Sermon: The Unbelieving Believer and the True Jonah

I'll add one more good morning to the others that have been up here. It's a great joy and pleasure to worship together today at URC, and always an incredible privilege to be able to bring God's word this morning. So I'm going to ask you if you would grab a Bible and turn to Jonah chapter four as we come to the end of the story of this enigmatic and sometimes very confusing prophet.

And before we proceed, would you join me in prayer for God's blessing? Let's pray. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Father, it is our great privilege, it's our deep responsibility and delight this morning to hear the word of Christ. So would you bless the reading, the preaching, and the hearing of the word so that it lights our way, gives us eternal life, and fills our heart once again with the joy of our salvation in Christ,

and it's in His name that we pray. Amen. Before we read chapter four, one more time, briefly, just want to kind of, what's been going on? How did we get to chapter four? What's the story so far? So in chapter one, God calls Jonah, an established prophet in Israel, to go to Nineveh in Assyria and preach to them, and Jonah flees, runs the other way, and is ultimately lost at sea. In chapter two, he's unexpectedly and undeservingly

saved. God provides a large fish to swallow him, and from the belly of the fish, he cries out to God and prays what looks like a psalm of praise, and praises God. Chapter three, Jonah is recommissioned very graciously by God, goes to Nineveh, preaches a very short message, and is wildly successful. And that leads us to chapter four, where Jonah shows that despite God's amazing grace, he is still an unbelieving believer.

Now we've heard hints from especially chapters two and three that chapter four is going to be kind of very dissonant, very shocking, surprising. Chapters two and three seemed really hopeful. Again, Jonah had been graciously saved. He called out in his distress. He testified to God's mercy to him. He expressed hope that he would see the temple in Jerusalem again, and he praised God. In fact, his last words in chapter two of this

prayer are, "Salvation belongs to the Lord." Little did he know that there would be hymns written with that in it, and that at least one systematic theology would have that as its title. So God surprisingly recommissions him. "And Jonah went to Nineveh," and it says this in the text, "according to the word of the Lord." So now he's obeying where he once disobeyed. He preached the Lord's brief message, which amounted to, "In 40 days, Nineveh

will be overthrown." And it says the people of Nineveh believed God. That means over 120,000 people in a short time were converted. The king repented. It says even the beasts repented. I'm not sure what that looked like, but this is massive revival. In fact, we could say this is the greatest revival ever recorded. You think about other evangelists in church history, George Whitfield, who was from England and came to America and spent a lot of time preaching, often in

outdoor situations. One time he preached to 30,000 people. That's a lot of people. But it's not anywhere near 120,000. Somebody might say, "Ah, but what about Billy Graham?" Billy Graham lived in a time where you could pack thousands of people into a stadium, and one time in Seoul, South Korea, he preached to over a million people, and 75,000 people were converted. But that's still less than 120,000. The Book of Jonah should have ended at chapter three, and it should have

ended with these words, "And they all lived happily ever after." The Ninevites were spared. They could go on. They're not going to die. Jonah could have gone home to Israel to great acclaim, most successful prophet ever. But that's exactly what does not happen, and so there's this great dissonance. So let's read chapter four verses one through 11. So it had just said that God relented, and He did not bring the disaster on the Ninevites, and then it says, "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, for it is better for me to die than to live.'" And the Lord said, "Do you be 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 in it under the shade till he should see what would become of the city. Now God had appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah so 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 you see this dissonance. God shows mercy to Nineveh. Jonah's preaching is wildly successful, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And we're wondering why. God called you to do this. God empowered you to do

this. You were very successful. Why would you be angry and displeased? And the reason is because whatever Jonah did externally in obedience to God, his heart was always way out of line with God's heart of compassion for sinners. Sinclair Ferguson said, "When the ministry God has called us to exercise is fulfilled, and our service has produced abundant fruit, God has not finished his task. He still has his servant to deal with." So although everything

had gone so well, God still had to deal with sullen, self-centered Jonah, I call the unbelieving believer. You might wonder at that phrase, unbelieving believer. It sounds like a square circle or a married bachelor. What does it even mean? I think an unbelieving believer is characterized by two things. First of all, they truly profess faith in God, like Jonah did in Jonah 1:9 when the sailors asked him, "Who are you and where are you from?" He said, "I am a Hebrew and I

fear the God of heaven and earth and the sea." So he professes faith in God, but the second thing about an unbelieving believer is their profession is contradicted by their heart attitude and their behavior, and that's what we see throughout the rest of Jonah. Now, an unbelieving believer could be a true believer who is just terribly backsliding and messed up for a time, or an unbelieving believer could be an unbeliever, and we have to kind of wait to see how

things shake out. So the first part of the sermon here is we're going to talk about Jonah the unbelieving believer, and I want to share with you four descriptions or explanations of how he is an unbelieving believer. So number one, Jonah the unbelieving believer loves grace for himself, but not for others. You could say he disgraces grace. In chapter 2, Jonah had called out from the fish. He said, "I called out in my distress. You heard me.

You brought up my life from the pit. Salvation belongs to the Lord." Even Jonah recognizes amazing grace here, completely undeserved kindness and power to save him from the depths, and he loved this grace from God. In chapter 3, in that grace, he gets a second chance after his rebellion to go to Nineveh, and God stunningly blesses his ministry. Again, he should have been ecstatic, but now God's grace is being extended to others, and in

this case, others whom he happens to hate with all his heart. So that leads us again to chapter 4, verse 1. "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry." Verse 3, "It is better for me to die than to live." Verse 9, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." And then in contrast, verse 6, "Now the Lord 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." So we've got exceedingly glad and exceedingly displeased all in one chapter. Exceedingly glad when God blesses him. Exceedingly displeased when He blesses others. You'll excuse the allusion here, but this is the original "Pride and Prejudice." Let's just pause here for a second. Can you relate to Jonah at all? How do you respond when God shows mercy or grace or some blessing to

others? Especially how do you respond when you don't think they deserve it, and the way God is blessing them is something you really want? Are you able to rejoice in the sovereign, free graciousness of God's grace to others? So that's the first way he's an unbelieving believer. He loves grace for himself, not for others. Secondly, Jonah, the unbelieving believer, is self-centered and self-righteous. Now, in chapter four, verses two and three, Jonah prays

again, and we might think, "Oh, that could be hopeful." He prayed in chapter two. That was a great prayer. He ended with, "Salvation belongs to the Lord." But I want to read again the prayer, verses two and three. "And he prayed to the Lord and said, 'Oh, 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.'" What do you think? How do you like that prayer? Is that a good prayer? Something's way off. Let me suggest two things. The first thing that's off in this prayer is that Jonah is actually telling God off. He's actually rebuking God for His compassion. It's as if Jonah is saying, "I knew you'd let them

off. I knew you'd pull that merciful and gracious stuff. Are you kidding, Lord? Nineveh? This time you've gone too far."

Now, I only have a couple spiritual gifts, but one of them I am justly famous for. It is the gift of stating the obvious. So here goes. Brothers and sisters, don't ever rebuke God. That could be the worst idea ever. Just think about how did Jesus respond to Peter when Peter rebuked Him on the mountain? So that's the first thing. He's rebuking God. The second thing about this prayer that's suspect is in a two-verse prayer, Jonah mentions I, me, and

my seven times. It's Jonah's desires, Jonah's convictions, Jonah's agenda that were all at the center. It's all he seemed to care about. It's totally exclusive. And as I consider that, I'm thinking about two dangers in prayer. The first one is not like Jonah. The second one is. The first one's more rare, but I do encounter it sometimes. The first danger in prayer is when people say, "I never pray for my own needs." Now, that sounds kind of righteous, like I'm just so concerned

about others, but I always scratch my head. Why would you not pray for your needs? In most cases, we're talking about a counseling problem, and I'm wondering why they're not praying about that. It sounds good, but we are invited to bring, as Steve Roskos just did, all our petitions, not just as a congregation, but as a family, as an individual to the Lord. So that's the more rare one, "I don't pray for myself." The more common one is what Jonah did, and that's all I

pray for, okay? Seven times in two verses, praying as if your needs and desires are the sun in the solar system of life. Now, that I understand because I can be guilty of that, but I think Jonah's prayer just shows us that that's not right. Jonah's prayer reminds me of the prayer of the Pharisee in Luke 18. Remember, tax collector and the Pharisee? Tax collector won't look up and he just beats his breast. The Pharisee walks in, spreads out his arms, and he

says, "Thank you, Lord." So he's giving God the credit. "Thank you that I am not like other men," especially this tax collector. So what would that prayer sound like in Jonah's mouth? Maybe something like this: "Lord, I thank you that you made me an Israelite, and I'm not like other men, especially those Ninevites. They are proud and cruel and wicked and unbelieving and godless. Thank you, Lord, for the grace to be better than others.

Thank you for the grace to be more deserving than others." It's Thanksgiving, but it reeks of pride, and God will not listen to that kind of prayer. So that's the second thing. He's self-centered and self-righteous. Third way that he is an unbelieving believer is he is, and here's a good word, petulant. Do you know what that word means? It means childish, bad-tempered, irritable, and really angry. In verses three and four, and then verses eight and nine, we see

that Jonah is so upset with the Lord for showing compassion on the Ninevites that he actually asked God to kill him. "It is better for me to die. I am angry enough to die." Jonah would rather die than submit to God. Jonah would rather die than show compassion to other sinners. When you think about the whole book, Jonah seems angry at God the whole time. His whole experience of God is kind of like, "No way, God. Over my dead body."

So I want to talk just for a few minutes, this is a little excursus here. I want to talk about anger for a few minutes. It's an important thing. Very common, obviously. The world would say that anger is just an emotion. It is neither good nor bad, it's just neutral. It just depends on what you do with it. And so if you're angry, it's just an emotion. You're just human. But that's not what the Bible says at all. The Bible diagnoses anger this way:

somebody is blocking me from getting what I want. Someone's blocking my goal. I want this. It's important to me. I need this, and I have a right to this, and someone is not letting me have it, and then under the surface, we're probably thinking, "I'll make you regret this." Most of our anger is initially expressed toward other people, but deep, deep down, I think our anger is often directed against God because, and I'm not sure who made this phrase, it might've been C.S.

Lewis, God is the great interferer. God is always interfering with our agenda, our plans, our goals, because He's got His own. Now, I want to give you an example, and I was trying to think of an example of that, and unfortunately, I couldn't think of a better example than from my own life. So I'm taking you back several decades. My first ministry was music. I was writing songs, I was traveling around, singing in Christian coffee

houses, college campuses, and so on. And one particular night, I was singing, I think it was over in the Detroit area, not exactly sure. This is when lots of Christian singer-songwriters were doing this, and I did it a lot of weekends. Judy would often come with me. And I had this sort of maybe unconscious template or agenda that I would write the best songs I could, I would prepare a gospel message, I would share it, and then people would come to faith.

So I wanted a payoff. Okay? So I sang in this place in Detroit that night, and everything went fine, but there was no immediate response. Now, you should think, well, okay, you planted some seeds. Just go home. I was so angry. I was sitting in my car by myself, I think Judy was still inside, and I smashed my dashboard. Bam! And I cracked it. Why was I so angry? Because I had a goal. I want to be a successful Christian evangelist singer,

and God blocked my goal. Now, a book that has helped me a lot in thinking about anger is David Powlison's book,

what's it called? Good and Angry. The second chapter of that book has a title, which is a question. The second chapter is called Do You Have a Serious Problem with Anger? Now, I just told you that story, so you all know I can't say no, right? But I don't think I get angry like that real often. So I read the title of the second chapter, and then I glanced down and I realize on the same page, there's discussion questions.

And I thought, "This is a really short chapter." And then I looked and the whole chapter was the word yes. Do you have a serious problem with anger? Yes. Next chapter. Now, we might think, you might think, well, that's really overstated. I have lots of problems, but I don't really have an anger problem. Well, David Powlison helps us see that anger has many forms. So let me just share some of those with you. Do you have a serious problem with anger?

Well, irritability is a type of anger. It's kind of anger that's under the surface, that's on a hair trigger, just waiting to-- You just do the wrong thing or something happens and just pshew. Are you ever irritable? Another form of anger is arguing. He said, she said, quarreling, conflict. I'm sure nobody but me has ever had that problem here. The third is bitterness. That's deeper down. It's slow-burning grievances and grudges

that last a long time. Then there's violent anger, such as me in the car. Fortunately, nobody was in the car with me. But violent anger is finding pleasure in some kind of destructive behavior. Then there's passive-aggressive anger, which hides itself, but things always manifest, and it will manifest often as depression or lethargy or pessimism or just good old garden-variety pouting. All forms of anger. The most dangerous kind of anger

is self-righteous anger. It's the most danger because we're absolutely convinced that we're in the right, and this has happened to me more times than I would like. Absolutely sure I'm in the right, and it's so powerful because it feels legitimate, and we take great pleasure in being right and in being powerful. So do you have a serious problem with anger? I'm not going to say yes, but I'm going to say probably. So what's the cure? We don't have time to look at the passage, but I'm going to ask

you to write this passage down. It's James 4:1-10, the most deep diagnostic and cure for anger that is. Like I said, I'm not going to read it, but I'm just going to quickly tell you three things you will find there, and if you feel like you struggle with anger, you might want to look up this passage later. Three things to deal with your anger. Number one, identify your over-desire. When you're really angry, something really important to you, you're not being able to get it.

Identify what that is. It might be an innocent thing, but it might be to an idolatrous proportion. So identify your over-desire. What do I want? What do I need? What do I feel I have a right to? Second, humble yourself before the Lord and confess your adultery, because that's what James calls it. When we're really angry about something, it shows that we love something more than God. And then third, tucked in chapter 4, verses 1 to 10,

there's a little sentence that says this, "But He gives more grace." That's our hope. More grace than our sin. God has more grace than our sin. So receive that grace, that forgiveness, rejoice in it, and then be willing to share that grace with others. All right, that ends our little excursion to anger. One more way that Jonah shows himself to be an unbelieving believer, Jonah's priorities are misplaced and hypocritical.

Verse five and then again in verses nine through 11. In verses nine through 11, it shows us Jonah probably sitting on a bluff, looking out over the big city of Nineveh. He said he sat under the shade until he should see what would become of the city. I wonder what you make of that. Does that mean Jonah has calmed down, he's dealt with his anger, and he's just wondering what God's going to do, just kind of neutral? Well, I don't think so. I think if you look at the whole book, that's not

likely. In the context of the whole Book of Jonah, it's much more likely that he's looking at the city, he's watching and waiting and hoping to see fire and brimstone come down and destroy the city. I think that's much more likely. Jonah's wayward heart and hypocrisy are evident in that dialogue between God and Jonah. God says, "Do you do well to be angry?" He says, "Yes, I do well to be angry. Angry enough to die." "You pity the plant for

which you did not labor." And then he says, "Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city?" So there's this little dialogue, and in that dialogue, commentator Jay Sklar paraphrases the Lord in his response to Jonah. Listen to what he says. He pictures God saying, "Jonah, is it right for you to be angry that I show others the very same mercy that I've shown you? If you can feel sorry for this plant, should not I feel sorry for all these people who are made in my image?"

So Jonah has compassion on a plant, really himself, but not on sinners just like himself. It sounds like the Pharisees who cared about public adulation, cared about their own status, cared about the letter of the law, but they did not care about tax collectors and sinners like Jesus, who loved them and ate with them and freely forgave them. So here's a summary of Jonah, the unbelieving believer, and see if you see any

connecting dots. He runs the other way when God calls him to save the lost. He's the object of saving grace in the belly of the fish, and he rejoices that salvation belongs to the Lord, but he very quickly loses that gracious perspective. He obeys God when he's recommissioned, but he just does it out of duty, not out of delight in God's mercy. He actually rebukes God for his compassion. He cares about his own comfort and the life of a castor oil plant,

but he cares nothing for the eternal destiny of fellow sinners, and he would rather die than glorify God and save sinners. Jonah's kind of scary, isn't he? Kind of scary. He's worse than anybody else in the story, and I know that we're all tempted to try to distance ourself from him. Have you ever read the Old Testament, maybe the Israelites making a golden calf or this or that or the other, and your first reaction is just, "How could they do that?

Those foolish Isr--" until we take a look again and realize I'm just like them. So we're more like Jonah than we think. If anyone deserves in this book to be cast out and judged by God, it's Jonah. But here's the great, hopeful thing. That's not what happens. Remember I said we got to wait till the end of the story to see if Jonah's a true believer or not? Well, I believe he is, and I was helped by Pastor Nick when he did the overview to this whole book,

and he pointed out the fact we have the Book of Jonah Either Jonah wrote it down or somebody else did, and that leads us to hope and believe that Jonah got it. Otherwise, probably no one would have written about it. Jonah's incorrigible hardness and rebellion is actually our greatest hope. Jonah, and the way God deals with him, shows us God's immeasurable riches of grace in kindness to us in stereoscopic surround sound.

So, that leads to the second and briefer part of the sermon, "Jonah, the Unbelieving Believer: Jesus is the True Jonah." Now, why would I say that? Why would I draw a connection between Jesus and Jonah? Because Jesus did. In Matthew 12:41, Jesus said, "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," listen to this, "something greater

than Jonah is here." It's just like the song John led us in. Christ, the true and better Adam, the true and better Isaac, the true and better Jonah. Something greater than Jonah is here. Now, I'm just going to mention very briefly some themes that we could, if we wanted to take a completely different sermon, how we could contrast Jonah and Jesus to show how much greater Jesus is. I'm just going to mention those, and then I'm just going to

hone in on one last thing before we close. So, we could talk about how Jesus responds to His Father's call to go and save sinners. Jonah ran the other way. Jesus gladly obeyed and came from heaven to earth to seek and save the lost. Or we could talk about what was Jesus' heart attitude toward the will of His Father. Jonah was exceedingly displeased with God's will. Jesus said He delighted to do His Father's will. In fact, He said it was His food and drink.

Or we could talk about who does Jesus have compassion on. Jonah had compassion on himself and a plant. Jesus said He had compassion on those who were harassed and helpless, the weary and the burdened, the sinful and the undeserving. Or we could talk about how did Jesus look down on a wicked city? Remember, Jonah looked down on Nineveh and hoped for judgment. Jesus looked down on Jerusalem, a more wicked city, that was about to kill Him in a few

days. Jesus looked down over this wicked city and He wept.

One last thing. What is the greatest way that Jesus shows Himself to be the true and better and true Jonah?

Jonah clearly stated more than once, with great passion, that he would rather die than see lost and wicked sinners saved. Jesus clearly stated more than once, with great compassion and decisive action, He would rather die than see lost and wicked sinners perish. He is the fulfillment of "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believed in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Jesus came from heaven to earth to save sinners.

Jesus came from heaven to earth to save you, whoever you are. Little kids, married with children, older folks like me, He came to die for you. I remember listening to a Michael Card concert one time, and at the very beginning of the concert, Michael Card greeted the audience, and this is what he said. He said, "I greet you in the name of the one who would rather die than be without you." That's our Savior. Jonah is you

and me as we are by nature. Consumed with self, indifferent to others often, and sometimes even hostile. We are often unbelieving believers. But Jesus is the true and greater Jonah, sent by the Father, consumed with passion for His Father's glory, consumed with passion for the salvation of sinners. In Jesus and in Jesus alone can we find forgiveness for our unbelief and be transformed into the people that deep down we

long and ache to be. So, let me leave you with two questions. Question number one, how will you respond to Jesus, the true Jonah, this morning? Will you turn to Him? Will you run to Him? Will you open your heart to Him? Will you confess to Him? Will you rejoice in His salvation? And will you plead with Him to make you free from sin and radiant with the love of God? Or will you turn away from Him? What will you do with Jesus? How will you respond to Him?

Second question, how will you respond to Jesus' call to do what Jonah was so unwilling to do, to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. How will you respond even this week? What will you do? How will you pray to share this glorious good news with your family, maybe even over lunch today? What will you do to share this with your neighbors, your coworkers, and with the whole world? What can you do even this week to take a step toward that?

And we're not talking here just to Christian leaders. The verse I just quoted, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation," that was to the apostles. But later on in the Book of Acts, there comes a time when Stephen is put to death and persecution arises in Jerusalem, and everybody but the apostles leaves. It says they were all scattered. So these are just rank-and-file Christians. And it says, "Those who were scattered, as they

went, went preaching the word." Are you praying for divine appointments? Are you praying for our missionaries? So again, how will you respond to Jesus, the true and better Jonah? How will you respond to His call to do what Jonah was unwilling to do? Let's pray.

Jesus, we're so thankful that in your resurrection appearances, at least two times, you did Bible studies with disciples to show that everything written in the law and the prophets and the Psalms was about you. So we are exactly right this morning to end this sermon of the Book of Jonah with you, for you are the true prophet. You're the one who gladly obeyed your Father's call to come here, and you said yourself, "I came

to seek and save the lost."

Lord, every day we have the opportunity to turn again to you, to seek you out in your word, in prayer, in loving, humble obedience and service to others. So Lord, I pray that your Spirit would draw each person here today, for the first or for the 10,000th time, to you, and that we would respond in humble faith. And I pray, Lord, that you would kindle, cause to burn in our hearts, a sense of urgency. Some 90,000 people will die in the world today,

and most of them go to hell. Help us to care. Help us to take up whatever post you've given us in your Great Commission. Lord, thank you that in you, "Plenteous grace with thee is found, grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams abound. Make and keep me pure within." Let it be so, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.