Jonah 4
Notes
Transcript
The Grumpy Angry Prophet and the Grace Giving God
The Grumpy Angry Prophet and the Grace Giving God
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.
Intro:
On Jan 8th, 1954, Jim Elliot and 4 others landed in the jungle of Ecuador. The desire of the five missionaries were to take the gospel to the people of the Auca Indians.
This would be the first time that these missionaries would meet face to face with the people that they have been trying to reach. They have provided them food and other items to gain acceptance but to no avail there was always resistance. After they landed they built a hut waiting for the Acua’s to come and see them.
The five were never heard of again. They were ambushed and killed the moment that they came into contact with the Acua.
Jim Elliot wrote while waiting for the tribe to visit him: I walked out to the hill just now. It is exalting, delicious, to stand embraced by the shadows of a friendly tree with the wind tugging at your coattail and the heavens hailing your heart, to gaze and glory and give oneself again to God—what more could a man ask? Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth! I care not if I never raise my voice again for him, if only I may love him, please him. Perhaps in mercy he shall give me a host of children [i.e., converts] that I may lead them through the vast star fields to explore his delicacies whose finger ends set them to burning. But if not, if only I may see him, touch his garments, and smile into his eyes—ah then, not stars nor children shall matter, only himself.
O Jesus, Master and Centre and End of all, how long before that glory is yours which has so long awaited you? Now there is no thought of you among men; then there shall be thought for nothing else. Now other men are praised; then none shall care for any other’s merits. Hasten, hasten, Glory of Heaven, take your crown, subdue your kingdom, enthrall your creatures.
Jim’s wife, Elizabeth, continued to pursue the Auca people despite what happened to her husband and her fellow missionaries.
She continued to learn as much as she could about the tribe. She learned their lanuage and befriended some locals that were former members of the tribe.
She would go on to live with the tribe for two years. taking the gospel to those who murdered her husband.
Elizabeth knew that God is unlike her, she knew that God’s grace could even extend to those who murdered her husband.
MP: God is slow to anger, compassionate, and abounding in steadfast love, see his grace today.
1. The Grumpy Angry Prophet (1-4)
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 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.”
a.Gracious- Hannun, used 13 times in the OT
Exodus 22:26–27 “If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.”
b. compassionate- meaning to be soft like a womb or soft compassion of a mother for her child in the word. Ninevites and saliors hoped what Jonah knew all along, that God is compassionate.
c. Slow to anger, forebear, continue long, be patient, postpone anger,
Proverbs 16:32 “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”
d. Abounding in love (hesed) or covenantal love. God’s unrelenting love for his creation and his people. God will unconditionally recieve the repentant sinner into reconciliation with God.
Love the father had of the son
Luke 15:11-22
A) sees God;s grace and mercy as a weakness of God. He believes that God needs to be just to the wicked.
We often can feel that way too. But when that happens we believe that we are not who we really are wicked. Ephesians 2:1–4 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,”
2. The Grace Giving God (5-11)
God provides grace, where we dont deserve it he still provides.
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured–
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Luke 15:11-22
e. Relents from sending calamity, or agonizing compassion of God in realtion to sinful humanity Exodus 34:6–7 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 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.””
2 Sin and despair, like the sea-waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater– yes, grace untold–
Points to the Refuge, the mighty Cross. [Refrain]
3 Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
All who are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive? [Refrain]
Refrain:
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!