What's Stopping You from Being like Jonah?

Jonah 3:1-5,10

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

10 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.

What’s Stopping You from Being like Jonah?

Could you have done what Jonah did? Could you answer a call from God and go to a country where people hate Christians and preach Christ to them? When I held the call to be your pastor, more than one person said to me, “Why would you want to go there? Canada is even less Christian than America.”

And it is, unquestionably. There are laws on our books legalizing sin and limiting our traditional Christian faith. There’s even a city in our country where we are considering doing mission work but may have to do it in secret because the last several conservative Christian churches there have been systematically targeted and run out of town. Canada is not the friendliest place to preach about Jesus.

It’s not the worst either. Having gone to South Korea in June, I got to talk to pastors who serve in places where Christianity is outright illegal. They can’t have a website or use social media because they would be tracked down and arrested. There are places in our world today that would make Nineveh seem like a walk in the park.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? You haven’t been called to leave town and go to a foreign country where the people would be hostile to you. You live in a country where you are free to talk about Jesus to your friends and neighbours.

So what’s stopping you?

We began our reading of Jonah in the geographical middle of his story:

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.[1]

We skipped over the more familiar part of his story – about how the word of the Lord came to Jonah the first time, but he ignored it. No, worse than that, he rejected it. He hated it. He fled from it. He chartered a boat to take him in the complete opposite direction from Nineveh.

Jonah had his reasons. Nineveh was the capital city of the country that posed the single greatest threat to Jonah’s country.  In fact, just one or two generations later, it would be the Ninevites who would wage war on Jonah’s homeland and conquer them. Jonah had no reason to desire their deliverance. He had every reason to desire their destruction. So, he ran away from them instead of trying to save them.

Jonah was scared. He was selfish. He put his own desires ahead of God’s desires and his own well-being ahead of the Ninevites’ well-being. Jonah sinned. And it wasn’t just a sin of omission or neglect. It wasn’t as if Jonah just didn’t have the time. It was an act of open rebellion and willful defiance of God’s explicit will for Jonah.

What’s stopping you?

The word of the Lord didn’t come to you the way it did to Jonah. Jesus didn’t pop into your workplace and pick you to be one of his 12 disciples the way he did for Peter and Andrew. But we heard it from Paul:

[Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them.[2]

[God] gave us the ministry of reconciliation.[3]

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.[4]

Talk about a lofty charge! The almighty God who commands the wind and the waves, the almighty God who supernaturally sent a sea creature to swallow Jonah and then miraculously kept him alive in its belly for 3 days, the almighty God who saved an entire city in a single day chooses to use you as his ambassador.

So what’s stopping you?

Jonah had his reasons for not wanting to go to Nineveh. I’m sure you have had your reasons for swallowing your faith too. Maybe you don’t think you’re the person to do it, i.e. that you’re not educated or eloquent enough. Maybe you’re afraid that you’ll offend somebody; religion is one of the three things you don’t talk about in “polite” conversation. Maybe you’re afraid about how much work it would be to try and get your unbelieving family member from Point A to Point B. Is it even possible that there are certain people that you’re not eager to see saved, who you think deserve what’s coming to them?

Christian, it’s a lofty charge, but it’s one that God has given you – not to go to Nineveh, not to go to one of those places where Christianity is illegal, but to talk to your family members, e.g. your disillusioned parents, your estranged siblings, your straying children. God has made you his ambassador to your breakroom, your homeroom, the 17,000 square feet of ice you occupy on a random weekday afternoon.

Jonah abdicated his ambassadorial responsibilities. Have you? Have you misplaced your confidence in God to change hearts? Have you written certain people off as lost causes? Have you been indifferent to other people’s damnation or selfishly put your own desires for your life and how you spend your time ahead of God’s desire for your life?

Then, Christian, you’re a sinner – just like me and just like Jonah. And just like us, you deserve worse than to be cast into the sea; you deserve what God threatened to do to Nineveh – to be destroyed, damned, forever. But just like Jonah, don’t miss the grace that’s hiding in plain sight in the first words of Jonah 3:

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.[5]

Jonah got a second chance because the Lord is merciful.

It’s even in his name. When you see the word “Lord” in all caps like this it’s a special name that God uses for himself to remind us of his covenant of love and forgiveness. It’s the same contractual name that God used repeatedly in the Old Testament when he gave his one-sided promise of a Saviour. It’s the same name that communicates God’s loving-kindness to sinners who don’t deserve it. It’s the same name that Jesus used for himself when he told the Jews that he was the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Saviour.

The Lord is the God who loves you. The Lord is the one who sent Jesus to save you and give you a second chance. When God sent Jesus into this world, he didn’t look down out of heaven and say, “Earth? Who would want to go there?” When Jesus considered the hostility and hatred he would endure, he didn’t cower in fear or selfishly cover his own rear. He willingly, lovingly subjected himself to the danger and submitted himself to death, so that by his sacrifice he could do more in one day for more people than Jonah ever could.

Jonah’s mission to Nineveh resulted in the salvation of 120,000 people. When Jesus died on the cross, he won eternal life for all people of all time. On the cross, Jesus paid for your sins. He forgave your guilt. He showed you grace and gave you a second chance.

You and I may share the guilt that Jonah did in the first two chapters of his story, but we also share in the opportunity he had in this third chapter to go and be the earthly reason for other people’s eternal salvation. And if that still feels daunting to you, I want you to consider how God answers everyone of your doubts and concerns and fears:

Does evangelism or outreach seem like a lot of hard work? Well, yeah, it is! Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.[6] Jonah was steeling himself to spend up to 40 days there. But what did God do? After that first day, the Ninevites believed… from the greatest to the least.[7] It was a miracle!

The success of God’s Word does not depend on you. It depends on his and his Holy Spirit working through you. It’d be impossible for you single-handedly to go and convert all of St. Albert. But you don’t have to! That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. And you’re not single-handed. Neither was Jonah. Do you think he spoke to every single person in the city? No, they talked to each other, and the Gospel went viral. When we share our faith, God’s kingdom grows – one person at a time, until you can’t count them anymore.

Are you afraid that people might be offended by what you have to say? Are you afraid that God’s Law is unpopular? Well, yeah, it is! But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Jonah didn’t sugar coat it. He laid it out there: Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.[8] He called out the Ninevites’ sinfulness. He told them that they deserved hell for what they were doing. But God’s Law worked on their hearts and yielded God’s intended result: The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.[9]

Had Jonah beat around the bush or softened the blow, no one would have known their need to repent and they would have all been destroyed. But because they were shown how serious their sin was, and because they did repent of it, God relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.[10]

Are you not the right person? Are you not educated or eloquent enough? Maybe not. But listen to verse 5: The Ninevites believed God.[11] You don’t have to be eloquent or educated. You don’t have to have a master’s degree in theology, because it’s not about you. It’s about him. People don’t have to believe you. They have to believe him. And by God’s grace they do! You do! You’re here because someone in your life spoke to you, and I’m guessing that the first person who talked to you about Jesus was not a career clergyman. Chances are it was a friend or a family member.

That’s your mission field. Not Nineveh. Not Canada. Not even St. Albert. Your neighbour. Your friend. The family member who sits across the dining table from you. That’s your mission field and that’s the lofty charge that God has for you. Not to be someone else’s salvation – Jesus took care of that. Not even to change someone else’s heart – that’s the Holy Spirit’s job. You are God’s ambassador. You share his Word and with it his power and his Spirit and his salvation.

Could you have done what Jonah did? I have 0 doubt. Absolutely you could – or better – absolutely God could have through you. So what’s stopping you? Amen.

[1] Jonah 3:1

[2] 2 Corinthians 5:15

[3] 2 Corinthians 5:18

[4] 2 Corinthians 5:20

[5] Jonah 3:1

[6] Jonah 3:3

[7] Jonah 3:5

[8] Jonah 3:4

[9] Jonah 3:5

[10] Jonah 3:10

[11] Jonah 3:5

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Do You Know the Power of Baptism?

Romans 6:1-11

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 

Do You Know the Power of Baptism?

Knowledge is power.

I have always lived in a northern climate. I have never gone a year without snow. But I have also never gone a stretch of three straight days where the temperature never rose higher than -30 C… until today. I know that winter is cold. I know that there is the constant threat of frostbite and hypothermia, but I didn’t know that with some of the wind chills that we’ve had this weekend I could have gotten frostbite in as few as 2 minutes. I walk a paper route every Thursday that takes 30 minutes. If even a single square inch of skin were exposed – even just the tip of my nose – I could have been in for a world of hurt.

But, armed with this knowledge, I could still go out on my paper route properly prepared – bundled up from head to toe, but safe and still able to function. So, that’s what I did. Knowledge is power. Without that knowledge I could have either gone out and hurt myself, or done nothing and gotten fired. This knowledge empowered me to do my job safely.

Today we read a portion of Paul’s letter to the Christians living in Rome, where Paul made it clear that he wanted them and that he wants you to know a few things – not about weather, not about snow, but about baptism. And this knowledge is power too. It’s not just an intellectual exercise. It’s not a piece of Bible trivia or a dusty doctrine that you have to know to pass confirmation class. It’s a truth that gives you power. It’s a truth that makes an actionable difference in your life.

Here’s the first knowledge nugget that Paul drops for us today:

Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.[1]

What’s the first thing that Paul wants you to know about baptism? Paul wants you to know that your baptism connects you to Jesus. He says it a couple different ways here: we were “baptized into his death;” we were “buried with him;” and then he even draws the conclusion that because we are so connected to Christ that also means that we will even rise to new life with him. In other words, because of our baptisms we get to look forward to the resurrection from the dead and eternal life with God in heaven.

All that started at your baptism, where you were baptized into Christ’s death. The central figure – the central symbol of Christianity is the cross, and for good reason. That’s what Jesus came to do. He did not come to this earth to teach us how to be good people. He did not come to this earth to make our earthly lives better. Jesus came to die, because that’s what you and I deserve for our sin.

Paul starts this passage with a question:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?[2]

Do you follow Paul’s logic here? Paul is writing to Christians – like you – who know that God forgives sin, who know that there is no sin so great that God cannot forgive it. Paul is writing to Christians – like you – who know that God’s grace and his patience and his love are unlimited. You cannot out-sin God’s capacity to forgive you.

In a perverted world some people might take that grace for granted and abuse it and say blasphemous things like, “Well, if God is just going to forgive me anyway, does it matter how I live my life? Wouldn’t it actually make God look even more gracious if I were even more sinful. If he could forgive someone as bad as I am then that would make God really look good.”

You wouldn’t dream of saying anything like that, would you? But has the knowledge of God’s love for you ever made temptation and sin seem that much less serious? Even if you don’t say this out loud, maybe you say it subconsciously in your heart: “It’s just gossip; it’s just the occasional swear word. We’re not talking damnable offenses here. God has forgiven a whole lot more than this. I’m sure he’s not going to keep me out of heaven for the occasional slip of the tongue.” “It’s just pornography. It doesn’t hurt anybody. Everybody does it. I’ll just pray for forgiveness later. God is good that way.”

Even if you don’t consciously, publicly proclaim, “I’m going to sin more to make God’s grace look better,” sometimes your actions say that for you. But that’s why Jesus came and that’s why Jesus died on a cross – to take your sin in his body and to pay the penalty for your guilt with his blood. Jesus didn’t just assume that his heavenly Father would treat sin lightly or shrug it off as if it didn’t matter. No, Jesus knew exactly what it would cost him and he willingly paid the price, because he loves you.

And because he loves you, Jesus wasn’t content just to leave you a word of promise that survived 2,000 years since his sacrifice. He wanted to give you the assurance that his promise wasn’t empty. He gave you baptism too – a sacrament that shared the same promise as the cross but engaged your senses here and now, and allowed you to feel the water that was connected to his Word that connected you to Jesus.

Through your baptism, it is as if you were joined to Jesus, and by your baptism you receive the benefit of all that Jesus did for you. You were baptized into his death, which means that your sins were paid for – your sins, i.e. the person whose forehead dripped with water, your sins were on his cross.

You were buried with him, i.e. your sins were taken away from you and laid in his grave where they will lie – away from you – for the rest of time.

You will rise with him – to the glory of a heaven that you never deserved, by the grace you often took for granted, but by the grace that was shown to you anyway through Jesus.

Your baptism is powerful. Your baptism effects your salvation. Your baptism gives you the assurance of heaven, because your baptism connects you to your Saviour Jesus.

That’s what Paul wants you to know. That’s the powerful piece of knowledge he wants you to cherish. But there’s more:  

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.[3]

Paul says that in baptism your old self was crucified, i.e. the body ruled by sin was done away with. That’s your sinful nature. That’s the natural inclination inside each of us that craves sin, e.g. that hears a juicy conversation and wants to join in; that sees an attractive figure and lets the mind wander. In baptism that old self is stripped from you and nailed to the cross of Christ. It’s crucified, done away with, killed. Because of baptism you are no longer a slave to your sinful nature.

Now, that’s not to say that after your baptism you never even have the urge to do a sinful thing ever again. In reality, it’s quite often the opposite. That’s when trial and temptation truly begin, as the devil tries ever so hard to disrupt the connection that baptism forms between you and Jesus. But what this knowledge does is remind you that after your baptism you are not a slave to sin anymore. Sin isn’t the only thing you can do. Now you can fight. Now you can resist. Now there can be godly desires in your heart that want to do what is good and right, godly desires that fight against the sinful ones. And baptism can help with that!

Luther quotes this passage from Romans 6 when he comments on the meaning of baptism for our daily lives:

Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.[4]

It starts with baptism. Baptism connects you to Saviour and assures you of your salvation. But baptism also equips you to live a godly life by drowning your sinful nature with daily contrition and repentance.

That’s one of the reasons I love our tradition of the baptismal stones. Everyone who has ever been a member of or been baptized in this congregation has their name on a rock under the water of the baptismal font by the door. It’s the same font that you saw last week be used to baptize James and two weeks before that to baptize Nathaniel and two weeks before that to baptize Freya. That stone with your name on it is constant a reminder that remains immersed in the blessings of your baptism every day. It doesn’t matter if you come here on a Sunday or a Monday or a Friday, your stone is still there. You, as a Christian, are still in the state of being baptized. That’s why we even sometimes change the way we say it: not, “I was baptized,” but, “I am baptized.” You are and always will be a baptized believer, connected to Christ, whose old self was crucified with him, so that you could go and live a new and godly life every day.

Baptism isn’t just a symbol. It isn’t an act of dedicating ourselves to God. It is a gracious gift from God to us that accomplishes our salvation and gives us power to live our lives of faith. You are connected to Christ. You are free from sin. Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] Romans 6:3,4

[2] Romans 6:1

[3] Romans 6:6

[4] Luther’s Small Catechism; Baptism: The Meaning for Daily Life

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