Go and Tell: Jonah, Nineveh, and World Missions | Jonah 3:1-5 | Pastor Mark Griffin (5/1/26)

Good evening, church. Let us stand up for the reading of God's word and remain standing for, to worship the Lord in singing. Let's read from Psalm 67. Psalm 67. To the choir master with stringed instruments, a psalm, a song.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. That your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you oh God, let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you oh God, let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has yielded its increase. God our God shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth fear him. Let us as his church praise him tonight.

Grace that is greater than all our sin. Marvelous infinite, bad, bliss, grace, freely bestow on all who believe grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin.

Yes, Lord. We exalt your name tonight. Your name above all is to be exalted for from you, through you, and to you are all things. Not to us, but to your name be the glory, oh God. Lord, you are the only reason we are here.

God, even though we rejoice in the fellowship and the gathering of the saints, Lord, this is not a social club. This is not a mere book club, but God, we come here tonight to experience your power, Lord. Your love, your mercy toward us and we ask God that as we open your word tonight that we behold wondrous things in your law by your spirit, God. We ask and trust Lord that you will be amongst us in a special way tonight Lord. None of us are here in vain or by accident or by coincidence Lord.

Please bless us tonight with your presence through your word in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, before you sit down, why don't you take a couple minutes and and greet each other in the name of the Lord and welcome them to Friday night bible study. Well, grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord and our savior Jesus Christ. Time, I invite the ushers to come forward as we do every time we gather to worship the Lord in our giving. And it's our opportunity to give back please give as we save towards a new building. We're gonna have to change what we say now because the new building is Maranatha Bible churches as of Monday, 04/27/2026.

So it was a momentous day, it was a joyful day, and the Lord provided for his people. Experience and see and can visit the new building itself. This past week, we've had teams of people just working so diligently to get this building ready. And and over 80 people took up the call to sign up to volunteer to help paint and landscape and clean and move and do whatever it needs to. And it's a joy just so many hands from this church, this body just wanting to contribute and get this building ready.

Stay tuned. We we will announce on Sunday when our first service in the new building will be. But until then, please continue to pray. Pray for the process. Pray that the Lord brings more people who are hungry for his word, transforms lives, impacts many of these men who are going to be hearing that service tomorrow.

Now, if you will turn with me to the book of Jonah, if you have your Bibles. You know, the book of Jonah, as you have seen, is filled with many different themes, glorious themes, wonderful themes, themes like the sovereignty of God or the consequences of sin, themes like judgment and discipline, but also mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness. And besides these themes and many others, Jonah is also a prelude. It's a foretaste of what was to come. Pastor Daniel Bennett talked about it when he talked about Jonah chapter two, how Jonah's time, the three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, was just a a a foretaste, a foreshadowing of the greater Jonah, Jesus Christ, and his resurrection.

And another one of the revelations that we get a glimpse of in the book of Jonah is one that we might even take for granted at times, that it becomes commonplace for us at times. But in reality, this revelation is so glorious. It is it was inconceivable during Jonah's time. And that is the salvation of the Gentiles, what Paul calls the mystery of Christ. You don't have to turn there but in Ephesians chapter three verses four through six, this is what Paul says about this mystery.

He says, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. A glimpse of in the book of Jonah is one that we might even take for granted at times. That it becomes common place for us at at times. But in reality, this revelation is so glorious.

It is it was inconceivable during Jonah's time. And that is the salvation of the Gentiles. What Paul calls the mystery of Christ. You don't have to turn there, but in Ephesians chapter three verses four through six, this is what Paul says about this mystery. He says, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. You see, it was God's plan before the foundation of the world that he was calling. He had chosen people from every tribe, language, nation, and tongues, not just the Jews, but the Greeks, the Gentiles also. So how is Jonah a prelude to this mystery of Christ, this wonder of Christ? Well, see, God had revealed himself to the Jews up until that time.

They were God's chosen people, the Israelites, God's chosen people. And so when God told Jonah, go to the Ninevites, it was almost inconceivable for this man, this prophet of Israel, to think that God had a special message for these pagans, for these heathens. But not just not just unbelievers in a general sense. No. The Assyrians at that time, the people of Nineveh, were enemies of the Jews.

Right? These these were the people who would annihilate the Northern Kingdom Of Israel and take them into exile and scatter them across the known world at that time. So Jews and the Syrians hated one another. To try to picture it in your mind today, think about different ethnicities today. And think about the two that have the most anger and frustration towards one another.

Think about that and you have a glimpse of what it was to be a Jew and the Assyrians. But God had a plan for the people of Nineveh, the Assyrian people. And today, we must remember that God has a plan for every nation, the peoples of all nations who don't know their right hand from their left hand. And just like Jonah in God's providence, he appoints his people, you, me, to go and tell them about him. We all know this verse, Matthew twenty eight nineteen through 20.

Go therefore and make disciples of who? All nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Jonah, go to Nineveh. Christians, go to the world.

And so the need for world missions is indeed great, and it's great and urgent today. Technology doesn't nullify it. Modernization, globalization doesn't cancel out this commissioning from Jesus Christ, our Lord. So tonight, as we look at Jonah chapter three, let us also contemplate our role and our calling to spread the gospel to the whole world. So, Jonah, chapter three, the first five verses.

Let me read them. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city going a day's journey and he called out, He had forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. Let's pray. Father, as we open your word tonight, Lord, may you quiet our hearts. May you fill us with awe and reverence at who you are.

Father, as your instrument tonight, may I I decrease and may you in the hearts and minds of your people, may you increase so they might so they might behold your majesty, your goodness, and your power afresh as we open these words, your words to us tonight. Illuminate our hearts by the power of your spirit, we pray. Not just to understand what we are reading, but to love it and to love you. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

To To help us organize our time tonight, I want to talk about three points from this passage. The call of Jonah, the risk he took, and the message that he spoke. So the call, the risk, and the message. Jonah chapter three verse one says, then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. So in this short verse, what do you see?

God showing his mercy to Jonah. How? Well, first we see Jonah didn't die. He didn't die in the ship. He didn't die in the storm.

He didn't die when he was thrown into the water. And he didn't die when he swallowed up by that great fish. Did he deserve death? Yeah. Absolutely.

This prophet of God, who knew who God is, rebelled against him. He quite literally spit in the face of God. There was no questions on his part. There was no misunderstanding. He knew what God said to do.

And he said, I'm not going to do it. In fact, I'm going to go the opposite way of where you want me to do it. And as we think about Jonah, it's it's easy to to say, what's wrong with you? But last we get on our high horse, we have to remember that it's not just Jonah, it's it's it's me, it's you. Even as believers, we do this.

We we disobey the Lord. Even though we know what he says to do and the delight that he has for us, we disobey and we rebel against him. And do we deserve judgment? Yes. We do.

But God is merciful. And God is gracious in this first verse as we see, not in only not just sparing Jonah's life. No. But giving him a repentant heart. Because repentance is a gift from God.

It's not something that you can just white knuckle and screw up this I I I just screw up your fist and I'm going to repent. No. It is a gift from God because left to ourselves, we would never repent of our sins. Yet God, in his kindness, brings affliction. He brings discipline into our lives as believers because he wants our hearts.

He's not interested in just mere outward obedience or behavior modification. He wants our hearts. Remember that he is not seeking our destruction. He's saying to us, even when we disobey him, come back to me because this is where true joy is found. He will use his rod and his staff to lead us on the paths of righteousness, and that is good for us.

And so even here at the very beginning of this sermon, the very outset, I wanna ask you this question tonight. Is your heart with the Lord? Are you following him, brother and sister? Are you joyfully following him? Or are you rejecting his will?

Are you in active disobedience against him? And if that is you, know this, you might be in a season of affliction and pain and suffering and trials so that the Lord gets your attention and so that the Lord uses that to bring you back to him. So if that's you, don't waste it. Don't waste your affliction tonight. Don't waste your difficult season tonight.

Turn your hearts, submit your heart, humble your heart before the Lord and embrace him all the more. But God's grace doesn't end there, even in this short verse. See, the the verse says, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. So even when we sin, just like Jonah, and mess up big times as Christians, God doesn't discard us as useless. He doesn't give us just one chance and then that's it.

God didn't say to Jonah and he doesn't say to us, you're a disgrace. You're damaged goods. I can't use you. I don't wanna use you anymore. No.

What did the Lord do? Look at this. He went back to the beginning. Just flip over to Jonah one one. The very first verse.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, virtually word for word with chapter three verse one. Right? So God is showing that he is taking Jonah back to the beginning and he's giving him a second chance to follow him, to follow what he commanded to do. But even in here, the words are not exactly the same. Right?

They're not a complete reset. So what we know from this is our sin even followed by true repentance may mean that we have to retrace a lot of steps. That's what Jonah did. He retraced a lot of steps. And it may mean that we lose days.

Yeah. Or even decades of our lives because of sin. So we will live with the consequences of our sin, but God does not discard a repentant believer. Those around us, they might be quick to say, I'm I'm done with you. I'm gonna cancel you.

I want nothing to do with you anymore, but that's not God. And praise the Lord for that. You see, God's second chances are a gift to us as we have seen as it was a gift to Jonah, and and it was a gift to us when we get second chances, but also it's a blessing to other people. Think about this. I'm sure that the people of Nineveh were thankful that their fate did not depend on the perfection of this one man.

And we can look at example after example of this in the Bible, how God uses miraculously uses, incredibly uses people who have messed up single significant acts of sin and also habitual patterns of sin in their lives. And he uses them for their good, the good of other people, and his wonderful plan of redemption. And so we can look at David. Right? Murdering Uriah and committing adultery with Bathsheba.

Or how about Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah? Literally a life long hatred of God. This man burned his children to idols. We can think of Paul imprisoning, hunting, and persecuting the church. Walking with him for three years.

But all of these, and so many more in the Bible, all of these repented. And God used them in incredible mighty ways. God calls imperfect people with sinful past to do his will. You have done in your life. I don't know what kind of sins you've committed.

But if you have repented and turned from them to follow Christ, God will use you too. So here's your call. Here's what the Lord says to you. Go and tell what he has done for you in your life. Go and tell strangers on the street.

Go and tell your family who know you the best, who've seen you at your worst. Go and tell them what the Lord has done for you. Go and tell your friends and your coworkers the good news of Jesus Christ. Second verse, Jonah three, two. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.

Again, compare this to chapter one verse two. In chapter one verse two, it says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. Again, very similar but different at the end. So we have to ask ourselves why. Why is why is chapter three verse two different?

Call out the message that I tell you. Well, I can think of at least three reasons. First, chapter three makes it clear that Jonah is truly the Lord's messenger, his ambassador, his prophet, and his spokesman. Now remember, it was a reminder for Jonah that he was representing God, not himself. He was speaking from God with words from God.

The people of Nineveh, when they saw Jonah, they realized that he was the prophet of the Lord, that he was God's representative. So think about this, their view of God was a direct result of what Jonah spoke to them. The Lord is saying to Jonah, when you go to that city, you are my witness. You are my spokesman because I'm giving you this message. And for us tonight, come in contact with around us.

So if you take the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, those around you will form their view of who God is by the way you speak and what you say. So, Christian, how do you speak when you're around your believing friends or your unbelieving friends? Are your words uplifting? Are they god world? Cussing, course joking, complaining, criticizing.

Remember what Ephesians five four says. Paul says, let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. It is so disappointing when I hear professing Christians sound just like the world, if not worse, sound just like the world around them, if not worse, right? Swearing, criticizing, complaining. And I don't care what excuse I just wanna be edgy.

Right? I wanna be relevant. I wanna be real. I don't wanna be fake. No.

No. You are not your own anymore. You represent Christ. So represent him well in your speech. And may you be known for your thankfulness and your cheer and your gladness.

Why? The world is filled enough with people who are angry and frustrated and critical. No. They need something better from us. They need to see the light of Christ in us in and in our speech.

As we look here, another thing that I see the reason for a different ending in chapter three verse two is that the Lord told Jonah he was giving him a message. Call it the message that I tell you. So Jonah had better learn that message pretty well. When God speaks and gives us a message, our response should be to listen and learn and know that message. You know, the Lord spoke directly to Jonah in that time.

But also remember, the Lord speaks, present tense, directly to us in our time, not audibly, through his word, through the Bible. And so we truly have the greatest message that there is. And that's why he says to go and tell that message. Don't keep it to yourself. Go and tell that message.

And so, do you know the message in the bible? Do you know what the bible is about tonight? Are you studying it? Are you learning it? Not just not just reading it, but are you learning it truly in your heart?

Are you memorized it so you have it with you wherever you go? Psalm one eleven two says this, great are the works of the Lord studied by all who delight in him in them. Delight in studying the word of God. Don't be second handers. You know, this this this world is filled with so many people.

I fear that everything they know about the Bible comes from somebody else, comes from the preacher, comes from YouTube, comes from TikTok. But they've never taken the time or the discipline or the joy to sit down with their Bibles and truly study it. Get your face in the Bible. And you're missing out if you do that. You are missing out on God's treasure for your life.

So don't be second handers. Truly know this message that the Lord has. And the third reason for this difference that I see is because since it was a message directly from the Lord, call it the message that I tell you, it was not to be altered, diluted, or compromised in any way. God is telling Jonah, you don't have the right or the option to speak anything other than what I give to you to speak. And we'll see in a couple verses why the content of the message is vital in fulfilling the Lord's plan and mission for Jonah.

But here, here's reminding Jonah and remember, the Lord knows what's in Jonah's heart. The Lord knows what Jonah's thinking. And he's telling Jonah, no matter what your attitudes are towards the Assyrians, no matter your desires or your preconceived idea to about these people, you speak what I tell you to speak. Don't change it. Don't lessen it.

Don't alter it in any way. And so when we handle the Bible, whether it's in a church setting, or a family setting, or evangelism, or teaching, or or frontier missions, remember that we do not as Christians, we don't have the right to change what it says. And you think about it. Isn't that where so much mischief happens? So much false doctrine and deception from the Garden of Eden to the present day.

Changing the message of the Bible leads to deception, delusion, and ultimately, destruction. So no matter the setting, no matter the culture or the occasion, no matter our own attitudes to individuals or people groups, we must tremble at the word of God. And we must speak with care and speak only what the Bible says to speak. We've looked at the call of Jonah. Let's look at the risk.

Chapter three verse three. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breath. What if obeying the Lord means putting your life at risk? Think again what Jonah knew about the Assyrians at this time.

And I'm not insulting Assyrians. I love Assyrians. But Jonah was going to these people. They were brutal. They were evil.

They were wicked. They wiped out entire people groups. Entire ethnicity is gone because of the Assyrians. And remember, Jonah one two says, for their evil has come up before me, the Lord says. These people were idolaters.

They mocked the Lord. They hated the Jews and the Jews hated them. And these are the people that God sent Jonah to. And there were lots of them. He was going to Nineveh, the the the capital city at the time.

The Bible says a couple chapters later. Right? Over a 120,000 of them that Jonah was going to. One man, 120,000 enemies that he was going to. And we're told that Nineveh was an exceedingly great city.

Three days journey in breath. Now there's some debate about exactly what that means. Right? Some say that it means that it would take a person three days to walk across this city or to walk around the circumference of this city, large city. The Hebrew means in here that a visit to the city would take three days.

Meaning, like, it would take three days for me to see all the parts of the city that there is to see. Nineveh City State Region took three days to walk across. Think think about the Chicagoland region when people say that. Good thing for us is, you don't really have to choose which one. Because the point is what the Lord is trying to communicate here is that Nineveh is a huge metropolis filled with lots and lots of hostile people who might kill Jonah.

The task for him was overwhelming and it was insurmountable. The Lord was telling to Jonah telling Jonah to literally go into the lion's den. Risk your life to give this message. And so there are times when obeying the Lord, when we walk according to the Lord might be risky. It might be so risky that it sounds crazy.

It might sound crazy to you. It might sound crazy to your family and to your friends. You might tell your friend group that the Lord is calling me to frontier missions and they might say to you, you're crazy to risk your life to go there. You'll get hurt or sick or kidnapped. You could even get killed.

Well meaning people might even say to you, God doesn't want you to risk your safety or your family's safety to go to that country or to go to those people. Let somebody else do it. You know, this way of thinking is especially true in our our modern western society where we not only tend to, we we do make idols out of safety, security, and comfort. We obsess over it. And yes, it is true.

By by human reasoning, what the Lord commissioned Jonah to do was not safe. It was filled with risk. And by the same token, what Jesus calls all believers to do is not safe by worldly standards. There is risk in going to all the nations, to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel to people who might hate you. There is risk, but there's also great reward.

Verse four. Jonah began to go into the city, go in a day's journey, and he called out, yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. Jonah didn't speak from the outside of the city, but he went among them. Now, when you talk about world missions, some people today I've I've heard them. They've they've said this to me.

We don't need to go there anymore because we have the internet. We have cable. We have radios. We can give them the message from afar. You don't actually have to physically go there and live there among these people.

Just send your voice or your picture. Now there is a place for technology in world missions. It's a wonderful tool and a tool that believers should use, but it is not a replacement for the great commission and actually going and telling people. And the Bible says in Jonah chapter three here, he says that, Jonah went a day's journey into the city. That also so that means that Jonah was committed.

He was in their midst. So if something went wrong, he most likely was not coming out alive because think about it, it took a day to go in. If he made these people so angry that they wanted to kill him, he wasn't gonna get a day to come out. And so, yes, there is risk in world missions. Jonah knew that risk and so have many many missionaries throughout history have known the risk that is involved in world missions.

Tonight, I wanna take a little bit of time just to introduce you to one of those men. His name was John Peyton, a Scottish missionary born in the eighteen hundreds. And in 1858, when he was 33 years old, he set sail for the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, which know which is now known as Vanuatu in the South Pacific. And he was going to live among the people of the islands because he understood that the Lord was calling him and his family to take the gospel to this nation filled with cannibals. Because you see, just twenty years earlier, the people of the New Hebrides had killed two missionaries that went there to spread the gospel.

They killed these men and well they did what cannibals did. And so John Peyton knew that the Lord was calling him to go there and he took his wife with him. Now as you can imagine, his desire to set sail was met with great resistance by his friends, by his church. And before he set sail for the New Hebrides, one of his friends and church members, a mister Dixon, told Peyton, the cannibals, you will be eaten by cannibals. And thank God that John Peyton wrote an autobiography about his life because we know what he responded to mister Dixon and and lean in.

He replied to mister Dixon. Mister Dixon, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms. In other words, you're old, you're about to die and be buried in the ground. Peyton continues. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.

And in the great day, my resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen redeemer. You see, Peyton knew that there were very real risks involved with him going. But he also knew that following Christ was so much more important than earthly safety. Following Christ was so much better than merely just trying not to die. And so for John Peyton and for Jonah and for us, Risk for Christ is not only okay, it is good and it is right.

Now lest we misunderstand this, John Peyton didn't have some kind of blind faith or taking ignorant reckless risks with his life. No. He was informed. He was rooted in what? In who God is, in the character of God, in the sovereignty of God.

Did he face trials when he was on the islands? You better believe it. Under constant danger from the natives are going to attack him and to kill him. But even through all of that, all the trials, all the all the all the running away and the hiding because of of of the people on the island hating him. Joe Pat, Peyton went on to later say about his time on the island, I realized that I was immortal till my master's work was done.

The assurance came to me as if a voice called out out of heaven that a musket would be would not be fired to wound us, not a club prevailed to strike us, nor a spear leave the hand in which it was held vibrating to be thrown, not an arrow leave the bow or a killing stone the fingers without the permission of Jesus Christ who is all the power in heaven and on earth. For the Christian, walking in the will of God is the safest place you can be. And when our job is done, he will call us home. For the parents here, I count myself as one of them. This is a message, a reminder for us too.

When our children come to us and say that the Lord has called them, and they've prayed about it, they've exercised wisdom and discernment about it, they've sought counsel, but the Lord, they are sure, is calling them to go into the world, to go into dangerous places and spread the gospel. Parent, we must not hold them back. We must send them forth to follow the Lord even if it means risking their life and even if it means losing their life for the sake of the gospel. They belong to Christ first. And I guarantee you, and I know this, Christ loves our children, body, mind, and soul more than we ever could.

So who are we to hold them back from the Lord's will? So we've looked at the call. We've looked at the risk. Now let's look at the message. Verse four.

And he called out, yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. Throughout the book of Jonah, we are presented with God's righteous judgment alongside his mercy and grace. Now some people will say, you've heard this, always judgment and wrath and condemnation. But the God of the New Testament is love and compassion and grace. Wrong.

This is not true and it comes from a misunderstanding of the Bible and a and a lack of knowledge of what the word of God truly says because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You know what my old testament says? God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Have you ever heard a Christian sound like they were glad that people were going to hell? I have.

It's disappointing. It it truly is. I'm glad so and so is gonna die and go to hell. Let them burn in hell for all the evil that he's done. Fact that knowing that he's in hell right now.

But that's not God. You know, I've I've said this passage before, Ezekiel eighteen twenty three. But I want to repeat it because because it's in the Bible. Ezekiel eighteen twenty three says, the Lord is saying, have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live. God wants sinners to turn from their wickedness.

That's what he delights in. And he gives people chance after chance after chance. And we see that here. He gives the people of Nineveh a warning, forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown. Why would he say forty days unless it was to give the people more time, more time to repent and turn from their evil ways?

But the message continues. Yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. Nineveh will be destroyed. Nineveh will be judged and every person in there will be annihilated. We see more of God's grace and his patience.

Think about it. Why even tell the people of Nunavut? Why not just annihilate them? God's mercy is real. God's justice is real.

We must never lessen the two either of them. And this is example for us when we share the gospel to others. Start off with, God loves you. Jesus died for you. Jesus saves you.

And yes, this is true. These are glorious truths and ones that we should celebrate. But if I'm on the street in my hardness of heart, in my sin, in my rebellion, God loves me? So what? Jesus saved me?

From what? I'm not lost. I don't need to be found. You see, the gospel is only good news because of the reality of our destination without Christ. The message has to be complete.

We are sinners. You are a sinner. I'm a sinner. We are condemned to die and we will die and we will spend eternity in hell separated from the loving presence of God. That's the message that there is no escape for us.

There is no hope for us except the grace of God. That's the gospel. We deserve death, but God offers us life. Now, some will say, you can't talk about sin if you're evangelizing. You can't talk about hell, if you're preaching.

No. You have to be winsome. You have to be sensitive to where people are. No. No.

Be kind. Yes. Be loving. Yes. But we must not compromise this message because if we strip the bad news out of the gospel, we strip the power out of the goodness of what Jesus did for all of us on the cross.

Yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. This message that the Lord had for Jonah, it was short. Just five words in Hebrew, just eight in English. So the message does not have to be long to accomplish God's purposes. It's a reminder for us, and and I I take this to heart too.

It's good to prepare short and concise gospel messages that you can give quickly to people in in your Uber ride. Right? Or standing in the line at the grocery store or wherever you might be. You might not have a lot of time. So think about how you can present the gospel clearly and truthfully to those who you might just have ten, twenty, thirty seconds with.

You know, the brevity of the message that Jonah had is also, I think, for those who might be thinking about global missions, you don't speak their language. Or even in local areas where you don't know the language. And it's an encouragement. The shortness, the brevity of this message. So brother, sister, even in your broken Spanish, your broken Arabic or Chinese or whatever language, or even in your heavily accented English.

Five words is all it took for the people of Nineveh. Five words could be all it takes for the stranger you meet on the street to tell them about Christ. You could change their life. Verse five. And the people of Nineveh believed God.

They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least. The people of Nineveh believed God. Why? Five words. From a human standpoint, it doesn't make sense that they would believe God.

But Jonah didn't win them over with arguments even though God uses those. He didn't convince them with signs or miracles or lofty words even though God does use those at time. But ultimately, God took these ordinary words and use them miraculously. And so your eloquence is not what matters. Your faithfulness does.

So you speak the message of the Lord when you have opportunity. First Corinthians chapter two verses one and two. Just listen. It says Paul says, and I, when I came to you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. A simple and glorious message.

Remember, from the beginning of our time here tonight, repentance is a gift. Contrition is a gift. Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of man. And so it is good for us to remember when we mess up in a conversation, right? We we're we're not quick enough on our responses, we think.

We're not nuanced enough in our arguments to refute that person what they say. Or we didn't make any sense when we're presenting the gospel to this person. It was awkward. I was tripping over my words. I just messed up.

God chooses to use our weak, our stilted, our limited speech to accomplish his redemptive purposes. Why? So he gets the glory, not us. So learn this message. Study the Bible.

Know the Bible. Meditate on it. And always be ready to tell the great news of Jesus Christ. Go and tell. That's our duty.

That's our responsibility. The outcome belongs to the Lord. Continuing on, they called for a fast and put on sack cloth. Fasting. Sack cloth shows remorse.

It shows contrition. It shows humility. It shows grieving. For the people of Nineveh, this was horrible news. It was probably the worst news that they could ever receive.

This was going to be the end of them. They didn't realize their state though. They didn't realize their impending doom until someone told them about it. So we must tell unbelievers the truth. That's what the great commission is all about.

People don't know. They don't know the gospel. They don't know their condemnation until someone tells them. And they're dying and going to hell without that knowledge. You know, it's estimated today that there are are over 7,000 unreached people groups in the world today.

Over 3,000,000,000 people out of 8,000,000,000, 3,000,000,000 people who have little or no access to the gospel. And we, all of us, have been spread have been called to spread that gospel. Bibles galore, don't we? We have them on our phones. We have multiple copies in our houses.

We have access to biblical resources more than we could read in a lifetime. And what do we do in with them? Because people need to hear this message. As we wind down tonight, I wanna read a passage from Romans chapter 10. Just listen to it.

And may the Lord, as I read this, impress upon all of our hearts about what we can do to spread the gospel here and across the world. Romans 10 verses 11 through 17. Paul says, for the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same lord is lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved.

How then will they call on him call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, but they have not all obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So, faith So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Are all Christians supposed to be foreign missionaries? No. No.

The Lord has distributed callings and gifts and roles across the entire spectrum of what it means to be a faithful believer. And, yes, it is true. People need to hear the gospel everywhere at home and abroad. Your neighbor needs to hear the gospel. Your coworker needs to hear the gospel.

Your friends at school need to hear the gospel. But 7,000 unreached people groups in the world today, 3,000,000,000 people who've never heard the name Jesus Christ. The numbers are staggering. Maranatha Bible Church, we want to be a church that sends out missionaries into the world. Into the world.

We want to be a church that sends out missionaries that are part of this church, that are from us, that we can send out. And maybe, maybe that's somebody here tonight. Maybe, you're feeling this tugging. The Holy Spirit is working or has been working on your heart about this area of frontier missions or world missions to learn, to train, and then to go. Pray and keep on praying.

Seek the Lord. Seek counsel in this. But this is what you don't do. Don't ignore it. Don't disregard it and say, that's just that's just a fantasy or that's just emotion speaking.

No. Seek the Lord's will in your life for that. Missions, frontier missions, world missions, it's not glamorous. It's not comfortable. It's not easy.

You won't get a standing ovation or applause or pats on the backs. In fact, it's the opposite. Right? It's hard work. It's risky.

It can be lonely and difficult, but there is incredible joy in following Christ. There is incredible joy and delight in doing something with your life that is eternally significant. And as I close here, I want to read some more of John Peyton's words to you as he, this frontier missionary, this man who was sent to cannibals, who wanted to kill him. John Peyton describes some of the joys that he had in world missions, specifically the joy of his con have seen natives converted to Christianity. These are his words.

At the moment, when I put the bread and wine into those dark hands once stained with the blood of cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the redeemer's love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste the deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself. Let's pray. Father, today as we think about what you accomplished through Jonah, the people of Nineveh, through John Peyton, the people of Vanuatu, Lord, I I pray that you give us hearts for the lost, that you give us an urgency that we might not have known before, but an urgency to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ far and wide to as many people as we can reach. Father, may we take your commission to go and tell.

May we take that to heart. And Lord, may we ask you, where do you want me to go? Where do you want me to go, Lord? And Father, may you give us all willing hearts to go wherever you tell us to go. And may we go with joy.

May we go with peace. And may we go with rest in your sovereign plan for our lives. And in knowing that you are good and you do good. We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Church, will you please stand and give glory to God as we sing these last songs? Christ in

power as we will

comes.

Lord, I come before your throne of grace. I find rest in your presence And

You know, as I think about Jonah, he robbed himself of so much joy. He robbed himself of so much peace because you know how the story ends. God was merciful on the people of Nineveh. And Jonah knew that God would be merciful to them. And he hated it.

He was seething with frustration because of it. How much joy did this man lose out on? And in many ways, John Peyton was what Jonah should have been. If you have not researched this missionary, I encourage you to look up his life and read a story because it is truly phenomenal. Talk about spurring your faith and desire to know the Lord and to spread the gospel.

Read this man's autobiography or read biographies about him because this was not some rosy glasses, pie in the sky experience that he had. He lost his wife. She died on the island. His baby, she died on the island. Peyton was attacked many times.

They tried to kill him many times. And this man still had compassion on those people, and he wanted them to know Jesus Christ. How amazing is that? And we just got a glimpse of the joy that he had. And just so you know, Vanuatu, now in 2026, 80 to 90% Christian by many estimates.

So John Peyton and his wife and his baby are in heaven rejoicing over what the Lord did despite the affliction that they had, despite their enemies. And so may we not be like Jonah and despise God's mercy on our enemies or those who hate us. May we be like John Peyton who rejoice in it. That's all for tonight. Let me pray, and then you will be dismissed.

Father, thank you. Lord, we cannot stop giving thanks to you for who you are and what you have done. Lord, we are not deserving of your mercy, but we thank you so much for it. And father, give us hearts not only for the lost, Lord, but give us hearts for those who hate us. Give us hearts for our enemies to want to see them know you.

And when they do know you, may we rejoice in that. Father, may we know that joy, whether it's with our neighbor or whether it's whether it's with somebody a thousand miles away. May we know that joy. Give us hearts like Christ, we pray. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you all for coming. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. We'll see you Sunday.

Bye.