Then
the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it
the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to
Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an
exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah
began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out,
“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the
people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on
sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The
word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne,
removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the
decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd
nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but
let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out
mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the
violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and
turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
When
God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God
relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he
did not do it.
Jonah was thrown up onto
the beach, he had gone through the worst experience of his life but
God had met with him in a most amazing way. He had come face to face
with death but in God's mercy had been saved. Now we find him on an
unknown beach. Sometime soon:
- God speaks to him a second time.
- God speaks to the people of Nineveh through Jonah.
God speaks to Jonah
a second time:
It is so different this time around. God speaks to Jonah a second
time and he obeys. That is how it should have been the first time.
God is amazingly gracious with His people. We might have thought that
Almighty God would not want to have anything to do with this
rebellious man let alone appoint him to be a prophet. As we have seen
previously Jonah was faithful in preaching to Israel but he was not
willing to be a missionary to Nineveh.
At this point put we need to put some theology in place in order that
we understand more fully God's grace towards His own people otherwise
we might jump to the wrong conclusion that Jonah's rebellion took God
by surprise. In Ephesians 1:4 Paul tells us that we are chosen by
God before the foundation of the world. We were not chosen because
God knew that we would ultimately repent or because we have special
qualities; He simply chose us by His grace alone and for His own
pleasure and purpose otherwise salvation is one area where man is
sovereign over God. In all things God is sovereign and so He must be
in control of our salvation as Ephesians teaches. The reality of this
is that God knew exactly what Jonah was like with all of his
complexities and yet He chose him for this very task which he would
rebel against. As we saw last time God took Jonah to the point of
death to bring him to repentance and obedience. Until that time Jonah
neither had the desire nor the ability to repent but God provided the
way for him.
This is equally true of all of us today. God knew all about you and your own unique character long before you were born but yet He has
chosen to save you at the time, place and circumstance which He
ordained before the foundation of the world. At this time all of
heaven rejoiced with you as you repented and were born again. Do you
remember how you rejoiced at the time when you knew that our sins had
been dealt with and you had been born into the family of God?
Do
you continue to continue to rejoice as you did the day that you were
converted?
When heaven rejoiced over your salvation it was not a momentary event
but it is an ongoing situation. Every soul is precious to God and as
such pleases the whole company of heaven as they await our arrival.
Our stay on earth deprives heaven of our presence. All of heaven
clearly knows of our conversion which suggests that heaven knows our
current state and also the quality of our Christian life also.
Certainly
God knows all about us just as Jonah experienced.
This helps us to understand why God came once again to Jonah and
spoke to him. He did not come with a new message, the word of the
Lord for Jonah on this occasion was a repeat of the command to go and
to preach God's word. God does not change His mind simply because His
prophet is rebellious, He simply changes the prophet.
That
is an amazing work of His grace.
.God has also given each of us a command to take His word to our own
Nineveh.
- Where is it that God has given to you or us corporately as your or our unique mission field?
- Are you/we fulfilling His call or are you/we rebelling?
God
speaks to the people of Nineveh through Jonah:
Jonah obeyed and went directly to Nineveh where he preached the word
to the people just as God commanded. The city was so large that it
took 3 days to cover with many thousands of people, possibly more
than a million.
This might come as a surprise to you but:
Jonah
is one of the most effective preachers in the bible.
His message was simple, 40 days and Nineveh will be judged by God
Almighty the result was amazing, the whole town repented. We ought to
pray for the anointing that Jonah had on his preaching that day it
would be wonderful if our little town were affected by our gospel
witness. If I read the account correctly the word came to the king
second hand but nevertheless when he heard of it he was immediately
challenged by it.
The
Holy Spirit of God who is the One who enlightens hearts and causes
people to repent was powerfully at work that day through Jonah's
preaching.
It would be fantastic if people listening to our preaching today were
as affected as were the people of Nineveh on that day. The immediate
result of the message was faith to believe it to act accordingly. How wonderful it would be if it were the same here
today! The people of Nineveh not only believed God but they also
displayed their faith by changing into the clothes kept for mourning
the death of a loved one and instead of sitting in comfortable
surroundings sat on the ash heap which displayed to God their
sincerity of heart.
Even the King removed his royal robes and stood as an equal alongside
his people, all of the people of the city were humbled before God!
As
the king sat on his ash heap he was concerned for his people and
their animals.
He passed an edict that all must fast and pray to God for help.
Everybody must change their ways. They must give up their evil
practises and their violence. The were to fast and pray in the hope
that the judgement might be averted.
Repentance
always has an effect, it changes ways and attitudes.
The king did not fully understand God's ways at this point because he
hoped that their actions might change the mind of God from judgement
upon them to mercy towards them. He hoped that their deep sorrow
might turn away Gods anger and that salvation might come to them.
It
was due to their faith and repentance that God saved them.
God did forgive them and did not bring about the threatened disaster.
Ephesians clearly teaches us that this was God's intent all along.
Jonah knew that to be the truth also as He boldly tells God later on
in Chapter 4 verse 2
The great lesson for us here is that the Word of God is powerful and
effective and it always accomplishes the purpose for which God sent
it. For Jonah the preached word was effective for the salvation of an
entire city. For others their ministry was ineffective for salvation.
For instance Jeremiah was told to go to Israel with God's a message
of judgement upon them but God forewarned him that they would not
believe. Was Jeremiah less effective? His ministry was just as
effective as Jonah's but the outcome was very different. It is
obedience to God's calling on our lives that is paramount, results
are His and so we must never be tempted to count blessing by numbers!
The outcome of all gospel witness is God's and not ours, therefore we
are fully effective when we are obedient. It is always our desire to
be effective for the salvation of others but if converts are our
measure of blessing then we are deluded. We live in days when it is
rare to see conversions in the UK but that does not mean that God's
work is not accomplishing it's purpose! God's word always
accomplishes it's purpose but the reality is that we do not always
fulfil God's command. When we do not take our gospel opportunities we
are guilty of running away from God's calling as was Jonah God's
command is that we go to all people everywhere with the good news of
the gospel. People will never be converted if we do not preach in the
first place!
“The word is near you, in
your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we
proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will
be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with
the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says,
“Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For
there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is
Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For
“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And
how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how
are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to
preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are
the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he
has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing
through the word of Christ.
Romans 10:8-17
In the great commission as recorded in Matthew 28 the Lord Jesus
tells His disciples that they must make disciples wherever they are.
The gospel is for all ages and for all people and as Jonah found out
the responsibility of all believers is to tell others without fear or
favour. That is OUR commission here at the Mustard Seed. The
question that needs to be answered is; how do we accomplish it?
In effect your experience over recent months has been something of a
roller coaster ride. It has not been easy but the Lord has brought
you to this place now. We must remember that:
- God knew all about you and this situation from before the foundation of the world.
- He knew all about Pam and I and our difficulties.
- His purpose is for us to work together.
- As with Jonah we have our own experience as to how God has brought us together.
- The only thing that we have that is effective for the salvation of people is the Word of God.
- Our commission is to make disciples of all who are converted and to teach them to obey the commands of Jesus.
- Our comfort is that Jesus is with us always, Jonah learned that in the depths of the sea but we have the promise articulated in our bibles from the lips of Jesus.
- Together we are about gospel work here in East Cornwall.
- A line needs to be drawn in the sand now, this is a new beginning but we rejoice and praise God for all that has gone before:
A new beginning for the Mustard Seed Evangelical Church therefore
let us work together for the glory of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment