Jonah 3:1-5,10
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.
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.
What’s Stopping You from Being like Jonah?
Could you have done what Jonah did? Could you answer a call from God and go to a country where people hate Christians and preach Christ to them? When I held the call to be your pastor, more than one person said to me, “Why would you want to go there? Canada is even less Christian than America.”
And it is, unquestionably. There are laws on our books legalizing sin and limiting our traditional Christian faith. There’s even a city in our country where we are considering doing mission work but may have to do it in secret because the last several conservative Christian churches there have been systematically targeted and run out of town. Canada is not the friendliest place to preach about Jesus.
It’s not the worst either. Having gone to South Korea in June, I got to talk to pastors who serve in places where Christianity is outright illegal. They can’t have a website or use social media because they would be tracked down and arrested. There are places in our world today that would make Nineveh seem like a walk in the park.
But that’s the thing, isn’t it? You haven’t been called to leave town and go to a foreign country where the people would be hostile to you. You live in a country where you are free to talk about Jesus to your friends and neighbours.
So what’s stopping you?
We began our reading of Jonah in the geographical middle of his story:
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.[1]
We skipped over the more familiar part of his story – about how the word of the Lord came to Jonah the first time, but he ignored it. No, worse than that, he rejected it. He hated it. He fled from it. He chartered a boat to take him in the complete opposite direction from Nineveh.
Jonah had his reasons. Nineveh was the capital city of the country that posed the single greatest threat to Jonah’s country. In fact, just one or two generations later, it would be the Ninevites who would wage war on Jonah’s homeland and conquer them. Jonah had no reason to desire their deliverance. He had every reason to desire their destruction. So, he ran away from them instead of trying to save them.
Jonah was scared. He was selfish. He put his own desires ahead of God’s desires and his own well-being ahead of the Ninevites’ well-being. Jonah sinned. And it wasn’t just a sin of omission or neglect. It wasn’t as if Jonah just didn’t have the time. It was an act of open rebellion and willful defiance of God’s explicit will for Jonah.
What’s stopping you?
The word of the Lord didn’t come to you the way it did to Jonah. Jesus didn’t pop into your workplace and pick you to be one of his 12 disciples the way he did for Peter and Andrew. But we heard it from Paul:
[Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them.[2]
[God] gave us the ministry of reconciliation.[3]
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.[4]
Talk about a lofty charge! The almighty God who commands the wind and the waves, the almighty God who supernaturally sent a sea creature to swallow Jonah and then miraculously kept him alive in its belly for 3 days, the almighty God who saved an entire city in a single day chooses to use you as his ambassador.
So what’s stopping you?
Jonah had his reasons for not wanting to go to Nineveh. I’m sure you have had your reasons for swallowing your faith too. Maybe you don’t think you’re the person to do it, i.e. that you’re not educated or eloquent enough. Maybe you’re afraid that you’ll offend somebody; religion is one of the three things you don’t talk about in “polite” conversation. Maybe you’re afraid about how much work it would be to try and get your unbelieving family member from Point A to Point B. Is it even possible that there are certain people that you’re not eager to see saved, who you think deserve what’s coming to them?
Christian, it’s a lofty charge, but it’s one that God has given you – not to go to Nineveh, not to go to one of those places where Christianity is illegal, but to talk to your family members, e.g. your disillusioned parents, your estranged siblings, your straying children. God has made you his ambassador to your breakroom, your homeroom, the 17,000 square feet of ice you occupy on a random weekday afternoon.
Jonah abdicated his ambassadorial responsibilities. Have you? Have you misplaced your confidence in God to change hearts? Have you written certain people off as lost causes? Have you been indifferent to other people’s damnation or selfishly put your own desires for your life and how you spend your time ahead of God’s desire for your life?
Then, Christian, you’re a sinner – just like me and just like Jonah. And just like us, you deserve worse than to be cast into the sea; you deserve what God threatened to do to Nineveh – to be destroyed, damned, forever. But just like Jonah, don’t miss the grace that’s hiding in plain sight in the first words of Jonah 3:
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.[5]
Jonah got a second chance because the Lord is merciful.
It’s even in his name. When you see the word “Lord” in all caps like this it’s a special name that God uses for himself to remind us of his covenant of love and forgiveness. It’s the same contractual name that God used repeatedly in the Old Testament when he gave his one-sided promise of a Saviour. It’s the same name that communicates God’s loving-kindness to sinners who don’t deserve it. It’s the same name that Jesus used for himself when he told the Jews that he was the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Saviour.
The Lord is the God who loves you. The Lord is the one who sent Jesus to save you and give you a second chance. When God sent Jesus into this world, he didn’t look down out of heaven and say, “Earth? Who would want to go there?” When Jesus considered the hostility and hatred he would endure, he didn’t cower in fear or selfishly cover his own rear. He willingly, lovingly subjected himself to the danger and submitted himself to death, so that by his sacrifice he could do more in one day for more people than Jonah ever could.
Jonah’s mission to Nineveh resulted in the salvation of 120,000 people. When Jesus died on the cross, he won eternal life for all people of all time. On the cross, Jesus paid for your sins. He forgave your guilt. He showed you grace and gave you a second chance.
You and I may share the guilt that Jonah did in the first two chapters of his story, but we also share in the opportunity he had in this third chapter to go and be the earthly reason for other people’s eternal salvation. And if that still feels daunting to you, I want you to consider how God answers everyone of your doubts and concerns and fears:
Does evangelism or outreach seem like a lot of hard work? Well, yeah, it is! Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.[6] Jonah was steeling himself to spend up to 40 days there. But what did God do? After that first day, the Ninevites believed… from the greatest to the least.[7] It was a miracle!
The success of God’s Word does not depend on you. It depends on his and his Holy Spirit working through you. It’d be impossible for you single-handedly to go and convert all of St. Albert. But you don’t have to! That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. And you’re not single-handed. Neither was Jonah. Do you think he spoke to every single person in the city? No, they talked to each other, and the Gospel went viral. When we share our faith, God’s kingdom grows – one person at a time, until you can’t count them anymore.
Are you afraid that people might be offended by what you have to say? Are you afraid that God’s Law is unpopular? Well, yeah, it is! But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Jonah didn’t sugar coat it. He laid it out there: Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.[8] He called out the Ninevites’ sinfulness. He told them that they deserved hell for what they were doing. But God’s Law worked on their hearts and yielded God’s intended result: The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.[9]
Had Jonah beat around the bush or softened the blow, no one would have known their need to repent and they would have all been destroyed. But because they were shown how serious their sin was, and because they did repent of it, God relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.[10]
Are you not the right person? Are you not educated or eloquent enough? Maybe not. But listen to verse 5: The Ninevites believed God.[11] You don’t have to be eloquent or educated. You don’t have to have a master’s degree in theology, because it’s not about you. It’s about him. People don’t have to believe you. They have to believe him. And by God’s grace they do! You do! You’re here because someone in your life spoke to you, and I’m guessing that the first person who talked to you about Jesus was not a career clergyman. Chances are it was a friend or a family member.
That’s your mission field. Not Nineveh. Not Canada. Not even St. Albert. Your neighbour. Your friend. The family member who sits across the dining table from you. That’s your mission field and that’s the lofty charge that God has for you. Not to be someone else’s salvation – Jesus took care of that. Not even to change someone else’s heart – that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. You are God’s ambassador. You share his Word and with it his power and his Spirit and his salvation.
Could you have done what Jonah did? I have 0 doubt. Absolutely you could – or better – absolutely God could have through you. So what’s stopping you? Amen.
[1] Jonah 3:1
[2] 2 Corinthians 5:15
[3] 2 Corinthians 5:18
[4] 2 Corinthians 5:20
[5] Jonah 3:1
[6] Jonah 3:3
[7] Jonah 3:5
[8] Jonah 3:4
[9] Jonah 3:5
[10] Jonah 3:10
[11] Jonah 3:5