The Lamest Sermon Ever Preached

BIG IDEA

God's Word will not return without achieving its purpose, and we can know the purpose by observing the results of the Word's work. Even though the Prophet Jonah is antagonistic to God's Plan for Nineveh and attempts to thwart this plan at every turn, and thus preaches "the lamest sermon ever preached," in merely eight Words of God, God's Word effects the greatest mass-repentance in human history. Bringing emphases to Jonah in 2:9, "Salvation comes (100%) from the LORD."

Opening Illustration

<<Note: Dramatically deliver the ‘broccoli part’ to mimic a caricature of the political stump speeches with speaking tone, cadence, and delivery , vis-a-vis, ‘passionate and a bit over-the-top.’>>

I do not mind telling you who I voted for to be President, in the 1992 Presidential Election!

I cast my vote for the re-election of President George Herbert Walker Bush.

What I loved so much about our 41st President was his hard-line stance on something very near and very dear to my heart // broccoli.

The President and shared a life-long distaste of broccoli.

You know, that was 29 years ago this month / AND STILL / I remember well those blessed words of liberation which he spoke on behalf of so many: //

Read my lips—No / More / Broccoli! (okay, a bit of a paraphrase)

Still, I’ll tell you, that hard-line stance alone, in my humble opinion, should have catapulted President George Herbert Walker Bush into a second-term. As columnist Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times on that day, “It’s the proclamation that every child, and many adults, have dreamed of making their entire lives, but never dared.”

Yes, I suppose there were critics. Nationwide, some doctors / and all mothers / were aghast that the President would say such a thing!

But // responding to his critics about the broccoli ban // President Bush stood his ground. He said:

''I do not like broccoli, and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother / made me / eat it. And now that I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!''

Well, the “Broccoli Backlash” continued.

And in November of 1992 // President George Herbert Walker Bush became the first Republican President to lose a re-election bid since Herbert Hoover back in ’32.

And I / Blame the Broccoli . . . !

Well, it’s been almost 30 years // and as I look back now, I see where President Bush had made a serious miscalculation. You see, when it came to broccoli, there was a higher power he failed to consult, and her name was, Barbara Bush.

The President described the First Lady, (his wife of 45 years at the time), as a ''totalitarian” when it came to broccoli.

President Bush did not consult the First Lady before declaring his independence from Broccoli. She warned him that she had a mind to serve him a meal of broccoli soup, with a broccoli salad, a broccoli main course, and then, in Mrs. Bush's own words, ''finish it off with a little broccoli ice cream.''

Maybe // President Bush should have just eaten his Broccoli //

It may / or may not / be true that DECLARING HIS INDEPENDENCE from Broccoli cost President Bush the election of 1992. WHAT is undoubtedly true / is that / sooner or later, Mrs. Bush was going to make the President ate his broccoli anyway.

//pause//

Declaring Our Independence

That’s the thing about declaring our own independence: it simply won’t work so long as there is a HIGHER AUTHORITY above us to which, or to whom, we must defer.

And like President Bush and his Broccoli . . . when someone is not the FINAL and ULTIMATE AUTHORITY . . . then declaring independence may not be that wise.

//pause//

Just ask Jonah . . . Jonah tried to DECLARE HIS INDEPENDENCE from God and found out the hard way that // he’ll be eating his broccoli anyway.

And that’s exactly what we see as CHAPTER 3 of Jonah opens:

The “If I Were God” Game

3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time,

Think about that. Let that sink in: Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time.

I sort of want to shove that broccoli in Jonah’s face!

But God didn’t do that.

If I were God, I would tag on some fierce words to verse 1, like . . . “get in there and do your job!” and “this had better never happen again!” But God didn’t say that.

When you and I try to play the “IF I WERE GOD” game we never end up doing what GOD would do, and worse, we seem to always end up DECLARING OUR INDEPENDENCE from God.

For example, DO YOU remember what happened when Jonah played the “IF I WERE GOD” game? Jonah said:

“If I were God . . . I would destroy every last one of those stinking, wicked, idolatrous, Ninevites!”

But God didn’t want that.

And personally, IF I WERE GOD, I wouldn’t trust Jonah with the mission.

But God is Going to give to Jonah a second chance, and then a third chance, and a fourth chance, and GOD would give Jonah even a 999th chance, or more.

And this is what God gives to you and me as well, just as HE is giving the same to Jonah—

//pause//

And that’s a good thing, because Jonah is going to play the “IF I WERE GOD” game two more times here in Chapter 3:

First, When Jonah’s plan to undermine God’s Word on the streets of Nineveh backfires . . Jonah will need God’s Mercy again. (THIS WEEK)Second, When Jonah refuses to help the Ninevites understand Repentance . . . Jonah will need God’s Mercy again. (NEXT WEEK)

Let’s look at the first “IF I WERE GOD” game Jonah plays in Chapter 3:1. Jonah’s plan to undermine God’s Word on the streets of Nineveh.

Visualize Jonah’s Day in Nineveh

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 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. 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!” 5 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.

As Jonah stepped through the massive gate, he probably looked up at Nineveh’s 100’ walls and probably wondered what this would look like when they all came tumbling down in 40 days.

Jonah didn’t want to be here.

This crusty, grim, and grumpy Prophet of God had walked to the center of the city, probably found a stone bench and stepped up onto it, and no doubt drew the attention of at least some of the thousands of people in this city.

He cleared his throat, and called out in the loudest, clearest voice he could:

“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

//pause//

There, he’d said it.

GOD’s 8 little POWERFUL words.

He stepped down, walked right out of the EAST GATE, to a hill outside the city, sat down, and planned to have a front row seat to watch their destruction in 40 days.

He did what God had told him to do. He said what God had told him to say.

And in Jonah’s mind, there was no way these wicked, brutal, idolatrous, pagans would repent of their wickedness over those 8 little words.

//pause//

As we see, how wrong he was. The text tells us that the Ninevites “believed God” — not Jonah, but God.

In the hands of Jonah, these 8 words became the lamest sermon ever preached; but these weren’t Jonah’s words, and even Jonah’s (many) attempts to thwart the message came to nothing; Jonah was just a messenger. The Ninevites knew that These 8 words were the Words of God . . . And those 8 little Words of God effected the largest mass-repentance of people in human history.

//pause//

Let that sink in deep.

THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD in REPENTANCE

LISTEN: GOD’S WORD holds GOD’S POWER to accomplish what He wills.

Isaiah 55:11 My Word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Now, apply this to the Ninevites.

According to Isaiah 55, all we need to do is look at what happened after His Word was sent to them.

They believed God’s Word and what He Said told them.They acknowledged that their wickedness was against Holy God.They turned from sin, and repented of itThey turned to God, and pleaded for mercy.

Based on these outcomes, we can see that the purpose of God’s Word to Nineveh was achieved in their turning away from sin and turning to God for mercy.

The purpose of the Book of Jonah is summarized in its theme found in Jonah 2:9:

Jonah 2:9 “Salvation belongs to the LORD.”

What does Jonah 2:9 tell us about God?

If the purpose of the Book of Jonah is to show you and me that GOD’S WORD alone, SCRIPTURE ALONE, is the very power of GOD to save sinners.

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes . . .”

HERE in JONAH, in NINEVEH’S repentance, we see GOSPEL of GOD.

By answering the questions so far, you see that we look at the results of the Power of God’s Word to see God’s purpose in sending them out. What are some of the results, that is the impact, of God’s Word in Jonah 3?

The purpose of Jonah is for us to understand Jonah 2:9 “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” that is always the Good News of the Gospel, and in the Old Testament, (as we see here in Jonah) the arrow is always pointing to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says, “One greater than Jonah is here,” and he’s referring to himself: I’m the true Jonah.

GOD’S WORD came in POWER to Nineveh and they believed God and repented of their sins, and received GOD’S MERCY. But how?

John 1:1-2, 4-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The triune GOD, Jesus is THE WORD OF GOD. In Jesus is ALL LIFE, ALL MERCY, and ALL LIGHT. The Ninevites experienced THE POWER OF the WORD OF GOD and they believed.

IF THE WORD OF GOD is CHRIST JESUS, the very POWER OF GOD’S GOSPEL, then we, too, can proclaim CHRIST’S WORDS to others knowing with confidence these are not our words, but.

Conclusion

This is what I hope we are seeing in Jonah: God’s Gospel in Christ Jesus Attended by His Power, (Is. 55:11).

Think about the prisons that are holding you captive—what are they?

THE WORD of GOD is the POWER OF GOD that breaks those prisons.

Who is the one in your life living for themselves and disregarding God?

THE WORD of GOD is the POWER OF GOD that that can break through their hardened hearts.

Who is the atheist in your family that ?

THE WORD of GOD is the POWER OF GOD to expose darkness.

Whose marriage is falling under the weight of sin and self?

THE WORD of GOD is the POWER OF GOD to restore.

Who is the abused?

Who is the one suffering?

Who endures injustice?

Who, in the quiet of the night, is the broken and weeping?

THE WORD of GOD is the POWER OF GOD that Saves--THE WORD of GOD is OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

APPLICATION

WHAT AM I TO DO?

Study God’s Word—so let’s start there.

If you are not daily in GOD’S WORD, I would like to challenge you this week to get with Scripture every day. I get it, it’s tough, and if you’re like me, it doesn’t come easy. But it is a priority because knowing God’s Word is how we know God—the Bible is where He has revealed Himself to us—and it is in His Word where God’s power attends to us and those to whom we speak it. We may stumble in sharing the Good News of the Gospel, or feel we are unqualified to share Scripture, and even struggle with doubt. Just remember—God’s Power attending to His Word is what saved you too!

Let me share with you how I conquered this. Teach a weekly Bible Study. My first time—International Students—mainly students from China and India (several of them were not believers) but I enjoyed every minute of this weekly Bible Study for years. I had to prepare enough every week I was in the Bible most days.

GET TO KNOW GOD’S WORD.

HOW AM I TO DO IT?

PRACTICE trusting the POWER OF GOD’S WORD by simply proclaiming it. If you like adult coloring, color a Bible Verse and give it to your co-worker. Speak GOD’S Word to someone in your life—and wrap all of this in Prayer.

You may stumble; it may be the LAMEST attempt; but instead of just speaking “stuff” SPEAK GOD’S WORD of SCRIPTURE. HIS power will attend your proclamation—because He promises, His Word will never return without achieving His purpose—which is the salvation of the person you are speaking to.

WHERE AM I TO DO IT?

Where is anywhere the Holy Spirit leads you to a spiritually interested person. BLESS is the tool to help you listen and share with them the GOOD NEWS.