, aren't you supposed to be in Nineveh?

Nobody's going to ask him that there.

So, church, if if God gave you a command that you did not want to obey, where is the most logical place you would want to go?

I would submit that it's a place where people don't know God and nobody knows anything about his commands, right?

Or put it another way, you would want to go to a place where nobody is going to challenge you or question your actions.

And that's exactly what Jonah does.

He's not just getting away from the call that God has on his life.

He wants to escape God Himself.

He wants to get away from his presence.

It's going to be repeated for emphasis.

Jonah forgot what David wrote in Psalm 139.

What does David write?

Where shall I flee from your presence?

Right?

He says, If I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, haha, even there your hand shall lead me.

That might have something to do with the fish, right?

Friends, you can run, but you cannot hide.

Even the uttermost parts of the sea belong to God.

And Jonah's about to find that out.

So Jonah runs from God.

He runs from the mercy he offers, not just to Nineveh, but to get away from God.

So let's keep reading.

Look, verse 3.

Jonah rose, he fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Where did he go?

He went down to Joppah and he found a ship going to Tarshish.

Okay, now there's an interesting word play in this chapter between up and down, up and down, right?

So when God calls Jonah, what does he say?

He says, get up, right?

Get up, Jonah.

And then Jonah rose, he responded, he got up, but then he went where?

He went down.

He went down and down and down and down until he was almost at the bottom of the sea in this narrative.

So again, Jonah does the opposite of what God wants.

Now, we don't fully know Jonah's motivation from these verses.

You know, we're speculating right here that after I told you all that stuff about Assyria, he's probably afraid.

And I'm sure he's got to have some fear to some extent.

But he's also offended at God's mercy.

And we pick up on this at the end of the narrative in chapter four.

After Jonah goes to Nineveh, after the people repent, we read this in chapter four, verse two.

Jonah's praying to the Lord, and he says, Oh Lord, is not this what I said?

I told you, God, when I was in my country.

I knew better than you, God.

That is why, that is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish.

That's why I went.

That's why I went and got on the boat.

For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in hexed, it's steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

I didn't want any of that stuff, and so I ran, Jonah says.

I was offended at the fact that you wanted to show mercy to these evil Assyrians.

Now, what's fascinating about this line of thinking is that when you read, again, when you read 2 Kings chapter 14, 23 to 27, God showed mercy to the people of Israel when they didn't deserve mercy.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

They disobeyed God, they forgot about him, they did evil in his sight.

Now, Jonah was there for that, right?

And he had no problem accepting the mercy that God gave to him, but then he was offended at the mercy when it was given to his enemies.

So he doesn't want to go to Nineveh because he knows.

He knows God's merciful character.

He knows who he is.

Instead, where does he go?

He goes down to Joppa.

Now, another city.

Now, Joppa is a very important port on the Mediterranean coast at the time.

In modern day, it's part of Tel Aviv, so if you sign up for that learn the land tour, you're gonna fly into Tel Aviv, right where Joppa was.

And Joppa has great biblical significance in the story of redemption and missiology.

So God gives Jonah this missional call to the nation of Assyria, and he runs to Joppa.

He runs from God's mercy and the mercy that God wants to show his enemies.

Can you relate to Jonah as I'm describing this story?

Even in these first couple verses.

Maybe right now you got an enemy that needs forgiveness and you're withholding it.

They don't deserve it.

Or maybe God wants you to share the message of salvation through Jesus Christ with an enemy or a person or a people group, and instead of lovingly presenting Jesus, you say, ah, they can go to hell.

Right?

They don't deserve salvation.

What Jonah shows us though, and what is happening in the story of redemption in the Bible, is that nobody, nobody, nobody is beyond God's mercy and forgiveness.

That like Jonah, we don't follow God's mission because we, at some level, find God's mercy offensive for some people.

Now we too run to Joppa in our hearts, ready to board the ship to go to Tarshish.

Now, in the New Testament, there's somebody else with that same attitude.

You probably know who he is.

The Apostle Peter.

Right?

Peter thought the gospel message was only for the Jewish people.

Everybody else, those Gentiles, right?

He looked down upon them.

They're not worthy of the gospel.

But then if you go and you read the book of Acts and you come to chapter 10, where do you find Peter?

Where do you find Peter?

Joppa, right?

He had a house there right on the sea.

And it's in Acts chapter 10 that Peter receives this vision that challenged all his assumptions about what God was doing in the story of redemption.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

God makes it clear in that vision that the message about salvation through Jesus Christ is not just for the Jews, but for who?

For the nations, right?

For the Gentiles too.

And Peter with conviction says what at the end of chapter 10.

He says, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in what?

In every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

In every nation, anyone who fears God is acceptable.

What?

Like that's as mind-blowing in Peter's day as it was in Jonah's day.

And then you read through Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

And what Peter does is he goes to the rest of the church in Jerusalem and he gives this report about this vision he got.

He tells them that now God wants to save the Gentiles too.

He says, if God gave them the same gift in Jesus Christ, what does Peter say?

He says, Who is I?

Who am I that I would stand in God's way?

And look at how the church responds.

It says when they heard these things, they fell silent.

And they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life.

Wow.

And all the Gentiles out there said, What?

Amen.

That's right.

God has granted repentance that leads to life.

To the Assyrians, God has granted repentance that leads to life.

To the Iranians, God has granted repentance that leads to life.

To the Russians and to the Chinese and to the Africans and to the Brazilians and to the Irish and to the Germans and yes, even to the Italians.

Let's say it out loud.

God has granted repentance that leads to life.

Amen.

God's heart is for the nations, church.

Jonah tells us what?

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Now at Joppa, Jonah missed the message.

And he had to learn the hard way at sea, right?

And it cost him, right?

Look at how the verse finishes.

So he he flees the Lord, he goes down to Joppa, he finds a ship, and then we read, so he what?

He paid the fare and went down again, down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

He says it twice in this verse.

He paid the fare and he descended.

He went down.

Again, do you see the repetition?

Down, down, down, down, down.

He goes.

Away, down and away from the presence of the Lord.

If this was a movie, you just want to scream, Jonah! Jonah, don't do it! There's a big fish coming and it's gonna stink.

So Jonah is so set.

Don't miss the Jonah is so set on this disobedience that he is willing to pay to be disobedient.

Now, Jewish tradition would suggest that for a trip like this, Jonah's not just kind of paying a one-way ticket to go to Tarshish.

No, if you want to get on a boat like this in this time, you had to rent the entire boat.

And what I mean by that is it's not cheap.

I just picture, you want to go, you want to rent a big yacht on the Mediterranean to sail from Jerusalem over to Rome, something like that.

How much would that cost you?

It's not cheap.

This disobedience was costly and it was leading to spiritual death.

Down is the direction of death, and to accomplish the mission, Jonah is gonna have to die and come back to life and be spit out and recommissioned.

So, what do we do with the opening of this story here?

So we got this clear call from God, we have this disobedient prophet, and the rest of the story, of course, is gonna answer some of our questions, but Jonah itself, the whole book, leaves us on a cliffhanger.

And this section, I think, offers an application we can't ignore.

Where are you running from God right now?

Right?

And I want you to ask that to yourself in your heart.

Because all of us hit periods of our lives where we run and God has to pull us back, right?

But the truth is, you can't outrun God's mercy.

I want you to hear that today.

You cannot outrun God's mercy.

He's gonna catch you, right?

He's God.

He has things he wants to accomplish in your life, and he wants you to be obedient, not disobedient.

So we got these two cities in our story that are a way of assessing this calling.

Think about right now, what is your Nineveh?

Is there a person or a people that God is calling you to share his message of mercy and forgiveness with that's actually pretty close to you?

What's your Nineveh, right?

And when we don't obey God, where do we run?

We run to Tarshish.

What's your Tarshish?

Again, it's usually that place where people don't know God.

They're not going to challenge you, or there's the situation.

You got to get away as far away as you can.

My encouragement to you today is to stop running from God and start running toward Him.

Again, would you be willing to risk your life for the sake of the gospel?

So, first we saw the word that sends, second, we saw the prophet that runs.

Now, finally, we encounter the God who pursues.

The God who pursues.

Now, at the beginning of this story, God chose to intervene in the lives of the Assyrians by calling Jonah to go to them because they're evil.

And now, as Jonah runs, God intervenes in his life.

Again, you cannot run the call that God has on your life.

And we read this in just the beginning of verse 4, just a teaser for next week or for two weeks from now.

But the Lord, but God, but the Lord, hurled a great wind upon the sea.

So Jonah pays the fare, he gets in the boat, he thinks he's home free.

And God says, Not so fast, Jonah.

Uh-uh.

I love you too much to let you run.

And here's the irony that the mercy that offended Jonah when it's aimed at Nineveh is now the one thing that's being aimed at him is going to save him.

Don't run past the verb hurled.

In Hebrew, it's a very violent word.

God doesn't, he doesn't send a gentle breeze on the sea.

It's not just kind of, ooh, that feels this feels good.

No.

No, he doesn't allow a weather pattern or some climate change.

No, he it says he hurls.

He hurls this great wind.

It's like a man throwing a spear with incredible accuracy.

And if you keep your eye on that word, because it's going to be echoed throughout chapter one, you'll see that the sailors hurl the cargo overboard, and eventually they hurl Jonah into the sea.

Everything in this storm is going to get thrown, and the first thrower is God.

Now let me show you what kind of throw this is.

This right here is a Mariana Rivera cut fastball.

Okay?

Those of you that remember Mariana Rivera, the great one, the sandman, the closer, right?

Mariana Rivera was famous for his accuracy and bringing home the win.

In fact, I heard him say one time that God showed him how to throw that cut fastball.

Now, if you picture Rivera on the mound, bottom of the ninth, except in 2001, two outs, full count.

He winds up, he delivers a fastball, 95 miles an hour.

That's a pretty violent act.

Right?

The ball could break a bone if it hit the right bone.

And yet it catches the outside of the corner of the plate by half an inch.

Thrown with maximum force, perfect aim, in the same throw.

And church, that is Jonah 1-4.

When God hurls this storm, he's not having a tantrum in the sky.

He's not unleashing chaos, wondering where it's gonna go, hoping it's gonna find the right boat.

The storm is a direct strike.

It's thrown with all the violence of heaven and all the precision of a sovereign God.

That storm is gonna sink no other boat on the Mediterranean that day.

It's got a bullseye.

Now the text describes the wind as great.

It's a great wind upon the sea.

This adjective is used 12 times in this little book.

There's a lot of things that are great.

And every time that adjective is used, it always modifies an obstacle Jonah has to overcome.

And each obstacle challenges Jonah's assumption about calling and mission.

Everything in Jonah's story is great except his view of God.

He misses God's sovereign work in the world.

So let me put the tension of this whole story in one sentence.

That if God is sovereign over all things, how can we be complacent?

God intervenes in Jonah's life, he chases him down.

Think about all the things that we've seen.

We have a sovereign God who's speaking, we have a complacent prophet who's booking a ticket.

If you go and you look at verse 3 again, we have Jonah rising.

We have Jonah fleeing.

We have Jonah going down.

Skip ahead, two slides.

Jonah found a ship.

Jonah paid the fare.

Jonah boarded.

So we had six verbs of Jonah.

Jonah in chapter three, he's really busy.

Complacency is not laziness, church.

Complacency is being very busy with everything except what God said.

Are we too busy to serve God?

And then we get to verse 4, and we see that the Lord hurled this storm.

And in one throw, all six of Jonah's verbs are canceled.

And here's what that means for you and me.

God's mission to the nation is not in question in Jonah.

The prophet Habakkuk tells us that the earth will be filled with the knowledge and the glory of the Lord, not that it might be, but that it will be.

The only question this storm asks is the question I'm asking you right now.

It's will God's mission happen through you gladly or despite you painfully?

Because it is gonna happen.

And our complacency cannot stop his sovereignty.

It can only cost us the joy of being part of it.

Do you remember that wall at World Venture that I mentioned at the beginning?

Billions of people don't know Jesus, we're not okay with it.

Church, that's the God, the God of Jonah 1.4 is not okay with that.

The storm proves it.

So the question we have to ask ourselves through the series is, are we?

Now some of you are thinking, well, Pastor Bob, I can't move to Senegal.

Okay, maybe not, but but complacency doesn't take one giant leap.

It dies with an act of obedience.

So here's what I want to suggest for you this week as we're getting into Jonah.

This week, ask yourself, how do we reach the nations?

And I'm gonna give you three things to think about.

First, if you want to reach the nations, number one, you've got to open your eyes.

So this week, go to our website, visit our missions section of the website.

Go this afternoon and look at the faces of all of our missionaries.

They're not statistics, they are faces.

This church has hurled lovingly missionaries to the nations.

And then second, I want you to go and pick one missionary.

Pick one missionary and their family and pray for them every day this week by name.

That's it.

That's the assignment.

You know, you may not cross the ocean, but you can be on your knees, and by doing that, you can stand on the front lines.

And then third, for some of you, praying might not be enough.

In fact, if you're a student here today, if you're a couple, if you're somebody Staring at retirement, even, there might be an assignment for you.

It's not just praying for a missionary, but it's to start a conversation about becoming one.

Yeah, our missions team just started supporting Steve and Shannon Durand, a missionary couple to Brazil, both in their 50s.

Steve's a former pastor, he now trains leaders.

Shannon works with students with disabilities and is helping their organization in Brazil develop a special needs ministry.

And they told us they were praying about going on the field for years and years.

And then God finally gave them the call to go.

But it began with a prayer.

And I'll warn you, that is how it starts.

Nobody boards a plane to the Congo who didn't first learn for how to pray to somebody for how to pray first.

Again, mark your calendar for October 2nd to the 4th.

Come to the missions conference with the question, Lord, what is my part?

What are you calling me?

Because a sovereign God is still choosing instruments, and He's not okay with complacent ones.

Now on the screen, you can see the schedule for our series.

Again, in the back, pick up one of the overviews and the study guides.

Next week, we're gonna hear from Eric Yi, who is one of our world partner missionaries to Indonesia.

And we'll have other interviews throughout the summer of missionaries along the way.

The first week in August, we're gonna hear from Jason Casper, our world partner in Lebanon, which is a God's doing amazing things there right now.

Pray for our missionaries.

Pray for our missionaries.

As the worship team returns for one final song, let me just close where I started.

I opened by asking you to imagine Michelle Stafford watching her husband board that plane, willing to die so that people in the Congo could hear about Jesus.

And maybe you thought, well, I could never do that.

And you're right, you can't.

Not by willpower, not by guilt.

The only thing that produces that kind of person is standing at the foot of the cross long enough to realize that all of us in this room were once Ninevites.

You were once the enemy city.

Your evil had come up to God, and instead of hurling his judgment at you, he hurled it at his son.

Jesus Christ was pierced with a spear.

Do you realize that, church?

That Jesus Christ is the true and the better Jonah.

Jonah may have sat in the belly of the fish for three days, but Jesus sat in the tomb for three days.

He went down so we could go up.

And the only reason we're here today, the only reason we have hope for the future is because God showed mercy to you and me.

How can we not show it to others?

People who know they've been rescued from the fire don't debate whether it's ethical to ride into one.

Would you be willing to risk your life for the gospel?

Because the gospel is this.

He already gave his life for you.

Now arise and go.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your mercy, for your grace.

We thank you for your word revealed in Jonah.

Man, thank you for this wonderful story about how you reach people far from you.

And so, Lord, I pray for those that are here today, Father, maybe there's somebody whose heart is stirring for missions, Lord.

Maybe you've been working on their heart for a long time.

Maybe you're calling them to go overseas.

Father, for all of us, may you stir our heart to those that are far from you next door to us, to our neighbors, to those who are local in our nation, Lord God.

May you give us a heart to reach those with your generous, gracious mercy, Lord God.

Lord, send us, help us to arise and go for your glory and the sake of your gospel in Jesus' name.

Amen.