We began this series on revival with 1 Peter
4:17 ~ For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with
God's household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits
those who have never obeyed God's Good News?
We began by defining sin
& the purpose for which God’s law was given. We acknowledged that all have sinned &
fallen short of the glory of God. [Romans 3:23] Redemption from our sin was the
purpose for which God sent His only begotten son; He loved the world that much. We then looked @
the reason for the Holy Spirit & His purpose for coming into the world, His
role in the life of the unbeliever & His role in the life of the believer.
This brings us to our
study of the first great revival recorded in the bible. As judgement begins
with the household of God, so too does revival for we must acknowledge our sin
when it comes to our unbelieving neighbours before we can move into our
rightful position of helping the Holy Spirit bring in God’s harvest. If nothing
else motivates us to share the gospel of Christ surely this should: what
terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's Good News?
We don’t like to think
about hell & there are plenty of people, good people, even Christian
people, who will tell you there is no such place, that a loving God would never
condemn His creation to an eternity in a place of torture. Scripture teaches otherwise. I will give you
3 references though there are plenty of others.
·
The wicked go down to the realm of the dead, all the nations that forget
God. Psalm 9:17
· But the cowardly, the
unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice
magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery
lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:8
· They will be punished
with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and
from the glory of his might
2 Thessalonians 1:9
God did not create Hell for mankind but for the fallen angels
[Matthew 25:41] However those who choose to give their allegiance to satan will
find themselves there by their own choice & despite what the songs say
there is no partying in hell. It is a place of torment & gnashing of teeth.
We were created by God to reflect His image & enjoy Him forever but those
who choose satan & this world neither reflect God’s image nor can they
enjoy His presence, therefore they cannot abide in the presence of God.
So come with me to one of the minor prophets: Jonah. I love
Jonah. He so reminds me of God’s people!
Here is this man of God ~ & let’s be clear; he was a man of God. He came
from Gath~Hepher, a few miles north of Nazareth, so he was a Galilean like our
Lord Jesus, a country bumpkin, like our Lord, & he came from a region, as
we have discussed before, that was passionate in its allegiance to God’s Torah.
He was a Torah observant Israelite & he lived @ a time when the byword for
immorality & cruelty was Assyria. Jonah didn’t have much time for the
Assyrians.
Already he is more like us than is comfortable. He was doing the right things according to
the Torah ~ & he was self~righteous because of it. This is true of many
Christians. We do the right things, live
moral lives ~ & become self~righteous because of it!
He was passionate, as
many Christians are, but like us He forgot that God’s love is not limited to
those who obey Him because God wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth [1 Timothy 2:4]
I want to deviate briefly here because so many of us have
the wrong idea about what love is because biblically speaking love is not about
how you feel about someone or who you have sex with. It is about who you are prepared to die for. There
is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. [John
15:13] That is how God showed His love for us [John 3:16] For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so
that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Hebrews 10:2 says But
our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for
all time. Then he sat down in the place of honour at God's right hand. That sacrifice can be
claimed by anyone but there is a proviso in Hebrews 10:26: Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have
received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will
cover these sins.
So let us not be confused.
On our salvation we receive the Holy Spirit & He sheds the love of
God abroad in our hearts [Romans 5:5] but this is not a snuggly, cuddly,
woozy~doozy feeling but a robust call to the action of self~sacrifice where we
become willing to be seen as fools for Christ’s sake in order to share the Good
News For the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God. [1 Corinthians 1:18]
It is here the gospel becomes a stumbling block for so many
Christians, just as it did for Jonah. Jonah knew the truth. He understood God’s
requirements. He knew the voice of God
but when push came to shove his reaction was:
They don’t deserve it!
And he was right!
They didn’t! The people of Ninevah were bloodthirsty Assyrians. They invented & practised the most
barbaric of cruelties. They were hated
& feared by every nation they had contact with. They were idolaters ~ they were the worst of
the worst. Going to Ninevah, warning them, was obviously not Jonah’s idea of
justice.
Jonah 1:1 The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: There was no confusion. Jonah
was a prophet of the Lord. He got the
message ["Arise,
go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come
up before Me."… 2]; He
understood the message ~ & he didn’t think much of it. In fact he thought
so little of it he got up & headed as far in the opposite direction as it
was possible to go!
There is no confusion in the New Testament either: Matthew
28:19~20 “Therefore, go and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I
have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of
the age.”
As Jonah ran so has most of the church. Somehow we have got hold of the mistaken idea
that this command was only for the select few.
It is not. It is for every
disciple of Jesus Christ. Somehow we
think it refers to missionaries who go into foreign countries. It does not. It refers to every nation, every
state, every suburb, every street, every household. Their blood is on our
hands. Ezekiel 3:18 says If I warn the
wicked, saying, 'You are under the penalty of death,' but you fail to deliver
the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for
their deaths.
We know the truth; why are we so reluctant to
share it?
One reason, though not the only reason, is
very much like Jonah’s: We believe sinners deserve what they get! We don’t care
that they are perishing. We don’t want God to care. We don’t want them to repent
[It would make us look foolish for saying God was about to destroy them, just
as Jonah felt] Ultimately this is an issue of the heart & Jonah reveals the
hardness of his heart when he admits: This is why I ran away from Tarshish, I know that you are a
merciful & compassionate God, slow to get angry & filled with unfailing
love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. [4:2]
Where is your Ninevah?
· It is the people who make you uncomfortable
· Ninevah is the place God calls you where you don’t want to
go.
· It is the people that God tells you to Go & give them my message that you don’t want to speak to.
· Ninevah is those that God loves deeply, that He died for
just as He died for you, whom you do not care for.
· Ninevah is the crossroads of obedience & choice.
When it comes to sharing the gospel
every believer has a choice, just as Jonah had a choice. Jonah ran & he
went down! He went down to Joppa, down into the hold of the ship, down into the
sea & finally down into the belly of the great fish. The further he ran the
further down he went ~ & God let him run! Be warned. Satan will always supply *a ship to Tarshish*
when we are disobedient. We can probably
even convince ourselves God supplied the ship but it will do us no good.
Here is the first great challenge for
every Christian: Are you willing to go to Tarshish?
Romans 2:4 says this: Or do you presume on the riches of his
kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant
to lead you to repentance?
We often speak lightly
of the Grace of God but we need to understand grace does not sit in the
heavenlies, far away & out of the reach of men. Grace came down to earth. Grace walked amongst sinners. Grace did not partake of those sins. Grace did not condone those sins but God showed his great love for us by sending
Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
As God’s grace reached
down & plucked us out of satan’s hand so too does he desire to save
others. We have been given a huge responsibility;
a great privilege, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved.
But how can they call on him to save them
unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never
heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? Romans 10:14
Jesus paid the same
price for others that He paid for you & me.
He shed His blood upon the cross. As we look further @ the story of
Jonah next time we will find some principles for sharing our faith under the
power & anointing of the Holy Spirit.
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