Sermon excerpts from Sunday, January 25, 2015
Last week I told you there
were two topics that people don’t want to hear.
One was evangelism. We discussed
that last week. This week we are going
to look at that other subject – Stewardship.
Or for today message, using your talents as God desires.
God came to a man named
Jonah and told him to go to Nineveh, a wicked city, and “preach against it
because its wickedness has come up before me.” In other words, his assigned
task was to proclaim God’s judgment on Nineveh’s sins.
But Jonah didn't want to go
to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the historic enemy of Israel.
In the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., the Assyrians plundered Palestine,
looted and burned its cities and deported its inhabitants. In 722-721 B.C., it
was Assyria that destroyed the Northern Kingdom.
Just like most of us, Jonah
had his reasons for not wanting to use his talents as God wanted. We give all
kinds of excuses, too poor, too old, too stupid, too busy. Jonah hated the Assyrians, and so when God
came to him and told him to preach to the people of Nineveh, Jonah went in the
opposite direction. He boarded a ship traveling westward, bound for Tarshish on
the coast of Spain, at the opposite end of the known world.
He was fleeing from his
calling; he was fleeing from the Lord. Of course, Jonah did not understand that
Jehovah is a universal God from whom there is no escape.
You have probably heard
sermons before from the book of Jonah on the futility of running from God. Yet
we all do it at some time in our lives. We don’t board ships. We do it with our
minds and hearts. We tune God out. We ignore the voice that calls us to serve
our neighbor, serve our church, serve our God.
Jonah tried to flee from
his calling and from God. But what happened? You know the story. The ship that
he was on encountered a vicious storm and was tossed about on the waves like a
toy. The winds and the waves were so fierce that seasoned sailors begged to
their gods for mercy. Finally they cast lots in order to determine who the gods
were angry with. “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for
us?” they prayed.
The lot, of course, fell
upon Jonah. Jonah confessed that he had displeased his God by seeking to flee
from God’s presence. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the
sea calm down for us?”
“Pick me up and throw me
into the sea,” Jonah replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault
that this great storm has come.”
To their credit, these men
did not want to throw Jonah overboard. They did their best to row back to land.
But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried
out to the LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man’s life.
Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have
done as you pleased.”
And the Bible tells us that
the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly
of that fish for three days and three nights. Then the Big Fish spits up Jonah on to dry land.
At this point the Lord came
to Jonah a second time and told him again to go preach to Nineveh. And this
time Jonah was in no mood to argue. So he went to Nineveh and preached like he
had never preached before.
“Forty days,” he cried,
“and the Lord will destroy this city. Forty days is all you have to repent.” And
something amazing occurred. Says the scripture, “The people of Nineveh believed
God.”
They proclaimed a fast and
put on sackcloth all of them, from the greatest to the least. Even the king of
Nineveh repented. He dressed in sackcloth and issued a decree of total
surrender to the will of God.
The revival was an
astounding success. Every sinner repented. Every heart was changed. You would
think that a preacher would rejoice in such a great victory being given to him.
But not Jonah. And then the very thing Jonah feared most occurred. God changed
His mind and decided not to destroy Nineveh.
Jonah was so angry with God that he prayed to die.
Then Jonah went out on a
hill overlooking the city to see what would happen to Nineveh to see if God
would acknowledge Jonah’s displeasure. And, at this point, God decides to have
a little fun with His cantankerous prophet.
God makes a plant grow up
near Jonah to shade him while he sits and pouts. And the plant pleases Jonah
immensely. It’s one thing to have a temper tantrum. It’s another thing to sit
all day in the hot sun. If he’s going to sit there until he dies, at least he
will do it in comfort.
But then dawn comes the
next morning and the Lord sends a worm to attack the plant that is shading
Jonah so that it withers and dies. Then God sends a hot east wind, and the sun
beats down on Jonah’s head. The heat is so intense Jonah faints.
The heat makes Jonah so
uncomfortable and so angry that again he asks God to let him die.
But then God speaks to
Jonah. God asks Jonah if he is angry over the plant dying. Jonah answered that
of course he is, angry enough to die. And then God teaches Jonah a lesson. In
two of the most important verses in the Bible, God says to Jonah, “You have been
concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It
sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the
great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty
thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many
animals?”
And that is how the book of
Jonah ends. One scholar suggests that the figure “120,000 persons who do not
know their right hand from their left” is referring to young children in the
city which suggests a total population of 1 million or more.
This is the lesson Jonah
learned that day: God’s love is a universal love. God’s love is as certain for
the people of Nineveh as it is for the people of Jerusalem or Africa or Europe or America or even DuBois or Luthersburg, PA.
God does not respect
nations or races or even religions. God loves all people white people, black
people, rich people, poor people, old people, young people! God love Christians! God love Jews! God loves Muslims! God loves Homosexuals! God Love you! God isn’t interested
in labels, professions or even philosophies. God is only interested in people.
“God so loved the world,”
states John 3:16. It doesn't say, God so loved North America, or English speaking people, or capitalists, or liberals, or conservatives, or anything like that. “God so
loved the world” that’s the gospel.
Why do we not like hearing about evangelism and stewardship? We love hearing about love and salvation; healing and blessings. But we can not have one without the other. As we claim the gifts of God we also claim the charge of God. Our charge, as Christians, is to use the gifts and talents God has given us to share the Good News of God's love. Stewardship and Evangelism are intertwined. You really can't have one without the other.
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