When God’s mercy is bigger than our hearts
Updated: Sep 4
Date: 30 August 2026, 9.30 am
Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: Jonah 4:1-11
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TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction
Blessed Sunday to everyone.
It’s so good that we can come and worship God together as one family here in Henderson.
We are also thankful that those who are home-bound are able to join us through technology. We pray that the Lord will bring you back into our midst soon.
Church, today we come to the fourth and final sermon on the book of Jonah.
I suppose for many of us, this feels like Missions month. But it actually isn’t.
Missions month is next month in September. But the intention of going through Jonah was in preparation for missions month.
For if we get the truth of Jonah, the prayer is that in missions month, we will take heed to the call of missions that God will bring through Rev Kenny Lee from Ambassadors for Christ Singapore.
And our minds, hearts and hands will been readied to understand the implications of the Gospel upon personal evangelism.
Then at the end of September, we will be ready and equipped to begin our preparation for Christmas, a season of proclaiming Joy to the World, our Lord has come.
Through our journey this past month, we have seen a few high points. Jonah surviving in the belly of a great fish and the dramatic repentance of the Ninevites.
As we arrive at chapter 4, we will observe the irony, that what should be the great climax of Jonah comes across more like a stumbling point.
For Jonah, the storm, the fish, even the city of Nineveh pales in comparison with the crisis that has been in his heart the whole time.
And so, the question the book of Jonah seems to ask is not ‘will Nineveh repent’ but ‘will God’s people learn to share God’s heart for those whom God is seeking to save’.
Before we dive into Jonah 4, let’s do a short recap.
Eld Chow Meng has helpfully highlighted for us last week the parallels between Jonah 1 and 3.
In Jonah 1, God told Jonah, arise and go to Nineveh and Jonah fled away to Tarshish.
In Jonah 3, God again told Jonah, arise and go to Nineveh and this time Jonah arose and went to Nineveh.
In Jonah 1, Jonah is contrasted with the mariners. Jonah was the prophet of God, yet it is the mariners who were more open to worship and obey God than Jonah.
In Jonah 3, Jonah is contrasted with the Ninevites. To Jonah’s astonishment, the Ninevites responded in repentance to his message.
As Jonah 1 and 3 are parallels, Jonah 2 and 4 are also parallels. Jonah 2 and 4 are Jonah’s prayers before God and God’s response to the prayers.
In Jonah 2, the theological highpoint is proclaimed by Jonah – Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Now in Jonah 4, we will see Jonah’s misunderstanding of that proclamation.
The movement is negative to positive for Jonah 1 and Jonah 3. But we will see that it is the opposite when we view Jonah 2 and 4.
As a church, we have gone through Hosea, and in Hosea, the repeated idea was return to the Lord.
Hosea shows us how tragic it is when God’s people who have received God’s covenant love repeatedly turn away to idolatry.
Jonah shows us another form of idolatry. It’s not bowing down before a carved image.
No, Jonah’s idol is his own desire for how God ought to behave.
Jonah wants God’s justice for Nineveh but is more than willing to accept God’s mercy for himself.
He wants God to love Israel but not Israel’s enemies.
At our anniversary, we gave away the tag that had the verse from James 3:17.
The phase ‘full of mercy’ is very appropriate for Jonah 4.
Because Jonah knows about God’s mercy, he experienced it and he also preached it.
But Jonah is struggling to learn to love the recipients of God’s mercy.
Might this confront some of us today. We can know the Gospel, we can sing about grace, we can affirm missions and support missionaries.
And yet we might question – do we actually want God’s mercy to reach the people God wants to save?
God’s mercy can offend us when it challenges our expectations (Jonah 4:1-4)
Jon 4:1 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, please take 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?”
If the trajectory of Jonah 1 to 3 was to be followed, what would be the Sunday School expectation of the first verse of Jonah 4?
Would it be ‘And it pleased Jonah exceedingly and he gave thanks to God’. I’m sure we would expect that of the model answer from the 1000-year series.
Nineveh has repented, God has shown mercy and now Jonah should be exceedingly glad.
But what we see instead in the opening verse of Jonah 4 is the directly opposite. Jonah was exceedingly displeased and angry.
This is very strong language. Jonah was burning with fury.
This descriptive word ‘exceedingly’ is scattered over the book of Jonah and the author wants us to see how unreasonable Jonah’s response is.
1:10 – the mariners were exceedingly afraid after knowing that Jonah is the cause of the storm.
1: 16 – the mariners feared the Lord exceedingly, after the Lord ceased the storm when Jonah was thrown overboard.
3:3 – Nineveh is said to be an exceedingly great city.
4:1 – Jonah was exceedingly displeased with God for His mercy upon the Ninevites.
4:6 – Jonah was exceedingly glad for the shade God has provided by the plant.
Jonah, we see is contrasted with the Mariners, pagans who have this intensity of emotions for the right things. Jonah however is self-centred.
In Jonah 2, God saves Jonah and he gives God overflowing praise and commits vows of obedience.
In Johan 4, God spares Nineveh and Jonah is furious with God.
God has been merciful constantly, the difference to Jonah is who receives it.
In v2, Jonah affirms God’s character. Quoting from Exodus 32 & 34. And this helps us understand why Jonah ran away in chapter 1.
He ran not because he was afraid Nineveh would reject his preaching, he ran because he was afraid Nineveh might accept it.
Jonah knew exactly what God was like – God, you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and will relent from disaster.
Since he was quoting from Exodus, to Jonah, he is saying, God this side of your character is good but it must only be shown to Israel. Never to Israel’s enemies.
Jonah knows God’s character but he does not accept that this character is to be experienced by all.
Jonah 4 should be a confession of worship and praise and thanksgiving but instead the irony is that Jonah takes God’s character and turns it into an accusation.
I knew you will be like that God, thus I hate it.
Jonah’s theology is correct, but that theology has not convicted his heart.
Might this be true today as well. For many of us, we can know true theology, we can be well versed in biblical doctrine, yet still have a heart that resists the God whom that theology reveals.
Remember in James chapter 2, we were told that our faith is evident by our works.
And one negative example given is that even the demons believe who God is and they even shudder yet, they stand condemned because they did not act in obedience.
God is sovereign, that is something all believers accept. But what if God sovereignly extends grace and mercy that contradicts our preferences?
What happens when God blessed someone we think does not deserve it? What if it’s someone whose lifestyle we dislike?
What the Gospel is sent to a people group we are indifferent towards? Or what if God calls us to serve and ministry somewhere we don’t want to or even have distaste for?
I submit, it is then that we ask ourselves is God’s sovereignty truly allowing God to be God?
Or is God not really sovereign, for He must first conform to our preferences.
Jonah is so angry at God’s consistent character that he says, if you are going to forgive and accept the Ninevites, I rather die.
Jonah, I see, is trying to emotionally blackmail God. I rather die than for you to forgive Nineveh.
So in a sense, Lord since you likely will spare me because I’m your prophet, then destroy Nineveh. Execute your justice.
To that, we see that God did not strike Jonah dead for being disrespectful. God asked Jonah a question that is to help Jonah see the condition of his heart.
Do you do well to be angry? Its rhetorical. Jonah is to realize that he should not be angry.
Jonah feels deeply that Nineveh deserves judgement. God knows that Jonah’s heart needs transformation.
Today, might God be asking some of us also:
Do you do well to be angry?
If God extends salvation grace to your sister or brother or friend or enemy, why are you angry with that?
If God says show mercy to your sister, brother, friend or enemy, why are your displeased?
If God blesses your sister, brother, friend or enemy, why are you resentful?
When God’s mercy challenges our expectations, is taking offense the right response?
If we zoom out from the focus on missions and see it from the wider angle of discipleship. Meaning to follow Him as Lord and Master.
How might the Lordship of Jesus begin to fit into our personal plans?
We live in Singapore and are faced with the values of achievement, career progression, recognition, financial security, comfort and personal freedom.
What does discipleship mean to you and to me?
If God calls you to serve Him in a way that will disrupt your career plans, your comfort or bucket list, would you say, Lord, here I am, may your purposes be fulfilled.
God’s providences exposes what we really love (Jonah 4:5-8)
Jon 4:5 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. 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.”
Jonah’s message to the Ninevites was ‘yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown’.
So it seems, the Ninevites were so quick to repent and God was also quick to relent of the disaster, that there were many days left of this 40-day period.
Jonah must have thought to himself, let’s see if their repentance is lasting. Let me go out of the city and wait. I’m sure they will turn back to their previous ways and God will then have no choice but to execute his judgement.
It is interesting that Jonah is described as making himself a booth in the desert overlooking Nineveh.
Deuteronomy 16, tells us that Israel is to observe the Festival of Booths to remember God’s sustaining hand upon them while they wandered 40 years in the wilderness.
The very act of sitting under the booth recalls God’s mercy and grace, yet Jonah who sits in it, rejects the idea that God should show mercy and grace to Nineveh.
As Eld Chow Meng mentioned, his body has gone to Nineveh to preach but his heart has not caught up.
Earlier I highlighted the word ‘exceedingly’ and now may I highlight another word ‘appointed’.
Jonah rightly says, he is the prophet of the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.
So we see God appointed the fish to rescue Jonah (1:17), now God appoints a plant to give Jonah shade (4:6) and subsequently we will see that God appointed a worm (4:7), a scorching wind (4:8).
Though the word appointed is not used of the storm and the casting of lots in Jonah 1, we get the idea that God was in control as well.
All this we see is God’s sovereign providence. God is showing Jonah that He is indeed the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.
Church, do we believe God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow?
If so, then we can trust Him that nothing in all creation is outside of His control.
Nothing is left to chance, nothing falls outside of His will and sovereign rule.
There is a hymn written in 1774 titled "God Moves in a Mysterious Way", and one sentence reads - But trust Him for His grace, Behind a frowning providenceHe hides a smiling face.
The hymn teaches that difficult life events may look harsh or painful, but they often carry hidden goodness and love from God.
This is a lesson I’m still learning and I pray that many of you have learnt it better than I have.
In v1 Jonah was exceedingly angry with God, now experiencing the plant God has appointed, Jonah is exceedingly glad.
What has changed for Jonah? Nothing has changed in Nineveh, they are still repentant. God has not changed, He is still merciful to them.
Only for Jonah, God has given him wonderful shade. He is relieved of his discomfort.
And because Jonah has again received God’s mercy, he is exceedingly glad.
But what it does is exposes Jonah’s priorities. Eld Chow Meng quoted a bible scholar that described Jonah as a racist.
To that we should add, Jonah is extremely self-centred.
Church, absorb the contrast – Jonah is exceedingly angry at the salvation of thousands of human beings. But he is exceedingly glad for the comfort the plant is giving him.
As the fish was God’s instrument of transformation, now God continues to use creation as his instrument.
God appoints a worm to eat the plant, then sends a scorching east wind and the sun to beam down hard on Jonah.
Here again Jonah utters his desire to die.
In the first incident, Jonah wanted to die because he did not want to witness God’s mercy upon Nineveh. Here, he wants to die because he is experiencing the withdrawal of God’s mercy upon him.
Isn’t Jonah inconsistent in his application of mercy and justice? It’s always mercy towards Jonah and justice for Jonah’s enemies.
God’s providence is exposing Jonah’s heart. This is refining fire.
We sing, God never moves without purpose or plan, when trying His servant And moulding a man. That is exactly what God is doing with Jonah.
Church, what makes us exceeding glad today?
A promotion, a good return on investment, an exciting holiday, a cherished relationship, a comfortable retirement, a close-knit family?
None of these things are wrong, but Jonah is asking us, what happens when we care more about our “shade” than about the souls around us?
Jonah’s emotional investment in the plant was greater than his concern for the people God was saving.
Is there a ‘Jonah plant’ in our lives right now that if God were to remove, it would make us exceedingly angry?
Might this ‘plant’ pale in comparison to what God is actually purposed for us to do?
Might we turn our eyes upon Jesus and His ways, so that the things of this earth will go strangely dim.
God’s mercy upon us calls us to share in His compassion (Jonah 4:9-11)
Jon 4:9 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?”
At the beginning of chapter 4, when Jonah was exceedingly angry, God asked, do you do well to be angry?
Now when Jonah was exceedingly glad for the plant, God asked again, do you do well to be angry for the plant that I’ve taken away?
Jonah’s heart is being exposed. He has disproportionate compassion.
He has compassion for the plant that he did not labour nor grow. All because the plant was for his benefit. And the plant is temporary.
But God’s compassion is for thousands of humans, humans who are made in the image of God. And Jonah has no compassion for them.
The plant was God’s merciful gift to Jonah.
What are God’s gift to us today? Wealth, homes, health, children, careers, time, opportunities, our faith community, the very air that we breath.
Everything that we are and have is God-given.
Jonah is reminded, you did not labour for the plant. Church, our talent, time and opportunities are all God-given.
Do we seek only the gifts but not the Giver?
Are our gifts to be received just for our consumption or are they given to us so that they are used for the purposes of the Giver?
One plant versus 120,000 people. How disproportionate is Jonah’s priority.
God’s heart for the citizens of Nineveh, has always been consistent. Israel was never chosen to be the only ones to enjoy God’s favour.
When God called Abraham, he promised:
Gen 12:2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Thus, Isreal was to be a channel of God’s grace. Through Israel, the Gentiles will be grafted into God’s Kingdom.
Today, the church is the living testimony of this. There are faith communities that are in many nations, singing and praising God in different languages.
The book of Jonah does not have an ending.
It ends with God asking Jonah the question – 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 bible does not record Jonah’s response, and as Eld Peter has mentioned in our first sermon, it is to enable us to put ourselves in the position of Jonah.
We are to ask ourselves, what are our hearts priorities. Should we have God’s heart of compassion?
Church, God has placed us in Henderson for a reason. We are not here by coincidence. No, we are here by God’s providence.
Shall we care for the souls of residents in Telok Blangah? In Bukit Merah?
Shall we care for the souls of our fellow classmates in school, in university?
Shall we care for the souls of our colleagues and our neighbours?
Shall we care for the souls of those our mission partners minister to in Malaysia, in Thailand, in Myanmar and in Philippines?
Shall we care for the souls of those who are disagreeable? Who are difficult to love, who have hurt us, whose behaviour makes us uncomfortable?
Church, God’s mercy upon us must lead us to share in His compassion for the lost.
Conclusion
Church, as we come to the end of Jonah, I submit, the greatest problem in the book was never really Nineveh, it was Jonah’s heart.
Jonah knew God’s Word and His character. Jonah personally received God’s mercy.
He ran away, but God still pursued. He disobeyed, yet God lovingly disciplined.
He rejected God yet God gave him a second chance.
Jonah is a great disappointment, but we thank God that one who is greater than Jonah is here.
Jonah was angry that God showed mercy to Israel’s enemies, Jesus died for His enemies.
Jonah, was disobedient to God’s instructions, Jesus willingly obeyed His father.
Jonah set his face away from Nineveh, Jesus resolutely set his sight towards Jerusalem and the cross.
Now the empty tomb shows that sin and death have been defeated. Now in Christ Jesus, the wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles have been broken.
Now all who place their faith in Christ Jesus will be made right with God and given the gift of eternal life.
Because salvation belongs to the Lord. That means as redeemed sinners, we now have the privilege to be involved in God’s mission to others.
How can that happen?
I submit it is not because of the lack of missionary planning. No, what Jonah teaches is that we need a transformed heart.
The greatest obstacle to mission is the hardness of our own hearts.
We need the Holy Spirit to do in us what Jonah could not do for himself.
We need God to change what we love, to change what we see and value. To align our hearts until they beat more and more in sync the heart of Jesus.
As we sing our response hymn later, let us plead that God will send His Holy Spirit to sweep through us and revive us with life and power.
That the Spirit will cleanse, renew us and fit us to meet this hour.
The hour that has come, where the harvest fields are vast and white.
May the Holy Spirit, remake, revive and restore us so that we are equipped to spread the light of the Gospel in Henderson, in Singapore and beyond.
Amen.
Reflection Questions
Where might we be like Jonah, happy to receive God’s mercy for ourselves but struggling to rejoice when God shows mercy to someone I find difficult to love or forgive? What might this reveal about our understanding of God’s grace?
What is my ‘plant’, something good in itself that I may have come to value more than God’s Kingdom and His mission? What might it look like to surrender this to God and use it for His purposes?
Who is one person or group whom God may be calling you to see with greater compassion and intentionally reach with the Gospel? What is one practical step I can take this week to love them, build a relationship, serve them or share Christ with them?
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