Sermon Text: Jonah 3: 1-10
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.
4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning 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.
7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.
8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Morning Message:
Let us begin today by trying to understand the man Jonah. In order to understand his reluctance to go and preach in Nineveh, we must first understand what kind of people the Ninevites were. As great as this city was, its people, the Assyrians, were equally cruel and wicked. These idol worshipers were especially wicked toward the Israelites. All of Israel hated the Assyrians for their cruel, barbaric ways. The armies of the Assyrians often skinned their captives alive, removed tongues, gouged out eyes, and mutilated the populations of entire cities by driving over people with chariots affixed with iron spikes. They also burned children alive and committed other atrocities that were designed to terrorize their adversaries and make them submit. They were not only cruel to others, but they also committed these things among their own people. So with that in mind I ask today’s question: Will you go to Nineveh?
Anyone who has spent time in Sunday school or bible school knows the story of Jonah and the whale. This bible story captures the minds of children and adults. As children we are amazed at the thought of a great fish swallowing a person. As we grow older we start to wonder if this is even possible. A study of marine biology shows us that this is very possible even from our human understanding. But aside from that, let us just remember that with God all things are possible. We should always choose to believe God’s word, and in this case, the science completely backs it up. Let’s take a moment here to look within ourselves. Has God ever asked you to do something that you just could not bring yourself to do? This is a time to be honest with ourselves. No one will know your answer except you and God, and He already knows. It may be something that makes you uncomfortable. It may be something that is very sacred to you; something that you love more than anything in this world. Maybe it’s a relationship that even though it’s not working and you hear God telling you to let it go, you just can’t. Maybe, just maybe, God is calling you to go to Nineveh.
For Jonah it took running away, being swallowed by a great fish, repenting of his disobedience, and being spit out on the ground before he would obey the call of God on his life. How much will it take for us? How much has to go wrong, or at least sideways in our lives, for us to see the handwriting on the wall and realize that we are running away from God. When we give our lives to Jesus He takes that seriously even if we don’t. God’s plan for a Christian’s life has to come first. Let me say that in a different way. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, God’s plan will come first eventually. How soon that happens depends on how long we resist and run the other way. Truthfully, there are only two choices in life. Accept Jesus and do God’s will or …. Let me take you to the book of Job. Job’s wife says something to him that I think we miss the meaning of. After he has lost everything and is sitting in a heap of ashes she comes to him and says, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) You will have to go and read his response for yourselves (verse 10). Here is the point, the other choice is to reject God and die a spiritual death. We don’t get to have it both ways. We either accept God’s way, or we reject Him completely.
Jonah finally understands that as a Godly person he cannot reject what God is calling him to. He goes to Nineveh and proclaims God’s message. The people repent and God spares them. Jonah is not happy at all. You see, it wasn’t just his fear that kept him from going to Nineveh, it was his prejudice and his hatred of this people. He didn’t think that they deserved to be saved. He had already judged them and found them guilty of death. He said that he knew because of God’s love that He would spare these people, and in his opinion, they didn’t deserve it. I am glad that we never judge like that. I am so thankful that none of us has ever looked at a group of people and considered them lost and beyond the grace of God. The truth is, we all do this to some degree. It is not intentional most of the time, but if we are honest we will admit that sometimes we act this way even as the church. We must minister to all people even if we disagree with their lifestyle. We can’t change people, but God can. We were not told to go and change the world; we were told to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Not just to those that we like or are comfortable with, but to the world, even to the Ninevites. Open your eyes and see the hurting around you. Don’t place a label on people and proclaim them unclean and unworthy of God’s love and your best effort. Open your hearts to the pain that is so present in this world, the pain that Jesus came to cure. Will you go to Nineveh?
In Christ’s Love and Peace
Pastor Bob
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