Our scripture text comes from the book of Jonah. We're in chapter three. We're going to be looking at verses one through five.
If you don't have your own Bible with you, you can find Jonah on page 775 of the church Bible in front of you. I would encourage you to turn there with me as we consider it this morning, before we read it, let's go to the Lord again in prayer. Let's pray Our Father, we thank You that You are a God that speaks to us, that you are not silent, but even the heavens are declaring your glory. But as we come to Your Word, we come to know your son and Lord, I pray that you will give us eyes to see. I pray that you will give us ears to hear, and that you will give us hearts to receive.
Lord, we plead for your mercy.
We plead for your grace. We plead that your spirit would work in our hearts now, and that is our hope. Apart from it, we are dead in our sins and trespasses, and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. We are completely, utterly dependent on your grace to save but we plead that you would do that to our own hearts and to all who here this morning, and it's in Jesus' name, we pray, Amen, people of God, hear God's word for you this morning from Jonah, chapter three, verses one through five, 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 and breath, Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey.
And he called out yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. He who has ears let him hear the Word of God.
Please be seated.
Have any of you ever experienced deja vu, that feeling of having experienced a situation before.
Even though it's the first time you've been there, you thought you were somewhere new. But there are sights and sounds that are strangely familiar, and you start to wonder. You start to think, I feel like I've seen this before. I feel like I've heard this before. It's a practice in our family to read the text for Sunday sometime before Sunday morning. And as I began, as I began reading this text, my youngest son interrupts me and says, Dad, we've already read this, and if you're like my son in many ways, you'd be right.
Chapter Three, in many ways, is echoing the very beginning of chapter one. They're almost identical, except for that phrase the second time, but they're mirroring each other, and we find Jonah back almost in the same exact situation that he began. There's deja vu happening here, and what I want us to see too, in a sense that what you should be feeling, or what you should be hearing, echoing again and again and again, even though it's new to you this morning, you've heard it again.
Is the grace of God, because we see the grace of God given again to Jonah, we see the grace of God given to sinners and the nations again, like Nineveh, and we also see the grace of God given to us again and again and again, like deja vu. And his mercies are new to us every morning in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's what I want us to see, and that's what I want us to consider, is the grace of God echoing again in our lives, in our hearts. But let's first start with the grace of God given to Jonah.
If you remember, Jonah had been vomited out on to the shore, not a pleasant sight, pretty graphic, and I'm sure he at that time, he felt a lot of gratitude to be alive and to be on land, and I'm sure he looked forward to getting a nice hot shower, getting to an actual bed and getting back to the Holy Temple, for after all, that's what he prayed for.
Right to look upon your holy temple. He gets to go back home.
He thinks, because that's what he prayed for, and surely God is must be answering his prayer. I get to go back home. Thank you, God for answering my prayer.
Spin me back on land. I'm ready to go, ready to go back to your holy temple.
And it seems that is, as Jonah has just picked himself up and wiped His face of whatever's on it, we read, then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. And I can just imagine Jonah, he's getting up, walking away, and he hears God speaking, and you can just start to think, oh no, right? I had plans. God. Surely God. At this point, you must understand my weakness, right? Surely God, you know my spiritual gifts that were my my lack thereof, give me a break, right? God, I mean, I just, I've gone through a lot recently.
Surely, God, you won't ask me to go to the Ninevites again, right?
Verse two, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, the message that I tell you the exact words Jonah has heard before, he's now hearing now for the second time, it's important to note that nothing has changed with God, all of Jonah's rebellion and energy spent in rebellion and defiance on God has not changed the call to obey the Word of God.
God doesn't change his mind because Jonah was upset.
God doesn't change his command because Jonah doesn't want to do it.
You know, sometimes we tell our children to do things that are right and good for them to do, like clean their room. But sometimes, if they whine enough, or if they complain enough, they have a way of breaking us down, don't they, and sometimes we surrender and we find ourselves, for whatever reason, cleaning their room. It shouldn't be, but it happens, least. It happens to me, maybe not to you.
And Jonah was hoping, I bet, that this is what God would do.
You know, God, there's more mature people out there, there are people that you've really gifted to do this better than me, people who may even have a heart for the Ninevites.
And that all might be true.
There probably are.
And if I'm God, I'd probably just fire Jonah, at least yell at him a little bit. But thankfully, God is not like us in any way or in that way. He is completely absent of sin and always does what does what is right and good for us. And when God tells us to do something, it is always for our good, and because it's always for our good, he will never loosen his commands, because it's always good for us to follow His commands, and He will discipline for us for our good, that we may obey Him for our good. And Jonah needed a firm hand of discipline, but he still needs to obey. He still needs to obey the Word of God, and we see God's grace here. In Jonah's life, we saw the grace of discipline of God disciplining him, even in the whale or great fish, sorry, great fish, kind of like a David Psalm. In Psalm 51 David says, Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Whoever breaks a bone and says, Yay, thank you, God for that broken bone and that pain. But David is recognizing that even in that pain of discipline, that God is putting him through that that He is drawing him back to himself, that he might lovingly submit himself to God.
So God has graciously disciplined Jonah and also graciously giving Jonah now a second chance. Jonah deserves the bottom of the sea. Jonah doesn't deserve to be rescued.
Jonah doesn't deserve loving discipline. He deserves justice, he deserves curse. He deserves death, and that is the what the wages of sins deserve death. But God shows Jonah grace and mercy and why?
Just out of his mere good pleasure, there's no other reason to give it to Jonah.
He's merciful to us.
US, and he's merciful to me, and if you're like me, not only forgiving me once or twice, but certainly 70 times seven.
Now, God doesn't always give people second chance. Sometimes we see God's perfect justice on display. We see that with Nadab and Abihu, they go into the temple, and they offer strange fire. And what do they get?
Immediate death. What do we see with Uzzah when he tries to stabilize the Ark of the Covenant, death?
But I think what God is allowing and graciously doing here to Jonah, what he is graciously often doing to us is showing us our brokenness and depravity, and that salvation is really from the Lord and in no way from us. Often God puts us in places again where we don't want to be.
You ever felt like that in your life?
Here I am again, whether that's in your family situation or work or maybe even the church. You know, one of the nice things that I really enjoyed about being a chaplain was, not only in the chaplaincy, but in the military. There's this phrase that this too will PCs, that is, if you're having problems with someone, either you're going to move or they're going to move eventually, and you can wait it out. One of the things I don't get to do now as a pastor is just PCs. I have to deal with my own heart and other people's hearts and live life together.
And you see my weaknesses and my shortcomings, and God has blessed many of you with marriages and with children. And if you're like me, you're a selfish and prideful person until you got married, and then once you're married, now, now, all of a sudden, you see all your pride and and your selfishness, but it wasn't there before, right?
No, it certainly was. But God is graciously showing you these things. You know, I wasn't angry and an entitled person until I had children, but God keeps putting my children back lovingly into my life, showing me what was already in my heart, all of things, these things were already there. But God puts us in situations again and again and again and again to expose us and then the reality of what's going on in our heart, which is ugly and it's scary and it's dark.
God loves us, and he puts these things back in our lives to show us that we're really a mess and that we're weak and that we need Jesus. We need our sins to be taken away. We need our sins to be washed away when life is easy, we often don't we often don't see ourselves as we ought to see.
Imagine God took you out of all your difficult circumstances.
Imagine God finally gave you victory of the thing that you feel like you've struggled to have victory for so long. And God could do that. He could take you out of all the difficult circumstances, and he could take you out of all the difficult sin, struggles that you face, in many ways, that would be a wonderful thing, and I would like that very much. But you know what I would do with that?
And I bet you would do with it too.
I would then be up here telling you to look at me.
Look at me.
Rather, no, no, no, we confess our sins to each other and we say, Look at Christ. Look at Christ. Look at Christ, and never at me.
Isn't that gracious of God to do that, to put us back in these situations and to expose our hearts again, plus we're tempted to think that salvation is somehow contributed to me, or what I have done where he's always pointing us to himself.
It's always about Christ. It's always about the salvation found in him alone. We contribute nothing. We are needy, even a recent sermon that you heard in Second Corinthians, chapter 12, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God isn't just saving Jonah or the Ninevites. He's saving us.
He's working in our hearts. Now Jonah, when he hears this mess.
Given to him again. I'm sure he isn't like my my, you know, strength and my weakness. I'm going to No, I'm sure he's upset. I'm sure he's not rejoicing in it at the time. In verse three, so Jonah arose and he went to Nineveh according to the Word of the Lord, and Jonah's obeying, I think, kind of because I think there are three parts to obedience. There's obeying all the way right away and with a happy heart. Now, I think maybe Jonah does two of those things.
I think he does well, maybe all the way. We'll get to that in a moment, but at least it goes right away. But is he doing what the happy heart? I don't think so. I think he's going somewhat begrudgingly, because he just doesn't get swallowed by a fish again. So I'm going to go. I'm going to do it this time because I don't want to be disciplined again. So I'm going to do it. I might even do it half heartedly, as we will see.
And now, does that mean what we shouldn't do something if our hearts not in it.
No we need to keep our vows. We need to keep our wedding vows and our church vows and our responsibilities, even if our hearts not in it, knowing that as God works often, our feelings follow our actions, even in caring for for our children or caring for our spouse or loved ones, we are to be obedient to our calling and allow the truth to guide our feelings and trust that our feelings will follow.
So should, should Jonah just wait and say, God, I'm just not feeling it. Until I feel it, then I'm going to go. No, he's right to just go and obey, even if his heart's not in it.
Now, Nineveh, we're told was an exceedingly great city, three days journey and breadth. This is the second time we're told of the greatness and the vastness of Nineveh, great city, large, a three days journey. There's some debate about what that means.
Was it actually so large that it took three days to travel from one side to the next, or is it so great and so large that it deserves a three day visit?
And again, there's some debate.
I don't exactly know, but it's a big city. That's the point. Big City, lots of people, lots of people, lots of violent people.
None of us very violent, known for their violence, known for their torture.
We talked about that when we started Jonah, lots of people who hate God, lots of people who hate the who hate God's people, which would also include Jonah, where God is sending Jonah to go.
And where do you start when you go to a large city?
Well, verse four, Jonah began to go into the city and go in a day's journey. Don't know exactly how far that is. And he called out, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown again. I don't know exactly how far a day's journey in is. And maybe Jonah went into the the town hall, but I kind of doubt it, because if I'm Jonah, I step into the least amount of Nineveh, I can go give my little message, and then I'm gone.
And Jonah doesn't stick around.
He gives this message, and he doesn't wait around. As we see, the word will get to the king.
Jonah is already gone. He's not waiting around to answer questions. He's not waiting around to help people understand this somewhat vague message. He doesn't request a hearing of the king as other prophets have done. And as I said, His message is really vague. I'd even say it's even unclear if this is obeying what God actually told him to say.
His message is yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overturned.
It's missing that standard. Thus saith the Lord. Jonah's sermon doesn't even mention at all who this message is from.
Jonah's message doesn't mention forgiveness. There's no call to repentance, there's no call to faith, and there's certainly no grace. So it doesn't seem exactly like a message that God has given to to other prophets to give. So if I had the guess, I would say that he's not actually being faithful to what God has called him to do. But I don't know that for sure, but even if you look at Micah, the next book, you're a Jonah.
Micah. Micah sermon is seven chapters long, and that's a short book. Considerably.
Jonah's sermon is five words in Hebrew. And maybe you'd like that to be here, but it's not but at least it's not days like, you know, in Isaiah or Jeremiah, we could get there, we could get there, but it's five words, and Micah's book ends like many of the prophets have at least somewhere within them. Micah's sermon ends at seven chapters, one.
These words, who is a God like you pardoning iniquity and passing over transgressions?
Where do we find that in Jonah's sermon? Where's the forgiveness, where's the call to repentance, where's the faith? It's not there yet 40 days in Nineveh will be overthrown.
It's a theologically deficient sermon.
And how in the world could God ever use this messenger who is reluctant, who doesn't even want a second chance, and to use this message that, again, is so theologically deficient. It doesn't mention grace.
It's probably just mumbled, I did it. I did I was faithful God, I did it.
And, yeah, how could God use that?
And here's the real miracle of Jonah. You know what everyone knows about Jonah, the amazing, oh, it's an amazing miracle. How Jonah could survive being swallowed by a great fish. Oh, man, is that? Is that? Is that even possible? Is that such an amazing miracle? But here in verse five, you have something a million times greater, more miraculous than Jonah being swallowed by a fish and surviving.
And the people of Nineveh believed God.
That's the amazing thing about this entire book from a poor messenger with a poor message, and yet, God saves the people of Nineveh, and they believe God.
And I don't know what that process would have been like exactly for them. We'll get to that a little bit next week, but Jonah just kind of mumbles this message at the outskirts, probably, and he leaves, and you just kind of hear it's like, wait, what? What did he say? You think that's from God?
Like, no, no, it can't be. No.
We must turn, we must repent, we must seek the Lord. And they call for a fast and put on sackcloth. We're told, from the greatest of them to the least of them, sackcloth a sign of mourning and sorrow, fasting, giving up worldliness, weeping over things that they had once found pleasure in. Even we'll see next week, their livestock is getting involved, and they we see how serious they are. You know, we don't even want our livestock to be destroyed. They would share in the same fate that we would like Sodom and Gomorrah. May it never be. You know, it might seem silly to put, you know, sackcloth on our animals. They didn't have a prophet to help them figure it out they're trying to turn from their sins.
The city of Nineveh turned to the greatest to the least.
The other prophets had better messages by far. Read the other prophets messages are good and clear, and yet they have nowhere near the results that Jonah have here. That doesn't seem fair, does it?
I mean, you have a person like Isaiah, and he's pleading out of great love for the people that he's preaching to, and speaking of a of a suffering servant who would bear their sins on their behalf, and yet the people of God do not listen to him, and they remain hardened.
And then Jonah says, well, 40 days, you perish, and there's a great transformation of all of Nineveh, from the least to the greatest. You salvation is from the Lord.
Salvation is from the Lord.
Grace is being poured out by God to the undeserving, and that's the message. Salvation is from the Lord.
It's not up to Jonah to accomplish this big task of converting this great city filled with great sinners.
Jonah's called to obey that, please the Lord, even to use this weak messenger with a weak message he wasn't even preaching out of love, to accomplish these great things.
And yet, God works through broken means and through broken people to accomplish his wonderful purposes, and that's our hope too.
You know, I shouldn't purposely preach doctrinally deficient sermons, but no doubt you've gotten them at some point.
But God uses us even in our.
Weaknesses. And even as you share the gospel and say, you know, I've kind of messed that verse up. I don't even know where that was at. God uses us for His glory in our weaknesses, because it's not about us, it's not about me, it's not about you, it's about the glory of God. It's about him saving sinners, not us. Theology is important. We ought to know it and learn it and share it because we love our Lord. But it's not Jonah and his amazing preaching that transfers hearts.
It's not Jonah and his welcoming and loving attitude towards sinners. It's a gracious act of God pouring out grace to undeserving sinners, and that's just the book of Jonah. You know, the book of Jonah is certainly not dare to be a Jonah.
Jonah is a terrible example, and so is everyone, every man and woman under heaven, except one, is a bad example for you to follow. Follow the Lord Jesus, Christ, the God man only follow anyone as much as they are pointing you to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jonah is not a story that is first about evangelism. I think there is a message about evangelism. There's a lesson here about evangelism. We are called to be witnesses, even when we think no one will listen, and even when we don't want to go, even when the task seems impossible, we are called to go there. This is a sub lesson of Jonah about missions.
Our commission is to go, and knowing that someone will plant and others will water. But it's God that will give the increase, even in city like Tampa that is so great with vast a number of people.
And how will we ever change it?
We won't God must we just have to be faithful to going and proclaiming to our neighbors, our friends, our families. Just open up our mouths, even if it's a deficient message, God will save his people. But the story doesn't then end with the people of Nineveh just being converted.
And it's like, yay. That was great. That was a good story.
God used Jonah. It will then end, and we'll get to with Jonah's heart.
It ends with God searching Jonah's heart, and this is where the grace of God comes to you.
Now it's a story about our hearts, just like Jonah, our angry hearts at times, our bitter hearts at times, our selfish hearts, our prideful hearts, and God, again, is calling us to himself again and again and again, that we need that very grace we are proclaiming, and so does Jonah to see that I'm the idolater, I'm the runaway, I'm the violent one, I'm the coward, I'm the faithless. I need grace. I need grace. I need grace.
It's also a reminder to us that a Day of Judgment is coming. He says, 40 days and 40 days has significance. 40 days is a time of preparation, a time of warning. Israel was in the desert for 40 years.
Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days.
It flooded 40 days and 40 nights, and this number 40 is pointing us to a time, a set period of time that a day is numbered, that you must prepare yourself for until God's judgment comes, and God's judgment is coming.
There's a day coming. The 40 days has been announced, not exactly 40 days, but a period of time, and God's judgment will come, as the book of Revelation reminds us in verse 20, or chapter 20, then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it.
From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
And I saw the dead, great and small standing before the throne. And books were opened.
Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death. And Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
There's a day of judgment coming, a real Day of Judgment, a real day that unless you.
Pent you too will be cast into the lake of fire.
This is not a fun story. This is not a parable. This is a reality of God's judgment.
And then sometimes I think I can be as clear as Jonah, which is as clear as mud. So I want to just read to you two more verses, two more sections of verses, if you will, in John three.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him, whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God in Romans, 10, For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the Scriptures say everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, for there's no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches and all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
God is absolutely just. He will pour out His justice on sin. But God is absolutely merciful, and we see both of those meeting at the cross, where God poured out His perfect the justice and wrath on the son, on the Lord, Jesus Christ, taking all of our sins upon himself, but then giving complete mercy to all who believe in Him.
The word of the Lord has come to you this morning.
The word of the Lord has come to you this morning, and to many of you, it's maybe like deja vu. You've heard this again and again.
But what will you do? God is calling you.
How will you respond?
You can leave here in despair, you can leave here in anger. You can leave here Even in laughter, and God will not be mocked.
Or you can repent and you can put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved and know that salvation is not of Me, though my sins are like crimson, they are like Scarlet. In Christ, they are washed like snow, and I bear my sins no more, and that is our hope, that you are saved by grace alone.
Let's pray, Father, we thank you for your grace that is our hope.
Lord, you are pleased to use the foolishness of preaching to accomplish your purposes. Lord, you did that through Jonah and Lord, I pray that you would do that this morning, that you would work in our hearts, that we would flee from destruction, flee from our sins, and flee to the Lord Jesus Christ and find grace.
Lord you have promised. You have said, if we call upon the name of the Lord, we will be saved.
Let us do that this day.
Let us not wait.
Let us not fool around with the things of this world that are fleeting and passing away.
Lord, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, of the pride of life. Lord, these things are passing away along with its desires. Lord, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Lord, let us rest in Jesus, and it's in his name we pray. Amen.