A Large Tiny Life (Jonah 3)

Joshua Kehler: G.

K.

Chesterton, has this famous quote.

He says, Your life would be if yourself could be smaller in it.

How much larger your life would be if yourself could be smaller in it, right?

We think that so often we're the center of the world, the center of the story, only

to find out that God's doing something far different than we anticipated.

Jonah reluctantly is sent on mission, he's gonna proclaim this message,

and God's gonna obliterate their enemies, and God uses this reluctant

prophet, stubborn, rebellious, stiff necked, and a city repents.

And God shows them mercy.

And, he's not a fan.

As we'll see in chapter 4.

In fact, he was suspicious of God's mercy the whole time.

It's like, I knew you could not help but be merciful.

Is Jonah's take.

But so often we think we're the center of the world, the center of the story.

We've been taught that in our culture, you can be anything you dream of.

the whole world revolves around us.

Elizabeth Elliott, her follow up to Through the Gates of Splendor, which

was about Jim Elliot and the other missionaries, who had lost their lives

and, preaching the gospel in South America and then that whole, as the

wives went in of these, missionaries, husbands who have died, the whole

place came and came to know Jesus.

And so it was the testimonies of that.

She wrote an interesting follow up book called No Graven Image.

It was released in the late sixties.

and Elliot describes an American missionary in South

America named Margaret.

He was devoted her life to translating the Bible into an

indigenous tribe's native language.

The tribe's language has never been written down.

It was all verbal.

A key to her work was the discovery of a man named Pedro who knew the

unwritten dialect that Margaret needed to learn in order to translate the

Bible into that particular language.

He began to teach her the language.

And her painstaking work of systematically recording and

documenting it, moved forward.

And she made progress in translating the Bible.

Pedro, she believes, had been the answer to her prayer.

God now seemed to be bringing things together.

Margaret imagines the possibility of bringing the Bible to a million people

in remote regions of the mountains.

One day she arrives at Pedro's home.

To continue their work, she discovers that Pedro had a painful, infected

wound in his leg, and since Margaret knew a little bit about medicine, and

was equipped to provide routine medical care, she gives him a penicillin shot.

It turns out that he's allergic, and he begins convulsing from

anaphylaxis within moments, and despite her fervent prayers, he dies.

All the years of labor are wiped away.

As for the translation of the Bible, of course, she writes, I cannot

go ahead without an informant.

God knew about that when Pedro died.

I do not write prayer letters to my supporters anymore, for I have

nothing to say about my work.

It seemed on the night of Pedro's death as though finished were

written below all I had done.

So, this is the book, and this is how the book ends, and it was super controversial.

The book ends and there's no happy ending or silver lining for Margaret.

Her only consolation is found on the last page, which includes this line.

It's a good one.

God, if he was merely my accomplice, had betrayed me.

If, on the other hand, he was God, he had freed me.

He had freed me.

The story ends in her losing everything.

There's like a fire and everything she had done is burned up.

And that's how the book ends and people are like, No!

You can't, right?

You can't end a story like that.

But she was trying to reconcile serving the eternal God, or God serving us.

And what we think we're going to do for him.

And what we're going to accomplish, and how we're going

to be the center of the story.

and all the things we're going to do for his life.

And really reconciling the fact that, We may never see for hundreds

of years the cause and effect or the ripple effect that our life has

in simple obedience and following.

And is that enough?

It's not if God is serving us.

Because he's not playing by our rules.

He's not doing what we want.

Doesn't he see how much I've sacrificed for him?

Where's the result?

Where's the fruit we would say?

But it is enough if he's enough.

And if we relax into his everlasting arms and are part of his plan, is

he the one we plan to serve or is he the one who serves our plan?

So we come to Jonah.

So Jonah's got these expectations, right?

And, I love it.

As you can see, we'll see more next week.

But Jonah tries to tip the scales.

in his favor of what he once accomplished.

We'll see, he says eight words, in his sermon, in English.

He says five words in Hebrew.

And it's all about, the wrath of God and his judgment.

That's it.

And there's not, like, is he, Can we repent?

There's like being in there.

There's no way out.

He just says, you're doomed.

God's gonna judge you 40 days.

40 days are up.

there's no alternative path.

There's no, here's my third point.

It's the one point sermon, five words, you're doomed.

And so he's tipping the scales in his favor.

You guys are gonna be judged.

The other thing that we notice from this passage Yes, is that the author points out

it's a three days journey through the city and yet Jonah gives up after day one He

preaches for a day and he's like I'm done.

I'm done.

There's a lot here, which is beautiful for us But despite Jonah One of the

first things, the thing I keep tripping over, we have this scaffolding up at

the job that we're at and it's over the front door and it's, I guess everybody's

shorter than I am, I don't know, but it's just high enough where because I wear

a hat, I don't see the scaffolding and I hit my head on Over and over and over

and over again to where I almost took my sawzall and was just going to cut the

like, but you know, you can't do that.

That's, yes, it's, it's my bad, in the same way I keep coming to this verse

and I, I couldn't get away from it.

I thought about it all last week, I kept tripping on it.

I kept, but in a good way, tripping into his grace.

Then the word of the Lord, verse one came to Jonah the second time saying,

aren't you grateful for second chances

and third and 20 and 40 and 50 and 2000 and 8, 000.

And he doesn't pull back.

He's right there.

And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

He doesn't mention his flight.

He doesn't mention the rebellion.

He doesn't mention the trying to get away and throw himself into the

sea or go into the furthest part.

He doesn't make him grovel.

He doesn't, Jonah finds repentance in the belly of the whale, but it's,

he picks right back up where he left.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

That's so beautiful.

I said last week that, for me lately, the theme of patience does me in.

God's patience to me.

His long suffering.

His everlasting dedication to my good.

I just think about that.

It's like, it's the dynamite lately.

It's the chili pepper that's been ripened and seasoned, I just take a bite of it

and it's like, I am good for a week.

I just sit and chew on that and meditate that he's so long suffering.

He's so for us and not against us.

some of us have been in the midst of difficulty.

Where we fled, where we've run, from that calling that we know when we ask can

I come back, the answer is always yes.

The word of God comes to you again a second time.

And the word of God came to Jonah a second time.

We're reminded of patience and God's long suffering towards us.

The grace that connects us to the God of repeat offenders.

Right?

Isn't that what?

Grace is, and God just is the God of repeat offenders.

And he knew it all along, and God didn't give up on Jonah.

Jonah ran, and God recommissioned him.

Jonah disobeyed, and God recommissioned him.

Jonah rebelled, and God was there.

Jonah complained, and God was there.

Jonah was stubborn, and God gave him the word a second time.

Jonah was self righteous, and God gave him the word a second time.

He was prideful and poutful, and God gave him his word a second time.

Nothing we can do or fail to do will ever even slightly tempt God to give up on us.

When we are faithless, He is faithful.

God's love for us is in no way determined by our love for Him or

by what we do, but is determined solely by what Jesus has done for us.

So it's invincible.

That means that on our worst day, God is no less delighted in

you than He is on your best day.

Why?

God's delight for you is determined by what Jesus has done for you,

not what you've done for him.

You are seen through the purity and perfection of Christ himself.

God comes back to Jonah time and time again, not because Jonah

deserved it, but because he didn't.

And we forget that part of the story.

He's drawn to our weakness.

He loves to be the hero who rescues you.

It's our need that draws him.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were at our worst, he gave his best.

God has never bailed on you.

In fact, he's the only one who never has.

The best people in our lives, we have seen suspicion on their face at

one time or another, whether it's a spouse and their, or disappointment.

but God's the one who is like, I'll never leave you.

I'll never forsake.

No matter what you do, no matter how far you run, God is that God of second

chances, third chances, fourth chances.

And to him, as I'll illustrate, we'll see his love is not based in

fantasy, but it's the most realistic because it's based every point.

On prior knowledge of the worst part of me.

He's not fanciful.

He's not oh, I just see the good I just ignore that.

No, he knows he had to pay you to suffer the wrath He had to suffer the divine

justice for every flaw every failure every Spec that tainted the perfect

Flowing right robe of righteousness like he knows he's the most realistic

person toward you Try to hide it or cover it or just play it down.

He's like, no, it was crazy But I was glad to do it because I love you.

God doesn't love me Just the way that I am because of Jesus God loves me in the

way that Jesus is There's as much chance that God would abandon the son as he would

abandon me Because I'm clothed in the Son.

I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Man, that we would get that.

That we would like, Oh, isn't that beautiful?

He loves you with as much intensity as He loves the Son.

Why?

Because we're hidden in the Son.

Because we're perfected in the Son.

Donnie Moore, he was a youth pastor here in Stockton, and, he tells the

story of this, these two sisters, an older sister and a younger sister.

And the younger sister would always sneak in and borrow the older sister's clothes.

And she didn't like it, cause they'd come back ruined or not washed or, lost.

And so the younger sister had this thing coming up at school that, and so she snuck

into her sister's room, older sister's room, and she took a bunch of the clothes

and, tried them on and everything.

And she came home and she was going to sneak in and put them

back in the sister's room and the older sister's waiting for her.

And she's okay.

I knew you had taken these.

I told you not to take these.

I told you, this is important to me that you wouldn't, wear these.

And the sister, just fell apart and was like, I'm so sorry.

I promise you will never do it again.

and the sister looked at her and says, I forgive you since it's the first time.

And, So weeks went by and everything, and it was a dance and the younger sister

couldn't find anything in her room.

And the older sister was out of town

So she went in there and put stuff on, found something and then, went

and she was going to, do the same thing, sneak back in and everything.

Older sister had come home early at the end of their night and

she's like, what are you doing?

I asked you not to do this and a little younger sister just fell apart again

and said i'm so sorry I know I promised you I know I promised you please.

Can you forgive me?

Can you find it in your heart?

You know i'll never do it again And the older sister said I forgive

you since it's the first time

because that's how grace

Looks at our failure.

It's been covered.

It's not compiled And how he sees us It has been laid on the sun And the

Son has paid it, and there's nothing in the way now, but relationship, and

dancing, and joy, and being called into what we've been called into.

And so one of the beautiful things about this story, and one of the points of

this story, is that God is not just after saving Nineveh, God is after saving Jonah.

The real rescue that happens here, yes, what an amazing rescue that Nineveh saved,

but this, this prophet that represented Israel, that God is relentlessly in

pursuit of Jonah himself, and coming again to Jonah, and coming again to Jonah.

No matter how far Jonah runs, no matter how hard hearted he is, he's God's.

And God won't let him go until God has his way with him, until God melts

his heart and makes him like himself.

And so, what a beautiful story, like, that God is the God of the first chance.

And when you mess up, he's the God of the first chance.

And when you mess up, he's the God of the first chance.

Because that's how grace works.

And so, just the thing, man, I just couldn't get over that verse.

I kept coming back to it.

I kept thinking of God's patience and his long suffering in my life.

And that, when I'm patient, I think I should get a reward because of how

patient I'm being because I'm suffering.

I'm like, I know I could act this way, but I'm not going to do it.

I'm going to put those feelings aside and I'm going to put them down and I'm

going to act a godly, and I should get some reward for that because I am, I am

choosing over one feeling that I have, and another, and I just think that lacks

that divine patience that God has for us, where he just is for your good.

He's after you.

He loves you.

the regret, the grief that comes is when we miss out on all that

he's provided for us in Christ.

When we, when we don't walk in that, when we don't walk in the identity that

he secured for us through his blood.

And so, man, he calls to Jonah a second time.

The word comes to Jonah a second time.

The word comes to Jonah a second time.

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against

the message that I tell you.

Here's the thing about second chances or first chances.

God will take you right back to the place you said no.

Doesn't he do that?

Sometimes you just want to ignore that.

an irreconcilable difference you move on from.

Yeah, we disagreed.

Agree to disagree, God.

There are never irreconcilable differences with God.

You were wrong.

He was right.

God takes us back to the place where you said no to him so that you might say yes.

Because he's after your joy.

He's after including you in the story, not the center of the story.

He's the center of the story, but to be a part of the story.

I remember somebody explained it.

They're like, you can put a play on in your parents garage, and your parents are

gonna clap, and they're gonna be like, this is the best thing I've ever seen.

We gotta call the Oscars and get him in here, because this is

like a performance of a lifetime.

Or you can actually end up on Broadway.

And you can be a gaffer or a light technician and your name's in the credit

and you're part of this like huge story.

I always watch the credits.

It's a discipline me and my daughter have, Karis, that we, all the other, people who

are with us, they're like, let's leave.

It's the credits.

And we're like, no, we're paying respect to all these people who put this story on.

We want to see their names.

We want to like honor them that this story wasn't just the director who

did everything or a couple of actors.

It took thousands of people to pull this together.

And we'll read them and we'll try to find the funniest names and you've

got, I don't know, the craziest names.

and you're like, I wonder his life, and I wonder what he did.

But he's part of this grand, greater story.

Though he's not front and center, he gets to be a part of something

so great, And and that's like God's mission, that God invites us into.

We're not gonna be, getting an Oscar for our performance.

But man, he chooses us to be a part of something much greater

than if we were just performing for our parents in our garage.

so he takes us back to the place where we said no.

And, we get to say yes.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Nineveh was a seemingly great city.

Three days journey in breath.

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey.

And he called out, yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Now you get this amazing picture.

Jonah has been in the belly of the fish for three days.

With all the gastric juices of this fish's stomach washing over him.

He would have been bleached white, white hair, glowing like an angel.

That would have been a nice effect, right?

Now what's interesting is, historians at this time, they say for Assyria,

like Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, that there was crazy

stuff happening to their nation.

There were famines, there were, like crazy storms that were

recorded, there were eclipses.

And so there was all these things happening that, historically that as

they were the world power, you could start to see how God is starting to

work through history itself to bring them to this place of like, maybe

we're not as in control as we thought.

And, and then this.

bleached prophet shows up, from a fish belched on the land by a

fish and, and he begins to preach this message of God's judgment.

he's got an eight word message, five words in Hebrew, yet 40 days

in Nineveh shall be overthrown.

And the people of Nineveh, verse five, believed God and they called for a 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 satin ashes.

So, and the people of Nineveh believed God.

And what did they believe about God?

They didn't have a lot of info about him, but they believed God's assessment of

him, And one of the most amazing things that the author is doing is contrasting

how long it took Jonah to repent.

in the length and how quick the pagans are like instantly we're repenting and so it's

to undo it's to like it because again as the Hebrews say as they read this story to

one another we are Jonah like we're Jonah so often like Jesus said it's the pimps

and the prostitutes in Matthew 21 that get into the kingdom of God before you

guys Like, they're closer to the kingdom.

They get it.

They know that they're broken.

the whole thing is brokenness forever.

we need, we're broken and we realize our need for Christ.

Day two, we're still broken and we realize our need for Christ.

Day 400, we're still broken and we realize our need for Christ.

Day 1000.

We're still broken in.

It is into his arms to be carried all the way home.

Like walking with Jesus is often being carried by him.

That's the whole story all the way through.

one thing I just want to highlight, and we'll just wrap up, but we can keep on

in chapter three next week a little bit.

I do want to get to chapter four, but is, I read pretty

broadly in the, in Christendom.

I grew up thinking you can only read these certain books and they'd

approve them and any other books, they would, I, I literally lost my

first ordination because I went and listened to John Piper at a conference.

Yeah.

My first ordination.

Yeah.

The other ordinations.

I did.

Oh yeah.

we had, I had, I had pastor come in and say, do you have any books by so

and so please, please get rid of them.

Once our bookstore started getting rid of Spurgeon, because he has Calvinistic

leanings, I was like Yeah, it's Spurgeon?

I know you Calvary Chapel guys are popular, but Spurgeon?

but anyways, I do read, I do read broadly.

One of the things that has come up, and it's a, because of our modern cultural

uncomfortableness with justice and wrath.

We don't like thinking that God is a God of just wrath.

and so one of the things that I've read a lot in more, I would say in

some more liberal leaning circles is that, the whole God pouring out his

wrath on Jesus is divine child abuse.

And, And so they say, Jesus was more an example.

He was more a symbol of suffering, like the father wasn't, abusing his son.

And, and I just, I can't go there.

you lose so, you lose, you lose so much, and one of the amazing things

is that, Do you know the trinity?

That the trinity is one God?

It's himself.

He's not giving his son, it's himself that is giving.

the son says, no one takes my life, I lay it down freely.

But I, it's very popular now, because it does away with the

God wrathing the son for our sin.

because it's uncomfortable to talk about God's wrath, and

his justice, and his judgment.

but one of the beautiful stories about Abraham and Isaac is that God doesn't

ask fathers to do that to their sons.

He makes a way where he provides himself as the sacrifice, right?

Because he's not into human sacrifice.

He's not into fathers abusing their children.

He's into giving himself as a sacrifice.

And so, I just, Like here Jonah preaches the message that resonates with people

because guess what people already have a sense that there's something wrong As much

as we put up a front of it as much as we you know Pretend that we're doing great

in our self esteem is like at this level.

When we hear a message that says you are going to answer to a holy

God, there is something in our bones that whispers that's true.

And we can run, we can pretend harder that God doesn't exist, or we can be more

religious and pretend like we can make a righteousness that's acceptable to Him.

Right?

That's how we deal.

We either run or we try harder.

Right?

Amen.

And, I just think one of the most beautiful things in the story of

the gospel is that I stood, as it's been said, my greatest need wasn't

to be simply saved from my sins, it was to be saved from God himself.

He stood against me.

Like, legally, I had failed and fallen short of his glory.

And in his kingdom that he created, I said, mine.

This is my kingdom.

I will be the captain of my ship, the master of my own fate.

I will rule my life the way I want.

I was at enmity with God.

I was separated.

And there was an ache in my soul that longed to be back with Him, but too

proud to admit that I needed Him.

And I searched everywhere.

Everywhere.

And I was only storing up more wrath for the Day of Judgment.

And I remember the night, I was like 14, and God gave me a glimpse, I

had, I had probably just read, for the first time, Sinners in the Hands

of Every God by Jonathan Edwards.

And he talks about the spider, over the flame, and each thread is breaking, and

it's pop, pop, pop, pop, and there's one left, and I was like, that's me.

Oh, I'm only here in this simple, tiny, time, space, continuum

moment, because of God's mercy.

Thank you.

And I remember as a 14 year old falling on my knees in my bedroom, my

brothers were asleep and crying out for mercy because I got a glimpse.

I wasn't just a good kid who needed help.

I wasn't a good person who God wanted to make a better person.

I was a sinner in the hands of an angry God, just anger.

He's not vindictive.

He's not a two year old throwing a tantrum.

We talked about that.

We have so much baggage to that, but God is holy.

Do you know we would hate the universe?

If God wasn't holy, if he didn't hold men to account for their evil, we

would say, why would we worship a God like that, who just throws everything

under the carpet, who doesn't make people answer for the wrong they did.

I've been wounded.

Somebody's got to answer for that.

And I've wounded people.

I have to answer for that, or somebody has to, and the story of the

cross is that Jesus is the answer.

He is held accountable for our, for what we've done.

Justice is served, but he stood in my place.

He took it.

He took the other person's justice.

And so they can choose.

They can choose either Jesus paid or I'll pay and a life separated

from him for all of eternity.

And what that does to me is it makes me bubble up with worship.

I can't contain myself at the sense that I get to more and more glimpse

as I walk with him by even the word patience, like his forbearance.

I'm like, when I'm like, 32, I'm like, Wow, God, you covered so much.

I'm 46.

I'm like, I want to cuss and be like, you, how did you cover that much?

I'm at a loss in his grace.

I'm at a loss that the perfect son of God would take my justice.

Every ill will I have harbored horrible thoughts.

I've said horrible things.

I've hated people with my guts.

I have stolen, I have done terrible things, and my perfect savior, the

beautiful, perfect lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, took it all.

Like, we can't lose that part of the gospel.

It's, it's, the good news is so good because the bad news is so bad!

It's just realistic.

It's, it's not weird.

We don't have to amp it up.

And Jonah preaches and they're like, yes.

And the other thing I just want to point out is the power of the gospel,

the power of God and salvation.

Jonah is reluctant.

He just unleashes the word of God and people, it changes their hearts.

The worst thing we've ever done is we need celebrities to make Christianity cool.

We need to be legit in the eyes of the world.

We need Christian music to match, the music of Like,

like, no, we are the foolish.

We are the unwise.

We are the outsiders.

We are the, like, the lame.

We are the nerds.

We are like Even though it's cool to be nerds now.

Like, guys.

We have spent so much energy trying to win!

Christianity is not for winners, it's a religion of losers!

It's the gospel for losers, we are the losers!

And it thrives in that!

Like, the thing we've done in America is we've mixed Christian, the

Christian, Christian victory, like, the Christ, what was the old saying?

The victorious Christian life.

as winning.

We've associated the two.

No, the Christian, victorious Christian life is leaning into our weakness and our

foolishness and our brokenness and letting God shine through us and letting people

see that He is truly a treasure and that if everything's taken away, we are rich

and we are full because we have Jesus and He'll never be taken away from us.

So I just like such a crazy thing that We don't want to lose, and it, there, it will

be the temptation of this next generation.

It's already been the temptation of my generation, but the temptation

in the next generation to lose this,

I think that's my phone.

I turned off Siri.

So that wouldn't happen anymore.

I thought I was like.

It's called Next Generation.

But it's by Scarface.

That's how I'm playing myself out, Can I have the worship leader come forward?

God is not cranky.

He is not looking forward to the day of judgment.

How do we know that?

Because he provided himself for judgment.

So the beauty is that no sin is ever swept under the carpet, but is

answered in its full force either by the Son taking it and absorbing it.

And that's why we can be friends with people.

we've done horrible things.

So too, God's forgiveness because the justice was paid.

It wasn't just, God wasn't just like, Oh, I'm just loving,

sending vibes out into the world.

No.

That's why Jesus, when he looked into the cup that he was going

to drink on that night of nights, he's like, is there any other way?

Like I, the perfect Lamb of God who can't even be in the presence of

sin, as 2 says, I'm going to become the sin substitute, like all of it.

And then that justice that we all stand to deserve.

It was the only way.

There's no other way for man to be saved.

he absorbed it.

The innocent one, for the guilty, so that you might be made innocent.

And so that our fellow believers, even if they're in different

denominations, and they believe different theology, and they have been saved.

And the price has been paid.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us, who

are being saved, it is the power of God.

the gospel will always be a stumbling block, for some, I remember, I think

it was Keller who said, if you're not, if the right, the conservatives,

aren't upset at your message, and the liberals aren't upset at your message,

then you're not preaching the gospel.

you'll always have that dynamic, right, happening.

you'll have the wise who are, who think the gospel's foolish, right?

Oh, just a, a, a guy who died as a criminal, he's gonna save you?

you'll have people who love power thinking that it's foolish

because, pfft, pfft, pfft.

He died as a criminal.

He's, you'd be saved in weakness.

Weakness is the true power.

you have to admit that you can't do it.

Oh, Christianity is a crutch.

No, it's the whole hospital.

Like, yes, you nailed it, right?

but that's, offensive to people.

It's offensive.

God forgives any who will come.

so, let's just, sit under His grace.

I was listening to a pastor, last week, or this week, and they painted.

the door on their church red.

I'm like, Oh, we have a red door.

because yes, nice.

that's his point is he wants everybody who comes in to remember that they've

been covered by the blood, that anybody can come under the blood and that the

blood of Jesus forgives us from all sin.

Right.

And, just that core reminder of what God did that he passed over.

Why?

Was it because, the youngest Hebrew was awesome?

No.

It was because he was covered in the blood.

Was it because the youngest, the firstborn wasn't, wasn't fearful?

No, he could have been out of his, scared out of his gourd.

But he was covered in the blood.

any, where the blood covered, was that death passed over,

that judgment passed over.

so.

Man, there's so much to rejoice about in our stories.

just thinking again of that patience, patient forbearance,

and what he's done, so thank you.

Father, we thank you for this morning.

We thank you for all the, just, encouragement.

The stories, the insights and God, we just pray that you

would, just bless this time now.

Oh, just minister to our hearts and Lord take what is currently like

outside of our hearts and beautiful.

but I pray that you plan it now deep in our hearts that it would

remain and bear lasting fruit.

For your