Iliff & Saltillo UM Churches
February 16, 2003
Identify with God’s Heart for the World
How to: Become a World Class Christian
Jonah 3:1-4:4
INTRODUCTION: We are all probably more like Jonah than we want to admit. When God calls us to do something we don’t especially want to do, we make an excuse or we try to keep God at a comfortable distance by becoming indifferent to his nudges, by packing our lives up to the brim with “acceptable” busyness, by going in the opposite direction entirely, or by disassociating ourselves from people who “remind us” about God.
Jonah was a prophet. He was supposed to go preach the gospel to people, but when Jonah got this message from God, he said, “No Way. Not to these people. They don’t deserve it.”
Just who were the people of Nineveh? Why did he feel this way?
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. There were 120,000 people there. The Assyrians were evil, wicked people who were Israel’s most dreaded enemy. They threatened Israel and eventually conquered it in 722 B. C. The Israelites had many reasons to hate the proud Ninevites. The Assyrians flaunted their power before God and the world. They were known for their heartless cruelty. Israel lived in fear of these terrorists for years. Jonah hated the Assyrians and wanted vengeance, not mercy. When Jonah heard God tell him to go to pronounce judgment upon them within 40 days if they didn’t repent, he headed out of town immediately--but went in the opposite direction. He headed for Tarshish 2000 miles away. If he wasn’t available, how could he do the assignment? What would you have done? Would you have excused yourself and then justified it by saying, “they didn’t deserve it anyway.”
Jonah knew that God had this special project for him, but he just didn’t want to do it. What is your attitude toward those who are especially wicked? Do you want them destroyed? What about the people we have been hearing about on the news for the last few months? Do we consider them outside the sphere of God’s grace?
When Jonah got back from his unsuccessful trip toward Tarshish, God gave him a second chance. Sometimes God gives us a lot more chances than that. God was not ready to write the Ninevites off just yet.
STORY: A man hated his wife’s cat and he decided to get rid of it. He drove 20 blocks away from home and dropped the cat off. The cat was already walking up the driveway when he got back home.
The next day he decided to drop the cat 40 blocks away but the same thing happened. He kept on increasing the number of blocks but the cat kept on coming home before him.
At last he decided to drive a few miles away, turn right, then left, past the bridge, then right again and another right until he reached what he thought was a perfect stop and dropped the cat off there.
Hours later the man called his wife at home and asked her, “Jen is the cat there?”
“Yes, why do you ask?”
Frustrated, the man said, “Put that cat on the phone. I’m lost and I need directions.”(source unknown)
Jonah didn’t need any directions. He knew exactly how to get to Nineveh--he just didn’t want to go--what he needed was the willingness of heart to just go and do it.
Jonah had become completely indifferent to the fate of God’s creation outside of Israel. Israel thought that they were better and yet they refused to obey the Lord. The Jews didn’t want to share God’s message with the Gentiles. Jonah thought that God shouldn’t freely give salvation to such wicked people. This attitude has been common within the church. Are we like this? Most of the time we would quickly say, “No way. I love everyone,” but just when we say that, God gives us a test--he brings some person across our pathway and we find out how loving and kind we really are. The God of Israel was the God of the whole world.
1. Jonah Went Reluctantly: We are like this a lot of times. “OK, Lord, I’ll do it, but I sure don’t want to.” Jonah did not go to these people wholeheartedly and enthusiastically. On the first day Jonah proclaimed his message. “Forty more days is all you have and Nineveh will be destroyed.” Jonah was not proclaiming the Lord to hose that didn’t know Him. There was no indication that Jonah made any effort to reach the royal presence. This was probably because he didn’t want anyone in authority to make a decree that would cause the people to repent. The king heard about it after awhile. (vs.6). “When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh. The decree said “...let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish” (vs. 8) “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened” (v. 10).
2. God Had Compassion: Jonah had yet to learn that God loves all people. Through Jonah God reminded Israel of their responsibility to those outside the covenant.
God doesn’t want us to limit our focus to just our own people. God wants us to proclaim his love by our actions as well as our words. That is very difficult for us to do. It is hard for us to grasp the love of God but Ephesians 5:1, 2 says, “be imitators of God, therefore, as dear children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
How can we do this? Romans 5:5 says, “...God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.”
Is it possible that our view is as narrow as Jonah’s toward other people? A lot of times I think it is.
STORY: Elderly couple in nursing home. Constantly fighting, arguing, yelling at each other as they had from the time when they were first married as young people. Argue and fight from time they get up in morning until they fall in bed at night. Finally one day the wife says to her husband, "I’ll tell you what, Joe, let’s pray that one of us dies. And after the funeral is over I’ll go to live with my sister." (source unknown)
Jonah was thinking more about himself and what he wanted, but Jonah knew God well enough to know that the person who was really repenting would be justified in God’s sight. In fact he said, “That’s why I didn’t want to go down there in the first place because I knew you are a God of gracious compassion, slow to anger and abounding in love--a God who relents from sending calamity” (4:2). Jonah knew that no one deserved God’s favor less than the people of Nineveh but Jonah knew they would respond and God would spare them.
3. Going to Our Ninevehs: Who are the Ninevites that God might be calling you to go to? They might be the unchurched in our community. They might be our neighbors next door, our coworkers, our classmates, or our outright enemies. What feelings do you have toward these people? It might not be hatred--but it might be something just as bad--maybe simply indifference and apathy. Ho Hum...
We might ask ourselves, “How willing am I to go to others with a message of repentance toward God? Are we quick to say
1. Count me out. I’ll be out of town that day.
2. Count me out. I don’t know enough about the Bible.
3. Count me out. I admit that I don’t care enough about other people.
We might say even say
4. Count me in, but only if I don’t have to take much heat.
I think God is looking for us to respond with...
5. Count me in. With God’s help I’ll give it a shot.
STORY:A short story tells about a fellow who was far away from home, and in a small town. He had in his possession only one thing, a $1,000 bill, but nothing else, no small change, no identification, nothing. He was famished for food, ravenously hungry, but he could buy nothing, for no one would take his $1,000 bill. It was not until he found a way to break that bill down into small change that he could spend any of it. Our love for God, quite similarly, must be broken down into small, spendable change. (source unknown)
Jonah was not an exceptional prophet. Jonah was not picked because he was especially suited to the task. Probably we are not either. God was able to work with Jonah. He is able to work with us too in spite of all of our limitations and imperfections. Jonah is not held up as a hero too high and mighty for us to identify with. I think we can identify with him. Even when Jonah goes with reluctance and delivers the message he gets angry with God. But the whole time God is working around his flaws and accomplishing His purpose in him. He can do this in our lives too. We just need to be obedient to go and put into action and deed what God is telling us to do. It doesn’t have to be just the “big important things, but the small daily acts of kindness. The small daily things we do to encourage someone. The “spendable change.”
CONCLUSION: So what do we get out of this scripture? This scripture is one that shows how far God is willling to go to reach people. The undeserving Assyrians. The people we don’t consider worthy of salvation. Ourselves. The classic scripture says that “For God so loved the World that He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” May our prayer today be that we can see God’s love and that we can see people through His eyes. That our care and concern for others may reach out to people who are still lost in sin.
The second thing is that we might be reluctant to go to people and to become involved in their lives at first, but God can help us to be willing and obedient to do what he is calling us to do. God is able to work with our limited abilities if we make ourselves available to do even what we at first would rather not do. Speak up when it is difficult, be willing to spend our limited time for other people, be willing to use our resources when we see a need, and to live consistently before people over the long haul.
As we go into a new week, ask God to bring some people across your pathway who need the Lord. Be willing to say, “Count me in God. With your help, I’ll do my best to introduce people to You.” Identify with God’s Heart for the World. Become a world-class Christian.
