Follow Me

Follow Me Jonah 3:1-10 ; Mark 1:16-20 I want to ask you all a question. "If you could choose any job you wanted and pick anywhere you wanted to live, what and where would it be?" For many people, it's to have a job that pays well, is not stressful, has plenty of paid time off, and is drama free. And at the end of the day, most people want to drive home to a beautiful, remote area far away from all the noise and crime. That's not too far fetched because most people have retirement plans that involve some beautiful, peaceful spot far away from everyone else. It's a simple fact that people just want to live their lives and not be bothered with the problems of this messed up world. But as appealing as that sounds, it goes against the heart of God because it removes God's people from the very people God wants them to reach. There's nothing wrong with wanting to get some R&R. In fact, the Bible calls for rest. But revolving your life around whatever separates you from others is not loving your neighbor. Every church is filled with willing people - some willing to serve, and others willing to let them. The same is true in today's Scripture from Jonah and the Gospel of Mark. For Jonah, he was a confident man and worked for the LORD as a prophet. And still, when faced with the call to follow into what he thought was dangerous and pointless, he ran away. Rather than dropping everything to follow God, he gathered up his fears and ran for it. It's important for you to remember that Jonah had to choose to obey God. The huge fish that swallowed Jonah and his disobedience didn't just drop him off at Nineveh. Jonah had to experience his disobedience before he was given another chance to make the right decision. Valuable time and energy were wasted, and Jonah arrived more stinky and dirty than I'm sure he'd like to admit. Jonah was willing, but he was willing to let others do the work. So let us learn from him because when God calls you to obedience, you need to understand that God doesn't change, so it's best to do things His way from the start. Remember, the Bible is about how God never gave up on us. That's why Jonah 3:1 begins, "The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time." Did you hear that? "The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time" because the first time didn't go so great. The first time God's Word came, Jonah left. God said, "Go," Jonah said, "No." And in his stubbornness, he got a smelly, windowless sea cruise. But "The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time," and this time, Jonah wisely decided he had better go in the direction God's Word was pointing. One day a son was arguing with his dad, insisting that 1+1 = 11. The father looked at his son and said, "Fine. If you're so confident, go get 2 popsicles." His son went and got 2 popsicles. Then his dad said, "Now, give me one and the other to your brother." The Son asked, "What about mine?" His father answered, "You can have the other nine left over." Sometimes, no matter your age, people just have to learn the hard way. So maybe you're asking yourself, "Why did God choose such an unwilling person to go to Nineveh?" I believed God picked Jonah because his attitude reflects the attitude of so many of God's people down throughout the centuries. Israel was God's covenant people, but time and time again, they left God and lost their zeal for God's heart. Like Israel, Jonah knew God. He was an orthodox believer and knew his Scripture. But the problem wasn't Jonah's knowledge about God nor his beliefs; Jonah's problem was he lost God's heart for other people. Jonah, like so many people today, often place their own comfort and convenience above the need to reach others who need to hear about God's judgment and mercy. They're willing to help; they're just willing to help in ways that don't require them to step out in faith and move. But God has a thing for what we would classify as "a lost cause." Jonah seemed like a lost cause, but with his second chance, he headed to where God wanted him to go. But the problem was God's Word pointed him toward Nineveh. Sometimes, like that father and son, our math just isn't adding up, and we wonder why we need to do something. Jonah's math wasn't adding up because he knew God's Word told him to go to Nineveh, but Nineveh was a huge, terrible city. Nineveh was a major city of the Assyrian Empire. It was located in northeastern Mesopotamia on the east bank of the Tigris River, which is about 220 miles north of present-day Baghdad. You know how if you find yourself in a very large city there will be people warning you not to go to a certain part of town? Well, all of Nineveh was that certain part of town! Put it this way, Nineveh was so bad that archaeologists have found inscriptions about how people in Nineveh would be filleted like a fish and have their skin hang on the streets as a warning to others. But, as verse 3 says, "Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh." Here comes Jonah, stinky, sweaty, probably stubbornly dragging his dry feet into a very large city that took 3 days to go through, as verse 3 says. Jonah walked "a day's journey into the city" before he began to preach. And when he did preach, he said as little as possible. His sermon was only 8 words long. "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." Now, I can't judge Jonah for such a short sermon because if I were preaching next to human skins blowing in the breeze, I'd want to leave too. But herein lays the awesomeness of God; even though Jonah was scared and all his math said don't do it, Jonah obeyed God, followed God's Word by walking a day's journey into the city, and preached 8 words all because God was with him. Like Jonah, when your confidence is lacking, be reminded of Psalm 62:5-8, which says, "Yes, my soul, find rest in God' my hope comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge." Jonah, like so many of us, might feel weary about following God into the unknown. But God is our Rock, Refuge, Fortress, and Salvation. So even if all you get is 8 words out, "trust God at all times." Now, check this out: Just how the Israelites "trembled with fear" (Exodus 20:18-19) when they heard God speak, when the Ninevites heard God's Word, they became silent and stopped in their tracks. I bet they were staring at Jonah with those "deer in the headlights" look while Jonah was staring back with the "hand caught in the cookie jar" kinda look. Those 8 words were all Nineveh needed to hear. God spoke through Jonah, and "The Ninevites believed God," as verse 5 says. "When Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust." Then he spoke to all the people, issued a fast, urged everyone to call upon God and to stop doing evil because "God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish" (Jonah 3:7-9). Jonah's 8-word sermon had 2-parts: Nineveh would be judged for its sin, and they had a 40-day window to fix their problem. God has every right to destroy this wicked city. But, in God's grace, He gave them time to come clean and repent. And that's exactly what they did. Verse 10 says, "When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened." Look close at verse 10 when it says, "how they turned from their evil ways." That's exactly what repent means; they turned. They were heading in one direction, and because they heard God's Word (well, 8 words), they turned a whole new direction. That "God relented them from destruction" is a reminder that God never changes, but He can adjust to the changes in humans. God will not change His holy standards, but He will alter His intended outcome in response to our actions. For the Ninevites, repentance produced something for God's grace and mercy to respond to. This is a message of grace because it reveals God's heart to see across all racial, social, class, and cultural lines so people can repent and be saved. Our hearts should be willing and always reflecting the same desire because God can get through, even when you can't! But for a lot of people, that seems a little fishy. How can only a few words turn a life around? How can God forgive such evil sinners? It's almost too incredible to believe, isn't it? That God would forgive anyone who repents. That can't be possible in the real world, can it? The real world is hard and cruel. There are good guys and bad guys, and we try to stay on our side of town. We might live in a world different from Nineveh, but our world is still filled with back-breaking work and hard labor just to get anywhere. It's the kind of world guys like Simon, Andrew, James, and John knew and lived in. They were confident men who knew their trade, knew what mattered, and worked hard. Instead of the Tigris River, this time God is walking "beside the Sea of Galilee" (Mark 1:16), looking for someone to follow Him saying, "Come, follow Me." Maybe Simon, Andrew, James, and John heard about Jesus before Jesus called them to follow. Either way, both God's Words in Jonah and Mark teach us that there's power in words. God's Word certainly, but also in our words. And knowing this, we all have the responsibility to use our words to help turn lives around, like those we saw in Nineveh when they "turned from their evil ways." We have a joy and an obligation; We have been given a gift that we can't keep secret. This gift must be shared because it can turn lives around to God's salvation in Christ Jesus. It must be woven into the fabric of our lives so that everybody will know what we know and know Who we know! Even those we may not think are worthy of it. That was Jonah's problem. That's why "The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time." If you read the final chapter of Jonah, you'll discover that Jonah's stubbornness came from the fact that he was afraid that God would love the Ninevites as much as God loved him. God's grace was fishy to Jonah. It was too encompassing, too incredible, too accepting. But Jonah was caught up in the net of God's love, so who knows who else might be included? Jesus says, "I'll send you out to fish for people." But before anyone can fish, they have to be caught. This means we're all fishers and fish at the same time. "Follow Me," Jesus says, and we follow. Hopefully, most of the time, we follow. And as you follow Christ, you live an invitation. The disciples eagerly followed and left everything behind to be "fishers of men." And the same command for them is also for us, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19-20). You become a "fisher of men" when you follow the Holy Spirit's guidance to reach others about the Good News of Jesus Christ. Jonah stubbornly followed. But Jonah, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, and all of us for that matter, have something in common when it comes to following, and that is: God doesn't always explain Himself in advance, so we have to walk by faith, and follow, to see what God is up to. There once was a man who couldn't understand why you shouldn't install a ceiling fan with duct tape; And then it hit him. Jonah, Simon, Andrew, James, and John all stepped off the boat, just in different ways. And then it hit them! Jonah stepped off the boat and dropped into the mouth of a huge fish. The disciples stepped off the boat and dropped their nets. Learn from these people who've followed before us, so you too can answer Jesus' call to "Follow Me" every single day, no matter where, or to who, His Word leads. There's a story about a father taking his family on vacation when they came across a large sign that read, "Road Closed. Do Not Enter." The man proceeded around the sign because he was confident in his own directions. His wife was resistant to the adventure, but there was no turning back for this road warrior. After a few successful miles, he began to boast about his gift of discernment. But, his proud smile was quickly replaced with humble sweat when the road led to a washed-out bridge. He turned the car around and followed his tracks to the main road. When they arrived at the original warning sign, he was greeted by large letters on the back of the sign "Welcome back!" Today, we saw the power of words. Jonah didn't really follow, he followed God's Word, but he didn't follow God's heart. He wasn't a leader or a humble servant. The disciples heard "Follow Me," and they actually and actively did. We know from reading the rest of the New Testament that, yes, they stumbled, but they were willing to be disciples and follow. They were willing to learn and God asked of them because their confidence was in Jesus. So, brothers and sisters, todays message is a call. It's a call to follow. Ask yourself, am I actively following? Have you ever strayed in your walk of faith in reaching others? Have you become too comfortable in your faith? Have you every ran from God? It doesn't matter how confident you thought you were or how far you might have strayed because Jesus, like that sign, is ready to say, "Welcome Back." Sometimes we can have the greatest confidence in ourselves to figure out issues or fix problems, but we let ourselves down. Confidence is only as good as the object it's placed in. When going through life, the wise person places their confidence in an unchanging, all-powerful God, who says to everyone, "Follow Me." AMEN 2