In what ways is it easier to be a
Christian in Ireland than in Vietnam? In
Ireland we can meet together as often as we want, to pray, worship and
encourage each other; in Vietnam many Christians have to meet in secret. In Ireland we can have a work/life balance
that gives us the opportunities to practice spiritual disciplines; many
Christians in Vietnam have to work massive hours in sweatshops or as
subsistence farmers. In Ireland we can
share our faith without fear of being harassed; Vietnam is now rated eighteenth
among countries that persecute Christians.
In what ways is it easier to become a
Christian in Ireland than in Vietnam?
Ireland is a secular democracy that encourages freedom of
information. In Ireland there is free
access to Bibles and information about the gospel. Not many families in Ireland will cut you off
if you are born again. In Ireland you
are unlikely to end up in prison for your faith. Not so in Vietnam.
Given all the advantages, for the
sharing the gospel and enjoying the church, in Ireland compared to Vietnam it
would seem obvious that the church would growing and healthy here and stagnant
and struggling there. In fact, the
opposite is true. Why? There are a number of reasons. One of these reasons is the superficial
nature of our repentance. This chapter
is all about repentance.
1. Jonah’s warning
‘Then the word of the LORD came to
Jonah.’ These words are an exact
repetition of the opening words of the book.
He is right back where he started.
God is so patient with his disobedient people! Jonah had tried to foil God’s plan, without
success. As we will see in the next
chapter, even at this stage Jonah’s repentance is fairly shallow. “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim
to it the message I give you.” At last, Jonah
obeys God’s call and goes to the city.
Now Nineveh was a very important
city—a visit required three days. On the
first day Jonah started into the city.
He proclaimed: “forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” The verb translated ‘overturned’ is
ambiguous, it can mean ‘overturn’ but it can also mean ‘to turn around’. Indeed that is what happens—in the face of
God’s warning that he will ‘overturn’ the city they are turned around, turning
from their evil ways in repentance.
Repentance is a key theme here.
What compassion God has on Nineveh
that he would send to them someone with such a message - this notoriously evil
city, whose wickedness has come up before the Lord! God could have simply destroyed them without
any advance notice but he sends someone to warn them. He sent Jonah to warn them in order that they
might repent. You too have been
warned. God has given us plenty of
opportunity to repent. You sit here this
morning with an open Bible that speaks of one greater than Jonah. Through his word Jesus invites us to repent
and live. If you are not yet born again
then what a great amount of opportunities you have spurned. You are without excuse. But it is not just those who have yet to
become Christians that need to hear the call to repentance – those who are born
again need to be reminded to live a life of repentance.
2. Nineveh’s repentance
I wonder what the reaction of Jonah’s
people of Israel was when they first heard this story. Their history had been tainted by many
terrible acts of corporate sinfulness.
Yet never in their history was had there been such a corporate act of
repentance as we see here in Nineveh.
Surely the people of Nineveh are putting God’s people to shame and
showing them such deep sorrow for sin.
Look at how the people of Nineveh
respond to God’s warning. They believe
God, taking his warning seriously (verse 5).
They mourned for their sin, declaring a fast and putting on sackcloth.
Look at how the king of Nineveh
responds to God’s warning. He rose from
his throne, took off his robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in
the dust. He knows his responsibility as
king of that wicked place. He issues a
decree and in it he urges the people to call urgently (or mightily) to
God. They are wholly depending on
God. They know that only an act of his
God’s grace can save them from the disaster that they deserve. In the decree we see the realisation that
more than gestures of repentance are required, ‘Let them give up their evil
ways and their violence’—true repentance always involves a change in the way we
live!
And notice that the king does not
presume upon God—‘Who knows? God may yet
relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not
perish.’ While grace is always promised
to those who truly repent we should not treat grace lightly. We should not be presumptuous. We should realise that we are asking for what
we do not deserve.
What about the depth of our
repentance? Have we experienced the
godly sorrow that leads to repentance? I
don’t want you to be sad. I want you to
be happy. But in the face of our moral
and spiritual failings the path to joy is through godly sorrow. According to the Book of Common Prayer we are
to ‘weep and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions.’ Some of us our sad when we sin because our
pride is wounded that we have failed again; that is not the sorrow God looks
for. The Christian should be sad because
we have let down and wounded the most loving of all fathers. While some of us are too glib to feel sorrow
for our sin, others allow themselves to be swallowed up with feelings of
guilt. We must not stay sad about our
sin, we must then move on to rejoicing in the fact that God delights to
forgive.
3. God’s mercy
Jeremiah 18:7-10, which we written
after Jonah’s time, appears to provide the pattern of God’s interaction with
the nations:
‘If at any time I announce that a
nation of kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation
I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the
disaster I had planned. And if at
another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,
and it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the
good I had intended to do for it.’
Well God has warned them, they have
repented, and God does relent from sending the disaster he had planned. ‘When
God saw that they did and how they had turned from their evil ways, he had
compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened’ (10)–the
Lord is a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love,
a God who relents in sending calamity (4:2).
Conclusion
There is a principle is the Bible
that teaches that the greater our opportunity the greater our guilt if we do
not grasp that opportunity. Jesus points
the people of his day to the repentance of Nineveh and says, ‘the men of
Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for
they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah
is here’ (Matthew 12:41). The risen Jesus, who has validated his message by emerging
from the grave (rather than the belly of a fish), still speaks through his word
today, so if you continue to refuse to be born again the people of Nineveh will
rise up and judge you too on the day of judgement. You really are without excuse. Christians from Vietnam may also arise at the
judgement and condemn you. For turning
to Christ was more difficult for them than you, yet they repented while you hardened
your heart to God’s call to repent.
And if you are born again, then you
need not fear, for no one will be allowed condemn you at the judgement. But the Christians in Vietnam might rise and
challenge us now. ‘You have it so easy,’
they might say, ‘we had it so hard.’ ‘You
can meet freely whenever you wish yet we have to meet in secret.’ ‘You have time and opportunity to grow in
grace through prayer, but you allow so many things take your time.’ ‘You have such freedom to speak of Jesus but
some of us are put in prison.’ ‘You have material wealth and are spiritually
poor.’ ‘We delight to make sacrifices,
but your faith costs you nothing.’
God calls every person in this room
to whole-hearted and life-transforming repentance.
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