Thank you, as always, for your extremely kind and warm welcome to the Old Passer. I was reflecting, I've been away for some 22 years now.
! In the United States, I'm married to a very lovely American lady who wishes that she could be here this morning.
But I was thinking, I've now lived in both places for so long that I have a distinction of being misunderstood in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and certainly by my wife.
So if I say to you, Barb sends you greetings, in America that sounds like, who's Bob? Barb sends you greetings this morning.
So thank you for your welcome. Let's pray as we come to God's Word.
Father, thank you for what your Word tells us of itself. That it is a living Word. That it is a true Word. That it is a fountain of life.
Lord, that it's like a sword or a knife that's able to distinguish the motivations of our hearts by your Spirit.
And Lord, it is able to lead us.
So Father, we don't pray for the preacher necessarily this morning. We pray for the Spirit of God to work.
Lord, would you use your Word, we pray, to lead us and guide us. In Christ's name. Amen.
Last December in the United States was a terrifying month for natural disasters.
You may have heard of some of the tornadoes that tore through the state of Kentucky, overturning entire towns as they went.
Or of the forest fires which raged across the American West.
Apparently with gusts of 110 miles an hour, propelling a monster fire that made its way through the communities north of Denver, Colorado.
And one of the people who was in one of those communities was a man called Hunt Fry, who was interviewed by the local news.
He was in a Costco store. I don't know if you know of Costco. I think there's one in Southall.
But he was there and he said that he was impressed by the staff who worked in the Costco, who carefully went around and mentioned to people that the building might be on fire.
And ushered them towards the exits. And then he said he saw them running like antelopes for the exits. It was just apocalyptic, he said.
I was thinking, in its way, it's not a wholly inaccurate picture of Christian mission, which is the call to take the gospel to the whole world, the world that's in danger.
Here we are, like people serving in the store, calmly but appropriately telling people that the building is on fire, ushering them towards safety, and then running like antelopes ourselves for the exit that we find in Jesus.
I think as we come to this very well known text this morning, we may as well remind ourselves that God is far more invested in missions, in the work of missions, than you and I are.
It is his idea. It is his initiative. It is his kindness. It is his mission.
But he has called us to join him in his great project to take his message of rescue to the nations and to our own nation.
If this has always been true of God, we shouldn't be surprised that we find it here in the middle of the minor prophets.
Here is a God who takes the initiative to send Jonah to this city, even the capital city of the mortal enemies of Israel.
So in chapter 4, we are going to look at three ways that God shows his missionary heart to us this morning through this story of Jonah.
First of all, God shows the glory of his heart by putting mercy before judgment.
God shows the glory of his heart by putting mercy before judgment in these first four verses.
You probably know Jonah well enough that not much words of background are necessary, and Paul gave us a word or two of background before.
But the year is sometime probably in the 8th century BC, and the place is the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
This is probably some 50 years after they attacked the capital of Israel and caused great calamity there.
But now the bloom has gone a little off the road as far as the Assyrian Empire is concerned.
They are in decline.
And this reluctant Jewish preacher has been sent to preach a message of warning and judgment to the Assyrian nation.
And you know, if you know the book of Jonah, that he had decidedly mixed feelings about the project.
But his message was to tell them that if they did not repent, their own city, very much like those towns in Kentucky, would be overturned if they did not repent.
The Jews, of course, had every reason to hate the Assyrians.
The Assyrians, if you know of them, were among the cruelest nations ever to inhabit this planet.
They'd inflicted terrible pain on the people of Israel.
If you can think of ISIS as a national empire, a power of hundreds of thousands of troops, you have an imagination of something like Assyria.
So you can imagine that the young Jonah, perhaps having lost family members to such cruelty, hearing stories of what had been done by the Assyrians, not unlike those who'd suffered in the Burma Death March or those who had lost family at Auschwitz.
How could there be forgiveness for such cruelty any more than anyone would have seriously suggested a quippal for those accused at Nuremberg?
So Jonah expects the Assyrians to suffer.
That's what a moral God does.
If God is true, the Assyrians would pay for what they had done.
If God is moral and right, and if he has any concern for his people Israel in what they suffered, he will be the instrument of revenge.
For surely God has said, vengeance is mine.
And once Jonah gets to Nineveh, you know, which is a whale of a story in itself, Jonah was ready, wasn't he, to be the one to bring the Assyrians the bad news.
But, to Jonah's surprise, here is what God actually says and does.
This is right at the end of chapter 3, verse 10, coming into chapter 4, because the chapter breaks are somewhat awkward.
When God saw what they did, that they repented, how they turned from their evil ways, God relented of disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
And this is Jonah's reaction, we read, of the mercy that it pleased God to give.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
It's an anger of immense proportions.
An anger that you notice has him threatening God more than once, that he wishes to take his life.
Reminded of what George Whitfield said, that the last idol to go is self-righteousness.
So, when it is challenged, we will give up even our very lives to see ourselves justified in our self-righteousness.
So, this is Jonah's spiritual crisis.
Literally, the language says here, what God has done was, to Jonah, a great evil.
And then this, that if they ever make a movie of Jonah, I imagine this will be comic relief, because it seems to be so absurd.
I should have known, of course, Jonah is raging, that you would do something like this.
I knew that you were a gracious God, Exodus 34, and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, relenting from disaster.
I should have known that you would have done this.
Notice, even in the way that he reports this, even in the way he writes this down,
God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them.
And he did not do it.
You can catch there even some of Jonah's anger.
It's just not good enough, God.
He's telling his master.
And I think this is important, because here is the first contrast.
It's between the messenger of God and the God who sends him.
Jonah, who considers himself justified in his anger,
God loves his enemies.
That is the glory of his love, said Bonhoeffer.
He puts mercy before judgment.
And certainly in the United States, I wonder across the Western world right now if this is an appropriate contrast.
You know, in our own day, in a time when so many are ready to judge and to condemn and to write people off,
given the slightest Facebook post or Twitter comment,
to exclude others for not saying or doing the right thing,
and so many, even within the church, that would do that,
here is the reminder that the good news of Christ's mercy is what we're about.
We are compelled to offer his mercy before we offer judgment.
So it's not that there are other things to say as we speak and devote ourselves to our own cultures,
but this is the nature of the God we serve,
that he puts mercy before judgment.
Second, God shows his people their continuing need of his grace,
verses 5 through 8.
Like I said, it's difficult not to see this as a tantrum,
because it is a tantrum.
A reminder to us that whatever age we get to,
we can all of us act like six-year-olds.
So Jonah, you see here, stomps off into the desert.
He sets up kind of stadium seating in the desert,
waiting for God to change his mind,
waiting for God to obliterate the city.
I'm thinking at this point,
Jonah has shown himself not to be much of a builder,
because you'll notice that the shelter he erects
has to be replaced by God's plant within a day.
And Jonah awaits, doesn't he, to find this,
I'm imagining, I have no idea what it was,
but a giant elephant ear plant that is kind of covering him,
and he says he is very happy about it.
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.
What is God doing?
Well, this is either, isn't it,
a picture of God being mean and vindictive,
getting his own back on the prophet,
being small-minded like we can be,
or, more likely, it is a picture of God loving Jonah
by speaking to him in the only terms that he can understand at this point.
He's giving him an object lesson.
Jonah has received an undeserved gift,
which has saved his life,
or at least his suntan,
and God now takes it away
to teach Jonah something.
Personally, when I reflect on Jonah,
I'm reminded of when I was six years old.
I had diphtheria.
I was in a German hospital.
My parents had taken me there
in some alarm over me,
and when I woke up,
I found I was surrounded by German nurses.
I had no idea where I was.
I only knew that I was extremely angry,
as angry as a six-year-old can get at his parents.
They had left me with these people I didn't know,
and when they finally did turn up,
they brought me a big orange teddy bear.
But this teddy bear's first trip was airborne,
because I launched him into the air,
throwing him at my father's head.
I wanted you, I said.
This is not enough.
And here is Jonah, I think,
having grown to love this huge, silly plant
as something that had done good to him,
the way that we sentimentalise inanimate objects
and simple creatures
and forget the giver who has given them.
But now it has been taken from him,
and so he is angry again,
this time on behalf of this quite innocent plant.
How dare you, God, take it away?
I have so loved this plant
for less than 24 hours.
So surely God is teaching Jonah,
as we too need to be taught, don't we?
This was not a man who presumably was young in his faith.
He was, at least at this point,
middle-aged, if not older.
But the difference that he needed to see
was between the plant and the people of Nineveh
that God had a concern for.
Jonah had invested all of his energy at this point
into this temporary plant,
but God, verse 10, has laboured over Nineveh.
He tells Jonah that he has grown the Ninevites
and now brought them to the point
where they will receive his mercy.
So God has every right,
by virtue of every possible argument,
to do undeserved good to these people.
And should God be merciful to his obnoxious
but orthodox prophets,
yet give these wretched, repenting people
only judgment?
That's the contrast.
That's the nature of God.
That's the issue that's at stake
in Christian mission.
Whether we can just forget
the nature of the person we're representing
for the sake of the words that we're speaking
or the sake of some conversion.
Let God be true and every man alive,
Paul says in Romans 3.
Because here is a God of grace,
the God that we must represent,
the God whose nature, as Crammer said,
is always to have mercy.
I don't know about you.
I am very touched by the story of John Newton.
If you read his whole story,
it is actually a remarkable story of God's grace.
A year after he wrote the song Amazing Grace
aboard the Greyhound during his conversion,
we know from his diary later
and his testimony to Parliament
that he was commanding a slave ship
off the coast of Africa.
And he writes in his memoirs
that to his shame,
he followed the other sailors
into the hold of that ship
and systematically, night after night,
abused young women who were in chains there.
This went on for weeks
until he became deathly ill
and almost died.
At that point,
Newton became the wretch
that he describes in Amazing Grace.
And on his deathbed,
it was God who broke him,
showing how wretched a man
could yet be saved
by the mercy of God at the cross.
So who's to say how far
God should show his mercy?
If God showed mercy to Jonah,
shouldn't he show his mercy to Newton?
If he showed his mercy to Newton,
shouldn't he show it to the Assyrians?
If he showed it to the Assyrians,
to whom shouldn't he show it?
If they will but turn to him
and find his mercy
as they cry out for rescue.
That's the very roots of the gospel,
isn't it?
Again, in the heart of God.
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 this,
that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
I've been thinking about my own
typical response to those around me.
I tend, I don't know about you,
I tend to divide people up
into people who are likely prospects
for the Christian faith
and those who are not.
I think over the years,
I have ruled people out
as being impossible.
People who are so far beyond
the grace of God
that I wouldn't bother with them.
But as I've looked at them,
I've realised, really,
by the grace of God,
to me,
that it's my indifference
which has ruled those days.
Not the mercy of God.
It's my own lack of compassion
which has been motivating me.
And not the mercy of God,
the God who can do everything.
So the gospel reminds us, doesn't it,
that while we were yet sinners,
not promising prospects at all
from any earthly point of view,
that Christ died for us
as we still need his mercy
and need to represent his mercy
to others.
So it's very easy, isn't it,
to try to make two gods
as religious people.
A God of mercy for us
and a God of judgement
for those who are not like us
or those who disagree with us
or those who won't listen to us.
That's at the very core
of self-righteousness, isn't it?
And my own experience
is that it can creep back.
But here is someone
with a pure heart,
the God of all mercy and grace.
The more you see his mercy to you,
the more you see your own need
for the gospel.
And thus you give the gospel,
I think, more freely,
more readily.
And finally, God shows his own heart
because in this story
it's clear that he has invested himself
in these people,
verses 9 through 11.
And the Lord said,
You pity the plant
for which you did not labour,
nor did you make it grow
which came into being
into a night
and perished in a night.
And should I not 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, interestingly,
much cattle.
Jonah is a book
about the heart of God.
And so, therefore,
it is a book
about Christian mission.
Translators have noticed
something about the verb here.
I think it's translated
in the NIV,
pity,
or perhaps compassion.
In the old version of the NIV,
which often used,
it's the verb concerned,
to be concerned.
Shouldn't I be concerned
about that great city?
The verb,
in the original language,
was used of kings giving
or withholding mercy
and judgment.
And the power of the verb
is this.
It means to do
what one does,
what one must do,
with tears
in one's eyes.
So if Jonah had turned
the conversation around
and asked God earlier,
do you do well
to be angry?
In other words,
why aren't you be angry
about this injustice
God could perfectly well say
of the day that justice
was coming,
yes,
in my justice
I will do
very well
of that day
when God
would bring
justice
on one particular person
whom he sent.
For this is the heart
of God's
living justice,
that he will go
to extraordinary rates
to uphold
the heights
of his justice
and to show
the breadth
of his mercy.
That's the story
of Christ
to his enormous cost.
So it's not
that the question
is irrelevant.
I think it's probably
the very question
that God wanted
Jonah to ask,
a question that would
be finally answered
some 800 years later.
So this is
God's question
to his student Jonah.
Shouldn't I be concerned
about that great city?
Shouldn't I be concerned
about the hundreds
of millions
God might ask
who are trapped
in their own sin,
who don't know
even this day
that there is
a way out?
To those of us
who seem
unreachable,
to those that
as we look at the world
we would say
there is no way
that God
could possibly
reach them
with the gospel.
Shouldn't God
be concerned
for them?
Shouldn't God
be concerned
that his own people
still don't know
the value
of the extravagant
gift that has
been given
to them?
So I think
this text
asks us
what should
you do?
How should
you respond
to this God
of mercy?
And the call
here is I think
again to re-examine
our own debt
to God's gift
of extravagant
mercy to us.
Maybe like Jonah
we should be
very un-Presbyterian
and experience
great waves
of emotion
over this
extreme sorrow
over our sin.
Extreme joy
that because
the sinless
saviour
died
my sinful
soul
has been
counted free.
If that doesn't
crack a smile
on the face
of a Presbyterian
I don't know
what will.
If we've been
given such
an astounding
gift
and it doesn't
move us
to then go
out in mission
then I wonder
what will.
I don't know
if you know
the story
of Billy Bray
the 19th century
Cornish tin miner
turned preacher
Billy by reputation
was the grumpiest
man in Cornwall
he was an
alcoholic
by addiction
he was a
coal miner
by trade
who was saved
by the reading
of John Bunyan's
visions of heaven
and hell
as he lived
in danger
of coal pit
collapse.
And what it did
in Billy
was it totally
changed him.
It totally changed
him by personality
he was a giant
of a man
but he became
a radically
different individual
emotionally
and by nature.
When people
were converted
in his town
he would turn
up at their
house and put
that person
on his shoulders
and run
round the house
singing glory
glory
he would say
if they were
to put me
in a barrel
I would shout
glory out
through the
bunghole
praise the
Lord.
And when I read
stories like that
it is again
it's kind of a
mirror like Paul
was talking about
out to my own
heart.
Where is the
love of the
gospel gone?
Where is the
love and the
urgency of
mission gone
in me?
Am I content
now just to
be within
these four
walls speaking
to people
who agree
with me?
So it's
someone here
in Jonah
who could be
shown the
heart of God
and here is
someone as we
read of Jonah
that might too
also be shown
the heart of
God.
So you can
see all the
ingredients of
the gospel
are here in
this story.
God will one
day revisit
another city
with another
prophet and
yet in that
city he will
pour out all
of his
judgment, the
judgment that
he and Jonah
were speaking
about upon
the head of
that prophet
his own son
to completely
rescue those
who will take
shelter under
his mercy
in Jesus.
And God's
concern, his
justice through
his tears
were shown
at Calvary
as mercy
indeed has
been shown
to you and
me.
So in
closing let
me say how
grateful I
am for the
continuing witness
and the gospel
vitality of
IPC.
You know in
its way
IPC did far
more to shape
me than the
other way
around.
And I think
because of this
doctrine of
grace I'm
grateful for
Paul and
for the
elders here.
I'm grateful
for Graham
who I hear
has had an
anniversary of
some almost
40 years of
faithful service
as an elder
here.
And I'm
grateful for
you.
I'm grateful
for you who've
been gathered
from so many
different places.
You know what
I'm struggling
with and what
many American
pastors are
struggling with
right now is
it's as if the
church has
turned inwards
and said we
just want to
be with our
own people,
thank you.
We just want
to live in
safety and
security among
people who
politically and
ethnically and
economically are
like us.
It's a
fundamental
disagreement with
the nature of
the gospel and
with the church
itself.
So it's so
refreshing to be
among those who
are committed to
being together by
the will of
God, by the
grace of God
coming from such
different places
and from
different cultures
and different
politics and
different ethnicities
things.
But radically
brought together
under the
gospel of
Jesus.
So you know,
Jonah didn't
want to go to
Nineveh and
when he got
there he set
about doing
what he wanted
to do,
oblivious to
the idea that
God might
have a different
plan.
But it has
been revealed to
us in Jesus,
here is a God
of mercy who
still desires to
reach the nations
with his gospel,
who still desires
to reach people
even here in
Ewing with the
message of
Christ.
How radical
would it be if
we were to ask
him, even today,
even for this
week, Lord, who
would you have me
talk to?
Who would you
have me pray for?
Who have I
perhaps written
off in my own
heart as being
unreachable,
perhaps somebody
at work,
perhaps somebody
in my family?
Could it be that
your gospel could
reach them if we
were to talk,
they and I,
about Jesus?
Perhaps the
Lord will surprise
us with what
he can do,
and that wouldn't
be such a
disaster,
would it?
Let's pray.