Can You Hear Me Now?

Emden- 11/6/16            Can You Hear Me Now?

That’s a commercial that used to play a lot, and has recently come around again, only this time the man is pitching for a different cell phone company.            Can you hear me now?

That’s a good question. We’ve been sharing about talking to God through prayer. Does God ever talk to you? Do you listen to Him? Do you ignore Him?

A few weeks ago, I taught an impromptu SS class on the book of Jonah. I’ve been leading a small group Bible Study for the Shelbina Christian Church on Tuesday nights, and we’ve been talking about Jonah. This past week, we had some new people, guests, come to small group and the husband asked the question, “What does it mean when it says ‘Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah’?”

It means the revealed word of God, which was common in the Old Testament. The revealed word of God came to Jonah.

What was that revealed word? “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

What was Jonah’s response to God? Not to travel the 500 miles to the Northeast to Nineveh and preach as God had directed, but to try to run to Tarshish- 2,500 hundred miles in the opposite direction.

Jonah was not a young man at this time. This was not his first rodeo. He was a prophet. He was used to delivering God’s words to people.

So why did Jonah run? What was different about God’s instructions to Him this time?

God wanted Jonah to go to the biggest city in the known world at that time, and tell them to straighten up and fly right! If they would do that, then God would not destroy them.

So what’s wrong with that? Well, a couple things as far as Jonah is concerned.

1. Nineveh was part of Assyria. Assyria was the world power at the time. The Israelites did not like the Assyrians. The Assyrians were an evil people, who did some very cruel things.

2. The Assyrians were Gentiles. The Jews were God’s chosen people not gentiles. God’s mercy and grace was only for the Jews, after all, so the Israelites did not want to share this God of mercy with anyone else, especially gentiles who were their enemy. Jonah wanted to see Nineveh crushed and destroyed, not saved by God.

3. Up until this time, God had not sent out a missionary (the prophet Jonah in this case) to a foreign people. This was not the way “Jonah and the Israelites had always done it.”

So Jonah said no and ran. He even told the sailors on the boat about it. He didn’t hide it. Then we have a storm and a big fish enter into the story. The big fish spits Jonah out onto land.

Then God says, “Hey, Jonah. Can you hear me now?”

Jonah 3:1- 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.”

God is a God of 2nd chances. Jonah has the opportunity to listen this time. “Yes, Lord, I hear you.”

Keep in mind that even though Jonah went and preached, his heart was not in it. Reluctant obedience. The people of Nineveh repented and were spared God’s wrath. Jonah still camped out on the outskirts of the city waiting to see God destroy it.

What about you? What about me? Has God made His will clear to you and me? Has He revealed anything to us that we need to do?

And if God has shown us His will, are we obedient, or do we say “no” and run the other way?

Open your Bibles if you would to Matthew 28:18-20 (I’m reading from the ESV)

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

All authority… Jesus says He has the right to reveal God’s will to us.

Go… Go- we can listen or run the other way like Jonah

Make disciples… what does that mean? Tell them what Jesus said. Show them what it means to live a life that looks like Jesus’ life.

Baptizing… we know that Biblical baptism is by immersion. Salvation is not in the water. It is in being obedient in the act. Jonah said that salvation is from God. Jesus repeats here that             salvation is through the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Teaching them… You don’t just throw a person into the water and say there you go! You invest in them. You spend time with them. You help them to learn and grow.

I am with you… Jesus says, “Don’t worry. You’re not alone. I’ve got your back!”

My final questions are these- Are we running to Tarshish, trying to escape God’s will, or are we taking the message to Nineveh?

Our Nineveh being Emden, Shelby County, - to all parts of the world.

Can we hear God now?