Contrasting the Compassion of Jonah and Jesus

Okay, well um it is awesome to see all of you this morning.

If I haven't met you, my name is Russ, and I'm one of the pastors here at Church at the Grove, and um excited about today.

And let me give you a little bit of instructions about what we're gonna do at the very end of our time.

And so uh we planned to do this last week, and then we we thought it was supposed to rain, then it didn't.

And so, but so today we're not it looks like it might rain, it might not, but we're gonna go for it.

So at the end of our time together, as I close this, I'm gonna dismiss all of you out to the field.

And so I'm gonna ask you to uh for for this nine o'clock hour, all of us that are here at nine, if we would move toward the front of the area marked off, which is where our lobby will be in the new building.

And so you'll see the tape.

So we'll kind of gather around there.

I don't think we have any amplification or sound system out there that'll allow us to pray together and be able to hear each other.

Um, you're all gonna be given wooden stakes and per one per family, one wooden stake per family, and so um, and you're gonna have sharpie markers.

And so I'm telling you that now so you can be thinking about a scripture that the Lord may lay on your heart.

I'm I'm telling you that now so you can be sensitive to how the Holy Spirit might ask you to write a name or some initials of somebody that you're praying for in your family, in your neighborhood, somebody that needs the Lord, that might, they might need prayer and healing, but but we're really focused on like who is it that needs Christ in our circle of relationships?

And because when we listen, when we are moving forward as a bit as a church, we're we're not building a building.

We're really providing more space for more of the church to gather.

And so this is not about a building, and I hope I've I hope I've communicated accurately.

You know, to be honest with you, I I don't I don't really care about building another building, but I do care about positioning this church to continue to reach the generations that will continue to come uh to Walton County and to the surrounding areas um of East Metro Atlanta.

And so I believe that we have the potential to have impact that far, far, moves far beyond uh just this property, if that makes sense.

And so so head to the front side of the building, be being be kind of prayerful and think thinking about uh markers and what you would write with that marker on your stake, one stake per family, which means that somebody who is familiar with a hammer might be chosen to be the hammer person.

So we don't want any hurt thumbs or hurt fingers, and so uh see I would everybody in my family would take the hammer away from me.

And um, and so you never know what's gonna happen.

All right, all right.

So we're we're gonna be in Jonah chapter four.

Jonah chapter four, and we're getting down to the last two weeks of the story of Jonah, but before as you're as you're finding Jonah chapter four, use the table of contents if you want to.

Use your electronic Bible.

Um, but before we get there, I also want to read out of Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Um, and and this is a familiar story for those of us who've kind of grown up in church, been around church.

We we've heard the stories about Jesus.

And so um when I was in Israel a couple of years ago, I was able to hike uh what what we would call the Jericho Road or the Jericho Trail.

And so we we know like the during the day of Jesus, this this is, and I hate to say with absolute certainty because um the technology probably doesn't give me that much assurance, but but when you look at all the practical evidence that is available, this is the same trail that people would have traveled as they traveled from the northern part of Israel, Palestine, from Galilee, they would travel down the Jordan River, cross over the Jordan River at Jericho, and then they would head out on this trail.

Um and so when I thought about the Jericho Road or the Jericho Trail, I always thought, you know, two lanes.

A two-lane road, it had a yellow line down the center of the street, right?

That's what I that's kind of what I imagine, or at least a wider area than this.

This is this is really, as you can see, uh there's drop-off to the left, mountains to the right, and you can see how treacherous and how dangerous this kind of journey was.

And so Jesus is using this trail, this road, as a backdrop to tell a story that teaches us about his character and who he is and how he cares, how he has compassion for people, and how a transformed life leads to transformed behavior.

Listen to me.

A transformed life leads to change.

We confess Jesus with our mouth, but but the real evidence of a transformed life through Jesus Christ is the fruit that comes.

And Paul refers to it as the fruit of the spirit.

And I've been taught, I was taught by a mentor, that there should be two types of fruit that come out of the life of a believer.

The fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I believe that's Galatians 5, 22, 23.

And so the second type of fruit that should come out of the life of a believer is more believers.

More believers.

Because it just think about it.

An apple tree produces.

All right, so if you live in Walton County, an agricultural county, you you have to participate in farming questions, okay?

So an apple tree produces an orange tree produces, hey, uh a healthy church of believers produces more believers.

Yes, yes, that's what that's what the call is.

So Jesus is trying to Jesus is trying to give a breakthrough moment as he tells this story out of Luke chapter 10 and um verse.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

I'm not gonna read all of it, but I will read uh part of it.

So so Jesus Jesus tells a story about this this um this lawyer comes to him and says, Hey, you know, ask him the question.

They're always trying to test him.

They're trying to test him.

So they ask the question, Teacher, what shall I do?

What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus says, What is written in the law?

How do you read it?

And the man answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, your n and and and and and your neighbor as yourself.

And he said to him, You have answered correctly.

Do this, and you will live.

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

And so Jesus replies by telling a story.

And so he goes on to tell the story.

He said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

By now, now, by chance, a priest was going down the road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

So, religious person comes upon a person who is robbed and beaten and left for dead.

And so, religious leader, right, stops to help, right?

No.

He what does he do?

Now, uh show the picture of the trail.

Where's the other side?

You know what this tells me?

He had to literally step over it.

I don't know.

There's something about being able to walk, it's something about being able to get into another traffic lane that makes me feel less convicted when I ignore somebody that probably needs my help.

I'm able to get in a different lane.

You can't get in another lane on this trail.

You you gotta you gotta going around is stepping over.

It's stepping over.

So, likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

So, so so passing by is is what?

Is it is it is there a place to pass by?

Passing by means he did what?

Stepped over him.

It's obvious.

There's somebody here that needs help.

And so here's what Jesus, now, follow along.

I think all the rest of the pat the scriptures are on the screen for you.

Um but a Samaritan, a Samaritan, now a Samaritan, I don't have time to go into great detail, but a Samaritan was someone who had been a part of the northern kingdom of Israel.

They had been invaded by the Assyrian Empire, taken away.

Assyrians move into northern Israel, they develop relationships with those Israelites living in that area, and they begin to intermarry, and basically they create in the eyes of the Jewish people, they've created a new people group.

And this new people group is looked down upon.

They're considered less than valuable.

Mixed race, mixed religion, and now the Israelite, the Jewish people, God's chosen people, the light to the nations of the world, now have an issue with prejudice.

And and negative attitudes and problems with people that are from Samaria.

So Jesus, there is no accident.

Jesus didn't just say, hey, hey, I'm gonna pick a Samaritan.

He's trying to teach us a point here.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, who is him?

It's the man who was attacked, the man who was robbed, the man who was mistreated.

He had compassion.

He had compassion.

So, so what is this word compassion?

I'm going to come back to it in a second.

He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.

Then he set him on his own animal and brought him into an inn and took care of him.

And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.

Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

All right, let me let me ask this question again.

And you guys have freedom to talk back and help me out.

If you're watching online, you can talk back.

Help me out.

So, let me ask the question again.

Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

The Samaritan.

The one who, let's read it together.

The one who showed him mercy.

Does that yeah, is that verse 37?

The one who had mercy on him.

And Jesus says, What?

Go and do like go so here so here's let's go back to Jonah.

Jonah is given a command in chapter one, get up, Jonah, go take the message that I give you to the Ninevites.

And Jonah wakes up, and I would imagine there's some excitement when he understands that the voice of God is speaking to him.

And as God begins to give him the command, can you imagine the excitement that Jonah had?

God is speaking to me.

He's given me an assignment.

Go and share the good news.

Yes, come on, give it to me, God.

With the Nineveh.

The what?

The Ninevites were were a horrible, they would have been a modern day terrorist state.

They would have been labeled.

They were awful.

They were awful.

And they if they defeated another country, they would skin their captors.

They would skin their captives alive.

They were known to burn children alive.

But I want you to understand how how awful the Ninevites were considered.

They were considered less than human, subhuman.

They would have been viewed, and we say, well, now, and my point is in sharing this with you is it is Jonah takes place hundreds of years before Jesus comes, and Jesus comes, you've got a different set of Ninevehes.

You've got a different group of people.

They just have a different name and different circumstances and different parts of history.

There's always those people.

And we're going to come up with excuses of why we want to keep a distance or why we don't want them around us.

And instead of seeing them as human beings who are created in the image of God, who simply need to hear the gospel of Jesus.

And when the gospel of Jesus penetrates our heart and we repent and we believe in the good news that Jesus gives, what is the good news?

He has come, he has lived a perfect life.

He has offered his life, his body, his physical body, his identity, who he is as a sacrifice for you and me, because you and I deserve damnation and we deserve to experience the wrath of God.

But because God's love is great for us, while we were yet still sinners, Paul says Christ died for us.

And so the gospel is this good news.

And the gospel is for everyone.

The gospel is for everyone.

It's for everybody, every family, every nation, every color, every language, every people group.

And so I think Jesus is trying to teach us something.

And God is trying to teach us through this passage.

Let me read John Jonah 4, 1 through 4, and we'll we'll close it up here.

Four observations that are really more tied in to Jonah.

Jonah 4, 1 through 4.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was what?

He was, let's say the word together.

He was angry.

Have you noticed that everybody's angry?

Everybody, I mean, everybody's angry about something.

They're angry about politics, they're angry about the stock market.

Understandable.

Everybody's angry about something.

Here's what I've concluded.

This is I've because I've tried to figure out why.

What is it?

People that are always angry about something are just people who are going to always be angry.

I mean, it's just, I think it's a human condition, and some of us are more prone to it than others, but but some of us are quiet, angry.

We kind of blend in.

We're not going to start an argument or or make issue of something and embarrass the people that you know that we're married to or that are in our family, but we're we're angry, we're just going to be quiet about it.

Then there's loud, angry people.

And they and they just kind of tell you.

They don't tell you out loud, they they subversively communicate it via Facebook or Instagram.

Like it's not clear.

And so everybody's angry.

And it says that he prayed to the Lord and said, Oh Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?

That is why I made haste to flee Tartars.

For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

I love this because he is sharing the character of his heavenly father.

He's giving testimony.

Because you are a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.

Now, therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

And the Lord said, Do you do well to be angry?

I mean, have you ever, has anybody ever just blown up at you?

And you just, I mean, I I learned years ago that sometimes just not responding to somebody, it disarms them.

Or, or I agree with them when they when they blow up at me.

I'm like, you're right.

I am horrible.

And I need to be better.

I don't represent the kingdom.

I had somebody just a couple of weeks ago, um, believe it or not, I mean, they just they just unloaded on me.

And all I had said was, hey, how are you?

It's great to see you.

And they turned and it just it just came out.

And I and I mean I just my stomach hurt.

And I and I I wanted to, I wanted to kind of lash back.

I wanted to defend myself.

And I thought, you know what?

I can't return anger with anger.

And so at the end of of the of the complaint, I just said, you know what?

You're right.

I need to do better.

I need to do better.

And it disarmed, it disarmed for the moment.

It did disarmed the situation.

And so I think the Lord is saying, why are you so angry?

Do you do well to be angry?

I mean, is this really helping your life?

To be angry?

Is yelling at the umpire gonna make you feel better?

It does me.

It does me and until uh which is why I don't umpire anymore.

I I just people are angry.

People angry in traffic.

You're such a hurry.

I mean, we just people, it's crazy.

So Jonah, here's what we see.

We're contrasting the character of Jonah, the attitude of Jonah with the character of Christ.

And here's what I want you to see: Jonah's anger versus God's mercy.

Jonah's anger versus God's mercy.

Jonah's angry, but even in his anger, he is well acquainted with the character of his God.

And so the second contrast I want you to see is Jonah.

Self-interest versus God's heart for people.

Verses 5 through 8.

Jonah went out of the city and sat in the east of the city and made a booth for himself there.

He sat under, he sat under it in the shade.

Now I want you to imagine, you know, he's he makes a little booth, he plants a plant, and so he sat under it in the shade till he could see what would become of the city.

Now the Lord had appointed a plant, made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade over his head to save him from his discomfort.

So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.

Jonah, who is angry about God's mercy being poured out on a people that he doesn't agree should receive God's mercy.

That angers him, but a plant has made him happy.

A plant.

Turn, turn, and receive God's mercy.

And he does it with this negative attitude.

He's completely, his heart is not connected to what he's saying.

And then he goes and he's out, goes out to a hill, like a.

And he almost like you would see somebody put some chairs out.

Hey, the fireworks are about to begin.

God's wrath is about to come, man, and it's gonna be awesome.

That's what I imagine.

And I'm gonna sit here and God gives him a little shade, I think, just to kind of just to twist a little bit and to get his attention.

And so you see the self-interest versus God's heart for people.

And so, but when the dawn of the next day came, dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so it 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, Is it better for me to die than to live?

One commentator says this, and I don't think I put this in the in on the screen, so just listen.

It says, The commentator says, Jonah wanted a God who would conform to his own ideas of justice.

But God surprises us with grace, extending compassion even to those who we think unworthy.

Third thing I would like to highlight is and compare and contrast is God's compassion versus Jonah's narrow perspective.

Verses 9 through 11.

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, 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 pity Nineveh?

That great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle.

So God's rebuke.

God's rebuking Jonah.

Should I not pity?

Should I not have compassion?

Should I not care for those people?

Should I not care for somebody that might have been raised differently than me, looks different than me, speaks differently than me?

Listen, we, and I I love my country.

I love, I'm I'm I'm a I'm an American patriot.

I love my country.

But I'm gonna tell you, and I I share this with you all the time.

Your identity is is it starts with being who you are in Jesus and the fact that you are a citizen of God's kingdom.

And your passport should say child of God.

And then down below it should say, I happen to be a citizen of the United States of America, which means that I'm probably born in pretty good conditions.

And I know everybody, I know there's all socioeconomic levels, even in our country.

But being, listen, my citizenship, being first of all prioritized as a citizen of God's kingdom helps me have a biblical perspective when it comes to who we are in relationship with our Heavenly Father and the rest of our neighbors on this planet.

And listen, that's why Charles Fergin used to read the Bible, read the Bible.

He used to read, get up in the morning to read the Bible in one hand, he'd have the newspaper in this hand, and so he he and here's what he would say.

He said, I'm gonna interpret, I'm gonna interpret the world events through the lens of Scripture rather than interpret scripture through the lens of world events.

You see it?

And so Jesus versus Jonah, a contrast of compassion.

Jesus versus Jonah, a contrast of compassion.

Jonah ran from his enemies.

Jesus runs toward sinners.

Jonah ran from his enemies.

I think I said that incorrectly.

His enemies.

Jonah was angry at God's mercy.

Jesus demonstrated it fully in his life at the cross through his bodily resurrection.

Jonah valued comfort over calling.

Jesus embraced the cross for the sake of the lost.

You see it?

He's called us.

He's called us to have the same perspective that Jesus had toward people, regardless of their background, regardless of their education, regardless of their skin color, regardless of their nationality.

I could go on and on.

And so we're about to walk out these doors.

And so we're not, listen, it's not about, as I've said, 18 and a half years, the church is not a building.

We are the church.

But listen, we're gonna pray that God uses every square inch of every facility we have to help advance the gospel and expand the kingdom of God.

Amen?

And so I'm gonna pray in a second, and I'm gonna ask you emphatically to move rather quickly if you can.

Go get your kids.

If you've got children in the children's area, go get them.

Don't forget them.

Because we're gonna take them out there and just turn them loose.

I'm kidding.

But let's go get our kids and let's head to the lobby.

And so we're gonna pray, start on the front end, people where people will start entering, and then in the next hour, you know, our 11 o'clock crew will come in and we'll pray over the back end of the building.

So, amen.

Father, bless us as we go and bless this property to be used for your glory to put the character of Jesus on display in such a way that the world takes notice.

There is a community, there is a church, there is there are people who genuinely want to walk in the character of Jesus.

So, fathers, we go get our kids and we get our hammers and our stakes and we begin to write and pray over what you're gonna do here in the near future.

We pray that you bless us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Dismiss yourself out to the field.