WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:00.719 All right. 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:06.799 Well, last week we looked at Jonah 1 and 2. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.039 The story of a prophet who didn't want to do his job. 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:31.679 God said, Go to Nineveh, the we should just call out wicked and awful city that was the chief city of Israel's enemies, and pronounce a judgment upon it because of how bad and sinful it is. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:34.960 But Jonah didn't want to go. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:38.079 And so last week we asked the question why? 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:44.640 Why is it that Jonah doesn't want to go and say, you guys are awful and God's going to judge you for it? 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:55.359 And somewhat surprisingly, if you haven't looked closely at the book of Jonah before, the answer is Jonah didn't want to go because he knew God's heart. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:08.239 And he knew that in fact God was giving this prophecy that sounded like judgment and death precisely because God wanted those people to turn. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:14.400 He wanted them to repent, to admit that they'd been doing wrong so that he could have mercy on them. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:16.799 So that he could not punish them. 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:21.120 And to put it simply, Jonah didn't want that. 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:26.640 Jonah didn't want God to have mercy on people like that. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:33.439 Because their sins were just a little too big, and we might add, a little too personal. 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:39.040 And it's probably too much to try to reduce Jonah to a single motivation. 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:49.519 There was probably some fear, there was probably some arrogance, there was certainly a lot of anger, and the whole stew of it had stewed down just into an utter hate. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:54.879 God might want to have mercy on these people, but Jonah says, I want no part of that. 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:58.000 So Jonah decides to run away from God. 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:03.920 This plan goes, as if you were here last week, rather poorly. 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:12.400 And before long, Jonah is drowning in the ocean, saved only from certain death, because God sends a big fish to swallow him whole. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:25.840 And in the fish, having, we might also add, already been saved, having been saved, having done nothing to earn it, he was just drowning. 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:32.560 In the fish, Jonah himself realizes he needs to repent. 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:43.919 So picking up where we were last week, if you're looking at Jonah 2, in verse 4, Jonah said, I've been banished from your sight, but I will look again towards your holy temple. 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:46.560 In verse 7, he prays. 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:53.120 In verse 9, he finally says, What I have vowed, I will make good. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:54.719 Well, what has he vowed? 00:02:55.039 --> 00:02:56.240 He's a prophet. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:00.319 He has vowed to say exactly what God wants him to say. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:08.560 And so finally, when Jonah gets to that point, verse 10 says, God told the fish, and it spat him up onto dry land. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:13.680 At which point you can imagine not just Jonah, but the fish both say, Man, I'm glad that's over. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.120 You know, bitter prophet tastes terrible. 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:22.719 So now, chapter 3, God says, Let's try it again, Jonah. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:24.000 Let's do this a second time. 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:28.080 So we're going to pick up reading from the word in chapter 3 of the book of Jonah. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:32.080 This is on an insert in your bulletin, by the way. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:36.560 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:41.520 Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:45.039 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:47.840 Now Nineveh was a very large city. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:50.159 It took three days to go through it. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:58.800 Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming, Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:01.919 And the Ninevehes believed God. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:07.439 A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sacloth. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:17.279 When Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust. 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:21.439 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:28.959 By the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let people or animals, herds or flocks taste anything. 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:31.279 Do not let them eat or drink. 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:34.720 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:37.120 Let everyone call urgently on God. 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:39.920 Let them give up their evil ways and violence. 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:41.279 Who knows? 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:47.839 God may yet relent, and with compassion turn from his fierce anger, so that we will not perish. 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:57.680 And when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:02.240 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:07.680 He prayed to the Lord, Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:11.759 That is why I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:20.240 I knew that you're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:25.839 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it's better for me to die than to live. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:31.120 But the Lord replied, Is it right for you to be angry? 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:35.680 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:41.680 There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the city. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:52.480 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head, to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:58.160 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm which chewed the plant, so it withered. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:05.279 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:10.319 He wanted to die and said, It would be better for me to die than to live. 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:15.759 But God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.360 It is, he said, and I'm so angry I wish I were dead. 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:26.800 But the Lord said, You've been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:30.079 It sprang up overnight and it died overnight. 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:41.360 Should I not be concerned for this great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals. 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:44.160 This is God's word to us this morning. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:46.000 Will you pray with me? 00:06:48.959 --> 00:07:08.319 God, we come to this text, trusting that we are not coming under our own power or ability, but praying that we would come under the authority and teaching of the Holy Spirit, that you would show us, Lord, not about Jonah, but that you would show us about ourselves. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:17.439 That in learning about Him, we would learn about ourselves and about you, so that we'd love you more deeply, we'd follow you more dearly. 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:21.360 If you do that, Lord, we promise you all the glory will be to you, not to us. 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:23.279 In Jesus' name we pray it. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:24.160 Amen. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:32.800 So if you tried the challenge I left you with last week, you probably realized how difficult it is. 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:38.720 You know, we ended last week with a question who are you supposed to forgive this week? 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:41.040 What would it look like to do that? 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:49.120 And if you actually purposed to do that, it probably didn't actually go that well. 00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:55.839 Now, it usually starts off okay with some good intentions, a real honest I want to forgive. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:04.560 But then the anger, the bitterness, the hurt, the wound, the frustration all just well back up. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:10.480 You know, if we actually purpose to forgive someone else, we very quickly realize that it's not a binary thing. 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:12.160 It's not a one or a zero. 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:14.079 You forgave or you didn't. 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:20.639 We realize it's very much an analog thing, a repeated process again and again and again. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:22.720 Because it's difficult. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:26.480 You know, we can't just forgive and forget. 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:28.399 Now, don't get me wrong, we should. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:33.279 But in real life, in real practice, it just doesn't happen that way. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:47.600 Now, last week I made the argument that at the root of our difficulty of forgiving is the fact that we don't really appreciate the richness of the forgiveness we've been given in Jesus. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:54.240 That if we really see the depth of grace in the gospel, we will forgive. 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:57.919 And so, in a sense, if we have trouble forgiving, it's a diagnostic. 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:07.519 It says, wow, if I can't forgive others what they've done to me, am I really appreciating the depth of what Jesus has forgiven me? 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.559 Now I'm not questioning are you a Christian or not? 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:17.440 I'm just pointing out that if it's difficult to forgive, we need the gospel to press down deeper into our lives. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:24.000 It would be easy to misunderstand something from that and think that forgiveness is one and done. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:29.440 I get a good look at Jesus, I realize what he's done, and so I go over here and I forgive him for what he did to me. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:30.240 And it's all. 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:38.159 But in real life, forgiveness is much more of a repeated journey that's difficult. 00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:40.240 And here's the graciousness of God. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:41.919 He knows it's difficult. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:45.919 I mean, after all, he gave his son for it, remember? 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:59.039 And so the great news is, and this is what Jonah 3 and 4 teach us, that to help us in forgiving others, God gives us reminders of his forgiveness to us. 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:04.399 That to help us in forgiving others, God gives us reminders of how he's forgiven us. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:10.320 And we'll look at it under three categories: one truth, one problem, and one answer. 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:13.519 The truth that God loves to forgive. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:18.159 The problem that we really don't. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:24.159 And third, God's answer for that, that he gives us reminders to help us. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:25.360 So here's the truth. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:27.120 This is the spiritual truth of the passage. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:29.519 God loves to forgive. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:37.360 Note that it begins, chapter 3, with a parallel call to what happened. 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:43.200 In chapter 1, God said, Go to Nineveh and preach against it, because its sins come up before me. 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:47.440 Now, in chapter 3, God says, Jonah, go to Nineveh. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:50.320 And the text goes out of its way to make them parallel. 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:53.039 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:55.120 We're going to try this again, Jonah. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:58.799 And Jonah goes, verse 4, he gets there. 00:10:58.879 --> 00:10:59.600 It's a big city. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:03.759 It takes three days to walk through the whole city, proclaiming his message. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:05.519 And his message is what? 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:08.960 Forty days and Nineveh's toast. 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:12.159 Forty days, and you're going to get conquered and overthrown. 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:18.480 This is the message of judgment in chapter 1 that God wanted Jonah to go give. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:21.039 But then look how the Ninevites respond. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:22.559 Look in verse 5. 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:34.720 To a person, from least to greatest, they put on sackcloth, which is a really itchy, uncomfortable type of clothing to wear. 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:36.000 They fast. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:38.399 These are the things you do when you're in mourning. 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:42.080 When you're regretting and wishing somebody hadn't died. 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.120 They are mourning their own sin. 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:49.360 They are recognizing how bad, how right Jonah is. 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:57.440 When it gets to the king, he himself does the same thing and then gets down off his throne and sits in the dust. 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:00.480 This is repentance. 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:01.840 And here's the point. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:08.960 What they are doing is exactly what God wants to happen when he gives a prophecy of judgment. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:12.960 They are responding and saying, God, you're right. 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:16.159 So God is calling them out for their sin. 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:19.600 He's not dismissing it, he's not ignoring it. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:22.240 He's not acting like it's not that bad. 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:28.000 God is a God who calls wrong wrong, and by the way, you want that kind of a God. 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:34.960 And in response to him calling the wrong wrong, they repent. 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:36.480 They say, God, you're right. 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:37.759 We are sinning. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:39.279 We are sinful. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.000 We do deserve punishment. 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:48.480 Now, if you are here either as not a Christian or not terribly associated with Christianity, you may have this reaction going on. 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:49.840 There you go again. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:51.679 Sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:53.360 It's all I hear out of the talking preachers. 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:54.720 It's all I hear on the radio. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:58.879 It's all I can't you Christians just get over the sin thing? 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:03.519 I mean, would you consider looking on the positive side for once in life? 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:06.480 But here's the thing. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:12.159 To look at the negative, if it's true, isn't a problem. 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:13.519 It's called realism. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:20.559 And there's no moody more realistic than the authentic Christian who says, you know what, God, you're right. 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:23.200 I am not what I'm supposed to be. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:26.960 There's all sorts of stuff I should do that I don't do. 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:29.600 There's all sorts of stuff I do that I shouldn't do. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.279 You know, for some of us it's really bald and right on the surface in behavior. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:37.279 For others of us, it's really subtle and worked in the way we manipulate people. 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:40.639 For some of us, it's in our head, it's mental. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:41.840 For others of it, it's action. 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:45.759 But when it really comes down to it, yeah, I'm a mess. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:51.200 And sin, the Bible teaches us, deserves death. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:56.639 What's going to happen to Nineveh if 40 days from now it gets conquered by another army? 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:58.159 They're going to die. 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:01.440 And sin always brings death. 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:05.200 Sometimes in this life, always in the life to come. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:11.519 The Ninevites respond by saying, God, you're right. 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:13.039 Forgive me. 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:15.600 The question is, will you? 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:24.960 Because the Bible says you should never decouple this message of possible judgment from the grace that's there in the gospel. 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:26.960 God doesn't yell about our sin. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:33.120 He doesn't call out about what would happen, except because he wants us to do exactly what the king of Nineveh and all the people did. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:35.679 Come back and say, I'm sorry, Lord, I repent. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:36.639 You're right. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:37.600 Save me. 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:39.759 Because this is the truth of this passage. 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:43.360 God loves to forgive sinners. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:47.039 But then that gets to the problem. 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:48.320 This is point two. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:50.399 We're not so sure we do. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:56.159 We made the point last week, and it still holds true that Jonah is parallel to us. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:02.320 When we're studying about Jonah, we can track all of our own same emotions as we try to forgive people through it. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.639 And that's still true in chapter three. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:11.519 Jonah is deeply upset that God is this way. 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.559 Now recognize he's got his theology completely correct. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:19.679 Last week we looked at chapter 1 and he said, Who is God? 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:25.440 God's the one who made heaven and earth, the sun, the sky, the sea, everything in them. 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:27.120 Good Orthodox theology. 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.919 Look what he says today, chapter 4, verse 2. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:41.279 He says, I knew that you're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sin and calamity. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:43.759 That is good Orthodox theology. 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:47.519 In fact, it was one of the basic confessions of Judaism at Jonah's day. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:50.159 That was almost like their apostles' creed. 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:52.639 Jonah knows the right stuff about God. 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:55.519 He even says the right stuff about God. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:01.519 But what happens in chapter 3, verse 10 when he actually has to live it? 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:09.279 When he actually sees God forgive people like that who've done that to him. 00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:15.200 Well, then suddenly, this is a lot harder than you think. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:19.519 You know, starting in chapter, well, let me read 3.10. 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:34.399 In response to the message, and then their repentance, when God saw what they did and how they turned away from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he'd threatened. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:40.799 So, chapter 4, verse 1, Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:43.519 What's going on here? 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:46.000 Well, look at the context, even of two. 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:53.759 That Orthodox confession of Judaism is surrounded by Jonah beginning what can only be described as an adult temper tantrum. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:59.600 He prayed to the Lord, O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:03.519 This is why I disobeyed you, because I knew that you loved people. 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:06.079 I don't want that. 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:11.200 Verse 3, what does he do? 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:19.359 He says, God, I would rather be dead than have these people receive mercy. 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:22.000 By the way, this is the second time Jonah tried that trick. 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:24.640 Chapter 1, he said, throw me in the ocean and kill me. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:27.680 I'd rather have that happen than actually go to Nineveh and give them mercy. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:30.880 Now he says, okay, if the ocean didn't work, well you just kill me yourself. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:35.839 I would rather die than see those sinners not get judged the way I think they should. 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:43.359 God says, Jonah, do you really have a right to be angry about this? 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:46.079 And Jonah doesn't even answer God. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:53.759 He just turns around, stomps up to a ridge that overlooks the city, and plunks down and sits there to watch and listen and see if maybe God will judge him anyway. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:56.960 And it's almost like the ultimate disrespect, right? 00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:00.240 You're arguing with your kid or your spouse, and they don't even answer you. 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:01.599 They just turn around and walk off. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:02.799 How do you react? 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:05.440 This is what Jonah's doing to God. 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:15.920 And it's interesting, yet again, the pagans show a lot more spiritual sensitivity in this text than Jonah. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:20.720 In chapter one, the sailors were the ones who actually prayed to the Lord, not the prophet of God. 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:27.279 Now, in chapters three and four, the pagans, the ones who don't even really know Yahweh, repent. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:29.759 But Jonah won't even talk to God. 00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:32.160 He just storms off in a hissy fit. 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:34.799 What's going on here? 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:40.480 You know, we can laugh at him until we look in the mirror. 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:45.759 Chapter 2, in the belly of the fish, Jonah repented. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:47.839 He said, Okay, Lord, I get it. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:51.359 I'm going to do it your way, and I'm going to go and I'm going to give mercy. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:54.079 But then he had to go do it. 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:58.240 And it's roughly 500 miles from Israel to Nineveh. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:02.000 Even if you've got a horse or a donkey, that's a long trip. 00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:08.240 And he has 500 miles to re-remember all the awful things the Ninevites have done. 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:13.519 To drag back up the memories, to get bitter again. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:17.039 To nurse the wound. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:22.480 And by the time he gets there, he's willing to say the words, but he's no longer willing to say them with God's heart. 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:25.519 He's happy to say 40 days and you're dead. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:29.200 But he doesn't say it for God's reason. 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:30.799 In fact, he's very clear. 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:32.960 God, I want you to smite them. 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:34.960 The prophet wants blood. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:38.079 What's going on? 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:41.119 Forgiveness doesn't hold very easy. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:44.079 Forgiveness doesn't stick. 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:50.799 It's a lot easier to nurse a grudge and bitterness than it is to nurse grace and forgiveness. 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.000 And this is us, right? 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:58.720 So here's the best analogy for forgiveness I can give you in my life. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:02.880 For six months, there was a pothole at the entrance to our subdivision. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:09.680 And for six straight months, I hit that pothole every single day. 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:13.200 It didn't matter that I knew it was there. 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:15.200 It didn't matter that I was getting ready for it. 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.319 I would get in the car and I'd think, okay, remember the pothole's there. 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:20.799 And then I'd start driving. 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:23.920 It's only a half mile from house to entrance. 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:27.440 By the time I got to the half mile, I'm going along, I'm thinking about work, whatever. 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:32.319 Did it again. 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:33.519 Right? 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:43.920 No matter how much we purpose to forgive, when you get right back into life, suddenly the bitterness just hits you again. 00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:49.440 Because when it really comes down to it, forgiveness isn't a once-and-done thing. 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:55.599 It's a long, slow, painful process every step of the way. 00:20:57.519 --> 00:20:58.880 This is us with forgiveness. 00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:01.920 There's just something in us that just doesn't like to. 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:05.279 That just doesn't want to. 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:13.680 And here's the great thing God knows how hard this is to forgive him, her, them. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.680 Because remember, he gave his son to do it. 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:24.559 And so, and this is point three, God gives us reminders to help us in our forgiveness. 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:30.400 Look back at our prophet sitting up on that ridge, looking over Nineveh, praying that it's going to get destroyed. 00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:34.079 By the way, he's not very smart. 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:43.200 He just stomped off into a high ridge in the ancient Near Eastern sun with absolutely no shelter to sit there in a desert with no water. 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:46.480 What do you think is going to happen to him if he doesn't come down from there? 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:48.480 He's going to die. 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:49.839 Right? 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:54.240 So this is the second time God's going to save silly Jonah's life. 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:57.440 Last time he saved him from water, now he's going to save him from the sun. 00:21:58.480 --> 00:22:06.000 And sitting up there, God is not content just to save this prophet's life. 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:08.319 He is determined to save his soul. 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:10.640 So he creates a little object lesson. 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:13.920 Jonah's having his pity party saying, God, won't you waste them? 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:16.720 It's getting hot. 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:19.279 A shelter of sticks or rocks doesn't do a whole lot. 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:20.640 It becomes an oven. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:25.119 So God provides a green plant that grows up, shades him. 00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:28.079 This is probably the difference between life and death. 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:31.599 And in verse 6, Jonah loves that plant. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:34.480 I love my plant. 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:37.279 And this is the severe part of the mercy. 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:38.960 The next day, what does God do? 00:22:39.279 --> 00:22:47.279 He sends a worm to kill the plant, sends a scorching wind to blow in out of the desert, and has the sun beating down on Jonah's head. 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:50.640 And Jonah's starting to faint and starting to go out. 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:55.279 And what does Jonah say? 00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:58.480 He repeats the same death wish. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:01.680 You can't miss the parallel because the text won't let you. 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:05.119 I wish I were dead because you took away this plant. 00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:09.599 Just like he wished he was dead because you took away the judgment on the Ninevites. 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:17.359 Jonah is reacting exactly the same way to the death of this plant as he was to the non-death of hundreds of thousands of people. 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:21.119 And at which point God springs the trap and says, Jonah, hold on. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:26.799 You had a one-night stand with this plant, and you're telling me you love it more than I should love a city? 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:30.240 Men, women, children, even animals? 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:32.720 What is the plant? 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:34.079 The plant is an object lesson. 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:37.920 It's an attempt by God to break through the prophet's calloused heart. 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:40.880 Because Jonah's just angry. 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:44.160 Angry at everybody else. 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:47.839 Here's the point. 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:49.519 Well, let me get it this way. 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:52.799 Tim Keller used this as an example, and it fits really well here. 00:23:53.039 --> 00:24:00.079 When somebody sins against one of us, if I sin against you, if you sin against me, a debt is created. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:04.000 And that debt is, in a sense, objectively there. 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:08.000 And there are really only two options to deal with that debt. 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:12.720 Option number one is you can make the person you sinned against you pay down the debt. 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:15.599 And we're endlessly creative about doing this. 00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:18.400 You can make them come back and grovel to you. 00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:20.960 You can eviscerate them in public. 00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:24.720 You can eviscerate them person by person as you work through your friends. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:27.039 Here's my favorite. 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:33.279 You can get really cold and withdrawn, and then when somebody asks you what's wrong, you say, oh nothing, and you lie. 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:38.559 Poor Jill has put up with this more times than I can count, and usually not even because she sinned, usually because I did. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:39.839 I'm sorry, Ann. 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:45.440 You can find a way to make the other person pay down the debt. 00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:52.799 Or, option two, you can do the much more difficult thing, which is to forgive. 00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:57.680 But if you forgive, don't think for a minute that the debt magically vanishes. 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:04.319 In a very real sense, when we set out to forgive, we set out to pay down the debt ourselves. 00:25:05.440 --> 00:25:14.000 And we really pay it out even out of our own flesh, as time and time again, when the bitterness rises back up, we say, no, I am going to tear that out of myself. 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:18.319 Because the debt is just objectively there. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:23.599 And this is what God has done for you and for me in Jesus Christ. 00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:26.079 He paid down the debt himself. 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:27.839 He didn't ignore the sin. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:29.839 He didn't just pretend it's not there. 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.519 He made it go away by paying it out of his own flesh. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:36.319 And this is the great news. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:40.640 You sit in a better spot than the king of Nineveh. 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:43.119 Nineveh had to say, who knows? 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:44.480 We don't really know this God. 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:45.519 Maybe he'll forgive. 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:47.200 Let's take a shot at it. 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:53.440 In Jesus Christ, you know what happens when you come back to God and say, You're right, God. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:58.000 There are levels of sin in me that I haven't even bothered to plumb. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:00.640 You know me. 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:02.319 You know me better than I know me. 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:10.400 The gospel says that in Jesus Christ, God paid down the debt himself for you and for me. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:14.079 Psalm 103, verse 12. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:20.880 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:26.079 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:28.240 Second Corinthians 5 21. 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:36.480 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 00:26:37.359 --> 00:26:39.519 And this is the difference, by the way. 00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:46.000 When we forgive, it's incomplete and repeated because we're frail. 00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:48.000 And we don't really do it that well. 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:51.920 And so we have to come back and fight it again and again and again and again. 00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:55.279 When God forgives, it is once and for all. 00:26:55.839 --> 00:26:57.039 Because he's God. 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:01.119 And he pays the sin himself and he wipes it clean. 00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:04.480 And he looks at you and he says, That's my boy. 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:06.240 That's my girl. 00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:07.680 I love him. 00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:14.480 We can have more hope than the Ninevehites did because of Jesus. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:16.559 We don't have to say who knows. 00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:19.200 One final thought. 00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:20.319 This is interesting, isn't it? 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:23.200 The book doesn't tell us what Jonah did. 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:25.279 I mean, don't you want to know? 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:27.359 Did he come down? 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:28.960 Did he repent? 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:31.279 Did he stay up there and die? 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:35.279 Did he go down and still but just walk off somewhere? 00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:35.920 We don't know. 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:36.720 Why? 00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:39.119 Because maybe that's not the point. 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:45.519 Throughout this book, this prophet has been out of sync with the Lord who he serves. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:48.160 He's been angry, seething. 00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:56.720 Angry at the Ninevites, angry at them getting mercy, angry at losing the vine, angry at God. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:01.440 Angry anytime people don't get what they deserve. 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:06.319 In a way that's scary, reminiscent of the way a lot of Christians relate to our society. 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:12.079 And you know, we've been tracking all the way through the book and saying, wow, we are Jonah. 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:13.359 Jonah is us. 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:17.599 At least we need to ask, are we still? 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:20.240 Does the shoe still fit at the end of the book? 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:29.440 And somehow, in the midst of Jonah's anger at everybody else's sin, he has just managed to miss his own sin. 00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:36.799 To miss his own self-righteousness, his own arrogance, his own hatred. 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:40.799 Dressed up in religious language, sure. 00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:48.559 And isn't it remarkable how patient and loving and kind God is with this petulant prophet? 00:28:50.079 --> 00:28:52.480 That ought to give us some great hope. 00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:58.799 Because God does know this is hard, and he knows we're human, and he knows we're frail, and he knows how hard it is to forgive. 00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:01.279 So he gives us these reminders. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:04.720 For Jonah, it was the object lesson of a plant. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:11.440 One of them, there are many, but one of them is what we're going to come to do in just a moment to share communion. 00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:15.759 The reminder of the grace that God has given us in Christ. 00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:21.039 Because ultimately that's not the question. 00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:23.519 The book's not asking, did Jonah repent? 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:26.079 The book's asking, will we? 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:29.839 So with that in mind, let's pray. 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.279 God, our Father, we pray that we would learn something from this petulant prophet. 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:49.039 That we would have your heart to each person that we deal with each day. 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:56.880 That we would rejoice in grace given and the grace we have received in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:03.200 That you would push that so into our hearts that it actually does flow out of how we forgive other people. 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:05.599 Would you do that for us, Lord? 00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:07.680 We pray it in Jesus' wonderful name. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:08.640 Amen.