Mercy For The Undeserving, By Peter Mead, 12 Oct 2014

Father we thank you that you are a creator and that you create this globe in this world and on us Us as mankind to to know you and enjoy you. And we are sorry for the way that we've rejected you and walked away from you.

But I pray you would help us hear what you have to say in this morning. Help us to have ears to hear. And I pray for dick as he comes to speak to us that you would Encourage and strengthen him and give him the words to say.

That you would say to us today. We pray.

Before we start our Bible study this morning. I just want to commend you I've been I was here. We were here last week and here this morning and I really sense God is working in your midst. We're all very imperfect people aren't we and Yet, I really sense that you love each other.

You love the Lord you love each other comes from your understanding of God's love for you and I I really believe there's a tremendous potential for God's Using this local church to impact only your lives, but the lives of many more people.

And I really believe rack. I I Think was it this week that even about? The Various responses from the accountability group and not sure why I'm in that but I shared my heart. I love the church. What is doing here?

And so We're so grateful for you, and I just want to encourage you to continue what God has started. God can continue and build on that and great things can happen here. As you focus on on Jesus. Because he is he's everything.

Jonah as a Portrait of Mercy to the Undeserving

Well this morning I I'm only going to cover one book of the Bible. Thankfully, it's a short one. It's the book of Jonah, and if you have a church Bible on table in front of you. Feel free to use that.

I think it's page 774 in that one and It for some of you, it's I think eight books from the end of the Old Testament, but the book of Jonah is just an exciting book and I the Lord laid this book on my heart this morning because I've been in this personally and the Lord has impacted my life.

We when we think of Jonah we think of the story of Jonah and The Whale couple problems with that. Number one it might not have been a whale. We'll talk about that. It was a large fish, and there are a lot of different large fishes out in the ocean.

But the other problem with that is that I don't believe. The focus of the story was a fish or a whale. The focus was the heart of God and Nineveh needed to understand the heart of God, but Jonah did too and he should have known better and the Lord used some very unusual means to impact his own heart.

The book ends rather abruptly. We're not even sure what really transpired in Jonah's life. At the end, but the Lord began to reveal himself. Particularly in the area of mercy, you know a lot of us have been wounded by other people my right in different ways.

We've been criticized. People have even told lies about us spread gossip. I remember when I was this is going back quite a few years. But I was a very young Immature Christian, and I was a student at a Bible College and another student began to spread untruths about me and It really threw me for a loop.

Because I knew what he was saying about me and it was spreading among other students. Was not true at all. And I didn't know if they believed him or not. I Went to the president of the school and I just poured out my heart to him and he said rather simply.

After listening for a while. He said, you know. Just take it and throw it in the corner with the rest of the rubbish and go on and That really helped me and and since then there have been other people that have hurt me, too.

And I think maybe some of you have experienced some of that the experience of being wounded. And it's throwing you for a loop and maybe you have even gone into some kind of a depression. Or Bitterness or anger like Jonah experienced.

And I think God's Word has some definite solutions to How we respond when those things happen? Looking back when we were missionaries inside Iran. We knew a family and the father's name was Haik Hosipian.

Haik was one of the first men who was killed for his faith in Jesus. This is 1994. And I remember being actually with him in Paris for a conference the year before that and I loved this brother we had worked together in some ministry things when we were on the ground in Iran and.

And yet one day because of his stance as a Christian He was murdered brutally on the street and It of course grieved his family in fact to this day his widow and his four children grieve over the loss of their husband and father but They're not seeking revenge.

Like Isis is. They're not seeking revenge like many in the Muslim world are. Instead they're loving in fact. They've devoted their lives. I know the family probably know the sons the three sons the best.

But the three sons are engaged in full-time ministry in different ways using their talents and gifts. To minister to reach right back in love to the Iranian people and in God is doing a wonderful work in their lives but if they have lapsed into Bitterness and Wanting to have revenge on the killers of their father and husband.

None of this would have happened and that kind of leads us into the story of Jonah. And there are a lot of parallels with him. First one of chapter one actually there are four chapters four scenes chapter one Took place on a ship and then in the ocean.

Chapter two the second scene took place in the belly of this great fish and Then chapter three took place in Nineveh. Chapter four took place outside of Nineveh. Nineveh and what I call God's school because Jonah needed a lot of schooling and Coming to understand God's heart.

Jonah's Flight from God's Presence

So in chapter 1 verse 1 it says this. 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 against me but Jonah rose To flee front to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

He went down to Joppa found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare went on board to go with him to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. What do we know about Jonah? Here we see his father's name.

Actually, there's one other reference in the Old Testament Testament second Kings. There's a reference to him it actually says where he was from he was from northern Israel up in the Galilee area and he Was called upon by God to go to the city city of Nineveh to preach against their evil.

Now keep in mind Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria was a wicked evil city. It would be like God saying to one of us I want you to go right into Iraq or Syria and to preach Jesus and preach the message of repentance to the Muslim Muslim terrorists that go by the banner of Isis.

Do you think that would be dangerous. It would and that's exactly what Jonah was facing. Because Assyria was Israel's number one enemy ready to pounce ready to move in to the northern kingdom of Israel to take it over and Brutalize it like they did with many other nations.

They wouldn't just defeat nations, but they would actually Brutalize the people do unimaginable things they would behead people they would burn people alive To Inject fear into them and so that they would succumb to their wishes but this is the place that Jonah was called upon by God to go and to preach this message of Repentance and faith in Jehovah says in verse 3 that Jonah didn't want to go there.

Instead it says he fled first of all went to Joppa Which is down on the coast of Israel and then he got a ship To go all the way to this Tarshish Which was probably on the southern coast of Spain. Why that place?

Because it was probably on the very edge of the known world of that day. He wanted to go as far away as possible instead of going about 500 miles northwest From where he was in Israel to Nineveh. He went about 2 ,500 miles west to this place and It says that he fled in order to get away from the presence of God, is that possible?

Can we actually flee from God's presence? Some people try they try to push God out of their lives hoping he'll go away. Of course he never does. He waits patiently like he did in Jonah's case and here in verse 4.

We see that he was there all the time. Right where Jonah was with these mariners these sailors in the ship it says in verse 4 God 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 by the way. These were probably pagan Sailors maybe from that same area in southern Spain. Phoenicians were not sure who exactly Lord they were but they were idol worshippers and They cried 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 From the into the interim innermost part of the ship and had lain down was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him. What do you mean you sleeper arise? Call out to your God.

We're calling out to our gods you call out to your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to us so that we may not perish get the picture. They're out on the sea. God Initiates this gigantic storm it threatens to sink the ship.

The sailors call out to their gods, of course, they don't hear because they don't exist. They tell Jonah to call out to his God and then Further a little further down beginning with verse 7 they cast lots not sure how that works.

I kind of think God had his hand in the results because the lot turns out to point right at Jonah and he Admits. Yep. The storm is here because I am here and not up there in Nineveh. I'm running from the presence of God and He's they say in verse 11, what shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us and He said verse 12 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. It goes on the sailors Tempted to get out of the storm by roying but finally they give up.

They throw Jonah overboard to a certain death. At least they thought so but the very end of chapter 1 Verse 17, it says the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. Life preservers are very Good when you need one here God in a Miraculous way and you see his hand throughout this entire story in various ways.

He gives Jonah a life preserver in the form of this great fish. So that he wouldn't die in the sea. What an act of mercy and you see these acts of mercy all the way through the story. But here God provides it the fish swallows him and then He was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah in the Belly of the Fish

Chapter 2 scene 2 which is Him inside this great fish. It says then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish and we have his prayer recorded here. You get the idea he's praying in the fish.

Normally when you're swallowed by a fish a shark or whatever it might be you die pretty quickly, but here Jonah is alive and He's not only alive but he is not being digested by the fish, but instead instead he's he's praying out to the Lord and crying out because of his situation another act of mercy from God.

Where God says it's not time for you to die. You see Jonah deserve to be killed right on the spot in the sea in the storm and now in the fish, but God says no he's patient with Jonah and Deals with him and then we come to chapter 3 the very end of chapter 2 it says the Lord spoke to the fish and It vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Significant to me that Jonah was Expelled from the fish Undrying land and not the sea. Another act of God in his life an act of mercy. God just guides him back to the land and then in chapter 3 the Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time saying arise go to Jonah to Nineveh the great city and Call out against it the message.

They tell you so Jonah arose. He finally got the point. He arose went to Nineveh according to the Word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city three days journey and breath. Jonah began to go into the city going a day's journey and he called out and this was his message.

Not sure if this is exactly what the Lord intended, but this is what Jonah said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown and the people of Nineveh Believe God. They call for a fast put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least here Jonah finally Goes to where the Lord had called him to go in the first place.

And he goes and he preaches to the people and amazingly enough in this wicked city in this wicked nation That was so brutal and so evil they respond right away and Repent of their sin. In fact a little bit further on in this chapter.

You see the very king the king of the city Repents and he orders everybody in the city to do the same and It says in verse 10 when the Lord 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.

The effect of the preaching is kind of amazing here. I Remember when we actually had to evacuate Iran in 1979 and when the revolution broke out we tried to stay and then it after numerous warnings from the government.

We finally decided to leave and we thought to ourselves as we flew out of the country. Then we're into Turkish territory. That that was the end of God's work in Iran. We saw the direction that entry was taken had been Islamic before.

But a very nominal Islamic country and yet it became an Islamic Republic and the entire Nation was ruled under the laws of Islam. In fact, it's that way today and you would think that that would be the end of God's work in that country.

Did you know? that Iran Has the highest wrote a rate of evangelical Christian growth in the world. It's almost 20 a year the UK the US. Every other country in the world comes nowhere close to that. This is a surprise to a lot of people how God could be doing could be doing such an important deep work in this nation when there's so much evil and persecution and People know when they confess Christ as Savior.

That it could be a death sentence. But they do anyway because they're so hungry so desperate and This is what happened the kind of thing that happened there in Nineveh and Frankly Jonah wasn't expecting that result.

Jonah's Anger at God's Mercy

Chapter 4. You would think that Jonah Would be happy about this to see an evil nation repent and turn to God in faith. But it says it displeased Jonah Exceedingly and he was angry and he prayed to the Lord and said Oh Lord Is not this what I said when I was yet in the country?

This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish for I knew that you were a gracious and God and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and Relenting of disaster. Therefore now Oh Lord, please take my life for me.

For it's better for me to die than to live and the Lord said Do you do well to be? Angry the Lord saved the punchline and the real reason why Jonah fled to Tarshish. Until we come to chapter 4. This is what he was thinking.

He was not just afraid of going into Nineveh. But he actually thought that if he would preach this message of repentance that the people of Nineveh might return and God would extend mercy to them and Jonah didn't want that to happen.

He wanted to see them eliminated. He wanted God to nuke him basically and remove them from the face of the earth and Now he sees that very scenario of God's mercy being extended to a very undeserving people seeing that Unfold right before his eyes and he's angry this anger by the way in verse.

Verse 1 of chapter 4 is a burning angle anger. It's a very intense kind of anger. Jonah was angry With the people of Nineveh no doubt about that and he had reason to be angry but he now he was angry against Jehovah.

Angry with the way God had decided to treat this nation and And Actually wanted to end his life in fact twice in this chapter. He says Lord take my life. I don't want to live anymore. I'd rather die Than to see mercy extended to the city of Nineveh.

First five Jonah went out of the city sat in the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. And he sat under it in the shade till he would see what would become of the city. Then it says Another act of mercy from the Lord the Lord.

God appointed a plant. He made it come up over Jonah so that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. By the way, that was a pretty fast growing plant. It grew up in one night to provide enough shade for him from the heat.

So Jonah was exceeding glad Because of the plant but when dawn came the next day God appointed a Worm that attacked the plant so that it withered withered when the Sun arose 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's better for me to die than to live and the Lord Repeated the same question. The Lord is so patient. All he does with Jonah is ask him questions.

Do you do well to be angry? Do you have a good reason to be angry for what I have done to Nineveh, do you have a good reason for Being angry for what I've done to this plant. Jonah said yes, I do well to be angry angry enough to die and the Lord said key verses now 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 I not pity Nineveh that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand People who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle and it ends with a question of the Lord.

Here the Lord says Jonah You're all focused on yourself. You're focused on your comfort. You were uncomfortable sitting there in the heat and I Provided without you doing anything I provided you this plant that would provide shade for you and then the worm came and took it away and you're again suffering in the heat and all you're concerned about is yourself and your comfort.

But I've got some compassion That focuses on people the people who Desperately need mercy and need to have a life change and that would be the people of Nineveh 120 ,000 people we're not sure that refers to Could refer to actually children who are too young to be accountable for their own Their own sin or it could be Just a general population who lack Understanding and wisdom about their own relationship with God.

We're not sure what that refers to. But here we have God Showing that his heart of mercy is centered on People and he loves them very very much and he loves to extend mercy to them and To extend that and draw them to into a relationship with himself.

Mercy Received, Mercy Extended

Bottom line God is sovereign. He's working and God loves to extend mercy and Jonah was the object of mercy all the way through this story. God could have killed him instantly when Jonah disobeyed but God didn't do that.

He let him go and then he used a storm to call him back and God through his mercy Didn't allow Jonah to die in the sea. In fact provided that Fish that was actually a life preserver to save his life kept him alive inside the fish allowed him to be expelled from the fish on the dry land and all acts of wonderful mercy from God and yet Jonah himself was holding back and extending mercy to other people.

You know, we're so so blessed. We're so so blessed by the Lord. Because we are objects of his wonderful wonderful mercy. Dave asked me when I started my spiritual journey. And I shared that night I remember it so distinctly when I knelt down beside my bed and The gospel the good news of Jesus had never made sense until that night.

I don't remember anything about it, but it made sense to me in Such a simple way and I knew That I had fallen short of God's standard. And I was headed to hell apart from God's mercy and I accepted his mercy that was given to me in the person of the Son Jesus when he died in my place and To this day and I continue to learn new facets about it, but I'm so grateful that my Relationship with God doesn't depend on me and what I do or don't do.

It depends only on what Christ has done. It's not that we to get into a right relationship with God to enjoy him. Which he wants us to do we somehow have to perform and do all this stuff. Instead he wants us simply to accept what Jesus has already done and then when we've done that he begins to change our character and to make us more like Jesus his son and I maybe there's some of you in this room who have never personally trusted Jesus.

You've been familiar with religion. You've gone to church and yet you've never put your faith in Christ and I appeal to you to accept God's mercy that's been extended to you through the death and Resurrection of Jesus and you can do that by simple faith trusting Responding just like Nineveh did when they repented and it says they believed this message that Jonah had been given.

The other thing is When God's mercy makes sense to us. It makes sense to show that mercy to other undeserving people this as I said when it begins to wash over us and Grip our hearts it makes sense To show that mercy to other people who may not deserve it even the very people who have hurt you.

People that have wounded you in some way maybe even in a physical way some awful way. God Can do a work in your heart so that you extend mercy to them and grace. Even as you have experienced it through Jesus.

How do you do that? I close with just a reference from Luke chapter 6 powerful verses. Here In fact, if you look at the parallel passage in Matthew Jesus says to his disciples you have heard it said that you should love your neighbor the people who people you get along well with and You should hate your enemy and here in Luke chapter 6 in verse 27 Jesus says I've got a different message for you.

I say to you who hear love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you and then down in verse 29 36 rather Be merciful even as your father is Merciful the proper response to enemies whether it be Isis or that neighbor you can't stand or Husband wife Who has mistreated you has been critical or whatever.

It might be the proper response is to love them by faith in Jesus name and It has different components doing good to them. Blessing them praying for them. Thinking of ways that you can actually reach out to them do good to them help them in practical ways.

Blessing them actually praying and say Lord would you bring blessing into the life of that person? There's a guy who He used to be in our church and Caused a lot of grief for the church. He's no longer in the church and that's probably a good thing.

I take long walks Throughout our neighborhood from time to time and I've got this particular route that I walk. I always walk within a half a block of his house and often I pray for him. I pray that even though he is Done wrong to me and to many others in our church that God would bring blessing and revival Into his own life Not excusing his sin at all and when we look at Muslim terrorists we should never Never just excuse what they are doing by the way in their case.

They're simply acting out their belief about God. They say that Allah is merciful. But Allah Allah. Allah is actually only merciful to those Who deserve it? When you look at the Quran very carefully. They're simply acting out Their understanding of Allah and that's why they do what they do.

But God is a God who extends merciful mercy to those who do not deserve it. And I think I would just encourage all of us and I have so much to learn in this area but encourage us To begin to do that with the people who have wounded us.

Continue to wound us. But to pray for God's blessing in their lives and for God to do a deep deep work in them and to extend unconditional love Doesn't mean you accept what they do. But you extend love just like love has been extended to us in the person of Jesus.

Well, we didn't deserve it. I mentioned Haiko Sepian and his family doing that very thing. There's some of the most humble gentle loving people I know and God has done a work in them as they've come to experience God's wonderful mercy.

They've been able to extend that to other people who don't deserve that either. Let me pray for you father. I just pray that your spirit would make sense of these feeble words and I pray Lord That you would teach us from this wonderful passage of scripture about your heart and How full of mercy you are and we just want to thank you as a body right now.

That you have extended such wonderful wonderful mercy to us in the person of Jesus Lord. Not only in saving us. But thank you Lord for the many ways that you are good to us and show us mercy. Even in the mundane things of life.

Thank you that you don't give us what we deserve. But you give us what we don't deserve. And I just pray for those Some that are really struggling in this room. I Really don't know these people that well and yet I know in every group.

There are people that struggle with people who have wounded them and I pray that you would do a work in their hearts To the end that they would understand your mercy and then by faith Would extend that same mercy To those very people who have wounded them.

Thank you that you can do a work in our hearts, and we're gonna trust you and we ask you in Jesus name that you would do that to the end that we would reflect Christ Reflect his mercy in the way we have Relationships with our enemies we pray in Jesus name.

Amen.