Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Old Testament, which was read earlier.<\/p>\n
One of the first words a child learns is one that will stick with them throughout all of their life, a word more important than \u201cmama\u201d or \u201cdada.\u201d That word is \u201cno.\u201d And once they learn that word, they love to use it at every opportunity they can. As we get older, that word becomes ingrained in our everyday vocabulary, because we too like to use that word as much as we can. For the prophet Jonah, saying no was no different.<\/p>\n
We all know the account of Jonah. To refresh your memory, God calls upon Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and deliver a message of repentance to them. Jonah felt that they were not worthy of God\u2019s graciousness and so he refused. In order to get away from God, Jonah jumped into a boat that was heading the opposite direction, as if Jonah could really escape God. God sends a storm that threatens to destroy the boat he is on and so Jonah requests that the crew throw him overboard. The crew refuses to throw him overboard, knowing full well that he will drown. As the storm grew worse, the crew relented and threw Jonah overboard, but instead of drowning, he is swallowed by a big fish and kept alive in the fish\u2019s belly for three days until he is spat out onto the shore. And that brings us to our Old Testament reading for today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, \u201cArise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.\u201d<\/em> So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.\u201d<\/em><\/span> This time, Jonah was not about to take any chances. Even if he doesn\u2019t feel that the people of Nineveh are worthy of God\u2019s graciousness, he is going to go to Nineveh regardless of his personal feelings. He still doesn\u2019t like the idea of going, he still doesn\u2019t like the people, but he goes anyways because this is what God has commanded of him.<\/p>\n After everything that had happened to Jonah, it would be hard for him to say no a second time, and yet he still doesn\u2019t have anything good to say about the Ninevites. He goes to Nineveh and declares God\u2019s message: \u201cYet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!\u201d<\/em><\/span> This time, Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh, to be God\u2019s mouth in that city. This same word was used when God promised to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and God followed through with His threat of punishment for the unrepentant. That\u2019s the same thing that Jonah wanted for Nineveh, for God to wipe them out as He had done earlier.<\/p>\n The Lord was calling Nineveh to repent. God is a serious God, with serious love and mercy for the repentant. But what do you think? Do you God is being too gracious, or are the billions of unbelievers out there today, or those of us gathered here, really worth His effort?<\/p>\n For as stern as God\u2019s warning is to Nineveh, there\u2019s reason for hope. For if God had decided to destroy the city, just for the fun of it, just because He\u2019s a mean, angry, hateful God just looking for people and cities to destroy, if that\u2019s who God really is, then there would be no real purpose for Him to ever send a preacher with His message. There would be no need for Jonah, no need for me. God detests sin because it kills those whom He loves, His creation. His earnest desire, what He wants most and has moved the ends of the world for, is salvation, salvation for Nineveh, salvation for you.<\/p>\n We are quick to say \u201cno\u201d to God, to think that we don\u2019t need what He has to offer, to think that someone is beyond God\u2019s salvation because of how bad they are. How great it must be, to be so good, to be someone who is so righteous of their own accord that they don\u2019t need what God offers through Jesus Christ! How sad for everyone else who isn\u2019t such a righteous person as this.<\/p>\n Fortunately for us, when we say \u201cno,\u201d God says \u201cyes.\u201d God says yes to us from the very beginning of man\u2019s fall into sin. God says yes to us sinful human beings who don\u2019t deserve His forgiveness. God says yes to us when our self-righteousness says that we don\u2019t need God. Man\u2019s \u201cno\u201d is God\u2019s \u201cyes,\u201d and I am glad that\u2019s the way it is.<\/p>\n Nineveh was spared because the Ninevites repented of their sins. God saw no reason to destroy them any more. When we repent, God sees no need to destroy us any more. We shout from the rooftops, \u201cI, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them.\u201d<\/em><\/span> And God joyfully shouts back to us, \u201cI forgive you all of your sins.\u201d<\/em><\/span> What a wonderful thing to hear! We have God\u2019s promise that all of our sins have been forgiven on account of Jesus Christ. We don\u2019t have to guess and wonder if our sins have really been forgiven or not. We don\u2019t have to guess and wonder if God will follow through with His threat of destroying us or if He will forgive us, for we already know the answer to that question.<\/p>\n God desired to save the wicked people of Nineveh, so He sent His preacher there and He saved. He had compassion and did not bring down the destruction that they deserved. God desires to save you, as well, sending forth preachers still today, preaching a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. With that forgiveness, God spares you from eternal destruction, from hell and it\u2019s torment, it\u2019s absence from God.<\/p>\n As certainly as Jonah was swallowed up into the belly of the fish three days and was delivered, so Jesus was swallowed up by death and in the tomb for three days. His being raised on the third day has brought the kingdom of God now to you. Christ\u2019s great death and resurrection have become the door to life for you through Christ and this He has given to you by His Word, Holy Baptism, and His Supper. Through these gifts, He has had compassion on you, drawing you near unto Him. Here, in His Means of Grace, does He pour out on you comfort and forgiveness in His blood instead of the Father\u2019s wrath and anger. All is made well again, all has been forgiven you because your hearts have been turned and have repented. Death passes over you as you receive everlasting life. In Jesus\u2019 name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Old Testament, which was read earlier. 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