In the book of Jonah, we have a tale of two hearts. We can see God’s heart of compassion for the city of Nineveh. We can also see that God’s prophet Jonah has no heart for Nineveh. What is the problem here? Jonah knows the Lord. Jonah knows His voice. Jonah was gifted spiritually, operating in the prophetic. Jonah was not a big time sinner. And yet with all of these spiritual credentials, Jonah simply has no heart for Nineveh. As it turns out, is heart was not tuned into the heart of God. So, what does the Lord do? He confronts Jonah with a situation that shows him how out of tune he is.

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Episode Notes

God’s Heart in the Story of Jonah

Jonah 1:1–2 (ESV)
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

• You know the story of Jonah and the great fish (Jonah 1:17). You know how Jonah was directed by the Lord to go to Nineveh with a message of repentance.
• Do you remember how that Jonah ran from that assignment and how that plan did not work?  Jonah was out of the will of God and trouble arose (Jonah 1:4).
  • Trouble always arises when you are out of place.
  • If you are out of your place, you are out of your grace and you will fall on your face.
• Jonah ended up falling on his face into the sea where the great fish swallowed him up.
• Jonah cried to God from the belly of the fish, God commanded the fish to vomit him up (Jonah 2:10).
• And then the Lord reissued the directive to go to Nineveh with God’s message a second time (Jonah 3:1-2).
• Nineveh repented and so did God (Jonah 3:10).

Jonah 3:10 (KJV)
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

• The whole nation from the king on down answered the altar call.
• This repentance from Nineveh displeased Jonah.
• He didn’t want Nineveh to be saved: he wanted them to be destroyed (Jonah 4:1-2).

Jonah 4:1–2 (KJV)
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

• Jonah leaves the city, going to the outskirts and sits to see what will happen to the city (Jonah 4:5).
• The Lord teaches Jonah supernaturally causing a plant to grow over his head and give him shade (Jonah 4:6).
• The next day the Lord sends a worm to destroy the plant (Jonah 4:7).
• He became angry that the plant died, angry to the point of death (Jonah 4:9).
• To which God responds with these words.

Jonah 4:10–11 (ESV)
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?”

DEFINTION: pity in Hebrew means to look compassionately on.

Which Kind of Heart Do You Have?

• Are you tuned into God’s heart for the world and the nations or do you have a Jonah, ‘I don’t care about Nineveh’ heart?
• Jesus said these words.

Matthew 4:19 (KJV)
19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

• Look at the order of what Jesus said closely.
• He said ‘FOLLOW ME’; this comes first.
• Then comes ‘AND I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN’.
• Understand what your part is and understand what God’s part is and do not get the job descriptions mixed up.
• Your part is to do the following; God’s part is to do the making.

God’s Heart in the Life of Jesus

• Jesus said to Phillip one day, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father (John 14:9).”
• The traits of God the Father can be seen in the Son.
• The life and the heart yearnings of God the Father can be seen in the life and ministry of Jesus.

Matthew 9:35–36 (KJV)
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

DEFINTION: compassion/σπλαγχνίζομαι/splanchnizomai – to be deeply moved (bowels) v. — to be affected deeply in one’s inner being, especially in that aspect (the bowels) characterized by sympathy and compassion.

• When Jesus saw the crowds, He was deeply affected inside His spirit man.
• It was like Jonah and Nineveh all over again.
• This is the reason that Jesus ministered and continued to minister day after day sometimes without rest.

Mark 6:31–34 (ESV)
31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

QUESTION: When you look at the crowds, when you see the masses of people on planet earth, what is going on inside you?
Are you affected deeply by what you see as you gaze at the sea of humanity?
Are you moved with compassion?
How far are you willing to extend yourself for people?

• People are God’s heart from beginning to end.
• Remember that the greatest thing that you can do is to do something for someone other than you.

How to Tune into God’s Heart of Compassion

• What is the ultimate solution to man’s condition?
• In the days of Nineveh, it was responding to the message of repentance at the hands of man sent from God.
• In our day, it is men responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• But what is the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Romans 9:1–3 (ESV)
1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that 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, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

• Paul wished that somehow he could trade places with his Jewish brethren; that they could be saved in place of him.
• One cannot even imagine such a desire.
• It could only be born in the depths of a heart that is flooded with the compassion of the Lord.
• Paul’s heart was tuned into God’s heartbeat.
• You find this also in the back part of the letter.
• The very reason Paul wanted to come to Rome to preach was also born in this way of compassion.

Romans 15:23–24 (ESV)
23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

• Paul states why he was coming to the church at Rome.
• Paul desired assistance from them.
• He is looking for financial assistance. Why?
• He needs monetary help getting to Spain so he preach the gospel there also.

Romans 14:7–8 (ESV)
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

• This is a man totally and completely sold out to God.
• Whether he lived, he lived to the Lord; this is your target, this is your example.
• Paul is not talking about occasionally living for the Lord here.
• Outreach starts with people that have hearts that have been tuned into God’s heart.

A church that is not reaching out is passing out.

• We are called to reach out intentionally, creatively, boldly and lovingly to the unconverted and unchurched.
• Jesus wants us to see that the neighbor next door or the person sitting next to us on a plane or in a classroom are not interruptions to our schedule.
• They are there by divine appointment.
• They are there as opportunities for you to reach out with your heart.
• Jesus wants us to see their needs, their loneliness, their longings, and he wants to give us the courage to touch them. Your heart must make this determination.

• While there is one, my heart will reach to them.
• The gospel is not something we go to church to hear; it is something we go from the church to tell.
• Are you reaching out with your heart?
• We who know the need must be willing to sow the seed.
• Your mission field is the next unsaved person you meet.
• God hasn’t made many of us lawyers, but he has done something for all us Christians. He has subpoenaed all of us as witnesses.
• “The question many believers struggle with is, “How do we win the world to Christ with a minimum of fuss and bother?”
• Winning souls is hard work; it is a fuss and it is a bother.

Call to Action

• Are you willing to follow Him with all your heart?
• Are you willing to cry out to Him, to implore Him to send laborers to your loved ones?
• Are you willing to give compassion a chance to take root on the inside of you?

Episode Resources

You can find a more full treatment of the information on this subject by clicking on the link below.

1. Are You Tuned into God’s Heart [Post]

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