Click here for audio
One of my favorite movies of all time is The Usual Suspects starring Kevin Spacey. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a crime drama centered around a murder investigation with an amazing plot twist at the end. In the movie, Spacey’s character (Roger Kint), has a line that goes, “The greatest trick that the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Now, this quote is taken from one originally made by a French poet named Charles Baudelaire, and unfortunately the accuracy of this quote is spot on. However, if I were to add to it, I would say that the second greatest trick that the devil has ever pulled is convincing people that you can be indifferent to God. In other words, that you can hear the gospel and simply think, “Well, that’s nice, but it’s not really for me and remain unmoved in any direction in your relationship with the Lord.” You see, there is no such thing as neutrality when it comes to the gospel. John Calvin famous said that “preaching has a twofold effect. It can either soften or harden the heart. It can either save or condemn the hearer. ‘The Gospel is never preached in vain, but has invariably an effect, either for life or death.’ ‘As the Word is efficacious for the salvation of believers, so it is abundantly efficacious for the condemning of the wicked.’” To simplify Calvin’s words here, each and every time you hear the proclamation of God’s Word, you are either being drawn closer to him or moving farther away from him. It may not be something that you are consciously aware of, but it is happening.
In the account of Jonah, the prophet is faced with a choice. God had spoken audibly to him and told him that he was to go to Nineveh and call them to repentance. However, for some reason, Jonah didn’t want the city of Nineveh to even have the opportunity to repent; he simply wanted them to be punished for their wickedness. He knew that if this group of people were confronted with the power of God that they would fall on their faces and repent of their sins (which they did) and that God would withhold His wrath from them (which He did). So, Jonah ran in the opposite direction. He didn’t tell God that he wouldn’t do it, but he just didn’t go in the direction that God had called him to. However, we can’t mistake the lack of an outright denial of God’s commands to be an indifference to Him. Make no mistake about it, Jonah was running from God; which, as we said last Sunday, was a peculiar thing since he was an experienced prophet of God at this point in his life.
You know, I think that we can identify greatly with Jonah in this situation. You see, I know that there are people groups out there that many of us would just assume be wiped off the face of the earth. There are some cultures and religious groups that we simply say that their absence would make the world a better place; addition by subtraction. In all honesty, many would rather see them consummated instead of converted. If God were to give us a sense of call to go and minister to these people, we may not say no, but we might take our time in getting there. Now, obviously there is a great difference that exists between our feeling lead to go and evangelize amongst another people group and Jonah’s audible call to go to Nineveh, but I think that this comparison helps us to see where Jonah’s mindset might have been as he was deciding whether or not to follow through with God’s command or run from what God had called him to do. Understanding that Jonah’s selfish desire to see a corrupt people be punished instead of saved is something that greatly blinded his heart to the truth of God’s Word; just as our selfish desires blind us to the power and glory of the gospel in our lives today. It may not be over reaching out to different people groups, but we too allow our own sinfulness to dictate far too often the things that we want to see happen in this world and the things that we are okay with.
How many times do you stay silent in the interest of civility? Right now Amy’s answering for me and saying “not enough.” How often do we see someone in our lives, either a friend or a family member, living in conflict with God commands for how we are to live and say nothing to them? We tell ourselves that we don’t want to offend them and risk alienating them or losing them from our lives completely. We rationalize it by telling ourselves that by keeping the relationship on good terms, we’re keeping the door open to witness to them later on. However, the problem is that we never get around to the witnessing part. Look, I know that it’s a difficult thing. I don’t want to lose any friends or family either. However, if there was ever anything worth losing them over it would be the gospel. Make no mistake about it, the gospel is offensive. Just think about it from the perspective of the one who is living their life contrary to God’s commands. You’re telling them that their entire life needs to be changed and reshaped, centered around something (more accurately someone) much greater than themselves. However, we do an incredible disservice to ourselves, our loved one, and most importantly God when we neglect even the slightest of commands that He has placed upon the lives of His creations.
One of the astounding things about the account of Jonah is that it happened. Now, I know that that sounds odd, but stay with me for just a moment. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah didn’t want to, so he tried to make other plans. We’re told that “He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” Now, just think about all that happened and all that had to come about for Jonah to get onboard that ship. Jonah had to travel to Joppa from wherever he currently was. We can assume that he wasn’t there since our text tells us that “he went down to Joppa”. Once there, he had to find a ship that was sailing to Tarshish, which was at the complete opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea from Joppa, roughly 2,500 miles away. Also, Tarshish, according to some resources on the history of the area, wasn’t exactly what we would call a thriving port at that point in history. One author compared a ship sailing from Joppa to Tarshish to being as rare as a direct flight to Juno, Alaska. Then, to make it even better, Jonah had enough money to pay the fare that was required to get on the ship. That may not seem very significant, but it wasn’t uncommon for prophets to go about their ministry without having much wealth. The chances of Jonah having the necessary funds readily available for paying the ships fare without having to borrow it was not a foregone conclusion.
You may be saying to yourself, “Why is any of that important to understanding the book of Jonah?” Well, I say all of these things to point out the fact that somewhere along the way, God could have intervened. We pray all the time when beginning an endeavor that if it isn’t God’s will that the door be shut rather quickly. We ask that if God doesn’t want us to do something that He would cause whatever it is to come to an abrupt halt. If God hadn’t wanted Jonah to get on that ship and head for Tarshish, then He could have caused any one of these events to go in a different direction. Travel issues, no ships leaving, not enough money; any of these would have stopped Jonah dead in his tracks. However, God allowed them to happen as Jonah wanted them to. What Jonah wanted was to try and run from the “presence of the Lord” as our text says; which, if we really think about it, is a pretty foolish thing for a prophet to think that he can accomplish. Jonah was a prophet of God. He more than likely knew the words that follow our call to worship from Psalm 139: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.” There is no place that we can go to on this earth or away from this earth that is outside of God’s control. For anyone who believes that God is the creator and sustainer of the universe to think that they can hide from God is ridiculous. I’ve told y’all the story of my surrendering to the call to gospel ministry coming when my wife asked me if I really thought I could outrun God. I knew better, Jonah knew better, we all know better; however, that doesn’t stop us from trying. That doesn’t stop us from running from God. But just know that the more and more that we try and run from Him, that’s simply our resisting God drawing us closer to Him. That’s the sinfulness of our hearts that I talked about earlier blinding us to the reality that we already know but don’t want to face.
Now, we’re going to examine next Sunday the beginning of God’s turning around Jonah physically, followed by his turning him back around spiritually. God’s work in Jonah’s heart is still not done. In fact, it isn’t until the final verses of this book that we find that God’s point is finally made with Jonah. All throughout this account, we’re going to see the reluctance of even this most privileged man of God submitting wholly to the will of God. So, why have I chosen to spend the first few weeks of our series on the book of Jonah talking about the prophet himself and his mindset in turning from God without really getting into the narrative yet? Well, while the book of Jonah is a specific historical account of one of God’s prophets running from God’s call upon his life, it is also our story as well. As we said last Sunday, Jonah was a prophet who had enjoyed a pretty lengthy tenure as a spokesman for God. He was a man who was well aware of God’s word and had seen and heard of God’s faithfulness in the lives of His children. However, despite all of his privileges and knowledge, even Jonah wasn’t immune to sin’s affects upon his heart. Even Jonah didn’t always respond automatically to God’s command with complete and total agreement and obedience. Even the most devoted and devout Christians don’t always respond in complete unison with God’s will. However, we need not be discouraged in the fact that our faith and obedience to God’s will look more like an EKG reading or a seismograph during an earthquake. We should actually expect that because we’re sinful, we’re fallen; our first inclination is to try and pull ourselves away from God. Now, I’m not saying that we should be ok with it or that we should be proud of it, but that we should be encouraged by it. We should be encouraged because it shows us both the lengths to which God will go to redeem us and that He indeed does draw us closer to Him. And that fact is never more apparent than or as costly to Him as it is through the sacrifice of His Son upon the cross.
Another reason for us to be encouraged through the example of Jonah is we know that our trials and hardships can bring us closer to God. Now, it’s doubtful that any of us have ever had to spend three days in the stomach of a fish in order to see God’s hand at work, but we have spent three days or three weeks or three months or three years in turmoil trying to run from or ignore God. We’ve been drawn closer to God only to have something else happen in our lives that caused us to try and run again. As I said just a second ago, our faith and obedience to God rarely looks like a flat line and more like a roller coaster. We say that we are drawn closer to God through our trials and sufferings; notice that both of those words are plural. It’s rare to hear of someone who endured only one hardship in their life, was drawn close to God, and then remained in tune with His will for the remainder of their life. Know that during your times of suffering and hardship, that you’re not enduring them because you’ve been forgotten or forsaken by God. Instead, try and see if you’re being drawn closer to God by them. I’ve had my most impactful moments of Christian growth during those times of hardship and suffering. Sure, I may not have seen what God was doing in the moment, but as I’ve looked back upon them I have been amazed at how God was working through them and in my heart the entire time to draw me to a closer and deeper relationship with Him.
So, as we continue our walk through the book of Jonah, I want all of us to see how Jonah’s heart changes (both for the good and the bad). I want all of us to see how God doesn’t always spare us from every unpleasant experience in our lives. I want all of us to see how God’s will will always be accomplished, whether we decide to comply or not. But most importantly, I want all of us to see the power of God on full display. I want us to come to understand that the gospel isn’t about what we want, but what God has planned. It’s about God’s plan, not our desires, opinions, or experiences. God has already revealed much of that plan through the person and work of Christ. Now, the task falls to us, to proclaim the cross of Christ until the Son returns. You see, we are exactly like Jonah in that God has called us to a specific task through the Great Commission to go to “all nations” and proclaim the gospel. The question now becomes whether we are going to follow Jonah’s example and try and run, or if we are going to obey the will of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment