People of Mercy and Grace

 By

 John C. Orlando, Jr.

Covenant Presbyterian Church, Abilene, TX.

7 November 2004

Text:  Jonah Chapter 4

As Christians, one of the most cherished things that we hold dear about our faith is the fact that our Great God and Savior has showered His mercy and grace upon us.  In His mercy, He has not given us what we richly deserve, namely, His just punishment, and in His grace, He has given us what we don’t deserve, namely, the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to us and eternal life. 

What we come to understand is that in and of ourselves, there is nothing in us that would incline God to give us anything except His righteous indignation and judgment.  Yet God has saved us despite ourselves.   

And while all of this is true, it is amazing that so often we forget to extend to others the very same things that was so abundantly lavished on us:  mercy and grace.  Such was the case with the prophet Jonah.  

Background:  Jonah was commanded by God to go to Nineveh to preach against it.  But Jonah fled!  While on the ship, God sent a storm, and the cause of the ships problems were eventually traced to Jonah’s disobedience.  The men on the ship reluctantly, and at Jonah’s request, throw him over board, and God provides a great fish to swallow Jonah.  Jonah is eventually spewed from the fish after his repentance, and obeys the Lord to go to Nineveh to preach against it.  The people of Nineveh do the unexpected and repent.  Now we come to the text and see: 

I.  Jonah’s Reaction To God’s Mercy And Grace

A.  Anger:  Verse 1 “But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry…” Jonah was angry that the Lord would not destroy the city.  Remember, this is the same Jonah, the one who rebelled against God (chapter 1), and who deserved nothing but death!  Now he wants the death of rebels, and cannot find mercy for them.  Jonah had forgotten that he himself was delivered by God.  Jonah forgot that he didn’t deserve a bit of mercy, but he: 

B.  Acknowledges God’s Character:  Read Verse 2 – Two things to take note of here:

            1.  Jonah understood precisely who God was from the very start:  “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my {own} country?” 

2.  While he acknowledges the character of God, he does so in an accusatory manner, and actually blames God’s graciousness for his previous willful disobedience. “"Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are…" 

                                    a.  This reminds us of the fall.  Adam points the finger at God as the reason they disobeyed:  “The woman whom You gave to me…” 

                                    b.  It also reminds us that God’s grace is always accused of producing disobedience, even in the church today.  God’s grace, rightly understood, should never be used as the impetus for sinning.  Rather, it is to God’s grace that we look to as our motivation for doing the good works that God has prepared for us to walk in.  True faith is not only wrought by God’s grace alone, but it is also fueled by God’s grace alone, and has as its foundation and focus God’s grace alone as it rests upon the finished and perfect work of Jesus Christ alone.  If it is does not, it is not a true faith.   If it does not, then it turns into legalism, and we begin to do things not because of God’s grace, but to earn more of God’s grace.  We begin to size others up on the basis of our own works.  We become speck finders.

C.  Jonah Pleads For Death, Verse 3  – What would make Jonah react so dramatically?

              1.  First, during this particular time of redemptive history, God’s redemptive purposes were primarily geared toward Israel.  Israel was made a people by God Himself.  Israel was led out of captivity by God Himself.  Israel was given God’s very Law and Word by the finger of God Himself.  Now, inexplicably, God is pouring out His grace upon a Gentile society, much to Jonah’s dismay.  For Jonah, all was now lost.  Has God rejected Israel?!  And to top it off, God was doing this with Israel’s nemesis!  Jonah was so blinded by his own sin, by his own pride, and by his own tradition, that he simply did not understand how God could be so gracious.  

2.  Second, this was not how it was supposed to go!  Jonah prophesied against  Nineveh…He wasn’t trying to get Nineveh to repent, he simply stated, “In 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown!”  

The unexpected happened though, and Nineveh repented, and God did not destroy it.  Jonah now has egg on his face!  How could he ever be taken seriously again as a prophet?  

But here is the thing…God simply told Jonah to proclaim whatever He told him to proclaim.  That was it.  Jonah simply refused to proclaim the message and then leave the results to God.  Jonah could only see one purpose for the message:  destruction.  God though used the message for something else:  a demonstration of His mercy and grace.  

Today, many of us still do not understand that our sole mission is to simply proclaim God’s Word, and then leave the results to Him.  We cannot get caught in the trap of trying to manipulate God, where we try to force the message to accomplish what we think it ought to accomplish each time we proclaim it.  It is not by our methods, techniques, or strategies that transformation takes place.  Rather, it is solely by God’s Spirit working through His Word. 

D.  Jonah Goes Off To Camp – Verse 5 – Jonah goes outside the city and camps and sets his gaze there, still hoping that God would destroy Nineveh.  Jonah wanted to see a reenactment of Sodom and Gomorrah, but God had other plans. 

II.  God’s Object Lesson To Jonah (Verses 6 – 11) 

In verses 6 – 11 God demonstrates both sovereignty and His mercy. The first thing that must amaze us is the incredible longsuffering of God toward Jonah!  Here was this puny, insignificant piece of dust that dared to first of all blatantly disobey God, and then had the audacity to point his finger in accusation against God.  Yet God comes to Jonah in grace to teach Jonah about grace.  Let’s first look at God’s sovereignty in this situation: 

A.  Read V. 6 – 8 – God demonstrates His sovereignty over different aspects of creation.  He appoints a plant, a worm, and an east wind.  Let’s look at these: 

1. God appoints the plant --  There is this hardhearted Jonah, uncomfortable as he is sitting in the bleachers so to speak waiting to see the great event of God demolishing Nineveh!  So God appoints this plant to comfort Jonah.

2. But then God appoints a worm to attack the plant so that it withered.

3. God then appoints an east wind (remember, Jonah was sitting east of the city!).  

B.  Verses 8b – 9 – We see Jonah’s reaction to all of this: He begs to die because he is angry concerning the plant. Amazingly, Jonah still thinks he has a right to be mad when the plant is destroyed! (v. 9).  Then God shows Jonah how hard his heart is, pointing out that Jonah:

1.  Had no right to pity something which he didn’t even bring about (the plant). 

2.  Jonah was now concerned over the destruction of a plant (and his personal comfort) yet was not only unconcerned about the destruction of 120,000 people, but actually wanted their destruction!  

III.  What We Have In Common With Jonah 

Some of us may be looking at Jonah and shaking our heads in disgust, and thinking, “gee, he was such an ingrate!  I’m glad I’m not like that…”  But, I think if we stopped and really evaluated things, we may find that we have more in common with Jonah than we might think.  

A.  We, like Jonah, disobediently fled from God’s presence (1:1-3). Jonah willfully disobeyed what he knew God wanted him to do.  We all have done the same.  Look at Eph 2:1-3.  

            "1 And you were dead in  your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the  lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even  as the rest."

B.  We, like Jonah, were brought to the depths of death because of our sin.  Jonah was trapped in the belly of the fish, which here can serve as a type of death. We too were trapped in death, but then God mercifully delivered us from our condition, from our “great fish” if you will, and we are no longer trapped by death.  Look at Eph 2:4-7.      

"4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

C.  We, like Jonah, have been appointed by God to proclaim God’s message. Eph 2:8-10.   

"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that  not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good  works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

IV.  Conclusion

It seems apparent that Jonah simply forgot where he had come from.  When he was in the belly of the fish, he realized how desperate his situation was, and he realized that his only hope was in the mercy and grace of God.  He realized that salvation was from the Lord.  But look at how quickly he forgot that.  He was one who was saved by mercy, but then was not a person of mercy.  He was saved by grace, but he did not have grace in his heart.  He set his eyes on the faults of the people of Nineveh, and not on the mercy, grace, and love of God.  The same judgment that was due to him he wanted imposed on the people of Nineveh.  

So beloved, here we are.  I believe that upon examination, we can all relate to Jonah, which raises 2 questions that I would like to put forward for us to really meditate upon: 

A.  How do we react to the world around us? 

How do we react to the drunkard?   How do we react to the drug addict?  How do we react to the  homosexual, or the prostitute?  Do we look down upon those in the world in self-righteousness arrogance and condemnation because of the sin they engage in?  Do we look upon them praying that God would bring His wrath upon them?   No, we do not condone those sins, but we must understand that sinners are just doing what sinners do:  sin.  And remember, we too were sons of disobedience, just like the rest!  Our task is not to react with hostility to the world around us, but to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Our task is not to stand in condemnation of the world.  Rather, our task is to simply go and proclaim the Gospel to the world.    

B.  Are we people of mercy and grace, or people of judgment?   

My prayer is that we be people of mercy and grace.  To be people of mercy and grace means that we acknowledge and take solace in the fact that we were brought forth by God’s mercy and grace, and that same mercy and grace is what we are to show each other, and the world.  How do we do this?  The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Tim 1:12-17:

"12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; 14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 15 It  is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal,  immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

Paul reflects on the glory of the cross of Christ, and clings to it as his only lifeline. He doesn't forget who used to be, and realizes that but for the grace of God, he would be nothing.  And it is his life now that Paul says God is going to use to demonstrate His patience as an example to those who would believe.  Paul would be a testimony to the grace of God that is only found Jesus Christ.  Paul wanted only to exalt in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was there that he set his gaze, and he gives all of the glory to God alone.  

Beloved, let us follow that example.  Let us realize the depth of the depravity that marked our lives prior to coming to Christ, and the heinousness of the depravity that still resides within us.  Let us look to the old rugged cross, where the Prince of Glory, the One who was utterly righteous, bore the wrath of God and curse for those who were utterly unrighteous. 

Let us not exalt ourselves and our own “righteousness” as Jonah apparently did, but let us ever exalt in the One who is our righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ.   The Gospel is the power of God to salvation, and it is that Gospel that we must rest upon each and every day of our lives.  It is only by the Gospel that we can stand. 

Let us give a reason for the hope that we have then with gentleness and meekness. 

Let us reach out in the compassion of Christ to one another and the world outside and pray that God would privilege us to be the instruments through which He would display His incredible grace and mercy.

 Amen.