Survivor Series:

Pastor Phillips' Sermon

Lenten Service, Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this Wednesday night opportunity to be here with you with our brothers and sisters in Christ, the body of Christ, gathered here to worship, to pray, to sing your praise, and now to be fed by your word. Speak, Lord, to our hearts. Encourage us, comfort us, strengthen us, compel us in Jesus' name. Amen.

The basis for our meditation is the 4 th Chapter of Jonah. In this study, we have had a lot of different themes. We started out with the idea of how does God's love survive in the midst of a sinful world? And we found that God's love survived because He sent His servant into the sinful world. He sent His servant to proclaim the good news that sets people free. Then we asked the question, “How did the sailors survive, these pagan sailors that didn't know God, how did they survive that terrible storm? What ultimately saved them?” And it was the fact that they heard God's word and listened to it. Then we asked the question, “What was it about Jonah's prayer that was so remarkable? How did it help him to survive when he was confined in the belly of the fish?” And it had to do with the fact that he stopped the blame game and he accepted responsibility for his sin. And last week, we talked about the Ninevites, those wicked and sinful people that didn't deserve God's love and forgiveness but got it anyway because Jonah went, finally obeying God, into their city and proclaimed that wonderful message that sets men free and they believed it and they turned from their wicked ways and God turned from His intent to punish them and they received His compassion.

So here we are, wrapping up the story, where we see Jonah, the great prophet of God, I don't know how great he was, but the prophet of God, who had successfully brought a whole city to the Lord, and what's Jonah's reaction? Well, what would your reaction be if you saw this whole city who had been so wicked that everybody knew about their wickedness and now they had turned away from that and were walking with God. They repented. They lived and produced fruit in keeping with repentance. How would you feel? Well, Jonah wasn't pleased. Can you believe it? He wasn't pleased. It says, “But Jonah was greatly displeased and he became angry.” Angry? That doesn't make sense. It says, “Even in his anger, he prayed.” He said, “I knew you couldn't resist it, God. I knew you couldn't help but forgive those people. That's why I didn't want to go. And now, since they've repented, since you've forgiven them, I want you to take my life.” How does God's love survive when the people of God act like that?

When I was a seminary student, I was a field worker at a local church. A field worker is a student who helps at a local Lutheran Church . I was a field worker at a local church and it was in the inner city. The neighborhood had changed. A lot of the friends of the members of the congregation had moved out and people who weren't quite exactly like them had moved in. But I was a field worker and I was young and naive, didn't know too much about why we should like or not like people, so I was out on evangelism calls, along with a few members of the church. And we'd knock on doors and we'd go into apartments. And this neighborhood wasn't real friendly to that, and sometimes we got yelled at but we didn't stop. And eventually, some of the people we visited would come to church. And then I heard a story that made me pretty upset. I heard somebody came to our church and, one day were in the bathroom, one of the members said, “What are you doing in our church? You don't belong here.” Can you imagine?

That's kind of the way Jonah's thinking right now. “I knew it, God. I knew if I proclaimed your word, they'd believe, too. That's why I didn't want to do it. That's why I told you I didn't want to do it. Now look. That city, a bunch of wicked people, now they're just like me. You love them, too.” How is it that Jonah could know all about God's love and compassion and not feel the same way? In Jonah's mind, bad behavior should result in bad treatment. But he doesn't understand God as well as he thinks, because it's very clear to me, throughout scripture, that God is obsessed with saving sinners and he is compelled to forgive everyone who repents. You could say God is obsessive compulsive. Now you know about that, right? You've heard those labels before. Obsessive compulsive behavior disorder. It's a modern diagnosis of a behavior problem where people have the inability to control certain behaviors, like washing their hands or combing their hair or worrying about things or checking to make sure the doors are locked or controlling every aspect of their environment. Now we all struggle with that to some point, but obsessive compulsive behavior disorder takes it way beyond where you and I go. And it's something for us to be compassionate about and concerned about. But what I'm telling you tonight is God is obsessive compulsive in a wonderful, loving, and compassionate way. He's obsessed with saving sinners, and He's compelled to forgive everyone who repents. Ezekiel 18:32 says, “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live.” Isn't that an awesome verse? 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. He's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.” God is obsessed with saving sinners, and He is compelled to forgive everyone who repents.

In spite of this, Jonah is angry. But God's love does not die with Jonah's anger. God's love survives, because God is the ultimate survivor. And even when we are stubborn, even when Jonah is stubborn and he persists in his sin, God continues to reach out. God continues to try to teach and shape and mold our hearts and minds to be more and more like the heart and mind of He who died for us. God works through the people and the things around us to teach us. It reminds me of those great basketball coaches. You know the ones. It doesn't matter if the game is out of hand in a loss or a blow-out victory, the coach is still teaching and he will not permit his players to disobey his structured offense or defense. He'll call a time out and he'll reprimand those players if they need to be taught something. Great coaches teach all the time, and they never miss an opportunity to explain something and to help the players improve. Well, God is our great coach. And even when we're stubborn and turning away from Him and angry and rebelling, He continues to work with us and teach us and shape us and mold us.

Look what He did with Jonah. After the city repented, Jonah went up on a hillside to watch and see what would happen. He's hoping those people are going to get what they deserve, but he's kind of disappointed because nothing happens. God decides to teach Jonah through his surrounding environment. It says, “God provided a plant.” And I think it was this castor oil plant that grows really fast and has huge leaves and it grew up, it says in the bible, overnight. And the next day, it was beautiful shade for Jonah. And then God provided a worm. Can you imagine? God provided a worm? He provided a worm to serve His purpose in teaching His servant, Jonah. That worm destroyed the plant and the plant withered, no longer providing shade for Jonah. Then God provided a scorching wind. Isn't it interesting what God provides? Good things and maybe things that aren't so good, all because He's obsessed with saving sinners and compelled to forgive all who repent.

So the vine is gone, and Jonah's miserable. In fact, it says, “He wanted to die.” And then God teaches. He says, “Do you have any right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” says Jonah. “I am angry enough to die.” Oh. Have you ever been that angry? Well, I, like you, go through anger, ups and downs, and I think there are times when I am just stewing with my angry thoughts, “Oh, that, I better bite my tongue. I better not say what I'm thinking.” And I think that's just about where Jonah is. “I'm angry enough to die.” And God makes His point. He said, “You are concerned about this little plant that grew up in one night and died the next day. You didn't do anything to make it grow. Why do you care about it? It only lived a short while. Why are you angry about it? Can't you understand now why I am concerned about Nineveh ?” Why is God compassionate for Nineveh ? In Nineveh , there are 120,000 people who need desperately to have a relationship with God. 120,000 people. The scripture describes it this way, “They don't know their right hand from their left hand.” Not that they're stupid, but they've never been taught about God, the most basic and elementary lessons about His love and forgiveness, His ways of living, which are the best ways. God says, “There are 120,000 people there and many cattle, too.” One translation said, “Cattle galore.” I think we get the point. There is a lot of life in Nineveh , and God considers it all precious. He's trying to drive home that point with Jonah.

Isn't that what He does with us? Even when we're stubborn and persist in our sin, God is reaching out to us. God is teaching our heart. God is working through the people and the things around us and the good events and the bad events to show us the best things, the most important things He gives to us. 1 Corinthians 10:6 says, “Now these things occurred as examples to teach us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” And what is the final result of God's teaching Jonah? What is He aiming at? What is His goal by providing that vine, letting it die, and letting it get sunburned and be miserable? What is God's objective in teaching Jonah and in teaching us? 2 Corinthians 5:17-20, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them, and He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God.”

God's love survives because He is obsessed with saving sinners and compelled to forgive everyone who repents. This is the objective of all His teaching. That, through us, God wants all the world to know of His obsession to save them and all He's done to save them and that every sinner who repents is forgiven. May His obsession become yours. Amen? Amen.