Jonah: Our Response to God's Relentless Pursuit | Guest Speaker: Davis Lee

We're continuing in this in the story of Jonah.

This is uh, as I'm reading it over and over and over, what I'm realizing is this is a fascinating story about God's persistent grace.

You know, excuse me, I think we'll see that this morning.

So we all know the story.

Um, God wants Jonah to go to Nineveh basically to give them some bad news.

The bad news being you're you're going to be destroyed, um, as you heard a minute ago.

And Jonah didn't want to do it, and he didn't want to do it for very good reason because the Ninevites were they were nasty people.

And it's kind of hard to relate, but there was a lot of history there, and the best I think we can do is maybe they're like our modern-day terrorists, just not people we want to associate with, and it's people we would really prefer just not be at all be at all.

We want them to go away.

In fact, Jonah was probably a little bit more he just wants them to die.

And and I think sometimes we tend to think that way about other people.

So, what does Jonah do?

Jonah runs from God.

And um God wants Jonah to go to Nineveh.

Jonah doesn't want to go, Jonah runs, but Jonah can't hide, and and and God pursues Jonah, and he's thrown into the deep.

Um he winds up in the belly of a big fish, and and then he's there for three days.

We'll talk about that briefly this morning again, revisit that.

But then the fish spits Jonah back out.

And uh Russ started that story last week.

We're going to continue that today.

So I'm driving to Buckhead several times a week.

It's uh it's commuting uh for me, and it's I started doing it in 2014.

I don't like it because there's a lot of traffic.

Um but I'm finding that I'm using my car horn a lot more than I used to, and I won't I'll go ahead and confess it's not always for emergencies or to avoid accidents.

I'm actually, I think I'm using my car horn to let other people know about how I'm feeling.

And so we kind of know what that's like.

It's like one short tap, it's like friendly, hey, how you doing?

I'm here.

Nice to see you, but could you move over?

Two short taps, it's like I'm friendly, but I really want you to move over.

But then there's that that long, that long blow, that one long blow, it's like I told you to get out of my spot.

Will you move over?

Not so friendly anymore.

And then there are the two long blows.

This is my spot, and I'm beginning to feel some hostility and anger here.

And then there's the one long, sustained blow where everybody's uncomfortable.

I want everybody to be uncomfortable because I want you to know that I've just been, somebody's just pulled into me and taken my spot, and I'm not happy.

You've crossed the line, and I want justice.

And it's often that one of those long blows, or the really long blow, that I'm gonna get a signal from the other driver just to let me know that my message has been received.

So I know that communicating with my horn is not being kind to others, and I know that some of the people that I communicate with would even say I'm being a jerk.

So it's like I'm recognizing a flaw in myself.

And this is a little bit of what we see in Jonah.

Um the Bible caused this repentance.

In chapter, a little bit of chapter two, pretty much all of chapter three is about repentance.

Um part of repentance is confession, and that's what we do here on Sunday mornings every week.

We uh we have we have a time of confession, and that's important.

It's important for us to have a time of confession where we can admit that we have flaws, and it's okay to have flaws, but we need to be honest about that.

We need to be honest with ourselves, honest with God.

Um repentance, I think, is a little bit more of a difficult concept.

Um, maybe it's a word that's a little bit uncomfortable.

Uh, certainly it's misunderstood, and I think it's probably misused.

So, what do I think of when I think of repentance?

I'm I'm back in Sunday school as a little kid, and that was a long time ago.

Some of you will remember this.

So I'm sitting in the Sunday school class, and the Sunday school teacher is uh like Mrs.

Brown, and she's sitting there, she's got a bun on her head, and she's telling us what we need to know, and she's telling us what we need to do, and she tells us that repentance, and this is true, repentance is turning away from my sin and turning towards God.

That's true.

But that I just I don't get it because it feels like you're telling me I'm a bad person, okay, and I need to do better.

And and honestly, on the do betters, that's not worked out so well for me over the years.

So in in chapter two and three, we're gonna see two examples of repentance that I think are really helpful for me.

We're gonna see one in Jonah, but we're gonna see another one in the Ninevites.

Um, and in both cases, and this is key, repentance was a response to God's relentless pursuit, both of Jonah, which is a little bit easier to see, but also in the Ninevites.

Um we're actually gonna see God's relentless pursuit, hopefully, of us.

So God is pursuing us.

Um God pursued Jonah because he wanted him to do something, but God is pursuing us.

I want us to talk about why.

Is it just so we'll behave?

Um Tim Keller puts it like this, and I really like this.

In religion, the purpose of repentance is basically to keep God happy.

So we will continue to so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers.

In religion, the purpose of repentance is basically to keep God happy, so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers.

And that was what I heard from Mrs.

Brown.

I just need to do better so that God will be happy with me.

But in the gospel, the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ.

And hear that again.

In the gospel, the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ.

That sounds altogether different, and it's starting to sound like okay, maybe the gospel is something different, maybe it's something unique, maybe it's more about relationship than it is about just transactional behavior.

So Martin Luther said it this way, and I I like this, it's succinct.

All of life is repentance.

Now, on the surface, that can be a little scary because repentance doesn't always feel good to us, but we want to dig into that a little bit more.

So, a simple way that I like to think about repentance, and this is something kind of new to me, um, new, and that I've just begun to understand repentance a little bit more deeply and thoroughly.

Um Repentance is our active learning to trust Jesus.

Repentance is our active learning to trust Jesus.

Um, it's more of a way of life.

Um why so the question comes to my mind: why would I want to actively trust Jesus?

And this is just pure logic.

I think there are two reasons, two good reasons.

One is what Russ said a few minutes ago, God loves us far more than we can ever imagine.

That that one is particularly difficult for me to understand.

Um, I grew up understanding that God loves the world.

But it's altogether different for me to realize that God loves me and God loves you.

Yes, he loves the world, but he loves you.

That's a hard, hard thing to get my head around.

Um, in fact, I've heard people say that I know it's true, God loves you more than you love yourself.

Um but it's it's it's also recognizing that God is powerful.

Um He, in fact, is all powerful.

That means He can do anything He wants anytime He wants.

So, two things, think about this.

If both of those things are true, if God loves you perfectly, and if He's all-powerful, why would you not want to trust Him completely?

He wants the best for you and He will make the very best happen for you.

So let's see how that works in Jonah's life and in the Ninevites' life.

So Jonah, when he was in the belly of the fish, came face to face with his own mortality.

It's like, think about this, he's in this fish.

Don't probably doesn't know how he got there.

He just was going over the side of the boat.

Next thing he knows, he's in this fish, and he doesn't know how long he's gonna be there.

He was there just three days, but he didn't know that.

And he's realizing he's probably going to die.

So he he reaches out to God and God answers.

Um, it's it's like Jonah coming face to face with his own mortality, and that's happened with some of you, that's happened to me.

Um and it's like um God is the only thing there is because there's nothing else that can save him.

There's there's not another person in the belly of the fish, there's not a doctor there.

This is it.

And so God's gonna do something, or Jonah's not gonna make it.

Um and then it happened that he faced God, he faced himself.

And it's uh I think it's a very simple decision at this point.

Maybe not one we want to make, but I think it's a simple decision.

Am I going to trust God?

Or am I going to trust myself?

And it's the same question as asking, am I gonna be in control, or is God in control?

Is God going to be in control?

Well, it's clear at this point that Jonah's not gonna be in control.

He's he's just not.

So Jonah knew why he was in the belly of the fish.

He he recognized his flaw, he knew that he was running from God, and um God's simply not going to let him go.

Um in Jonah 2.8, he says, those who pay regard to vain 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.

And essentially he's saying, I recognize I was wrong, now I'm ready to obey.

And this is confession.

Um that's basically the the first step of repentance, is confession.

And we see it also in the in the Ninevites in chapter 3, verse 5, after Jonah has preached his message.

In verse 5, the people of Nineveh believed God.

They called forth fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

So, what is sackcloth?

And I'm really glad you asked, because I happen to have some.

This is sackcloth.

It's basically a potato sack.

So, what you would do is you would take this sackcloth and you'd cut out a neck, you cut out a couple of arms, and then you you put this on, and that's what you wear.

So you can you can imagine, because I'm not gonna put it on.

And here's the reason I'm not gonna put it on, because I read in verse 6 that the king removed his robes, and I'm not gonna do that, but you can imagine what it would look like if I had, or maybe you can't, but that so the sackcloth, it's this uh potato sack, and it's really itchy.

That's another reason I don't want to put it on.

But they would put it on, and that was for them a sign of submission.

So they were submitting themselves, saying, Yes, we've been wrong, and we're ready to submit, we are ready to do better.

And that's that's actually our clue to the second part of repentance that's really important, and we'll get to that in a minute.

But I wanted to say first that the Ninevites were ready to be better people, and it is amazing to me that God responded in verse 10.

When God saw what they did, their repentance, 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.

So, what's going on here?

And I think this is this is so important in understanding God, who he is, and how much he loves us.

I think what is going on here is we're seeing that God is patient and he's persistent, and that he desperately wants us, even those of us who are undeserving, and even the worst of us, and that's good news.

That's good news.

So it was the same with Jonah, um, God patiently and persistently pursuing him.

And in this, I think we see the gospel.

It's a picture of, it was actually not a picture of it, it is God pursuing us and giving himself to us.

But it is a foreshadowing of the cross when he would come to give himself up for us once and for all.

And that's, I think, really important.

Here's what Sinclair Ferguson said about this.

He's a uh well-known theologian, um, easy to read.

I like him.

He said, It is solely because we have a God of persistent grace that we are serving him today.

But as we notice in Jonah's case, God is determined that his servants will serve him no matter what it cost him, and no matter what it may cost them.

So, did you hear that?

God is determined that his servants will serve him no matter what it costs him, and no matter what it may cost them.

God does not deal with us in half measures.

He is committed to us up to the hilt, as it were, and the thoroughness of his commitment to us is the measure of the lengths to which he will go to to make us fruitful and faithful, and I would say happy children.

He does not give up on his designs for our lives.

That is that is so good.

He does not give up on his designs for our lives.

So God pursued Jonah, God pursued the Ninevites, and God pursues us every day.

But it's not enough just to recognize the flaw.

Something has to be done about the flaw.

And this is this is the second step that we just started talking about of repentance.

It's submission to God.

It's it's our putting on the sackcloth, not literally, but certainly figuratively, submission.

And here's where we need to be careful, because we can recognize the flaw, we can submit and we can try even to do better, but the do betters are going to exhaust us.

And certainly, I I would say for myself, that's probably the way I've lived most of my life.

Uh, being a Christian, trying hard to be a better Christian because I needed to, and I need to measure up, and um feeling like it was merit that that God was looking for, and it it's not, and it's not for good reason, it's simply because we can't we can't do it.

Um so it's it's it's recognizing the flaw, and the simply trying to do better is the same thing I do on I-75 in the morning.

It's like, okay, this time I'm gonna get on the road, I'm gonna drive down the buckhead, and I'm not gonna blow my horn, I'm not gonna cut anybody off, I'm not gonna tailgate, all those things that I think about.

And Jonah's big do better was he went to Nineveh like God had told him to do, and he preached, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Here's a spoiler alert, because in chapter four, we're gonna see something happen that's really interesting.

Jonah submitted, but he didn't like it.

And he didn't like the outcome, and that's like me in traffic.

Okay, I'm gonna submit.

I let that guy in in front of me, and he was being kind of ugly, and and boy, look how good I am.

And and I'm I'm right back into the measuring up, trying to earn my um way into being a good person, and and and I I can't do that.

So here's the thing, and this is the most important part of what I'm gonna say today.

God wants more than our obedience.

Our obedience is simply not enough.

And his pursuit of us is not aimed at our obedience, it's aimed at our heart.

That's what God wants.

So, like Jonah, we can, and like the Ninevites, we can recognize our flaws and we can recognize that we need to submit.

The question is, um, how do I do that?

And the answer is, I can't do it on my own.

I can't make myself a better person.

I can never do enough do betters.

Um the good news is that Jesus did.

Jesus is your do better, Jesus is my do better.

So here's the third aspect of repentance.

And we don't see it here with Jonah, we don't see it with the Ninevites, but we see it with God in his incredibly persistent and patient pursuit of Jonah, of the Ninevites, of us.

And I think if we're mindful, we can see that pursuit even in our own lives.

Um, certainly I have.

And so I think I think the third aspect of repentance is, and this is what God is after.

He's after a relationship, but he wants us to depend on him, not just for the big things, but for everything, even the small things.

He wants us to depend on him because A, he's gonna do a better job than we'll do, and B, he can do it.

He can do it.

Um, and it's actually alluded to this a minute ago, um, it's actually easiest to depend on God when we're going through the difficult times.

And um, you know, the difficult times, um, I've I've lost a loved one, um, I'm sick, I've got a broken relationship, all of those things that we face in life.

But here's the thing, we saw it with Jonah, where Jonah, his difficult time was actually from God, and that was a good thing.

But difficult times are not always from God, but God always uses the difficult times to pursue us.

Always, always.

And for me, in just understanding that, that even in the difficult times, I don't know where they come from always, sometimes they're self-induced, but God always uses those difficult times to pursue me, so it gives me a different perspective on what's actually going on.

It's like, God, I really want to be out of this difficult situation, but what is it that you're trying to get me to understand?

I think that's a very healthy question to ask.

Um, C.S.

Lewis said this, I love this.

He said, God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but he shouts in our pain.

And that's that's very true.

So, what is it God is doing in our lives to draw us to himself?

I I, you know, I don't always know, I don't always know even in my own life.

But when we recognize that, like Jonah, God's relentless pursuit is continually happening to us and around us, it begins to change our perspective.

Then we're in a position to live a repentant life.

And recognize my flaws, that's getting easier for me because as I get older, maybe it's easier to say, yeah, I'm not I'm not nearly what you think I am.

Um give in and submit, that's hard.

But I think most importantly is learn to depend on God.

It's repentance is our active learning to trust Jesus.

And that I think is a lifelong pursuit.

That's not a one-time thing.

So the heart of repentance is relationship.

And I think that's why God is so persistent.

He craves a relationship with each of us.

And he craves that relationship way, I think, beyond anything we can understand.

But the truth is that we crave that relationship with him.

That's why we were created in the first place.

We do lots of things in life to try to make us happy, but I think underneath all of that is our yearning for God, it's yearning to be with him in the garden as it once was and as it will be again one day.

So letting go of self and submitting, um, but also learning to rely on and depend on God.

That is what God is after in all of our lives, all of the time.

And the good news is that Jesus has made a way for us to do just that, not only in the big things, but even in the small things, like driving in traffic.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, um, thank you that uh you love us.

Thank you that you love us so completely, so thoroughly.

Um thank you that you give us messages in the Bible to help us understand that, but thank you even more that you pursue us in our daily lives.

And I pray for myself and I pray for all of us here this morning that you would help us to see that pursuit in our own lives.

Help us to recognize that even in the difficult times, your love is uh complete, your love is pure, and that you have made a way for us to be fulfilled and happy in you.

And we thank you for that in Christ's name.

Amen.

Thank you, Davis.