|
 |
These Are Our
People
Jonah 1:1-17
If you have your
bibles with you today I want you to open to one of the most exciting
books of the bible. Honestly there are some books of the bibles that get
a little long in the tooth, as you read through the Levitical laws or
through all of the begets in the book of Chronicles. But our book today
is short and exciting, and it is much more than a fish story. So turn
with me to the Book of Jonah and we will get our text for this morning.
Read Jonah 1: 1 - 17
Isn’t that a great line “The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of
Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because
it's wickedness has come up before me."
Have you ever wondered how God spoke to those in the Old Testament. I
know that it was audible because we have records of people hearing Him,
but how do you think it sounded? With what tone of voice? In what
emotional mood?
I am sure that no one here thinks that he sounded a little like Elmer
Fudd, You know that slurred, ignorant sounding speech.
But could he have sounded like John Wayne? Or Maybe a Deep voice like
James Earl Jones, or what about Mel Gibson? Or George C. Scott as George
S. Patton, but without the profanity.
Church this Commission to the prophet Jonah is not a timid commission.
This is not a half-hearted, meek-minded, mealy-mouthed invitation. It's
a command. It's a charge. It's a call to adventure.
This is God growling, "Saddle up, Jonah. We got us a trail to blaze!
There is a wicked city down in Nineveh and the stench of it's sin is
making me sick to my stomach. You and me are going to ride down there
and tell them there's a new sheriff in town. Lock and load, son. It's
time to ride!"
And every time God gives a commission it is not one of meek compliance,
it is a great adventure that He allows us to join Him on. And as we read
this story a true account we see that this situation of joy and
excitement turns ugly, and it is all because of two words But Jonah. In
verse 3 we see But Jonah ran. He ran and paid the fair and boarded a
boat bound for Tarshish.
That's when God sent the storm. Every hand was on deck, securing the
lines, battening down the hatches, throwing cargo overboard to lighten
the ship. Every hand except one. But Jonah. That's vs. 5. But Jonah had
gone below deck. After a quick conversation the sailors discover that
Jonah is in the eye of the storm. Better said, God has Jonah in his
cross-hairs. So reluctantly they throw Jonah overboard. And the sea
grows as dead calm as a cemetery at midnight.
If the word But can turn a good situation bad then the word But can male
a bad situation good, and we see that in verse 17 when we read But the
Lord. But the Lord provided.
Let’s Pray
So why did Jonah run? I'll tell you what the reasons weren't.
He didn't run because he was afraid to travel. When we think of Mission
work some of us say "Lord, I can't be a Ron and Karen Clayton. I don't
want to leave America and travel half way around the world to some
distant land where they don't speak English and don't have a McDonalds
within two thousand miles."
It wasn’t that Jonah wasn't afraid of leaving home. The first thing he
did was hit the road for Tarshish. He even paid his own fare to board a
ship to run from the adventure God was calling him to.
That was a bad decision. If you run from the adventure of obedience, God
just might send you the adversity of discipline. Which would you rather
experience? An adventure or adversity? Right here, this morning, some of
us know exactly what God wants us to do.
You hear his call loud and clear. He is calling you to the adventure of
faithfulness in your marriage. But you want to run.
Maybe you are in a business situation where God is calling you to the
adventure of integrity. But you're considering running to the option of
dishonesty.
God is calling you to the adventure of purity. You want to run with the
wolves of temptation.
God is calling you to the adventure of honest relationships. You want to
run in the pathway of denial.
Whatever it is you are facing this morning, know this. If we run from
the adventure God has in store for us, we run right into the adversity
of discipline and the ordeal of consequences.
Jonah didn't run from God because he was timid about travel. And he
didn't run from God because he was uncomfortable with unbelievers. Look
again with me at verses 5 - 6. Read text.
These guys were praying to everyone from Baal to Dagon to Asherah. They
were flaming pagans, but that's not why Jonah ran. It is, though the
reason why some of us run from evangelism.
Some of us get nervous about evangelism because we've been Christians so
long our skin's gotten thin. We get offended, put off, upset, and
incensed when non-Christians act like, well, non-Christians. If that’s
your struggle let me give you a little advice, and I need you to take
this with the love that it is intended. If you struggle because the
world acts like the world, get over it. When a pagan acts like a pagan
it is our job to love them and show them the love of Christ.
Now when a Christian acts like a pagan that’s a different story and a
different sermon.
It wasn't a fear of travel or a sense of outrage at unbelievers that
made Jonah run. And it wasn't that he didn't know how to talk about God
either. Look at verses 9 - 12. (Read text).
When they asked, Jonah said, "I'm a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God
who made the land and the sea." When they asked the hard question about
how to fix the mess they were in, he explained it perfectly. Jonah
didn't have any problem talking about God.
Sometimes that is the reason we don't answer God's call to evangelism.
We're afraid people will ask questions we can't answer. We're afraid
we'll give out the wrong information, or worse we're afraid we'll be
rejected. Church let me remind you that it's not about us. It's about
Christ. So we need to get over that, too. Jonah knew how to talk about
God to people and if he could do it, trust me, you can do it too.
So if Jonah wasn't afraid of travel, if he wasn't uncomfortable around
unbelievers, if he knew exactly what to say, then why did he run? We'll
have to skip ahead to chapter four for the answer, but it's a doozy.
Listen to 4: 1 -2. (Read text).
Jonah ran because he didn't want THOSE PEOPLE to be saved.
He knew that if he used his gifts to preach the message with power,
conviction and clarity, that God would open their hearts, they would
repent and God would save them from destruction. And he didn't want them
saved.
Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. And the Assyrians had conquered
Jonah's country. They had carted off thousands of his fellow citizens
and made them slaves. They were a brutal, ruthless race of warriors. So
when God showed some interest in saving them from their sins, Jonah was
incensed. He didn't want God to save them. He wanted God to destroy
them. He didn't want those people saved.
Now let’s talk about that honestly. Most of us who are Christians
realize that God doesn't favor any particular nation. We know that
scripture teaches that God wants all people everywhere to be saved. And
we don't really have a problem with that.
When we all get to heaven, we're not going to complain if it is heavily
populated with people who didn't grow up on grits and sorghum syrup. Or
hominy and molasses. We won't even complain if there are people there
who drank Pepsi instead of Coke. At that point, we'll just be so glad to
be there that the demographic make up of heaven won't matter.
But demographics do matter here. The truth is, we sometimes hesitate to
get serious about evangelism because we're just not sure we want those
kinds of people in our church. They aren't like us. Maybe, for you, it's
a skin-color issue. You know good and well you can't say that because
it's no longer culturally accepted to exclude people based on skin
color. But it's what's in your heart.
Racial prejudice is not only a cultural sin, it's a spiritual sin. Not
only will it get you in trouble at work, it'll get you in trouble with
God. If you judge people by their skin color you are jeopardizing your
own red, yellow, black or white soul. God doesn't see skin color. He
sees soul condition. And his church must reflect his concern for all
people regardless of color.
Maybe for you it's an economic thing. You are uncomfortable around
people who are richer than you are. You envy their lifestyle. You are
intimidated by their success. You are suspicious of their motives. You
are jealous of their stuff.
Or turn it around. Many of us are uncomfortable around people who poorer
than we are. We suspect that they come to church with their hands out.
They are more interested in the things we have than in the message we
believe. You worry that they'll be a drain on our budget and a bad
example to our kids.
We won't come right out and say it, but when we see people who are
different from us, in our hearts we immediately disqualify them from
being acceptable candidates for membership in our church. And we justify
that disqualification with the astute observation; Well, you know how
they are.
I have had the opportunity to work in many different schools during the
yeas, as a substitute teacher, classroom sponsor, class reader, or big
brother. At one school in Gainesville, I had the opportunity to work in
the office and help out from time to time. One day I spent the morning
checking in the tardy kids and checking out the sick ones. Moms and dads
who were late to work came rushing in, fussing at their kids to hurry
up, just like you do yours. They lick their hands and try to smooth out
the cowlicks, just like you do. They bend down and kiss them on the head
and tell them to have a good day. They say, "I love you," in English or
Spanish or Korean or Arabic. They stand there at the end of the hall and
watch until they turn the comer, then they rush off to work. Just like
you do.
What I'm telling you is that they aren't different from us in any way
that matters. Except one. Many of them, most of them, maybe almost all
of them don't know who Jesus is. And it's our job to tell them and to
welcome them into this church. And if we won't make them feel welcome
here; I wonder if he will make us feel welcome there.
See, that was Jonah's issue. You know how the Assyrians are. Ruthless,
brutal, godless pagans. And they were. So God taught Jonah a lesson. You
know how God is. God gave Jonah three experiences.
The first was a storm. Chapter 1, vs. 4 calls it a great wind and a
violent storm.
So violent that the ship threatened to break up. Even the sailors were
afraid. But Jonah slept through the storm. Some people can do that. They
are either confident nothing will happen or they are so good at denial,
that they just sleep through the crisis. Has it occurred to you that the
storm you are in right now is God's way of trying to teach you
something? I'm not saying it is. It may not be.
I'm just saying you should consider it. Jonah could have saved himself a
lot of trouble and fear and heartache if he'd embraced the storm as a
lesson from God. But he didn't. So God sent Jonah a second experience.
Stubborn shipmates.
When the pagan sailors find out that Jonah is the reason they are caught
in this terrible storm, they ask him what to do. He tells them to throw
him overboard. Look at 1: 13. "Instead, the men did their best to row
back to land."
These guys are strangers to Jonah. He's the reason for the storm. Yet
they are unwilling to just throw him overboard and let him die. These
pagan sailors care more about Jonah than Jonah cares about them. They
are more godly than he is. God wanted to show Jonah what it's like when
people really care.
Is there anyone in your life right now who is trying their best to save
you from something? Maybe it's a spouse who's praying for you. A parent
who is worrying about you. A child who is calling you to a better way of
living. Has it occurred to you that God has sent them to you because
he's trying to reach you?
But Jonah was past the point of reaching. The sailors had no choice but
to toss him overboard. That's when God gave Jonah his third life
changing experience, rescue.
That's what chapter 2 is about. It's Jonah's lesson in how God is. He
thought he was going to die. He talks about sinking to the roots of the
mountains, about seaweed wrapping itself around his head, about being
cut off from everything. Then God sends the fish. The fish is Jonah's
salvation.
Jonah has to live for three days swimming around in the intestinal
juices of a fish before he finally learns what it feels like to be lost,
then saved. And people complain about baptism.
Jonah wasn't ready to be an evangelist until he remembered what it was
like to be lost. Maybe that's our problem. We've been saved so long we
forgot what it feels like to be unsaved. So we're not as eager to share
the good news because, for us, the good news has become old news.
But it isn't old news for God. God delights in saving people. He threw a
party when he found you and he has parties yet to throw. Heaven explodes
with praise every single time someone is rescued. Don't let the news God
loves to tell become old and boring and unimportant to you.
One Sunday evening, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was
walking in London with his son, Bramwell, who was then 12 or 13 years
old. The father surprised the son by taking him into a saloon! The place
was crowded with men and women, many of them bearing on their faces the
marks of vice and crime; some were drunk. The fumes of alcohol and sweat
were noxious.
"Willie," Booth said to his son, "These are our people; these are the
people I want you to live for and bring to Christ." Years later,
Bramwell Booth wrote, "The impression never left me." And I hope that it
never left Jonah.
When God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, basically what he was saying was
this: "Jonah, these are my people." That's what he said when he saw you.
That what he wants you to see. It's time to saddle up and ride out. We
got souls to save. Starting here. Starting now. If you're not ready, you
can be ready before this day is over.
|
