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But we are on week two of our two week series on Bible stories. We. Last week we took a look at the feeding of the 5000, and we saw that Bible stories aren’t necessarily just for kids in Sunday school or children’s church, but we can actually take a lot of information from Bible stories. And there’s actually a lot of good stuff for us grown ups, too, and we can learn a lot from the Bible stories. Last week in the feeding of the 5000, we were able to see the hypostatic union on display Christ being fully God and fully man simultaneously. He shows that in the story of the feeding of the 5000, we see God’s grace and his desire to fulfill our needs and to meet our needs. We saw the need for us to to chase Christ, even if that means that we run into the wilderness where there isn’t a lot of resources. We we seek Christ in that area. And when we meet him there, he he meets us. And so we saw a lot of different things, not just the fact that Jesus fed 5000 people with a couple of biscuits and some fish. But we saw that there’s a lot of stuff in there that applies to us. And so this week, um, we’re going to tackle what I think is probably one of the most famous Bible stories. I think typically, if you were to ask the average person on the street to name a Bible story, this would probably be one of the more common answers.
And this week we’re going to look at the story of Jonah and the whale. Um, Jonah and the fish, whatever you want to call it. We won’t get into that debate or argument. It was a big animal in the water. And Jonah. So we’ll call it a fish or a whale, whatever my head goes to at that time. But we’re going to look at the story of Jonah and the whale, and we’re going to see, um, we’re actually going to take a look at the entire book of Jonah, all four chapters, which is a lot to to take in. One morning a couple of years ago, we did we went through the book of Jonah. It took us four weeks. So this week is going to be more of an overview, kind of of the book of Jonah. But as you read through the book of Jonah, if you’ve never read through it, I encourage you to sit down and read it. It doesn’t take that long to read it through, but there’s there’s really an overarching theme of God’s mercy throughout. And that’s what I want to focus on today. But each chapter within within that shows a different aspect and a different path of God’s mercy. And so that’s what we’re going to focus on is the four chapters and the four different aspects of God’s mercy.
Um, but before before we get started, as always, I want to put it in context for you so you guys can kind of get the history of what’s going on. Um, Jonah is a prophet, but we also see if you read in Second Kings, Jonah is also mentioned not just as a prophet, but he’s also a statesman. So he has some political ties and some political workings. He’s called by God to go to Nineveh, which is the capital city of Assyria, which is the, at this time the sworn enemy of Israel, and is taking over the northern kingdom. So Jonah, who is a prophet and also involved in politics, is called to go behind enemy lines to this city that is the capital of the country that hates them and preach to them. So that’s kind of the background of who Jonah is. And we’ll go ahead and get started in Jonah chapter one. We’re not going to read all of, uh, the book of Jonah because it would just take add extra time and take a long time to do that. So we’re just going to kind of hit some of the high points. So Jonah chapter one, verses one through three says, now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. So right at the beginning, this is God’s first call to Jonah, to go to Nineveh and cry to the city to repent, because the city is exceedingly evil. Um, it would be kind of like, uh, in our minds, what we would picture as a Vegas, a Sin city. It’s a city that just known for, um, not godly things. And God calls Jonah to go there and to preach to them. But instead of getting instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah goes to Tarshish, which this is a map for you. So Joppa in the bottom right is the port where he leaves, and he’s headed to Tarshish, and it says, Nineveh is right there. But really Nineveh would be about eight inches over off of the screen. So he’s going as far away from Nineveh as he possibly can. In his mind, he’s probably thinking that I don’t want to go to Nineveh. So in order, I’m not going to stick around here and let God do something crazy that’s going to land me there. So I’m going to go as far away as possible, and then God won’t have a chance to even get me there, and that’ll show him.
Um, but as usual, when we try and show God that we’re going to do things our way, he he has other plans. But we start with Jonah’s direct disobedience to God. Um, and. That really sets the tone for all of chapter one and the rest of the book. And chapter one is all about our sin. Um, if you if you look at Jonah and what he does, and then you read James chapter four, verse 17 says, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it to him, it is sin. Jonah knew what needed to be done. He knew what the right thing to do was. God told him where to go and what to do. And not only did he not do that, but he did the opposite of what God told him to do. Um, there’s multiple types of sin. There’s not just sins of commission where we where we do something that we’re not supposed to, but there’s also sins of omission where we don’t do what we are supposed to. And sometimes the sins of omission can be just as bad or worse than than the sins of commission. And so Jonah directly disobeys God and runs away to Tarshish. And on his way it says in verse four of chapter one. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
Then the mariners were afraid. And just a side note, if you’re if you’re ever planning on directly disobeying God, the ocean seems like a bad place to go because I’m not just here, but in the Gospels. On a couple of different occasions. The disciples who are fishermen by trade, they’re on the water all the time. God causes a storm to come up that has them scared for their lives here. Mariners who their job was to to traverse the Mediterranean Sea. A storm comes up great enough that it petrifies their life. So just stick to land. You might be a little bit better off, um, because it never seems to work out well on the ocean, but so. So we see, though, in Jonah’s life, he gets on a boat with other people and he’s in sin going to Tarshish. And we see that when Jonah sins, it doesn’t just affect Jonah, but it affects everyone around him. And when we sin, we might think that this is my deal. It’s only affecting me. But really, our sin affects everyone around us. Um, sin always affects more than just yourself. Your sin will always affect more than one person. Adam and Eve, the original sin. When they sinned, it affected all of mankind for the rest of humanity because the curse was passed down from them. If you read in Joshua, Israel is taking over the promised land. They go to Jericho and God tells them, don’t take any of the spoils of battle for yourself, but take everything and give it to me as a sacrifice.
They go in, they take the city, and a guy named Achan sees, uh, sees some stuff that he really likes, and he decides, you know what? God’s not going to miss this. I’m going to take it for myself and I’m going to hide it so nobody knows that I have it. And then after people forgot that, God said, don’t take anything, that I can bring it out and I’ll enjoy it. So in his sin, he takes what isn’t his and he hides it. And as a result, when he’s found out in his sin, not only him, but his entire family is stoned and killed. And as a result of his disobedience, when Israel went into the battle, into battle, the next time 36 of their soldiers were killed because of Achan’s disobedience. So not only did his sin affect himself, but it affected his whole family. It affected all of their friends because their family was killed. And then it affected the families of the 36 soldiers that were killed in the next, next battle. But putting it into practical terms, your sin today affects the people around you. The anger and the bitterness that you hold in your heart because of what someone has done to you in the past, affects your relationships today. It affects your relationship with that person.
It affects your relationship with God, and it affects your relationship with those around you. Today. Um. When you inflict pain on yourself because you you don’t see a way out and you don’t see hope, and you just need an escape from the pain of life. You might think that you’re just inflicting pain on yourself, but that pain that you inflict on yourself affects those around you. And again, it affects that relationship with those around you because they they have to see you in the hurt and the pain, and you might think you’re burying it inside, but when you bury it inside, it cuts off relationships. And you don’t have the relationship that you should have with those around you, whether that be family members or friends. When you think nobody’s looking and everybody’s asleep and you go to your computer or your laptop or tablet or whatever, and you go to the websites that you know you’re not supposed to go to, and you look at the pornography that’s so prevalent on the internet today that affects more than just you in that moment there. It affects and has lasting effects throughout your life on all the relationships in your life. In an interview with focus on the family, Ted Bundy, the famous infamous serial killer, said that one of the single most influential factors of him becoming a serial killer was his introduction to pornography at a young age.
It’s a sin that doesn’t just affect you in that moment there, but it is a lasting and dangerous effect on all of your relationships throughout your life. Utah has the highest per capita consumption of pornography in the United States. And you can you can blame it on whatever you want, but it’s an epidemic and it’s a problem. And it’s a sin that is is overwhelming the church. It’s taking over the church. Um, I don’t remember the exact statistic, but I know it’s over 25% of pastors today struggle with pornography. Parents, if you think your children, your teenagers, your young kids are immune to this, they’re not. Don’t be naive. Please take this seriously. Um, because this sin is a sin that that affects everyone in your life. And not just not just pornography, but all sin. Everything from from bitterness to to hate and malice to even gluttony can be a sin, and that can affect those around you. And our sin isn’t just on us, but it’s on everybody around us. And Jonah’s sin put the lives of these men in danger on the ship. And as the storm rages on, the sailors are throwing anything they can find overboard that isn’t essential to lighten the load, to try and save the ship. And and they’re praying to their gods and they’re they’re doing all these things to try and try and save themselves. And so oftentimes in our lives, that’s what happens to us, is the people around us see that there’s an issue with our sin, and they’re doing everything that they can do to try and mend that relationship and that situation and help it out.
But until we deal with our sin, nobody around us can do anything for us. It’s a personal issue with us. And finally the sailors go down in the bottom of the ship and they find Jonah and he’s sleeping, and they wake him up. The captain’s ship wakes him up and says, look, we got to figure out what’s going on. This is obviously somebody’s fault. So we need to figure out what’s going on. What did you do? And in verse nine, Jonah confesses and he says, look, it’s my fault. This is this is why this is happening. And he says, I’m a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, what is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. So Jonah tells the sailors that he’s a Hebrew and he serves God, and they’re like, okay, so you’re telling us that you serve the infinite God of the universe, who created the sea and the dry land and all these things, and you decided to run away from him and get on our ship.
Thanks. Appreciate that. That was a good plan. And Jonah’s like, yeah, okay. It wasn’t my best idea. I see that now. I see that this idea was bad, which again, I think a lot of times happens to us. We have our way of doing things and this is how this is going to be accomplished. And we get started on it and it blows up in our face and God’s like, see what happens when you try to do it on your own and you’re like, okay, yeah, I get it. I’ll do it your way now. And it ends up going better that way. Um, but so he says, Jonah tells him that, you know, the only way that this is going to get better, the only way we can deal with this is if just throw me overboard and the guys are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, now you’re talking crazy. We can do this. So they start rowing and it says that they they rowed against the the waves, but they couldn’t they couldn’t get anywhere. They couldn’t get back to land. Um, and. This is a perfect picture of us in our lives. Again, it just it’s such a mirror image. There’s a sin in our life. And God says, you need to throw this sin overboard. You need to get rid of it and get rid of this stumbling block in your life. And you say, no, no, no, we can keep it here.
But I’m going to continue on, on my own and I’m going to make it through. Don’t worry, I can do this. And we start rowing and we can’t get anywhere. Sometimes what God calls for in our lives is a radical reaction to sin. And a lot of times in my life, I’m not ready for a radical reaction. I want to do it on my own. But sin takes radical reactions, and sin takes radical measures like throwing someone overboard. Jesus even talks about the extreme measures to get rid of sin in Matthew chapter five verse 29, he says, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out, throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. And what Jesus isn’t advocating is self-mutilation. And oh, I’ve looked at a woman with lust, so I need to remove my eyes. Or, you know, I slap my brother or sister or whatever, so I need to cut off my hand. It’s not what he’s advocating, but what he is is if there’s something in your life that’s consistently causing you to sin, what drastic measures need to be taken to remove that from your life? Could be something as simple as site blockers on your computer.
Maybe you need to just take the computer out back with a baseball bat and relieve some stress for a couple of minutes to get rid of that sin in your life. Maybe it means taking a break from a certain relationship that’s that’s causing you stress and anxiety. Um, whether that means the extreme measures of of just ending the relationship. Um, deleting the person from your phone or Facebook or Twitter or Vine or Instagram or whatever social media you follow them on. Um, maybe it means opening up to somebody and sharing the hurt that’s inside you that has been caused by by people in your lives and and sharing with them and seeing how they can help you overcome them. Uh, drastic measures need to be taken to deal with the sin in your life, because your sin affects those around you and the people around you don’t want to unnecessarily suffer because of your sin. Whatever the sin might be, sometimes the best, the best way to to help alleviate it and get rid of that stumbling block is to seek counseling. And I don’t know if you all know this, but Jared and Tara are both they’re trained in biblical counseling. It’s a free service that they offer. Um, and if you’re if you’re at a point where you’re, you see in your life that you’re struggling with sin and you see the effect that it’s having on the people around you, and you see that something needs to change, but you don’t know where to go or what to do.
Biblical counseling is an excellent option to find. Find the answers to that. Maybe you’re just so hurt that you can’t. You can’t fathom opening up to someone and sharing with them what what’s going on. But biblical counseling is an excellent way to open up and look at what God’s Word is. Um, Jared and Tara aren’t going to judge you for it. Um, Jared is a very humble man. Um, and he wants to see this church. He wants to see the church deal with sin in a godly way. I want to see the church deal with sin in a godly way. That’s the way the church is going to grow. Because if you’re harboring sin and you’re not willing to let it go, and you’re not willing to seek help or counsel about it, it’s going to limit your spiritual growth. And when your spiritual growth is limited, it’s going to limit those around you as well. So if you’re interested, I want to push it on you. But if you’re interested and you think that might be something healthy for you or your family or or someone you know, talk to Jared and Tara after the service. But sin needs dealt with and that’s what we see in chapter one. Everyone on this ship is about to die until the sin is dealt with, and at the very end, they finally do it God’s way and they throw Jonah overboard.
And the sea, the sea calms and the sailors lives are saved. And it’s it’s just like the plan of God’s plan for salvation. We work and do things the way that we think. We did. The sailors worked and did the way things that they knew to do. Okay, we’re getting we’re taking on water that will lighten the load. Okay. We need to row against the wave to get to land. Okay? These are the things that need to happen. And we say in our lives, okay, this is what I need to do to achieve safety and heaven and salvation. And I need to do these things and do the right thing here and here and here. And we work and we work and we work against the storm, but we can’t make it on our own. And then finally we give in to God’s plan of grace and salvation. And he saves us. Galatians 216 says, yet we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because the works of the law will justify no one. When we in our lives, when we try and deal with our sin on our own, we can’t get anywhere.
It’s by God’s grace that allows us to to see heaven, to to experience salvation. And so many times we put up all these checklists and to do’s, and Galatians says, that’s not what does it. It doesn’t work like that. Titus three five says, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. God saved us. It’s not the sailor’s efforts to lighten the load and to to do all the things that they knew to do to save the ship. It was them finally saying, okay, if God wants us to throw Jonah over, we’re throwing him over. And they did it God’s way. Our good works and good deeds aren’t going to get us anywhere, even if they’re the things that we know we should be doing. They’re not going to get us anywhere. It’s only God’s grace and doing it his way. And so they throw Jonah over. And we all know the next part of the story where a great fish or whale or whatever you want to call it, comes and it swallows Jonah. And chapter two starts, and chapter two, Jonah is in the belly of the fish for the whole chapter until the very last verse, when God has the fish spit him back out onto to dry land. Some translations say he vomits him out. It’s a really good, just a pretty picture for you.
But even in the belly of the whale, we see God’s mercy continue. All of chapter two is just Jonah crying out and praying to God. And if you read chapter two and compare it to the Psalms, there’s a lot of parallels to a lot of the Psalms that we read. And if you have a study Bible in the margin, if you’re looking at the book of Jonah, you’re going to see a lot of of cross references to the Book of Psalms. Um, but Jonah two says, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. And then if you read in Psalms 120, verse one, it says, in my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. Go back. There we go. Jonah two three says, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas. And the floods surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then if you read in Psalm 88 six, it says, you have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions of and dark and deep, your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Jonah two four then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. Psalm 3122 says, I had said in my alarm, I am cut off from your sight.
But you heard my voice and my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. These are just a couple examples of the Psalms that parallel Jonah’s prayer. But what we can learn from from Jonah’s prayer and from the Psalms is that it doesn’t matter where you’re at in life. God hears your cries and he hears your prayers. Whether you’re at the bottom of the sea and you just feel like the weight of everything is on top of you and there’s nothing you can do about it, God in his mercy hears your cries. Whether you’ve put yourself in that situation or whether other people have put you in that situation where you just feel so low that there’s no hope. God hears your cries. Psalm 139. Verse eight through 11 says, if I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, the light about me by night. Even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. No matter where you’re at in your life, God hears the cries of his people.
He has mercy on us. He shows us mercy, and he shows us grace. And when we cry out in distress, he wants to answer and help us. Last week we looked at the feeding of the 5000 and the people needed to be fed and Jesus didn’t send him away. He says, no, stay right here. I’ll take care of this. And he meets their needs. That’s the God of the Bible. That’s the God that we serve. He’s a God that that hears your cries and he wants. What is best for you. Sometimes what’s best for us isn’t what we think it should be, but it is what’s best for us. And that’s what God gives us. But wherever you’re at. Don’t feel like you’re too far away from God. Don’t feel like there’s no hope. We serve a God of hope. We serve a God of mercy that hears the cries of his people. And he answers them. Jonah cries out, and he, he, he realizes where he’s at. And he says that God’s a God of mercy. And he saved me even in the belly of the whale. This is God’s salvation for me at this time because I didn’t drown. And God has the fish spit him back up onto dry land. And as you read in the start of chapter three, God recommissions Jonah and he says, okay, I need you to go to Nineveh, and I need you to preach to the people to repent.
And so finally, Jonah, after going through all of this, as we start chapter three, he hears God’s call and he says, okay, I’m going to go this time. And he goes to the city. It says, the city was a great city. It took about three days to walk the city from end to end. And Jonah goes and he starts preaching. And all it says in verse four is that he cries out, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. We don’t really know a whole lot about the sermon that Jonah preached. We just know that that this is the extent that’s recorded in Scripture 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And so it could have been something he just repeated this saying over and over as he walked throughout the city for the three days. This could be just a summary, but these are the the bullet points of what was happening. And. What happens in verse five is another display of God’s mercy. It says 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. The word reached the king of Nineveh. And he arose and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation, and published throughout Nineveh by decree of the king and his nobles. Let neither man nor beast, herd or flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 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. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn his fierce anger so that we may not perish. So Jonah goes through and he tells them in 40 days their city is going to be destroyed, and the people of Nineveh respond and they repent. I think when we read the story, we just think, okay, people repented and God saved them and spared them, and that’s that’s the miracle. But think about who the people of Nineveh were. The people of Nineveh were the people that Jonah didn’t think deserved to hear the gospel. They were the people that weren’t going to respond to the gospel. They were the people that were so far gone, lost in their own sin that they they wouldn’t respond to the gospel. Why should I go preach to them? All they’re going to do is hate me for it. I shouldn’t go tell the people of Nineveh about you. I should just let them be destroyed like they deserve. But they hear this message and they repent. And how many times in our lives do we pass by the person at work? Or our brother or sister or uncle, or our friend or our neighbor and say they’re too far gone? There’s no hope for that person.
I shouldn’t even waste my time. And we move on with our lives and we don’t share with them the hope that is in Christ. We don’t share with them the mercy that God has on them, no matter where they’re at in their state. And we make a judgement in our head that we shouldn’t waste our time. Jonah made that judgment, and if Jonah would have followed through with it, 120,000 people would have lost their lives. But because Jonah listened to God and went to the people that were too far gone, that had no hope. The city was saved and the city repented and turned to God. And we think that there’s people that are too far gone. But if you read. It’s really where all of us are at in our lives. Few if you read in Romans. Chapter five and verse six says, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? We’re all too far gone.
Every one of us was beyond hope. We were enemies with God. Isaiah, in chapter six of his book, sees God arrayed as a king, getting ready to go to battle as a warlord. And he says, I’m a sinner. Woe is me, because this God is getting ready to do war with sin, and I’m against him. I’m undone. I’m a dead man. And that’s where all of us are. We’re all enemies with God. We’re all born in sin. We’re all born too far gone to be saved. We’re all born dead. The only way dead people come back to life is by a miracle. We’re all dead and too far gone and can’t be saved. But God in his mercy saves us. And Jonah. Instead of seeing the miracle that that is, and seeing the miracle of this city that’s too far gone. Who, who, who won’t respond to the gospel, who who’s hardened their hearts, and to lost in sin. To respond to God’s gospel and his grace and his mercy, instead of seeing that as a miracle and rejoicing and being like, this is amazing. Jonah goes out on the hill and he pouts and he gets mad if this. If Jonah were to end in chapter three, it would make sense to us. And that’s that’s where it should end. That’s what. That’s what it looks like. But but that’s not where the story ends.
The story goes on and he goes out on a hill and. He pouts, and he’s kind of in amazement that people responded to his message from the context. Like I said, we don’t really know all of the sermon that he preached, but from the context, we can guess. It was probably a half hearted effort to preach to these people. Um, and Jonah is amazed that people respond and say, how did they respond to that? How did that work? A lot of times when I get done teaching, that’s how I feel like, okay, that worked. I don’t know how that worked. I don’t know why people responded to that. I’m grateful that God can use me. Um, in my in my, uh. Inadequacies to to reach as people. And I’m amazed by that. But Jonah’s amazed in the wrong kind of way, and he’s not amazed in the thankfulness that God used him. He’s he’s mad at God, that God used him. Um, and he goes out on a hill and in verse four, uh, or in chapter four, verse one, it says, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was angry, and he prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? This is why I made haste to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.
On a side note, this is the only verse in the Bible that you will ever hear someone complain about these aspects of God. Um, which just shows how self-centered and self-righteous Jonah was. Um. So therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. So Jonah says, God, the reason I didn’t want to go and preach to these people is because I knew you were going to save them, and I didn’t want them to be saved. But that’s who you are, and I didn’t want that to happen. So I went to Tarshish and I knew this was going to be the outcome. And you made me do it anyway. And now look where we’re at now. The city of Nineveh is saved. And he says that he just wants to die because this city got saved. And and so many times, I think as a church, we someone comes through our doors, not necessarily our church, but just in general as the Church of Christ, people come through the doors that. Aren’t like us. They don’t necessarily deserve the gospel. They they’re too far gone. Why are they with us? And we look down on them like Jonah. And instead of rejoicing with what God has saved them from and what God is doing in their lives, we we judge them and think, oh, I wonder where they were last night.
I wonder what happened with them last night. I heard a story recently of a church in Florida who started an outreach to the prostitutes on the streets, and a few of them came to to church and got saved, and they started attending. And their goal was to go back and get more of their friends that were involved in the same lifestyle and bring them to church. And this church. The reason it’s successful in this is because they welcomed it. They didn’t see these these women, these ladies, these young ladies as too far gone. But they saw them as another person who needed just as much mercy, just as much grace as them. And these young ladies that got saved went back. And one Sunday they came marching down the service, right down the main aisle with 30 of their friends, fresh from the night before, still in their full, full street, street getup, ready, um, to to get saved and accept Christ and this church rather than look at these girls and say, boy, they’re too far gone. Look at the way they dressed at church. Look at I know where they were last night. They’re they’re too far gone. We need to just politely escort them to the back so they’re not distracting. Instead, this church welcomed them and loved them. And these young ladies got saved. Before you think that anybody’s too far gone, remember that you yourself are too far gone.
That’s right. There’s not one person that can say that. They didn’t need as much mercy and as much grace as the next, because we all need it. And Jonah goes out on this hill and he pouts and he cries and says that this this shouldn’t have happened. God, just kill me now. And God sends a plant, and the plant grows overnight and it gives Jonah shade. And now all of a sudden, Jonah is happy because now he has shade. But then God sends a worm, and the worm eats the plant, and then God sends a scorching east. Wind is what it says, and it kills the plant, and the plant dies. And then Jonah goes from happy to now he’s back to just go ahead and kill me now. Because he’s so self-righteous and so self-centered, he can’t even see the miracle of the fact that a plant grew large enough overnight to give him shade, and that a worm came in in one day, ate enough of the plant to kill it. He can’t see the miracles that are happening around him, because he’s so self-righteous and so self-centered that he’s missing it. And it’s a lot like the story of the prodigal son in the New Testament. And we’re all we’re all familiar with the story of the prodigal son. The younger son comes to the dad and says, dad. He basically says, I wish you were dead.
I just want my inheritance now so I can go party in the city. So his dad gives him his share of the inheritance, and he goes and he wastes it on what the Bible says is loose living. He loses all his money. He doesn’t have any money. He finds himself feeding pigs. And he looks around and he says, you know, my dad’s servants even eat better than what I’m doing right now. So I should just go back to my dad and maybe he’ll take me back and let me be one of his servants. And he goes back and the dad sees him coming, and he runs to him, and he greets him, and he hugs him and throws a big celebration because his son that was lost has now returned. My son that was dead is now alive. And we see that we we focus on the younger son and the fact that, you know, the father shows him grace and mercy, and it’s a picture of us and Jesus. But a lot of times we forget about the older brother who comes in from working in the field, and he hears the party going on and the celebration, and he pouts. That’s my party. I should get the party. I’ve done everything right a whole time, dad. I haven’t once disobeyed you. I’ve always worked your fields and and I don’t get anything. And it’s all about me and what I deserve.
And the dad says, why, why, why do you have to act like. Why can’t you come in and enjoy the fact that your brother has returned home and he’s alive? And so many times as Christians we tend to get focused on ourselves and why life isn’t fair for us and the here and now. And God, it’s not fair. Well, I hate to break it to you, but grace isn’t fair. And if you want what’s fair, then you’re in a lot of trouble. God’s grace equally applies to the Ninevites and to Jonah, and Jonah doesn’t see it. The father’s grace and the story of the prodigal son equally applies to the younger son and the older son, but the older son is too stubborn to see it. Don’t be blinded by self-righteousness to see God’s mercy. The story of Jonah is all about God’s mercy and people not getting what they deserve. But Jonah doesn’t want to see it. And the story of Jonah ends with a question. Um, I think if you were to turn the the story of Jonah into a Hollywood movie, I think M Night Shyamalan would probably have to be the director, because it doesn’t necessarily make sense. Um, the way it ends, you kind of have to read it a couple of times to put all the pieces together. But it ends like this in chapter four and verse ten, God’s talking to Jonah in response to his pity party when he cries out the second time after God kills the plant and he says, you pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
And should I not pity Nineveh, the 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. And that’s that’s the end of the book. That’s the end of the story. It? Is it not right for God to show mercy on who he should show mercy? Don’t be so blinded by your life and wrapped up in your own little bubble. And what’s going on with you that you miss out on seeing what God’s doing in the lives of those around you, and see God’s mercy. We’re to celebrate the mercy instead of celebrate. Instead of sitting outside and waiting for life to happen the way we want it to, we should join in the celebration and rejoice in the fact that God gave us mercy and we didn’t deserve it. And in that celebration, you tell people about it. When you win the lottery, you let people know. You don’t just throw a party for yourself. You let everybody know God’s mercy was enough for me. It’s enough for you. If God’s mercy can save the Ninevite the sworn enemy of his chosen people cuts, mercy can save you.
If God’s mercy can save the thief on the cross. It can save you if it can save Paul, who hated the church to the point where he was going and killing Christians. If it can save him, it can save you. You haven’t done anything. Too bad. For too long for God not to be able to save you. God’s mercy is abundant, and that’s what the Book of Jonah is all about. So when you read Bible stories, don’t just think, oh, this is for kids. I’m going to skim over this and get to the next point, study them out, see what God has for you, because everything in the Bible has a purpose. God’s put it there for a reason. And when you study the Bible stories and the the pictures that are inside them, whether it be Christ and His all sufficiency and fulfilling our needs and the feeding of the 5000, or God in his great and infinite mercy in Jonah and the whale, there’s a reason it’s there, and there’s a reason that God has it there to affect and impact our lives. Whenever you’re eating, whether it be a Bible story or any other part of the Bible, God has a purpose in it. And one. If you’re not reading your Bible, you’re going to completely miss it. You need to get into God’s Word. But two when you’re reading it, don’t just shut your brain off and read mindlessly. Read with a purpose. Read with intent.