Learning from God's Compassion (Jonah 4)

In Jonah 4, we see how God’s compassion reaches beyond human boundaries, challenging Jonah—and us—to love those we may find difficult. Jonah’s struggle with God’s mercy for Nineveh teaches us valuable lessons about examining our own attitudes, learning from life’s challenges, and embracing a compassionate heart. This message invites us to expand our understanding of grace, stepping out of our comfort zones to reflect God’s unending mercy. 

NOTES:

Rockwell Church     Nov 10, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien
Learning from God’s Compassion
Jonah 4:1-11 

#1 EXAMINE Your Attitude Towards Others (Jonah 4:1-4) 

#2 EMBRACE God’s Object Lessons (Jonah 4:5-9) 

#3 EXTEND God’s Compassionate Heart (Jonah 4:10-11) 

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

This is the last week we're going to talk about Jonah. So, Jonah, the in the minor prophets, the story that we're all familiar with, the guy that was swallowed by the big fish. But as we come to the last chapter, we find that Jonah has a heart problem, that he has an attitude problem, that he is not in tune with the plans or the compassion of God. He is God's servant, and after his experience in the big fish, he was willing to comply. But he did not want to see Nineveh repent and come to the Lord. So let me just recap some of that for you. So in Jonah chapter 1, there was a reluctant prophet with a clear mission from God to go to the people of Nineveh and tell them to repent of their wickedness. But Jonah had no desire to do that because the kingdom of Assyria, Nineveh, was Israel's longtime enemy and wanted nothing to do with seeing them be spared by God. Jonah wanted justice, is what he wanted. And so Jonah is like, you know, I'm not interested in doing that. They probably will repent, and then you'll preserve them, and that would just make things worse. So Jonah, as you know, uh, instead of going to Nineveh, he heads the other direction as if God told him to go to Chicago, and instead he went to Alaska as far away as he could get. And so he's on the ship, and then the big storm comes, and the sailors are like, we don't know what's causing this, and then they figure out it's Jonah, and they're like, What do we need to do to stop this? And Jonah says, throw me overboard. So he's literally willing to sacrifice his life so that he could save the people on the ship from destruction. And as soon as Jonah hits the water, the storm stops. Which is an interesting concept to remember that when we sin, when you sin, when I sin, that we think that that bad choice or that sinful choice just affects us, but no, it affects people around us. So Jonah's sin to run away from God affected the sailors on this boat. Our sin affects our family, our friends, our church, the people around us when we give into temptation, when we rebel against God, when we choose to sin. That remember that sin doesn't affect you, it affects other people. So Jonah thinks that he is going to drown and he's going to die. But he gets swallowed up by a big fish, and nobody knows exactly what kind of big fish it could be. Maybe a whale shark, nobody knows. Just scripture says it's a big fish. And so maybe God, you know, had a special creature we're not familiar with. Come and swallow Jonah or made something larger just for the just for what it was. Some wonder, did Jonah die while he was in there or did he not? But nonetheless, somehow he has consciousness enough to, in Jonah chapter three, repent and come to his senses and pray. So give him a second. Actually, that's Jonah chapter 2. Jonah chapter 2. So Jonah 1, uh, he ends up in the water. Jonah 2, he's in the fish and he repents and he recommits to fulfill his vows to God. In Jonah chapter 3, God re-assigns or re-affirms, retells the mission to go to Nineveh and deliver his message. And Jonah says, I will do that. And the message was 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. And Jonah, I'm sure, did that with a big smile on his face. So some wonder if while he was in the fish, if his skin wasn't discolored, the people of Nineveh had worshiped Dagon, the fish god. So to if they saw Jonah get spit up or birthed by this fish on shore, and then come proclaim this message, it might even give his message even more credibility. But Jonah wanted everything that he was saying to happen. So he wanted them to be destroyed, he wanted them to be overthrown. And to his surprise, the king of Nineveh, all the way down to the commoners, and even the animals were wearing sackcloth, fasting, and repenting. So it's interesting how repeatedly this book includes God's care and love for the animals. So for the cows and for the animals. And so in Jonah chapter 4, we see Jonah's action, his reaction to what God has done. And we see that it's not the way that it should be. And it's an interesting parallel to the way that we often think about people. So, and I will talk about the Germans and the Japanese and World War II as a comparison in a minute here, but to be learning from God's great compassion, God's compassion for all people, God's compassion for people around the world. So God had his special chosen people, the Israelites, but that wasn't the only people that God cared about. So actually, the Israelites weren't just given a special opportunity, they were given a special responsibility to fulfill the call and the commands that God put on their life and to follow that because they had the inside track, the inside information. They knew how they were to live, and God would hold them accountable towards that. So the first thing that Jonah needed to do and that we need to do is examine our attitude toward others. Examine your attitude toward others. So people have a lot of attitudes nowadays. They're quick to tell you about what they think on social media or in person. So now that the country is divided politically, not as divided as people thought or were told by the media, but people have a lot of opinions. Some people are happy, some people are angry, some people are just surprised. So an old pastor told me that in his years of ministry and life, that he had seen that as the culture swings like a pendulum of a clock, as it swings one way towards being really liberal and doing all sorts of crazy immoral things and everything, that eventually people will get sick of it. And kind of like when you have a bunch of junk food and you're just eating a bunch of junk food, you know, maybe it's Christmas time and you're eating all the junk food, and then pretty soon you just instead of longing for candy and cake and everything else, you're just longing for a salad and some fruit and maybe just a good steak or something like that. That the pendulum swings back then, the other direction is people are like, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is just too weird, too crazy, too wrong. And then it starts to swing back, and people start to embrace being more conservative and trying to do the things that they did in the past that were considered to be right and true and reliable. And so then the pendulum goes the other way, and I have a feeling that what we're seeing is that the pendulum is swinging the other way now. And so I God only knows what our future holds. But I hope that it is a season for us to honor God with our choices, a season for us to proclaim Jesus with the freedoms that we have. We pray that the Lord will hold together the world, world peace long enough for us to continue to spread the message throughout the whole earth. And then the Bible says when the gospel is preached to the ends of the earth, then the end will come, then Jesus will come back. So it'd be pretty easy for the gospel to be preached to the whole earth with all the technology and stuff now. But we know at just the right time Jesus will return. And until then, we're supposed to be busy, busy showing love, God's love and care for others, and watching our attitude, making sure that we're not self-focused, but others focused. So at the end of Jonah chapter 3, as the king and the commoners all repented and did what they were told to do, Jonah 3, verse 10 says, When God saw what they, the Ninevehites, did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. Praise God. Right? Right? Shouldn't Jonah be like, okay, God, you are at work here. This is so awesome, so exciting. Now that they've done this, Lord, maybe you could use me here to teach these people about you since I'm here anyway, and they seem to be listening to me, and I seem to have put on a great evangelistic campaign in which many people have responded. So yay, I'm I didn't expect this, but I'm here to do your plan and your way. Even though these people were our enemies, I'm in, and whatever it is you have for me to do is how the story should go. But instead, chapter 4, verse 1 says, But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. To Jonah, this seemed very wrong. There was no justice. He wanted God to destroy them, he wanted God to wipe them out, he wanted God to take Israel's enemies and just be rid of them so they would no longer be a problem. And what would he tell his family, his friends, his other countrymen when he went back home? That, yeah, I told them to repent, and they did, and God spared them. Praise God. That wouldn't be a popular message. He would rather go home and tell the story about how God utterly destroyed them, and it was so great to watch. Let me tell you about it. But here's Jonah. He prayed to the Lord. Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish, I knew that you are a gracious God and a compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. So actually, God told Moses that in Exodus chapter 34, verse 6. God said that, that I am this. I am a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love. And also says that he will not hold the wicked guiltless. So Jonah was expecting justice. So what did Jonah do? He knew that he wasn't in control of the situation, he wasn't in control of the circumstances, he was extremely depressed, so he said, the only thing that someone that has no control over anything can say is, Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live. So he felt so upset, so bothered by this, that he just didn't want to go on anymore. You know, sometimes people go through a season or a day of depression when they feel that way. I had a Christian counselor lady leading this class that said sometimes when people feel like this, they lack protein. And sometimes they need to have a good steak dinner and take a nap and get some sleep, and then when they wake up the next day, maybe they'll be in a better condition. So in my house, my wife and I sometimes go, I'm feeling real low, I'm feeling real depressed. And she'll be like, So you need a steak dinner? Yeah, I think so. I think I'm gonna need a steak dinner to go on. But nonetheless, Jonah felt so depressed, he felt so angry about this that he's like, God, just kill me. You should have just left me in the ocean. And then God caringly and kindly doesn't respond in a harsh way, but just replies. But the Lord replied, Is it right for you to be angry? Is it right for you to be angry? Because God created all these people, and he created all these animals, and he cared about the city, he cared about these people. So Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying, No one is so miserable as the poor person who maintains the right to be offended. Mercy will never be extended to the person who will not forgive others. So it's tomorrow's Veterans Day, and so I was trying to think of what parallels might be between America and their enemies and Jonah and the Israelites and the Ninevehites, the Assyrians. And so I was reading in a hermeneutics discussion site, uh, a discussion about Jonah, and so somebody made a trail from the Assyrians that says the Assyrians may have moved to what would become Germany, so some Germans may actually be descendants. Some of some Assyrians, yeah, some Germans may be uh descendants of Assyrians. And so I thought that was kind of interesting. So I started to think about it and do a little research and try to figure out you know, in what way did Jonah hate the Ninevehes compared to Americans hating the Germans and the Japanese in World War II? So Janus Jonah's hatred for the Ninevehes can be compared to the intense feelings many Americans held towards Germans and Japanese during World War II. So just as the Ninevites were seen as brutal, feared people by the Israelites, the Germans and Japanese were seen as powerful adversaries by the Americans in World War II. The Ninevites were known for their violence and oppression against other nations, including Israel, which fueled Jonah's animosity. Similarly, acts of aggression by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, such as bomb the bombing of Pearl Harbor, stirred anger, fear, and resentment in America's in America. Americans. In both cases, the fear was mixed with a sense of justice and moral outrage, amplifying the feelings that of hostility. For Jonah Nineveh's violent reputation made him view them as beyond redemption, just as Americans during World War II often viewed Nazi Germans and Imperial Japanese as irredeemable enemies due to the perceived existential threats. So there was this hate towards Nazi Germany and towards the Japanese. Removed them from all military facilities, which was tough in Hawaii, since I think like one-third of the population at the time were Japanese Americans. And so these people were discriminated against. They were looked at as a threat to national security. They had their businesses and their homes taken away, and it was a big mess because of this fear, because of this idea that these were our irredeemable enemies, and there was no way to make peace with them, only to destroy them. So let me move forward here. Wanted to show in the midst of the hardship and the suffering that they were truly Americans. And so there were approximately 33,000 Japanese American soldiers, over 10,000 in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team that were awarded for their bravery and acts of service, becoming one of the most decorated units in military history. That even though they were seen with suspicion, even though they were discriminated against and things weren't going their way, they chose to fight for America's freedom. And even after the war, they were not well received and they were discriminated against. And so Jonah, Jonah's reluctance to extend God's compassion to the Ninevites mirrors the prejudice and fears that fueled internment. Like Jonah, who saw the Ninevehes as unworthy of mercy, many Americans viewed Japanese Americans as undeserving of trust or compassion, leading to policies that harmed countless innocent people. And so as time has gone on, you know, Japan is an ally. To me, it's interesting as a kid, when I was real little, if I got a toy that was made in Japan, we'd be like, oh, it's made in Japan, that's junk. And so I don't remember how many years ago I was looking for a cell phone battery, and I wanted the ones that were made in Japan because they were quality. So it's like, I don't want the Chinese ones, I want the Japanese ones because those are the better cell phone batteries for this phone out here. But nonetheless, when we discriminate against what God is doing, we can short circuit uh God's plan, but actually God carries out his plan anyway. So what we do is we short circuit what God could have done in our lives if we would have gone along with it, if we would have followed his will in his way. I already mentioned that Jonah could have been so much more significant. Instead of this cautionary tale in the minor prophets, he could have led a great revival and turned an entire country towards the Lord if he didn't have a bad attitude. And I wonder sometimes with us, what are we missing out on because we have a bad attitude? What are we missing out on because we are not following God's will and God's way? It happens everywhere that people are territorial. So if a certain group of people have lived in a certain place for a long period of time, they don't want other new people to move in. So when I moved to Bell Plain to plant the church, they had the old part of Bell Plain on one side of the highway, and then the new houses were going up on the other side of the highway on the south side of the highway. And so when I first moved there, I quickly found that the locals did not like anybody who lived on the south side of the highway. I had moved into town and had become one of them. And so I had a plumber at my house. And so we were talking because anytime anybody comes to my house for a service project or whatever, you know, I stick around and see if I can talk to him about Jesus. And I mentioned this in our Sunday school class today. My wife reminded me if the worker is getting paid, you know, by the minute to be there, that I shouldn't carry on in long conversations like the plumber, if he's getting paid, you know, for his time to let him finish the job, get off the clock, and then have a conversation. But nonetheless, I asked this guy, I said, What is the problem with this town that we're seen as one of them? He said, Oh, this is where the rich people live. They're arrogant and they're snobs and they're rude and everything. Except for you, he said, you seem pretty nice. And I said, Do you realize that this house right here was less expensive than that 1800s house, two-story house that's for sale next to the grocery store? That I couldn't afford to buy a house in the old part of town because it cost way more than this house that only had two bedrooms and an unfinished basement and an unfinished bathroom, which is why you're here to hook it up. And so it's not that, and if you look around, a lot of my neighbors have sheets in the windows uh for curtains and stuff. He's like, Oh, I never really thought of that before. But I said, they're just people that are looking for a decent place to live that want to become part of the community. And anyway, but there's always discrimination, and sometimes discrimination dies out. Sometimes discrimination has been based on your area code. When I lived here before, I learned quickly that people did not like 6-1 tours at the time. So, because the same reason the plumber told me that they're seen as arrogant, snobs, they take stuff over, they abuse the property and everything, and then they leave. So when I came up here a second time, I immediately changed my phone number to a 218 area code. So I wouldn't be a 9-5 tour. So um, because I didn't want to be discriminated for that. However, with cell phones, somebody is like, where did you get this 218? Where did you get this number? I said, at this at the store in Apple Valley or something like that. He's like, Oh, it looks like you live in Grand Rapids. I'm like, I got close. But anyway, but we're called to be ambassadors for Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it makes it so clear on the way that we are supposed to live our lives. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it says verse 10, for we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. And then Paul continues on. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No. We are giving you a reason to be proud of us so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than a sincere heart. He continues on. Christ died for all. We also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone, so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun. And all this is a gift of God who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to him, no longer counting people's sins against them, and he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God, for God made Christ who never sinned to be of the offer to be the offering for our sins, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. So that is all people groups, that is all people around the World needs to come to Christ. And what a great thing if we could lead somebody to Christ who would go back to their people group, their tribe, their area, and lead them to Christ in the new life that they live. Think about is there anybody that you feel above that you wouldn't want to share Christ with or an area that you wouldn't want to go? Now, if you struggle with alcoholism and you know just being around people that are smoking and drinking would cause you to fall and stumble, then don't go to the bar to share your faith or to meet friends or play darts or whatever. But if that's not an issue for you, you might find that you have an opportunity to lead people to Christ. I had an intern from Crown College, a pastoral intern, and I would give him a list of things to do all the time. And when you get done with the list, he'd be like, What am I supposed to do now? And like, contact people from the church, see how you can encourage them and pray for them. Go meet new people, see if you can lead them to Christ, see if you can disciple somebody. And so he did. And he walked into the bar in town and he struck up a conversation with a guy, and shortly after that he led this guy to Christ and he started coming to church. So he went, this guy wouldn't have come to church on his own. Um, but instead, um, our church at the time didn't say, oh no, we're Christians, we can't go into bars, um, but instead said, you know, we know that drunkenness is a sin, so we're not gonna fall into that, but we're gonna go where the people are. We're gonna go where the lost people are, where the swearing people are. Um, I mentioned this, I think, in a Sunday school class before, but churches these days, if they have a softball team or whatever, they have to figure out are they gonna play in the church league or are they gonna play in the bar league? So if their motivation is to lead people to Christ, maybe they would be better off to play in the bar league. So, all right, embrace God's object lessons. Embrace God's object lessons. So Jonah had gone out. Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade. A shelter and sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. So I was looking into the Hebrew, and it could be a castor oil plant or a bush that would grow to be like 10 feet high and have all these bushy leaves and everything. But if it was mishandled or damaged or whatever, it was quick to wilt and die. So it was like a snowflake plant, I guess. But God provided this while Jonah, with his bad attitude, sat got up the front on the hill for front row of seats to watch the destruction happen to see if God would destroy them, because that's what he really wanted. And so God is like, Well, while you're up here, I'll make you comfortable. But then at dawn the next day, God provided a worm, which chewed the plant, and it withered. And then the sun rose, and God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die and said, It would be better for me to die than to live. And again, God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? It is, he said, and I'm so angry, I wish I were dead. This guy really needs to see a therapist or something. So God allowed this plant to bring Jonah temporary happiness. He was delighted with his plant, and then it died, and he was angry that the plant died. And he was so angry about the plant that he did not make that the plant he did not provide that he was crushed when it was gone. And God is like, So, what right do you have to be so angry? I was the provider of the plant. You should have been happy for the time that it was there. It wasn't a guarantee it would always be there. You know, it you didn't make it, I provided it for you. You should be happy with the provision that I gave you. But I want to teach you something in this in this object lesson that you need to have more compassion for the things that I care about. Just like you care about this plant, I care about all of these people. I am compassionately uh trying to reach out and to rescue these people from their destruction. And I sent you, but you are not being helpful. All right. Number three, we need to extend God's compassionate heart. We need to extend God's compassionate heart to others. But the Lord said, You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should not I have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals? So the question is, what does that mean? I think what it means is there are a hundred and twenty thousand children that haven't grown to the age where they are taught to know which one is their right hand and their left hand, and then all the people that are added to that. So this is a large city. This is a lot of people, and so Jonah should be pleased that God is preserving them, that God can change their hearts. Maybe if Jonah had gone with God's plan and his will and his way, that maybe these people's hearts would have turned and they would have a foundation to worship the true God, and a foundation not to be Israel's enemies. So the book of Jonah doesn't really end with all the details of what Jonah did next or um all of those things. It just kind of ends like this. And so, and many animals that God cares about, the animals. So I think that God may have allowed me to go through an object lesson, which I didn't want to go through, with an animal, a dog that she was young, um, but she got lymphoma cancer, and we watched, she died. You know, it took a long period of time as we watched and we prayed. I prayed that God would answer my prayer, you know, like if you work for a company, you get special benefits. I'm like, God, I serve you all the time. Could you at least please heal my dog? And he didn't, and the dog died, and it was sad. And so my wife and I prayed about it afterwards, and it's like, what if God wanted us to go through this heartbreaking experience since we seem to be overly attached to dogs, and that it would be better that we learn about that kind of pain and suffering and enduring that uh with a dog than with a child. It'd be better to learn about you know what that experience is like, the dog instead of a child. So maybe it was an object lesson for us to live. But John Maxwell says that when it comes to leadership, that Jonah failed being a leader because he cared more about himself than he cared about his people. So Greg Laurie, in a sermon about Jonah, talked about how God even used Jonah, who was unwilling, to do a great work and lead many people to Christ because God worked through Jonah. And that is a good thing, but we need to be careful that our heart is in tune with God's will and God's way. So Oswald Chambers writes in my utmost for us highest, if my heart is right with God, every human being is my neighbor. So we pray and we look for opportunities, and we know that God can transform even our enemies into what could become our neighbors. We know that God can change a heart, that God can forgive, that God can give us compassion to move forward, and that we are called not to just be citizens. We're not just called to be dwellers, but we're called to be ambassadors, that we're supposed to go out among different people groups, that we're supposed to go out among different cultures, that we're supposed to represent Christ wherever we are. And we're even supposed to look for opportunities to represent Christ as light in a dark world, even when they didn't invite us. So, and that means that sometimes we need to make friendships. So, next week, Pastor Dan Erickson, who many years ago used to be my boss, will be here and he'll talk about letting your light shine even when it's dark. And so maybe continue on this. I'm not sure, but the worship team can come forward. But Lord Jesus, if there's anybody here that doesn't know you as our Lord and Savior, we pray that they would realize that they are a sinner, that sin separates us from God. But by placing our faith in Jesus, by turning from our sin and asking Christ to come into our lives, that we can be saved, born again, made a new creation, forgiven, and made right to accomplish God's purposes. Uh, maybe they could pray something like, Lord Jesus, please forgive me of my sin. Come into my life and save me, and give me the life you created for me. Help me to follow you in your ways, and for the rest of us to recommit ourselves to being used by you, even among people that we don't necessarily care for at this time. Lord, we pray that you'd fill these seats with lost people who have gotten saved, with saved people who need to be discipled, with disciples who are ready to do ministry, and that you would do great things. So we just thank you for the book of Jonah in Jesus' name. Amen.