ENGAGE
I occasionally play golf with a group of friends which includes another pastor. Since we’re all average golfers at best, we play “grace golf” which means that we have our own modifications to the official rules of golf that are intended to make our frequent poor shots less punitive than they would otherwise be. Among those modifications is that we allow each person in the group to have one mulligan for each nine holes.
For those of you who aren’t golfers, a mulligan is basically a “do over” or a “second chance”. So when – notice I said “when” and not “if” – one of us hits a bad tee shot, we get to tee up another ball and tee off again with no penalty. Most times I really appreciate that second chance because it results in a better score on that hole than would have been possible if I would have had to play the original shot. But it is also possible, like what happened a couple weeks ago, that the second chance shot is actually worse than the first, in which case under the “grace golf” rules, we just have to play the first ball and take whatever score we get.
In rare cases, such as when all four of us in the group hit our tee shots into the middle of the desert, we have even been known to extend even more grace and allow everyone in the group an additional mulligan on that particular hole.
While the mulligans in our golf game are certainly welcome, they really don’t end up making any kind of significant difference in my life. Fortunately, I don’t have to try and make a living playing golf, so all that is really on the line when I play golf is bragging rights within our group. And even that usually isn’t a big deal. Most of the time I play, I couldn’t even tell you what my exact score was for that round.
TENSION
I think most of us here this morning often wish that we could get a mulligan in other areas of our lives – that we could have a second chance to go back and do things differently in our marriages, as parents, in our jobs, and even in our relationship with God.
While we can’t go back and change the past, the good news that we’re going to focus on this morning is that God is a God of second chances – actually He’s often a God of third and fourth and even tenth chances at times.
TRUTH
Before we look at chapter 3 of Jonah where we’re going to see that idea played out in the life of Jonah and in the life of an entire city, let’s take a moment to review what we’re trying to accomplish in our study of Jonah:
1) The first goal is to help all of us to develop a greater appreciation for the love of a God who constantly pursues us even when we run away from Him, and
2) The second goal is for all of us to develop a deeper love for others, especially for those who might seem far from God or who might be so much different from us.
We began two weeks ago by developing an overall theme for our study. By now, you should be able to fill in the blanks here without my help.
Because of His relentless love,
God does not give up on us
even when we give up on Him
We’ve already seen how that is true both for Jonah and for a group of pagan sailors that Jonah boarded while he was fleeing from God. And this morning, we’re going to see that is also true for an entire city full of evil, godless people.
Just in case you haven’t been with us the entire time, let me give you a quick summary of what happened in the first two chapters of Jonah.
God calls Jonah and tells him to arise and go to Nineveh and to preach the message that God is going to give him. But Jonah tries to flee as far away from Nineveh as he can get, so gets on a ship headed for Tarshish in Spain.
While he is on the ship a tremendous storm comes up and once the sailors determine it is Jonah’s fault, they reluctantly follow Jonah’s advice to throw him overboard, but not before they develop a fear of the Lord that causes them to pray to Him and worship Him. So, even though Jonah never intended for it to happen, those sailors become his first “converts” on his journey.
As soon as Jonah hits the water, the seas become calm and God sends a large fish to swallow Jonah. As we talked about last week, even though it might not seem like it, that fish was an instrument of God’s grace. Jonah spends three days and three nights in the belly of the fish and during that time he prays to God. At the end of our time last week, we left Jonah on the shore in some unknown location after having been vomited onto the shore by the fish. Apparently disobedient prophets don’t make a great meal – even for a fish. Since I sure don’t want to dwell on that picture, let’s move on to chapter 3:
[Read Jonah 3:1-10]
It is really interesting here that God’s words to Jonah here in chapter 3 are almost exactly the same as the words He spoke to Jonah in chapter 1. In both places, we find the same three imperatives – commands – that reveal exactly what God wanted Jonah to do. So God’s plan for Jonah hasn’t changed at all. Instead It is Jonah who has changed. But, as we’re going to see more clearly next week, he certainly hasn’t changed as much as he needed to. But God is going to extend His mercy to Jonah anyway and in the process He will use Jonah to extend His grace to the people of Nineveh as well.
So here is the big idea I want us to take away from this passage today:
My second chances often become
someone else’s first chance to experience God’s mercy
APPLICATION
And if that is true, which I am confident that it is, then let’s make this really practical this morning by learning…
HOW TO TURN MY SECOND CHANCES INTO INSTRUMENTS OF GOD’S MERCY
As I mentioned a moment ago, there are 3 commands that God gives to Jonah – all in verse 2. And in verses 3 and 4, we find that Jonah was obedient to all three of those commands:
• In verse 2, God commands Jonah to “arise” and in verse 3, we see that “Jonah arose”
• In verse 2 Jonah is commanded to “go to Nineveh” and in verse 3 we see that Jonah “went to Nineveh”
• In verse 2, he is commanded to “call out” against Nineveh and in verse 4 we see “he called out”.
Interestingly, these are essentially the same commands Jesus gave to His disciples after His resurrection in what we usually refer to as the Great Commission where Jesus commanded His followers to “go and make disciples”. As we review each of these command in a little more detail I want you to consider how similar they are to those words of Jesus.
Let’s take a moment to review each of these commands in a bit more detail and apply them to our own lives.
1. Let go
The first command that God gives to Jonah is “Arise”. It is a command that God frequently gives in the Old Testament when He has a task that He wants one of His people to complete. And when God uses that command, He is almost always calling someone to let go of something they have been holding on to so that they can be free to serve Him.
Often, like when God called Jacob to arise and go to Bethel in Genesis 35, that required letting go of a particular place where a person had settled. Sometimes that meant letting go of a particular person, like in Joshua 1 where after the death of Moses, God commands the entire nation of Israel to arise and go into the land He had promised to give to them. Sometimes, like in Judges 7, it meant leaving a place of safety to go into battle against a much stronger foe.
In Jonah’s case, in order for him to arise, there were a number of things he had to let go of:
• He had to let go of the shame of his failure. There is little doubt that Jonah’s body bore physical reminders of his ordeal in the belly of the fish. More than likely his skin had been bleached by the digestive juices of the fish and I’m pretty sure he didn’t smell all that good. So that was a constant reminder of his past failure. And before he could go on, he first had to let go of that.
There are some of you here this morning that are paralyzed by some past failure. Maybe you even feel like it’s just not possible for God to use someone who has done something as bad as you did. But if God could use a prophet who openly rebelled against Him and tried to run 2,500 miles in the opposite direction of where God told him to be, He can use you if you’re willing to let go of that past failure.
• He had to let go of his own self-will. He had to let go of the idea that he knew better than God how to live his life and trust that God knows what He is doing.
There are some of you here this morning who can’t arise and do what God wants you to do because you really haven’t made Jesus your Lord by allowing Him to be in control of your life. Maybe you’re not able to do what God wants you to do because you’re not willing to let go of a job because you are trusting in that for your financial security. Maybe you’re holding on to what you know deep down inside is a bad relationship because you’re relying upon that other person for your sense of worth. Maybe you’re still holding on to some sin because it makes you feel good, or at least you think it does. If any of those things describe your life, then you’re going to have a hard time being an instrument of God’s mercy until you let go of your self-will.
• He had to let go of his pride. We’re going to see next week that Jonah still hadn’t done this completely, but at least he had done it to the point where he chose to obey God this time. Jonah thought that he was superior to the people of Nineveh. As we saw in his prayer last week, he didn’t believe that they were capable or deserving of receiving God’s mercy.
God can’t use some of you here this morning as an instrument of His mercy because of your pride. Even though God has treated you with mercy, you still believe at least to some degree that you deserve that mercy, but that there are others who don’t. Some of you are worried that being obedient to God is going to harm your reputation or that if you do what God has called you to do that others will think that you’ve become one of those crazy bare footed Jesus freaks. And until you are willing to let go of your pride, it’s going to be really difficult for God to use you to impart mercy to others.
So the first thing you need to do if you want to be an instrument of God’s mercy is to arise and let go of whatever you’re holding onto that is keeping you from doing what God has called you to do.
2. Go
Jonah had gone the first time that God called Him. The problem is that he had gone in a direction that was 180 degrees from where God had commanded him to go. But this time Jonah obeyed God and headed in the direction that God told Him to go – toward Nineveh. I have to believe that after his experience of the last several days, Jonah was probably ready to do whatever God called him to do – as long as it didn’t involve getting on a boat.
The command to go here carries the idea of urgency. It literally means to “go now”. And that is what Jonah did – he immediately set out in the direction of Nineveh. We’re not told exactly where the fish vomited out Jonah, but wherever that was, it would have been several hundred miles from Nineveh, so Jonah had quite a long trip ahead of him – a lot of time to think about what he had been through and the task ahead of him.
There is an important lesson for us here. Sometimes God calls us to do something that is going to require a lot of time or effort and our natural tendency is often to procrastinate. And unfortunately, if we don’t go immediately when God calls us to go, we often never get started on the journey and we therefore don’t ever get to where God gets us to be. I know that is the case because I have done that more than I would care to admit in my life and I’ve had to ask God for His forgiveness. And because He is a merciful God, He has often, but not always, like He did with Jonah, given me a second chance to do what I should have done the first time.
When God first began to call me to be a pastor, I had no idea what the journey would look like or where it would take me. And frankly, it was during a season of my life when it didn’t make a whole lot of sense from my human perspective to begin on that journey. But fortunately, God helped me understand that if I didn’t go right then, I might never go. So I began that journey by immediately doing the things that would get me going in the right direction – things like discussing the idea with some godly men who could help me in that journey and making arrangements for seminary classes.
It’s important that we remember this command as a church, too. God didn’t tell Jonah to open up a church and have the Ninevites come to him. He was to go to them. We need to make sure that we don’t get so comfortable just hanging around with the people in this body, that we just expect people to come to us, when Jesus has clearly told us that we need to go to them. So let’s make sure that we maintain and even develop further the outward focus that we’ve been emphasizing this year.
3. Tell
The verb “call out” in verses 2 and 4 is the same verb we saw earlier in the first two chapters to describe both the sailors and Jonah calling out to God. It has a variety of meanings, but all of them involve a verbal proclamation of some kind.
It’s important to note that Go didn’t tell Jonah to go to Nineveh and study the culture or to go there and live there and be a good example for the people of the city. There is obviously nothing inherently wrong with those things and in particular we are to live unique, distinct lives that cause people to see Jesus in us. But at some point, we also have to do like Jonah was commanded to do and to verbally and publicly proclaim God’s message.
The sermon Jonah preaches is rather interesting, isn’t it? Once again, we can’t be sure that we have the entirety of what Jonah preached, but I do get the sense from the text that he just marched through the entire city preaching these same 8 words – only 5 words in Hebrew – over and over. He really wouldn’t have had time to do much more than that due to the size of the city.
His message was a lot different than the sermons you would hear in many churches here in the western world today. He didn’t preach about to be happy or fulfilled or how to get rich. He didn’t start with a funny story to get their attention and then interject a bunch of videos and humorous illustrations throughout the sermon to keep people’s attention. The message was short and it was direct. And I know what some of you are thinking right now – you especially like the short part of that, but the direct part – maybe not so much.
“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” The word overthrown there is somewhat ambiguous. It can either mean “overturned and destroyed” or it can mean “overturned and changed.” The message was pretty simple, the clock was ticking and in 40 days either the city would be changed or it would be destroyed.
My guess is that is probably not the message that God is going to put on our hearts to share with others today, especially on this side of the cross. But at the same time, for a reason that I’m going to talk about more in a moment, we certainly must share the gospel with the same degree of urgency that is expressed by Jonah here.
My second chances often become
someone else’s first chance to experience God’s mercy
And if I am going to be an instrument of God’s mercy in the lives of others, I must follow Jonah’s example and let go, go, and tell. But before we close, let me share a couple cautions that we need to keep in mind as we do that.
A COUPLE CAUTIONS
1. Second chances are a gift, not a right
When we disobey God, He is never obligated to give us a second chance. The fact that God gave Jonah a spiritual mulligan doesn’t mean that He always does that. Maybe you remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira that we looked at earlier this year in the book of Acts They certainly never got a second chance.
We need to be really careful about presuming on the mercy of God. Even though God is in the business of making straight that which we have made crooked, often by giving us second chances, He is under no obligation to do that every time we disobey Him.
Unfortunately, I see even Christians who seem to otherwise be really grounded presume on God’s mercy like that, especially when it comes to marriage. They know that marital infidelity and divorce are sin, but still choose to intentionally violate God’s standards, claiming that God wants them to be happy and that He will give them a second chance at a good marriage. And sometimes, because of His mercy, God will do that. But usually that doesn’t take away the devastation that sin wreaks in all the families involved.
I’ve also seen the very same thing in other areas where the Bible has some really clear principles – things like work, finances, and relationships. And the same thing is true there. Because He is merciful, God does often give us second chances to get things right. But that doesn’t always relieve the pain and suffering that sin causes in our lives and in the lives of others.
So obviously the best course is always to obey God the first time.
2. God’s offer of mercy is a limited time offer
God gave the people of Nineveh 40 days in which to accept His offer of mercy. Fortunately, they didn’t do what a lot of us would do and wait until day 39 to repent.
God’s offer of grace for us is limited like that, too. And in our case, the Bible is clear that even tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. So this morning, I want to urge all of us to consider taking one or more concrete steps to respond to God’s mercy today.
ACTION
• First, if you’ve never responded personally to the mercy that God has extended to you by putting your faith in Jesus and allowing Him to be both your Savior and your Lord, will you do that today? There is not one person in this room that deserves God’s mercy because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
But because God loves us so much, even when we rebel against Him, He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in order to pay the penalty for our sins that we deserve. Through Jesus, God offers us the ability to become alive spiritually so that we can have a relationship with Him. So if you’ve never done that, will you do that today?
Maybe you still have some questions about exactly how to do that or exactly what that means. Great! I’ll be at the back along with a couple of our elders during the last song and we’d love to talk to you more about that decision.
• Second, perhaps there are some of you here this morning who have been running from God in some area of your life and you need a second chance. Perhaps there is something in your life – some person, some possession, some sin – that you’ve been unwilling to let go of. And that is preventing you from being an instrument of God’s mercy in someone else’s life. So if that is the case will you confess that to God and ask for His forgiveness and ask Him to help you let go of that so that He can give you a second chance and also use you in the process of giving others a second chance through you?
• Finally, all of us here have been given second chances. If you’re like me, you’ve received a lot of them. And since that is the case, then God wants to use you in order to be an instrument of mercy in someone else’s life. I believe that some of you already know who that other person is, but you just haven’t yet taken the step to go and to tell. If that is the case will you ask God for His help and His guidance and for the boldness you need to be obedient to Him? And if you’re not sure who that person might be, will you ask God to reveal that to you?
While we have those possible steps in mind, let’s pause for a moment to pray about what God would have each of us to do in response to what we’ve learned today.
[Pray]
As we close I want to leave you with…
ONE ENCOURAGMENT
1. Salvation belongs to the Lord
I want you to look at verse 5 again for a moment. Who did the people of Nineveh believe according to that verse? That’s right, they believed God, not Jonah. And how did that happen?
I don’t think we probably understand just how unlikely that was. That would be like saying that Miley Cryus suddenly decided to dress modestly and begin singing only Christian music. It would be like Richard Dawkins or some other famous atheist concluding that there really is a God and going to seminary in order to become a pastor. It would be like all the casinos in Las Vegas being converted into homeless shelters and houses of worship.
How could a five word sermon from a reluctant Jewish prophet have that effect? We can speculate on all the logical reasons that might have happened, but all we can really say for sure is that somehow, that was all God’s doing. There is no other explanation that makes sense.
God never held Jonah responsible for the results here. He just held him responsible for being obedient to proclaim the message to the people. So when the people repented, it was God that they believed and God that got the credit, not Jonah. And when the people eventually turned back to their sinful ways many years later, God held those people, and not Jonah responsible for their decision.
INSPIRATION
My second chances often become
someone else’s first chance to experience God’s mercy
The world is full of people who need that first chance to experience God’s mercy and God has put every one of us in a unique position to be the instrument of His mercy in the lives of some of those people. He has also prepared us for that task by extending His mercy to us through the multitude of second chances that He has given us. What we do with those second chances is up to us.
Discussion questions for Bible Roundtable
1. What does this chapter teach us about God’s love for all people? Why was that such an important idea for the people of Israel to learn? How do we apply that idea in our culture today?
2. What are some things in our lives that prevent us from being God’s instrument of mercy in the lives of others? Why do we have such a hard time of letting go of some of those things?
3. How are our lives impacted if we believe that second chances are a “right”, and not a gift? How do we avoid that kind of thinking?
4. Why is it important to remember that “Salvation belongs to the Lord?”
