The Stance of God's Grace: Jonah

This morning, we're going to take the opportunity to start a two week mini series called the Extents of God's Grace. So I'd ask if you could open to the book of Jonah this morning. This morning, we'll be looking at just how amazing God's grace is through the prophecy of Jonah, finding its absolute fullness in Jesus Christ. And then next week, we'll be looking at the limits of God's grace in the prophecy of Nahum and what that actually means for us. As you may or may not know, both Jonah and Nahum prophesied against the exact same Syrian city of Nineveh with only about a hundred years separating their prophecies, so this will be a really good theme I think running between the two messages over the next two weeks, so that'll be really good.

But yeah, keep your Bibles on your lap, so that'll be great. Jonah works in a way that it's all in front of you, depending on the layout of your Bible. Your Bible works really well. Who am I? I was born into a Christian home and for the first six years of my life, my mother faithfully taught me the scriptures.

But tragically, my mother died when I was only six years old. When my father remarried, I was sent off to boarding school where I suffered under principal. My father was a mariner. At the age of 11, I began to go with my dad on his voyages. I continued a life at sea, eventually working on a ship engaged in African slave trade and human trafficking.

And it was during this part of my life that I really lived a reckless and squandering life. While I was at sea, I faced many trials including my own sinfulness and the violence of the sea. It was also at this time that I began to sense the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and began to recognise God's preserving grace in my life. I eventually repented of my sin and embraced Jesus Christ as my saviour. Later, as I reflected on God's grace, I wrote these famous words: Amazing Grace.

How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. After experiencing many dangers, toils, and snares, John Newton was transformed by his encounter with God's amazing grace. And as we pour over the prophecy of Jonah this morning, we can see that the prophet Jonah experienced a similar journey of grace to John Newton. Like Newton, Jonah was initially rebellious and resistant to God's work, and like Newton, took peril on the seas to awaken him to the glories of God's grace.

Jonah teaches us about the extent of God's amazing grace, which is ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ. But just to set us up a little bit this morning, turn the sun. Jonah prophesied during the eighth century BC and at that time, Assyria was the most powerful nation in the Middle East. The capital of Assyria, like I mentioned, was the city of Nineveh, and Nineveh was an impressive city with a massive population. It was surrounded by high fortified walls, and the people, the Ninevites, were proud of their position.

Assyria and its capital city of Nineveh dwarfed the tiny nation of Israel and its capital city of Jerusalem. And many people don't realise this, but the two nations, they were bitter rivals, and Israel would have been pretty pleased, I think, to see Nineveh's downfall. To put it bluntly, Israel hated Nineveh, and Jonah shared his nation's hatred for the Ninevites. Like Israel, Jonah wanted God to judge the Ninevites, but God had other plans. As you may know, Jonah really didn't like it, but God called him to go to the city of Nineveh and offer its inhabitants an opportunity to repent, to offer them a grace card, as we say in our household.

And Jonah really wasn't excited about fulfilling this call in his life. The prophecy of Jonah is conveyed, or carried, through the life of the prophet himself. Essentially, God used Jonah himself and his own experiences to bring across a message of amazing grace. And in the process, Jonah learned about grace by encountering it personally and by being pushed to become an instrument of grace to the Ninevites. The first chapter of Jonah's prophecy, if you have a look there, opens with a command to Jonah to go.

God commissioned him, saying in Jonah 1:2, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." And what was Jonah's response to this call? Many of us here know. He chose to ignore God's command, and he took off in the opposite direction at speed. Jonah 1:3, if you have a look there, says, "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."

Jonah, he just didn't want the Ninevites to experience God's grace. He thought they didn't deserve it, that they should come under judgment. So instead of going to Nineveh, he headed to Tarshish, and he couldn't have picked a more remote location, showing his disobedience and rebellion against God. Tarshish was most likely in what is now the nation of Spain. And to the people of Jonah's day, Tarshish was the edge of the known world.

It was in the exact opposite direction from Nineveh. Tarshish was west and Nineveh was east. Jonah boarded the ship to Tarshish in an effort to avoid God's will, to prevent His outstretched hand of grace to the Ninevites. And on the voyage to Tarshish, Jonah continued to dig his heels in, really showing his reluctance to extend God's grace to others. Many of us know, as the ship set sail, a massive storm, all of a sudden, was upon them. Sheets of lightning, rain going in all directions, huge waves sending the large ship into a spin.

I reckon it would have been pretty scary stuff. And the pagan sailors all became so afraid. They became so afraid that they began to pray to their pagan gods. Think about it. These guys are sailors.

They're at sea all the time. Had experienced storms before, but none like this. Their initial response to this storm was not to man the oars or to ease the sails. It was to pray to their pagan gods. I just want to say, what a great missionary opportunity this would have been for Jonah.

He had a golden opportunity to alleviate the sailors' fears by sharing with them the knowledge of the true God, but instead, do you know what he did? He slipped away downstairs and probably counted fish until he fell asleep. He didn't tell them about God because he was running away from God. I mean, he didn't even intercede in prayer for them. He went to sleep.

It was obvious that Jonah had no desire whatsoever to extend God's grace to these pagan sailors. But God, however, wasn't going to let Jonah get away with it. He wasn't going to let Jonah off the hook, so to speak. In His great providence, God provided Jonah with other opportunities to evangelise to the pagan sailors. I mean, these guys were open and they were desperate during this great storm.

First, God sent the pagan captain directly to Jonah, the captain himself. And I just want to say, this is often what God does when we behave in immaturity. When we don't fulfil His call, and I've experienced this in my own life, when we don't listen to His voice, He spoon feeds us. He spoon feeds us as a loving father spoon feeds his baby. God spoon fed Jonah in the same way.

Jonah 1:6 says, "So the captain came and said to him, 'What do you mean you sleeper? Arise. Call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us that we may not perish.'" His captain was terrified.

So here was another opportunity for Jonah to share the truth of the living God, but once again he wilfully refused. Second, God sent the entire crew to Jonah, and the crew in their pagan way cast lots, probably most probably with sticks or sheep knuckles or something like that, to determine who was to blame for the storm, and God made certain through this pagan practice that the lot fell on Jonah. And after the lot fell onto Jonah, I can almost see the sailors cornering Jonah with mixed facial expressions of fear and hopelessness, waiting for an answer as they asked him to identify himself. Who are you? What have you brought upon us?

And Jonah replied in chapter 1, verse 9, as he competed with the sound of the storm and the cracking timber of the ship. "I'm a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." Finally, even though it was done reluctantly, Jonah shared the knowledge of the true God with the pagan sailors, and amazingly, by the power of the Holy Spirit, they immediately believed. You need to remember and notice that the power isn't in what you speak out of your mouth, it's in what God does when you speak. The sailors then asked Jonah what they should do to calm the storm.

I think this would be the next logical question in my mind too. And Jonah told them they had to throw him into the sea. In verse 11, if you have a look there, because the sea was becoming more violent, more violent by the second. And at first, the sailors refused Jonah's command. No. We're not going to do that.

But out of fear, they eventually obeyed and hurled the prophet into the swell. And it tells us the raging sea became calm. Can you imagine a life-threatening storm becoming calm in a matter of seconds? How freaky would that have been? The raging seas became calm, but Jonah's troubles, though, were far from over.

This was just the beginning for him. The first chapter of Jonah's prophecy ends with these words: "And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." And just on this, how on earth does someone survive three days and three nights in the belly of a fish? Well, no one exactly knows, not without divine intervention anyway. Sceptics, of course, will say it's impossible, and Christian liberals say the prophecy should be read more as an allegory than actual history, but they're both wrong.

After all, besides the fact that it's in the Bible, Jesus Christ Himself accepted the account of Jonah as true in Matthew 12:40, if you want to flick over and have a look there. The whole event involved a divine miracle, as the scripture strongly implies. The great fish was prepared and sent. It was appointed by God in the same way the intense storm was that threatened the ship that Jonah was travelling on. God preserved Jonah's life miraculously all through the horrifying experience in the storm and in the great fish.

The storm was perilous enough, but now Jonah found himself in even greater peril. But it was in the belly of the fish that Jonah began to learn about God's grace. There he was, totally alone and totally helpless, the foul stench of fish stomach burning his nostrils. He couldn't run away anymore. He needed God's assistance, and so he prayed to God for deliverance. God answered His prayer, and three days later, the fish vomited him onto dry land.

God graciously delivered Jonah. And once Jonah was on dry ground again, God repeated His original command in chapter 3, verse 1, where it says, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." And this time, Jonah's response was a far cry different to his first. He wasn't happy about what God was asking him, but he obeyed regardless. Jonah 3:3 says, "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord."

Do you see how Jonah's perils at sea changed him? He was pushed by God to recognise both God's sovereignty and his own need for grace. In the belly of that great fish, Jonah personally encountered God's grace. After Jonah's nightmare in the belly of the fish, he walked into the heart of Nineveh to deliver God's message. But when it came time to open his mouth, Jonah spoke the bare minimum that obedience required.

He wasn't going to say one sentence more than he had to. If you have a look there, his entire sermon is recorded for us in one verse. He took a deep breath and yelled. Are you ready for it? He yelled, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

That was it. Eight words in English, five words in Hebrew. I can almost see him delivering his sermon with so much rush and half-heartedness before immediately exiting the city, hoping no one would repent, hoping only a limited amount of people actually heard him before dismissing him as a madman. But just like the pagan sailors on the ship to Tarshish, if you remember, we can see in chapter 3, verse 5, that the Ninevites responded positively to Jonah's message. What a miracle.

This was an incredible act of God's grace. Jonah's message spread like wildfire, and by the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit, this wicked city repented of their sins. The whole city repented. But Jonah wasn't impressed. Instead, he became angry and bitter.

He left the city and built a shelter where he waited for God's reaction to the city of Nineveh, as chapter 4, verse 5, tells us. He was presumably waiting and hoping for fire or some other means to come down and consume the city in judgment, and you know what? I'm pretty sure he would have warmed his hands by the fire. But the day of judgment never came. God's grace took its place.

God's grace took its place. And as Jonah sat sulking in his shelter, wanting to die, I think he's a bit of a grump. God continued to instruct him about grace. What a good and patient God we have. First, He provided a vine to give some shade for Jonah from the scorching sun, and this made Jonah happy.

But the next day, God sent a worm to kill the vine, and Jonah quickly began to suffer again from the heat, and then he became really angry about the death of the vine, and he sat hot and fuming with anger. And as he was sitting there, God interrogated him in chapter 4, verse 9. If you have a look there, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes. I do well to be angry.

Angry enough to die." Then God confronted him in verse 10 and 11 with these words: "You pity the plant for which you did not labour nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

Do you see what God was teaching Jonah here? He was teaching Jonah a lesson about the nature of His sovereignty and His grace. God told Jonah that He made the vine. He made the worm, and He made the Ninevites. God made the vine, the worm, and the Ninevites, so He could do with each of them whatever He pleased. Basically, God was saying to Jonah, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." In other words, God was informing Jonah that He'll give grace to whoever He wants, even the Ninevites, regardless of whether Jonah and the Israelites hate them or not.

God taught Jonah about the nature of His sovereign grace by pushing him to be an instrument of grace to the Ninevites. But whether he knew it or not, Jonah had an even bigger role in explaining the grace of God. He was also used to point us here at Open House this morning, as well as countless other Christians over the ages, to the one who is full of grace. The truth is, ultimately, Jonah speaks of Jesus by foreshadowing the work of Jesus Christ in showing grace to all nations. Jonah is basically a type of Christ.

Jesus confirms this by directly connecting Jonah to His own ministry in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 12:39-41 says, "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, that's Jesus, saying, 'Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.' But he answered them, 'An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here." Jesus basically drops bombs on the Pharisees using Jonah as His illustration. If you notice, looking at that passage, He draws two direct parallels between His ministry and the ministry of Jonah. First, Jesus connects Jonah's three days in the belly of the fish to His own death and resurrection. And second, He connects the preaching ministry of Jonah to His own by referring to how the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And by this connection, Jesus was basically telling the Pharisees and the teachers of the law that they, like the people of Nineveh, needed to repent. And on top of these two parallels, there's a third implied parallel between Jonah and Jesus which flows out of Matthew 12 and relates really to Jesus' entire ministry. And I think this parallel probably most strongly reveals and shows us how Jonah points toward Jesus, the fullness of grace. If you haven't already picked up on it, one of the major lessons of Jonah is that God cares about all nations. At the time of Jonah, Israel believed that God only cared about them, and Jonah was almost representative of this national belief.

Jonah, and Israel as a whole, resisted the idea of God extending His grace to other nations. If you remember, this is why Jonah didn't want to preach to the Ninevites, because he didn't want them to receive any of God's favour, which he and the nation of Israel had. But God pushed Jonah to be His instrument of grace, and what a fight it was. And in doing this, God used Jonah to teach Israel that He cares about all nations. Have a look at God's question to Jonah at the end of the prophecy.

Look at chapter 4, verse 11. God said to Jonah, "And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" He asked Jonah, "And should not I pity Nineveh, the great city?" The prophecy of Jonah is one of probably the clearest Old Testament examples that God's redemptive plan includes showing grace to the Gentiles, and this theme pretty much foreshadows the work of Jesus Christ. After Jonah spent three days in the fish, he came out and preached to the Gentiles in Nineveh.

After His resurrection, Jesus gave His disciples a commission. He says in Matthew 28:18-20, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Then in Acts 1, just before He ascended into heaven, He commanded followers to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Jesus, like Jonah, is an instrument of grace to the Gentiles, but of course there are massive differences between Jesus and Jonah.

Jonah was a reluctant instrument of grace to the Gentiles. Jesus was a willing servant. Jonah had a very narrow view of God's redemptive plan. He didn't want God to extend grace to those people, but Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And the Holy Spirit really convicted me over this difference between Jonah and Jesus, and it should really challenge you too.

Let me ask, are you more like Jonah or are you more like Jesus in sharing God's grace? I mean, these are important questions for Christians today. Is Open House, as a church, reflective of the spirit of Jonah or the spirit of Jesus? Are you reflective of Jonah or Jesus in the community of Nerang and surrounds? Or have you become reluctant and wayward spreaders of grace?

Are we happy meeting with one another but not sharing with others? Are we like the Old Testament Israel and many other churches today in their inwardness? Well, the prophecy of Jonah warns us that behaviour like this can result in a loss of blessing for the people of God. So we need to make sure that we don't impose limits on God, on the Holy Spirit. Ask yourself, are you more like Jesus or Jonah when it comes to sharing God's love, sharing the Gospel of grace, extending the kingdom?

It's plain to see that Jesus is greater than Jonah. Yes. Jonah can encourage and challenge us as a type of Christ, but Jesus is so much more. Jesus makes the point very clear in Matthew 12:41 when He says something referring to Himself, "Greater than Jonah is here." Jesus wanted to do His Father's will.

Jonah wanted to do his own. Jesus showed so much mercy and compassion for the lost. Jonah showed no compassion or mercy for the pagan sailors on the ship. He showed no compassion for the lost in Nineveh. He wanted them to die, like actually die.

Jesus is the very source of God's grace. He wasn't just a messenger or an instrument of God's grace, like Jonah, but He's the source. John 1:14 describes Jesus as being full of grace and truth. And Jesus is greater than Jonah because He literally, not figuratively, rose from the dead. Jesus rose from the dead.

Jonah spent three days in the belly of a great fish. Jesus spent three days in the grave where He experienced hell and complete separation from God. Though we can see that Jonah's suffering in the fish is figuratively connected to Jesus' suffering, there's really no comparison, is there? When you think about the difference in the magnitude of suffering experienced by them and also what their suffering has actually accomplished. I found this really powerful quote from a guy named O Palmer Robertson.

He said, "All praise to Jesus Christ, the suffering servant of the Lord. He endured things worse than Jonah. Hell itself was His cup to drink, not merely a mouthful of salt water. The Lord pursued Jonah to the point of death for the sake of the salvation of many, but He pursued Christ to the fact of hell to save numberless sinners throughout the history of the world." Isn't that such a stirring quote?

Jonah was in the belly of the fish because of his own sinfulness. Jesus entered the grave for your sins even though He was sinless. Jonah's figurative resurrection led to the conversion of the Ninevites. Jesus' resurrection led to the justification of all believers. Romans 4:25 puts it so beautifully.

"Jesus Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." The prophecy of Jonah shows us the lengths that God will go to show grace to those He loves. But doesn't it just blow your mind to think about how much more this is displayed in the sending of Jesus? Many of us know the famous Bible verse, "For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Let me ask, do you really understand the fullness of God's amazing grace?

Because the prophecy of Jonah only foreshadows. It only scratches the surface. In Jesus, we see the fullness of God's amazing grace and love. If you don't already know it, I want you to memorise this Bible verse to heart. Write it down if you want. Romans 5:8 says, "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

That's what's so amazing about grace. John Newton, the writer of the well known hymn Amazing Grace, recognised that the most amazing thing about God's grace was that it came to him and it comes to you. He said, "If I ever reach heaven, expect to find three wonders there. First, to meet some I had not thought to see there. Second, to miss some I'd thought to meet there.

And third, and the greatest wonder of all, to find myself there." That's the amazing thing about grace. It can even save complete wretches like John Newton, like the Ninevites, like Jonah, and like you and me. Amen. Let's pray.

Father God, we've just been blown away by the prophecy of Jonah this morning. Lord, our eyes have now been opened to how this prophecy speaks of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and we praise You for extending Your hand of grace to the Ninevites even though Jonah was reluctant to serve. And we have no words to express our thanks and gratitude for Your amazing grace to us. Lord, we're living in Your grace right now, that You showed Your love to us even while we were still sinners.

That Jesus had every single person in this room in mind as He hanged from a tree. Please forgive us for our sins. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit and make us more like You. And in the same way You extended amazing grace to the Ninevites and to us, help us share Your love and grace with each other but also those around us.

Lord, You are such a God, mighty to save, abounding in love and grace, and we love You so much. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.