Tag: jonah

Sermon Idea: God’s resending of Jonah and relenting of his judgment on Nineveh reveals his mercy. 

Introduction: We have said that this little book wrestles with two important themes concerning the character of God: God’s mercy and God’s justice. These two are not at odds. God is merciful, and God is just.  

This morning, these two themes will intersect again as God’s mercy reaches those far from God through the message of judgment. That message gets to Ninevah because God continues to be merciful to Jonah. This time Jonah is going to obey the Lord with his feet and lips, but his heart is still against God’s plan for Ninevah.

How quickly we can forget the amazing grace and mercy of God to us. This morning, we are going to read about God’s mercy reaching those deserving of judgment. It will come upon those who are living as enemies of God. 

This is something we have in common with Ninevah—the mercy of God came to us while we were still sinners.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… (Romans 5:6-8)

This morning, we are going to learn of God’s mercy to his messenger of judgment, his mercy in his message of judgment, and God’s mercy in his relenting of judgment. 

As we do so, let us not think only of God’s mercy then, but God’s mercy to us now—the mercy that has found us in Jesus Christ. 

I.) God’s mercy to the messenger of judgment (Jonah 3:1-3)

Jonah has already been the recipient of God’s mercy in the first two chapters. As he was experiencing the storm of God’s judgment, he was thrown into the sea, but God responded to Jonah’s prayer. He is swallowed up by a great fish, a fish of salvation, who delivers Jonah from the sea and vomits him upon dry land. This leads to even more mercy. 

God does not bench Jonah and call someone else. No, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time. 

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” (Jon 3:1–2)

You can hear how similar this is to the beginning of the book. 

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. (Jon 1:1–2)

The story has started over in a sense. Jonah gets to begin again with an opportunity to obey God and be faithful to his commission. God, in his kindness, is not only concerned with the accomplishment of his will in the world, but also the accomplishment of his will in his servants. That was true for Jonah, and it is true of you, Christian. 

It was true for Peter, the one Jesus called Simon, son of Jonah, in Matthew 16:17, who attempted to prevent Jesus from going to the cross and who denied him three times, that Jesus restores and recommissions him to feed his sheep. We’ve been studying Acts. How did Jesus do with restoring and using Peter after his failures? 

The Bible speaks of God’s faithfulness to complete what he has started in his people, and you need to believe Scripture on this point. 

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Php 1:5–6)

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Th 5:23–24)

Perhaps this is the message you need to hear this morning. Maybe there is failure to obey God in your past, or perhaps you’re repenting of failure to obey God in the present. The message that you need is not, “don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s ok, really.” 

The message that you need is that your sin is great, but God’s mercy is greater. He is a God who does not abandon his people. God is not done with you, repentant saint! God can finish what he started in your reluctant repenter. He can and will use you in some capacity in his kingdom and for his glory. 

Don’t read past it too fast. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. As you gather week in and week out on the Lord’s Day, the word of the Lord comes to you again and again. That is mercy. That is grace. 

God’s mercy leads to Jonah’s obedience. Now let’s look at what happens when Ninevah hears the message.  

II.) God’s mercy in the message of judgment (Jonah 3:4-9)

I want to first point out something significant about verse 3, if you’ll read it with me.  

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. (Jon 3:3)

We can easily understand that the city is large, and it would have taken Jonah several days to travel there. That is easy enough, but there is more to this. 

Nineveh is not only a great city in size, but also before the LORD. That phrase “exceedingly great” is interesting becasue the word translated as “exceedingly” is the common Hebrew word for “god”. There is probably a footnote in your Bible on the bottom of the page that reads something like, “Hebrew, a great city to God.”

That is exactly how the Greek translation of the Old Testament renders this verse. 

3 And Jonah rose up and went to Nineveh, just as the Lord had spoken. Now Nineveh was a large city before God, a journey of about three days. (Jon 3:3)

Why am I bringing this up? Nineveh is a city under the sovereign reign of God. He has a purpose and a plan. Nineveh will be used to accomplish God’s will. Jonah is God’s messenger, and he is entering a city under God’s sovereign control.  

What is the message Jonah is to deliver? Look at verse 4. 

 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”(Jon 3:3–4)

This may very well be a summary of Jonah’s message, but his core message is given here. The message God gives to Jonah is a warning of judgment becasue of their evil ways. 

I think there is something to learn about the simplicity of Jonah’s message. God’s wrath is on Ninevah and will remain unless they repent. It is a hard message, but a loving one. If they don’t hear the warning about God’s judgment, they would have never been led to cease their evil ways. 

It may be tempting for us to downplay, silence, and dismiss the truth of God’s justice and his wrath against sin, but that would not be loving. 

In 2013, the United Methodist Church made headlines for removing the song, In Christ Alone from their songbooks because of the line, “Till on that cross where Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.” 

Of course, that was long before they made their most recent move. Compromising on biblical sexuality and ordaining ministers who are openly LGBTQ+. Those two things are most certainly connected. 

The idea that God is just and wrathful toward sin may be unpopular, but it is quite biblical. The message Jonah preaches to Nineveh is that the God who made heaven and earth must judge their sin if they do not repent. 

Why is the message merciful? Becasue it’s meant to lead to repentance. Why proclaim judgment in 40 days? So there is time to respond and repent! The message of judgment is actually a mercy to Ninevah. 

The whole gospel is the same way. It is merciful to those who hear it. Yes, we have to talk about sin, death, and judgment, but we focus on sin placed on Jesus Christ, and judged in the death of Christ. No one likes to hear they are accountable for breaking God’s law, but it’s a message of mercy meant to lead to repentance. 

Ninevah’s response is swift and decisive. 

5 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. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. (Jon 3:5–8)

What are we supposed to learn about the nature of God’s message and the nature of Ninevah’s repentance? 

God is just, so he cares about injustice 

God cares about injustice in the world, whether it is injustice by Israel or the nations. Nineveh was a place of oppression and violence. They extended their borders with oppression and violence. 

God addresses these wicked ways, and because he does, Ninevah ceases to commit acts of injustice, at least for now. 

This is consistent with how God holds Israel accountable. Listen to this from Isaiah. 

16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good;seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. (Is 1:16–17)

Part of discipleship is being conformed into the image of Christ. That includes learning to see the world the way God does in accordance with His Word. If God cares about evil injustice in society, so should we. 

Nineveh is an example of repentance

The last time we studied Jonah, I made a connection to Matthew 12, but I want to do so again. I made the point then that Jesus is the better and greater Jonah—and he is! Now I want us to see the larger context. Jesus appeals to the Jonah story to teach the Pharisees about repentance. 

41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Mt 12:41)

Jesus uses the repentance of Nineveh to rebuke the Pharisees who refuse to repent and listen to Jesus. Someone greater than Jonah is here. If Nineveh listened to the voice of Jonah, we must listen to the voice of Jesus Christ. We must listen to Jesus when he says, ” Repent and believe in the gospel ” in Mark 1:15. 

Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:14–15)

Many of you have repented and believed the gospel of grace, but there very well may be others who have come Sunday after Sunday and who have turned from their sin and trusted Christ, who have not professed faith through baptism. Hearing this message about God’s mercy and grace should be leading you to repentance. Listen to Jesus, repent, and believe the gospel. 

Nineveh has repented with a contrite heart. How will the LORD respond to their repentance?

III.) God’s mercy in his relenting of judgment (Jonah 3:10)

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. (Jon 3:10)

In God’s sovereign providence, he orchestrated the repentance of Nineveh by his grace, through his messenger Jonah. When we read that God relented or “repented” in some translations, that does not mean God was uncertain about the outcome, nor does it mean God has changed. 

It is a language that people like you and me can understand. God’s mercy was conditional upon repentance, so the word “relent” simply indicates that He will show mercy to Nineveh. 

The same can be true of you. The Bible tells us that those who do not receive Jesus have the wrath of God remaining on them.

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (Jn 3:36)

Like Nineveh repented and God relented, so if you repent, God will remove his wrath from over your soul and count you righteous in Jesus Christ. God can be just and merciful to you, becasue of the finished work of Jesus Christ. 

For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Ro 3:22–26)

Sermon Idea: Jonah’s salvation from the sea reveals both God’s judgment and mercy. 

Introduction: How many times have you been engrossed in a television show or movie, only for the credits to roll, and you’re left with a certain level of tension as to how the story will end? A good cliffhanger keeps the audience coming back. The viewer is left with enough unresolved tension or uncertainty that they can’t help but watch again in search of resolution.

If Jonah were a running television series, the credits would have rolled the moment Jonah hit the water after being thrown overboard. What will come of Jonah? Will he die in the sea under the judgment of God, rejecting his commission to Ninevah? Does this mean a prophet will not take the Word to Ninevah? Is their fate now doomed, void of God’s message through God’s messenger? 

When we last left Jonah, he had run from the Lord’s presence after God commissioned him to go and cry out against the evil city, Nineveh. In fact, he runs in the opposite direction and sets sail with some Gentile sailors. While he is sleeping in the boat, God sends a violent windstorm upon the sea, and the sailors become curious about Jonah. They soon learn he is on the run, and their predicament is a judgment from the Lord. They tried with all their might to row to land, but, desperate, they did the unthinkable. They granted Jonah’s wish to be thrown overboard. The storm ceased, and Jonah began to drown. 

There are two related themes in Jonah that are essential to the book’s meaning. The first is the judgment of God, and the second is the mercy of God. The storm was a judgment on Jonah, a discipline for his sin, and yet that judgment was an act of mercy, because as we will see, Jonah is going to be saved by the mercy of God in the midst of the sea of judgment. First the judgment, then the mercy. Look with me at verse 17 of chapter one. 

I.) Jonah experiences God’s judgment 

The text moves seamlessly from Jonah’s drowning to his being swallowed by a great fish. It did not take long to read of Jonah’s deliverance after learning of his distress. 

17  And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jon 1:17)

We are told this because we are meant to reflect on the harmony of God’s justice and mercy. God brings salvation to Jonah through judgment. In the gospel, salvation comes to us through judgment on the cross of Christ. Wallowing in the sea is God’s judgment; the great fish is his salvation. 

Jonah 1:17 reads, “…the LORD appointed a great fish.” The word translated ‘appointed’in the ESV (provided in the NIV and NKJV) teaches us two things. The first is that God is sovereign over all of creation. In fact, our entire passage is bookended with God’s sovereign control. In 1:17, God appoints the fish; in 2:10, the fish obeys the Word of God: “The LORD spoke to the fish…”

Not only does it teach us about God’s sovereign control, but it also teaches us about God’s intention. The word translated as “appoint” occurs 4 times in Jonah, and each time it appears in a context where God is teaching Jonah a lesson. God appoints a great fish, a leaf plant, a worm, and an east wind to teach Jonah a particular lesson. God has been precise with his salvation of Jonah. He doesn’t merely bring him to shore, but he appoints a fish to both save Jonah and instruct him. 

God will accomplish his purposes in us. We may remain under the delusion that we can hide or outrun for a time, but in our lives will be people and circumstances appointed by God to conform us to his will and purpose. When this happens, don’t be too quick to despair, because what feels like the judgment of discipline may be leading to God’s merciful work in you. 

Now let’s turn our attention to Jonah’s prayer. It is a prayer of thanksgiving. 

God heard Jonah’s cry for help while he was drowning in the sea. That is what we read in verse 2, “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress…” So the prayer we are reading this morning seems to be the second prayer of Jonah; the first is not recorded. 

What was Jonah’s distress? His prayer makes clear that Jonah was experiencing God’s judgment, which is described as dying. 

How do we know it was God’s judgment? Let’s look at verse 3. Although it was the mariners who threw him overboard, Jonah says God did it, “For you cast me into the deep.” While describing his drowning, Jonah says to God, “all your waves and your billows passed over me.”

Last week, I mentioned that Jonah makes several descents in chapter one. He goes down to Jappa and down into the ship. Now Jonah is descending into the sea, and the descent is described with the language of burial. 

In verse 4, Jonah reflects that he was being “driven away from your sight…”

In verse 5, Jonah says, “The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounds me.” Then Jonah begins to describe his descent with the language of burial. 

In verse 6, Jonah finishes his descent as he hits the bottom, “I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever…” The original readers of Jonah would recognize these mountains and think of the gateway to the grave.”

Jonah thought that it would be better to experience God’s judgement that to obey God’s command, so Jonah flees the presence of the LORD. But when it comes, Jonah realizes God’s judgment is not preferable to anything. 

Perhaps you’re here this morning, and you’re trapped in the lie that disobeying God is somehow good for you. Jonah teaches us that disobeying God is never good for us. Being away from the presence of the LORD is never good for us. The New Testament is clear that sin brings death.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ro 6:23)

15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.  (Jas 1:15)

When we consider the story of Jonah and the New Testament teaching about sin, we should be ready to cast off sin. There is no temptation you’re experiencing, no sins you’re covering that are worth separation from God. The good news is none of us has to experience the descent into death for our sin like Jonah. For there is one who has descended to death for us. The good news of the gospel is that God has punished our sins on the cross of Jesus Christ. He descended into death for us. 

Run to Christ, who is the greater and better Jonah. In Matthew 12:40, we read, 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Mt 12:40)

Repentance will be made possible, and mercy will be available for Ninevah because of the death, burial, and resurrection of an Israelite prophet named Jonah. Repentance is possible and mercy available to you this morning because of the death,  burial, and resurrection of the greater Jonah, Jesus Christ. 

This connection between Jonah and Jesus, the typology, is not limited to the belly of the great fish. Jonah does not stay in the belly of the great fish just as Jesus did not stay in the belly of the earth. 

II.) Jonah experiences God’s mercy

During his prayer of thanksgiving, Jonah makes it clear that during his descent, he was persistent in his cry for help. In verse 4, Jonah says, “…yet I shall look upon your holy temple.” In verse 7, we read, “…and may prayer come to you, into your holy mountain.”

We saw earlier that God’s judgment was communicated with the language ot death and burial. In Jonah’s prayer, God’s mercy is communicated with the language of resurrection.

In verse 6, we read, “yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.”

In verse 10, God speaks to the fish, “and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land.” He was once in the belly of Sheol—the place of the dead. Now he has been resurrected to life on the land. 

Jonah is about much more than a fish. It is about the mercy of God going to the nations through the death, burial, and resurrection of an Israelite prophet. 

Vomiting and resurrection seem at odds. The former is bad, the latter is good. God’s appointment of the fish means God is teaching Jonah a lesson. What lesson is that? 

God is stripping Jonah of his pride. You seek Jonah’s prayer of thanksgiving suggests that God’s mercy has come to him because of his piety and prayer. 

Notice that when Jonah prays in verse7, When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD.  Not the LORD remembered me, but I remembered the LORD. 

In verses 8-9, Jonah compares himself with the Gentile mariners on the boat in chapter one. 

      8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD! (Jon 2:8–9)

Although Jonah rightly says, Salvation belongs to the LORD! He believes to have received God’s mercy not as an undeserved sinner, but as a pious Hebrew who called out to God. 

Jonah is taking slow steps in the right direction, but he was not fully and rightly responsive to God’s mercy with a contrite heart and repentance. Jonah 3-4 will make this abundantly clear. 

Jonah has been saved by God’s mercy, but he is not responding rightly to it. His pride is still at play. How different is Jonah’s prayer from that of David? 

16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Ps 51:16–17)

The Lord loves Jonah and the Ninevites, so he must sanctify Jonah. The LORD is working on Jonah to bring him into conformity to his will and will teach him that salvation really does belong to the Lord.

Application

1. Rightly understand God’s mercy: Salvation belongs to the LORD. 
2. Rightly respond to God’s mercy.
3. Reflect on the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we receive God’s mercy, his justice must be satisfied. How?