A Heart of Mercy (Jonah 4)

Good morning. We’re finishing up our series in the book of Jonah today, if you want to go there in your Bibles. And as you do that…^[1]

Last week, we got to hear how an entire city turned to God from their evil. Which made me think, wouldn’t it be awesome to see God do something like that today? Let’s do a little thought experiment:  

If Kuala Lumpur were to experience a spiritual awakening, what’s the first change you think you’d notice?   

People are embracing Christ. Christianity’s starting to spread. What sign would tell you, wow, revival is here? 

Now, on the spot, maybe you’d say, I have no idea. But let’s just dream a little. Maybe… 

• We’d see lots of churches packed with people.  
• We’d see Bibles being sold in the streets.  
• We’d hear people sharing the name of Jesus without fear. 
• Baptisms left and right.  
• Family members sharing crazy stories of coming to faith.  

All of that would be awesome! But keep in mind, the first thing that happened in Nineveh was a belief in God’s Word that led to a brokenness over their sin.  

[Jonah 3:10] – When God saw what they did–how the entire city from the least to the greatest repented–God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Now, at this point, we think Jonah’s finally a changed man. He goes into the city. He preaches the shortest message ever. And the people believed and turned to God. Nineveh’s repentance is so exhaustive even the animals repent.  

This should go down as one of the greatest missionary successes of all time.  

Surely, there’s never been a city so lost – have a missionary do so little – and it stir up a city-wide revival so soon.  

And it would’ve been great if the story ended there…but it doesn’t. Pick up with me in Jonah chapter 4. Jonah just witnessed a miracle. 

[v. 1] – But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 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. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, pleasetake my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

Now, why is Jonah so angry? Why do any of us give in to anger? Usually, we’d say, it’s somebody else’s fault. Somebody else made me angry. That person cut me off in traffic. My child just would not listen. My boss doesn’t know what he’s doing.  

But if you go over to the NT, James says the real cause of anger isn’t out there. The real problem is in here. There’ve been problems brewing in Jonah’s heart for a long time, and they’ve finally reached the surface. Three problems going on in Jonah that help us understand the sinful, angry heart: 

1. A disordered love  

Not all anger is sinful. There is such a thing as righteous anger. What’s the difference?  

Righteous anger is an appropriate response to sin that’s motivated by what God loves most. 

– Sinful anger, on the other hand, tends to be selfishly motivated in prioritizing our passions or comforts.  

Now, whether our anger is righteous or sinful, anger tells us a lot about what we love most. See, anger is our response to something we find wrong. And we get angry because we want to protect what we love.  

The problem’s not on the side of the anger; the problem is on the side of the love.  

What does Jonah love? See, Jonah only shows up one other time in the Bible in 2 Kings 14, during the reign of one of Israel’s worst kings. This king was evil in the eyes of the Lord, but Jonah liked him because he brought security and wealth to the nation.   

Now, there’s nothing wrong with loving your country. But if love for country leads you to: 

• Believe you’re better than others 
• Causes you to put your country’s interests above God’s 
• Or to hate people made in God’s image 

Then we’ve got a disordered love. You know, one of the easiest ways to detect a disordered love? When you get angry, who does it actually protect?  

Jesus got angry a handful of times. See if you notice the pattern in his anger: 

• He got angry at the moneychangers because they prevented the Gentiles from worshiping God. 
• He got angry at people preventing children from coming to him.  
• He got angry at religious leaders taking advantage of God’s people. 
• He got angry at death for robbing Lazarus of life.  

Jesus gets mistreated, slandered, crucified. And yet he gives grace to people who mistreat him, but has little tolerance for the sins committed against others.  

We’re the exact opposite. We’ll excuse the sins committed against other people, but have no grace for the sins committed against us. And when we make judgments: We’ll judge others based on their actions, but we’ll judge ourselves based on our intentions. And we’ll gladly receive God’s mercy for us, but we’ll question why God would ever show mercy to them.  

When anger turns sinful, it’s usually because a desire has become disordered. It’s turned into a demand, and somewhere down the line God said no. David Powlison says, it’s at that point, “Your core motives must change. The god you worship [that says my will be done, my kingdom come…or else) must be overthrown.” 

The second problem is… 

2. A faulty view of God  

Back in [v. 2], we learn for the first time why Jonah ran away from God. He ran away because he knew God would be gracious and merciful. And at this point, we’re like, what is wrong with him? I’m not like that. 

But let’s give Jonah some grace and try to understand him: Jonah is accusing God of being like the parent who lets their kid run wild and shows no discipline. God, you’re all grace and no justice. That doesn’t work in parenting, and that definitely doesn’t work in a sin-filled world.  

The problem is that Jonah’s assessment lacks discernment, and it’s a complete mischaracterization of God. I mean, this is how twisted our hearts can get: Jonah probably thinks he cares more about God’s justice than God does. It’s simple logic.  

• God loves his people.  

Nineveh hates God and wants to destroy his people.  

• Therefore, out of love for God’s people, God should destroy Nineveh.  

It’s sound logic…but it’s bad theology, and here’s why. When Jonah talks about the character of God, he’s quoting from a well-known passage in Exodus 34. It might be the most quoted verse in the OT. It’s an anchor verse in that it’s critical for understanding who God is. Let me read it to you:  

[Ex. 34:6] – The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Now, there should be a couple of things that grab your attention right away:  

• First – God leads with mercy and grace. It’s who he is. It’s how he wants to be known. God would rather have a relationship with you based on his mercy than his judgment.  
• Second – what Jonah skips over is that God’s mercy and grace are not at the expense of his justice. God will by no means clear the guilty. He holds us accountable for our sin.  

God is patient. It takes a long time to make him angry, but his mercy is easily kindled. That shouldn’t lead us to assume he’s soft on sin. Holding those two things in tension should give us a sense of awe and wonder at the holiness of God. He’s not like us. He doesn’t judge like us.  

See, when you look at Ex. 34, the question you’ll eventually ask yourself is: How will God deal with my sin? Will he be merciful or will he be just? And that depends on whether or not you’re willing to receive his grace for you. Because at the Cross, God has been incredibly merciful and perfectly just in having Jesus take your place and satisfy the penalty for your sin.  

See, what Jonah misunderstood about God’s mercy and justice, he’s made clear to us at the Cross.  

Problem #3 is… 

3. A misplaced hope  

In [v. 3] Jonah’s so mad he says, “better for me to die than to live.” This is why anger is so tied to worship. Worship is literally what we give the most weight to in our lives.  

I had a friend whose hope in life was so tied to their politics and the future of their country that when they didn’t get the leader they wanted, they fell apart. It was hard to talk to them.  

They were so angry and filled with despair; life had lost all its purpose.  

And that’s exactly how Jonah feels. I don’t think he wanted to die; I think Jonah’s cry for death was his last attempt at manipulating God to serve his idol.  

God, resurrect this thing I put my hope more than you. I think we’ve probably all been there. God, I really need this job to work out for my life to get back on track. God, if I can’t get my documents in order, I just don’t see any future for me; I don’t know what to do. God, if this relationship doesn’t work out, I’ll never be happy again.  

Maybe you’ve never reached the level of crisis Jonah felt, but I have no doubt you’ve prayed for God to serve the things you love most, and sometimes he says no. Sometimes he goes beyond no. It’s like we said the other week, sometimes God lets you experience the emptiness of your idols so that you’ll turn back to him.  

How do I know if I’ve misplaced my hope? Jonah shows us our hope’s been misplaced…

When what you hoped for fails, you think there’s nothing left to live for. 

• When you use prayer to get your way instead of seeking God’s. 
• When you start blaming God for not doing what you want. 

This is the condition of the sinfully angry heart. And if God weren’t so merciful, we really would have no hope. Jonah deserves judgment. Instead, he gets a question: Jonah, do you do well to be angry? 

See, God doesn’t argue whether Jonah has a right to be angry or not. Instead, he asks, how’s that going for you? In what area of your life is your anger helping you? How is holding that grudge drawing others closer to God? How is blowing up on your kids teaching them about joyful obedience? You know the answer to that. So did Jonah.  

[v. 5] – 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.  

The reason God asked about Jonah’s anger is that he wants Jonah to see the hypocrisy in his heart. But Jonah’s not interested in changing his mind.  

Nothing would make Jonah happier than to see the perishing of Nineveh. And I think that should make us uncomfortable. But the truth is, there’s probably somebody we feel that way toward. They’ve wronged us so many times. I’m not saying you want bad things for them, but you definitely don’t want good things for them.  

But that’s just not the heart of God. Nothing makes God happier than to see a sinner repent and come back to him. 

[v. 6] – 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. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 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.” 9 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.” 10 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. 11 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?”

The whole point of the plant and the worm was to show Jonah just how out of sync his heart was with the Lord’s. You can’t want mercy and comfort for yourself and then turn around and want destruction and despair for others.  

Jonah, you get so upset over a single plant you did nothing for, but Nineveh is filled with 120,000 people made in my image, just like you, who were spiritually lost, just like you. They were as lost as lost can be. But even through all your resistance, my mercy and grace found them. And I saved them just like I saved you. And why shouldn’t I?  

And then the story ends. No response from Jonah. We don’t know if he changes or not. But I don’t think that’s the point. The point is that God wants to turn the question on us. God’s made his heart and his mission known to us, and he wants to know what we’re going to do about it. And listen, you don’t have to go around actively hating people to have a heart like Jonah. Indifference toward others is hatred enough, and that is just not how God feels toward the lostness of our city.  

I think that should prompt us to ask: If God has a heart of mercy, and he wants my heart to be shaped like his, how do I grow in mercy? And really, this is more than just loving those who love you. God’s talking about enemy love. Loving the person you think should be excluded. How do we overcome our anger to love people like that? I’ll give you three ways we cultivate hearts of mercy:  

1. We need to live loved.  

I bet if God had asked Jonah, in the heat of his anger, do you know that I love you? He would’ve said, “Of course, you don’t love me! If you loved me, you would’ve done what I wanted!” How many times do our fights stall because we double down? We think I’m all right. They’re all wrong.  

But if God had asked, “Jonah, do you love me?” Jonah would’ve said nothing. Not because he doesn’t love God, but because he knows if he had said yes, God would’ve asked him, then why didn’t you do what I wanted? 

See, when we’re stuck in sin, we can’t see our own hypocrisy. But the moment we do, we don’t want to give any ground because we’re afraid of what will happen if we do.  

And it’s in those moments God comes to us and says, “I desire to give mercy, not judgment, if you’ll confess and turn to me.” 

Maybe what keeps you from walking in God’s love today is that you’ve turned away from him. You’ve been walking in unchecked anger for a long time, and you don’t even know why.  

And what you need is to be surprised by God’s loving-kindness toward you. See, the Christian life is not a life of striving and achieving. It’s a life of abiding in the love of Christ. Every day when you wake up you need to remind yourself there’s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. You are loved and accepted by God in Christ. 

PJDG has something he calls the gospel prayer that I would recommend to you. It’s a simple prayer you can pray often to get God’s love in you. It goes like this: 

Because I’m in Christ… 

• There’s nothing I’ve done that could make you love me less, and there’s nothing I could do that would make you love me more.  
• Jesus, your presence and approval are all I need for everlasting joy.  – As you’ve been to me, so will I be to others.  
• As I pray, I’ll do so according to the compassion you’ve shown at the cross and the power you demonstrated through the resurrection. 

See, God shapes hearts of mercy in us as we live out our identity as his beloved children. 

2. We need to live sent.  

That’s how God wanted Jonah to live. And you won’t live sent if you don’t know and love the mission of God. It’s one thing to struggle with the assignment God’s given you. It’s another thing entirely to be indifferent toward it.  

John Stott once said the first question a church that’s stopped being engaged in the mission of God should ask itself is: “Why does the Holy Spirit appear to be bound? Is he grieved by our sin or hampered by our unbelief? Do we need a deep repentance or more prayer?” 

Now, I don’t think we’re unengaged. As a church, we’re trying to be very engaged. But my question is, are you engaged in the mission? If we think loving people into the kingdom of God is somebody else’s job, then we’ve missed something critical in our own discipleship.  

I don’t say that to obligate you to do something. There’s no amount of guilt that’s going to compel you to take risks for the kingdom of God. It’s only by receiving more of God’s love for you in Christ and being compelled by the heart of Christ for others that you’ll say, I want to be engaged in the mission too.  

Maybe you feel stuck; where do I start? Start in the places and among the people God has already sent you to reach and disciple with the gospel. And if you still feel stuck, find someone else in the church who’s already doing the work and ask if they’ll teach you. That’s discipleship.  

Third, if we want to grow hearts of mercy… 

3. We need to live distressed.  

What?? We were actually talking about this at our community group this week. We asked how God was stirring our hearts for the people of our city, and someone said, I feel an ache in my heart.  

What a great diagnostic question: Does my heart ache for people I see every week to know and grow in Christ? 

When I think about the people in our city, I think about my kids and the intensity of the love and care I have for my kids. TK once said you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child…so true! I was talking to a friend the other day whose adult child is going through a hard season, and he said I think about her every day. But then, God applies that same level of love to Nineveh. To his enemies. To the stranger. To us.  

God says, Why would I not care about this great city that’s spiritually lost and doesn’t stand a chance without me?  

So let me throw out some numbers for you about the city we live in: 

• KL proper is home to ~2 million people, just like you and me, made in the image of God with incredible worth.  
• Estimates say there are upwards of 9-10 million people in the Klang Valley 
• Hundreds of thousands of refugees 
• You’ll find varying numbers on this, but the city’s expected to grow by more than 1 million people by the year 2030.  
• Of all those millions of people, we can estimate less than 4% Christian. And that’s probably a generous number; especially when you factor in the influx of new people. 

Our city’s spiritually distressed. So, how are we going to prioritize our comfort?  

Honestly, one of the things that’s bothered me most from our time in Jonah is that on two separate occasions—with the sailors and the Ninevitets—you have people perishing who seek the Lord saying, “Who knows? Maybe God will care about us” (Jon. 1:6; 3:9) and the person most proximate to them says, “God, I didn’t want to go to them because I knew you that cared about them!”  

How could Jonah be like that? But you know what? Sometimes, what we hate the most in others are the things we struggle with the most ourselves. 

Compare that with how Paul speaks about the lost in [Romans 9:2] – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers…

Do you feel that way about anybody?  

Back when I was a uni-student, I had a summer stint in a part of SE Asia where there were very few Christians and hardly any churches. When you go from a place where there’s lots of churches and freedom of worship to a place with none, you realize how much you take those things for granted.  

Since we couldn’t go to church, one Sunday we hiked up a mountain that overlooked our city.[Picture: looked something like this] We basically had our version of church up on the hillside. We sang some songs, we prayed together, and we listened to an old sermon from the late 80s about the power of prayer in missions.  

There was something the preacher said in the sermon I’ve never forgotten. Talking about the sovereignty of God, he said, people like to predict when countries will be closed off to God’s missionary activity.  

As if, these predictions are the only thing we should base our strategies on. And I’m not saying they shouldn’t be considered. But he started listing off all these countries that people were predicting would be closed to the gospel in 20 years, including the country I was sitting in, which at that point, was more than 20 years later.  

And I remember my mind being blown in that moment. God is able to do far more than I give him credit for. And I remember looking down on that city and thinking, God, you love the people of this city far more than I ever will.  

And the amount of my life I have leveraged for them is so small in comparison to what you’ve offered us in the gospel. See, right before we started this series in Jonah, we were looking at the life of Abraham, and at the end of that series, Abraham prayed for God to bless the wicked city of Sodom for the sake of the righteous.  

And then the next week, we looked at Jonah, and Jonah was sent by God to preach repentance to the wicked city of Nineveh, and he refused because he hated them. And so I’ve been asking myself, does my heart look more like Abraham’s or Jonah’s?  

But God doesn’t want our hearts to look like either. He wants our hearts to look more like Jesus. See, at just the right time, God sent his Son, Jesus, into this great world. He came and laid down his life to save his enemies.  

God tells Jonah in [v. 11] the people of Nineveh are so spiritually lost that they don’t know their right hand from their left. And in Luke 23:34, when Jesus is lifted up on the Cross, he prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He feels the same way.  

Our sin did not turn Jesus away; out of anguish in his heart, it compelled him to draw near. To even die for us so that we could find life in him.  

This is why Jesus is the hope of our city—because God’s great mercy overcomes our great sin. And God can do whatever he pleases. But listen–what it pleases him to do is to show mercy to those who don’t deserve it.  

See, Jonah looked down on his city and prayed against God’s mercy. But the question for us is, as we look out at our city, what will we pray? What will we do? 

And I’ll save you the hike…[KL skyline–leave picture up] – When you look out on this city, what do you see?  

An iconic skyline or a great city filled with millions of people who are spiritually lost? And who has God sent to tell them? YOU. 

As we close, the band’s going to come back up…here’s what I want you to do…Find a partner. Turn to someone right beside you. If you don’t know them, go ahead and make eye contact. Introduce yourself. Hi, my name is…go!  

Here’s what we’re gonna do next. I want you, with your partner, to pray for this great city. I want us to pray for Easter next week. I want us to pray for the first step in revival—that God would bring us and this city to our knees in repentance.  

Maybe you’ve never repented to God before. And if it feels like too big a step to take with a partner, you can politely tell them, hey, I need a moment just me and God right now. And you can pray a simple prayer like this:  

God, I know, because of my sin, I deserved your judgment. But I now know that you’re a God of mercy because you sent Jesus to die to save me. Lord, teach me to love what you love and to do what you’ve made me to do. In Jesus’s name. Amen.  

For the rest of us, let’s ask God to make his mercy known in our city.  [We’ll have this on the screen for you (same slide w/ KL skyline)]…you can pray one of these things, you can pray all of these things.  

• God, give me your heart of compassion for the city of KL.  
• Let repentance in our city match the repentance of Nineveh.  
• This Easter, let there be much rejoicing in our city over the saving work of Christ.  

Church, our city’s before us. Let’s pray for them.  

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^[1] Works Consulted:  

Jonah: God’s Scandalous Mercy – Youngblood; TGC Jonah Commentary – Sklar; “A Whole New Kind of 

Obedience” – Greear; “Angry Enough to Die” – Keller; “Do You Do Well to Be Angry?” – Martin