Jonah is Gods chosen prophet. Sent to Nenevah to deliver a message. But then he gets angry with the people actually act on his message. Why? Listen in as Thomas Terry breaks it down.
Transcript
Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. This morning, we continue our journey through Jonah, starting in chapter 3, verse 10, and continuing through chapter 4, verse 4. 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. 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? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew You are a gracious God, and merciful,
The Countdown Begins
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, Do you do well to be angry? This is the Word of the Lord. Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. These eight powerful words declared by Jonah, the prophet of God, to Nineveh, were from Jonah’s perspective meant to be a ticking time bomb, set to detonate with a forty-day time delay, with an explosion so massive that none in the city of Nineveh would survive its impact. So at the very moment when Jonah’s message escapes from his mouth and Jonah’s mind, the countdown had begun. So Jonah moved outside of the city to take cover, set up a camp for himself far enough to avoid the disaster and the potential shrapnel of God’s wrath.
And as he patiently waited with a vengeful heart for the Assyrian people to be completely destroyed, Jonah thought to himself, Finally, this wicked city will get what it deserves. They had it coming. They’ve offended my God, they’ve offended my country, and they’ve offended me for the last time. They’re going to reap what they sow. Now you can imagine Jonah’s thoughts and attitude over the course of these forty days. Every morning as he wakes up, Jonah comes closer and closer to that great day of vindication. First, the great vindication of Jonah’s God. After all, the Ninevites were God-haters who lived and behaved in a way that was completely contrary to God and his laws. So when God brings this inevitable judgment and the city is destroyed, finally God’s justice, law and righteousness will be vindicated. Secondly, the great vindication of Jonah’s nation. If you remember at this particular time, the Ninevites were the greatest enemies of Israel.
So when God brings this inevitable judgment and the city is destroyed, finally Israel’s trust and faith in the one true God of Israel will be vindicated. And lastly, of course, the great vindication of the prophet himself. The messenger of God’s message of Jonah’s words of judgment were presented to Nineveh as God’s very words. Then when God brings this inevitable judgment and the city is destroyed, finally, after a long and lonely forty days, Jonah’s prophetic words and his identity as a true prophet will be vindicated. All of this vindication that Jonah is longing for, that really he’s obsessed over, presupposes that Jonah’s interpretation of the message to Nineveh was in harmony with God’s actual intention of the message. But they weren’t. In fact, God’s plans and desires for Nineveh were the complete opposite of Jonah’s plans and desires for Nineveh. These eight powerful words given to God’s prophet Jonah were meant by God not to be
an expression of his great judgment, but to be an expression of his great mercy. So you can only imagine, after all this anticipation from Jonah, waiting forty days in the wilderness outside of Nineveh, counting down the clock for God to wipe out this wicked nation. And nothing happens. The bomb fails to detonate. Jonah assumed that in forty days he would witness this kind of shock and awe of God’s judgment against this wicked and violent city, but yet forty-one days, and it seems that Nineveh has not been overthrown, meaning overturned to judgment, but instead has been turned over to God’s mercy. And so Jonah’s great day of vindication has actually become a great day of mercy, which makes sense why Jonah responds with such great disappointment. And this great disappointment is really what is most explicit in our text this morning. And so this morning as we explore this passage and really begin to dig into the details concerning
Jonah’s Great Disappointment
Jonah’s disappointment, my hope is that it would not only expose the heart of Jonah, but it would also expose our own hearts before God, because after all, this book is meant to be a mirror for us to see our own reflection of Jonah’s heart. And so as we look at these four short verses, what I’ve done is broken up Jonah’s response into three sections, Jonah’s anger, Jonah’s prayer, and Jonah’s ultimatum, and then finally we’ll look at the Lord’s response to Jonah with the Lord’s rhetorical question. And so let’s begin in chapter three, verse ten, because this will help set the context or the scene for Jonah’s anger. Chapter three, verse ten, when God saw what they, meaning the Ninevites, did, how they turned from their evil ways, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
So we saw this quite plainly last week, what seemed impossible to Jonah, God has made possible. This wicked, violent, pagan, God-hating city received this message of mercy from Jonah, the reluctant prophet, in the form of a warning, and the people of Nineveh, surprisingly, respond appropriately. Almost as if they’d been supernaturally assisted to respond appropriately, because that’s the only way it was going to go down. Jonah’s message was a message of judgment and death, but as it turns out, the people of Nineveh receive it as a message of hope and life. And so they repented of their evil ways, and because their repentance was real, because they took the warning to turn from their evil ways seriously, God relented and turned from his anger. Now for most people who have a solid theological framework concerning the doctrine of grace, who have personally experienced the mercy of God in their lives, this whole scenario
would no doubt cause a sense of joy and marvel at the magnificent mercy of God that has turned this whole city upside down in repentance. Imagine the joy of preaching to Portland, and as a result, the greatest possible outcome occurs. Revival breaks out in Portland. Crazy. The whole city turned upside down in repentance. This would create unimaginable joy. And this, we would assume, would be Jonah’s response. After all, Jonah is a prophet of God. He has a solid theological framework concerning the doctrine of grace. He has, at least over the last few months, personally experienced the riches and depths of God’s mercy over and over again. But that’s not at all how Jonah responds, and we see that in chapter 4, verse 1. And it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. Jonah the reluctant prophet has now become the resentful prophet. Nineveh’s turning in repentance that was a direct result of Jonah’s preaching concerning
judgment was not at all what Jonah was hoping for. And so Jonah is not just angry, he’s exceedingly angry. In fact, the original language describes Jonah’s response to their repentance as being a great evil in Jonah’s sight, which seems crazy that the Lord’s prophet would respond that way to the repentance of an entire city. That he would call the work of repentance evil is just ridiculous. But Jonah’s furious because though the Ninevites in every way deserved God’s wrath, they were spared. And so this fills Jonah with a righteous indignation and resentment. And even though his indignation and his resentment is somewhat directed towards the Ninevites, Jonah’s anger is most explicitly directed towards his God. Because ultimately, the Lord is the one responsible for sparing this evil and violent city. Now just try to wrap your mind around this situation. God has turned from his anger towards the Ninevites, and as a result, Jonah has turned
The Root of Anger
his anger towards God. That doesn’t make any sense. Jonah is furious because God is merciful. The question is why? Why is he so angry? What lies underneath all of Jonah’s anger issues? Why is he so upset? Because God has extended mercy to Ninevites. Why? Well, to put it plainly, it’s because Jonah was prideful, legalistic, nationalistic, and self-righteous. And the thing about prideful, legalistic, nationalistic, self-righteous people is that they care a great deal about their reputation. In fact, Jonah was far more concerned with his reputation than he was concerning reconciliation. He was far more concerned about God’s justice than he was God’s mercy. He cared more about the optics of his God, his nation, and his identity as a prophet than he did about the character of God towards rebellious people. Even though Jonah was personally reconciled to God, even though Jonah personally received mercy from God while he was in complete rebellion, he failed to see himself rightly.
He had a false and prideful estimation of himself. This is why at the core of Jonah’s anger issues lies pride. Pride in the law of God, pride in the people of God, and pride in his performance as a prophet of God. Jonah is exceedingly angry, but his angry has less to do with mercy and more to do with reputation management. Jonah is concerned for how these Ninevites are going to perceive God now that God has relented from his anger. This is not going to go good for God’s brand identity or Israel’s brand identity or even his own. Now to this point, Jonah’s yet to express his anger to the Lord out loud. He’s not yet spoken to God, but he’s definitely thinking through his anger internally. And if we could somehow tap into Jonah’s mind and get into the quiet of his head, we’d likely
hear some of Jonah’s rationale for his anger. It might sound a little something like this. There’s no way they’re going to fear the Lord now. They’re going to view God as a pacifist, a God incapable of following through with his threats. And if they perceive God that way, then they’re never going to be consistent. They’ll just go right back to what they were doing before I brought the Lord’s message. They need to know what kind of God they’re dealing with, someone who doesn’t tolerate that kind of behavior. And not only that, what are they going to think about God’s people now? What’s their perception of Israel going to be? If the Lord doesn’t follow through on his judgment, then the Ninevites will remain the greatest threat to God’s covenant people. And not only that, they’re never going to take the people of God seriously. They won’t believe that we are God’s chosen people in a covenant relationship with God,
protected by God. And so they won’t respect us. They won’t fear us, which means they’ll eventually try to overthrow us. And then we won’t be a nation anymore. I mean, we’re all about God and country, and if God doesn’t destroy these people, then we’re going to have all kinds of problems. If our reputation for God and country is ruined, then what else do we have? I mean, what kind of people would we be if we don’t have our religious freedoms and our religious privileges? And then, of course, I have my own reputation to worry about. I mean, I just got done telling them that 40 days and they’ll be overthrown. Now what are they going to think about me? If I go back to Israel, what are my people going to think about me? They’re going to call me a false prophet. They’re going to say I’m not trustworthy.
And if my identity as a prophet is gone, then who am I anyway? You see, Jonah was so concerned about God’s reputation. He was so concerned about his nation’s reputation, but most importantly, he was exceedingly concerned for his own reputation. And so again, what you have is Jonah thinking that his plans are far better than God’s plans. And this is crazy because we just talked about this last week. Didn’t Jonah just realize that God’s plans are far better than his own? That none of Jonah’s plans worked out according to his best interest? In the end, remember, he was swallowed by a fish, almost died. Jonah has flipped again. In the course of 40 days, Jonah has absolutely flipped. What’s going on in Jonah’s heart that would cause for him to forget so quickly to trust God? The same thing that goes on in our hearts when we quickly forget that God can be trusted.
You see, you would have thought that Jonah would have learned his lesson, but he still doesn’t get it. He’s still trying to control everything around him, including God. He still has control issues. And here’s the truth. Control issues always lead to anger issues. Because when you finally realize that it’s impossible to control everything around you, including God, then all you have left is to get mad at everything you can’t control, including the God who sovereignly controls everything. You see, this is why Jonah is exceedingly angry, because he’s lost control of the situation again. Now up to this point, Jonah has only internalized his anger. He’s only been processing these things in his mind. But in verse two, he begins to actually vocalize his anger to the Lord, which brings us to Jonah’s prayer in verse two. And he prayed to the Lord and said, Oh, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in
my country? Now it’s important to know that Jonah partially does the right thing here. He takes his anger and his frustration, and he brings it to the Lord. And that’s what we should always do. But the tone and the posture of Jonah’s prayer is so very wrong. And it’s here where you begin to see Jonah’s pride and his audacity. Notice Jonah’s posture when speaking to the Lord. It actually gives you some insight to his heart here. It exposes these deep issues of pride. First he says, is this not what I told you would happen? When you first called me to go to Nineveh, I told you that this was going to happen. You made a mistake. I was right the whole time, and you were wrong. You can almost sense the arrogance of Jonah, but he’s so completely wrong. In this prayer here, we kind of get some insight into this previous conversation, this private
conversation between the Lord and Jonah when the Lord first commissioned him to go to Nineveh. This previous discussion was held back from Nineveh until now, and the reason why is for dramatic effect. As readers and listeners to this narrative, we’ve been wondering this whole time, why Jonah ran? Why didn’t Jonah want to go to Nineveh to begin with? Well here, Jonah finally begins to tell us with this kind of dramatic reveal when he says, that is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. Jonah told God, I knew this would happen, and that’s why I didn’t go. Here, Jonah justifies all of his disobedience to the Lord in prayer. Essentially, Jonah is saying to God, I care more about your reputation for justice than you do. I knew that you would be soft towards these evil people, and that’s why I ran, because somebody’s got to do something.
A Prayer of Accusation
I mean, Jonah’s prayer here has me questioning Jonah’s beautiful prayer in chapter two. Was it even legit? I mean, what Jonah prayed was beautifully crafted, but I wonder if what Jonah was saying in his prayer was just him going through religious motions, saying beautiful things with an ugly heart. Only the Lord knows, but Jonah wanted to bring justice to the city of Nineveh. He was more concerned about justice than God was, but he knew deep down inside, he knew that God was going to show the Ninevites mercy. One commentator says that Jonah’s view of divine justice was eclipsed by an indiscriminate mercy, and so Jonah, in his prayer, is attempting to hold the Lord in contempt for not doing justice. This is another reason why Jonah is so upset, because he had been waiting 40 days for God to come to his senses to destroy Nineveh, all the while knowing deep down inside that
God was not going to do it, because Jonah knows that God’s heart is soft towards sinners, because Jonah knows deep down inside God is gracious and compassionate towards sinners. Jonah’s bitterness and resentment are centered on the fact that he knew all along God was going to be merciful. He’s been hoping and trying to convince himself otherwise. He kept pushing down what he knew to be true about God in hopes for a different outcome, but Jonah was delusional. For 40 days, he’s been walking around delusional, because Jonah knew firsthand that God was merciful. This is why, Jonah tells us, for I knew, I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Jonah says to his God what has always been true about his God, and Jonah attempts to take what is positive about God’s character and attributes and use it against God in a
way that is somehow supposed to negate the righteousness and justice of God. So Jonah points to these five theological truths about God to express his frustration to God. Now Jonah knows these things to be true about God, partly because Jonah’s personally experienced all these things from God, but also because Jonah knows the scriptures. Essentially what Jonah prays to the Lord is a hybrid of quotes from Exodus 34 and Psalm 86. Exodus 34, six through seven says,
the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sins
— Exodus 34
(ESV)
. Psalm 86, 15 says, but you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Jonah is essentially saying, I knew that you would relent because this is the kind of God
that you are. It’s the kind of God that you’ve always been. Scripture has testified to this kind of God. Your track record is consistent. And just quickly notice the attributes Jonah points to in this prayer to God. First Jonah points to the fact that God is gracious. Grace is to give something to someone that person doesn’t deserve. And this is exactly what God has done with the Ninevites. God who is in every way different from the Ninevites was kind to the Ninevites when they didn’t deserve it. Secondly, Jonah points out that God is merciful. Now mercy is actually different from grace. So whereas grace is to give someone something they don’t deserve, mercy is to not give someone something they actually deserve. And that’s exactly what God has done to Nineveh. They deserve judgment and death because of their evil and violent ways, but God did not
give them what they actually deserve. Third, Jonah says that God is slow to anger. Another translation says patient. And to be slow to anger means that anger is not easily provoked or aroused. And in fact, the word patient here in the original language means to have a long nose. Interesting translation, but it really illustrates nostrils that don’t flare up in anger easily. And this too is how the Lord has dealt with Nineveh. He’s been exceedingly slow to pour out his anger and wrath on them for their evil ways. Fourth, Jonah says that God is abounding in steadfast love. Now, some translations use the word full of kindness. This word steadfast love, it’s kind of a combined word, is actually a pretty unique word that doesn’t translate well in English, but essentially what it means is consistent love and loyalty towards the people that God has chosen to love simply because of God’s loyalty and faithfulness
and character. And this is, again, what God has shown to the Ninevites. God has chosen to be kind to these Ninevites based on his own faithfulness and character, not because the Ninevites were somehow worthy of it. And finally, Jonah stresses that God is relenting from disaster, which just means that God is capable of turning away from his anger. If you notice that there was a condition for the people of Nineveh, if they turned from their sins, God would turn from his anger, that God would relent. So Jonah points out all these positive attributes concerning the character of God, but why does Jonah emphasize that? If this is Jonah’s attempt to debate with God, to show fault with God, why does he point to his godly attributes? If Jonah’s arguing with God, it seems illogical to use this as an argument. Well, it’s because in Jonah’s mind, these attributes were exclusively reserved for the
people of Israel. These attributes were reserved for Jonah’s people and for Jonah’s country, not for outsiders, not for those pagan, irreligious, Assyrian terrorists who hate Jonah’s God and Jonah’s country. You see, Jonah understood God’s mercy very well, but he only understood it when it was connected to his covenant people. And it’s here where you really come to understand the deep, deep roots of Jonah’s nationalism. Jonah doesn’t believe that the Ninevites deserve those kinds of attributes. They deserve death. They deserve wrath. You see, Jonah’s anger had less to do with the fact that they were evil and violent people and more to do with the fact that they were not God’s people, Israel. This was an issue of pride and privilege. They don’t deserve mercy. Only we deserve it. And Jonah’s rationale for this kind of exclusive mercy was likely framed by his misunderstanding of Psalm 103.
Psalm 103, 6-10 says,
The Lord works righteousness and justice, listen, for all who are oppressed, but here’s where Jonah makes the mistake. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities
— Psalm 103
(ESV)
. So through Jonah’s nationalistic eyes, he believes that only Israel, God’s chosen people, are worthy of that kind of mercy. And what’s so interesting about Jonah’s perspective is that throughout the Old Testament, prophets have over and over again called Israel out for their unfaithfulness. Israel has been called out by prophets over and over again to repent from their evil ways, but Israel has consistently and constantly refused to turn.
Israel was not a very repentant people, characteristically, and Jonah knows this. And this is what makes him burn with anger. Because Israel, God’s chosen people, the religious elite, the privileged ones, refuse to repent but the Ninevites, the outsiders, the pagan irreligious people actually repent. They hear the message of the prophet and they repent. And this reality puts Israel’s reputation to shame. Jonah knows the inconsistency of his own people, so he burns. He sees their consistent unwillingness to repent, so he burns. He sees his own unwillingness to repent and rather than recognize this inconsistency and turn in repentance, he just sits and boils in his anger and resentment. And finally, we see Jonah’s response in verse 3 with Jonah’s ultimatum. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. Jonah’s so angry, so furious at God’s mercy, so full of resentment, he tells the Lord he’d
rather die than see God give mercy to these outsiders. And just to be clear, this isn’t Jonah just deciding to call it quits. I’m done. This has just been too overwhelming for me. I’m done. I just want to die. This is not Jonah feeling so depressed that he doesn’t want to live anymore. Now, this here is Jonah’s final attempt to control God. Here, Jonah gives God an ultimatum. Essentially, Jonah is telling God, it’s either them or me. Either you destroy them or I destroy myself. I’m not just going to sit here and let these wicked pagans repent and get off the hook. In fact, if they do repent, it’s going to be over my dead body. I’m not going to let them ruin my reputation. I’m supposed to just go back to Israel, a failed prophet, a false prophet? No way. It’s got to be them or me, God.
This whole exchange is baked in arrogance. The audacity of Jonah to speak to his God this way. This is the sovereign king of creation. Jonah knows who he’s dealing with. Jonah is speaking this way to the God who sends violent storms, who commissions great fish to swallow prophets, the God of heaven, of dry land and seas. He knows the God he’s dealing with. If Jonah knows the God he’s dealing with, then who does Jonah think he is? A prideful, legalistic, nationalistic, self-righteous, control freak. Jonah has hit the absolute rock bottom with his posture, with his pride, and with his rebellion. It’s really quite unbelievable how far Jonah has fallen. I don’t know if it gets any lower than that. The audacity of Jonah to speak that way to a righteous and holy God who exercises supreme power over everything. Jonah might as well already be dead talking to God that way.
God’s Gentle Response
The very breath that Jonah uses to indict God, to challenge God, to justify his sin before God is borrowed from God. God could in a moment simply remove Jonah’s borrowed breath and Jonah would drop dead and God would be just. But God is not like that, seeking only to bring judgment and death. God is not like Jonah, seeking only judgment for his fallacious acts and sin against God Instead, look at how the Lord responds to Jonah. More mercy. We see this in verse four with the Lord’s rhetorical question. And the Lord said, do you do well to be angry? That’s a phrase that when you first read it is really, it’s hard to understand, but when you hear it, you almost sense the gentleness of the Lord’s question. It’s subtle, but it’s sweet. In this little rhetorical question, we see God’s gracious, merciful, patient, kind, and
relenting response to Jonah. God could have crushed Jonah for his blatant disrespect. God has done so before for far less. But here what we see is that the Lord is at the same time, mighty God and wonderful counselor. The Lord condescends to Jonah. His anger is not aroused. The Lord deals with Jonah the same way a good counselor would deal with us. If we were in a counseling session, losing our mind, upset and frustrated for all the wrong reasons, a good counselor would come alongside of us in our anger and calmly ask us a few questions aimed to both defuse and gently expose. And that’s what the Lord does with Jonah. Essentially, the Lord asks Jonah this rhetorical question. Do you think your anger is justified, Jonah? Can you help me understand, dear Jonah, why it would be wrong for me to extend mercy to
people? What I find to be so interesting in the Lord’s response is that God shows Jonah mercy by showing Jonah mercy. Did you catch that? God teaches Jonah what mercy looks like by being merciful to Jonah. Jonah, you deserve to die for disrespecting me that way. But I’m not going to give you what you deserve. God asks this question to show Jonah that just like him, the Ninevites deserve to die for disrespecting God the way they have, but God doesn’t want to give them what they deserve. Psalm 103.10, we just read it, says, He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquity. Again, brothers and sisters, what we see over and over again in this book is that God is not like us. If this were us and Jonah spoke to us that way, I’m quite sure most of us in this room
Questions for Our Hearts
would say, who do you think you’re talking to? Don’t come at me like that. You’re done. You’re going to never speak to me again. But God is not like us. He’s gracious. He’s merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from the very disaster we deserve for the millions of ways that we disrespect our God. And thank God that he relents from his anger, that he doesn’t give us what we deserve. I want to close this morning by asking you just a few questions that are relevant to this passage this morning. The first question is this, are you willing to show mercy to all people? Are you willing to show mercy to all people? Listen, Jonah was God’s prophet and his heart was hardened towards showing all people mercy. If you are willing to show mercy to all people, do you understand the implications of all
people? All people means the people outside of this church. All people means the God-hating people of Portland. All people means the worst kinds of people, which includes your enemies. Listen to what Jesus said in Luke chapter six, if you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the Most High. For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Be merciful, even as your father is merciful. Who are those people outside of this church that you need to be merciful towards? Who are those people in Portland that your heart is bent against? Who are those worst kind of people in your life? Who are your enemies? Think about that for a second. Who are they? Who are the people that you have in your heart deemed unworthy to show mercy to because of how they live, because of what they do? Who are the people that you would consider to be your enemies? Jesus calls you to be merciful to them. Secondly, are you a Jonah? Now before you just quickly respond, no, that’s not me, think about it for a second. How many times have you ran from God? How many times have you refused to show people mercy? How many times have you tried to control God or become angry with God because God didn’t
do things the way you wanted him to do it? How many times have you tried to justify your sin before God? How many times have you lived in contrast to what you know theologically? For me, it’s far more times than I can count. Listen, here is the good news. God was merciful to Jonah. Even though he was a prideful, legalistic, nationalistic, self-righteous control freak, God was merciful to Jonah and he will be merciful to you. Even when we have hearts that look more like Jonah than Jesus. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Dear Christian, if you have a heart like Jonah this morning, if this message has exposed your heart, turn to Jesus this morning, confess your sins to him and he will forgive you of your pride, your legalism, nationalism, self-righteousness, and your control issues that ultimately lead
to anger issues. He will forgive you and make you clean. And lastly, are you a Ninevite? Are you far from God? Would you consider yourself a God-hater? Is your life and your actions marked by wickedness and evil? Have you done horrible things, unspeakable things? God is willing to give you the same mercy that he gave the Ninevites. Listen, the Ninevites were not good people. They were horrible people. But here is the beauty of the gospel, is that it’s not for good people, it’s for bad people. While it is true that your sin deserves death, the Bible tells us the wages of sin is death. While that is true, if you turn and trust in Jesus Christ, God will not give you what you deserve. But more than that, he will give you what you do not deserve, eternal life. The only reason why God can give you eternal life is because God gave his life for you.
You see, while God is merciful and while he relents from his anger towards sin, it’s also true that he is perfectly just, that God has to deal with sin. He has to judge sin. And so God poured out his judgment on Jesus, his own son, for your sake. On your behalf, he took what he did not deserve to get you what you don’t deserve. The forgiveness of sins, his righteousness, and eternal life. And you can experience that mercy this morning. If you are here this morning and you’re not a Christian, you can experience that same mercy by turning and trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. And listen, if you have questions this morning about how to do that, if you want to know what it means to be a Christian, you can talk to anyone in this room. Yeah, you can come and talk to one of the pastors.
We would love to talk to you, but you could talk to anybody in this room. The people in this room have experienced mercy and they know how to tell you what mercy looks like and how to follow him. You could do that this morning. Trust and believe in Jesus. He saved the Ninevites, a wicked and violent people. He can save you. Let’s pray. Lord, your word is the great revealer of our merciful God, and it is at the same time the great revealer of our great sin, which simply highlights the fact that we have a great savior. I pray God that your words this morning would not just simply be words that we hear and disregard as we travel back home. I pray God that your word this morning would have a powerful and lasting impact on our hearts, that you would make us people of mercy, givers of mercy, zealous to proclaim God’s
mercy to the people in our city. Help us to have the same heart for wicked and wayward people that you have for wicked and wayward people. Help us to have an appropriate estimation of who we are, sinners saved by grace and marvelous mercy. Father, would you motivate us to be loving and gracious and compassionate and excavate all of those things in our hearts that cause us to think those people out there don’t deserve you, don’t deserve your mercy. Forgive us for acting that way, God. Forgive us for acting that way and change our hearts, we pray in Christ’s name, amen. Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.