The following sermon was recorded during the Lord's Day gathering at Grace Community Church in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We are a congregation of Christians that exists to joyfully extol and magnify the Triune God, to faithfully proclaim the Christ-centered Word, to build each other up by speaking the truth in love, and to bring the good news of the Gospel to our city and world, so that the Lamb who was slain may receive the full reward for his sufferings. For more information about us, please visit our website at gcclostcruises.com. We are glad that you are listening to these sermons, but we would humbly ask that you do not use our recordings as a substitute for your personal involvement and membership in a local church. The local church is an assembly of baptized believers who, out of obedience to God's Word, regularly gather together to worship God and stir one another up to love and holiness. Thank you for listening, and may God bless the reading and preaching of His Holy Word, for your full and lasting joy in Him, and for His eternal glory. To God alone be the glory, forevermore, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, as you can see from your handout this morning, your bulletin, the title of this message is surprising, scandalous, sovereign mercy. And as I was thinking through it, I should have added one more S word because it adequately captures the message of the Book of Jonah. It should have been Surprising, scandalous, sovereign, stubborn mercy. Stubborn mercy, that is God's mercy, a mercy that is relentless, a mercy that does not give up, a mercy that continues to pursue and to seek and to save the lost. This is the first message in a series that we will title, Jonah, the Depths of God's Mercy. And so the portion of the Word of God that I would like to call your attention to this morning can be found towards the end of the Old Testament in that section known as the Minor Prophets. The Minor Prophets. There are 12 Minor Prophets. After you've arrived there, I want you to find the fifth book among the 12, the Book of Jonah, and turn there. The Book of Jonah. Here we have four little chapters. It only takes about 10 minutes to read, and yet, the more I read it, and the more I consider it, the more convinced I am that The Book of Jonah is an absolute literary masterpiece and a true classic. It's a story that is simple enough for a child to understand, and yet so profound that interpreters throughout the history of the church have labored to land on its main message. Brian Estelle, in his book, Salvation Through Judgment and Mercy, The Gospel According to Jonah, put it like this. Below the surface simplicity of this biblical book, the prophecy of Jonah is an extremely subtle and complex piece of work. I continue to bump up against the reality that easy answers are not forthcoming. Rather, the original author, a very thoughtful and skilled author indeed, kept questions alive for his audience. Therefore, we should not reduce this story to one simple theological message. The story of Jonah, in fact, evokes questions that we'll probably not find answers even after repeatedly rereading the book. And he concludes by saying, this is often what makes a classic. wonderful literary artistry mixed with many layers of meaning that motivate reading a book more than just once. Consequently, a person ought to read a classic thoughtfully, slowly, and repeatedly. A classic endures the test of time. The Book of Jonah is a classic. So without further ado, I want to begin by reading this petite but punchy and powerful book that is packed with profundities as we set our sails this morning and prepare for our journey through the book of Jonah. Jonah chapter one, beginning in verse one. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 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. And they said to one another, come, let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation and where do you come from? What is your country and of what people are you? And he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord. the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, what is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Then they said to him, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, pick me up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down for you. For I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless, the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not. for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 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. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head. At the roots of the mountains, I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, oh Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love, but I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, And he called out, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water. but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish 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 that you are a gracious God and merciful, 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? Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, it is better for me to die than to live. But God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And he said, yes. I do well to be angry, angry enough to die. And 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 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? So reads the word of the living God. Thanks be to God. This morning, as we embark on our journey through the book of Jonah, I simply want to chart the course ahead to give you an idea of where we are going in the weeks to come. I'll begin by saying that preaching through the book of Jonah comes with both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that most people are already familiar with the story of Jonah. Raise your hand if you're familiar with the story of Jonah. Raise it high. All right. especially if you grew up in the church. You've heard the story about Jonah and the whale, right? Fill in the blank, everyone says, the whale, the fish, the great fish. But of course, the disadvantage that comes with preaching through the book of Jonah is that because the story is so familiar, that familiarity can breed contempt. The mystery fades away. The wonder fades along with it. You begin to take the story for granted. I know that story. I drew Jonah and the Whale when I was in Sunday school. You tell yourself, I've heard the story, how it begins and how it ends, and you can easily approach these Sunday mornings as a closed-minded know-it-all with nothing left to learn. Another disadvantage in coming to the book of Jonah is that most people have been taught that the climax and the shiniest feature of the story is when Jonah is swallowed by the great fish, right? You just said it, what's Jonah about? Jonah and the whale, Jonah and the great fish. And so you come to the book of Jonah thinking that this is the highlight of the story. When in reality, that's such a small part of the story. And so for many people, the account of Jonah and the fish has become nothing more than a distraction from what God is really saying through the book of Jonah. And I'm here to tell you as your brother and pastor and friend, don't be distracted by the fish. Throughout the history of the church, interpreters have struggled with trying to identify what kind of fish could have possibly swallowed Jonah. And so what was intended by God to be a story packed with a powerful theological message for readers then and now has turned into a biology textbook for myopically focusing in on the nature of the fish, the size of the fish, and the plausibility of the massive fish that swallowed Jonah. Talk about a distraction from the story. I love what one old Scottish preacher said about the kind of fish this was. As he sought to prevent his hearers from being distracted by the fish, like so many readers are, he said that the fish must have been a red herring. Now, if you know, you know. In the realm of logic and argumentation, a red herring is a fallacy that occurs when one party introduces a completely irrelevant topic into an argument in order to divert attention away from the main issue. That actually comes from the world of training hunting dogs. Trainers would drag a smoked red herring, which apparently was a very, very smelly fish. the trainers would drag a smoked red herring across a trail to distract the dogs in the midst of their training. And of course, the objective was to train these dogs to stay focused on the true scent rather than being thrown off by a stronger but unrelated smell. And so I agree sarcastically with this old Scottish preacher who concluded that the fish in Jonah's story must have been a red herring because of its ability to distract readers from the story. And so my ask today and in the coming weeks and my plea is that you approach the book of Jonah as a hunting dog in search of what the Spirit of God is saying to us in the story of Jonah and not be distracted by the red herring that swallowed Jonah. Now what we're gonna do this morning is simply ask and seek to answer three questions. Number one, what is the book of Jonah? That is, what is the nature of the book of Jonah? Is it fiction? Is it an allegory, a parable, a mere legend, satire, didactic fiction, storytelling for the purpose of moral instruction? What is the Book of Jonah? That's the first question. The second question we're going to ask today is what makes the Book of Jonah so unique among all the minor prophets, the 12, and really among the rest of biblical literature, what makes the book of Jonah stand out the way it does? And thirdly, and lastly, we're gonna ask the question, what is the purpose of the book of Jonah? Is there a moral lesson, or two, or three, or four, that God is trying to convey through this story? Is it merely history for the sake of history? What a strange thing that would be, right? You have your 12 minor prophets and then the fifth one is just history with no prophecy or no moral instruction or anything like that, just history? Or is there something else that God wants to teach his people through this little book? What's the purpose of the book of Jonah? And so let's begin first of all with the question, what is the book of Jonah? T. Desmond Alexander points out that recent efforts to classify the Book of Jonah as fiction have produced a wide range of suggestions. Allegory, midrash, parable, prophetic parable, legend, prophetic legend, novella, satire, didactic fiction, satirical, didactic, short story, He says, such a list of proposals suggests that there is a considerable lack of agreement among scholars regarding the genre of Jonah. So what is Jonah? What's the genre? You see, all those categories that Alexander mentions, they really all boil down to one thing, fiction. Many theologians and scholars believe that the book of Jonah is a fictional story. That is, it's a made-up story. It's not a record of real events in a real place with a real man in a real city. It's a carefully crafted story intended to entertain, intended to grab the attention of readers with some humor and ultimately instruct them. A fictional story may feel real, but it's not a historical account. Now those who take this position will point to various literary features within the story for supporting their viewpoint. For one, the hyperbolic use of the word great that comes up again and again in the story. Nineveh, that great city, mentioned three times. Nineveh, that great city, that great city. The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. The sailors were greatly afraid. All the same word in the Hebrew, by the way. There was a great tempest. The Lord appointed a great fish. It displeased Jonah greatly. When Nineveh repented, Jonah was greatly glad because of the plant. So this constant use of this Hyperbolic word, great, right? They'll point to, in support of their theory that this is a fictional story, they'll point to the fact that, well, look at how fast Nineveh repented. It must be a made up story. They'll point to the vast size of Nineveh. Come on, really? The same way that they got off the rabbit trail and gone to try to find out what kind of fish swallowed Jonah, they've also tried to look up Nineveh to see, does it really, really take three days to get through the city? They'll point to the quickly growing vine that covered Jonah. Many believe it was some kind of gourd or something like that. They'll point to, obviously, the miraculous account of the fish swallowing Jonah, and they'll say, come on, really? This is not history. This is just fiction that's intended to bring a lesson to us. And they'll conclude that it's all just fiction. God's word, yes. God breathed, yes. But fiction, nonetheless. Not historical reality. Now, let me just say this. just because someone believes this doesn't make them a heretic. It does not make them a false teacher. There are good brothers and sisters throughout the history of the church, modern and back then, who have taken this view. For example, many of you have heard of Tim Mackey with the Bible Project. Regardless of how you feel about Brother Tim, He has an excellent series on the book of Jonah, but if I remember correctly when I listened to it, he doesn't believe that these events actually happened. He argues that this is a fictional story intended to be humorous and full of sarcasm in order to expose Israel's ridiculousness. And I share that not to cause you to despise brother Tim, but simply to show you that there are good brothers and sisters who take the book of Jonah to be mere fiction. But is it? Is the ultimate question. What is the Book of Jonah? Now, I'm gonna argue and seek to demonstrate in the coming weeks that we are to treat the Book of Jonah as historical narrative. Historical narrative. That is, actual recorded history. factual, actual events in the history of the world. Mark Dever says, yet arguing against this view, the view that would see Jonah as fictional, is how unlike a parable this story actually is. It's too long. It's too detailed. Its characters are too lifelike. It's set in real cities with real names. And it appears to be set in a specific time of history, the eighth century BC." Now, for one, I'll just say to you this morning, using literary devices like repetition and hyperbole, words like great, great, great, everything's great, doesn't necessarily imply fiction or parable. Let's remember who is ultimately telling the story. the living God, the creator of words, the Lord of language, the Lord of literary brilliance. Speaking of the Old Testament prophets, the apostle Peter declared, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Whoever the author of Jonah is, whether it's Jonah himself or some other prophet, some other author, that is, the Spirit of God is the ultimate author behind the human author who is moving the human author to write according to the will of God. So God can tell the story however poetic he wants to. He can write it however artistic he wants to. He can write it however he wants. In addition to this, we know that Jonah was a historical figure in redemptive history. You can read about him in 2 Kings chapter 14. Jonah was a real man. He was a prophet alongside Hosea and Amos in Israel, the northern kingdom, who prophesied in the days of King Jeroboam II, who reigned from 782 to 753 BC. So Jonah was a real man. So the argument is, if he's real in 2 Kings 14, why would he not be real over here in the book of Jonah? When there's nothing indicating anything different. In other words, if we're intended to take 2 Kings 14 as historical narrative, part of the history of Israel, why would we not take something later on that talks about the same prophet as historical narrative? But the ultimate proof, I think, as to why we should take the book of Jonah as historical narrative is Jesus. Jesus. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 12, quickly. Matthew chapter 12. This might still be fresh on the minds as we just finished our exposition of Matthew a few weeks ago. Matthew chapter 12, beginning in verse 38, then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered 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, speaking of the Ninevites, repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. He also goes on to list another example of historical fact. The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. So notice, Jesus treats Jonah and the account of Nineveh's repentance as historical reality. How? Real, was it? As real as his resurrection would be. You see, because someone might argue, well, he could still refer to an Old Testament fable, an Old Testament fictional story, an Old Testament made-up story, and point to how it's a picture of what he's going to do, but how confusing would that be? Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in that old made-up story, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The question would be then thrown at him, well then how real is your resurrection? Is your resurrection an allegory? Is it a parable? Or is it reality? And not only that, but then he goes on to not just talk about Jonah literally being three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, but then he goes on to say that at the final judgment, now stop right there, how real is the judgment to come? Will that be a historical reality marking the end of this age? Yes. That's not a story. That's not a made-up fictional thought to scare people into church. No, sir. No, ma'am. That is historical reality. Judgment will take place. God has fixed a literal day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. Acts 17 verse 30. And just as Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, Jesus says that the men of Nineveh will be there at the day of judgment in the future condemning the present generation who is rejecting Jesus because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, who was a type of the one who was to come, Jesus Christ. So he's saying Jonah and the people of Nineveh will be pointing at you, scribes and Pharisees, because something greater than Jonah is speaking to you now. It's historical reality, what we're dealing with here, written with humor, written with sarcasm, written in an entertaining way, but that doesn't take away from the historicity from this story. So what we're dealing with here is historical narrative. That's the first, answer to the first question. What is the Book of Jonah? What genre? We are dealing with historical narrative. Secondly, what's unique about the Book of Jonah? What makes it stand out among not only the minor prophets, the 12, but the rest of biblical literature? Well, when we just take it in its immediate context, how do almost all of the minor prophets begin their prophecies? They begin by saying something like, the word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham. Hear you peoples, all of you. And then there's a sermon. There's some kind of message. You go back and Amos is full of oracles and discourses from God through the prophet to the people, right? All the minor prophets are God's message through a prophet to the people. You know what makes Jonah stand out? Is that the message that God has for the people is the story. The message is the story, the uniqueness of the book of Jonah compared to the other prophets is this. In the other prophets, God's message is revealed through prophetic declaration. But in Jonah, it's revealed through providential operation. Does that make sense? In the other minor prophets, his message is revealed to the people through prophetic declaration, preaching. In Jonah, the message comes. by the God of providence who's working all things, every event to communicate his heart and his will to his people. If I can put it another way, God's message in the other prophetic books comes to his people from God speaking through the prophet. But in Jonah, God's message to his people comes from God dealing with his prophet. God's message to his people comes through, in the other prophets, speaking by his prophet, whereas in Jonah, the message comes by God's dealings with his prophet. Big difference. If I can put it another way, just for your understanding, in the other prophets, God's message is revealed through oracles of prophecy, whereas in Jonah, it's revealed through the outworkings of providence. What is providence? Providence just is a fancy word for God's active, purposeful sovereignty. God is sovereign. That means he's in control. He has the might and the right to do what he wants. Providence describes the reality that God acts and moves and turns history and events as he wants to, as he wishes. Providence. the outworkings of providence. So it's interesting, isn't it? Jonah isn't just a long sermon. It's not a sermon at all. It's a historical account of God's dealings with this man as he's moving him to go preach to the Ninevites, because God's heart is set on bringing the Ninevites to repentance. And the process to get him there is quite the process. The word of the Lord comes to Jonah, and if it was like any other prophet, we would have had then a sermon. Long sermon, long message, long discourse, long oracle. But the word of the Lord that comes to Jonah is not for Jonah to go out and relay to us. It's the word of the Lord that he's going to tell him to give to the Ninevites. Jonah hears that word and he runs in the opposite direction. In fact, some of the translators have equated Tarshish, to which Jonah fled, to our version of Timbuktu. He fled in the very opposite direction. So the message is in the story, not in the sermon, because there is no sermon here. Now, that's the uniqueness of the Book of Jonah. What we're gonna do with the rest of our time together this morning is consider the last question, What is the purpose of the Book of Jonah? We've considered what genre it is, historical narrative. We've considered its uniqueness, its messages, and the story. Now, thirdly, what is the message of the Book of Jonah? It's twofold. Sorry, the purpose of the Book of Jonah is twofold, didactic and prophetic. Now didactic simply means it's designed to teach. It's designed to instruct. It's intended to convey truth to us. It's didactic. Something didactic is meant to convey a lesson, a moral, a spiritual truth, or some practical instruction, not just to entertain. So the purpose is didactic. There's a message here. And we need to figure out with all the tools we're given, the minds we've been given, the rest of this canon of scripture that we've been given, what is the message of the book of Jonah? What is the message? You see, we were told in 2 Timothy chapter three, verse 15 and 16, how from childhood, Timothy had been acquainted with the sacred writings, the scriptures. And then Paul says something fascinating about the Old Testament writings. He says, these are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. hermeneutical cheat code here. How are we to read the Old Testament? The Old Testament is able to make us wise for salvation through Jesus Christ. Meaning what? Meaning what Jesus said, you search the scriptures for, and then you think you have life, but these scriptures are the scriptures that testify of me. all of scripture points us to Jesus Christ and the salvation that is in him. But then we are told in verse 16, all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. And so how we are going to look at the book of Jonah as we are going to look at it as a story that ultimately points us to the salvation that is in Jesus Christ, but also in the midst of all that, there is teaching, there is reproof, there is correction in order that we might be trained in righteousness, that we might be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So Jonah points us to Christ, the story points us to Christ, and the story has for us instruction about God, reproof and correction for how we are living in order to train us to be more like Christ. So the first thing that Jonah reveals, the book of Jonah, is it reveals the glory of God's power. It reveals the glory of God's power. I mean, just consider briefly with me. The word of the Lord comes to Jonah. Jonah hears it, understands it, and then flees in the other direction. Complete opposite direction from Nineveh. Gets on a boat and flees to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. And the first thing we see about God here is his power, his sovereign power in hurling a great wind upon the sea. This is the God of creation. Not only the God who created the heavens and the earth, but the God who maintains and controls the heavens and the earth. Jonah reveals to us the glory of God's power. And not just here, we see it throughout. He hurls a great wind, he appoints a great fish, He appoints a plant, another wind to dry up everything at the very end of the story. All throughout the story, we see God's power. One of the things about sea creatures to the Hebrew mind is that sea creatures were powerful creatures, and yet who is directing the sea creature here? It's God, it's Yahweh, the covenant God. So Jonah reveals and unveils to us the glory of God's power, but also the glory of his mercy. the glory of God's mercy. We see God dealing with three parties here throughout the story, right? And we only, what, took maybe 10 minutes to read? But who are the recipients of God's mercy? It's threefold. Jonah, the sailors, and the Ninevites. Each one receives mercy from God. One of those individuals is part of the covenant community. The two other parties are not. These mariners, these Ninevites, they're not part of the covenant community. In fact, you can see the superstition of the mariners, the sailors, and their thoughts about God. I mean, they refer to him as, perhaps the God will have mercy upon us. Perhaps the God will do this. Perhaps we need to sacrifice you to get this nonsense, this storm to stop. To get all this nonsense to stop. Perhaps he'd throw you in there, right? Even though that was really Jonah's idea, they were good with it because in their minds, maybe this is the God and how he works, right? This is his way of operating. The story reveals God's grace and mercy to his covenant people, but also to those who are not his covenant people. And thus the story becomes a foreshadow of what would happen in the New Testament. God extending beyond the borders of Israel to go to India and Rome and China. continent of the Americas with his message of saving mercy through Jesus Christ, just like we see here in the book of Jonah. It has so much correction for us. It corrects our ways of thinking. Like Jonah, we know certain things about God, Isn't it fascinating that in the beginning of the story, we are not told why Jonah fled. We often assume why he fled. I mean, if you read anything about the Ninevites, according to history, the Assyrians, they were a brutal, bloody, violent people. Horrible in what they would do to their prisoners and their captives. So we tend to think, well, Jonah fled because he was terrified of the Ninevites. That's not what the story tells us in the very end. And again, what we're going to do throughout the time in Jonah is I'm going to try not to give you the answers at the back of the book until we get to the back of the book. Because that's how a classic works. What good would it be if we came across these plots and these questions and the problem within the text, the issue, and then immediately just satisfied our curiosity by just going to the back of the book? Now, in some cases, we can do that with the Bible because the end interprets the beginning, right? But in Jonah, we're meant to take it as a journey, literally a journey through this little book to see what God has for us in the end. And the whole reason he fled was because he knew, not that the Ninevites were fierce, but that God was merciful. I knew. And so there's correction for us. What is it that you know about God that makes you angry? Are you angry with God? And do you do right? Are you right to be angry with God? God's gonna correct us during this season. Are you right to hold bitterness against God? Are you right to despise others? Are you right to cherish God's grace and mercy to you, but become resentful when you see God extending his same mercy and grace toward people that in your mind aren't worthy of it? He's gonna correct us, He's gonna instruct us, He's going to reprove us, but He's also going to train us in righteousness. It's didactic, it's teaching us, but it's also prophetic. And what I mean by that is it points us to the future. to Jesus Christ, the greater Jonah. I love that. I love that we have Matthew chapter 12 and Luke chapter 11, where Jesus specifically calls himself the greater Jonah. And we're gonna see all the parallels between Jesus and Jonah, and yet the stark contrasts between Jesus and Jonah. Jonah, you see, says, throw me in and the wrath will stop. Jesus says, you don't throw me in, I throw myself into the raging sea of God's wrath in order for peace to appear for those in the ship, right? It's prophetic. Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, which if you read as we just did Jonah to his descent into the sea and into the fish is a type of death. He says you rescued me from the pit and You brought me up again. All of that is language of death and resurrection. And so what it does is it points us to the greater Jonah, Jesus Christ, who, like Jonah, passes through death and resurrection in order to take the gospel of his grace to the Gentiles. In Jonah's case, the Ninevites. In our case, us. Not Israel, not God's covenant people. And what's interesting is that not only is the book of Jonah a type of the Jesus who was to come, and by his life, death, resurrection, fulfill this type that Jonah was, but now we, the church, who are in Christ, share in the destiny of Christ, right? by our union with Christ, we share His destiny, we share His mission. And so we are those who, like Jonah and like Jesus, passed through death and resurrection, raised to newness of life. We are those who were once fleeing from the Lord, going in our own direction, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, and yet God pursued us, made us alive together with Christ. Jonah was taken by this fish, and yet we were taken by the glorious grip of God's grace. And when he was done with us, we washed up onto the shore of the new creation. We washed up onto the shore of the new birth and regeneration as new creatures. And then we go obediently to go and do what God calls us to do, just like Jonah. And yet what we find, like Jonah, is we read chapter two and we get this hope that, oh, Jonah's finally fixed. He's finally in prayer. He's finally ascending his prayers to the throne of God. He's there at the temple of God, literally says, you heard me from your temple. Certainly Jonah's gonna be a hero from this point on, and yet we see Jonah in the very next few chapters just crash to the ground again, because that is a picture of our own experience, is it not? We get right with God, we repent, we turn from our ways, we confess our stupidity, and we think we're on the narrow path again, and then before we know it, we're angry with God again. But thank God that we don't have the final word. God has the final word. As Spurgeon said, it's there on your bulletin, actually. Like Jonah, you may lose your gourd, but you cannot lose your God. It's prophetic, it points us to Christ, points us to the church's mission, points us to the faithfulness of God to glorify his name, and ultimately, friends, the book of Jonah reveals the heart of God for the peoples of the earth. You see, I do think, I would agree with Tim Mackey and all these others that believe that this is a fictional story, and they emphasis on the fact that it is a story intended to underscore the ridiculousness of Israel. They had the light, they had the truth, they had the oracles, they had the prophecies, and yet they were hoarding it. They were like that individual that Jesus talks about who has the light, the lamp, but then they cover it. and prevent its light from going out to the world. We're gonna see God's heart as the overarching message of the book of Jonah. I mean, from the very beginning, friends, God expresses his desire for Nineveh. Arise, go to Nineveh, for their wickedness has come up before me. What was God's intention all along? To save the Ninevites. To grant them repentance. Now, if you think, and we'll get there, but if you think that here we have this story of God's control just bleeding through every line of the text, God controlling the word that goes out to Jonah, God controlling the sea, God controlling the wind, God controlling the fish, God controlling the plant, God controlling all these things, but then all of a sudden, Nineveh just of their own will just says, Yeah, let's listen. Friends, that's God's work of bringing them to repentance. That's God's work of humbling this foreign nation, bringing them to their knees as it were before Him. That was God's intent all along. And He used Jonah to do it. And so, if you wanna outline for the book of Jonah over the course of the next few weeks, we'll have a point for each chapter. In chapter one, it's very simple. we see the prophet running. In chapter two, we see the prophet praying. In chapter three, we see the prophet preaching. And then in chapter four, we see the prophet pouting or complaining or the prophet angry. Just a few concluding thoughts here. If the whole purpose of Jonah is didactic, in other words, to instruct us, to teach us, to correct us, and to point us to Christ, prophetic, then I wanna leave you with these six warnings for this morning. We read through the prophecy of Jonah, the story of Jonah, and I just offer these six warnings to you as the people of God who just heard and witnessed this very story. Do not despise the word of the Lord. You might say, well, Jonah despised the Ninevites. Jonah despised their power. Maybe he did. But what does the Bible actually tell us that he ignored? The word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, and what did Jonah do? He ran the other way. Don't despise the word of the Lord. Jonah despised God's word. He heard it clearly. It was clear. It was not confusing. We can easily despise God's word and go in the opposite direction. Secondly, do not despise God's presence. Twice we are told Jonah fled from the presence of Yahweh. Fled from the presence of Yahweh. Sometimes in our restlessness, we run everywhere except to God's presence. And the message of Jonah says, don't despise his word and do not despise his presence. And by the way, for every warning, There's an admonishment, there's a command. Don't despise God's word, delight in God's word. Don't despise God's presence, delight in God's presence. Thirdly, don't despise God's discipline. We see in chapter two how Jonah was brought to a kind of repentance, if you want to call it that, grip on reality. He was sobered, but God got ahold of him. God disciplined him by sending a fish because God disciplines those that he loves. And the encouragement, the warning from the book of Jonah is don't be like Jonah and despise God's discipline, but delight in God's discipline, take God's discipline, rest in God's discipline. It's not painful at the time. Hebrews tells us that it's not painful, it's not pleasant, but afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness that we who partake in it may share in God's holiness. Delight in God's discipline. Fourthly, Do not despise God's methods. You see, God's method of reaching the Ninevites was one weak, troubled, chaotic man. Isn't it amazing that we're talking about these prophets and sometimes we can grow up in a kind of Christianity that views everyone in the Bible as a hero. We're not to take the Bible that way because there's one hero in the story. The rest are just a bunch of failures that God worked in in order to get his will across. The hero is Christ. Our eyes are to be fixed on him. Even when you read the Hall of Faith, when you actually read their actual accounts, they're not portrayed as heroes. But what does faith do? Faith does not look within, faith looks without, looks to God. So the hall of faith is really about the faithfulness of Christ in working through these weak individuals. So do not despise God's method, methods. His method is men, right? I love what E.M. Bowne said. I read this in a book on prayer many years ago, and I was reminded of it yesterday. He begins his classic work. If you want a book to stir your heart to prayer, read E.M. Bowne's Power Through Prayer. But in his opening chapter, he says, it's titled, Men of Prayer Needed, he says, we are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man into the plan or organization. God's plan is to make much of the man far more of Him than of anything else. Men are God's method. The church is looking for better methods. God is looking for better men. Do not despise God's method. What is God's method to bring the gospel to those around you? It's you. It's me. Don't despise how God's designed this thing to go out. you might think, oh, this could have been done better by angels. That's not God's method here. God's method is to use his servants to tell of his power and his saving grace. So do not despise God's word, delight in it. Do not despise God's presence, delight in it. Do not despise God's discipline, delight in it. Do not despise God's methods, delight in them. Fifthly, do not despise God's power to save. Do not despise God's power to save. You might come across Jonah chapter three and read about this radical repentance that gripped the land, 120,000 people repenting in the Old Testament without Bibles, without hearing the name Yeshua or Jesus, and think, ah, this can't be real. Friends, don't despise God's power to save. What we have in the book of Jonah is probably the greatest account of a revival in the history of the world. A move of God. Before the church age even. Amazing. Don't despise God's power to save. Delight in God's power to save. Believe God's power to save. Pray for God's power to save. And sixth and last, do not despise God's freedom to extend his saving mercy to anyone whom he wills. That's what Jonah did. Jonah despised God's mercy. It doesn't even say he despised the Ninevites. He said, I knew you to be a God merciful and gracious, and he quotes the great Exodus 34, where the Lord says, the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in self, the greatest self-revelation of God in the Old Testament. Jonah quotes that and says he's angry at God because of it. Do not despise God's freedom. That's what it is. God was free to reserve and confine his love to Israel. He was free to keep them as the apple of his eye. Oh, but he's also free to plant an entirely new orchard around the world and have apples in Nineveh, Syria, Rome, the Americas. He's free to extend his mercy. Do not despise his freedom to show his saving mercy to those that you think are not worthy of it. On the contrary, delight in God's freedom to do what he wills with his creatures. Delight in God's freedom to save even those that you would consider your very enemies. What we have in the book of Jonah is a preview of Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son and the elder brother. Jonah, ironically, is the elder brother. The Ninevites are the prodigal son out living recklessly according to their own will and doing what they want to do, what's right in their own eyes. God has mercy and grips the Ninevites, brings them to repentance. And what the elder brother Jonah should have done is fallen to the ground and said, Father, you brought these individuals into the kingdom. Now we don't know the extent of their repentance, how long it lasted, that's not the point of the story. And so we're not gonna go there. But Jonah should have rejoiced even as Luke 15 tells us what was happening in heaven. When sinners brought to repentance, what's happening? Angels rejoicing, heaven rejoicing, God rejoicing. Jonah becomes a picture of the elder brother who's bitter. And yet the father says to the elder brother, everything I have is yours. all mine is yours. We can easily become like the elder brother, despising people who are down and out, despising people who are not walking according to God's mercy. And when God saves those individuals, we can easily become cynical, we can become doubtful, we can even become mean and ugly. Let us be those who are like those in heaven who are rejoicing at God's freedom to show and extend his saving, sanctifying, satisfying mercy to his enemies for his glory and our ultimate good.