Sunday School, Jonah and the Big Fish - Compassion That Confronts Us

All right, So I have a question for you guys.

Who here has been confronted before? Yeah? Right, all right, okay,

who here likes when they're confronted? Okay, fair enough, all right, Okay,

how about this one who here, being honest, has been

confronted and looking back, knows that they needed to be confronted, right, Okay, yeah,

like something like I've been only wrongly confronted in all

of my life. Many years ago, actually, I used to

play in local bands around the air with some of

my friends. And when we'd play in these bands, there

are many ways that I would use to try and

find ways to kind of irritate or make uncomfortable the

adults or parents who were attending our shows. And now

this started before I came to this church, and it

continued on a little a little time after I started

coming to this church. And I remember one show I

played where at the end of one of the songs,

I decided to say as many unwholesome words as my

brain could fathom as many times at the ending part

of this song. I also remember the coffee meeting that

I had with Pastor Greg the next week, where he

had come to my show and he had a reasonable question,

asked me, what was all the cursing about? What was that?

What was that all about? And awkward? You right, those

a little awkward, but actually it as awkward as that

confrontation could have been, it really was not that awkward

for me. And part of that is just props to

the Lord fore pastor Greg lovingly confronting me. He didn't

even really have to say much about it other than

just ask the question of like, what was that? And

I was like, I don't know, Like like I'm like,

I already know I'm kind of in trouble at that point,

but I mean, honest, I didn't feel like I was

in trouble other than like already knew what I was

doing was wrong. He just was lovingly bringing it up

to me to be like, what was that? And so

he lovingly did that, and by the end he had

confronted and exposed something in my heart that wasn't right.

He made me take a second look at the way

I was living and what was coming out of my

heart and helped me to reflect on if it matched

the other parts of my life. He pointed me back

to God's word, and my life wasn't lining up now Today,

we're going to see a very interesting Bible story that

of a prophet of God who knew some right things

about God, but his actions and what came out of

his heart were in a constant struggle with the command

and heart of God. By the end of the story,

we're actually going to see God confront this prophet. He's

gonna in front him with a question, a question that

is going to confront this prophet's compassion for others. Today

we're going to be looking at the story of Jonah

and the Big Fish. The story of Jonah has some

incredible themes that we're going to be able to see

as we walk through this text with one another. We're

going to see the sovereignty of God over everything. We're

going to see God's compassion and salvation to all those

who would call on his name, and we're going to

see a prophet who has a very, very sour attitude.

So the prophet Jonah is is actually kind of a

different prophet when we when you go look at this book,

this story is a little bit different because normally, normally

this when the prophets would speak, or you'd go to

the book of the Prophets. The point of it was

God has a message for his people, and usually the

whole book is and this guy happened to be the

guy saying all the stuff, and this is the stuff

he said. Jonah's very interesting because it is more like,

look at what this prophet did or in this case

didn't do. So we're going to actually kind of follow

a specific time in Jonah's life and how he responds

to God. So in this message, we're gonna look back

and forth, or look at the back and forth interaction

between God and Jonah and a bunch of unbelievers. And

by the end of it, the Book of Jonah is

going to leave us with a cliffhanger like question for

us to examine, because at the end of everything, we're

going to see Jonah, a prophet of God, angry at

God's compassion specifically to unbelievers who have repented. And this

might actually sound a little ridiculous and funny enough, that's

the point of the book. It's meant to sound and

be ridiculous. It's the genre of Jonah is actually a satire,

even though it's a completely true story. Like I said,

I was reading in Kings this week, which is the

historical account and it happens to be like, oh yeah,

at the time of Jonah and like just mentions them

and kind of moves along right after that. But he's

in a historical account. But still this story is filled

with humor and irony because we see a prophet of

God missing the point and the pagans around him getting it.

So as we look at the story of Jonah, we're

going to learn that God's compassion confronts our hearts and

should cause us to praise him and care like he does.

So today's message is titled Jonah and the Big Fish

Compassion that confronts us. Now, if today is your first

time joining us, welcome. We're so glad that you are here.

But we've been going to a series called Sunday School

where we've been looking at the most famous Bible stories

in the Old Testament with our intent and hope of

looking at them in their original context and seeking to

understand what these stories are truly meant to teach us.

And we've been looking at some really, really awesome ones.

But if you've if you came with me right now,

turn to the Book of Jonah. It's in the middle

of your Bible. And also if you do not have

a Bible, please go grab When we have some out

on the connect desk out in the lobby for you,

please take one, keep it for yourself so you can

follow along. The Book of Jonah is only four chapters

and is about a ten minute read. But for such

a short story, it teaches us so much about who

God is, how we can be saved from our sin,

and the problem of the heart, problems that we need

to address. Like I said, Jonah is only four chapters,

and so actually we're going to be able to tackle

all of it today, which is gonna be really really fun.

And so we're gonna break it down into three sections

kind of three main almost like story arcs within this book,

and we're gonna see Jonah run and the Lord redeem.

We're gonna see Nineveh repent and the Lord relent and

Jonah's rage and the Lord reasons. Now, I want to

point out in this story, even though it's called Jonah,

even though we're gonna be following Jonah, God is the

hero in this story. Like we said at the beginning,

God's sovereignty, his control over all creation, and his plans

coming to pass are so heavy in this text that

I want us to make sure that we keep our

eyes open so that we do not miss that as

we walk through it together. But God is the main

character in this story, and through Jonah, he is going

to teach us about just how in control and just

how compassionate he is those two things. Much like Jonah,

I believe we're going to confront our own hearts, and

I believe, like the other times that we've been confronted

four hour good that today will also be one of

those times. By the end of it, I pray and

hope that, like Jonah, we will be saying Salvation belongs

to the Lord. Hopefully that was enough time to help

you find Jonah in your Bible. It is in there.

It's a small, small little book in the middle of

your Bible. And if you're taking notes, we can look

at this first part. You can write, Jonah runs the

Lord redeems. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah,

the son of AMATAI, saying, arise, go to nineve that

great city and call out against it, for their evil

has come up before me the Lord. So yeah, right there,

those first two verses, we can stop right there. The

Lord comes to Jonah the prophet and tells him to

go do the job of a prophet, that is, deliver

a message from God to someone else. And I want

to kind of point something out because I think it

would be very beneficial for every single one of us

to become more fluent in our Old Testament prophets, not

only the really, really big books, but there's also a

lot of little books in there that are also the prophets.

And the reason that you should do that is because

reading those you're actually going to very quickly realize that

most of the time, when God sent a prophet to

speak a word to his people, it usually wasn't because

the people were on the right track. It's not usually

because the people were doing everything. The prophetic word wasn't

like your life is about to be so awesome. I

know it's already great, but it's about to be that

much better. Usually never that. Almost every single time, it's like, you, guys,

what is wrong with you? You're missing it, You've abandoned God.

You need to come back. It's usually pretty rough. At

the preaching work that we went to actually in the

spring we went we got to work through the Book

of Isaiah, and in there they I thought it was

pretty funny. They had said that the prophets were basically

covenant police, like their job was to show up every

single time, be like you've broken God's law or you

guys have strayed from the law, and they were there

to try and kind of set things right. But what

makes Jonah so significant is that in this instance, Jonah

isn't told to bring God's word to God's people, but

he is told to take God's warning of judgment to

the pagan city of Ninevah. In fact, Nineveh was the

capital city of the Assyrians, and they were the enemies

of Israel. Like they were just bullies all the time.

For a long time throughout Israel's history. They were just

sitting there, back and forth fights. And now there's so

there's some things to consider as we think about this

and to do. So let's bring this into your life

just to just to get an idea of what God

has asked him to do. Imagine God comes to you

and says, hey, I want you to go to your

enemy and tell them that God has seen their evil

and has told you to tell them that God is

going to destroy them. That's the first thing to consider.

The second is God wants you to warn your enemies

that their destruction is coming. They're my enemies. I hope

that they get hit by a truck every single day, Like,

why would I want to warn them of the destruction

that's coming. This is this is where Jonah is wrestling.

This is this is where Jonah is is having somewhat

of an issue. And we know this because we look

at the response of Jonah. Verse three says, but Jonah

rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

He went down to Jappa and found a ship going

to Tarshish, so he paid the fare and went down

into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from

the presence of the Lord. He ran from God's presence

and in the opposite direction of the place that he

was supposed to go. Now, I think it'd be easy

for us to look down on Jonah, But how many

of us do the exact same thing When God calls

to us. God tells us to share the gospel, go

to church, give generously, serve his church, serve others, obey

your parents, lead your wives, love your wives, take care

of your wives, submit to your husband's You could go

on and on, and on the list, And most of

the time we get confronted with God's word in our

first response is to run the other way. So ultimately

we really can't point the finger at Jonah without pointing

the finger also at ourselves. But God, being the good

shepherd he is, doesn't let his sheep run too far

away without going after him and bringing him back, which

we get to see in this very colorful fashion. In

verse four says, but the Lord hurled a great wind

upon the sea. It's awesome, And there was a mighty

tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to

break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried

out to his God, and they hurled the cargo that

was in the ship into the sea to lighten it

for them. But Jonah had gone down to the inner

part of the ship and had laid down and was

fast asleep. So the captain came and to him, what

do you mean, you sleeper, arise, call out to your God.

Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that

we may not perish. So God sends a storm to

disrupt Jonah's escape plan. God commanded Jonah and he ran.

Now God is commanding the sea to stop him. It's

pretty cool. This is also interesting here is this boat

is now in the midst of a storm. The people

around Jonah are freaking out, and there he is, fast

asleep in the bottom of a boat. Once again, irony.

It's just kind of funny as you look at the story.

But honestly, if this isn't a picture of what running

away from God is, I don't know what is. How

often does us running away or our own rebellion cause

so much chaos for everyone else? And the people around us, well,

we're just like, I'm just I'm gonna go take a nab.

Things are good. We see him. Jonah has rebellion that

has led to this chaos for those around him, and

yet he's indifferent. He's totally fine with the problems it's

causing for those around him. Yet the crew is on

the ship calling for him to wake up, saying, what

is your deal? Man? Call on your God. Maybe he

will give us a give thought to us and we

will not perish, which I honestly think it's pretty hard.

I mean, if you were in Jonah's shoes when you're

on the run from God, are you gonna turn around

and call on him? Probably not. You're actually you're trying

to get away from him. Last thing you're gonna do

is get yourself in some trouble and be like, Hey,

that's what we should do. But I think we need

people sometimes unlikely people like these pagans here to call

us to wake up and call out to God. And

the story goes on, and they said to one another, come,

let us cast lots that we may know on whose

account this evil has come upon us. So they're literally like,

let's roll some dice to figure out who's who's the

problem on this boat. Why is this storm here? Says

So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah,

which also, I mean the lot is cast in the lap,

and every decision is from the Lord. Right, it's right here.

It falls on Jonah, who is exactly the culprit. Then

they said to him, tell us on whose account this

evil has come upon us? What is your occupation? Where

do you come from, what is your country? And of

what people are you? And he said to them, I

am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God

of Heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him,

what is this you have done? For the men knew

that he was fleeing from the present of the Lord

because he had told them, which is kind of funny.

It's like, yeah, I'm just running from my God. And

they're like, oh, okay, whatever, and then the storm happens.

They're like, wait, who is your god again? Can you clarify?

He says, oh, yeah, it's a god of you know

everything the sea included, by the way, and they're like,

what have you done? How could you do this? So

the truth comes out and there's chaos all around them

on account of Jonah running from God. So Jonah then

gives them the solution because they're trying to figure it out.

We see this and says, Then they said to him,

what shall we do to you that the sea may

quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and

more temptuous. He said to them, pick up or pick

me up and hurl me into the sea, and the

sea will quiet down for you, for I know it

is because of me that this great tempest has come

upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back

to dry land, but they could not, for the sea

grew more and more temptuous. Against them, So it's kind

of interesting. He tells them, you should throw me into

the sea. This little rebellion, this running from God, was

going to cost Jonah his life. But here even the

pagan men on the boat show compassion to Jonah because

their first response is in like, sounds good, buddy, you're

out of here. They're like, well, let's first before we

start trying the crazy things, before we throw the Lord's

servant over the boat, let's make sure that we tried

to row to land. And obviously that didn't work out.

So the next we actually see these pagans call out

to the Lord, and once again it's kind of funny.

Verse fourteen, it says, therefore they called out to the Lord,

Oh Lord, let us not perish for this man's life,

and lay not on us innocent blood for you, oh Lord,

have done as it pleased you. So they picked up

Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea

ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly,

and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

So it's funny because they pray to God and they're like,

all right, God, clearly you want us to throw them overboard.

Please don't be angry with us when we throw your

servant overboard. And so they throw them overboard, and the

sea dissipates, it calms down. And as soon as they

do it, as soon as the sea calms and these

sailors are saved, we see something incredible because it shows

that that these sailors have come to fear God through

this event. They call out to God and He answered them,

and the result was that they began to recognize sacrifice

to and make vows to the Lord. They weren't doing

that before they had. They were calling on their own God,

who didn't help them. And here they are. They're like, wow,

that we should probably recognize this God. This God had

shown these The Lord had shown these sailors mercy, and

these sailors praised God for it. But while they're bowing

down in worship to God, Jonah is sinking down to

the depths of the sea. But God shows Yonah compassion

and he appoints a great fish to come and swallow

Jonah hole. We see that. The next verse says in

the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah,

and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three

days and three nights, God in command of his creation,

tells the fish to go get Jonah. Now, Jonah, God's prophet,

is now in the belly of a great fish. Jonah

was going to die, and the Lord said a fish

to come swallow him and save him. And finally we

see the right response from Jonah. It's kind of taken

a minute, had to learn a little bit, but now

here we go we get the right response from Jonah.

No longer running, not that he had a choice because

he was in the belly of a fish, but now

redeemed and saved from the death he was surely about

to face. What does he do? He also begins to

praise God from the belly of the big fish. See

this in the next chapter. Says, then Jonah prayed to

the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying,

I called out to the Lord out of my distress,

and he answered me out of the belly of shoe,

I cried, And you heard my voice, for you cast

me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,

and the flood surrounded me, all your breakers and your

waves passed over me. Then I said, I am driven

away from your sight. Yet I shall again look upon

your holy temple. The waters closed in over to take

my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped around

are about my head. To the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land whose bars closed upon

me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O, Lord,

my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered

the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your

holy temple. Those who pay regard to vane idols forsake

their hope of steadfast love. But I, with the voice

of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed.

I will pay salvation belongs to the Lord. So Jonah

gives this incredible prayer, thanking God for saving him. He

recognizes God's mercy on his life by answering him when

he cried out to the Lord. That Jonah in the

depths called out to the Lord, and the Lord answered

and saved him from his most certain death. So now

or two for two, we see these pagan sailors who

cried out to the Lord and were saved. Now two

Jonah cries out to the Lord and is saved, and

both ended in the individual groups giving recognition to God

for his saving hand. So Jonah concludes, salvation belongs to

the Lord. I think that this should be a pattern

in our own life, that when we cry out to

the Lord to rescue us, that we need to make

sure that on the backside that we are giving him

the praise do his name, the recognition do him for

his salvation worked in our life. So after three days

and three nights, Jonah gets ejected from the fish. We

see this in verse ten says, and the Lord spoke

to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the

dry land. Now we move on to the next section.

Do you remember that thing that God wanted Jonah to do?

Do you remember that? Well, just because he was saved

from his backsliding does not mean that he was off

the hook. God still wanted him to do what he

commanded him to do. God still had good works prepared

for Jonah to do. So if you're taking notes, you

can write Ninevah repents, the Lord relents. Chapter three, starting

in verse one, says, then the word of the Lord

came to Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go to Nineveh,

that great city, and call out against it. The message

that I tell you, so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh,

according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was

an exceedingly great city. Three days journey in breath, that's

a big city. Jonah began to go into the city,

going a day's journey, and he called out, Yet, forty

days and Ninevah shall be overthrown. The word comes to Jonah,

but this time he's learned his lesson and runs to

Ninevah as the Lord had commanded. So Jonah comes to

this incredibly large city and begins to preach that in

forty days the city would be overthrown. But then we

actually see something incredible happen, something so miraculous. This pagan

city hears the preaching of God's word and is transformed

verse five. And the people of Ninevah believed God. They

called for a fast and put on sackcloth. From the

greatest of them to the least of them, This pagan

nation hears God's word proclaimed, and it says that they

believed God. This is nothing short of a miracle. Some

of us have longtime friends, family members, co workers. We've

spent years trying to share the Gospel with, and I

think many of us get to a point though we

still try, and we still try and do what we

can to present and bring the gospel to these people.

Ultimately we've had to leave it up to God, as

we should have all along, but we end up praying

we're just at this point. We go like, you know what, God,

this is kind of on you. I need you at

this point to step in change their hearts. I need

you to do something, which is how it should be

all along, because we can't save anybody. We got to

realize that we can't save anybody. Only God can. His

salvation belongs to the Lord. And here we see Jonah

walk into the most unlikely of places to receive God's word,

and they turn and repent in an instant, And I pray,

I pray to God that God would do the same

exact thing in our city, a very unlikely place, if

you will, a very unlikely city, that He would send

us as his church to preach the good news. And

see this unlikely city flipped upside down. And I think, honestly,

God makes him. I think God likes to make himself

known by throwing curveballs. Sometimes it's on the nose and

you're like, all right, Lord, I asked it, there it is.

And then there's other times where you're like, I did

not see that coming. I did not think that that

was going to happen at all. There's many people that

I could have swore were saved and have been sorely

mistaken at least up until this point in how they're

living their life. But there's also people that I thought

would never be saved. You know those people, the people

that you were like, I've talked to you last year,

and you hated Jesus and wanted nothing to do with him.

And now I hear you're going to church starting Bible

studies like doing you know, like what all right, Lord,

Like I couldn't do that. I tried, you know, like

it's the Lord. It's good, which just serves to remind

me that salvation belongs to the Lord, because look at

the radical change this city has from top to bottom.

Verse five, it says, and the people of Ninevah believed God.

They called for a fast and put on sackclof from

the greatest of them to the least of them. The

word reached the king of Ninevah, and he arose from

his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and

sat in ashes, and he issued a proclamation and published

through Nineveh. By the decree of the King and his nobles,

Let neither man, nor beast, herd, nor flock taste anything.

Let them not feed or drink water. But let man

and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call

out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil

way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows God may turn and relent and turn from

his fierce anger, so that we may not perish. These

people hear of the destruction to come and humble themselves

and cry out to God. They cry out to the Lord.

They're told to repent of their evil and call out

to the Lord mightily. These people humble themselves, repent of

their evil, and call out to God for mercy. And

what's crazy is reading this text, they're not even sure

he will show them mercy. They're like, perhaps maybe he

might just show us mercy if we humble ourselves, turn

from our evil and repent. So they cry out and

hope that he would say them. And I believe that

this is an amazing picture of what true repentance looks like.

This is what true repentance looks like. It's not like, oh,

I heard about Jesus and I'll just add him on

to the things I'm already doing. So I heard about

Jesus and I became very aware of the way that

I'm living not being in line with what he talks

about and what he calls us to. True repentance is

understanding that my way of life does not match what

the Lord calls me to. These people hear the judgment

coming to their sins, and so they cry out in faith.

They call out to the Lord in hopes that he

would show them mercy. This unlikely pagan nation, enemy of

God's people here that God is going to bring judgment,

and so turns repents and believes the Lord. And I

think it's good for us all to ask ourselves, is

this how my sin makes me feel? I don't think

there's I need. It's very hard to actually or maybe impossible.

I haven't really thought about this, so just roll with me.

I think it's very hard, if not impossible, to preach

the Gospel without bringing up sin and the coming judgment.

And I think a lot of us try to preach

the gospel and go like can I get away with

talking about Jesus and not bringing up sin and not

bringing up judgment. I'm guilty of that, all right. So

we're all in that boat together. But I think it's

something that's very important that if we realize, like there's

no salvation, there's nothing to be safe from. So these

people need to be made aware, and they have been

made aware not only that their sinners, but that there

is actually a consequence, a punishment coming for that sin.

So I think about this, I also have to remember

that in my own life, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian,

I follow Jesus. So is this how my sin makes

me feel? Do these Pagans have a higher view of

their sin, a higher remorse of their sin than I do?

Am I like Jonah sleeping in the boat while my

life is in chaos because of sin? Or Am I

like these Ninovites, cut to the core and repenting of

my sin, saying we need to put this away. These

Ninavites didn't make light of their sin, but faced with

the judgment to come on account of their wickedness and rebelliousness,

they took it seriously, humbled themselves and cried out to God.

I pray that if you're in your sins facing the

judgment to come, that God would grant you eyes to

see the wickedness of your ways. That God would grant

you ears to hear the message of the good News

of Christ and be saved because God has promised that

for all who call in the name of the Lord,

they will be saved, which is exactly what we see

happen in this text. So they cry out to the Lord,

And what does the Lord do? When God saw what

they did, how they turned from their evil way, God

relented of the disaster that he had said he would

do to them, and he did not do it. God,

when he saw their repentance, he relented of the destruction

he was going to bring upon them. That's the gospel.

It's right there. And brothers and sishes, we too have

received and can receive God's mercy and compassion toward our

sin if we but call on His name. That even

though we are sinners and rebellion towards God, paying no

attention or mind to God, that because of Jesus Christ,

that we two can be saved from the eternal wrath

do our sins. And that is also very good news

that just like the pagans on the boat, fearful of perishing.

That just like the wicked, well, actually no, even Jonah,

sinking down, fearful of him perishing, cries out to the Lord.

And Ninevah hear these wicked people also crying out to

the Lord that they would not perish. Sounds very familiar

to me, at least sounds like John three sixteen is

what it sounds like to me, says. For God so

loved the world that he gave his only son, that

whoever believes in him should should not what perish, but

have eternal life. God has shown this great compassion to

a wicked, rebellious world by giving his one and only

son to die in the place of unrighteous sinners and

take their punishment and give them his righteousness. And he

did this not just by dying on the cross, but

by showing that he has defeated sin and death by

being raised from the dead. That, just like Jonah was

in the belly of the fish for three days, so

to Jesus was in the belly of the earth. That

Jonah was assigned to his generation. And now Jesus and

his sign of being raised from the dead is a

testament to the world that the Lord is compassionate and

has made the only way for sinful man to be

made right with a holy God, and that through Christ alone,

Jesus dealt with our sin on the cross so that

we could come to God. And as Roman ten thirteen

tells us, says, because if you confess with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that

God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For what the heart one believes and is justified, and

with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the

scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be

put to shame, for there is no distinction between jew

and Greek. For the Lord is Lord of all, bestowing

his riches on all who call on him. For everyone

who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And this incredible truth is what we have seen over

and over again in the story of Jonah, that no

matter who you are, you can call on the name

of the Lord and he will save you. Like the

Roman text tells us, whether you're from Israel or from

anywhere else, if you call on the Lord, you will

be saved. But for as amazing of a truth as

this is. Jonah had a hard time with this truth,

which leads me to my last section. And you can

write Jonah's rage. The Lord reasons and I need the

band to come up please. Chapter four says, but it

displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed

to the Lord and said, O, Lord, is not this

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, in about in steadfast love, and relenting

from disaster. Therefore, now, oh Lord, please take my life

from me, for it is better for me to die

than to live. No, it's hilarious. He is so dramatic.

And if you think we're not, we're not even done.

And it gets more dramatic. Lord said a very reasonable question.

Do you do well to be angry? So Jonah is

so mad at God's compassion that he wants to die.

That's a little much, right, Like, that's that's a bit much.

What's more, he says that the reason he didn't want

to come in the first place is because he knows

just how merciful God is. That's ridiculous. Jonah is perfectly

fine accepting God's compassion for himself, but as soon as

it comes to extending it to others, he thinks don't

deserve it. He freaks out, which is sadly not a

unique thing to Jonah. One of the reasons the world

thinks that Christianity, I said, one of the reasons, not

the only reason. One of the reasons that the world

thinks that Christianity is foolishness or thinks that the Gospel

is offensive, is because God's gracious is so gracious. What

do I mean by that? One of the reasons that

people reject the Gospel is because the good News is

too good. It's that good? You mean? All I have

to do is repent of my sin and believe in Jesus,

and He will save me completely from my sin. He'll

remove it all. You mean the serial killer him can

give his life to Christ and have his sin forgiven.

You mean the adulter or can give his life to

Christ and have his sin forgiven. I realize, I'll say his,

but this could be a hurt, not examt You mean,

my mother, brother, sister, father, husband, wife who wronged me

can believe in the Lord and be saved from their sin.

You mean my high school bully can give his life

to Christ and be forgiven. Yes, absolutely, the Gospel is offensive.

Not only does it call out your sin, but for

some they can't believe how good the news truly is.

And not because they're unhappy to accept the news for themselves,

but because that means my enemies could be off the hook.

Most people are happy to accept grace but find it

so much harder to extend it. If you're in any

relationship with any person on the planet, you know that

to be true. Everyone wants grace for themselves, it's hard

to extend it. Everyone wants grace for themselves, but justice

for others. If I'm speeding on the road and I

get pulled over, Officer, I have my reasons. If someone

else passes me on the road, I'm like, that's definitely

faster than me. I'm like, I don't think get pulled

over and they get the biggest ticket ever, they'll learn

their lesson, they'll never do it again. But if I

get pulled over, it please off the likes. That's how

we treat our sin. We we want the mercy, we

want the compassion, But for someone who wronged me, someone

who's my enemy, the full weight of wrath to be

upon their heads. And Jonah has the same problem here,

and God is confronting Jonah on it. Look. Verse five

s as Jonah went out to the city and sat

to the east of the city and made a booth

for himself. There he sat under it in the shade

till he could should see what would become of the city.

So he's still kind of hoping that God's gonna smoke

the city. Now, the Lord appointed a plant and made

it come up over Jonah that it 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 up the next day, God appointed a

worm that attacks 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. So here we are. Jonah's just man, my man.

Jonah's pretty dramatic. Jonah is still hoping to see the

city torched. But the Lord still has a lesson to

teach Jonah. So the Lord gives this plant to Jonah

for shade, and the next morning takes it away and

sends in the heat, and Jonah freaks out again. But

watch how the Lord uses this to teach Jonah and

leave him with a question. God said to Jonah, you, guys,

this is ridiculous for real. 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, you pitied the plant for which you

did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which

came into being in the night and perished in the night.

And should not I 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. Jonah had more concern for this

plant than he did for the entire city. Jonah had

more compassion and sadness for this plant, which wasn't even

his to begin with. And God asks him, should God

not care about all those living in the city. See

how God leaves this book here. That's where it ends.

It just and much cattle just ends right there. That's

it where you're kind of like what. But it leaves

us with a question. Does not God get to be

merciful as he sees fit? Salvation belongs to the Lord,

So isn't this compassion his to freely give? People hate

the salvation that God has to offer because they can

think it's cheap grace. But that's just because they don't

know how much it cost him. Jesus laid down his life,

suffered on the cross, was tortured and humiliated, all so

that I wouldn't have to be also that whoever would

call on him would not have to be. That is

not cheap grace. My Lord gave his life from me,

and we happily, we will happily accept that grace. But

how much harder it is to extend it to those

who we think don't deserve it. But if we're thinking

that way, then we don't understand the gospel, or we've

forgotten the gospel. The gospel is we're saved by grace alone,

through faith alone, and Christ alone. None of us deserve it.

None of us deserve it. The reason we need grace

is because every single one of us is a sinner

before God, in desperate need of saving, and that it's

by his grace and mercy and compassion that we can

call on his name, and that he even saves us.

He didn't have to save Jonah. He could have let

him become fish food and just leave it right at that.

He could have just left it right there. He didn't

have to save Ninevah, but God chose to save them.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. God is so much more

compassionate than we are. We want to accept the grace

but not extend it to our enemies, but we forget

that that is exactly what God did for us. We

were his enemies, and he died for us. We were sinners,

we were undeserving sinners, Yet Christ laid down his life

for us. God's compassion is truly great. I think when

we look at this compassion, we see that God's compassion

confronts our hearts because it shows just how selfish we

can truly be. We're happy to take, reluctant to give.

Does God's mercy make us mad? Like Jonah? Are we

happy to take God's grace but mad when he extends

it to others. I think we could. Maybe we're okay

on those two, But how about this or are we

mad when he tells us to extend that grace to others.

I think that's where it becomes much harder. We've been

shown this grace and we don't want to show it.

The end of this story is a sorry sight. This

prophet of God is angry at God's compassion. He's angry

at God's character, just like Samson from a couple of

weeks ago. This is not an example to follow, but

a warning to heed. The Lord says that he will

have mercy on whom he will have mercy, that he

hardens whom he will harden, because salvation belongs to the Lord.

But he also shows us that for all who call

on the name of the Lord, that they will be saved.

And this shouldn't just be a reason for us. This

shouldn't be a reason for us to have a bad attitude,

but a reason for us to rejoice that is merciful.

As it was that God saved us, that we would

hope and pray that He would do just the same

for those around us, whether they be our friend or

our foe. Jonah shows us what not to be. Don't

just be happy to have salvation for yourself, but because

of God's great compassion and promise of salvation to all

those who call on him, we should be glad to

share the gospel and even happier when we see people

repent and believe. We should let the compassion that God

shows us shape our hearts towards others. I'm want to

say that again, we should let the compassion that God

shows us shape our hearts towards others. The way that

the Book of Jonah ends leaves us thinking on how

God's compassion should impact our perspective towards him and others,

which is why today's main point is that God's compassion

confronts our hearts and should cause us to praise him

and care like he does. So as we go into

our time of response, I want you to reflect on

how God's compassion con friends where you've not been compassionate,

specifically to show God's love to others, to extend that

compassion to others, whether that be by sharing the gospel.

Maybe it's a forgiveness issue. I don't know what it is.

Where have you found yourself having a pity party because

of God's grace, rather than praising him for it. Ultimately,

does your life extend the compassion given to you. God's

compassion is a compassion that will confront our hearts if

we have lost sight of the compassion he has shown us.

So let us live every day with the mercy he

has shown us in view, so that we can praise

Him and extend that grace to others. Amen, all right,

would you please stand to your feet