Arise, Go, and Give His Message (Jonah 3:1-4)

Father in Heaven, we give You praise for all that You've

delivered to us this day. As we open Your word, we trust

that the Holy Spirit is going to illuminate Your very word God

breathed to teach us and correct us and train us in

righteousness, to rebuke us where we need to be rebuked, and

to encourage us, reminding us of who we are in Christ Father.

Indeed, we pray that You would draw us near and that we would

be overwhelmed by the promise that the Holy Spirit lives in

us. So give us eyes to see and ears

to hear, hearts to fill rightly, and a mind to think correctly,

that we might leave this place today knowing that You are at

work making us more and more like our Savior Jesus and whose

name we pray. Amen.

We're going to be looking at the book of Jonah, chapter 3, the

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

1st 4 verses today, and next week we'll finish this chapter

of Jonah before we come to the missions conference, and then

we'll continue in the book of Jonah up to Advent.

Last Sunday I preached essentially about the first

verse of chapter 3, about the word of the Lord coming to Jonah

a second time. Today I'm going to unpack a few

more verses and then we'll look to anticipate what the response

was from the people of Nineveh as Jonah now faithfully went to

preach the word again, Jonah three beginning at verse one,

going through verse 4. Then the word of the Lord came

to Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go to Nineveh,

that great city, and call out against it the message that I

tell you. So Jonah arose and went to

Nineveh according to the word the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city.

Three days journey in breath. Jonah began to go into the city,

going a day's journey, and he called out yet 40 days and

Nineveh shall be overthrown. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God you may be seated if this is your first

Sunday with us. Are you relatively new to our

church? We are in this wonderful little

minor prophet called Jonah. Let me set the stage for what

has happened so far as a way of reminding you or introducing you

to this wonderful little book. Jonah is a prophet of the living

God, the word of the Lord, we're told, and chapter one, verse one

came to Jonah. The word of the Lord that came

to Jonah was that God wanted Jonah to go into that great and

evil city, Nineveh. And it was a wicked, wicked

city. The ways in which they treated

people, their enemies was vile. It was horrendous.

And so the Israelites hated the people of Nineveh.

Jonah hated the people of Nineveh.

And as a prophet of the Lord, he had no category for God calling

him to now not just be a prophet to the people of Israel, but to

go into an enemy land and to proclaim whatever it was that

the Lord called him to say. So Jonah rebelled.

He was reluctant. He was more than reluctant

though. He flat out denied and rejected

God's word and what he told him to do, just like us.

So Jonah flees as far away as he can get from the Lord, but the

Lord has a will to save, and he's going to save who He will

save, how He wills to save them. Let me say that again.

The Lord has a will to save who He will save and how He wills to

save them. And it was His will to use this

rebellious prophet who rejected his word, who was running as far

away from him as he could get, to be the one as a failed

prophet, now restored to bring his very word to the people of

Nineveh. So Jonah gets on the ship, He

goes to sleep. He is awakened, The storm is

mighty, the ship is falling apart.

Jonah then is thrown overboard, but God, because He wills to use

whoever he wills to use to save the people He wills to save,

created a fish. We believe this is true, a very

real fish, a fish that when it was created, God knew would be

the fish that would be part of the history of redemption

forever. And this fish, at that right

time, at that right place, the storm is unfolding all around

him, swallowed Jonah up as he was descending to the roots of

the mountains as far down as you can go.

There in the belly of that fish, Jonah repents as he prays to the

Lord. The Lord then commands that fish

to spit Jonah up on dry land. This really happened somewhere

in a patch of shoreline. Jonah is ejected out of the

mouth of this fish, covered with seaweed, wrapped with the

fragrance of whatever the inside of a fish that large smells

like. Jonah's there standing on that

land. And then at some point the word

of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

Let me say that again. The word of the Lord came to

Jonah a second time. Last Sunday I preached about

that verse. The word of the Lord must come a

second time, 1/3 time, 1/5 time, a 70 times 70th time.

The word of the Lord coming to him again shows His grace, His

power, His affection, His zeal to accomplish what he has

purposed. Jonah, then we're told in this

text in verse 2, arises. Instead of fleeing away from the

Lord, he now moves towards Nineveh, the great city, and he

calls out against it the message that the Lord told him to tell

what happened. He's transformed.

He's transformed by the grace, the might, the mercy of God,

this holy God. And he goes, he goes into the

city which has 120,000 people. It's a great city, but it's an

evil city. And he goes in obedience to what

God called him to do the first time, and now what he is calling

him to do a second time. This is the sovereign hand of

God at work, the sovereign grace of God.

This morning what I want to do is I want to look at 2

significant things that give us hope as the Lord calls us as His

children to take His message to the world.

Jesus was very clear at the end of Matthew.

He says therefore go and make disciples of all nations.

You can't be a disciple if you have not become a follower of

Jesus. Evangelism, proclaiming Christ

as part of discipleship. He says therefore go and make

disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to

obey all these things. I've commanded you, and surely I

will be with you to the end of days.

Then before he ascends to heaven, he tells the disciples,

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and

you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to

the ends of the earth. Jesus Christ was sent to save

his people, and until the last of his people are saved, He's

not going to return. And there will be a day we don't

know when it is. There's no reason to even try to

guess when it is. There will be a day when the

last of his chosen, the last whom he has willed to be saved,

will be saved. And then when Jesus returns,

when the Father sends him, when he descends back to earth, every

knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But here's what I want to give us today.

We are called, all of us who in Christ to take the message that

we have been, that we have received, and to give it to

others who do not know the good news God seeks.

This is from the beginning of Genesis to the end of

Revelation. God seeks those he's intends to

save. He sends those who have been

saved that others he intends to be saved will be saved.

He sins, He seeks, He saves. Repeat.

And here's what gives us hope. It's the power of His Word,

which is what we're called to give and the purposes of His

will. So under those two headings,

let's look at this text. If you're paying attention, even

close a little bit closely, you realize this is probably about

to be a sermon on evangelism. Evangelism really means just

sharing the good news. Yet for so many Christians, that

privilege, that task, that responsibility frightens us,

causes us to be reluctant ourselves.

And so often there's so much shame attached to it.

Shame is not helpful in this regard.

We don't need to be motivated by shame.

We have the message and the only message that can save a soul for

all eternity. If you're in Christ, you have

received that word and you are called to now go and give that

word away. It's just the beauty of God's

sovereign timing that this text is what we're preaching just

before the missions conference. The missions conference isn't

about us just celebrating those who have responded to the Word

they've received and have gone to the outermost parts of the

world. It is for all of us to remember

that right now, if you're in Christ, you are missionaries to

places I can never go. You are missionaries in your

home, on your block, in your places of work or places of

school, places of recreation, boards.

You serve on, places where you eat, you get your haircut, you

shop. You are an ambassador for

Christ. All of us, not just some who

have a special call. All of us.

And that calling is glorious. It's a calling that enables us

in the power of the Spirit and the power of His Word to take

the good news, the life giving word that saves people from the

eternal wrath of God. And that can only happen in

Christ. So I'm going to begin by talking

about the power of His Word. Did you see it in the text?

Go back with me to Jonah 3. Then the word of the Lord came

to Jonah a second time. This is important.

It's not some other word. It's not something that's

generated by Jonah's cultural context and understanding of the

people of Nineveh. It is God's very word.

This is God's very word. And if you are in Christ Jesus,

he used someone to reveal his word to you, another preacher,

an author, a relative, a youth pastor, a camp counsellor, a

Sunday school teacher. He used someone because he

willed that you would be saved. And he who wills those who are

going to be saved also wills the way in which they're going to be

saved. And his primary way of doing

that is using people like us who also have rebelled, like Jonah,

who've also been reluctant, who have also had wrong ideas about

God. And God restores us and we go

forth preaching, teaching, pointing people to Jesus.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

What was that word? The same word he received the

first time. Arise.

You got to get up. You got to go and I'm telling

you where to go to that great city of Nineveh, 120,000 people

wicked, their wickedness has risen up to me and God says go

call out against it. The message that I tell you what

is that? His Word.

As Christians who have received the good news, we are only

called to give others His Word. We do not have to make something

up. Whatever you make up is not

living. It's not active, it's not God

breathed. But when we give other people

the Word of God, the Word tells us it's breathed.

All scriptures God breathed and is useful for teaching and

rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

Hebrews 4 The Word of God is living and active.

It does what nothing else can do.

As the Holy Spirit moves, Jonah receives the word of the Lord.

The word of the Lord is arise, go and there's a location for

Jonah. It's the wicked city, the great

city of Nineveh. Where is it for you?

Let's not make this complicated. And sometimes that's what

happens is we shy away from the simple responsibility.

Where do you live? What's the name of the street?

The people live next to you, in front of you, behind you.

Where do you work? Where do you go to school?

Where do you play? All around you are people.

They're crowds. The crowds Jesus would describe

with great compassion are those who are harassed and helpless.

Is that how you see those who aren't in Christ?

Do you see their blindness? Do you see their confusion?

The Lord calls us to live in Him wherever He has placed us.

That's your primary mission field, right where you live

living Christ and be prepared to give the message that he calls

you to give his message, his Word, the power of God's Word.

We celebrate next week what's Reformation Sunday Sola

scriptura, this idea that it's Scripture alone, the final and

supreme authority containing all truth necessary for salvation

and sanctification, growth in Christ.

Our own confession says that by their light, that's the Word in

the Spirit illuminating the Word.

By their light and power, they're able to convince and

convert sinners to comfort and build up believers.

The Word of God is not equally clear in every part because it's

not seeking to answer every question we might have, but

regarding the plan of salvation, regarding what it means to know

that I'm a Sinner and I need a Savior.

The Word of God from Genesis to Revelation has supreme clarity

as the Holy Spirit illuminates. The confession says what is

necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation is

made clear and open for the learned and the unlearned, for

the scholar as well as a child who is the Lord moves could even

profess faith as a toddler. This is amazing.

It's because of God's powerful word.

God tells Jonah speak the message that I tell you He tells

us. Speak my word, friends.

This is why we need to know His word.

We need to know it deeply, so deeply that with the Holy

Spirit's illumination we can anchor into the things that are

most clear, most direct, most concise for non believers to

hear. So often we get distracted by so

many other things. Jonah is told to speak the

message I give him. What was it?

Look, we'll be at verse 4. Jonah began to go into the city

going a day's journey, and he called out, yet 40 days and

Nineveh shall be overthrown. Why did he say that?

Why did he say that? That doesn't seem like the the

good news message. It doesn't seem like the right

way to proclaim the glory of God.

He said it because that's what God told him to say in

obedience. He said those words.

It's possible that he said more as he walked through the city,

but he said the very thing that God told him to say.

And what was it? That they needed to be saved

from the wrath of God, The wrath of God that they deserve to have

poured out on him, that I deserve to have poured out on

me. That's the message that Jonah

brought, and that message was powerful because it was the Word

of God. That's what people need us to

give them. It is the word of God.

You might think right now, Mark, I just don't know enough.

Thank you for admitting that. If you've been in Christ for

even a little while, you probably do know enough to

simply share the core of the gospel, and you need to learn

more. But here's my question to you.

Are you going to Start learning today or next time you hear a

sermon on evangelism? Will it be the same thing?

Don't use it as an excuse. You can learn quickly all you

need to know. Not knowing enough most likely

is not your primary problem. You might blame it on that, but

let me help you. If you don't know what to say to

a question someone asked, just tell them.

I don't know what to say, but I know someone who might know an

answer, and you do. Somebody who's more mature in

the faith than you are, a Deacon or elder in our church, somebody

leading your women's Bible study, a teacher, a pastor.

There's people who know you can come back with them, to them

with the answer. My guess is knowledge is not

your primary issue. Those who are in Christ, those

who are in Christ, at some point in your life God sent a person

to bring to you His Word, and it was powerful, It was living and

it still is. And it did the work that needed

to be done. And you, whether you were 3 or

13 or 25 or 35 or 55 or 75 or 90, you heard it.

It was given to you. And the one who gave you the

word, now I was telling you like he's telling me to go and give

the word away. The word of the Lord is given.

The word of the Lord is go. The word of the Lord is Go give

my word, because the word is powerful.

But there's a second thing that can give us great hope, and that

is the purpose of His will. I said it already, but He will

save who He will save how He wills to save them.

He will save who we will save, how He wills to save them.

And it was His will to use this rebellious prophet to take this

word, the power of His word, to a large, great, evil nation.

He had to hear the message a second time as a transformed man

who from the belly of the fish finally came to repentance and

prayed. The Lord commanded that fish,

literally spoke His word to that fish, and the fish spit him up.

He then goes and faithfully says what the Lord told him to say.

It was the purpose of the Lord, the purpose of His will to use

Jonah. There was no one else.

He was going to sin. It was the purpose of His will

to bring into your life and into my life the people that told us

about the living Word of God, about Jesus, the only way of

salvation. And now the Lord who will save,

who He will save, how He wills to save them, wills to use us,

placing you in specific areas of recreation, on specific plans to

travel. We're all around our people who

don't know the Lord, who are helpless, harassed, who don't

know their right hand from their left.

And this is where sometimes we feel the burden.

Friends, if you think about the good news that you have been

given, that you deserve the wrath of a holy God be poured

out on you, and the Lord sent his only son to die the death

you deserve. To die after living the life

that you and I could never live, to be put in the tomb for three

days, to be raised from the dead, to ascend into heaven, to

intercede for us now until the Lord tells him to descend again,

to return again. He sent his son.

That's great news. You and I have the profound

privilege to tell other people that news.

But let me encourage you, Jesus said.

Pray to the Lord of the harvest. You are not the Lord of the

harvest. Jonah had no idea how the people

of Nineveh would respond. He might have had some idea

about the character of God which will come up later.

Befriend the Lord of the harvest is going to provide whoever He

wills to save those He wills to save, however He wills to save

them. Here's what that means.

If you today hear this message that I have received the Word of

God, and having received that word from the one who gives it,

He's calling me to go, to go in my home, to go in my

neighborhood, to go in my places of work or school or recreation.

And there's a part of you that's just saying, I don't think I

have to do that. I don't think I want to do that.

Then you are not going to keep anyone from coming to saving

faith. You're not that powerful.

You can reject what God tells you and never be used by Him to

bring the living Word to others. And if it's His will to save

that person that you're reluctant to go towards, they're

still going to be saved. But you and I, and our

reluctance and our disobedience and in our rebellion will miss

the incredible privilege of being used by God to save His

people with His power and His living Word.

It's scary. There's risk and there's

suffering that's always going to be present.

But the power of His Word and the purpose of His will to save

those he is going to save should give us such confidence to go

wherever He's called us to go, even if that's to go right where

He's placed us. And that's as far Jonah did not

lack courage, it doesn't seem, certainly didn't lack knowledge

in terms of the clarity of the Word, but what he lacked was

compassion. I already mentioned Matthew 935

to 38 in the passage where Jesus says the harvest is plentiful

but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly.

That means beg to the Lord of the harvest to send out

laborers. Before Jesus gave them that

prayer, that command, He said this.

Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in

their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom and

healing every disease and every affliction.

And I hear this verse 36. And when he, Jesus, saw the

crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed

and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Is that how you see the world? Do you look at the world with

the eyes of Christ? Do you see people doing really

evil things, doing what makes sense to them though?

And instead of just being angry about that, and there's a time

to be angry, do you have compassion?

Do you see that they're harassed and helpless?

This idea of compassion is not just a New Testament reality.

In the very last verse of the book of Jonah, here's what we

hear. Verse 11.

God speaks to Jonah and says, and should I not pity Nineveh,

that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons

who do not know their right hand from their left?

The Lord showed Jonah compassion.

He showed Jonah pity. If you're in Christ, He showed

you pity and compassion. He showed me pity and

compassion. Most of the time it's not a lack

of confidence or lack of knowledge.

Those things can come from the Lord, but it's a lack of

compassion that keeps us from seeing the world the way the

Lord sees. And when the Lord has compassion

on us to see it the way He wants us to see it.

When He comes to us a second time, 1/3 time, with the power

of His living word, and we hear it, why would we ever say why?

I don't understand. Why would we ever say not me?

Send someone else if that's you. There's something about the

first part of this that you're missing.

Ask Christ to meet you there. There's something about the good

news and that you didn't deserve it and neither did I that you're

missing. And when the Lord faithfully

reveals to you through His word and Spirit whatever He wants to

reveal to you, I promise He's not going to say, just keep this

to yourself. He's going to say through His

word and Spirit, I've given it to you.

Now go to Jonah. My Word came to you by the

sovereign hand of my grace with my might and mercy, and now I'm

sending you to the people of Nineveh, that my word that came

to you will go through you to them.

Well, we'll see what happens next week as we pick up at verse

5 of Jonah 3. Lord Jesus, you were sent and

you came. You did everything that was

necessary, including dying up on the cross after living a perfect

life. That the wrath that we all

deserve will be poured out on you.

Lord, today as we hear this message ignite in US, burn

within us, 'cause us to be eager to go wherever you have will for

us to go, to be faithful to speak to whoever You've called

us to speak. Equip us, give us the right

words, give us the right knowledge, but let us believe

deeply and the power that is in us because of the Holy Spirit.

Make us faithful. Give us eyes to anticipate the

day that you return, even as we now sing about that second

Advent and fix our eyes upon the good news of the Gospel of Jesus

Christ. We love you, Lord, and pray this

in your holy name, Amen. Please stand.