John 17:1-10 "The Glory of God"

Click here for audio

                For the remainder of this Lenten season, we will be looking at what is commonly known as the High Priestly Prayer.  It’s found in John 17 and is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus.  It comes immediately on the heels of Jesus’ time of sharing the Passover Meal with his disciples in the Upper Room (known as the Last Supper) and his final words of instruction for his disciples that we looked at a little bit last Sunday.  We said that Jesus spent a good bit of time teaching his disciples and preparing them for life without him.  At the conclusion of that teaching, we see Jesus immediately turn his attention to God.  “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said…”  There’s no passage of time.  There’s no changing of locations.  There is this immediate prayer that comes at the end of Jesus’ teaching, seemingly akin to our pastoral prayer that we offer up after a sermon.  John Stott so eloquently states of Jesus’ immediate prayer that “he now waters the seeds of prayer which he has been sowing.”  And you know, this is sort of an odd thing to find in the gospel accounts.  Every other time that Jesus finished teaching or preaching or healing or some other work, he retreated into solitude for a time of intimate prayer with His Father.  However, here in John 17, we’re given a glimpse into the type of prayer life that Jesus had with the Father.  It’s often said that the faith of a man can many times be evaluated more by his prayer life than anything else.  It’s not necessarily what we say, but the emotions and the convictions and the faithfulness with which we say it.  Here in John 17, we see the real desire that Jesus has for himself, for the Father, and for all those who follow him.

                Now, before we really dive into the words of the prayer itself, I want to ask you a question and I want you to keep it at the forefront of your mind as we look at our text for today.  I want you to just sort of really quickly think about why you’re here.  Now, I don’t mean this physical place, although that is a good thing to ponder as well.  What I’m talking about is this:  why did God create you and make you the way that you are with all of your gifts and abilities and everything that makes you, you?  In other words, what is your reason for being?  Maybe your answer has something to do with work or family or helping others.  Well, just remember that and we’ll pull it back out later on this morning.

                Looking quickly at Jesus’ prayer, we notice two words or concepts that really seem to stick out in the first 10 verses.  The first is that we see Jesus refer to God almost exclusively as Father.  Our Women’s Bible Study group walked through a book on prayer a while back and the author of the book pointed out the beauty of being able to call out to God and refer to Him as Father, a title of intimacy.  I know as a father myself that there are no more precious words that anyone can say to me other than one of my kids calling me Dad or Daddy or some other variation of that title.  However, the author of this book that we looked at also pointed out the fact that some people haven’t had the best earthly fathers in their lives, so they struggle with relating to the notion of a loving father.  While that may be true, it’s important to know that God the Father isn’t like any earthly father that has ever been or ever will be.  God the Father is eternally good.  There is no sin within Him and there is nothing in Him that is not completely holy.  The title Father is not meant to be a deterrent in our relationship with God, but a blessing.  It is a special thing to call someone father.  I tell my kids all the time that they are the only three people in the world who can call me Dad.  Anybody can call me by my name, but only they can call me their father.  Jesus referring to God as Father shows the intimacy that exists between the Son and the Father.  It speaks to the special relationship that exists between Father and Son.  Prior to this, the concept of referring to God as Father would have been pretty foreign.  Don’t get me wrong, the fatherhood of God as it pertained to His people was well known, but praying to God and using the title Father was virtually unheard of.  It was a much more formal relationship that existed between God and His people.  Yes, He was in a relationship with them and yes there was a love that existed there.  However, it was not a relationship of intimacy like we see here between Jesus and the Father.  If you’ve ever heard anyone refer to their parents by their first names (at least in childhood), there usually isn’t much intimacy in the relationship.  Now that’s not always the case, but I feel more intimate with my kids when they call me Dad than if they were to call me Tommy.

                The second thing that we see repeated throughout this text is the concept of glory, in particular, the glory of God the Father.  In the first five verses alone there are numerous uses of the word itself.  “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you…I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”  Jesus was acknowledging the fact, during this intimate time of prayer, that all that he did during his life on earth was not for his own glory, but for the glory of God.  Now, ultimately, Jesus is glorified through his work because he is God.  We’ll come back to that thought in a moment.  However, when you or I do some good work, it is not ourselves that ought to be the recipients of any glory, but God.  R.C. Sproul, in his commentary on this passage, says that when we seek glory, we do so at the expense of God.  As I read that comment this week, I stopped and pondered on it for a while because I didn’t really know how to take that.  I was having trouble understanding how anything that I do to bring about glory or praise upon myself could inherently be an affront to God.  I mean, I can understand if I was going around and seeking for people to tell me how great and wonderful I am, then that could be a bad thing, but not something that I would consider an offense against God.  Then, I sort of started off on this whole rabbit-trail of studying the word glory, and what I found was that the word glory is kind of hard to really define.  I won’t take the time to play back everything that I found for you, but I’ll give the cliff notes version.  Glory is typically understood as meaning something along the lines of honor, renown, an especially divine quality, the unspoken manifestation of God, or splendor.  It has to do with a weightiness or heaviness.  Ultimately, it has to do with the majesty and beauty of God.  As I said, it’s really kind of one of those things that we know what it means, but we can’t really put it into words.  We just know that it is something of God and it’s something good (which is redundant).

                Then, as I was muddling through these linguistic waters my lifelong Presbyterianism kicked in and I remembered the Westminster Confession of Faith.  All of you in here who are familiar with WCF (which is hopefully everyone) can probably already guess where I’m going with this.  The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks “what is man’s chief end (or primary purpose)?”  The answer is “to glorify God and enjoy him always.”  You see, I’m not here, we’re not here, to do anything but glorify God, which allows us to enjoy Him.  We’re not here to glorify ourselves.  The glory of God and the glory of man are opposing forces.  When we do things that bring about glory for ourselves, we are taking glory away from the Father.  It’s become cliché in our world for athletes, actors, or anyone who wins a contest to thank God and give Him the glory (saying, “I just give all the glory to God”), but in reality, that is exactly what we’re supposed to do.  We’re supposed to deflect from ourselves and say that it’s not because of us but because of the glory of God, Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone). 

                So, when Jesus petitions in verse 5 for God to glorify him, is that a violation of this principle of glory to God alone.  Well, if you were paying attention a moment ago, you heard me say that when Jesus is glorified, so is God because Jesus is God.  Jesus is praying for the glory, for the relationship that he had with the Father “before the world existed.”  Now, y’all know that Amy and I deeply love our children.  However, we do on occasion look at each other and ask each other, do you remember what it was like before kids?  Don’t you just wish we could go back there?  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to come home on a Friday and decide at the last minute to take a trip and be able to do it?  Wouldn’t it be nice to go out of town and not require an SUV and a suitcase containing only snacks and stuffed animals for sleeping?  It’s not that we don’t love our kids, but there are times when we think about how nice it would be to revisit those times.  Well, Jesus is in essence saying to the Father, don’t you remember when it was just us?  Don’t you remember the type of intimacy and relationship that we had at that point, back before humanity and the world ever was?  Wouldn’t it be great to go back there?  That doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t love us, the same way as it doesn’t mean that I don’t love my kids.  It’s simply an acknowledgment of a reality that used to exist.

                The truth of the matter is that Jesus has been working for the glory of God by fulfilling his mission.  He has been laboring at the task that the Father gave to him.  And the details of that task are revealed to us beginning in verse six.  “I have manifested your name to the people, whom you gave to me out of the world…For I have given them the words that you gave me…they have believed that you sent me.  I am praying for them.  I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”  The work of Christ was to manifest, to make known, the name of God, particularly to those whom the Father had given to the Son.  This is the group that is referred to throughout the New Testament as the elect.  The Son has conveyed to them the words, the message that the Father has given him.  This is the same message that Christ then gives to his Church for us to proclaim this day.  Notice that Jesus isn’t saying that he’s told everyone and that everyone has benefited, but that the ones whom the Father chose have believed.

                The logical question naturally becomes, “how did Christ manifest the name of God to the people whom the Father had given to him?”  Well, he did so through teaching and preaching, as well as through miracles and healings.  If we were to look at the gospel accounts, studying all of the miracles and healings, we would find that in almost every instance there is recorded evidence of Jesus giving the glory to God.  “Don’t praise me,” Jesus says, “praise the one who sent me.”  Jesus’ miracles aren’t to show Jesus’ power, but the glory of God.  Jesus invites others to himself so that they may come to know him, and thereby come to know the Father.  His teachings aren’t about himself, but about his Father. 

                I know that we brought up Philippians 2 last Sunday in our look at John 13, but we’re going to bring it back up today.  And there’s a good chance that we’ll bring it back up every week between now and Easter; not just because it’s one of my favorite chapters in Scripture, but because it is such a beautiful summation of the work of Christ.  I’ll start reading it to you from v. 8, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  So you see, when Jesus is glorified, God is glorified.  Jesus doesn’t detract from the glory of God because he is God.  When the Son is exalted so is the Father.

                The beautiful thing is that we can participate in the glorifying of God.  Make no mistake, God will be glorified in everything, but there are some specific things that we can do to bring about glory to God.  Several times in John’s gospel, Jesus tells those around him that we glorify God by believing in him whom He has sent (Jesus) and when we are obedient to His word.  So, we have faith in Christ and we adhere ourselves to the teachings of Christ, which as we said were about the Father.  In other words, we have to know Christ.  The Father is glorified by our having faith in the Son.  The difficult part is having true faith and obedience to the Son when our hearts are so inclined in the opposite direction.  That’s what makes the Church so indispensable.  That’s what makes corporate worship so vital in our lives.  It’s funny the different ways that some people view worship.  Some view it as a part of the weekly routine.  Some call it the best way to start the week.  Others view it as the spiritual “fill-up” that their souls require.  For some, it’s a time of encouragement in their standing with God.  While it is partly some of those things, it’s not any of those things.  I guess I’m odd in that I never want to feel good about myself leaving worship.  I know that sounds strange, but it’s true.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to be encouraged leaving worship, but encouraged about the one that I worship.  I don’t want to be encouraged about myself.  In fact, I know that I have actively and truly taken part in worship when I see my sinfulness with shame.  In worship, we are to see the fullness of our brokenness and the glory of God and respond with hymns and songs of praise.  We are to respond with prayers of thanksgiving and adoration in light the revelation of our fallenness.  It’s in worship where we learn to worship the Creator instead of the created.

                Paul, in his letter to the Romans, said, “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!  ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’  ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be glory forever.  Amen. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Your worship, your lives, are to do but one thing; they are to glorify God.  That’s why you’re here.  That’s why you’re who you are.  It’s not those other things that you thought of earlier, but your purpose is to glorify God.  And that is what you are called to do with this day, the next day, and all the days that God has given to you.

John 13 "The Example of Humility"

Click here  for audio

                As we move from looking at the book of Jonah to spending the remainder of our time leading up to Easter Sunday looking at John’s gospel (particularly the High Priestly prayer in chapter 17), I want all of us to remember a few things about the book of Jonah as we continue in this Lenten season.  I don’t want us to just say, “Well, that’s over; time to close the book on Jonah.”  I was talking with someone in this church earlier this week and they expressed their frustration (good frustration) with the personal conviction that they felt during our series on the prophet.  Now, they did admit that one of the purposes of a rightly preached sermon is to convict both the audience and the preacher; so that was good.  Unfortunately, the only words of counsel I could give them was, “well, at least we’re not going to be adding any more to that series.”  However, just because we’re done with one series of sermons doesn’t mean that they are done with us and their work upon our hearts is over; that continues on for hopefully years and years.  The first thing that I want us to remember from Jonah is that God is always in control and always unfolding His eternal plan.  The second thing is that none of us is any more or less deserving of grace or salvation than anyone else.   And finally, Jonah was but a foretaste of the work of Christ.  The kind of heart and life changing impact that we see Jonah’s words have upon the people of Nineveh is nothing compared to when Christ’s words, the gospel, comes in contact with our hearts.  With those words of reminder in the forefront of our minds, let’s turn our attention to John chapter 13. (text)

                Well, there certainly is a lot there to talk about.  I thought about breaking up this chapter and dealing with some of it today and some next Sunday, but I think that there is a certain beauty that quite honestly gets lost when we disconnect or segment the contents of this chapter.  This is John’s account of Jesus and his disciples in the Upper Room.  The triumphal entry has already happened.  What takes place beginning in chapter 13 and going all the way through the end of chapter 16 are the intimate moments and final words of instruction that Jesus gives to his disciples prior to his crucifixion.  He shares the Passover meal with them and teaches them for virtually 4 chapters of John’s gospel (roughly a little less than 20% of this entire book).  He tells them a great number of truths and things about himself that we so often quote; several of what are referred to as the “I am” statements.  Things like John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  He tells them of the coming of the Holy Spirit who will help them after Jesus is gone.  The same Holy Spirit that was working in Christ was to be theirs after Jesus had departed.  He informs them that they are to expect persecution, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”  Jesus, during this time together with his disciples, was preparing them for the reality of life without him.  However, he doesn’t want them to think for one second that their faith should be in any way diminished just because he isn’t physically with them.  In fact, Jesus makes it quite clear that their faith is to be strengthened as a result of his leaving; since it is only then that they can have the power of the Holy Spirit working in them.

                But here in our text for today, chapter 13, we see a few amazing things before Jesus begins his teaching, which is immediately followed by his retreat for a time of prayer (the central part of our Lenten series) and his arrest.  Our text opens with an account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.  Have any of you ever taken part in a footwashing, either as the washee or the washer?  Well, I have, and to be honest with you, it’s kind of gross.  I was a high school student on a two-week long mission trip to the slums of Jamaica, building houses for the people in a particular community, and one night we had a footwashing.  I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but I went with it, and do you know what happened?  It was one of the most intimate moments of my life.  Not intimate because of the person, but intimate because there was a humility and an openness there that I had never really experienced.  You know that neither of you really want to be doing this, but you’re doing it anyway as a sign of respect and service to the other person.  There was something amazing about knowing that this person, who didn’t really know me, cared enough about me to wash what was probably the nastiest part of my body after spending the last 10 days working construction in the heat only to come home to showers that had only cold water.

                I think it’s funny that Peter is the first one who points out that Jesus should be getting his feet washed by the disciples and not the other way around.  After all, it is Peter who the final part of our text tells us will deny Jesus three times.  In both accounts, we find Peter’s insistence upon one thing changed to another.  First, his “You shall never wash my feet” turns into “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” upon hearing Jesus say that this washing by Jesus must happen for Peter to be with Christ.  The second emphatic statement made by Peter finds him saying, “Lord, why can I not follow you now?  I will lay down my life for you.”  This statement finds Jesus answering by telling Peter of his future triple denial of Jesus, which we read about happening in chapter 18.  Lord, you can’t wash us, we have to wash you.  Jesus, I will never leave you.  Peter, I have to wash you.  Peter, you’re going to deny me.  Jesus knows Peter even better than Peter knows himself, and the same could be said of you and me as well.

                The question, as it pertains to footwashing, often becomes; what was Jesus doing exactly in washing the disciples’ feet.  Was it a nice gesture, a sacrament that Jesus was instituting, some new practice that ought to be commonplace within the Church, what is it?  Well, the answer is right there for us.  Jesus says, “Do you understand what I have done to you?  You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.  If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example.”  Jesus was giving them an example of how they could show humility to one another.  Again, I can tell you from personal experience that there are few experiences that will teach you more humility than washing someone’s feet.  It’s not as if this is Jesus’ only teaching on humility in this text either.  Verses 31-35 tell of Jesus’ giving what he refers to as a new commandment, “that you love one another:  just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Now, I’m not saying that Jesus was wrong, but the newness of this commandment could be debated.  One could argue that a faithful keeping of the final six commandments as they are given in Exodus 20 at Mount Saini to the people of Israel would be what loving someone truly looks like.  This is virtually the same commandment that we see in other gospel accounts referred to as the second part of the Great Commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself.

                Humility is a product of love, the most loving thing that we can do for someone is to be humble with them, to serve them.  Do you want to know how I know that my father and my father-in-law love my kids?  It’s because they are willing to make complete fools of themselves all for the sake of my children being happy.  It’s as if they completely transform from who Amy and I have known them to be and turn into different people altogether.  My father-in-law in particular, will get down on the floor and sit for hours (which is not very comfortable) and play games with my kids simply because he loves to see them learn, grow, and laugh.  At work he’s a pretty successful guy who meets with government bigwigs, military generals, and state leaders.  But when he’s with my kids, he’s Pappy.  He’s the guy that will go out of his way (and often does) to serve them and give them what they need.  We show other people that we love them by serving them, by being selfless.  We don’t show them by telling them our demands and our stipulations, we show them by caring for them in whatever and by whatever means they need it.  If they need help with something that we don’t enjoy, well then hopefully we’ll learn to enjoy it as we help them.  Even if we don’t ever enjoy it, it’s what they need.  I can’t imagine that anyone ever grew to enjoy washing someone else’s feet, but more so that they grew merely tolerant of it.  However, that was one way in which Jesus taught his disciples to show humility.  So, they practiced it accordingly.  The gospel accounts in particular are filled with several accounts of people, not all of them disciples, washing someone else’s (usually Jesus) feet as a sign of humility.

                Now, in the midst of all of this talk about humility and loving one another and predicting Peter’s denial of Jesus, there is a brief mention of Judas’ betrayal.  It’s mentioned in the opening verses, in verse 18, and verses 21-30.  Harkening our minds back to the major points that I listed from Jonah (God always being in control, none of us deserving God’s grace but still receiving it, God unfolding his plan), we see those in play right here.  Even in the midst of Jesus being betrayed by one of his disciples we see the plan of God unfolding exactly as God intended it to.  We see Jesus make no efforts to stop Judas because what Judas was about to do was completely in line with God’s will.  Even though Judas’ actions are sinful and shameful, God’s glory is demonstrated through them.  All of this is part of the continued humiliation of Jesus Christ.  People often think of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus as the starting point of his humiliation.  However, what we celebrate at Christmas is the real beginning of the humiliation of Jesus.  Philippians 2 has a hymn recorded by Paul about Jesus’ humiliation.  “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  Christ humbled himself in becoming human.  He humbled himself by being born into a family of no status or wealth.  He humbled himself through his service to others, like washing their feet.  He humbled himself by his obedience to the Father.  He humbled himself by laying down his life on our behalf.  Remember, Jesus’ life wasn’t taken from him; he laid it down of his own volition. 

                Right in the middle of our text we find these words, “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”  One interesting fact here is that the word “he” at the end of verse 19 is actually added to only the various translations.  The original Greek simply reads, “that when it does take place you may believe I am.”  This no doubt causes us to unmistakably link the person of Jesus with God as He refers to Himself throughout the Old Testament.  Jesus is telling his disciples that the time has come.  One greater than Moses and Jonah and David and Abraham, that one has come.  The hour of Christ’s greatest work is at hand and that all that he is doing and will do is in service to us.  There is no greater example of the complete humility of Jesus than the cross.  As we continue during this Lenten season, which is a season in which we prepare our hearts for the celebration of Easter, let us not forget the humility of Christ.  Let us not forget that all that took place was completely in line with God’s plan.  Let us not forget that we don’t deserve any of the everlasting benefits that come from these events.  Let us not forget that Jesus Christ is Risen.

Jonah 4:5-11 "Jonah, A Foretaste of Jesus"

Click here  for audio.

                Last Sunday we focused on the person of Jonah and how he just didn’t seem to get that God was doing for Nineveh the exact same thing that he had done for Jonah already.  God withheld His immediate judgment and punishment from both of them despite their sin.  We saw Jonah talk about God’s grace, mercy, love, and patience like they were bad things.  Jonah, having delivered the message of repentance to the Ninevites, seeing them repent wholeheartedly, and seeing God withhold His punishment from them, became angry.  He was angry that God could even consider not smiting a people like Nineveh immediately, much less actually withhold punishment altogether.  When we ended last week, we saw the Lord ask Jonah the seemingly rhetorical question, “Do you do well to be angry?”  We noted that this was God making sure that Jonah didn’t miss the similarities that existed between his own being spared and Nineveh being spared.  However, it doesn’t seem to end things as much as we thought that it might have.  Jonah still seems to have not gotten the message.

                Our text for today opens with Jonah going outside of the city and finding a spot where he could see the entirety of Nineveh from above.  It’s as if Jonah convinces himself that there’s absolutely no way that God could ever really forgive those people.  He refuses to believe that God could do such a thing.  Our text says that Jonah sat under a booth, or a shaded area, that he made for himself, “till he should see what would become of the city.”  In other words, Jonah was making himself comfortable, waiting for the fireworks to begin.  Think about all of the work that you go through to get ready for a movie:  popcorn, remotes, drinks, lights, blankets, bathroom, etc.  You get everything ready so that you have the least amount of reasons to get distracted from what you’re about to watch.  Jonah was making himself as comfortable as he could because he didn’t want to miss the destruction that God was going to bring upon Nineveh, or so he thought.  It’s as if everything we talked about last Sunday was completely lost upon Jonah, like he slept through it.  Maybe some of you can relate, kidding.

                And it wasn’t as if this was the pinnacle of Jonah’s comfort.  It’s not as if God looked down at Jonah getting himself ready for the destruction of Nineveh and got angry.  Our text continues, “Now the Lord appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.  So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.”  So, God, in an effort to make Jonah even more comfortable and protect him, caused this plant (or gourd in some translations) to grow from the ground and cover Jonah.  This was a very pleasing thing to Jonah because even though he had some shade from the booth he constructed, it probably wasn’t adequate shade.  The region where all of this took place was very dry and the hot Near Eastern sun was most likely scorching.  The type of plant that is commonly suggested here by way of the original Greek and knowledge of the area is a castor oil plant, which grows quickly to a height of 15 feet.  You see, God was meeting a very real need that Jonah had at that particular time.  Regardless of what type of plant it might have been (which people have focused way too much on in the past), it cannot be lost upon us that God was not punishing Jonah for not understanding immediately what was going to take place.  Instead, He was continuing to care for Jonah as He always had.

Did you catch the phrase, “the Lord appointed” there at the beginning of verse 6?  This is the third time that we’ve seen God appoint or cause something specific in this account, and we will see a few more things appointed by God in just a moment.  God appointed the great tempest (windstorm) and the great fish earlier, and now this plant.  Never doubt for one second that God is in complete control of everything that is going on.  We’ve talked throughout this series about the sovereignty of God being on full display.  This list of God appointed events continues on in the very next verses.  “But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so 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.”  So, here’s the final God appointed events (at least the specific ones we’re told about) in the account of Jonah and Nineveh.  After God had helped Jonah to become completely comfortable with the shade from the plant, it was gone.  We don’t know immediately why God allowed Jonah to have this plant only to remove it from him so quickly, although the end of our text does tell us what God was teaching Jonah through the destruction of this plant. 

Now, it cannot be lost that throughout this small sample of five divinely appointed events, that there is a mixture of those that were for Jonah’s benefit and those that were (at least in the immediate moment) not for his benefit.  Also, it ought to go without saying that all of these events, both the positive and negative, were ultimately for the good of Jonah.  Even the “bad” things were getting Jonah to where God wanted him, so they were for his good.  That is the central message behind a popular New Testament text like Romans 8:28.  Some people like to think that God is simply a judge, punishing people for the bad things that they’ve done.  Some people like to think that God is simply a genie, rewarding people for their good behavior by granting their every wish and desire.  The truth of the matter is that God is simply God, unfolding His eternal plan.  I know that that is a bit of a copout, but there really is no other way to put it.  God is unlike anything that we can imagine.  His plans are not motivated by selfish, personal desires, but are carried out for our good.  What’s good for God is good for us.  There is absolutely no one or nothing in this world that we can without hesitation, in every situation, say that what benefits them benefits us to the uttermost as well, except for God.

                Now, I mentioned a moment ago about the ending of our text telling us why God would allow this plant to grow over Jonah, only to have it eaten and destroyed in a short timeframe.  And to see that reasoning, I want to look at the flow of the conversation that God and Jonah have at the conclusion of the book of Jonah.  “And he (Jonah) asked that he might die and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’  But God said to Jonah, ‘Do you do well to be angry for the plant?’”  Notice that there is a repetition of two things that happened already in this account.  In fact, both of these things happened in our text from last Sunday, the beginning of this final chapter.  First, Jonah says that it would be better for him to die than to live in his current situation.  When we saw Jonah say that statement before, God immediately followed it up with a question, the same question that he follows it up with again.  God asks Jonah again, “’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 not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’”  Whereas last time God asked this question almost rhetorically, this time it is anything but rhetorical.

                God makes it very plain that if Jonah felt even the slightest bit of empathy for the plant that he enjoyed for only a matter of hours, then he (and we) ought to understand why God would not want to destroy the Ninevites, whom, despite their wickedness, were still God’s creation.  If you’ve ever had something that you’ve raised or nurtured:  plants, animals, furniture, crafts, and most obviously children, then you understand the thinking here.  What means more to you, some random animal or that dog that you’ve raised since he had puppy breath?  What means more to you, the furniture that you bought, or that wobbly shelf that you made yourself?  Who means more to you, a stranger or the person that you have raised and nurtured since day one?  Now, I’m well aware that we are to care for every one of God’s creatures the same regardless of our relationship to them.  We have to realize that as far as God is concerned, we are all equal.  We are all His creation, none of us any more deserving of favor than any other.  God cares equally for us all.  The varying degrees to which we attach our affection are characteristics of fallen, finite human beings.  God’s care and compassion for each and every one of us is the same.  That’s what’s on full display throughout the book of Jonah, God’s compassion.  God showed His compassion for Jonah, as well as His compassion for Nineveh.  God showed His compassion for those who were counted among His chosen people, as well as those who were not.

                As I mentioned earlier, we talked last Sunday about God’s mercy, love, patience, and grace.  We could say that all of those attributes of God lead to God’s compassion for us.  Compassion is defined as sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.  Because God is merciful, He has compassion for us.  Because God is patient, He has compassion for us.  Because God loves us, He has compassion for us.  Because God is gracious, He has compassion for us.  Matthew’s gospel account speaks of Jesus’ compassion.  Matthew 9:36 reads, “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  The words of Matthew here are a brief summation of the early stages of Jesus ministry after the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus saw that the people were completely lost and in need, so he had compassion for them and cared for them and their needs.  In fact, it is because of God’s compassion for us that Jesus came in the first place.  It’s because of God’s compassion for us that we have this season in the life of the Church known as Lent in which we celebrate the coming of the Messiah, the life-to-perfection, the crucifixion, the atonement, and the resurrection.  It’s because of God’s compassion that the elements on the table before us represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

                You see, while the book of Jonah is a real historical account that teaches us many things about God, it is also a foreshadowing of Christ himself.  Our call to worship from Matthew’s gospel focused on that fact.  One greater than Jonah has now come and accomplished his work faithfully and obediently, completely in line with the Father’s will.  That is what we celebrate during this Lenten and Easter season.  As Jonah looked over the city of Nineveh in disgust and anger, Jesus looked over Jonah’s city of Jerusalem and wept.  However, Jesus’ reason for sadness is the exact opposite of Jonah’s.  Luke 13:34-35 records Jesus’ words, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!  Behold, your house is forsaken.  And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”  Jonah grieved that a repentant city should be spared.  Jesus grieved that an unrepentant city must be judged.  Jonah lamented the prospect of loss for his people that could be brought about by the salvation of heathen sinners.  Jesus lamented that even the surrendering of his own lifeblood would not bring salvation to Jerusalem.

                Jonah, even though he was a prophet and a devout man of God, was not above sin’s self-centeredness.  Jonah, a prophet, was actually angry that God would spare someone, whereas Jesus mourned the fact that not everyone was to be saved.  That’s one of the most difficult things to preach and teach in the Christian faith, that salvation is not for everyone, it’s not universal.  I don’t have the time this morning to get into it, but I would be glad to take the time to walk through it with someone if there are questions.  However, please just take my word this morning that Scripture clearly and repeatedly teaches that salvation is for a group known as the elect, and not for everyone.  People so often hear this term elect and think that Christianity is this elitist group and don’t like the sound of it.  While I don’t think that there should be any negative thoughts along this line, I will acknowledge that there is an eliteness to the Christian faith, but that makes it special.  It makes it special because, after all, who are we that God would choose to have a relationship with us?  As we said last week, we don’t deserve God’s forgiveness any more than anyone else.

                That’s what God was teaching Jonah here.  He was teaching Jonah that even though Nineveh was wicked and rightly deserved to be judged, it was still a mournful thing that they had to be punished.  He was teaching Jonah that He wasn’t doing anything for Nineveh that He wouldn’t and doesn’t do for everyone else, even Jonah.  God loves all of His creations, even those who don’t love Him back in return.  God causes the sun to rise and set over the unbeliever as we as the believer.  It’s a principle in theology known as common grace.  There are certain things that everyone enjoys of God even if they don’t believe.  However, it is a precious gift that we have, as Christians, to have an even greater knowledge of God.  We are able to understand why God doesn’t want to destroy Nineveh because we know Him as being patient, loving, merciful, and gracious, not just as a harsh judge.  We know God to be righteous and not prone to fleeting emotions.  We know that God works all things according to His divine plan and not for selfish reasons.  Friends, this table is proof that God doesn’t work for selfish means.  This table reminds us that God gave up His one and only Son for us.  This season of Lent is a time in which we remember the death and resurrection of God’s Son.  Ultimately, who are we to say who God is calling into a relationship with Himself?  And so as we prepare ourselves to come to this table, I want to remind all of us in this room of the precious gift that we have in Christ Jesus, the relationship that we have with the Father through the work of the Son.

Jonah 4:1-4 "Angry? Really?"

Click here for audio.

                I have to admit to y’all before we really get started that I had originally planned on ending our look at Jonah this week.  Today was supposed to be our last Sunday spent in this book, one of what are referred to as the Minor Prophets.  However, as I was reading and preparing this week, there was something in me that was calling me to change my plans.  So, after wrestling with it for some time, I decided to use the last part of Jonah as a kickoff to our Lenten series, so that’s what we’re doing.  We’re going to look at the first part of the final chapter of Jonah this morning, and then we’re going to begin our season of Lent with a conclusion and recap of Jonah and I’ll explain how all of this ties together, Jonah and John’s recording of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer, which is our Lenten series focus.  I know some of you think that I’m just making this up as I’m going along, but there is at least a certain level of intentionality behind the texts that we look at each Sunday.  With that being said, let’s look to God’s Word this morning as we turn our attention to Jonah 4:1-4…Read text

                Now, I’ve got to tell y’all that as I was reading this text during the earlier part of this week I actually laughed aloud in my office with no one else around.  I don’t really know why; it’s not like it’s the first time I’ve ever read the book of Jonah.  However, there was something different about it that occurred to me this week that I guess I’ve never really stopped to think about before.  You see, usually I’ve just sort of read through Jonah and quickly moved from one verse to the next without much thought about what just happened.  I know what’s coming up and so my mind is typically just kind of moving swiftly through the events as they unfold.  However, since we’ve been moving pretty methodically and carefully through this book, I’m able to consider the implications of what just happened upon the text that I’m currently reading.  In other words, I’m slowing down and seeing and noticing some things that I’ve overlooked in the past.  Case-in-point is today’s text.  V. 1 says, “but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry.”  Well, the first thing that we have to ask is what is it that displeased Jonah exceedingly (or as some texts put it, it was a very evil thing to Jonah)?  The answer is found in the last verse of our text from last Sunday.  “When God saw what they (the people of Nineveh) 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.”  Apparently, this is what made Jonah angry.  So, let’s get this straight; because it’s crucial to how we interpret Jonah’s words and actions moving forward.  God wanted Jonah to call Nineveh to repentance, which he ultimately did begrudgingly.  After all that Jonah went through, he called for the repentance of the people of Nineveh that we saw last Sunday.  When they responded by repenting wholeheartedly, God spared them.  Remember, we saw the whole city fast from food and drink, even the animals.  We saw all of them change so much that they ceased to be the same Nineveh that had previously existed and became virtually a new group of people.  Now, because God spared them from being destroyed and bringing the just fury of His wrath upon them, Jonah was angry and upset about it.  That’s pretty much what happened.

                Now, by this point in my reading of the text earlier this week I was only smirking.  It’s what we read as we continue on that got me really amused by this text this week.  Jonah cried out to God in prayer saying, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?  That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish.”  In other words, “God, I knew that you were going to do something like this.  Why do you think I was trying to run from your command in the first place?  I knew that something like this was going to happen.”  Jonah continues on, “for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”  This last part is what caused the laughter to come out of my mouth.  Can you imagine ever speaking with or about or to God and talking about His mercy, His grace, Him being slow to anger, and His steadfast love and talking about them like their negative qualities?  Is the fact that God is gracious and merciful ever a bad thing?  Can you imagine looking at your spouse and saying, “Honey, you’re too pretty, you’re too much fun to be around, your cooking is too good, and I really just don’t like the way that I seem to be a better overall person when I’m around you”?  Could you ever imagine saying such a thing to your spouse (or anyone else for that matter)?  Of course not!  All of those things are wonderful qualities to have in any kind of relationship, much less a marital relationship.  Just like all of those qualities or attributes that Jonah mentioned about God are never bad things or negative characteristics.  However, as Jonah was spouting off this short list of attributes of God, he’s saying all of them as if they are marks against God.  He’s reciting these things as if they are problems or grievances that we ought to have with God.

                Remember, if we back the story up and look at some of the highlights of Jonah’s actions in this account (which are more like lowlights if we’re being honest), then we see that the only reason why he was still alive to say these words was because of God’s grace, mercy, and steadfast love.  If Jonah was going to take this stance and say that sin and wickedness (which remind you are not just the bad things that we might think of, but are any actions, thoughts, or speech that is contrary to God’s commands) ought to lead to punishment and death, then he’s going to need a mirror (and a casket too).  Jonah ran from God, actively ran from God.  The ship should have crashed, he should have drowned in the Mediterranean, he should have been swallowed (and digested) by the great fish, he should have never made it back to dry land.  Yet he did; he made it back to dry land because God is gracious and merciful.  Jonah was alive only because God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  Not only was Jonah still alive, but upon being put back on land, God continued to call Jonah to carry out the work of a prophet, someone who speaks for God to God’s people.  Jonah was angry with God because God had shown the people of Nineveh the same forgiveness that He had shown Jonah all throughout this account.  During Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as it’s recorded in Matthew’s gospel account, we find Jesus saying these words, “Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.  Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”  Perhaps the clearest Old Testament example of someone with a log in their eye is the prophet Jonah here in chapter four.

                However, it’s not like we couldn’t find plenty of examples in today’s world of someone with a long in their eye.  Perhaps we could borrow that mirror that I said Jonah needed earlier.  How often do you talk about how you can’t stand someone because of the fact that they are a gossip and then you go on to talk about them for thirty minutes?  How often do you criticize the way someone raises their children while neglecting some of the responsibilities you have as a parent?  How often do we treat someone as if we care for them, yet in our hearts there is this distain (or even hatred) for them?  How often do we say that God is the most important thing in our lives but we choose every option available to us other than spending time with or serving Him (and I don’t just mean attending worship)?  Do you see what I’m getting at here?  So often we get so focused on what other people have done or are doing that we forget about ourselves.  We criticize everyone else’s house while ours is a complete wreck.  It’s the old idiom about getting your own house in order before you start worrying about someone else’s.

                Jonah was so focused on the fact that God had spared Nineveh that he seemed to have completely missed the fact that God had spared him as well.  He’s so angry and upset and out of sorts about all of this that he tells God to end his life right then.  He says it would be better for him to die than to live and see Nineveh continue on.  Now, an interesting point about this comment made by Jonah is that it is much deeper than it might appear on the surface.  Jonah didn’t want God to kill him simply because he was upset at God for sparing Nineveh.  What Jonah was reacting to, according to O. Palmer Robertson, was the fact that his people, the Israelites, hadn’t repented for over 150 years.  Meanwhile, after only five words, the Ninevites repented.  It’s as if Jonah can see the shifting of God’s covenant promises no longer including only God’s chosen nation of Israel.  Instead of God being only for the Jew, He’s going to be for the Gentile as well.  Jonah would seemingly rather die than be around for such a calamity.  Can you imagine if Paul would have had a similar mindset and only been willing to take the message of Christ’s resurrection to Jews and not Gentiles?  Imagine it on a much smaller level.  How shameful it would be if our only concern was for our particular church and not the kingdom of God.  How disgraceful it would be for us to pass up an opportunity to proclaim the good news of the gospel to someone simply because it couldn’t really benefit our church in any way.  However, the sad fact of the matter is that that type of thinking goes on every day in the American Christian church.  Look, I’m not saying that Jonah didn’t care about God.  Nor am I saying that someone who is concerned primarily for their church doesn’t care about God.  What I’m saying is that we have a very limited or false view and understanding of God when we try and reduce Him to be for one people group or one type of person.  If God wants to call the thieves and thugs of this world into a relationship with Him then He is perfectly within His rights and power to do so.  If God wants to call every person who is part of the Muslim faith to follow Christ, then who am I or who are we to say that He’s wrong and that they don’t deserve it.  Because here’s the newsflash:  WE DON’T DESERVE IT EITHER!  We don’t deserve even one iota of God’s grace, mercy, love, or forgiveness.

                That’s the thing that God is teaching Jonah here.  “Do you do well to be angry?” God asks of Jonah.  As I picture this scene I can’t help but think of an argument between a husband and wife.  In particular, I think of this husband and my wife (yes, it happens).  I won’t go into any specifics about any arguments, but one argument does stand out to me where Amy and I were really frustrated with each other and our voices were escalating and we were going back and forth pretty good.  We both felt as if we were in the complete right and neither one of us were relenting.  Now, for those of you who don’t know, I am an excellent arguer.  Even when I’m wrong, I still mount a pretty good case.  However, Amy said something during this particular argument that got me.  Now, I didn’t let her know right then, but in my mind I was thinking, “Dang, she’s right.”  I have to believe that even though Jonah, much like myself in that argument, didn’t give up the fight right then, that the armor at least had a few cracks in it which exposed a spot for the fatal blow.  I have to think that Jonah was starting to realize what was wrong with his mindset, his outlook.

                I don’t want to make light of this scene here, but can’t you just imagine God sitting there asking Jonah, “Please, tell me about how my love, mercy, grace, and patience or bad things.  While you’re at it, please tell me how my exercising of these attributes with you is any more warranted that it is with the people of Nineveh.”  I mean, that’s just kind of one of those death-nail statements in an argument that you can’t come back from.  Jonah was being faced with a reality that, as I said, we so often forget:  God is to be shared with everyone.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that everyone belongs to God and is a Christian.  At times we’re way too liberal with our usage of the title Christian.  What I’m saying is that we have a responsibility to share the good news of the gospel with everyone.  It’s not our job to decide who’s worthy of hearing it or who deserves the wonderful relationship that God is calling us to be a part of.  As I said last Sunday, it’s not our job to convert or convince, that’s God’s job.  There’s a liberty and a freedom found in the reality that our evangelistic efforts don’t hinge on our abilities or the lack thereof.  Or job is simply to present the message.  We do that through preaching, through relationships, by modeling, and through encouragement and study.  If the book of Jonah teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that the effectiveness of our message isn’t found necessarily in what we say.

                We don’t deserve God’s grace, mercy, or love.  The people that we’re witnessing to and preaching to don’t deserve God’s grace mercy, or love.  The people of Nineveh didn’t deserve God’s grace, mercy, or love.  Jonah didn’t deserve God’s grace, mercy, or love.  Yet, God gave and does give them to us anyway.  Despite our being in no way deserving of anything from God other than complete and total punishment and condemnation, we receive only grace.  I think about two verses in Romans.  First Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death…” but the second half of that verse reads “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  The other verse is Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  But the very next verse reads “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  You see, we’re broken, we’re fallen, and we’re deserving of punishment, but God has granted to us this gift of redemption, or restoring the broken relationship that we once had with Him.  However, it isn’t as if it was of no cost to God, for it cost Him the life of His Son.  Jesus died for me, he died for you, he died for all those whom the Father has given to Him.  It’s not our job to figure out who that is so that we can minister to them.  It’s our job to spread the message of the gospel as loudly and as far as we can so those who need to hear it do hear it.  After all, there was a time that every single one of us was lost and in need of someone telling us the glorious news of the gospel.  And each and every one of us is proof that you don’t have to deserve a relationship with God to have one.

Jonah 3:1-10 "Jonah Speaks, Nineveh Repents"

Click here  for audio

                If you recall, last Sunday we started looking at Jonah’s ministry after his time spent in the stomach of the great fish; three days he spent in that fish’s stomach.  He reflected back on all that had taken place, all that he had experienced, and ultimately offered up a beautiful prayer of repentance and thanksgiving before being put back on dry land.  He even seemed to have a somewhat different outlook on life after those events, at least momentarily.  Now, while we did read Jonah’s message and did touch a little bit on the seemingly immediate repentance offered up by the people of Nineveh, we didn’t really dive into much detail about what happened there in Nineveh.  What we looked at last time was primarily about the astonishing news that God would even choose to still use Jonah to accomplish His will despite Jonah’s obvious rebellion from God and his lack of desire to see the people of Nineveh repent; although that news shouldn’t really surprise us all that much.  After all, many times it’s the very thing that we don’t want to have happen that God so clearly tells us must happen.  Many times it’s the person that you don’t want to talk to or the place that you just don’t want to go that God is specifically drawing you towards.  A friend of mine used to refer to that as God’s sense of humor; although few people rarely get the joke and laugh at it when it’s them.  Now, what I want to do today as we look at this extended text from last Sunday is to look at the actual message of Jonah (which won’t take long) and then examine exactly what happened both externally and internally with the people of Nineveh after hearing this word from God.  Finally, we will see what all of this means for us in our modern context.

                When I try and picture the scene of Jonah’s call for repentance there in Nineveh, I often think of my children apologizing to one another.  Y’all know the type of apology I’m talking about don’t you?  I’m talking about the one where they really don’t know that they did anything wrong, or if they do then they really don’t care and aren’t that sorry about it.  However, they know that their mother or their father won’t let the day continue on until they apologize for whatever it is that they have done.  It’s the kind of apology where you have to have them say it over again, this time actually looking at the person that they are supposed to be apologizing to.  It’s a begrudging apology.  Jonah makes his way through this great city, getting right in the middle of it.  The fact that we’re told that it’s three days in length and that he walks one is meant to point out that he had gone to the center of the city to deliver God’s message.  He wasn’t standing on the outskirts, but right in the middle of things.  There’s no security, there’s no safety.  It’s not as if Jonah can escape if the people don’t take kindly to his message.  So, he stands up in the middle of this great city who we read was doing some evil things and he proclaims this message that God has been so adamant about him delivering and he says, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”   That’s it.  That’s all he says. 

                Now, you may be surprised that his message was only eight words long.  Well, actually it was only five words long in the original Hebrew; so even shorter than you thought.  So, the same prophet that prayed the entirety of chapter 2, that wonderful psalm of repentance and thanksgiving and God’s glory, and he could only muster up five words as a means of calling Nineveh to repentance.  Now, there are some out there who believe that his actual message was longer and that the words recorded are merely just the theme of what he said, but there really is not evidence for such a belief, just speculation built upon the reaction of the Ninevites.  However, I would remind you that it’s not about Jonah’s oratory skills, but the one that he’s speaking about that gives his message its power. 

Can you see why I say that this call made by Jonah reminds me of my kids (and even some adults I’ve seen) offering up what I wouldn’t even consider being a half-hearted apology?  I mean, what would you do if someone came and spoke such a message to us?  We would hear it, think about it for a second, and then move on with our lives.  Now, I will give you the fact that at the very least prophets were still active at this point in time in the life of the Church.  We don’t have any prophets walking the streets today, so we’re probably more apprehensive or skeptical when hearing something like this.  However, don’t you just imagine most of the people of Nineveh were just looking at each other and saying, “Well, that was strange!”  I mean, think about all of the other prophecies of the Old Testament and all of the other messages and calls delivered by prophets and apostles in both the Old and New Testaments.  There isn’t one that comes anywhere close to the brevity of this word spoken here by Jonah.  Some of them are chapters and chapters long (whole books even), yet very few come anywhere close to the apparently immediate impact that the words of Jonah seemed to have had upon Nineveh.  I mean, it isn’t as if Jonah had any follow-up comments.  He simply spoke this message and walked away, but what followed was something that no one could really put into words.  Again, there are those who will look at Jonah and think that his time spent in the stomach of the fish gave him this new confidence and drive in ministry.  They act as if Jonah was anxious and eager to go and proclaim God’s message after being given a second chance.  Frankly, I don’t think that there is any way that we could take such a view of Jonah given the brevity of his message here and given what we will see in the last chapter about his reaction to Nineveh being spared.  Jonah doesn’t really seem to deliver to these people anything more than the bare minimum of what God has revealed to him.  “Ok God, you want me to tell them of their smiting in forty days, well then that’s what I’ll tell them, and no more.”  Again, it’s not about the message that you deliver, but about God’s power being delivered in that message.  If the effectiveness of Jonah’s call for repentance hung on Jonah’s words then no one would have repented, but the power isn’t in the message or messenger but the one whom the message is about.  If the Ninevites repenting was based on Jonah’s articulation of this call then it wouldn’t be genuine.  Genuine repentance, true repentance, only comes about from God granting to us a knowledge of Him, which results in saving faith, which ultimately leads to repentance.

                As soon as we are given the words of Jonah, we’re told that “the people of Nineveh believed in God.  They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.”  We’re told that the king of Nineveh got up, took off his robe, and put on sackcloth.  He also called for everyone else in the city to do the same.  He called for a fast from both food and drink (even water) for all the people of Nineveh, and even the livestock.  Now, obviously a goat or a mule can’t repent and wouldn’t understand what was going on, but this language serves to emphasize the lengths to which this repentance extends.  It points out the sincerity of their hearts and the severity with which they were treating this prophetic word from Jonah.  They all called out to God.  The fact that our text says “the people of Nineveh believed in God” tells us that prior to this they didn’t believe.  So they’ve gone from non-believing to believing in a matter of five words.  That’s astonishing.  I don’t know if you’ve ever had a conversation with a non-Christian before, but it can be a frustrating thing.  It can be a very beautiful thing as well, but there are times when it is maddening.  You can present every text and every piece of evidence that you can think of to them to show that God is real and He’s active and that He’s exactly who Scripture says that He is, and yet they won’t have any of it.  You can present all types of examples to them of God’s gracious hand working in the lives of His children, and they will brush it off as merely the way that the world works.  Yet, here in Nineveh, Jonah gives this somewhat pathetic excuse of a call for repentance and the whole city repents.  Again, it’s not because of Jonah’s words but because of God’s power.  Jonah gives them what God has revealed to him in a manner that almost seems devoid of any emotion or urgency, and they all turned away from their evil ways and the wickedness that they were doing that had placed them in this position in the first place.  That is, they turned away from their wickedness for a while.  We know that it doesn’t last forever.  They thought that if they got really good really quick then God might relent from the destruction that He had spoken of through Jonah.  After all, they did have forty days to make an impression on God according to the words of Jonah.

                Now, we know from the final verse in our text that that is exactly what happened.  “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.”  The prophetic warning of verse 4 was enough to scare them so badly that they changed their ways enough for God to withhold His punishment.  And that brings up an interesting question, does God change his mind?  You see, for God to change His mind, it would imply that God didn’t have the best solution from the beginning or that He didn’t know that something was going to turn out a particular way.  It’s like when we read that “God remembered his covenant with Abraham.”  Are we implying that God, the all-knowing Creator of the universe, ever forgot that He had a covenant with mankind?  Of course not!  Are we implying here that God somehow didn’t know what the citizens of Nineveh would do or that He realized that He was making a mistake in overthrowing them?  Of course not!  There’s never one second here (or anywhere else for that matter) where the sovereignty of God, i.e. God’s having all things under His rule and control, and that nothing happens without His direction or permission, is ever in question.  After all, it’s not as if God would have Jonah deliver this message to them if He was just going to destroy Nineveh regardless. 

                You see, this brings in another notion that we so often misinterpret.  We like to think of God as a micromanager of life here on earth.  We like to think that God is watching over us and controlling things almost like a puppet master controls a puppet show.  That’s not how God works.  Now, don’t get me wrong, He could if He wanted to.  I just don’t think, and more importantly, Scripture doesn’t declare or indicate, that He works that way.  However, don’t make the mistake of thinking of God as a watchmaker either.  Don’t think that He just created everything, set things into motion, and simply sat back and watched history unfold.  God is active in the world, but He works on a more macro level.  God works by the unfolding of His will, but many times the details of how that plan comes about are unscripted.  It’s not as if we are robots clothed in flesh that have no control over our lives whatsoever.  In fact, it is because of God’s grace working in us that we have what little control we do have.  If it weren’t but for the grace of God, then we would be robots, but only carrying out the evil desires of our hearts.  It is only because of God that we are not complete and total slaves to sin.  God’s grace is what gives us the freedom to choose what we will do.  However, when God decrees or orders something, then it comes to pass simply because God has deemed it so.  I spoke last Sunday about my call to ministry.  It didn’t matter whether I listened the first, second, or third time that God spoke to me; what mattered was that I listened.  God placed a calling upon my life that I was to enter into gospel ministry and that is exactly what happened.  The details are inconsequential to the unfolding of the plan of God other than the fact that they happened according to God’s decree. 

The truth of the matter as it pertains to Nineveh here in our text is that God didn’t destroy this city because, in fact, it wasn’t the same city that Jonah pronounced judgment against.  This city of repentance and fasting and good works wasn’t the same place where all of the evil works were coming out of at the start of this account.  This was an entirely different place altogether.  God was still going to destroy the evil city of Nineveh.  The prophet Nahum writes of the time when this promised judgment finally does come upon Nineveh after they turn back to their wicked ways.  What the author of our text speaks of with God’s relenting (or perhaps repenting in some texts), is more of a temporary withholding than anything else.  Now, if you are getting hung up on the words relenting or repenting on the part of God, don’t!  These words are used here because there simply aren’t words in the realm of human understanding that can adequately and correctly define God’s decision to withhold judgment from being leveled upon the Ninevites. 

So, how are we to take this text and apply it in our modern context?  As I said already, we don’t have prophets like Jonah walking around the streets today.  The Word of God isn’t given to us by some divine orator, but by the Word itself, revealed to us in Scripture.  The closest thing that we have to anything like prophets are preachers, and I can personally attest to you that there is no divine revelation hidden in this particular pastor, nor in any other I’ve met.  Now don’t get me wrong, does God choose to reveal things to His people through pastors, absolutely.  As I pray each Sunday, hopefully, this is God’s message and not mine.  However, God speaks through the layperson as well as the pastor.  The Holy Spirit inspires all people and carries out good works through them no matter what their knowledge, ordination status, or really even their faith.  I’ve seen people of low Bible knowledge who aren’t even what I would consider fully Christian yet speak some amazing things about God.  Now, usually, this work leads them to a more complete faith.  The heart of all of this is something that I’ve referenced numerous times today and in previous weeks.  The power of God’s Word isn’t in our words, but in whom the Word is about.  When we looked at the armor of God in Ephesians 6 a few months ago, we noted that God’s Word, Scripture, was the only primarily offensive weapon.  It’s referred to as the sword of the Spirit. 

In our efforts to evangelize and tell people about God, we don’t need to rely upon new gimmicks and innovative presentations.  We need to rely upon God’s Word.  We need to rely upon the message that God has already revealed to us in His Son.  If we faithfully present God’s Word, God will take care of the rest.  Do you realize how freeing it is to know that someone’s conversion or their faith isn’t based upon what you say or how you say it but upon God’s working in their heart and creating in them a saving faith?  Now, will we have the type of impact that Jonah had on Nineveh?  Probably not, but think about the joy that we would have if even one person comes to a saving faith.  Don’t let your feelings, your lack of knowledge, your opinions, or anything else ever prevent you from sharing the gospel because God works through our broken words to call broken people to a perfect relationship with Him.