Josh Wredberg - The Gospel and Those People - Jonah 4

will you take your Bibles and turn to Jonah chapter 4 Jonah 4 I love stories there's nothing like getting lost in a good story my wife and I have attempted to ingrain that in our three sons by the summer giving them a list of books to read many of them stories some of them are short some part of an extended series some humorous others adventurous there's something about a good story whether you read it watch it or hear it the best stories all share a similar plot structure so it begins by by setting a scene and from there the action begins to build there'll be these moments of tension on certainty before you reach the climax after the climax the loose ends are tied up in the story resolves usually hopefully with a happily ever after moment Jonah chapters one through three make a great story at the setting is a is a prophet who's given a message by God to take to another country the action builds as the Prophet disobeys God he runs the other direction he's chased by a storm thrown into the sea and swallowed by a great fish the climax happens in the belly of the whale as the Prophet repentance and then chapter 3 resolves the story as the Prophet goes to the country he gives the message the people here at repent and God spares them to live happily ever after that's where the story should end but it doesn't end there a chip Jonah chapter 4 should not exist it doesn't fit the structure of good stories it happens after happily ever after why is it included I think the ultimate purpose of the Book of Jonah is revealed in chapter 4 there are a lot of great lessons in chapters 1 through 3 but the biggest lesson comes in the unexpected final chapter the final chapter begins and ends in surprising ways it begins with an angry Jonah and it ends without an ending look at first 1 Jonah chapter 4 verse 1 but it is pleased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry now Jonah has just been part of one of the greatest revivals in human history an entire city has repented of their sin and turned to God for mercy the key should be thrilled if I got up on a Sunday morning and preached the gospel and my entire city repented I would be thrilled I would call people on the way home and say you will not believe what happened today Jonah should be excited but he's not he's enraged five times in Chapter four Jonah's anger is mentioned in fact he's so angry he wants to die twice he says in Chapter four I would rather die than live and this isn't just an idle statement he means it because in Chapter one he had the opportunity to tell these sailors turn the boat around like I'm going this way so God sent a storm if we go that way I bet God will stop the storm but he doesn't say that he says throw me overboard Jonah would rather drown in the sea or baked in the desert than keep on living why is doing so angry that's a great question for us to ask whenever we find ourselves angry especially since we live in a time of perpetual outrage we get more and more angry without taking time to consider why we're angry and whether the angers appropriate and anger is like a metal detector the closer the metal detector gets to the treasure the louder it beeps the closer something gets to what we treasure the angrier and angrier we get our anger grows more and more fierce and often more and more loud when something we treasure is threatened so what is Jonah so angry about look at verse two and he prayed to the Lord and he said O Lord is this not what I said when I was yet in my country that is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish for I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relented from disaster Jonah is angry because God forgave Nineveh instead of destroying it Jonah wanted to see men of us suffer in fact even after this exchange with God Jonah sets up outside the city like it's the 4th of July hoping to see a show but why why is it he's so angry see God has been merciful and gracious to him throughout the book and he's been fine with it in second Kings 14 we see that when God told him to deliver a positive message to to the king of Israel he obeyed so Jonah is fine with God being gracious and kind at times why does this act of grace so anger Jonah his problem was not with God being gracious but with God being gracious to those people Jonah did not run the opposite way because he was afraid of the Assyrians he ran the opposite way because he was afraid that God would be gracious to the Assyrians and he did not want them to experience God's grace - Jonah the Assyrians were those people who should be judged and condemned not forgiven so why did Yunus see the Assyrians as those people unworthy of God's grace well there's a clue in the text look at what Jonah says in verse 2 Oh Lord is this not what I said when I was yet in my country my country Jody has this strong nationalistic view in fact the very first words that Jonah speaks in the entire book chapter 1 verse 9 are this I am a Hebrew so when Jonah was asked to tell his country about God's grace he was quick to obey but when Jonah was asked to tell in different country about God's grace he ran the other way he would tell his people but not those people anyway that people are different from you can be a reason for you to treat them as those people it could be something national something physical spiritual intellectual any time you see a difference with someone else and that difference causes you to view yourself as superior you have just turned them into those people so each of us needs to ask who are those people in my life now we cannot assume what I would never do what Jonah did he's treating a group of people as less valuable or less worthy has happened throughout history and Christians have not been immune to it in the early church some of the Jewish Christians looked at Gentile Christians as those people even the Apostle Peter and Barnabas refused to eat with the Gentiles until Paul came and confronted them for their hypocrisy Martin Luther great reformer proclaimed the gospel boldly in a dark time treated the Jews as those people one of his writings he said we should burn their synagogues and destroy their writings George Whitefield most notable preacher of the Great Awakening thousands upon thousands came to faith because of his preaching he's burdened to help orphan so he establishes an orphanage and then he has slaves work the plantation to keep it alive at that time slavery was illegal in Georgia he became one of the leading proponents to legalize slavery just a month or so ago I was talking with an 71 year old african-american brother in my town and he's told me that when he drove to our church office which was next to an old pharmacy that he remembers having to go to the back door of that pharmacy as a kid because he couldn't go inside and the people who owned that pharmacy long-standing members of a Baptist Church when I was in Moldova earlier this year I discussed Jonah 4 with a group of pastors and they said oh we know who that is for Moldovans it's Russians there are those people because of our pride and self-love any way in which someone is different than we are can be enough to turn them into those people so I think about myself what am i I'm a Christian so Muslims atheists Mormons they can become those people I'm a man so women can be those people right like women I'm an American so anyone from another country can be those people I speak English so if I hear other languages those people I'm white so anyone with a different skin color can be those people I'm middle-class so anyone richer than me can be those people in Fuquay sometimes we talk about those people in North Raleigh they think they're better than us we Joe but we probably reveal something about our hearts in that joke also because I'm middle-class I have people poorer than me it can be those people I'm educated so those lacking education I homeschool so anyone who makes a different choice in schooling I'm politically conservative so so anyone from another party can be those people any way in which someone is different than me can become a way for me to treat them as less deserving of God's grace I can even do this with people who sin differently than I do there was a joke I heard when I was a young kid and it was a terrible joke it wasn't funny and it was just terrible but it went something like this do you want to know how to stop the AIDS epidemic but all the gay people on a rocket and send them send them to the moon to colonize it apparently those people deserve judgment for their sin but we don't now Jonah's defense for his attitude could have been don't don't you understand how evil the Assyrians are like their evil chapter one has has literally reached up to the heavens and God has sent me here don't you understand what they have done to others how they have victimized people so maybe Jonah would argue that his problem wasn't their nationality but their depravity if that were the case who could really blame him for wanting judgment right seeing grace as only for certain sins or certain sinners shows how greatly we misunderstand both sin and grace see we see sin from the wrong perspective we we see sin if sin is a force we see it from the ground so we walked through the forest and we see certain sins and like look at those redwoods look at theirs mighty oaks and then we see our sins as these cute little shrubs it's an azalea bush it's flowering and we say look look at how awful that is but look how oh that's not that bad well God sees our sin from above have you ever flown over forests you can't tell a difference in the size of trees all you see is a dark block when we treat certain people with certain sin struggles as those people we ignore what God says about our sin and our need for grace Jonah's anger came from God's grace on those people who Jonah felt were unworthy of God's grace his Jonah's anger okay is it right for Jonah to be angry God asked him that question twice verse four and verse nine Jonah is it right for you to be angry now to help Jonah answer that question God gives him an object lesson he first sends a shade tree to make Jonah more comfortable verse six he then sends a worm to eat the shade tree verse seven and then he sends a scorching east wind to make Jonah and miserable verse eight and while Jonah is miserable God asked him that question a second time Jonah is it right for you to be angry and this time his anger is more about the plant dying than about God's grace on Nineveh and so when Jonah responds yes it's right for me to angry I should just die God asked Jonah a question look at verse 10 when the Lord said you pity the plant for which you did not labor nor did you make it grow which came into being in a night and perished in a night and should I not pity Nineveh that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and all so much cattle Jonah's anger is wrong not just his anger over the plant but also his anger over Nineveh and God here connects the two of them together in both cases Jonah was angry for the same reason Jonah's anger came from loving himself more than loving his neighbor Jonah's anger at Nineveh was born out of pride I deserve forgiveness those people don't and his anger the plant was also born out of pride I deserve protection but those people don't see Jonah's selfishness here is revealed both by what makes him angry and what makes him happy there's a connection between those two things in your life first one says Jonah was exceedingly angry in verse 6 says Jonah was exceedingly glad what makes you happy and what makes you sad what makes you angry and what makes you joyful reveals what you really love Jonah was angry when those people different than him were not condemned and he was happy when he was comfortable and both revealed Jonah's greatest love was Jonah the root of bigotry is always a love of self we love ourselves so much that we exalt ourselves over those who are different than us Jonah loves himself more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who are spiritually ignorant this kind of self-love is kind of pride it shrinks our world it makes us miserable the only time in the entire book that Jonah is happy is when a plant grows up to give him shade the more he focuses on himself the more shallow and narrow he becomes what makes you angry what makes you happy that reveals what you treasure this final chapter has some important lessons to teach us about pride and selfishness and about how pride and selfishness produce bigotry and Prejudice bigotry happens whenever I looked down upon someone who is different than I am bigotry is when I quickly and easily rush to condemn those who hold different beliefs or have different struggles I don't appoint up just three principles about bigotry from this text first good theology does not keep you from bigotry good theology does not keep you from bigotry Jonah knew his theology he quotes from the Old Testament in verse two listen his theology did not keep him from bigotry he actually used his theology as fuel for his bigotry he ran from Nineveh why because he knew God's character he knew God would forgive Jonah's issue is not a lack of theology but a failure to apply theology to his life the passages Jonah quotes repeated numerous times in the Old Testament but the original is X's 34 verse 6 and it comes immediately after the nation of Israel has just built the the golden calf they've worshiped it and God says to Moses I should just wipe these people out for their sin they deserve to die and Moses pleads before God to to spare them and God says he will spare them and he says this is why because he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relent in from disaster so Jonah knows God's character he understands God's works but he doesn't apply it to his own life he is glad for God's grace on his people but not on those people you see some Christians write theology for instance that Jesus is the only way to heaven that's right theology that's all you'll ever hear here because that's what the Bible teaches there is one way to heaven Jesus Christ but some Christians write theology has been wielded as a weapon against those from other religions the Bible teaches that there is one way to salvation but that doesn't mean we view Muslims as those people we need to have compassion on those who are ignorant of God's saving work Muslims don't need our prejudice they need our Savior here we are sitting in a chapel at Southeastern so I assume we know our theology I'm walking on a campus that looks like this makes you smarter we can quote verses from the Old Testament just like Jonah did but write theology will only keep us from bigotry if it helps us love Jesus more because jesus said the person who knows their sin is great and has been forgiven of it they will love much but the one who says I have a little sin and have little need for forgiveness will love little the number one way you can fight the temptation in your life to see certain people as those people is by applying the gospel to yourself when you see warnings of sin in the Bible don't think about other people those of you are pastors this is this is what we do this is hard every verse I read I think about a face in my congregation but I should first especially in warnings about sin think about my own heart the seeds of every sin are in my heart see nothing would be worse than a church or seminary filled with people who can recite a catechism without obeying it who can quote verses without keeping them love good theology but don't think good theology is sufficient to conquer the pride in your heart that leads to bigotry second God is not okay with bigotry and his people God is not okay with bigotry in his people what does God do to expose the bigotry in Jonah's heart he appoints a plan to grow verse six he points a worm to eat the plant verse seven he appoints a scorching east wind to make Jonah miserable verse 8 God would not leave Jonah captive to his pride and prejudice now there is a fascinating word choice in verse 6 it says that God appointed a plant to grow to save Jonah from his and the ESV translates it discomfort to save Jonah from his discomfort but that word translated discomfort is actually the same word used in chapter 1 verse 2 to talk about minimas evil you see God sent Jonah to save Nineveh from their evil and God sent a plant to save Jonah from his evil have you ever asked why did God send Jonah Toninho in the first place surely there was a better candidate I mean I could just say I can just picture like the the committee meeting and Jonah comes in you're like we're thinking about sending you to Nineveh what do you think and he says I won't go what do you mean by that you won't go I mean it literally I will run the opposite direction but like don't your heart right it's motivated by compassion for them and he says no I hate them the only thing I'd like to see is them burn I'm gonna be like you're the man you're the man for this job we we've been looking for you this seems like the worst possible choice like all of God's prophets and you can't find a single one more suited for this task than Jonah or the other guys like you guys God sent Jonah to Nineveh because of his bigotry God was going to take care of two evils at one time the evil in the city of Nineveh and the evil in Jonah's heart see God not only sends his people to save others but he saves his people from the sins rooted deep in their own hearts God has the ability to multitask I can't I multitask I'm ignoring one thing I should be doing while doing something I probably shouldn't be like what God can do this he can do two things at once and he may be multitasking in your life right now so that neighbor moved in and you were wondering why and it's not only so they'll be saved by your witness but so your heart will be changed by your service to them you lost your job and had to go to a food pantry you wonder why so you can be a testimony to those there and so that you'll start to care for the poor and view them differently you got mistreated at at work so that you'll start to see injustice and fight against it God is always doing this like the Book of Jonah teaches us that God is constantly pursuing sinners whether it's a wicked city or some pagan sailors or self-righteous prophet he's always pursuing his people to save them from the evil inside in this final chapter Jonah stands as a representative of God's people he's a representative of the entire nation of Israel a nation called to be a light to the Gentiles and God is asking the nation if they will do what He has called them to do will you look down upon the Gentiles or will you be a light to the Gentiles the nation of Israel responds just like Jonah but the true Israel the ultimate prophet does not look down upon the Gentiles he is a great light to all that walk in darkness he does not run from sinners he runs to sinners to save them you see this book of Jonah is a rebuke to anyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus Christ but is unwilling to engage a certain person or certain group of people with the gospel of grace but it's also a reminder that God will not sit by idly and leave you in your prejudice that God will send a storm a fish a scorching east wind he will send something to save you from your sin thirdly finally bigotry undermines the mission of God bigotry undermines the mission of God see Jonah's bigotry caused him to work against what God was doing so God said I'm gonna I'm gonna save these these Ninevites and Jonah runs the other way God says I'm gonna show them mercy and Jonah wants judgment when you look down upon another group of people when you see yourself as superior to someone else you are working against what God is doing to bigotry and Prejudice in any form whether national racial social political is anti gospel it is anti gospel because the gospel is the message of grace to the undeserving but bigotry says while I'm deserving a grace you're not no one deserves it that's the whole point that's the beauty of grace when you look down upon others you undermine the very message you say you believe bigotry is also Antichrist because Jesus Christ condescended he became lowly in order to save those who are undeserving you see like Jesus Jonah a prophet from Galilee was cast into the deep and by being cast into the deep he was able to save others from their sin after 3 days and 3 nights he was raised up by the power of God there's so much to see about the story of Jesus in the life of Jonah but Jesus is so much greater than Jonah Jesus looks with mercy on those deserving of judgment you and I are never more unlike Jesus than when we treat someone else as desert undeserving of grace see we don't just ignore God's plan when we act in bigotry we undermine it so God is gathering a group of people for himself more beautiful than a rainbow and we want to make it monochromatic God is gathering for himself a people which sound more beautiful than a choir and we want to make it monotone a God is saving a beautifully diverse group of people do you realize that when Nineveh repented and heaven rejoiced those in heaven looked like the people in Nineveh see when we Harbor bigotry in our hearts we undermine God's plan for the world Jonah's bigotry has turned him into a spectator content to sit by and watch people die are you a spectator now you content to sit by from a distance and watch people die in their sin the story of Jonah has some interesting parallels to one of the most famous stories Jesus told the story of two brothers the younger brother the prodigal son is a lot like Jonah in chapters 1 & 2 he rebels he runs away he reaches this terribly low point and it's in that low point where he sees his folly and repents he returns and when he returns he's welcomed by the father and the father throws a celebration the older brother is a lot like Jonah in chapter 4 he gets angry when the father shows mercy on the younger son in his pride and arrogance he looks down upon his brother who in his opinion does not deserve grace now that story ends a lot like the story of Jonah it ends without an ending will the older brother repent of his arrogance will he turn from his prejudice will he celebrate his father's grace well Jonah repent of his arrogance will he turn from his prejudice will he celebrate his father's grace I think the story's end that way because it doesn't matter what Jonah decided or the older brother decided what matters is that we each answer the question ourselves well I repent of my arrogance while I turn from my prejudice well I celebrate the father's grace the ending is up to You Father the difficulty with sins of pride self-love and Prejudice with bigotry is that it hides in the very deepest and darkest corners of our heart it is socially unacceptable and so it does not come out very often or very publicly and so we need your Holy Spirit to expose in us what is so difficult for us to see we need your Holy Spirit to show us where we love ourselves more than our neighbor where we view ourselves as more superior as more deserving of your grace show us Lord if there are any way that we treat other people as those people undeserving of your grace and when you expose that help us to repent turn from it receive your grace and celebrate your grace with all people I pray this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Southeastern Seminary

Views: 1,909

Rating: 4.878788 out of 5

Keywords: Southeastern, Baptist, Theological, Seminary, Chapel, Message, Jesus, Preaching, God, Book, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Gospel, False Teaching, False spirits, Spirit, Danny, expository, Great Commission, Truth, Grace, Love, Discerning, Training, Education

Id: RgzlotbHkRA

Length: 31min 32sec (1892 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 19 2018