For the Love of the Lost

April 22, 2018

The grace of God is powerful enough to save anyone. The heart of God is compassionate enough to want to. In the third part of our series on Jonah, Ben Stuart invites us to understand better what the heart of God is like. God never counts people out. In compassion, He moves toward the hurting. He dives into the depths and rescues the lost, and He doesn’t stop there! He uses our pain as a platform to invite us into His rescue mission. God used Jonah’s biggest embarrassment for his biggest ministry, and He can do the same with us. We don’t have to have mountains of wisdom; we just have to need God to share how His grace met us in our mess.

Key Takeaway

You never know how close someone is to coming to know and trust God. Be faithful; God uses messed up people to reach messed up people.

God came to rescue you and when you're rescued, He asks you to join in.

What we often see as "part of the problem" is what God actually knows the future of and sees as an instrument of grace. He loves to restore and redeem.

God repeats the exact same thing in Jonah 3:2 that He said in Jonah 1:2. God gives second chances. He finally had Jonah's unreserved "yes". Two things get your unreserved "yes". Whoever is your personal authority and whoever you love... get your unreserved "yes". Jonah saw God's Authority of the wind and the waves. The things that terrify you are nothing in the hands of God. He saw God's love, when he was sinking in his own consequences, God reached for him and pulled him out. If God doesn't have your unreserved "yes" in life it may be because you don't respect His authority or maybe you don't rest in His love.

Psalm 119:67 says "Before I was afflicted, I went astray". God is trying to love and guide us to abundant life and we resist. He is letting some of us run and try and get our own way. He will allow affliction so we return to the goodness He has for us.

Nineveh was a capital city with power. There was sweeping brokenness, but it was most known for its violence. Nahum called it the "city of blood" because of its cruelty. It was also an exceedingly arrogant city. So why does God send Jonah to such a terrible people? Because God loves messed up people and delights in rescuing the lost. He cares for the shameful. His heart breaks for the broken.

God will send you to Nineveh. That doesn't mean he is going to send you to the place of your greatest temptation. Don't get that mixed up, but He will send you to the place of greatest need that you will be effective in.

Jonah comes in strong. Gives an 8-word sermon. When God announces judgment it is because judgment is the last thing He wants to do. See Ezekiel 33:11, God wants the wicked to turn to Him and live. The Ninevites heard and believed. They completely repented.

The irony is that Jonah, the man of God, needed a storm and a fish to follow God: the Ninevites needed 8 words. It's meant to shame us, the ones we think that those the furthest from God are actually the most open to His Word. Those of us who have taken it for granted are quick to dismiss Him. You have no idea what is going on in someone's life and how God might use your 8 words in it.

Some think that because the city and the king repented this is a made-up story. How could a ruthless people so quickly repent and believe? They were actually ripe to hear from the Lord because in the years prior they had two plagues take over as well as an eclipse that caught their attention. They also worship a god that was half man/half fish, so it probably meant something to them that a man of God was vomited up by a fish. It did not take a lot of convincing.

What's crazy about this story is that God makes Jonah's biggest embarrassment his biggest source of ministry. Your pain is your biggest platform. The fact that Jonah came out of a fish gave him credibility with those who were worshiping fish.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 says that God uses foolish things to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong, to call things that are not as though they were so that no one can boast. It is all God's doing and He's ready to rescue.

“

"The grace of God is powerful enough to save anybody and the heart of God is compassionate enough to want to. No one is too far gone. God loves messed up people."

”

Ben Stuart

Discussion Questions

If God is asking you to join in and go to your Nineveh, where is that place and are you willing?
What is so beautiful about Jonah 1:2 and Jonah 3:2? What does this tell you about God?
Who has your unreserved "yes"? Who is your authority and who do you love?
Explain how Psalm 119:67 is visible in Jonah's story. Does this verse apply to your own life?
What was Nineveh most known for? Why would God send Jonah there?
Jonah's message to the Ninevites was short and to the point. Why does God announce His judgment instead of just striking? See Exekiel 33:11
What three things happened that might have prepared the Ninevites to be ready to hear from God?
Has God used one of your greatest embarrassments in life to be the source of ministry for you?
God uses messed up people to reach messed up people. How does 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 emphasize this?
Ben shared many stories of God moving into people's lives that he would have never expected. Have you seen this in your own life or the life of your church?

Scripture References

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

1Then 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.”

3Jonah obeyed the word of the

Lord

and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

10When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

4I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Church Divided Over Leaders

10I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom

18For 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. 19For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

20Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

26Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Ben Stuart

Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.