Introduction

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In the movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople … a young orphan is taken in by a lovely old lady and her cranky husband … played by Sam Neil.  Sadly the lady dies early on … and at the funeral … the preacher … played by Taika Waititi … gives what can only be described as a bizarre sermon.  He says; ‘You know sometimes in life, it seems like there’s no way out.  You’re like a sheep trapped in a maze … designed by wolves.  And you know if you’re ever in that situation … there are always 2 doors to choose from.  And the first door … woah, it’s easy to get through that door.  And on the other side … all the nummiest treats you can imagine.  Fanta … Doritos … burger rings … Coke zero.  But then there’s another door … NOT the Fanta door … that’s harder to get through.  Does anyone want to guess what’s on the other side of THAT door?  And the orphan says ‘vegetables’.  And Taika says ‘no … not vegetables’.  Then a lady up the back says ‘Jesus’.  And he says ‘you would THINK Jesus.  I thought Jesus the first time I came across that door.  But it’s not.  It’s another door.  And do you know what’s behind that door?  And the same lady says ‘Jesus’.  And he says ‘Jesus … yeah, Jesus’.  He’s trickly like that Jesus.  So let us pray to Jesus … that he would make it easier to get through those doors … and to find Him … and his delicious bounty of confectionary.’  And that’s the sermon.

It’s funny … because it’s so bizarre.  Yet as bad as it is … it’s not the worst sermon ever preached.  That honour goes to the prophet Jonah.  In our passage today Jonah is called a SECOND time to go to Nineveh … and preach God’s message to them.  The PROBLEM was … Nineveh was Israel’s MAIN threat at that time.  They were the very first nation to ever attempt world domination … and about 50 years AFTER the events of the book of Jonah … they ended up wiping Jonah’s country out.  They were exceedingly wicked.  Historical evidence tells us the Ninevites would cut off the ears and noses of captured enemies … to mark and maim them for life.  They tortured others by gouging out their eyes … engaged in child sacrifice … and would pile up dismembered bodies at the gates of the cities they conquered.  They were exceedingly wicked.

So God sends Jonah to go preach God’s word to them.  And Jonah does a terrible job.  In the original Hebrew … his sermon is only 5 words long:

Jonah 3:4 (BMV) … ‘Forty more days … Nineveh overturned’

Yet even though it’s the worst sermon in human history … it turns out to be the most successful sermon in human history.  We’re told:

Jonah 3:5 (NIV) The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

The Apostle Peter … the Apostle Paul … Billy Graham have nothing on this sermon.  They never gave a sermon that won over EVERYONE.  Jonah captured an entire city … single-handedly.  So our topic for today … is how WE TOO can be a world-changer like Jonah.  What is it that caused this little prophet from Israel to capture an entire city?  Like if we can tap into this … then we TOO can be a world-changer.

And I’ve got 3 points today … as your sermon outline shows … to help us see this.  And they are (i) The type of person God uses … v. 1-2, (ii) The type of message God sends … v. 3-4, and (iii) The type of response God wants … v. 5-10.  So let’s dive in … and see how WE can be world-changers … just like Jonah.

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The type of person God uses (v. 1-2)

 

And our passage begins with these words:

Jonah 3:1-2 (NV) 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.”

Now … a quick recap … for those who may have missed the last 2 weeks.  WHEN the word of the Lord came to Jonah the FIRST time … in chapter 1 … Jonah responded by going in the exact opposite direction to Nineveh.  And the REASON he did that … is because he didn’t want to help the exceedingly wicked people of Nineveh.  As we learn in Jonah chapter 4 … IF the Ninevites were to repent … Jonah KNEW God would relent.  And that would mean Jonah helped these most wicked of enemies … which he simply cannot abide.  So he runs from the Lord … Jonah 1:3.  The REST of Jonah chapter 1 and 2 is taken up with God chasing after Jonah.

And this is what’s so weird about Jonah chapter 3.  It makes ZERO sense for God to give Jonah a second chance here.  Like if you have an army officer … who is given direct orders to take his men THIS way … and that officer rejects that order and instead takes his men THAT way … what do you do with that officer?  You court Marshall him and give him a dishonourable discharge.  What you DON’T do … is give him another command.  Yet that’s what God does.  He actually has a funny habit of giving people a second chance.  Take the Apostle Peter for example.  Apart from Judas … Peter had the worst track record when it came to Jesus’ crucifixion … denying he even knew Jesus 3 times.  Yet it is Peter that Jesus chose to be the leader of the early church.

One preacher calls this ‘The Jonah Principle’.  And the Jonah principle says it is FAILURE that makes you useful.  OK … if you ever say to God ‘I’m ready for service Lord’ … the FIRST thing God does is he puts you in boot camp … he puts you through suffering.  And the reason he does so … is to humble you.  The principle behind army boot camp is to beat every soldier down … so as to build them up stronger.  Only those who have really struggled … and really failed … are humble enough to not look down on others.  The reason Scrooge became a world changer … was he was humbled by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.  You cannot be a world changer … like Jonah in chapter 3 … until you’ve been humbled … like Jonah in chapter 1.

So if you think ‘I’m too weak … too unskilled … too unintellectual … too sinful … too much of a failure for God to use to change the world … then think again.  When the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign … to show he was the Messiah … he said ‘no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah’.  What he meant was … it is through my weakness and death that you will see my power.  And this is how it works with ALL Christians.  If you KNOW you’re weak … then God can use you powerfully.  If you think you’re strong … then God will have limited use for you.

But there might be OTHERS here today … who have no INTENTION of saying ‘reporting for duty’ to God.  The reason being … you’re too busy looking after yourself … to help God change the world.  The problem with seeing nothing as bigger than myself … is you start to feel small.  The problem with putting yourself FIRST … is you automatically start to feel like you’re last.  And do you know WHY?  Because you’re not making a difference to anyone.  If you die … no one will care.  Humans are built for something bigger than ourselves.  It’s why the youth in the 60s were all about taking down the military industrial complex.  And it’s why the youth today are all about saving the environment … or stopping the war in Israel.  If we’re not living for something greater than ourselves … then our very soul begins to shrivel up.

So my prayer is we ALL want to live for something bigger than ourselves.  And if we do want to be a world-changer … like Jonah in chapter 3 … then remember the type of person God uses is not the strong … not the self-reliant … and certainly not the self-absorbed.  He uses the weak and the humble.

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The type of message God sends (v. 3-4)

 

So … we know WHY God uses Jonah.  He’s weak enough.  The next question is … HOW does God use Jonah?  Well … he doesn’t let him sit around for long.  Notice God doesn’t say to Jonah; ‘boy … it must have been very difficult down there in the gastrointestinal tract of that great fish.  Why don’t you take a week or two off’.  No.  WHILE Jonah is still covered in vomit … or should I say IS vomit.  Not many people can make THAT claim to fame; ‘I was vomit’.  While he’s sitting on the beach … AS fish vomit … God says ‘go’.  And this time … Jonah submits to God’s calling and goes … v. 3.  Then we read this:

Jonah 3:4 (NIV) Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days […] Nineveh […] overthrown.”

Now Jonah didn’t just stand on a soap box in the town square and quote that line once.  V. 3 suggests he needed to preach for 3 days to ensure ALL of Nineveh heard his message.  Now perhaps all his sermons were just 5 words long.  Or perhaps this is a summary of his overall preaching.  But either way … this is what Jonah told them.  ‘Forty more days … Nineveh overturned’.  Not a good sermon.  But it’s effective.  And PART of the reason this sermon is so effective … is because it has something modern day Christian sermons don’t.

In Bible study this week … the intro question was ‘how would you preach the gospel to someone in 2-3 sentences?’  And for a bit of fun … OUR group looked up how ChatGPT would preach the gospel.  This is what ChatGPT says:

The Christian gospel centres on the love and grace of God, who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem humanity from sin and offer eternal life. Through faith in Jesus, we can experience forgiveness, hope, and a restored relationship with God. This message invites everyone to accept His gift of grace and live in the light of His love.

Overall … not bad.  It mentions grace.  It mentions Jesus.  It mentions forgiveness and eternal life.  And it mentions a relationship with God.  But there’s one thing it doesn’t mention.  And what’s frightening about this … is that ChatGPT is ARTIFICIAL intelligence.  Its information … is a summary of what’s on the internet … right.  And so if ChatGPT is leaving something out of the gospel of Jesus Christ … that’s because the modern church is leaving something out of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And the thing that is often missing from modern gospel preaching … is repentance.

Now the phrase ‘repent’ is a jargon word … a Christian jargon word.  But if you ever want to figure out what it means … repent means ‘doing a U-turn’.  It means to cease going in the WRONG direction … away from God … and start going in the RIGHT direction … following God.  Now granted … the word ‘repent’ is not one of Jonah’s 5 words.  He does such a bad job … that he doesn’t even tell the Ninevites there’s an opportunity TO repent.  But even though the word ‘repent’ is missing from Jonah’s sermon … ‘repentance’ is THEME of Jonah’s sermon.  He is saying ‘you people are SO wicked … that God has no choice but to destroy you … like he did Sodom and Gomorrah’.  And guess what the Ninevites do.  They repent:

Jonah 3:8-9 (NIV) But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

Repentance is not just saying sorry … though it’s not LESS than that.  Repentance is a complete life-change.  And this is what the Ninevites have done.  They haven’t just said sorry and given up their violence.  They’ve turned to God.  They’re calling out urgently to God.  And this is why repentance is MANDATORY when preaching the gospel.  OK … people will not CARE about ‘the love and grace of God’ … that ChatGPT focusses on … they will not CARE about ‘forgiveness, hope and a restored relationship with God’ … that ChatGPT focusses on … until they realise they NEED those things.  You see contrary to what we like to believe as humans … we are NOT primarily logical beings.  We are emotional beings.  That means most people are not convinced by logical arguments.  We’re convinced … when we see the need.  This is why most people don’t give up smoking … or eating junk food until a heart attack tells them they need to?  Humans don’t care about ANYTHING … unless it is something we need.

And this is why Jonah’s sermon … as bad as it is … is STREETS ahead of ChatGPT’s.  ChatGPT gives us the logical facts about a God of love.  Jonah’s sermon tells us our NEED for a God of compassion.  So if you want to change the world like Jonah in chapter 3 … Step 1 is … ‘be ready for service’ … BUT … understand God will likely humble you to GET you ready for service.  Step 2 … is understand the only way non-believers are going to turn to God … is if they feel they NEED to.  And the only way they will see that need … is to hear the call to repent … or they too will one day be overturned.

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The type of response God wants (v. 5-10)

 

So … we’ve seen what type of PERSON God uses to change the world.  He uses the humble person … the weak person … the failure.  And we’ve seen the type of MESSAGE God uses to change the world.  Repent.  Stop rebelling against me and instead call out TO me.  The final question is … what does God WANT from all this?  Well there are 2 things I want to share with you by way of response.  The first is for non-Christians … the second is for Christians.

So firstly … if you don’t yet call yourself a Christian … you MAY be thinking to yourself ‘gosh … I wasn’t REALLY looking for fire and brimstone today … thank you very much Brendan.  Like can we … can we go back to the door with the Fanta and the Doritos please?’  And to THAT I would say … that door doesn’t change the world.  What changes the world … and what is most likely to change YOU … is hearing about what you NEED.

The problem is … most people don’t realise they need to repent.  And that’s because most people don’t realise repentance is not just saying sorry for the bad things we might have done … though it DOES include that.  Repentance is admitting we’ve been running our life OUR way.  And the way we know we’ve been running our life OUR way … is whether we obey God’s word or not.  Now you might say ‘well … I OBEY some of God’s word.  I don’t murder … I don’t commit adultery … I don’t steal’.  But if we only obey SOME of God’s word … then we’re not doing that because GOD says so.  You’re doing it because WE think it’s the right way to live.  Obeying SOME of God’s word is STILL running our life our way.  The only way to know we’re obeying God’s word … is if we’re obeying the commands that look dumb … like ‘turn the other cheek’ … or ‘love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you.’

So if we’re not eagerly studying God’s word … to find out how HE wants us to live … then we’re living our life OUR way.  And the problem with living this life OUR way … is that when we die … God is going to give us an ETERNITY of living our way.  That’s what Hell is.  It’s the place where everyone lives their way.  It’s an eternity of anarchy.  And there’s only one way to avoid eternal anarchy.    And that is to repent.  To do a U-Turn … and start running our life God’s way.

Now the DIFFERENCE between the Ninevites repenting and US repenting … is we can be certain God will relent.  Have another look at v. 9.  The Ninevites said:

Jonah 3:9 (NIV) Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

Those who live this side of the cross don’t have to say ‘who knows’ anymore … when it comes to God’s compassion.  The reason being that Jesus has taken the punishment for our rebellion.  What that means is … WHEN we stand before God on Judgment Day … IF we have a relationship with Jesus … Jesus acts as our advocate … our defence attorney.  And when God says ‘what about all these bad things you did’ … Jesus will say ‘Your honour … Father … I’ve already paid for those bad things … at the cross.  So you CAN’T punish this person … because that would be handing out 2 sentences for the 1 crime … which is not justice.’  The Bible says if you repent … and give your life to Jesus … live your life the way God the Son tells us to live … then we go to eternal paradise after death … rather than eternal anarchy.

That’s the FIRST response God wants.  The SECOND is to those who have already done that … already repented.  The second response is … God wants you to be a world-changer.  And there are 2 things that stop us from being so:

The first is not being the type of person God likes to use.  He uses people who are ready to serve … ready to get out of their comfort zone.  So in what ways are you moving out of your comfort zone?

• Are you ready to be sent to boot camp?

• Are you allowing your suffering to BUILD your faith?

• Are you inviting non-Christians to church?

• Are you talking to people about Jesus?

• Are you serving GOD with your time, energy and money?  Or are you too busy serving yourself?

In what ways are you moving out of your comfort zone … to serve God?  That’s who he uses.

The second thing that stops us from being a world-changer is the type of message we preach.  Are we letting our fear of rejection stop us from calling people to repent?  Or do we have faith in the power of God to bring people to repentance?  The REAL miracle in the book of Jonah isn’t the giant fish … it’s an entire city repenting.  But what it shows is God CAN bring people to repentance.

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Conclusion

 

So let us pray to Jesus; not for a delicious bounty of confectionary … but for a miraculous bounty of repentance.  Then let us get out there and preach the type of message God uses to bring repentance.