Repent or Perish
Notes
Transcript
Thank you everyone for your kindness, your prayers, thank you for the meals, the gift cards - and for your support over the past few weeks.
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Over the past few weeks I have been reminded of the idea of the preacher preaching to oneself.
Preaching to oneself is an idea that many preachers speak of. The idea behind it is make sure that the sermon is not merely aiming at the pastor preaching AT the congregation but also make sure that the text is applied to himself as well.
And even this week, after I had been reminded of this idea - I was reminded of a quote from John Calvin who wrote “If a preacher is not first preaching to himself, better that he falls on the steps of the pulpit and breaks his neck than preaches that sermon.”
Maybe a bit of a shocking quote - but an important idea nonetheless.
The pastor’s sermon is not merely for the congregation - it is for the pastor as well.
This might be a bit of insider baseball.
Making sure that you are the first audience that you are addressing in your preaching. Now this doesn’t mean that the pastor talks to himself and everyone else listens - but rather that the preacher deals with what is in his heart, and deals with his sin, and applies the text to himself first before he preaches the sermon to the people in front of him.
What kind of preacher helps others apply the text to themselves, but does not apply it to himself?
the preacher is not above the text.
and I am reminded of that significantly as I reflect on the events of the past week - and the sermons of the past few months.
And yet in God’s divine sovereignty it seems that he has prepared us/me ahead of time for what would happen.
And yet if we look back at the past few months of sermons:
Over the past few weeks I’ve been preaching about God’s sovereignty over all creation (Jonah 1), remembering God’s word even in darkness - and that even in the presence of that darkness God is still there (Jonah 2) and that God is always faithful even when it doesn’t look like it (Psalm 89).
Through the Psalms we all agreed that it was a dark summer - as book 3 is the dark book of the Psalter. And yet from Psalm 89, the long Psalm about either the seeming collapse of the kingdom of Israel - the Psalmist questions if God will be faithful to his promises, and ultimately concludes that God is indeed faithful to his promises - even in utter despair.
During that sermon in August I said this:
“As we look at this Psalm we should be reminded that God keeps his promises. He is always faithful. Even when we don’t have faith - God is still faithful. Through cancer or calamity, miscarriage or misery, depression or divorce, holocaust or homelessness (we could add hurricane in there too), God is always faithful. We may not understand his faithfulness, we may feel as if he has abandoned us - but our feelings do not negate his faithfulness.
God will keep all of his promises.”
How foolish would I be to preach that a few weeks ago and not take comfort in it now?
And as a book I read to my kids recently says: “The Moon is Always Round, and that means that God is Always good.”
This is why we preach the Whole Counsel of God - why we must preach the whole Bible.
Yet, I mention this because I think it still connects us to Jonah.
And though Jonah’s Sermon is to the Ninevites - a specific people at a specific time in a specific place - is not only for Nineveh - but it is for Jonah as well… it is for Israel and Judah as well. It is for us as well.
Yet Jonah seems to not listen to his own preaching - or he just thinks that he is above his own sermon. While we don’t get the whole content of his sermon in chapter 3 - but it is highly likely that if Jonah’s sermon to the Ninevites had a title it would be “Repent or Perish.”
And yet as we will see in chapter 4 - Jonah does not think that the people of Nineveh are deserving of God’s mercy. This is why he initially runs from God.
And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
God speaks, Jonah responds, Jonah speaks, Nineveh repents
God Speaks
God Speaks
As we look at 3:1-2 you might noticed that these two verses sounds familiar. They is almost identical to the first two verses of the book. The similarity between these two verses shows us that Jonah is getting a second chance.
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”
As a recap, The Lord spoke to Jonah and told him to go and preach to Nineveh. Jonah runs. Gets on a boat going 1000 miles the opposite direction. The Lord pours out his righteous wrath upon Jonah through a storm, Jonah is thrown overboard and then God appoints a big fish to come and swallow him. Jonah spends three days in the Fish Belly Hotel, then Jonah cries out to God from the belly of the fish. God is merciful to Jonah and causes the fish to spit him up on to dry land.
Sin, wrath, judgment, mercy
Jonah’s message is to speak the words that God tells him. Which is yet another area where Jonah teaches us about preaching. The preacher’s job is to speak the word of God - not to preach his opinion, or tell you to vote, or how to vote, or give a TedTalk.
Jonah Responds
Jonah Responds
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.
Verse three gives us some significant information concerning the “greatness” of the city of Nineveh. Several things are described as great in this book - great city, great storm, great fish… but here we see that Nineveh that takes three days to cross. And then we read in the next verse that Jonah walks a day’s journey into the city. So Jonah makes his way in to what would seem like the center of the city.
Jonah Speaks
Jonah Speaks
4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
The short points we get are:
Nineveh has done great evil against the Lord.
Jonah is to call them to repent of their evil.
If they do not repent they will be destroyed in 40 days.
However, in the background of this sermon is the idea that God is a God of justice and a God of wrath. He must punish sin, but he is faithful to forgive those who confess their sins. These must be the assumptions of the preacher. This where I think Jonah is failing to preach to himself. Jonah himself has just lived this sermon:
Jonah has sinned and been on the receiving end of God’s wrath, Jonah has also been on the receiving end of God’s mercy. Jonah doesn’t deserve God’s mercy anymore than Nineveh does. Jonah’s sermon should be a reminder of the past week of his life - and not just a sermon for the Ninevites.
As I have been thinking through this text over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about Jonah’s mindset. And while I want to be cautious not to go beyond what the text is stating I cannot help be think that there is a strong disconnect between Jonah’s sermon here and his complaint to God in chapter 4.
And as I’ve been thinking through it I’ve noticed that Jonah either doesn’t believe, or he just doesn’t like, his own theology. Jonah is preaching a message of repent or perish to the people. And while Jonah does not fully understand the kindness of the Lord, as we will see in chapter 4, we should not undermine his obedience here. With Jonah’s second chance he shows that he is a new man who is obedient to the commands of God.
This whole text is full of the unexpected. Which we also find in the response of the people. But before we get there I want to look at the method of Jonah’s sermon.
Jonah preaches the word of God. Jonah does not come to them with church growth strategies designed to maximize attendance, nor does he offer to give away an iPad, nor does he bring Israel’s top praise and worship group with him… he doesn’t bring any sort of gimmick with him… he simply preaches the word of God…. and they repent.
Things have not changed much for the modern preacher.
While growth strategies might work in some cases, and iPad giveaways might bring a bump in attendance for a time - “what you win them with is what you win them too”… we want other won to the word of God by the spirit of God not a gimmick that appeals to the desires of the flesh.
And this reminds me of a quote from Martin Luther from his Second Sermon from The Eight Wittenberg Sermons Luther writes:
“I have opposed the indulgences and all the papists, but never by force. I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And then while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip and with Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy, that never a prince or emperor inflicted such damage upon it. I did nothing; the Word did it all. Had I desired to foment trouble, I could have brought great bloodshed upon German. Yea, I could have started such a little game at Worms that even the emperor would not have been safe. But what would it have been? A fool’s play. I did nothing; I left it to the Word. What do you suppose is Satan’s thought, when an effort is made to do things by violence? He sits back in hell and thinks: How fine a game these fools will make for me! But it brings him distress when we only spread the Word, and let it alone do the work. For the it is almighty and takes captive the hearts, and if the hearts are captured the evil work will fall of itself.”
“I did nothing I left it to the word.”
Nineveh Repents
Nineveh Repents
verse 5 - RSB “Jonah’s worst fears are realized.”
Next week we will look more into the repentance of Nineveh yet what we see from their response in verse 5 is that
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
They believe God. Their belief drives their actions. Right belief drives right action. fasting and donning sackcloth are actions often connected to repentance. While we don’t generally change our clothes when we repent - true repentance is marked by a change of mind. One who believes God will change the way they live their life. Instead of living a life of sin to please self, they will live a life of repentance to please God.
God speaks, Jonah responds, Jonah speaks, Nineveh repents
Application:
our message and our responsibility as Christians are not all that different than Jonah’s.
Jonah Message:
Repent or Perish
remember that the gospel is for everyone - including yourself. Preach the message to everyone including yourself.
Jonah’s Responsibility
Preach the Word - God has spoken, we ought to proclaim that word to others - but never find ourselves above that word.
Let the word and the Spirit do the work.
It is unexpected that Nineveh would respond the Jonah’s message. But Jonah’s fear is that God would be merciful to them. The importance of proclaiming the gospel to any who will listen. We never know when someone will listen and repent. In many instances evangelism also requires patience. Like the parable of the sower - we should spread the seed without discernment for where it lands. But they will not believe if they do not hear:
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Do you have beautiful feet? Or do you have stinky fish feet?