Are your feet as beautiful as Jonah's?

Who among us thinks they have beautiful feet? Lets see and find out :D

Jokes aside, over the past month I looked at my feet plenty of times and even took a lot of pictures of them. Not because they look extraordinary nice but because they looked so different. One foot looked healthy, had my normal skin color and visible veins, good mobility and strength. The other foot was swollen with no veins visible, was purple and very yellow everywhere, quite some pain, no mobility and no strength, some dead skin.. Anyway, my feet were and are by no means beautiful.

So I think at least. And in the physical sense I am sure to be right. But in the spiritual sense, my feet have gotten better and more beautiful this summer.

Why? Because I used them to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to lost people.

Isaiah 52:7

English Standard Version

How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,

who publishes salvation,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Sometimes we forget that the Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. It is not the bad news but the good news, of peace, happiness, salvation. The news that God reigns. And if there are people who should understand and appreciate it, it should be the church - the fellowship of those who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead.

The good news of Jesus Christ contains more than a Sunday morning sermon. Even a lifetime in the pursuit of understanding can never exhaustively grasp all of it. It is that big and that good. Yet it is simple at the core: God sees the misery of this world, he sees and loves the people who are hurting and suffering because of sin. He, the rightful ruler and judge, knows the judgment we deserve. But He, love himself, wants to save us from sin and the consequences of sin. All of us.

John 3:16-18

English Standard Version (Chapter 3)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Sometimes we alter Bible verses - this one as well. Maybe not as knowingly and perhaps unintentionally… but could it be that we changed it to “For God so loved me, that he gave his only Son, that I who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life.” ? I can see this alteration in our lives because we do not care about the lost world and its need for a savior enough - neither in our prayers nor in our conversations and actions.

Maybe we pray for a certain few people and kind of try to select with whom we will get to spend eternity in the presence of God. Lord, save my family, save my friends but better not some cruel dictator or war criminal. Let my enemies not only go through hell but to hell, and keep them there.

Maybe we do pray for the entire world and pray that everyone would get saved and repent of their sins to that God would be glorified all over the world by all the people, excluding no one.

Maybe we do thank the Lord for our salvation and pray for the salvation of others… but do we care about it enough to pray: “Save them by whatever the means - by using my reputation, time, relationships, conversations, finances, even my death…whatever I could give I want to give as a sacrifice, for you, God, are worthy to be praised, and I love others so I want them to be saved!”

There is a story of a professor who took his students on a trip to England. One of the places they went, was the house of John Wesley. The tour of the house ended in the bedroom where the students noticed that beside the bed were two worn spots in the carpet where John Wesley who led a great revival in England and in the United States had knelt for hours in prayer. The sight of those two worn spots had a profound effect on the students who stood in silence before they left to get on the bus.

Once on the bus, the professor realized one student was missing.

He went back into the rectory and found the student kneeling in the place Wesley knelt, fervently praying, “Do it again, Lord! Lord, would you do it again?! Some narrators add, And would you do it again with me?!”

The professor touched the young man on the shoulder and indicated it was time to go. With that, Billy Graham stood up and joined the rest of the students on the bus.

Is the glorification of God through the salvation of lost people our heartfelt passion? Is the sharing of our faith, obedience to God merely an option or is his heart our heart, his passion our passion, his interest our interest, his love our love? Which one is it truly?

A couple weeks ago, Pastor Darius preached on the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18–20

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus commands his church to “go and preach”. Why do we expect spiritually lost and dead people to “come and hear” when we, the church, we, who are alive in the Lord, don’t “go and preach”?

I believe there is an issue with our hearts. And someone who had an issue with his heart was the prophet Jonah.

Most of y’all are familiar with Jonah, the prophet. His story is oftentimes called Jonah and the whale.

Let’s rewind and refresh our memories with this video from the Bible Project on the Book of Jonah and its main character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLIabZc0O4c

Jonah, an Israelite Prophet, is told by God to call out Nineveh, for their evil has come up before God.

One commentator states:

Nineveh was great in splendor and influence, being one of the leading cities of the Assyrian Empire. It was great in sin, for the Assyrians were known far and wide for their violence, showing no mercy to their enemies. They impaled live victims on sharp poles, leaving them to roast to death in the desert sun; they beheaded people by the thousands and stacked their skulls up in piles by the city gates; and they even skinned people alive. They respected neither age nor sex and followed a policy of killing babies and young children so they wouldn’t have to care for them (Nahum 3:10)

Would it not be tickling for Jonah to go to such a wicked place and announce God’s judgment to them? Some might say he feared for his life and therefore ran away, in the opposite direction. But I think the story clearly shows how he did not care about his own life, as long as the evil city of Nineveh and its probably about 120,000 citizens would find their death too.

That is not love. That is hate. Pure hatred. He himself says that he didn’t want to bring God’s word to them because he was afraid they would repent and be saved from the wrath of God cast in judgment.

But although we see Jonah struggling and failing throughout the entire book of Jonah, I stand here and tell you: Jonah had beautiful feet

Jonah had beautiful feet

…not because of his initial response to God’s calling

…not because of his willingness to die

…not because of his survival story

…because he brought good news to a lost people.

Bertolt Brecht — 'He who fights, can lose. He who doesn't fight, has already lost.'

“He who evangelizes, can lose. He who doesn’t evangelize, has already lost.”

Who do you relate to in the story of Jonah?

Are your feet as beautiful as Jonah’s at the end of the story? Then press on and keep going. The Lord stands with his people and will lead and guide you. He will use you beyond your understanding and expectations. Be prayerful, be faithful, be courageous, and proclaim the good news with a lost people. Here I am, send me!

Are your feet as ugly as Jonah’s at the beginning of his story? Do you believe to know the Lord but don’t understand who he is and how he cares for the lost? Could it be that you know God but that your vision on him is flawed, your limping back and forth between living a dedicated and devoted life as a represent of Christ, that you don’t live as a healthy member of the body of Christ but are sick and try to replace the head, so you can do your own will? Repent. Repent and ask God to forgive that sin. Ask him to change your life. Here I am, change me!

Are your feet as dirty as the feet of the Ninevites? Have you never repented of your sin? Do you know that God is going to judge you one day? Sin is a short word with a long sentence - a sentence of judgment in hell. Don’t lose heart. Don’t lose your life and end in eternal hell. Repent of your sins. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that he is not only the savior of others but also yours. He did not come for the righteous but for the unrighteous. He came for the sick and lost. He came for you and offers you salvation. How do you respond? Here I am, save me!