Sunday, June 27, 2021

4 Powerful Lessons From Jonah for Today: Part Two of Two THE MESSAGE



4 Powerful Lessons From Jonah for Today

1. We learn that God's mercy is wider and God’s grace is greater than all of our sins.

The book of Jonah begins with these words:

"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Ammittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me."

God comes to us while we are still sinners, and still, the Lord does not wait for us to “clean up our act” before He comes into our lives. If that were so we would never be saved. God begins to have mercy upon us while we are still in willful disobedience; and, like Nineveh, characterized by infamous sin and evil. The Bible says that God so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). This is an essential characteristic of God. The lesson that God loves us while we are living in rebellion is of great hope to our nation today. 

2. We learned that God's love is greater than our self-interest. 

Jonah was quite content with God's grace and God's love over Israel and over his own life. But when God called him to go to Nineveh, we read that Jonah went in the opposite direction. He ran from God not merely because he was afraid of God, but because he really did not want to bring the good news of God's grace to his enemies. The issue in the book of Jonah causes each of us to reflect on this truth: those who curse Christ today could be those who preach Christ tomorrow. Don't just take the Ninevites words for it; listen to the Apostle Paul:

"And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hathenabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:12-14).


3. We learn that God uses all means to extend his grace to all kinds of people.

In the book of Jonah God uses a roaring sea, wayward pagan sailors — who, by the way, were saved by God during their experience with the renegade prophet — as well as, a pagan king, a weed, a worm, and even a hardheaded preacher. The mission of God is a guaranteed success because of the sovereignty of God. Jonah demonstrates how God uses all of His creation to bring about the salvation of one very wicked nation. How much more will God use all things to reach you? How much more will God hear your prayers as you cry out for a wayward child? Or a friend? Or trouble within your church? There are no limits to God's grace and love, and there are no limits to his ways and means of attaining His goals for salvation.


4. We learn that God's mercy is motivated by God's love for his own creation.

The book of Jonah concludes with a rather enigmatic ending. Jonah sits in the heat of Northern Iraq and is so outdone with God’s grace to his enemy, seething that he has lost a gourd with its leaves to shade him, that he despairs unto death. Yes, that means precisely what it says: Jonah was preferring death over the advance of God‘s grace to Nineveh. The petulant prophet is perturbed that God's grace to pagans is of greater priority to God than Jonah’s comfort. Then, God asks a question to Jonah, which echoes through the ages down to our own lives:

Jonah 4:10-11 (ESV): And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?

This is both an indictment of Jonah and all who treat God’s grace as proprietary, and a challenge to begin to see the world through the eyes of God who created it. The 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, are likely infants. but how about the Lord’s mention of His concern about the cattle? The truth is that man’s sin has a devastating effect upon creation. Conversely, when there is authentic revival from on high, when people repent and when we receive God‘s grace and mercy through Jesus Christ His Son, balance and harmony return to the community.


The force of this final question cannot be overstated. We learned here that both Socratic teaching and rabbinical teaching (by asking questions) was used by God long before educators ever thought about such things. For in placing the question as He does, the Lord God requires each and every one of us to give a response. And that response is nestled within the greater framework of God‘s plan for the ages: from Paradise Lost (Milton, 1667) to Paradise Regained (Milton, 1671).


Whenever we come to think that someone is beyond God’s love, or they have committed acts so vile as to be forever separated from God, then it is time for us to return to the book of Jonah. When we begin to reduce God’s response to human sin as judgment without mercy, then it is time for us to open up the book of Jonah, and invite the Spirit of the Lord to cleanse us of self-interests, smugness, and uncaring attitudes and return to the Lord of love.


In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Message crafted by 

 Dr. Michael A. Milton

 

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