The Miracle of Missions

Introduction:

Please take your bibles and turn to Jonah Chapter 1

I suppose that most of us know the story of Jonah. It’s a story that once you have heard you never forget!

This story, found right here in the book of Jonah, may be one of the greatest missionary stories of the old testament.

This morning the title of my message is “The Miracle of Missions.”

The bible says here in Jonah 1:1

King James Version Chapter 1

NOW the word of the LORD came unto ||Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2 Arise, go to cNineveh,

Now, immediately here in this passage, you can tell this is going to be a missionary story.

But this is more than a story. It's a story with a message, a missionary message, that we need to hear today. What a wonderful story, a miraculous story of missions.

You know it’s never news when a dog bites a man, but when a man bites a dog, that could be considered news. It’s not news when a man catches a fish, but when a fish catches a man that headline worthy!

Now, if you get sidetracked about whether or not a man can be swallowed by a big fish and live for three days and three nights in his stomach, then your gonna miss the entire message of this story!

This is a true story that God did to teach us a wonderful miracle lesson. I want you to notice three things with me this morning from the book of Jonah about “The Miracle of Missions.”

The first thing I want to draw your attention to this morning is number one...

1. The Missionary Mandate

Look with me again in

Jonah 1:1–3 KJV 1900

Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, He was showing that he is a God of missions. Nineveh was a huge, wealthy, wicked city. But God still loved them. Arn’t you Glade God loved you enough to save you!

We know Jonah was a prophet, he was a prophet to his own people. He was probably a patriot like many of you here this morning. He loved his people.

But for the people of Nineveh he had nothing but hatred and contempt because of their wickedness. Jonah had no desire to preach to these people because he didn’t think they deserved it, He wanted God to judge them, and he was afraid God might actually bless them.

Oh but friends, when we see God say “go to Nineveh.” We see the heart of God. It is a heart of boundless love. God