St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI

Pastor Mark Gartner

Sermon for Epiphany 3 -- January 19^th and 22^nd, 2006

Dear ministers of our Lord. Amen

Imagine that the basketball game is tied and there is only a few seconds left on the clock. You are one of the players in the game. You are sitting on the bench during a very important time-out listening to the coach draw up the perfect play to win the game. The coach finishes drawing up the perfect play and then gathers the team together. He looks all the players in the eyes and asks, "Is anyone scared?" The coach already knows the answer, because he can see the look of terror on their faces. The players all look at him and shake their heads yes. The coach then reassures the players that all their practice will pay off, as he tells them to have fun and try their best. As the ball is inbounded, the play unfolds just as the coach planned. The players execute the play to perfection and score the winning basket as the clock expires. The look of fear is gone. The feeling of terror is no where in sight.

As God calls each of us to proclaim his message into all the world, we might soon realize that we are much like the players who were so afraid at the end of the game. God has given us a command. He has given each one of us the clear command "to go and make disciples of all nations." But how many times have heard this command from our heavenly Father and have wondered if we could ever do what God wants us to do? Whenever we hear the word of telling others, this look of terror covers our faces. What is amazing is that God doesn’t send us into the world unprepared. He has given us the message to proclaim. He has given us the strength to do what he asks. And there is no greater feeling than telling someone about their Savior and the Holy Spirit working faith in their heart. The feeling of fear is replaced with joy and gladness in knowing that God used you to be his tool. This morning we will use the theme,

First let us find out a little about Jonah. Jonah was a prophet from God called to proclaim to the wicked city of Nineveh. The Ninevites were renown for their wicked lifestyles and had little or no regard for God. So when God first called Jonah to go and preach to the great city of Nineveh, you might not be all to surprised that he didn’t want to go. Instead of going he fled as fast he could and tried to get as far away from Nineveh as possible. He tried to run away from God and the command he gave him to proclaim the gospel. How Foolish! We’ve all heard the story of how Jonah was swallowed by the large fish. This famous fish story happened as a part of the chain of events after Jonah tried to run away from God. I think that God got Jonah’s attention! Following this bad adventure, Jonah realized that he was wrong and repented of his sins and God forgave him. This is where our text for today picks up the story. God had already forgiven Jonah and was giving! him a second chance. Once again God called Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh. Nineveh was a large city with many people living in it. They were Gentiles who were very wicked in God’s sight. This wicked city is where Jonah was called to preach. This second time Jonah listened to God’s command and went to Nineveh.

When we look at our lives, many times it is like looking in a mirror of Jonah’s life. We seem to react in ways that are all too familiar with Jonah’s actions. Let’s take a look! God has called each of us to proclaim. God has sent us into this world with one purpose and that is to preach and teach his Word, but we like Jonah many times try to flee so that we don’t have to proclaim. We make up excuses and try to hide from God. We would rather do anything than to let others know about our Savior that is also their Savior. God in all of his love has sent a Savior to wipe away the sins of the whole world. This includes us, because we are also sinners. We all need to hear God’s saving message, and as Paul writes, "how can we believe unless we hear." The privilege and responsibility of making sure unbelievers hear is for all believers. The command is so simple -- Proclaim to those who have not heard the Word of God. Don’t go and hide as Jonah did, b! ut realize the work which God has given to all believers. Let us all be as Jonah was the second time. We all can proclaim just like Jonah.

The number one reason that most people don’t like to proclaim is due to being afraid. We are afraid that we will say something wrong. We are afraid that people might laugh at us or even worse slam the door in our face. We are afraid that we won’t know what to say when they ask questions. To combat all of this fear, we would do ourselves good to read and read often the story of Jonah. God called Jonah, and he told Jonah he was to go to Nineveh, but he didn’t send him out on his own. God didn’t send him to fend for himself. No, God told Jonah exactly what to say. The message God gave to Jonah was to tell the Ninevites that in "forty days Nineveh would be destroyed." Imagine the courage that it must have taken to speak these words to these violent people. They could have killed him on the spot. This was a harsh message, and this was a message that might have sounded far-fetched. But no matter what the Ninevites would say, Jonah knew this was the c! ommand, which God gave him. Imagine the comfort which Jonah must have found, because God gave him the message. Jonah wouldn’t have to worry what words to tell the Ninevites He wouldn’t have to say, these are my words and you better listen to them, or else you might be in trouble. Instead he said, these are God’s words which you should listen to and God means it.

In the same way we are not on our own. God has given us a command that seems daunting at times. People are so wicked and people seem to care little about God, but God gives us the words we are to proclaim to the unbelievers of this world. He fills our mouths with a message from God. This message we have is found in the Bible. In the Bible we find the message that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" – God’s Law. In the Bible we find a message that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world – God’s Gospel. In the Bible we learn that the words which God gave to us are always working and that none of God’s promises will fail. In the Bible we hear that we are saved through faith in Christ Jesus. This is the simple message, which God gives to each of us. And just as Jonah knew he was proclaiming God’s true Word. We also know the Bible is God’s true Word for us to proclaim. We need to just proclaim it in all of its truth. We don’t n! eed to add or subtract anything from it to make it sound better. God’s message will stand up fine, without our added touches.

That brings me to another common excuse, I don’t speak well enough to convince them. We can see from the second point of this text that God causes the message to work. We are God’s tool to proclaim his saving message. We are kind of like the UPS man who delivers all these packages. It is his job to make sure everyone gets the right package on time. Much the same, our sinful mouths are the delivery agent of God’s message. We take his message which is found in the Bible and tell others. This is where our work ends. God now does the rest of the work in unbelievers.

Look at our text for today. Jonah told the Ninevites that they had 40 days until they would be destroyed. This is when God began to work in them through the power of his gospel. God is the one that calls us to himself. No one can ever come to God on his own. It truly is the work of God. The Holy Spirit begins to work in us from the time we are called to be his own. The Holy Spirit works faith in us so that we believe in God. It was the Holy Spirit who worked in the Ninevites so they believed. It tells us in our text, "the Ninevites believed God." It wasn’t anything Jonah did to change their hearts. He only proclaimed God’s saving message to them and God causes the message to work in them. The Ninevites feared the wrath of God and repented of their sins as Matthew writes in 12:41, "they repented at the preaching of Jonah."

We are just like Jonah. We proclaim the message, which God gives us, and God works in the hearts of those who hear. God causes them to realize they are sinful and shows them that Jesus is their only hope. The faith God works leads them to repent of their sins, but also leads them to show their fruits of repentance. The Ninevites were truly sorry and repented. They also declared a fast and put on sackcloth and called to God in prayer. They called to God and said they would turn from their evil ways. This is also the type of faith God works in those we proclaim to. Just remember, it isn’t anything we do which causes the message to work, but it is God working in them through the Holy Spirit which causes our message to work.

A third excuse that comes out of our sinful minds is that God won’t save them anyway. The third reason we can all proclaim like Jonah answers this excuse. God’s mercy saves those who believe. Whenever we catch ourselves saying, how can these sinful human beings be saved? Let us remember that it is God’s mercy that saves all people – including us. God saw that the wicked people of Nineveh had believed and repented of their sins. God saw that they prayed to him to deliver them. Sure, God had told Jonah to proclaim that in 40 days they would be destroyed, but God saw how they had complete trust in him and how they turned from evil. It tells us God had compassion on them and for this reason he spared them. We don’t know how long the people of Nineveh believed, but God knows. It is in his merciful hands.

Because of our sinful nature we may wonder if God will save those we proclaim to. We are sinful and do many things against God and should be destroyed in hell, but God is the God of mercy. In mercy, he sent his Son to die for our sins. In mercy, he tells us that whoever believes in Jesus will be saved. There is no other way we can be saved except through God’s great mercy. This is the same mercy God shows to those who believe the message we proclaim. This is the mercy which we pray that God will show on all unbelievers. It is not how well we tell the message, but just so that they hear it and God the Holy Spirit will work faith in them. It is God alone who saves all people. Certainly not all will believe after hearing our message, but we hope that just one person may come to faith after hearing us proclaim God’s saving message.

It is safe to say that most of us have tried at some time to run away from God’s command to proclaim, but today I pray that we can all see how we can proclaim like Jonah. God does give us the message and God causes his gospel message to work. God’s mercy saves all who believe. Look at the comfort and strength which we can find from this text. Now, let us all go out into the world filled with the power of God’s gospel and proclaim like Jonah. Amen.