Quote from Forum Archives on October 26, 2003, 3:21 pm

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

THE RELUCTANT MISSIONARY
October 26, 2003

Text: Jonah 1:1-3

The book of Jonah is one of those places in the Bible that helps confirm
for me that the Bible is from God and is the Word of God. If I were
writing a book about my faith in order to convince others to believe in
my faith, I would not include the account of Jonah. Neither would I
include an account of the closest disciples squabbling over who would be
greatest in the kingdom nor Peter’s outright lies in the courtyard that
he did not know Jesus. I would certainly try to put a better spin on the
differences between Paul and Barnabbas over taking young Mark with them
on another mission journey and their subsequent separation over it. And
how about King David’s sin? Adultery and murder! I wouldn’t want the
world to know about one of my religion’s most faithful servants falling
so far from grace. We’re taught to cover sinful, illegal activities up,
not expose them to everyone who can open a book.

Yet, this is exactly what we find in the Bible. The weaknesses - even the
terrible sins in some cases - of some of God’s greatest servants are laid
bare before all. How brave is that? That’s what God does. You have no
doubt heard someone say that he doesn’t come to church because it’s
filled with hypocrites. Well, such a person certainly does not read a
Bible, either! It usually doesn’t take long in the course of any Bible
narrative to run into a hypocrite. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Jonah, Peter,
Paul, and many others - they all had their not-so-good moments. In every
sense of the word, we can say that they really were human.

We are considering Jonah this morning. The book of Jonah is listed in our
Bible among the books of the prophets. Jonah was a prophet, and he did
what prophets did: he heard the Word of God, and he proclaimed the Word
of God. Pretty straightforward, really. God had raised up many prophets
before Jonah, and He raised up many more after Jonah. The prophets took
God’s Word to their people. In many instances, they had to proclaim God’s
call to repent and the consequences if they failed to repent. They also
spoke God’s promises of blessings and mercies that would be theirs if
they returned to the Lord. The books of the prophets, as collected in our
Bible from Isaiah to Malachi, tells us that this is what they did.

Except Jonah. In no other book of the prophets will we find a beginning
like we find in Jonah: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of
Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because
its wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah ran away from the Lord
and headed for Tarshish.” How would you like a not-to-flattering part of
your life to be captured for all to see for eternity? Maybe if Jonah had
realized that this part of his life would have become a part of God’s
Word for all to see, he would have acted differently.

As the account of Jonah unfolds, it is revealing to discover why Jonah
makes this futile attempt to run away from this responsibility. After
leaving port, a violent storm came upon them. It seems as if nothing the
crew could do would save the ship. Look at chapter 1 verses 8-12: “So
they asked him, ‘Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble?
What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what
people are you?’ He answered, ‘I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the
God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.’ This terrified them and
they asked, ‘What have you done?’ (They knew he was running away from the
LORD, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher
and rougher. So they asked him, ‘What should we do to you to make the sea
calm down for us?’ ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea,’ he replied,
‘and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great
storm has come upon you.’”

In the span of these few verses, we discover some insights into the
character of this prophet on the run from God. First, he was honest. He
had been honest with them from the beginning, because he had already told
them that he was running away from the Lord. Later in the narrative,
Jonah will be honest with God. For now, in response to the crew’s
questions, Jonah was open and truthful.

Second, Jonah was compassionate. He was not of the mind that “if I have
to go, then I’m taking everybody down with me.” Jonah did not want to see
these others pay with their lives for his mistake.

Third, Jonah was courageous. “Pick me up and throw me into the sea.”
Jonah knew that he would not survive the wild sea, yet he did not
hesitate to accept this route of action. He was willing to sacrifice his
life so the others could survive. Jonah’s concept of survivor was very
different than that portrayed on the “Survivor” shows today; he voted
himself off the island.

Yet, in spite of these admirable personality characteristics, Jonah still
ran from God. What was his motive for such an act of disobedience? For
that answer, turn to chapter 3 verse 10 through 4:3. By this time, Jonah
has reluctantly done his duty. He has warned Nineveh of pending
destruction. An amazing thing happened. The Ninevites repented! In that
moment, they turned to God. “When God saw what they did and how they
turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon
them the destruction he had threatened. But Jonah was greatly displeased
and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord, is this not what I said
when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish.
I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and
abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD,
take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.’”

As I said before, Jonah was honest. He didn’t pull any punches with God,
either. Jonah did not celebrate God’s spiritual victory over Nineveh.
Jonah was displeased and even angry! Jonah attempted to run from God
because he knew that the compassion of God would prevail! But why was
that so bad?

Nineveh was part of Israel’s enemies. And not just any enemy; they were
particularly cruel. The cruelties of the people of those times and
regions are well documented in secular history. Nineveh represented a
people who would utterly crush the Israelites, if given the chance.
Indeed, later in their history, they were part of an invasion force that
rampaged into and throughout Israel. To see God devastate Nineveh would
have pleased Jonah tremendously. Not necessarily because he sought to see
the enemies ravaged and rendered helpless. There is no way of knowing how
much of that type of attitude Jonah may have carried. It could have
easily been because Jonah had a sense of all the suffering that awaited
Israel if Nineveh was allowed to escape God’s divine judgment. Jonah very
easily could have had the concern for his people at the forefront of his
decision to run from God. We will never know. Indeed, had Nineveh
remained unrepentant and been destroyed, perhaps today’s crises in the
Middle East would not exist. We will never know.

What we do know is that God was as compassionate toward both Israel and
Israel’s enemies as he is toward his people today. Through the sacrifice
of Jesus, we know beyond any doubt to what extreme God will go to bring
about salvation and to stave off the destruction of His righteous
judgment. The good news along with that good news is that we have men and
women among us today who are not reluctant missionaries at all. To the
contrary, we are a people with a spiritual heritage of taking the Gospel
to all people regardless of their status as friend or foe. Christianity
spread throughout Europe because men and women of faith walked into enemy
pagan tribes and kingdoms to witness about Jesus Christ. Christianity
spreads throughout closed societies today, such as China, because those
men and women of faith witness even to the enemies of God.

We have men and women throughout American Baptist Churches who respond to
God’s call to mission work with cries of “Here I am Lord, send me!”
Unlike Jonah, they do not flee from the Lord. One such servant is
Katherine Welch, a missionary serving in Thailand. I had the privilege of
seeing Kathy commissioned a few years ago at an annual meeting of the
American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky. Kathy had just
completed her education as a medical doctor. Instead of seeking a
practice in the United States, which would no doubt be fulfilling and
financially rewarding, she has chosen to serve on the mission field in a
much more challenging, inhospitable environment.

Kathy's primary ministry is serving as a physician at the Kwai River
Christian Hospital (KRCH), a 25-bed hospital near the Thailand-Burma
(Myanmar) border in West Central Thailand. This hospital serves the
medical and surgical needs of the local population, legal and illegal
immigrants, and refugees from Myanmar. KRCH also offers a public health
program involving antenatal care, an infant/preschool clinic and a
tuberculosis and malaria program, and other community health projects.
The most profound negative impact on health in this area comes from the
political oppression in Myanmar. People flee to escape rape, torture,
murder and the destruction of their villages. The hospital also provides
an ongoing evangelistic and discipleship ministry in the local community.

Writes Kathy in June, 2003, “One of the best parts about being a doctor
is the patient. The patient may be someone you are seeing for the very
first time, or someone you have come to know over the months and years.
Some have serious problems; others only want reassurance that their
symptoms are not due to an incurable disease. The patient may be young or
old, man or woman, rich or poor. It doesn't matter. They all want the
same thing in the end: someone who cares.

Sometimes the most interesting characteristic about a patient has nothing
to do with why they are there to see me. Piaw is a 50-something year old
Thai gentleman who came to consult me about his headaches. I noticed that
his hands were deformed and that he had some large scars. I asked him
about what happened. His eyes lit up as he told me the whole story of how
he survived a tiger attack in the jungle 30+ years ago! Wow! I had never
met someone who was attacked by a tiger - let alone live!

Another woman came from about 1.5 hours away to see me about some vague
symptoms. Several other doctors had been unable to help her. I thought
they may be stress-related so I began to ask her about what was going on
at home or work. She began to tell me some details about her family and
began to cry. She added that no doctor has ever inquired about those
kinds of things or seemed interested in her problems. I was able to share
that not only me, but Jesus, the one true God is interested and loves her
very much. I explained that our physical problems are often related to
problems in our heart. I shared some more with her and gave her the book
of John to read on her own, and made a follow-up appointment in a couple
weeks…

Christian care is not to be taken for granted. It is something that is
not found in a great deal of the world. There is something inherently
compassionate about the way a health professional trained in a
Judeo-Christian background cares for a patient compared to many who
haven't been. Please continue to pray for the patients in general that
they may understand and know the true love of Jesus. Pray also for the
Christian staff, that we may not be too busy to take time to share with
someone who desperately needs to hear the good news.” (Kathy Welch,
www.internationalministries.org)

I began this sermon by reflecting that if I were writing a documentation
of the faith to convince others to be followers, I would want to leave
some of our “low-lights” out. I’m glad God left His book of Jonah in. He
tells me that His willingness to be compassionate exceeds anything my
imagination can conjure. It tells me that there is not anyone very far
from the love of God. A willing heart that accepts His invitation to
salvation is all it takes. Imagine. If God can turn from His fierce anger
toward a cruel people like those in Nineveh and receive them with
compassion, how much more will His divine love become real in the life of
one man or woman, boy or girl who receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and
personal Savior? Although a reluctant missionary, Jonah teaches us that
God’s compassion overcomes any boundary we place before Him. Thank God
for His willing missionaries and His willing people of faith who support
their work to bring the Gospel to every land.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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