Excuses to Avoid Mission - 230405

SPEAKER A Hello, I'm Clive Nash. Welcome to let God speak. The name Jonah has come into common usage in the English language. For sailors, a Jonah is someone who brings bad luck. But who was the biblical Jonah? How did he respond to God's call to mission? And what can we learn from his experience? We're about to find out as our panel discusses this topic today. We'll be back in just a moment to discover more on our panel today, we have Kaysie Vokurka and Kate Simpson. Welcome, ladies. Good to have you with us. And I'm sure we're going to have a good discussion today. But before we begin, let's take time to pray. Our loving Father in Heaven, we just want to commit this time to you. We also think of our listeners and our viewers and pray that they will be touched by your Holy Spirit as we discuss this important topic today. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Well, we're going back in history about the 8th century before Christ, and King Isaiah was reigning over Judah. And it was during his reign that the prophet Isaiah received a vision of Jehovah. What was his reaction? Kate? SPEAKER B We find that in chapter six of Isaiah. So I'm going to read verse five, and then we'll jump down to verse eight as well for a second. So in verse five, this is Isaiah's reaction to the vision. He said, then said, I woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. So here he is. He's filled with the sense of his unworthiness and his sinfulness, and Israel is no better where he's dwelling. But then there comes a challenge to Isaiah from the Lord. In verse eight it says, and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. So Isaiah was totally humbled, and then he was willing to be used by God. And there's a lesson for us here, too. When we see God for who he is, there's no room for selfish pride. We are just called to serve and we need to follow him. And yeah, hold this thought, because we're going to be going and looking at a character today who didn't have quite the same reaction to God's. SPEAKER A Yes, Kaysie, we're going to be talking mostly about Jonah today, and his reaction was quite different to Isaiah's, wasn't it? SPEAKER C Oh, absolutely. He totally pulled back from what God was calling him to. And it's very interesting if we read in the book of Jonah, chapter one of verse two, what God had called Him to was to arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. So he was being called by God to go to a wicked city. And this city was renowned in ancient time for its wickedness. It was an Assyrian city. And even in the British Museum in London, we can actually see reliefs that graphically depict some of their cruelties and it's very, very bad. And so, yeah, this is the place that God called Jonah to and yeah, he didn't like this been Jonah. SPEAKER A You might have been reluctant to absolutely. SPEAKER C Who would want to go to a place like that? You know, you'd just be filled with fear. These are famous for the terror that they brought in, what they did. SPEAKER A Now, let's assume that Jonah was leading from Jerusalem, for example. Kate, how far is it from Jerusalem to Nineveh? SPEAKER B Yeah. Jerusalem to nineveh. So Nineveh is in modern day Iraq today, and that's about 800 from Jerusalem, where Jonah was there. And now there was roads, there was trade routes, but it was still a long way. But however, when Jonah went to Tarshish in Spain, that was 3200 km in the other direction by sea as well. So that's a more difficult journey. And we know that it would have taken about one month to go either direction. So Jonah used the time that it would have taken to go to Nineveh, the opposite direction. SPEAKER A Just looking at one of the minor prophets, Naom, and I'm reading in Naom, chapter one and verse one, so the burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Naom the Elkashite. So Naom was quite forthright in his message about the Assyrians. What did he have to say? SPEAKER C Kaysie yeah, it's very interesting to look at Naom in the context of Jonah because Naom was actually writing about 150 years after Jonah. But he is very much laying open a picture of the kind of condition the city of Nineveh was. And in chapters three, verse three and four, it says of Naom, it says, horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear. There's a multitude of slain, a great number of bodies, countless corpses. They stumble over the corpses because of the multitude of harlotries, of the seductive harlot, the mistress of Sorceries, who sells nation through her harlotries and families through her sorceries. So this is a little snapshot of the description. And even at the start of that chapter, it says, Woe to the bloody city, which really is painting a picture. And it's interesting looking at a little bit of history. In the World History Encyclopedia, there's a statement that describes the Assyrian empire, which says it was an aggressive, murderously, vindictive regime supported by a magnificent and successful war machine. So, yeah, these are some of the things that come to mind. And the Bible actually back in Second Kings gives some examples of some of their warfare tactics. So if we have a little look over there, second Kings, chapter 17 and verse five and six, it says here, now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the 9th year of Hoshia, the King of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria and placed them in Hala and by the harbor, the river of Gozen, in the cities of the Medes. And so here we see they used besieging as a strategy, deportation, all of these things. So, yeah, it was very much a center of crime and wickedness, the city. And they were very cruel. The people were very cruel in what they did. SPEAKER A Yeah. So Jonah Natch, we'd probably say, yes, he had a reason to be fearful, but is it possible for us to be governed by fear, too, do you think? Kate let's just apply this to ourselves. SPEAKER B Yeah, I think we could wonder what people would think when we share with them. Like, will they be angry, will they be offended? What's the reaction going to be, basically? But we need to remember that the gospel leading to everlasting life, that's the best news ever. And it's important to understand, too, that we have a personal understanding of this message, because then we'll be sharing from a personal perspective in our own lives, not just, oh, I think this is good for you, but I know this is good for you. And then whatever their reaction, we know it's not because the message is bad, it's because they might just not understand how good it is. SPEAKER A Let's just advance the story of Jonah a bit. And to go to chapter two and verse one. Now, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fisher's belly. What's going on in the story here? SPEAKER C Kaysie yeah, so you wonder how he ended up from his hometown to a fisher's belly. Well, he had gone traveling by sea, as Kate mentioned before, a long way in the opposite way. And then there was a big storm that caused the boat to Nelly shipwreck. And Jonah recognized that this storm was a, I guess, bad providence from his own choice of evading God's call. And so he told the sailors in this ship to throw him overboard. And God basically prepared a fish to rescue him and capture him, pretty much to preserve him. And also, I guess, to give him some thinking time in the situation he was in. And so we find in the second verse how Jonah reacted. And in Jonah two, verse two, it says, and he said, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and he answered me. And so Jonah is basically brought to his knees inside a fish to really think about where he was at and how he was relating to God's call on his life, and I guess to think about where he should go next. SPEAKER A Yeah. What can we learn from Jonah's experience. SPEAKER B Kate yeah, that we're not too disengaged with the world. We're supposed to go into the world and interact with him. We see that in John, chapter 17, verse 15, and I'm just going to read that here. Jesus is saying, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. So engage with the people, but not with the evil, and keep your focus on Jesus. And another lesson that we can learn is that saving people depends on us. God wants to use us. We are his instruments. Jonah was sent to be the messenger. The Holy Spirit is the one that does the work, but we are to cooperate with Him. And for an example of that, like here at three, ABN, people watch shows, they listen to the radio, and there's changes seen in their life. And that brings great joy. But we have to remember always that that is just the channel that God uses, and he's the one that does the work through that. SPEAKER A Yeah. So Jonah got a second chance. God was gracious to him. And if we go over to chapter three and verses one to four, jonah three, verses one to four. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. I'm glad that God gives some of us second chances at times. Arise. He says, Go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. And this time, Jonah's ready to go on with God's circle. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three day journey in extent. And then in verse four, it says, and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So what was the result of his bold proclamation? SPEAKER C Kaysie well, despite the preacher, this was one of the greatest success stories of an evangelist. And in Jonah, chapter three, verse five and six, it says, so the people of Nineh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then the Word came to the King of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. So there was complete repentance. Regardless of the status of the people in the city, they all responded to God's call. They all listened to the Holy Spirit you were talking about before. The Holy Spirit working on the heart. And God worked a miracle. I mean, he worked a miracle to reach Jonah and actually get him to the place in a very amazing way. But then he worked amazing miracle as the people responded to this call to repentance. SPEAKER A Yeah. And verse ten, we read something interesting there, too, don't we? SPEAKER C We do, yeah. It says, Then God saw their works and they turned from their evil way. And God relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it. So this is, again, God's mercy and also highlighting the power of choice we all have. God says, okay, if you go this direction, there's going to be consequences. But if you choose to go another direction and actually follow me, well, then he can bring blessings in place of that. SPEAKER A Yeah. I wonder, Kaysie, whether Jonah was prejudiced against the Ninevites. Do you think so? SPEAKER C Oh, absolutely. He would have been. I think many people back in those day would have been prejudiced because they had built up this reputation of cruelty. And so you would probably go to them thinking, these people are hopeless. How are they going to change? They're so degraded and evil in what they do. How are they ever going to make a change and come to be something good? SPEAKER A And I think the word prejudice is prejudicey. It's like prejudging the people. And Kate, can we be held back by prejudice ourselves from sharing the gospel with some people? SPEAKER B Yeah, we can know. Maybe we have fear of them, maybe they're not like us. We're not sure how to break in and reach them. Maybe we don't want to engage with certain people groups because, again, they're not like us. Yeah, you get the idea. But Jonah had to go out of his comfort zone, like Kaysie was saying, it wasn't comfortable for him to do that. Sharing the gospel is not always easy, but it's always a rewarding thing. And we have to remember, too, that Jesus goes with us and there's comfort in that. He breaks down the walls and we follow him through. SPEAKER A Yeah. And I was just thinking, know, I've been to the British Museum in London and seen these, know, with the cruelty of the Assyrians to their conquest. So we can understand how the reluctance of Jonah, we can understand his prejudice. We can understand, too, that he would have been fearful, but maybe it was the cost of his life to go there. And Kaysie, can mission work be costly? SPEAKER C Yeah, absolutely. The very nature of it is that you have to sacrifice in order to make a difference, really. I mean, for Jonah, it cost him his time. If he had gone direct, it would have saved him a lot of extra trouble if he had directly answered the call. But it cost him, I guess, just even having to sacrifice his own feelings of comfort to go there, because he was having to go way out of his comfort zone to these people. And he was also worried about his reputation in terms of, as a preacher, what the outcome would be from what he did. So he was worried about all sorts of things. And so in mission work, I mean, there's money that can be another thing. Costs money to go on mission trips or to invest in projects and these kind of things. But often it's the personal cost that is the highest, the sacrifice of our own will or our own desires. And we see the greatest example of sacrifice for mission in what Christ did for us to save know, leaving heaven, coming to earth, going way out of his comfort zone, if you will. And we have a beautiful quote from Testimonies, from the church by Mrs. Ellen White, who's commenting on this very fact, saying that love for lost souls brought Christ to Calvary's cross. Love for souls will lead us to self denial and sacrifice for the saving of that which is lost. And so you can see here that a personal cost is very much a part of it, and that is actually the closest that comes to it is stemming from God's love and example in doing that. That's how we can learn that same sort of spirit. SPEAKER A Yeah, it's remarkable that God can use even reluctant people, isn't it? Be missionaries for him. And maybe he can even use cranky people, because in chapter four and verse one here's, the people of Nineveh from the king downwards who repent chapter four or verse one says, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he became angry. Kate, does this negative reaction of Jonah surprise you? SPEAKER B Yeah, it seems Jonah would have rather seen the Ninevites killed because he had sort of a worldview about pagan, Assyrians, he hated them and kind of for good reason as well in a way. But yeah, just a note on worldviews, we all have worldviews. They drive our actions and things. If we believe that we only have one life here, it's going to cause us to eat, drink and be merry. But if we think that we're going to an eternal life, then we might choose our actions in accordance with that. But back to Jonah's reaction, I think it does come as a surprise to me because reading through the story, we kind of just assume that he'd be happy that they repented, but when he know, on the other hand, we can consider what we've learned about the evil in Nineveh, his reaction also doesn't surprise us. So it was kind know either way. But personally, my initial reaction would be to assume that he'd be happy. SPEAKER A Yes, you think he would have been. You know, it's written thousands repent at the preaching of this evangelist Jonah, and so it's surprising in the way that Jonah was angry. So what happened next, Kaysie, in the story? SPEAKER C Good question. So in chapter four, we read more of what happened next. Chapter four and verse five it says, so Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city. So it seems like he was still hoping that God was going to do something and destroy them. So he was going out to watch and see when this would happen, if you know what I mean. His angry mind is a little bit stubborn in his idea here. And so God decided that maybe there was another way he might try to reach his heart. And so in verse six it says and the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah and that it might be a shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. And so it's interesting because we see here that God was being merciful to Jonah, like even though he was angry, which was very much not the reaction that you would expect if you were following God and you knew about God's gracious, merciful character. And so Jonah is here like that and God is showing mercy to him and he is feeling grateful about that. And so this is kind of just trying to get him to start thinking about well, what about the Ninevites? If they are in a bad place and God is being gracious to them, how does that feel? It's trying to help him to start to see a different perspective. SPEAKER A Yeah, it was kind of like a miracle, really. Wasn't know this quick growing, had to give him shade. SPEAKER C This is true. SPEAKER A Jonah must have realized this is not natural and this is an act of grace, as you say on God's part. And then reading on verse seven and eight to further the story, it says here in Jonah, chapter four, verse seven, but as morning dawned the next day, god prepared a worm and so it damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened when the sun arose that God prepared a vehement east wind. As if the worm was not enough to destroy this shade that he had, he prepared a vehement east wind. Now, you know, east wind in that land is coming from the inland, so it's coming across the dry land. And the sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. And then he wished death for himself and said, it is better for me to die than to live. So Kate, was this a further object lesson for Jonah? SPEAKER B Yeah, it looks like as you were reading, it looks like he's having a little meltdown, to put it lightly. He thought the growth of the vine was for him well deserved for all his efforts. Now he can just sit down and we can watch the show, basically. But when the plant died, he got angry and he wanted to die too, just over a plant. His worldview had all been shaken upside down. He wasn't really sure what to think anymore. And like Kaysie was saying, maybe he was valuing the plant more than he valued the people of Nineveh. I think God had a lesson in here for him, but he failed to see God's hand at all because he was set on his idea of how it wanted to go how he wanted things to happen and when they didn't happen according to his plan, what was he going to do now? SPEAKER A Yeah, and this is one thing about the Bible stories, isn't know, they tell it as it really know warts and all. They don't gloss over and know the story. And Jonah's Capricious nature is not subjugated here, is it, in this story? So here's the reaction of Jonah, the east wind, he wants to die and so on. And Kaysie, how did God put Jonah straight? SPEAKER C Very interesting. God has very, I guess tactful gracious ways of doing that with people and we can see that here as well. And so in verse nine to eleven of chapter four it says then God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said, it is right for me to be angry even to death. But the Lord said, you have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left and much livestock. So it's really interesting because God is kind of helping Jonah have some insight into his own heart, says, you know, God made the people, right? And Jonah's reaction is he would rather see those people wither away and be dead and God made the plant as well. And yet with the plant Jonah would not rather that God had made the plant wither away like he didn't want that to happen, that destruction. And so how come he was happy for the plant to be staying alive, but he was not happy for all of these people that God made to be staying alive and to be redeemed. And this is really showing us a lesson of how we perceived people. Because every person is created by God, made by God, every single one. And so no matter what their background, no matter what they're doing, they are still made by God, they are his. And so God wants to save everyone. And how we look at people needs to be more with the eyes of God that he can redeem, he can save and he can draw these people to him. And so yeah, through this object lesson, god is trying to help Jonah see this new perspective, which was a big lesson for him that he didn't really understand until this experience. And it's interesting, there's a quote from prophets and kings that says through a series of trials and strange providences, the prophet's confidence in God and his infinite power to save was revived. Amen. So he saw this new so if. SPEAKER A We just took the book of Jonah, we'd think that maybe it ends a bit of a negative note. But that's a good note, isn't it? That God actually turned him around at the end there. Let's go back to the story we referred to earlier, and that's Isaiah, chapter six. And verse one. In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord this Isaiah writing, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah had a vision. And how did he respond, which was different to Jonah? Kate? SPEAKER B Yeah, we looked at that right in the beginning. But in verse five, Isaiah says, woe is me, for I am undone. He feels his unworthiness, and we need to have that sense of unworthiness, too. Isaiah is a lesson that we should follow, and we should follow his example here, because Isaiah felt he was powerless for good on his own, and he needed God to come in and work through him. And in verse eight, then when the Lord says, who shall I send? Isaiah says, here am I. Send me. So he had willingness after his sins had been forgiven. We just briefly see that in verse seven as well, that his sins had been forgiven. He was willing, he was humble, and then he said yes to God. And this is in striking contrast to Jonah. So a question for us is whose example are we going to follow? SPEAKER A Yeah. And God's still calling for people like Isaiah and Jonah to go for him. And what practical steps, Kate, can we take to be willing messages for Christ? SPEAKER B Well, not everyone can go door to door. Not everyone can do all these amazing things, preach, write books, be teachers. But anyone can pray wherever you are, in whatever situation you are. We can all talk to God. We can intercede on behalf of people, can pray for our family, pray for our friends, pray for our neighbors, pray for people around the world. I think the power of prayer is so underestimated. But we can be bold with God because he hears anyone. The principle here is do what you can. There's no excuses. SPEAKER A Yeah. Thank you. My guests today have been Kaysie Vokurka and Kate Simpson. And I'm Clive Nash. You know, you may feel unworthy to be a Christian missionary. You may feel unqualified. Remember the old saying that God does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called. God is calling you and me to be his witnesses today. How we respond is up to us. Well, we're glad you joined us today on Let God Speak. If you are blessed by this program, why not tell your friends? Remember, all past programs plus teachers notes are available on our website, 3abnaustralia.org.au. Join us again next time. God bless. SPEAKER D You have been listening to Let God Speak, a production of Three ABN, Australia. Television. To catch up on past programs, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au Call us in Australia on 024-973-3456 or email [email protected] We'd love to hear from you.