Jonah: Running From The Reality Of Grace Series

Intro

This week our nation celebrates it’s independence. And like all countries… over time such holidays become more about a time to have fun than to be sobered by the nature of freedom.

There can be a strange mix of two types of pride that we can celebrate. When we feel a pride is in the source and sacrifices… those who formed it… and the ideas that shaped this country… one is ultimately humbled…grateful…and we want to be faithful to that source.

But there is another pride…. chanting “We’re #1”…as if there is something inherently special about us… and that we deserve this. Such pride can get a bit convoluted… when we think we ourselves are better people simply because of being here. It can defy truly being more American…because it is turned away from the source…the ideas…that are at the root of America…and begins to claim that those who live here simply deserve what we have.

I share that thought because it may be an analogy to something far more dangerous.

A far more insidious shift can take place in the way many of us may believe that we have been saved by the grace of God. Many of us believe that the human soul is destined to face the consequences of going our own way...but that there is news of grace…God’s grace at work…if we will receive it. And that is what the Gospel is….good news of God’s grace.

Grace. It is the air of freedom we claim every day… the good news of grace.

But have we really accepted grace? [1]

Today… God has a challenge for each of us.

It come in the life of Jonah.

We are continuing our new summer focus on the section of Book in the Bible referred to as The Minor Prophets. The prophets were those God raised up to declare the truth to those around them.

The “Minor Prophets” refers to the final twelve books of the Old Testament and the term “minor” refers only to their shorter length ...not their importance.

There is a major message in each of these prophets….which speaks to us today. In these voices we hear how the heart of our God confronts the unfaithfulness of human life…with the reality of consequences and hope.

Today we continue with the Book of Jonah. Probably best known because of Jonah being swallowed by a whale… but today we get to hear what Jonah is really about… and hear God’s heart.

What we discover is that Jonah is a story of us…and our relationship with grace.

It begins…

Jonah 1:1-2 (NIV)

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

Jonah… is a prophet who had some history. Had helped warn one of Israel’s kings to fortify the northern wall… and with it declare that God was not going to allow Israel to be destroyed. God would save them. Jonah was clearly remembered for such a role. All this must only have intensified Jonah's sense of national and spiritual pride as a son of Israel. [2]

Now God calls him again…to go to Nineveh.

Nineveh - “the great city of Nineveh”

Great it was - Jonah's assigned destination could not have been more imposing. Around this era in history, the nation of Assyria stood as the dominant force in the ancient near east…and the nation of Israel’s greatest fear…, and its centralization of power resided in its capital city,

How real is such a place and story? Many may think it’s more legend. Some wondered about such a city.

Until the city of Nineveh was discovered and excavated in 1846. Continued excavation has revealed the magnitude of this once great city.

How many have heard of ISIS? Heard of the city of Mosul…in Iraq? Most of us have been watching it for three years. Three years ago this very month… after ISIS took control of the city of Mosul. This very week…the efforts to drive them out are finally being completed street by street.

Now here is what you may not know. The city of Mosul is essentially upon the city of Nineveh. There around Mosul are the massive gates and walls and ongoing excavation of ancient Nineveh. And when Isis took the city…they blew up one of the gates of Nineveh…and then as the world watched…they blew up one of the revered mosque…the mosque of the saint of Jonah. Yes…where it is believed his remain s…previously as an Assyrian church…then mosque.

[Can include images of the mosque before and after…of people inspect the destroyed Mosque of The Prophet Younis] [3]

Why Nineveh? Because God was well aware of it’s wickedness… and the suffering so many experienced.