Do you care?

Jonah 4:1-11

According to statistics, the city we live in is one of the safest areas in the UK. With a relatively low crime rate, it is an ideal place to reside.

Having lived in this area for five years, I have always felt that the people here are kind, polite, and eager to help others. There is a wonderful atmosphere of community support.

Being able to live here is truly a blessing from God. God led my family here; our children enjoy school, we have found a suitable church, and we have come to know a group of wonderful brothers and sisters. I am truly grateful. I thank God for bringing me here; it is all by His grace.

Yet, as we enjoy all of these things, the book of Jonah today gives us a profound revelation, teaching us how to adjust our hearts. Do we care for those who do not possess the spiritual blessings that we do?

Do we remember the words Jesus spoke in Matthew 28? On a mountain in Galilee, He said to His disciples: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations... to the very end of the age."

This mission was given by Jesus personally to all of us. It is not just the mission of pastors, evangelists, or missionaries; it is the mission of every single person who follows Jesus. And the timing is not "after I read the Bible a few more times," or "after I finish my theological training." It is from the moment we follow Jesus until the end of our lives, to the very end of the age.

When was the last time we proactively prayed for someone who does not yet know the Lord?

Many times, we think the problem is a lack of opportunity. A lack of courage. A lack of equipment.

But the book of Jonah shows us that the problem is sometimes much deeper than that.

Jonah was one of the most successful evangelists in the Bible.

He was alone, he did not hold large-scale meetings, and he only used one day to repeatedly speak the same warning message.

Yet, he actually led the entire city of Nineveh to repentance. This could be called an unprecedented success.

Jonah was called to carry out the mission entrusted to him by God, just as every follower of Jesus is called to share the gospel. However, Jonah's story reminds us that successful ministry does not always mean that our hearts are aligned with God's.

While we may feel comforted by Nineveh's repentance, God did not end this book after Nineveh repented.

Because in God's eyes, there was one more heart that needed to be changed.

That heart was Jonah's.

Today, we need to reflect on these questions through today’s scripture: Is what God cares about also what we care about? Are the people God cherishes also the people we cherish?

Those familiar with the Bible know that God was going to bring judgment because of Nineveh's sins, and He told Jonah to call the Ninevites to repentance. Jonah originally did not want to go to Nineveh, because Nineveh belonged to the Assyrian Empire, which was known for its cruelty and was an enemy of Israel. Jonah did not want them to be saved, so he ran away. This is not our speculation; it is what Jonah himself admitted to God in chapter 4, verse 2. He fled to Tarshish. Later, God used storms, a great fish, and various things to stop him and guide him to turn back. Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the fish, God saved him, and he went to Nineveh to proclaim God’s message.

The whole city, from the king to the people, repented.

God withdrew the judgment He had originally declared.

Jonah knew that God had forgiven the Ninevites, but he was not happy. The Bible says, "But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry." He even said to God, "It would be better for me to die than to live."

Jonah was angry because of Nineveh’s salvation. He believed they were not worthy of being saved and only deserved destruction.

Jonah was angry, not just because he hated the Ninevites. The deeper reason was that he felt he was right and God was wrong. He used his own standards to judge whether the Ninevites could be saved. The Assyrians were brutal, so judging Nineveh was justice, and forgiving them was injustice.

Jonah had a measuring stick in his heart, and he used it to measure who deserved grace and who did not. Unknowingly, he began to use his own standards to judge God's actions. The problem was not that justice did not exist, but that he used his own version of justice to limit God's mercy.

God’s grace is never given based on whether people deserve it.

Jonah forgot that he himself was someone who did not deserve grace. He ran away, he resisted God, and he was swallowed by a great fish before he repented. Yet, God still forgave and saved him.

But Jonah was willing to accept God’s forgiveness for himself, yet refused to accept God’s forgiveness for the Ninevites.

This is the most terrifying part of self-righteousness: standing on the moral high ground makes one blind to the people around them, and makes one unable to see that there is actually no difference between themselves and the "sinner."

Looking back at us, perhaps some people truly have some individuals in their hearts who are very hard to forgive, and some hurts still ache today. But most people may not be like Jonah, hating someone to the point of hoping for their destruction.

For many Christians, the real danger may not be hatred, but indifference.

Precisely because of this, Jonah's story seems far away from us at first. We may not agree with his hostility toward the Ninevites, but this book challenges us in a different way.

However, God placed this passage in the Bible not just for us to criticize Jonah.

Because people today may not hate others to the point of wanting them destroyed, but they have fallen into another extreme: indifference.

Jonah said, "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." He knew what God’s heart was like; he was very familiar with the kind of God He is, yet he was unwilling to enter into God’s heart.

It is the same today. Many people know that God so loved the world, that Jesus died for sinners, and that the gospel needs to be preached. They are very familiar with the Bible, remember many wonderful sermons, can recite many key verses, and know as much about God as Jonah did, yet they are not willing to enter into God's heart.

When they see their neighbors, colleagues, family members, or people in the community, there is not a ripple in their hearts.

No hatred, but also no special feeling.

We remember to pray for our children’s exams, for our own work, and for our family’s health.

But how long has it been since our prayers moved beyond ourselves and those closest to us?

When was the last time you intentionally prayed for someone who does not yet know the Lord?

We believe that Christ is the true hope, and we believe that people need the gospel. Because of this, the spiritual condition of people should be what we care about. Yet, many times, the problem is not that we don’t know these truths, but that, unknowingly, their place in our hearts has gradually shrunk.

This is a very dangerous spiritual phenomenon. Hatred is easy to spot, but indifference is very difficult to detect.

At least Jonah knew he was resisting God because he didn't like the Ninevites, but indifferent people don't even notice that their hearts have gradually drifted away from God.

Do we care about what God cares about?

Before we believed in the Lord, we were also living in sin, not knowing God. Someone was willing to pray for us, someone was willing to share the gospel with us—that is why we are here today.

Jonah's self-righteousness was active; he said, "I don't want them to be saved." We may not refuse others to be saved; we have just gradually lost our feelings for them.

We know the gospel is important, and we know people need the Lord, but life is gradually filled with various things, so that those who do not yet know the Lord occupy less and less space in our hearts.

The reason for indifference is not that we do not know God’s commands.

It is that we have forgotten an equally important thing: each of us was once like the people in Nineveh, having received mercy. When we forget that we were also once recipients of mercy, our hearts will slowly drift away from God's heart.

After Jonah learned that God had forgiven Nineveh, he built himself a shelter to the east of the city. The text doesn’t state what his purpose was for sitting there, but based on the context, it is not difficult to infer that he wanted to see if God would really not bring judgment.

He had proclaimed to the Ninevites: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." The text does not explicitly say whether forty days had already passed. Jonah might have hoped that God would still change His mind at the last moment.

This is the greatest irony of the whole book: the person sent by God actually did not want God’s mission to succeed.

Everyone in the city was turning to God. The prophet outside the city was resisting God.

The city’s problem had been solved, but the prophet’s problem had not.

And God’s way of discipline is often beyond human expectation. God provided a plant for Jonah to shade him, to make him comfortable, and to save him from his distress, and Jonah was greatly pleased because of this gift.

But the next day, God provided a worm to chew the plant, and then provided a scorching east wind and the sun to make Jonah miserable.

At that moment, Jonah asked to die for the second time.

He could not accept that God had given him grace, then taken it away and arranged suffering for him. So he wanted to die again.

He forgot.

He forgot that he himself was waiting for the God who had granted grace to the Ninevites to take that grace away and arrange suffering for the entire city.

Jonah was miserable because he lost a plant. But what he was waiting for outside the city was to see those more than 120,000 people lose God’s grace and suffer.

That plant was not just a plant; it was a lesson. Through the plant, God wanted to let Jonah learn about His mercy.

Jonah cherished the plant. God cherished Nineveh.

Jonah cared about his own comfort. God cared about life.

Jonah poured out his emotions for a plant, but God had compassion for the lives of 120,000 people.

In this story, God taught Jonah to know His heart through the plant, molding him into someone who understands what God's mercy is.

Just as parents want to teach their children a lesson, a real experience is more effective than ten thousand sermons.

Many believers today read the Bible, pray, have quiet times, and participate in fellowships every day. We also thank God for a stable life, a wonderful family, good health, and a suitable church. All of these are gifts, and they are all good. But sometimes it is easy for us to focus on "what God has given me," while ignoring "what kind of person God wants to mold me into."

Everything in the world was created by God. Everything we possess, if we think about it carefully, is God’s free grace.

In the text, God asked Jonah twice: "Is it right for you to be angry?" He did not ask about Nineveh, but asked about his heart. When life does not go as we wish, when things we cherish are taken away, what emotions well up in our hearts? Jonah’s answer was anger. What will our answer be?

As we enjoy grace, do we think of those who have not yet known this grace? Do we resonate with God’s mercy?

Grace is not just grace; the implications behind it are worth our deep reflection.

Jonah knew that God has mercy on sinners, but he was unwilling to have mercy on sinners as God does.

If Jonah, whom God chose, was like this, what about us? Can we be better than Jonah?

From this, we see that Jonah is not the answer. What we need is not a group of Jonahs who are more diligent and more obedient, but a greater Jonah.

Matthew 12:41 says, "Look, one greater than Jonah is here."

The book of Jonah ends with a question from God: "Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh?"

The book of Jonah stops at a question. The Gospels give the answer, and that answer is Jesus.

Jesus is greater than Jonah because Jonah delivered a message of judgment, while Jesus personally bore that judgment.

Jonah was angry when he saw the city of Nineveh. Jesus came to Jerusalem; when He saw the city, He wept over it.

Jonah wanted his enemies to be judged. Jesus bore the judgment for His enemies.

Jonah sat outside the city waiting for destruction to come. Jesus walked into the city and abandoned Himself on the cross.

Jonah was miserable because he lost a plant. Jesus was willing to lose everything so that His enemies could gain life.

Jonah would rather die than see his enemies saved. Jesus was willing to be crucified so that His enemies could be saved.

Jesus’ heart is greater than Jonah’s. Jesus’ heart is the true answer.

Because we see that Jesus’ heart is like this, our indifferent hearts can possibly be melted—not by our own effort, but by looking at Christ on the cross.

This is a response of love to what we have realized, not merely following a command rigidly.

Jesus knew: this city would reject Him; this city would crucify Him; but He still wept. He still went to the cross.

He did not die for those who loved Him, but for those who abandoned Him.

He did not die for those who sought Him, but for those who rejected Him.

He did not die for His friends, but for His enemies—for me, for you, and for us, who were once sinners living in the city of Nineveh.

And in the end, we are saved because of Christ, because Christ responded to God’s question with His actions: "Should I not have concern?"

"Should I not have concern?"

God is not asking, "Can you go preach the gospel? Can you go on a mission?" He is asking about cherishing.

Cherishing is an act of the heart. Only when the heart is aligned will the body slowly follow.

If the heart is not aligned, what we do will be just like Jonah’s.

To align the heart is something that must be learned slowly, and it is a daily lesson and reminder. So, how do we practice this heart of mercy every day?

At the end of today's sermon, I want to share a very short story.

A professor of mine in seminary was actually an unbeliever when he was in university.

His roommate was a Christian who had shared the gospel with him many times, but there was never a result.

Later, they graduated and lived their own lives.

A few years later, my professor came to believe in the Lord because of a special experience, and he decided to be baptized.

He excitedly called his former roommate to tell him the news.

After hearing it, his roommate said happily:

"Thank God, then I can finally stop praying for you."

It turned out that all these years, even without seeing any change, he still kept this friend in his heart and kept praying for him.

Sometimes we think there is not much we can do.

But God does not necessarily require us to change someone's life today.

God might just be inviting us to put someone's name into our prayers and not let it go.

Today, I only hope everyone remembers one thing: try to pray for one person who needs the gospel every day! Just this one thing.

It doesn’t need to be many people. You don’t need to do many things. Just start with one person. Bring him to God every day.

Ask God to grant him faith, and ask God to place mercy in your heart.

If you still don't feel a sense of mercy, when you pray, think of the way Jesus wept, think of the hand pierced on the cross—will you have even a little bit of mercy?

The book of Jonah does not record how Jonah answered in the end. Because this question was not left for Jonah to answer.

It was left for everyone who reads this book to answer.

God asks: "Should I not have concern?" Today, the people whom God cherishes—do you cherish them?

Let us pray together.

Heavenly Father, You are a Father who is loving and righteous. It is You who come to seek the lost, it is You who give grace, and it is You who sent Your beloved Son, Christ, into the world to redeem us from our sins and bring us back to Your side. We will not forget all these gifts, and for this, we offer our thanks.

Father! Please forgive us. We know that You are the One who is full of mercy and grace, and You want us to be able to look at others with the same heart as Yours, just as You were the One who reached out to save us when we were still sinners. Sometimes we forget to love people. Please remind us, let the Holy Spirit teach us, so that we may all gradually be aligned with Your heart. We also wish for You to use us, so that we may carry the same love of our Lord Jesus Christ and spread the gospel to all nations. May the Lord enable us to have that motivation, that heart, to love those whom You cherish.

We pray in the victorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.