Jonah 4

Thank you, as always, for your extremely kind and warm welcome to the Old Passer. I was reflecting, I've been away for some 22 years now.

! In the United States, I'm married to a very lovely American lady who wishes that she could be here this morning.

But I was thinking, I've now lived in both places for so long that I have a distinction of being misunderstood in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and certainly by my wife.

So if I say to you, Barb sends you greetings, in America that sounds like, who's Bob? Barb sends you greetings this morning.

So thank you for your welcome. Let's pray as we come to God's Word.

Father, thank you for what your Word tells us of itself. That it is a living Word. That it is a true Word. That it is a fountain of life.

Lord, that it's like a sword or a knife that's able to distinguish the motivations of our hearts by your Spirit.

And Lord, it is able to lead us.

So Father, we don't pray for the preacher necessarily this morning. We pray for the Spirit of God to work.

Lord, would you use your Word, we pray, to lead us and guide us. In Christ's name. Amen.

Last December in the United States was a terrifying month for natural disasters.

You may have heard of some of the tornadoes that tore through the state of Kentucky, overturning entire towns as they went.

Or of the forest fires which raged across the American West.

Apparently with gusts of 110 miles an hour, propelling a monster fire that made its way through the communities north of Denver, Colorado.

And one of the people who was in one of those communities was a man called Hunt Fry, who was interviewed by the local news.

He was in a Costco store. I don't know if you know of Costco. I think there's one in Southall.

But he was there and he said that he was impressed by the staff who worked in the Costco, who carefully went around and mentioned to people that the building might be on fire.

And ushered them towards the exits. And then he said he saw them running like antelopes for the exits. It was just apocalyptic, he said.

I was thinking, in its way, it's not a wholly inaccurate picture of Christian mission, which is the call to take the gospel to the whole world, the world that's in danger.

Here we are, like people serving in the store, calmly but appropriately telling people that the building is on fire, ushering them towards safety, and then running like antelopes ourselves for the exit that we find in Jesus.

I think as we come to this very well known text this morning, we may as well remind ourselves that God is far more invested in missions, in the work of missions, than you and I are.

It is his idea. It is his initiative. It is his kindness. It is his mission.

But he has called us to join him in his great project to take his message of rescue to the nations and to our own nation.

If this has always been true of God, we shouldn't be surprised that we find it here in the middle of the minor prophets.

Here is a God who takes the initiative to send Jonah to this city, even the capital city of the mortal enemies of Israel.

So in chapter 4, we are going to look at three ways that God shows his missionary heart to us this morning through this story of Jonah.

First of all, God shows the glory of his heart by putting mercy before judgment.

God shows the glory of his heart by putting mercy before judgment in these first four verses.

You probably know Jonah well enough that not much words of background are necessary, and Paul gave us a word or two of background before.

But the year is sometime probably in the 8th century BC, and the place is the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

This is probably some 50 years after they attacked the capital of Israel and caused great calamity there.

But now the bloom has gone a little off the road as far as the Assyrian Empire is concerned.

They are in decline.

And this reluctant Jewish preacher has been sent to preach a message of warning and judgment to the Assyrian nation.

And you know, if you know the book of Jonah, that he had decidedly mixed feelings about the project.

But his message was to tell them that if they did not repent, their own city, very much like those towns in Kentucky, would be overturned if they did not repent.

The Jews, of course, had every reason to hate the Assyrians.

The Assyrians, if you know of them, were among the cruelest nations ever to inhabit this planet.

They'd inflicted terrible pain on the people of Israel.

If you can think of ISIS as a national empire, a power of hundreds of thousands of troops, you have an imagination of something like Assyria.

So you can imagine that the young Jonah, perhaps having lost family members to such cruelty, hearing stories of what had been done by the Assyrians, not unlike those who'd suffered in the Burma Death March or those who had lost family at Auschwitz.

How could there be forgiveness for such cruelty any more than anyone would have seriously suggested a quippal for those accused at Nuremberg?

So Jonah expects the Assyrians to suffer.

That's what a moral God does.

If God is true, the Assyrians would pay for what they had done.

If God is moral and right, and if he has any concern for his people Israel in what they suffered, he will be the instrument of revenge.

For surely God has said, vengeance is mine.

And once Jonah gets to Nineveh, you know, which is a whale of a story in itself, Jonah was ready, wasn't he, to be the one to bring the Assyrians the bad news.

But, to Jonah's surprise, here is what God actually says and does.

This is right at the end of chapter 3, verse 10, coming into chapter 4, because the chapter breaks are somewhat awkward.

When God saw what they did, that they repented, how they turned from their evil ways, God relented of disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

And this is Jonah's reaction, we read, of the mercy that it pleased God to give.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

It's an anger of immense proportions.

An anger that you notice has him threatening God more than once, that he wishes to take his life.

Reminded of what George Whitfield said, that the last idol to go is self-righteousness.

So, when it is challenged, we will give up even our very lives to see ourselves justified in our self-righteousness.

So, this is Jonah's spiritual crisis.

Literally, the language says here, what God has done was, to Jonah, a great evil.

And then this, that if they ever make a movie of Jonah, I imagine this will be comic relief, because it seems to be so absurd.

I should have known, of course, Jonah is raging, that you would do something like this.

I knew that you were a gracious God, Exodus 34, and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, relenting from disaster.

I should have known that you would have done this.

Notice, even in the way that he reports this, even in the way he writes this down,

God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them.

And he did not do it.

You can catch there even some of Jonah's anger.

It's just not good enough, God.

He's telling his master.

And I think this is important, because here is the first contrast.

It's between the messenger of God and the God who sends him.

Jonah, who considers himself justified in his anger,

God loves his enemies.

That is the glory of his love, said Bonhoeffer.

He puts mercy before judgment.

And certainly in the United States, I wonder across the Western world right now if this is an appropriate contrast.

You know, in our own day, in a time when so many are ready to judge and to condemn and to write people off,

given the slightest Facebook post or Twitter comment,

to exclude others for not saying or doing the right thing,

and so many, even within the church, that would do that,

here is the reminder that the good news of Christ's mercy is what we're about.

We are compelled to offer his mercy before we offer judgment.

So it's not that there are other things to say as we speak and devote ourselves to our own cultures,

but this is the nature of the God we serve,

that he puts mercy before judgment.

Second, God shows his people their continuing need of his grace,

verses 5 through 8.

Like I said, it's difficult not to see this as a tantrum,

because it is a tantrum.

A reminder to us that whatever age we get to,

we can all of us act like six-year-olds.

So Jonah, you see here, stomps off into the desert.

He sets up kind of stadium seating in the desert,

waiting for God to change his mind,

waiting for God to obliterate the city.

I'm thinking at this point,

Jonah has shown himself not to be much of a builder,

because you'll notice that the shelter he erects

has to be replaced by God's plant within a day.

And Jonah awaits, doesn't he, to find this,

I'm imagining, I have no idea what it was,

but a giant elephant ear plant that is kind of covering him,

and he says he is very happy about it.

When dawn came up the next day,

God appointed a worm that attacked the plant,

so that it withered.

When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind,

and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah,

so that he was faint.

What is God doing?

Well, this is either, isn't it,

a picture of God being mean and vindictive,

getting his own back on the prophet,

being small-minded like we can be,

or, more likely, it is a picture of God loving Jonah

by speaking to him in the only terms that he can understand at this point.

He's giving him an object lesson.

Jonah has received an undeserved gift,

which has saved his life,

or at least his suntan,

and God now takes it away

to teach Jonah something.

Personally, when I reflect on Jonah,

I'm reminded of when I was six years old.

I had diphtheria.

I was in a German hospital.

My parents had taken me there

in some alarm over me,

and when I woke up,

I found I was surrounded by German nurses.

I had no idea where I was.

I only knew that I was extremely angry,

as angry as a six-year-old can get at his parents.

They had left me with these people I didn't know,

and when they finally did turn up,

they brought me a big orange teddy bear.

But this teddy bear's first trip was airborne,

because I launched him into the air,

throwing him at my father's head.

I wanted you, I said.

This is not enough.

And here is Jonah, I think,

having grown to love this huge, silly plant

as something that had done good to him,

the way that we sentimentalise inanimate objects

and simple creatures

and forget the giver who has given them.

But now it has been taken from him,

and so he is angry again,

this time on behalf of this quite innocent plant.

How dare you, God, take it away?

I have so loved this plant

for less than 24 hours.

So surely God is teaching Jonah,

as we too need to be taught, don't we?

This was not a man who presumably was young in his faith.

He was, at least at this point,

middle-aged, if not older.

But the difference that he needed to see

was between the plant and the people of Nineveh

that God had a concern for.

Jonah had invested all of his energy at this point

into this temporary plant,

but God, verse 10, has laboured over Nineveh.

He tells Jonah that he has grown the Ninevites

and now brought them to the point

where they will receive his mercy.

So God has every right,

by virtue of every possible argument,

to do undeserved good to these people.

And should God be merciful to his obnoxious

but orthodox prophets,

yet give these wretched, repenting people

only judgment?

That's the contrast.

That's the nature of God.

That's the issue that's at stake

in Christian mission.

Whether we can just forget

the nature of the person we're representing

for the sake of the words that we're speaking

or the sake of some conversion.

Let God be true and every man alive,

Paul says in Romans 3.

Because here is a God of grace,

the God that we must represent,

the God whose nature, as Crammer said,

is always to have mercy.

I don't know about you.

I am very touched by the story of John Newton.

If you read his whole story,

it is actually a remarkable story of God's grace.

A year after he wrote the song Amazing Grace

aboard the Greyhound during his conversion,

we know from his diary later

and his testimony to Parliament

that he was commanding a slave ship

off the coast of Africa.

And he writes in his memoirs

that to his shame,

he followed the other sailors

into the hold of that ship

and systematically, night after night,

abused young women who were in chains there.

This went on for weeks

until he became deathly ill

and almost died.

At that point,

Newton became the wretch

that he describes in Amazing Grace.

And on his deathbed,

it was God who broke him,

showing how wretched a man

could yet be saved

by the mercy of God at the cross.

So who's to say how far

God should show his mercy?

If God showed mercy to Jonah,

shouldn't he show his mercy to Newton?

If he showed his mercy to Newton,

shouldn't he show it to the Assyrians?

If he showed it to the Assyrians,

to whom shouldn't he show it?

If they will but turn to him

and find his mercy

as they cry out for rescue.

That's the very roots of the gospel,

isn't it?

Again, in the heart of God.

For one will scarcely die

for a righteous person,

though perhaps for a good person

one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us in this,

that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.

I've been thinking about my own

typical response to those around me.

I tend, I don't know about you,

I tend to divide people up

into people who are likely prospects

for the Christian faith

and those who are not.

I think over the years,

I have ruled people out

as being impossible.

People who are so far beyond

the grace of God

that I wouldn't bother with them.

But as I've looked at them,

I've realised, really,

by the grace of God,

to me,

that it's my indifference

which has ruled those days.

Not the mercy of God.

It's my own lack of compassion

which has been motivating me.

And not the mercy of God,

the God who can do everything.

So the gospel reminds us, doesn't it,

that while we were yet sinners,

not promising prospects at all

from any earthly point of view,

that Christ died for us

as we still need his mercy

and need to represent his mercy

to others.

So it's very easy, isn't it,

to try to make two gods

as religious people.

A God of mercy for us

and a God of judgement

for those who are not like us

or those who disagree with us

or those who won't listen to us.

That's at the very core

of self-righteousness, isn't it?

And my own experience

is that it can creep back.

But here is someone

with a pure heart,

the God of all mercy and grace.

The more you see his mercy to you,

the more you see your own need

for the gospel.

And thus you give the gospel,

I think, more freely,

more readily.

And finally, God shows his own heart

because in this story

it's clear that he has invested himself

in these people,

verses 9 through 11.

And the Lord said,

You pity the plant

for which you did not labour,

nor did you make it grow

which came into being

into a night

and perished in a night.

And should I not pity Nineveh,

that great city

in which there are more than

120,000 persons

who do not know

their right hand from their left,

and also, interestingly,

much cattle.

Jonah is a book

about the heart of God.

And so, therefore,

it is a book

about Christian mission.

Translators have noticed

something about the verb here.

I think it's translated

in the NIV,

pity,

or perhaps compassion.

In the old version of the NIV,

which often used,

it's the verb concerned,

to be concerned.

Shouldn't I be concerned

about that great city?

The verb,

in the original language,

was used of kings giving

or withholding mercy

and judgment.

And the power of the verb

is this.

It means to do

what one does,

what one must do,

with tears

in one's eyes.

So if Jonah had turned

the conversation around

and asked God earlier,

do you do well

to be angry?

In other words,

why aren't you be angry

about this injustice

God could perfectly well say

of the day that justice

was coming,

yes,

in my justice

I will do

very well

of that day

when God

would bring

justice

on one particular person

whom he sent.

For this is the heart

of God's

living justice,

that he will go

to extraordinary rates

to uphold

the heights

of his justice

and to show

the breadth

of his mercy.

That's the story

of Christ

to his enormous cost.

So it's not

that the question

is irrelevant.

I think it's probably

the very question

that God wanted

Jonah to ask,

a question that would

be finally answered

some 800 years later.

So this is

God's question

to his student Jonah.

Shouldn't I be concerned

about that great city?

Shouldn't I be concerned

about the hundreds

of millions

God might ask

who are trapped

in their own sin,

who don't know

even this day

that there is

a way out?

To those of us

who seem

unreachable,

to those that

as we look at the world

we would say

there is no way

that God

could possibly

reach them

with the gospel.

Shouldn't God

be concerned

for them?

Shouldn't God

be concerned

that his own people

still don't know

the value

of the extravagant

gift that has

been given

to them?

So I think

this text

asks us

what should

you do?

How should

you respond

to this God

of mercy?

And the call

here is I think

again to re-examine

our own debt

to God's gift

of extravagant

mercy to us.

Maybe like Jonah

we should be

very un-Presbyterian

and experience

great waves

of emotion

over this

extreme sorrow

over our sin.

Extreme joy

that because

the sinless

saviour

died

my sinful

soul

has been

counted free.

If that doesn't

crack a smile

on the face

of a Presbyterian

I don't know

what will.

If we've been

given such

an astounding

gift

and it doesn't

move us

to then go

out in mission

then I wonder

what will.

I don't know

if you know

the story

of Billy Bray

the 19th century

Cornish tin miner

turned preacher

Billy by reputation

was the grumpiest

man in Cornwall

he was an

alcoholic

by addiction

he was a

coal miner

by trade

who was saved

by the reading

of John Bunyan's

visions of heaven

and hell

as he lived

in danger

of coal pit

collapse.

And what it did

in Billy

was it totally

changed him.

It totally changed

him by personality

he was a giant

of a man

but he became

a radically

different individual

emotionally

and by nature.

When people

were converted

in his town

he would turn

up at their

house and put

that person

on his shoulders

and run

round the house

singing glory

glory

he would say

if they were

to put me

in a barrel

I would shout

glory out

through the

bunghole

praise the

Lord.

And when I read

stories like that

it is again

it's kind of a

mirror like Paul

was talking about

out to my own

heart.

Where is the

love of the

gospel gone?

Where is the

love and the

urgency of

mission gone

in me?

Am I content

now just to

be within

these four

walls speaking

to people

who agree

with me?

So it's

someone here

in Jonah

who could be

shown the

heart of God

and here is

someone as we

read of Jonah

that might too

also be shown

the heart of

God.

So you can

see all the

ingredients of

the gospel

are here in

this story.

God will one

day revisit

another city

with another

prophet and

yet in that

city he will

pour out all

of his

judgment, the

judgment that

he and Jonah

were speaking

about upon

the head of

that prophet

his own son

to completely

rescue those

who will take

shelter under

his mercy

in Jesus.

And God's

concern, his

justice through

his tears

were shown

at Calvary

as mercy

indeed has

been shown

to you and

me.

So in

closing let

me say how

grateful I

am for the

continuing witness

and the gospel

vitality of

IPC.

You know in

its way

IPC did far

more to shape

me than the

other way

around.

And I think

because of this

doctrine of

grace I'm

grateful for

Paul and

for the

elders here.

I'm grateful

for Graham

who I hear

has had an

anniversary of

some almost

40 years of

faithful service

as an elder

here.

And I'm

grateful for

you.

I'm grateful

for you who've

been gathered

from so many

different places.

You know what

I'm struggling

with and what

many American

pastors are

struggling with

right now is

it's as if the

church has

turned inwards

and said we

just want to

be with our

own people,

thank you.

We just want

to live in

safety and

security among

people who

politically and

ethnically and

economically are

like us.

It's a

fundamental

disagreement with

the nature of

the gospel and

with the church

itself.

So it's so

refreshing to be

among those who

are committed to

being together by

the will of

God, by the

grace of God

coming from such

different places

and from

different cultures

and different

politics and

different ethnicities

things.

But radically

brought together

under the

gospel of

Jesus.

So you know,

Jonah didn't

want to go to

Nineveh and

when he got

there he set

about doing

what he wanted

to do,

oblivious to

the idea that

God might

have a different

plan.

But it has

been revealed to

us in Jesus,

here is a God

of mercy who

still desires to

reach the nations

with his gospel,

who still desires

to reach people

even here in

Ewing with the

message of

Christ.

How radical

would it be if

we were to ask

him, even today,

even for this

week, Lord, who

would you have me

talk to?

Who would you

have me pray for?

Who have I

perhaps written

off in my own

heart as being

unreachable,

perhaps somebody

at work,

perhaps somebody

in my family?

Could it be that

your gospel could

reach them if we

were to talk,

they and I,

about Jesus?

Perhaps the

Lord will surprise

us with what

he can do,

and that wouldn't

be such a

disaster,

would it?

Let's pray.

Let's pray.