Jonah, chapter three. That's on page 983 in the Pew Bible. We've been we've spent a number of weeks on Jonah. We spent the last three weeks on Jonah, chapter two, and we're finally moving to chapter three. Just to recap where we are in this story. God told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to warn that wicked city of God's coming judgment. But Jonah knew that God is a merciful God and he didn't want to see the people of Nineveh repent and turn to God because he knew that God would have mercy on them. So Jonah went the opposite direction, tried to run across the world to Tarshish. So he got on a ship that was sailing that way. As they began to sail west, a great storm, God caused a great storm to come over that boat and it almost sank. In order to calm the sea, at Jonah's advice, the sailors threw him overboard. Not long after Jonah hit the water as he was drowning, a big fish came and swallowed him. God saved him through this fish and he gave thanks to God in the belly of that fish. And now we come to chapter three. I'm going to read verse 10 of chapter two and then we'll read all of chapter three. Remember, this is God's Holy Word is more important than our daily food. So let's pay attention. And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, Arise, 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 rose from 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 that they what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it. That's the word of God. I want you to try and put yourself in this situation. Let's say you live in Great Britain during World War Two. You have watched Hitler and the Germans destroy most of Europe. You've heard news about his massacre of millions of people, including even some of your own distant relatives. And you know that if he gets to Great Britain, he would slaughter you and your people without mercy. He would destroy your city, your community. One day, God tells you very clearly that you are to go to Berlin. And there in that capital, the capital of that notorious country, you are to pronounce the coming judgment of God. Well, in your mind, there are two ways that this could end. God could either powerfully open their ears to hear and their eyes to see in their hearts to believe. And that this city and country would repent and turn to God and God would have mercy on them. But in your mind, as you've seen Hitler move across the country, move across the continent, destroying You think yourself this man is not worthy of being saved. This man should not be saved. He should pay for his this devastation. Hitler should suffer for what he's done. And so that's not a good option. You don't want to see God have mercy on Hitler and his people. The alternative, though, if they don't listen to you, they'll likely kill you on the spot. for speaking against Hitler and his empire. They wouldn't show you a whole lot of compassion if you speak against what they're doing. So to say the very least, neither of these two options are very favorable. You don't want to go to Berlin. Well, what must happen in order for you to go to Berlin? In order for you to go to Berlin, you have to be willing to sacrifice two things. First, your self-righteousness must be sacrificed. You don't think Hitler's worth saving, which means that you've decided that there are some people in the world worth saving and others not. Somehow you are worth saving, but Hitler isn't. So your self-righteousness must be sacrificed. The second thing that must be sacrificed is your own life. You must be willing to lay down your life for the work. You are to be filled with such compassion for Hitler and Berlin and Germany and his people. That you sacrifice your self-righteousness and your own life in order to see them saved. On order for Jonah to go to Nineveh, he had to sacrifice the same things. This was very much the situation that Jonah faced. And so he had to sacrifice his own self-righteousness and his own life. Jonah's mission is. More similar to our mission than we may first think. God has sent us to minister. In the midst of a hostile world, a world that is corrupted by sin. And God has promised That as we hold out the word of life, one of two things will happen. The world will either persecute us, shame us and maybe even kill us. Or God will use us to lead them to salvation. We want to reach the world around us, we want to reach our community, but in order to do that. We have to be so filled with compassion for those around us. For the last. That we are willing to sacrifice our self-righteousness and sacrifice our own lives in order to see God's mercy extend to those around us. So I ask you, I ask us as a community. Are we ready to sacrifice? Are we so eager to see God's compassion extend to those around us that we're willing to sacrifice in order to see that happen? To put it lightly, Jonah has had a very tough week. At the beginning of the week, God told him to go to Nineveh. He hated that idea, so he ran in the opposite direction. He didn't want to see God be compassionate to this city. The city of Nineveh, they didn't deserve God's compassion in his eyes. So he tried to run away, he jumped onto the ship, he got caught in a storm, he was thrown overboard, he nearly drowned. He was then swallowed by a big fish. And he spent three days inside the belly of the fish until the fish vomited him onto the shore. That's a pretty hard week. But God brought him through that week to teach him this crucial lesson on compassion. God's God used this trouble in Jonah's life to break him of his stubborn heart and bring him to his knees. And when Jonah cried out to God, God immediately brought showed him his show him compassion and brought salvation. God showed compassion to Jonah. So Jonah would learn to be compassionate toward others. Jonah didn't deserve to be saved, but God saved him, and now he should be eager to see God save others who don't deserve it, like people of Nineveh. So, as soon as Jonah was vomited out of the fish onto the shore, God recommissioned him. He didn't change anything. He recommissioned him to go to Nineveh. The task was the same. Now, at the time of Jonah, Nineveh was one of the major cities in the Assyrian Empire. It wasn't until about 70 years after Jonah's ministry that Nineveh actually became the capital of Assyria. But nonetheless, it was this huge, influential, powerful city in the world. As far as cities, ancient cities go, Nineveh was huge, it contained 120,000 people, and our translations say that it was a three days journey in breadth. That word breadth in our translations isn't actually there in the Hebrew. It simply says that it required a three day journey and that meant that it would it would take about a three day journey to walk around the city. The entire city or more specifically around the metropolitan area there. So the metropolitan area of Nineveh was something like 60 miles in circumference. At the center of this metropolitan area, there was the main part of the city, the center of the city, which was roughly five square miles. It was surrounded by walls that were about anywhere from 40 to 50 feet high with watchtowers built all around it, something like 15 main gates going into the city. It was this heavily fortified city. so that if the city were attacked, everyone in the metropolitan area could come and find safety inside the walls. It was this huge, strong city. It was also a very influential city. It was a hub of culture and commerce, and although it wasn't yet the capital of Assyria, a royal palace was built there inside the city, and the emperor spent much of his time in Nineveh. And as we'll see, he was there at the time Jonah preached. So it was this big, powerful, influential city, but it was also a very wicked city. The whole reason why God told Jonah to go to Nineveh was to proclaim God's judgment against them because they were so wicked. Their wickedness had come up before God. Not only did they worship false gods and idols, but they were a ruthless superpower. The city and the country and the world were really ruled by terror. Wherever the Assyrians went, they left a trail of blood. Today, we have some accounts that were left by generals, soldiers in the Assyrian army. Some accounts of the kinds of destruction that they caused. One Assyrian general boasted, he said, I destroyed, I demolished, I burned. I took their warriors, prisoners and impaled them on stakes before their cities. slayed the nobles as many as had rebelled and spread their skins out on piles of dead corpses. Many of the captives I burned with fire. Many I took alive. From some I cut off their hands. From others I cut off their noses and ears and fingers. I put out the eyes of many of the soldiers. They were a ruthless bunch. And with their brutality The Assyrian Empire cast a shadow of fear over the entire known world. And they destroyed and killed and maimed those who were in their path. Israel was under the shadow of fear. Jonah may have been more willing to go to any other city, but not Nineveh. Definitely not Nineveh, the center of wickedness and destruction. And so in Jonah's mind, there were basically two options, either God would show compassion to the Assyrians, and they would listen to Jonah and they would repent and believe in God, or the Assyrians would kill him for speaking out against the city. That's a very real threat at this time. And neither of those options are appealing to Jonah. The threat of death was always a threat to those, to the prophets of God, as they were commanded to speak the words of God. They oftentimes didn't have, they oftentimes didn't have, they weren't received well, and so they often were persecuted for what they said. So, in order to go to Nineveh, Jonah had to sacrifice two things. First he had to sacrifice his self-righteousness, his air of superiority. Jonah thought he and the people of Israel were just a little better than the people there in Nineveh. And in some way, the people of Israel deserved God's compassion more than the people of Nineveh. He didn't want God to be merciful to the people of Nineveh because they'd done such awful things. He considered them unworthy of God's grace and compassion. And the only logical conclusion to this kind of thinking is that he and his people, Israel, Jonah and his people in some way deserved God's grace. In some way, just maybe a little bit, they deserve God's compassion, but Nineveh, they've done too many wicked things to receive God's mercy. So in order to be willing to go to Nineveh, Jonah had to sacrifice at least to some degree this kind of thinking. He had to change the way he perceived them. He had to recognize that not no one, not not one person was worthy of God's compassion, not him, not Israel, not Nineveh. Not you, not me. Jonah had to realize that he was in the same boat as the people of Nineveh, the same boat we're in, a boat filled with sinful people who deserve the wrath and curse of God. But because God was compassionate on him, he also ought to be filled with compassion for others in his boat. In order for Jonah to go to Nineveh, he had to sacrifice this air of superiority. To realize that he was on the same level as these people in Nineveh. Well, God has placed us in the city of Beaver Falls. We live scattered around this area, generally speaking. We live where we live in order to reach our communities. Well, the first step that we have to take to reach our community is to sacrifice any air of superiority. Or self-righteousness. For some reason, as a congregation, we are often perceived as arrogant and self-righteousness, a community that just sticks to itself and wants nothing to do with other believers, even. If we want to reach this community, that's got to change. There are a lot of people in College Hill, downtown Chippewa, Freedom, Cranberry, Pittsburgh, People who are enslaved to sin, drug dealers, adulterers, homosexuals, drunkards, drug abusers, prostitutes, pedophiles, rapists, child abusers, gluttons, sluggards, you name it. They're scattered in our own communities. And it's way too easy to have an air of superiority, to look down on those around us because of the things that they're enslaved in. And we forget that we're in the very same boat. That we, too, were enslaved in our sin. Just as they were. It may have looked different, but we were stuck in slavery just as much as they were. And that just like them, we also don't deserve the grace of God. But God has freely poured it out on people like us. We've talked a lot about being a community that impacts our city. We won't be able to do that unless we sacrifice this air of superiority, this air of self-righteousness. Because God has been merciful to us and shown us his great love and compassion, we also ought to be filled with such compassion for our neighbors and our community and our neighborhoods that no matter what they have done, we long to see God extend mercy to them. We long to see them be recipients of God's grace. So I ask you, I ask us as a community, do we have this air of superiority? Do you ignore or avoid a person or a certain kind of people Are you filled with hatred or resentment toward people? Do you look down on people because of what they struggle with? If we're going to reach this city around us, then we have to. Those thoughts of self-righteousness and superiority have to be sacrificed. And we must long, our heart must long to see God's compassion. spread to our neighbors, our co-workers, our community, the same way that God has shown us compassion. Are we ready? Are we compassionate enough for this community around us that we're ready to sacrifice this air of superiority? So in order for Jonah to go to Nineveh, he had to sacrifice this air of superiority. And be filled with compassion toward these people, these ruthless people. The second thing that he must sacrifice is his life. Second thing he must sacrifice is his life. Many of the prophets of the Old Testament were persecuted, imprisoned and even sometimes killed. They're sometimes killed because of the messages that they brought. And this is a very real possibility for Jonah. Either God would convert the city or the city would kill him for speaking out against it. It's a very real threat. It doesn't seem to be Jonas main fear is his main fear is that God would convert the people because he has this air of superiority, but there's very much a real threat of persecution and death if he goes to the city. Think about confronting Hitler. In his work, there's very much a threat of death. So, in order to go to Nineveh, Jonah had to be so filled with compassion for the people of Nineveh that he would be willing to sacrifice his own life. Now, here in Beaver Falls, in our neighborhoods, we don't have as clearly the threat of death, the same way Jonah did anyway. But we're still called to sacrifice our lives. Romans 12 one says, therefore, in view of God's mercies, because God has been so merciful to us, let us offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God. Living sacrifices. The living dead. This means that we're not only ready and willing to die for the cause of Christ, but we actually die. We put our own desires to death, we take up our cross daily and follow Christ. We sacrifice our finances, our comfort, our time, safety, leisure and all kinds of things in order to see God. In order to see God's compassion extended to those around us. Again, we've talked a lot about being an outward oriented congregation, a community that wants to impact the larger community around us and our neighborhoods. But of course, we cannot expect to see any impact or to make any impact unless we're ready to sacrifice. To be living sacrifices. Are we ready to give up our time and our comfort, our money? And yes, even our own safety to reach our community. Now, there's lots of things to be involved in. And many of us are involved. And many of us are even overwhelmed by the task of trying to reach out to this community. A lot of us are busy. A lot of you are busy doing good things. And I encourage you to keep it up. The rest of us, we need to join in this sacrifice, the sacrifice of our own lives. We need to join our brothers and sisters in reaching this community. We've talked a lot about outreach and evangelism, but that is the easy part. It's easy to talk. But are we ready to put it into action? The hard part is to do it. Are we so filled with compassion for our community that we're ready to sacrifice not only our self-righteousness, but actually sacrifice our lives to be living sacrifices to seek the good of those around us. to see God's compassion extend to them, to see people brought to Christ. We'll find later in chapter four that Jonah doesn't fully sacrifice these things. His air of superiority still lingers, but God has broken him, at least to some degree at this point, where it seems that he is in some degree, sincerely ready to go. It probably took some weeks to travel to Nineveh, Once he reached the outskirts of the city, it says that he went into the city a day's journey, which means that he probably went into the center of the city. He reached the edge of the metropolitan area, so to speak, and then he traveled a day's journey into the city and got to that main part of the city that was surrounded by those large walls. Jonah. made his way through that city and found maybe a busy street or maybe he stood in the middle of the marketplace or wherever he stood. He yelled out his message. Short and to the point. In 40 days Nineveh will be overturned. God took that short message and he struck the hearts of everyone who listened. This word of warning from God quickly spread throughout the entire city. It spread like wildfire and pretty soon everyone from the poorest of the poor all the way to the king believed God and the king issued a fast and urged everyone, commanded everyone to put on sackcloth and to pray to God. These are symbols of acknowledging and repenting of their sin and the humble request for forgiveness, for God to show compassion. They turn from their evil ways and they turn to God. This is one of the clearest examples that show that salvation is the work of God from first to last. That is the spirit of God who opens eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to believe. It wasn't Jonah's eloquence that brought about the conversion of one of the largest cities in the world. It was the power of God to change hearts. If you read a lot of the books of the prophets, the other prophets in the Old Testament. Much of what they proclaimed was the coming judgment of God. And they were much clearer, much more eloquent in the way they explained it and proclaimed it. They were much clearer about the call to repentance and to return to the Lord. But oftentimes, as you read in the prophets, very few or sometimes not even one turned, responded in faith and turned from their evil ways. But here, Joni yells one short sentence, maybe yells it a few times, sure. But with this one short sentence, the whole city of Nineveh, 120,000 people were converted. Unbelievable. This can only be the work of God. Nineveh was one of the most powerful cities in the world. They bowed to no one. They feared no one. But yet immediately their eyes were opened and they knew God was God and he had the power to destroy them. He demanded their allegiance. The whole city turned from their evil ways and believed God. They pleaded with God to turn from his fierce anger, not to destroy them, and it says in the last verse of Chapter three that God relented from the disaster. That he said that he would do to them and he did not do it. It was God's great plan from the beginning. That through Jonah's message, this simple message, the whole city would repent and turn to him. And that he would not destroy it, at least at this time. God didn't change his mind. But this was all part of his plan to show mercy to the people of Nineveh. Through the discipline of the Lord. Jonah, in part, learned to sacrifice his air of superiority, he learned to sacrifice his own life in order to go to the city of Nineveh. And God brought about brought about one of the biggest conversions recorded in history. It's one of the most amazing stories of transformation throughout the entire Bible. But there is a greater story. About 800 years after Jonah went to Nineveh, Jesus Christ came to Earth. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. Had to, in a sense, sacrifice his air of superiority. And also sacrifice his life. And as a result, he's brought about the salvation and transformation, not just of a city. But he's bringing it about to the whole world. In his perfect plan, God the Father sent God the Son to become human, to put himself on our level, to become one of us. It says in Philippians 2 that although he was equal with God, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant. He became human. He didn't come with the arrogance of superiority. He came with humility to live with us and among us, to live with the very worst of us and to speak to us about the compassion and love of God. But when he came, instead of repenting like the city of Nineveh, we humiliated him and executed him on a cross. Jesus was filled with such compassion that he sacrificed this air of superiority. By becoming one of us. And then he sacrificed his life by laying his life down on the cross. And because of that great work of salvation. Transformation and salvation has gone out into all the world. And only because of that has it come to you and me. God loved us so much that he became one of us and died for us so that we could enjoy the compassion of God. God's grace and love. And our response today is to be the same as those in the city of Nineveh as they responded to Jonah. Turn from your evil ways and believe in God. Believe in this God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do this and God will turn from his fierce anger and will shower you with compassion. And now, as those saved by Jesus Christ, we have to follow in his steps. We have to be filled with such compassion that we sacrifice any air of superiority. And be ready to sacrifice our lives. And be ready to interact with rubbed shoulders with even the worst among us. We do this to see God pour out his grace and compassion on those around us. In 1956, a group of five American missionaries made contact with one of the most violent tribes on Earth, the Wadahni Indians in the jungles of Ecuador. Many of you know the story. In this society, six out of every ten deaths were homicides. They regularly killed each other. They were incredibly violent. And these missionaries, these five missionaries, despite their attempt to convince these Wadani of their good intentions, these five missionaries were speared to death. Well, not long after that tragic news hit the world, two women went back to continue the work where these men had begun. One woman was Elizabeth Elliott. She was wife of one of those fallen missionaries, and the other was Rachel Saint, a sister of one of those fallen missionaries. These are two women who you'd think would struggle the most at loving this tribe. They have the very best reasons to to hate this tribe, to want to see this tribe exterminated rather than redeemed. But instead, they were filled with so much compassion that they traveled into the jungle and made contact again with the Wodani. And they made their home there. And within two years, a profound change came to that community, that culture, Because through these women, God poured out his compassion on these people by drawing them to himself. The gospel of Jesus Christ transformed. A community. Elizabeth Elliott and Rachel Saint were so filled with compassion for the Wadani that they sacrificed any air of superiority they lived with them. And they went as living sacrifices and they lived with these people who just years earlier had killed their husband and their brother. And God used them to show compassion on those who didn't deserve it. We ought to respond to our community in this same way. If we want to reach our community, if we want to see God do great things in our midst, Then we have to sacrifice this air of superiority and offer our bodies as living sacrifices, whether it be time, money, safety, even whatever. Are we so eager to see God's compassion extend to those around us? That we're willing to see sacrifice in order to see that happen. We are to be so filled with compassion for those around us. that we are willing to sacrifice. And as we do this, God will be glorified. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the compassion that you've shown to us in Jesus Christ. We thank you that he became one of us, that he that he stepped down from the glories of heaven and became human, took on the very nature of a servant and then gave up his life in order to see your compassion extend to people like us. Help us to also follow in his steps. To be instruments in your hands. To see your grace extend to more and more people. Help us to sacrifice any arrogance, any superiority, any air of thinking we're better. Let us also sacrifice our lives. As we seek to reach this community for Christ. Do this for your name's sakes. We don't want this done so that we can boast about our name. But about the name of Christ. Let his name be lifted high and that all nations come to him. We pray in his name. Amen.