Comprehending Compassion

Jonah four, let me read our sermon text for us.

Then I'm gonna if you would indulge me a quick recap.

Since it's been a second. We're going to recap the

book of Jonah and look at a few things in

Jonah chapter four. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he

was angry. Okay, you see what I mean by needing context.

So Jonah went and preached to the people of Nineveh,

that great city, a wicked, wicked place we'll get into

in a second. And they repented, and God relented of

the judgment he was going to bring. And that's where

we bring where we come with verse one of chapter four.

And it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. He

prayed to the Lord, and he said, Oh Lord, is

this not what I said when I was yet in

my country. That is why I made haste to flee

to Tarshish, For I knew that you are a gracious

God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

And relenting from disaster.

Therefore, oh Lord, please take my life from me. It

is better for me to die than to live. And

the Lord said, do you do well to be angry.

Jonah went out of the city, sat to the east

of the city, and made a booth for himself. There

he sat under its shade till he should see what

would become of the city. And now the Lord appointed

a plant and made it come up over Jonah that

it might shade, might be a shade over his head

to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly

glad because of the plant. But when dawn came 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. And

he asked that he might die, and said, it is

better for me to die than to live. But God

said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry

for the plant? And he said, yes, I do well

to be angry, angry enough to die. And the Lord said,

and here's a punchline this whole four chapter.

Wind up.

You pity the plant for which you did not labor,

nor did you make it grow, which came into being

in a night and perished in a night.

And should I not is it not right for me?

Is it not fitting? It is?

Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which

there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons

who do not know their right hand from their left,

and also much cattle.

This is the word of the Lord. What kind of

grasp do you have on the compassion of God towards others?

On the compassion of God towards those who have created

all kinds of destruction, who have done wicked things, and

yet God, in his mercy, shows them some version of

his compassion. How do you get a hold of it?

Just to recap Jonah has been sent to this city Ninevah.

This is a wicked bunch of people. This is a

city and a whole culture that's marked by idolatry and oppression,

and corruption and impurity. These are the kinds of people

who skin their enemies alive, wicked. And God says, I

want you to go preach to Ninevah. And Jonah says,

and it doesn't tell that's why at first. Then he

gets on a boat, he heads completely in the opposite direction,

and God turns him around. He sends a storm. Jonah

tells the sailors on that ship. Hey, this storm because

of me. You shouldn't all go down just because of me.

Go ahead and throw me over. It's better that I die.

Sounds familiar. Better than I die. I'm sure God has

done with me. Jonah goes overboard and he's like, this

is just the way I wanted it. I'd rather die

than go preach to Ninevah. And God's like, yeah, no,

such luck, and rescues Jonah and waterboards him for three

days till he repents, and then he delivers him seawater

and vomit. You're going, And Jonah says, I'll go, and

he goes to Nineveh and he preaches the worst sermon

in biblical history forty more days and Nne gets flipped

and they all repent. You say, praise the Lord. That's

not what Jonah said. Jonah said, I knew it. This

is just the kind of God you are. They don't

deserve it. This isn't right. It should not be this way.

And he's ticked, and God says, do you do well

to be angry? We get no answer, but Jonah goes

out to the east of the city, sits down, and

he waits to see if God might change his mind.

Maybe God's gonna nuke him after all. And God says,

I'm going to teach you a lesson very gently. I'm

gonna take a plant. I'm gonna cause it to spring

up so that you come to enjoy it. You're gonna

appreciate it. You're gonna and he does. He's like, this

is awesome. This is good God's creation. I appreciate this.

God's like, okay.

He sends a worm to weather the plant, and Jonah's like,

how could.

You do that?

Why would you do that to your good creation? This

was great, This was awesome, This was beautiful. And God says, okay,

so that was beautiful. And you have compassion. Our ESV

says pity. Other translations will say compassion or care for

or concern over. You have care for this plant. You

didn't create it, you didn't make it grow, you didn't

even appreciate it that long. And if you can get that, Jonah,

and how it's right for you to appreciate it, then

can you get how it is right for me to

have care for all of these people and all my

creation in this big city. It's beautiful, it's awesome, it's

mine and Jonah's answer.

Isn't there The question just hangs in the air.

Because in many ways, whether or not Jonah learns the

lesson of comprehending God's compassion isn't the point. The point is,

do you, dear reader, how do you grasp the way

that God shows his compassion and patience and generosity and

restraint of judgment against those who, unlike us, don't deserve

his grace? Come on, how is a joke? If you

can't see the tongue in my cheek? Grace is undeserved? Well,

how do we then get a grasp of it? I

think that Jonah chapter four gives us some handles, some

handles that if we get a grip on some of

these things, as we do so, we will get a

greater grasp of God's compassion towards his world towards others.

So five handles, five handles that Jonah chapter four gives

us that as we get a grip on these, we

will more and more get a grip on God's compassion.

Here's the first one handle number one, God's questioning of

our anger, God's questioning.

Of our anger.

Let's see it right away in verse sorry. In chapter four,

verse one, Jonah is angry. It's the first response he

has towards the compassion that God shows to nine. It's like,

this isn't right. I'm right, they should be judged. I

knew it all along. And God just asks him, are

you right to be angry? Do you do well to

be angry? And then, of course then God uses that

anger to bring the lesson back around to him when

it comes to the plant. What does the Bible say

about our anger? But says the anger of man does

not accomplish the righteousness of God.

God, we think that we.

Have latched on to something that it's right to be

angry about, and there's such a thing as righteous indignation.

That's true. But what happens is when.

We when we latch on to anger, our field of

view narrows completely into this one thing that we think

we're right about.

And we lose all perspective.

That's why God says the anger of man does not

accomplish the righteousness of God.

You think you're right, but.

You don't have a wide enough view of the things

that I've got going on, you know. Prodigal Son. Prodigal Son,

he tells his dad, you're better off dead to me

than alive. I want my inheritance. Now, he takes half

of his dad's money. He's off into a foreign land,

spends it all in loose living. Finally comes to his

senses and he comes home ragtag. Dad embraces him, throws

him a dance party, and the elder brother shows up

and he's like, they have all lost their minds. This

is not right. It shouldn't be this way. And he

stands outside the party hall. Everybody else is in there.

The dance party is going on.

Boots gots, boots, cats, boots gots, and Dad comes out.

He's like, we gotta do this, and the elder Brother's like,

it's not right.

This grace, this mercy, this compassion. That parable also ends

with a question. We don't never know how the elder

brother responds, but we do know this.

He was.

Angry parable of the unforgiving servant. The king forgave him

a debt of like five billion dollars. And then he

comes across another servant who owes him like fifteen grand

He throttles him.

Pay back what you owe. I'm not letting you off.

I shouldn't let you continue to owe this money.

It should get settled up it. It shouldn't be this way.

He's angry. Anger is a spiral.

That locks our focus in on the one place where

we think we're right, and we just see that so clearly,

as in without context of the big picture, and in

seeing that more clearly, you get more angry and therefore

more focused. And anger just continues to say, I'm right,

I'm right, I'm right about this thing. You know, there's

an entire industry, there's an entire industry that's founded on

provoking your outrage and keeping you so focused in But

the Bible says, refrain from anger and forsake wrath. The

Bible says, anger lodges in the heart of fools.

And as we get ahold.

Of the way that God questions our anger, do you

do well to be angry? And the picture widens to

include what God may be doing in his patience and

his compassion and his grace, we start to get a

greater grasp of his compassion overall, if we'll just get

a handle on what He says about our anger. Here's

the second handle, the second handle that Jonah chapter four

gives us when it comes to getting an overall grasp

on God's compassion is do we have a grip on

God's character in himself? A grip on God's character in himself?

See in verse two. Jonah has a complaint. He's narrowed

his complaint to this thing right here. Isn't this what

I was saying?

I knew you were a gracious God.

Merciful, slow to anger, and abounding insteadfast love and relenting

from disaster. And if you know your old Testament pretty well,

that would sound very specific to you, because these are

the words that God uses himself in Exodust thirty four.

He uses these words himself when he speaks to Moses

to tell Moses.

Who he is.

He says, I am the Lord, and this is who

I am. This is my character. I am a gracious God, merciful,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relenting

from disaster. And Jonah picks that up. He says, I

know who you are, and I'm gonna throw it in

your face, God, because not only have you made a

bad choice, you're a bad God. Your very character is

my complaint.

But he left something out.

Because that's not all God says in Exodus chapter thirty

four about himself he says these very words, and then

he also says, but I will by no means clear

the guilty. And in fact, if you turn to Nahem,

you don't have to. I'll read it to you. It's

probably just over. Like for me, it's like seven pages.

Nahem is the prophet that follows Jonah.

Up.

He's just a few generations after Jonah. And guess who

he prophesies about.

Anybody want to take guess.

You'll see in verse one of the book of Nahem

an oracle.

Concern learning Ninevah.

You see what happened amongst the people of Ninevah is

they genuinely repented as best they knew how I mean,

these people did not know their right hand from the left.

They were wicked, They did not know anything about God.

But they're like, we want as best we know how

to bend the knee to the living God. We're gonna repent,

We're going to fast, We're gonna make our cows fast

to whatever it takes. But within a few generations they

were back to their own way, old ways.

And Nahem says, let me tell you about my God

verse three. The Lord is.

Slow to anger and greater in power, and the Lord

will by no means clear the guilty. And God brought

the judgment that Jonah wanted to see so badly. He

brought the judgment on the people of Nineveh for their sin.

See is God gracious or.

Is he just? Yes? And sometimes our sense of what

is right narrows our field of.

Vision on one aspect of God's character. But when and

as we get a grasp on the perfection of who

God is in his character, as we see all of

these characteristics of God, these qualities, these attributes that he

holds in himself are perfectly as Edwards would say, perfectly concatenated.

He is perfect.

And when we get a hold of that, we get

a long way down the road in getting a hold

of God's good right. It should be compassion towards others.

Here's the third handle. Here's the third handle. We would

get a good and better grasp of God's compassion if

we got to handle on this God's prerogative, God's prerogative

for patience and generosity, God's prerogative for patience and generosity.

In verse ten, he says this to Jonah, you pity

the plant. You have compassion and care for and concern

over the plant for which you did not labor, nor

did you make it grow, which came into being in

a night and perished in a night. You think you're

in charge. I made that plant grow. You think you're

in charge. I sent that storm, I appointed that fish,

I appointed that plant, I appointed that worm, I appointed

that wind.

I am in charge.

It is my prerogative to show patience and compassion and

generosity as I see fit. You're appreciating this plant, and

well you should. But I made this plant grow, and

I made that city grow. I made Austin, Texas grow.

I made Iran grow, and the gauze of Strip.

And every.

Person whom you look down on because of their perversion,

I created them, and I made them grow. And it

is my sovereign prerogative how I will show them patience

and generosity. Peter says, the Lord isn't slow, he's patient.

He is not wishing that anyone would perish but come

to repentance. Patience is God's prerogative, and he says, he says,

to the laborers, remember the laborers, the early laborers who

came and they worked for the master of the vineyard.

And he said, I'll pay you a Denarius, and they're like, great.

We love it.

Until it got to the end of the day and

he had hired others throughout the day, and he paid

them also the same.

They were angry. He says, get out of here with

your anger. Am I not free to do with my

own money? Are you? Are you?

Are you begrudging my generosity? It is my prerogative to

be generous. How do we feel about a man who

destroys his marriage through adultery, and in fact destroys her

marriage too because of the woman that he was cheating with.

So he destroys his marriage, wrecks that home, and then

marries a third woman, and then comes to repentance and

faith and humbly thrives as a Christian husband and then father.

I mean, he's left destruction in his wake. None of

us left destruction in their wake. And though we mourn

that destruction, do we rejoice over the compassion of God

in his life or do we resent it? Because whether

you come early to Christ or you come late to Christ,

each one of us comes by way of God's own

patience and generosity, not our own works.

Lest anyone should boast.

The only thing we contribute to our justification is the

sin that makes it necessary. And as we get a

handle on God's prerogative for patients, God's prerogative for generosity,

we will start to get a grasp on his compassion

not just to us, but to others.

Fourth handle.

The fourth handle, I think that Jonah chapter four presents

to us is God's image in people, God's image in

other people.

In verse.

He's already said to Jonah, you pitied the plant. You

were affectionate towards this my creation. You're appreciative of this,

You're like, this is beautiful, this is awesome. But there

is one hundred and twenty thousand people who are created

in my image here, And do you not see how

it is right for me to pity, for me to

have compassion on one hundred and twenty thousand image bearers

as well as the rest of my creation that's present here.

This is awesome, This is beautiful. Don't think for a

second God doesn't see none of his sin. Of course,

he sees none of his sin, But what he also

sees is his image. Do you know what God sees

when he looks at people entrenched in lifestyles of sexual perversion?

Do you know what God sees when he sees nations

of people making war on the peaceful.

Or taking terrorist action.

Do you know what God sees when he looks at

people and activists who are promoting an ideology that undermines

families and harms children.

Don't think for a second. He doesn't see their sin.

Just like he sees although the less obvious sin. But

what he also sees is his very good creat What

he also sees is his image bearers.

What do you see?

This isn't about being light on sin. This isn't about

not speaking plainly of evil. This is about seeing what

God also sees and feeling what God also feels.

Compassion.

As Christ looked on those who would soon turn on

him and shout for his crucifixion, he knowingly looked at

them and had compassion on them because they were like

sheep without a shepherd.

They were his, They were his image bearers.

And as we get a handle on God's image in

all people, we will grow in our grasp of his

compassion towards all people.

For God so loved the world.

That he gave his only begotten son. Here's the fifth handle.

The fifth handle, I think the Jonah chapter four gives

us that we would get an overall grasp on God's compassion.

Is God's examples for our instruction, God's examples for our instruction.

I mean we see that in Jonah. For God very

graciously parabolizes this plant. He grows up this plant to

graciously invest Jonah's attitude in its well being. He gives

him an example and then says, great, as you get

a handle on your compassion for this plant, that will

be a way of getting a handle on my compassion

for this city.

And he gives him an exam in.

Chapter two, Jonah, as you get a handle on my

compassion towards you.

When you'd rather commit.

Suicide than go fulfill my mission for you, and I

wouldn't let you. And I rescued you from drowning, and

I rescued you from rebellion, and I brought you to

a place of repentance, and I delivered you back to

my mission. As you get a handle on the rescue

that I have performed in your life, you will start

to get a handle on the rescue that I am

thrilled to provide for these Ninavites.

And He's given.

Us so many examples throughout scripture the prodigal son, the

unforgiving servant, the laborers in the vineyard, elder brother, as

you get a handle on the necessity to celebrate the

triumph of repentance and mercy and grace, as you come

to realize that we must celebrate like the angels are

celebrating over one sinner who repents. As you get a

handle on that, you're going to get a handle on

the compassion that I have for this world.

And ultimately the example.

And He has given you for grasping his compassion is

the compassion that you have received in Jesus. And as

you get a handle on Christ's compassion toward you, that

he didn't just relent from disaster towards you.

He took the disaster that was for you.

That Christ. In Christ's compassion for you, he passed through

a grave that was way more vicious than Jonahs three days.

That in Christ's compassion towards you, he has brought you

into a family and adopted you. In Christ's compassion towards you,

He's given you.

A role in his kingdom when you were his enemy.

In Christ's compassion towards you, day by day, as you

fall in your failures, of purity. He lifts you up

with a gentle hand as you fall in your failures

of parenting. He picks you up like a good father.

As you fall in your failures of patience. He day

by day is patient with you as you fall in

your prayerlessness. He says, draw near to me. I will

draw near to you. I'm waiting for you right here.

I have compassion for you. Yet again, his mercies towards

you are new every morning, not because you know your

left hand from your right, because He is abounding and

steadfast love.

We so need to get.

A grasp a handle on Christ's ongoing heart of compassion.

We need that for our own souls, and we need

it for grasping and rejoicing in God's compassion in this world.

As we better grasp how he has shown us compassion,

how he loves his creation and his image bearers, how

he has his own prerogative in patience and generosity, how

he is a gracious and merciful God who also will

not clear the guilty, and how he rebukes our sense

of outrage that so often blinds us to the bigger

picture of what He's doing.

Then we would find. Then we would find that if

he were to ask us, should I not show compassion

to others, then we would say yes, and so should

I