Sermon Transcript

Are you ready to hear the Christmas story? Okay, open your Bibles to Jonah! You say, “Wait a minute! Shouldn’t we be opening to like Luke chapter 2 or something?”

Well, if you really know the Christmas story, you know that you can find the Christmas story on any page of your Bible! We’re going to see the Christmas story here in the book of Jonah, but you know, here in the middle of Christmas, we’ve all been reawakened to another story—an epic story, a classic battle between the forces of evil and the forces of good. . .

Like any good story, there’s a dark villain who’s taken on and confronted and defeated by a young hero. You know this story? Of course, I’m talking about How the Grinch Stole Christmas. You knew that’s what I was talking about, right?

You know the story of the Grinch, right? The Grinch was a grumpy old guy who hated Christmas and didn’t understand why all these citizens of Whoville were so happy to exchange gifts and show love to each other. He hated Christmas so much, he just decided one day to steal all the presents and steal Christmas.

Well, you can’t really steal Christmas, and toward the end of the book, you know the Grinch wakes up to the reality to what was going on, and he actually even says this in the last part of the book: “He puzzled three hours ‘til his puzzler was sore; then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. ‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought doesn’t come from a store! Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Hopefully, you have not gotten trapped by the commercial trappings of Christmas. Hopefully you are here and you are ready to hear the story from a place in the Bible that we wouldn’t normally expect to see Christmas, but we’re going to see Christmas even from the story of Jonah.

If you’re new to Harvest—I’ve met so many people who are visiting family and Harvest, maybe for the first time—you’re jumping into the middle of a seven-part series on Jonah, and this is message number 6, so I kind of have to bring you up to speed.

Do you know the story of Jonah? God chose Jonah as a prophet to go to Nineveh, to tell Nineveh to repent, because God loved them so much. Jonah said, “I don’t love them so much,” so he turned and went in the opposite direction. He boarded a boat, the boat was in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, God sent a storm, the sailors threw Jonah overboard, God sent a big fish, after three days in the belly of the fish Jonah decided, “Salvation belongs to the Lord; I think I’ll go to Nineveh!”

So, he was spit up, and toward Nineveh he goes, he walks into the city and he preaches an eight-word sermon. Wouldn’t you love to hear an eight-word sermon this morning? I think I’ve already expired those eight words. . .but I think it was the sermon title, and it went like this: “Yet forty days and you will be overthrown.”

Do you know what happened? The Ninevites believed God! And they turned from their sin and they embraced the love and the grace and the compassion of God, and God decided not to send His judgment. That’s where we left the story last week. We pick it up in Jonah chapter 4.

Read with me Jonah 4:1, “It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.” There has been some archeological digging going on over in ancient Nineveh, and they’ve actually uncovered a picture of Jonah immediately after Nineveh repented. Here’s the picture they found. [Picture of the Grinch shown on the screen.]

Do you understand that Jonah was the Grinch, the Ebenezer Scrooge and the Darth Vader of the Bible—I mean, just all rolled into one. Jonah could not understand the compassion and the grace that God would show toward undeserving, evil, wicked sinners. . .and that created a problem for Jonah.

So, this morning, we’re going to discover how Jonah stole Christmas—and, if you’re not careful, you’re going to turn into the Grinch and that Grinch is going to steal Christmas for you. This morning we’re going to look at three things that happened in Jonah’s life that stole Christmas and turned him into a Grinch. Here they are (I’m going to give them to you real quick, and then we’re going to unpack them): 1) He had a superior attitude toward sinners; 2) He had an inferior grasp of the love of God; 3) He had an ulterior purpose for living.

So, here’s the first of those:

 

• A superior attitude toward sinners.

 

Jonah is displeased because God chose to show grace to Nineveh rather than to judge them in His judgment. We ask the question, “Why?” Why would Jonah not be on God’s plan? Why did Jonah run away from God? Why did Jonah not immediately go and preach the message of grace God wanted him to preach? Why was Jonah so hacked off at God for not judging the Ninevites?

I believe the answer is this: The root of Jonah’s disobedience was a self-righteous superior attitude toward the people in Nineveh. Simply put, Jonah thought he was better. Jonah thought that the sin in Nineveh was worse than the sin in his own life. Jonah wanted grace for his sin, but He didn’t want grace for anybody else’s sin. And deep inside the heart of every person here, do you know, there lives a little Jonah? There he is—we saw the picture of him.

Every time God shows grace to someone we believe is deserving of His judgment, we have the same attitude. It displeases us, and if you’re not careful, we get angry with God. (We’re going to say more next week about what it’s like to live angry at God.) We need to understand—the nature of the human heart is so bent that the only way that we can live with ourselves sometimes, is we have got to figure out a way that we feel superior to somebody, somehow. So we compare our abilities with others, our situation with others.

This happens in every component part of our relationships. If you’re a man, you have a tendency to feel superior toward women. . .and vis versa. If you are rich, you have a tendency to feel superior to people who are poor. . .and vis versa. If you are a Republican, you have a tendency to feel superior toward those who are Democrats. . .and vis versa! If you are white, you have a tendency to feel superior to people who are not white. . .and vis versa. If you are educated, you have a tendency to feel superior to those who are not educated. If you haven’t suffered much, you have a tendency to feel superior toward people who have. . .and vis versa.

And here’s the way it works: if you’ve been victimized, if you’ve been abused, if you’ve been treated poorly, if you’ve been disadvantaged, if you are underprivileged—do you know, inside your heart, there is an attitude that feels like. . .all those people who have more than you? They just got favors and advantages that they you didn’t get, and your heart could be to despise the grace that God has shown someone else—the goodness and the favor that God has shown someone else—and to be angry at God for treating someone better than you feel like you’ve been treated.

So, deeply inside the heart of every one of us, whether you’re on one side of the equation or the other, the only way that we can live ourselves—outside of God’s grace—is to project ourselves as superior to someone else.

Jonah was a racist, Jonah was a bigot who felt like people who weren’t in his class deserved judgment. . .while the only thing that set Jonah apart from the people in Nineveh was: he was a forgiven sinner, while those people had yet to experience God’s forgiveness and grace.

You see, Jonah represented the nation of Israel; he was an Israelite prophet of God. He had been given more of the revelation, more of the grace of God, than other people on the planet. Do you know what it teaches is this: the more religious you are, the more of the revelation of God that you’ve received, the more you have been taught the Bible—the greater your temptation is to feel superior to those who haven’t. That was the heart of Jonah’s problem.

Listen! Do you know what cures that? A proper understanding of the gospel. There is no way that you, as a dirty rotten sinner, can feel superior to other dirty rotten sinners while you are thinking about your sin on the cross. The gospel cures an attitude of superiority, and Jonah needed that attitude to be cured in him.

I heard a preacher preaching one time, and he was trying to describe how much we deserve the wrath of God, and he said, “We don’t deserve anything but a red-hot seat in hell!” A little boy came up to him after the service and said, “Why do you think you deserve a seat?” That’s the proper attitude, right? . . .the understanding that we are all deserving of the wrath and the justice of God—yet, by His grace He has come and shown compassion to us! Until you see yourself as a citizen of Nineveh, dwelling with evil hearts and violence toward others, you are not even a candidate to experience God’s grace. God loves those sinners.

We’re all Ninevites, we’re all sinners, we all need a Savior, we all need a Christmas. A superior attitude toward sinners will steal your Christmas. Here’s the second thing:

 

• An inferior grasp of God’s love. (v.2, Exodus 34:5-9)

 

Look at it, here in verse 2: And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord,” [Trent groans and says he thinks that was the attitude Jonah was praying in, not one of lifting up God’s Name in praise], “is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?” Now, pause right there. Apparently, Jonah had had a conversation with God before he went that we don’t have recorded in chapter 1. We walked through chapter 1 and we didn’t get this conversation that Jonah had with God, but apparently he was griping at God for making him go in the first place, and he tells us why he didn’t want to go. Look at the passage.

Jonah said, “That is why. . .” You might have been asking the question, “Why, Jonah? Why not just obey God? Why not go?” Jonah gives us the answer: “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God. . .” Interestingly, Jonah didn’t disobey because he did not know God. Jonah disobeyed because he did know God. “God, I knew you’d do something like this. I knew it! Just when I thought I had you figured out and put into a religious formula, You go off and do something totally out of the box! Who do you think you are? God?” (God: “Yeah. . .”)

So Jonah says, “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” Now, what I just read for you—that second half of verse 2 from Jonah chapter 4—I want you to know something about your Bible. Can I teach you something about your Bible? That phrase is one of the most-often-repeated sections of Scripture. It’s repeated in the Psalms, in Psalm 86, Psalm 103, Psalm 145, 2 Chronicles 30, Job 2:13 and Nehemiah 9, and some other select parts of the Bible. . .we read the phrase that Jonah puts in his prayer. The question is, where did he get it?

Well, the original is found way back in the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible. If you have a Bible I want you to turn right now back to Exodus—take a little detour here (stick a finger in Jonah—we’re coming back to Jonah). I want you to see it in the original form in Exodus.

Now, as you’re getting there, I want to tell you what we’re going to find. . .Moses was having a conversation with God. Moses prays, “God, I want to see Your glory; I want to know Your Name.” And God takes an opportunity and discloses Himself, His nature and His Name, to Moses. And God says in Exodus 34 (beginning in verse 5) this statement (do you have it there?), “The Lord descended. . .” Now, that—in and of itself—is a mind-blowing thought, and that’s what we celebrate at Christmas—that the Lord, Who is high and lifted up, Who lives outside of time and space chose to disclose (to reveal) and—here—“to descend”—and make Himself known to a mortal human being. That, in and of itself, should boggle your brain! But He goes on and says this. . .

“The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.” God tells us His Name! And Moses knew His Name. Jonah knew His Name.

There are their times that people call my house and they’ll say, “Hello, is Tommy there?” And I immediately say, “No, Tommy is not here.” There are times that people call and ask, “Is Anna there?” [Me:] “No. Anna is not here.” Now, my first name is Tommy—my middle name is Trent. From an early age I have been known as Trent (by my mom, my parents. . .) How many of the rest of you have been cursed as the one who goes by their middle name, and had to endure the awkwardness in school at the first of the year when the teacher would always call you by your first name—and you would realize, “This teacher doesn’t know me!”? People who call my house and ask for Tommy—this is a person who doesn’t know me, so “No thank you, Tommy’s not here.” Click.

I wanted to pass on the curse, so we named our daughter Anna Brooke Griffith. We call her Brooke, but we cursed her with the first name Anna. I just wanted to share the love.

If you know somebody’s name, you know more than their name, don’t you? You know who they are, you know their nature, you know their makeup; you know what makes them tick, you know what gets them ticked—right? So, if you know the name. . .This is an amazing thought, that God would reveal His Name to Moses! And Jonah knew the Name. But then, God goes on in verse 6 (Exodus 34) and says this,

“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord [“that’s My Name”—He said it again—“Just in case you lost it the first time.. .”—and here’s His nature. . .], a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”  

There’s a little tension in this passage, isn’t there? In the first half we see all about this loving, compassionate, gracious, merciful, forgiving God, and then He turns it and says, “But who will by no means clear the guilty.” It’s a truth intention in Scripture.

If, when you talk about God you only talk about God’s love, I can tell you really don’t know God. If, when you talk about God, you only talk about His holiness and His justice, I can tell you don’t really know God—you have an inferior grasp of God’s love.

Do you know what Jonah’s problem was? He only knew about the God Who would not clear the iniquity of those who are guilty. He only wanted God to act in justice. Now, you can never separate the justice of God from the love of God. You can never separate the love of God from the justice of God, and yet Jonah wanted to divide God up into pieces. Jonah needed a better understanding of God’s love.

Do you know about God’s love? Do you know that God’s love is not some syrupy, sentimental, romantic love that you hear about in some cheesy love song on the radio? Do you understand that God’s love is not the way He feels about you, but God’s love is the way He acts toward you? The Bible says that God’s love is not something God does, God’s love is something God is. So it’s important that we understand—and even slow down for a minute, to understand the layers of God’s love revealed in this passage.

Jonah knew this passage, and he said, “I knew You were like this! A God Who is merciful!” Do you know what mercy is? Mercy is when God doesn’t give you what you do deserve. Mercy is translated, in other translations—the NIV uses the word “compassionate.” It means that God demonstrates mercy and compassion like a mother or a father would toward an infant child.

Those of you who are parents, remember those first few weeks, those first few months, when that child was absolutely helpless, completely dependent upon you exercising love in the moment when you weren’t feeling it!—usually at two o’clock in the morning, when that baby is entirely dependent upon you to feed it or to change it. You are a merciful parent, because you realize, this child is clinging to you for life, and yet it has no grasp. You have to cling to it. You have to anticipate its every need. You have to provide for everything this infant needs. That is a merciful parent—and that is a merciful God Who extends His mercy to us.

God’s mercy toward Nineveh was a picture of the mercy God wanted to extend to Jonah and to Israel—and to you and I here this morning. God is a God of mercy and He is ready not to give you what you do deserve. Then look—the passage says God is also gracious. Do you understand the difference between grace and mercy? Grace is God giving you something that you don’t deserve. “Gracious” is translated here as God giving something freely to someone who doesn’t deserve it. So, God’s grace fills in the gap when I am sinful.

God’s love is patient. You see, it says He is slow to anger. The New King James translates that “longsuffering.” Do you know what that means? God has to suffer a long time while He waits for my slow sanctification. That’s how slow He is–and patient—to express anger. The Message translation says He is “endlessly patient,” and this is an interesting word in the Hebrew, as it was originally written. It’s a Hebrew idiom. The word “anger” in “slow to anger” is synonymous with the word “burn.”

How many of you, when you eat something, you like to spice it up? Let me tell you what the secret to the worship team is up here. Some of you wonder, “How do they do that every week?” It’s something called sriracha, okay? Do you know about sriracha? It’s a hot sauce. We have about four gallons of it back here in the green room. And no matter what we eat—I mean fruit, waffles—sriracha goes on everything. It’s like red-hot chili peppers in liquid form. How many of you like that stuff?

Yet, there’s always that moment when you get something a little too hot. . .I remember when my daughter Brooke was about three years old, and we would go to Chili’s. We loved to get chips and salsa at Chili’s! Anybody with me? Anybody want to go after the service? I’m available!

I remember Brooke would take a chip and dip it in the salsa, and then she wouldn’t eat the chip—she would just lick the salsa off. She only needed one chip for the whole meal. It was amazing—she liked it, but after a while tears began running out of her eyes as it was burning her mouth and it began to burn her nose—it’s starting to drip.

Do you know what this Hebrew idiom is? It means this: “nostril burn.” Do you know what it’s saying? My sin makes the nostrils of God burn like red-hot chili peppers. That’s how offensive my sin is to God! That’s how my sin affects God. And yet, God is patient and slow to anger. Do you understand God’s love? Jonah didn’t! He knew the words, but he couldn’t comprehend God’s love. He needed a better understanding.

God’s love is endless. It says here that God’s love is “a steadfast love abounding in steadfast love. . .” Steadfast goodness. Do you know what that means? There is nothing you could ever do – there is no amount of sin you could commit – that would ever depreciate God’s love for you. No matter what you’ve done, no matter who you are, Psalm 136 is a chapter of Scripture that has twenty-six verses, and all twenty-six verses repeat this verse over and over and over: “The steadfast love endures forever. . .” It’s almost as if, about the time we’re about to give up on ourselves, we have to be reminded that God never gives up on us! God’s love is abounding, it is endless. And God’s love is promised. See the word “faithfulness.” God is faithful. God is completely reliable and trustworthy.

Have you ever been disappointed by somebody? Somebody you looked up to, somebody you held in high regard, maybe somebody who treated you well at one point, and then they turned on you? How disappointing that was for you! Do you understand that you will never have that experience with God? He is faithful! He never changes, and His love is not based upon your performance. His love is based on His promise to love you—no matter what you’ve done, no matter how far you’ve run. About the time you are ready to hate yourself, you need to be reminded that God’s love is promised to you!

God’s love is forgiving. We see it here in the passage. He forgives three categories of sin—do you see it there? He forgives iniquity. What is iniquity? That’s an internal bent, an indwelling evil, imputed sin that makes us stray from God, makes us allergic to God. And God forgives that iniquity!

Not only iniquity, but He mentions transgression. Do you know what transgression is? That’s when you step out of bounds; that’s when you’re driving in the wrong lane! You’re going the wrong way on a one-way street—that’s transgression. God forgives that.

Then the third category—do you see it? God forgives sin. Do you know what sin is? Sin in its simplest form is this, it’s missing the mark—like an archer who takes an arrow, loads it in a bow, and he shoots that arrow towards a bulls-eye. He completely misses, not only the bulls-eye, but the target and hits his friend! That’s sin! And God says, “I stand ready to forgive that.” How can God be so compassionate toward people who miss the mark so often. . .and yet God’s love is what He offers to us.

Listen, God’s love is never compromised by God’s justice, but God’s justice is never compromised by His love. God’s love does not compromise His justice. The Scripture says He really will, by no means, clear the guilty. So, which is it, God? Do You forgive or do You punish? The answer is “yes,” and this is the secret to the gospel. This is the reason Jesus came!

Jesus came as a baby, then lived a perfect life for thirty-three years. At the end of His life He allowed Himself to be the substitute, the atonement, for sin—on the cross. On the cross, Jesus experienced the justice of God so that you could experience the love of God. Love and justice arrived in a manger. Love and justice were completed on a cross. God’s love does not compromise His justice. There are consequences for sin. Jesus absorbed that consequence for you.

Here’s the last thing: God’s love demands my worship. How do you respond to that kind of love? “And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.” The only proper response to the love of God is a humility that surrenders in humble worship and says, “God, I am not going to live my life for myself. I am going to worship You completely for all that You are.” Jonah didn’t get it. Jonah didn’t worship. Jonah worshipped himself—which leads to the third thing: Jonah had:

 

• An ulterior purpose for living. (v.3-4)

 

– and he needed a better purpose for living.

Back to Jonah! Flip your Bibles back to Jonah—we have one more verse to look at here in Jonah before we’re done. Here’s Jonah’s response; Scripture says in Jonah 4:3: “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah is a suicidal maniac by this point. He leaves you longing for a better prophet, doesn’t he? Like, “Come on, Jonah! Really? You’d rather die than experience God’s love and see other people experience God’s love?”

The key to understanding this is the little phrase we see there in verse 3. He says, “For it is better for me. . .” Underline that three-word phrase: “better for me.” Do you know that every sin begins with this thought: “What’s better for me?” Jonah lived his life looking for what was better for him. He wasn’t concerned about what was better for God, he wasn’t concerned about what was better for Nineveh, he was concerned about what was better for him.

And he gets to the point—the ultimate act of selfishness—of suicide. He got to the point, “There’s no purpose for living.” He’s talking to the [One Who is the] Purpose for Living and he says, “I have no purpose for living.” It’s the ultimate act of selfishness—when you isolate yourself; when you can only think about yourself, when you care only about yourself, you continually ask, “What’s better for me?” And you get to the point where you think, “It’s better for me to die,” because you have no purpose.

Some of you have gotten to the point where you think, “It’s better for me to divorce.” You’re not thinking what’s best for your kids, what’s best for God, what’s best for your legacy, what’s best for your spouse. “What’s better for me?”

“What’s better for me is to cheat,” because you think you have no chance. “It’s better for me to steal,” because you have no respect for what others worked hard to pay for. “It’s better for me to hoard,” because you have no love and you have no mission beyond yourself. It’s an ulterior purpose for living.

Jonah needed a better purpose for living! Stop living for yourself, Jonah! Start living for others! How about you? Are you living only for yourself? Do you walk through your week looking only for what’s better for you? Why don’t you stop long enough to ask the question, “Hey, maybe it’s not all about me. Maybe it’s about something else.” Stop living your life as if God exists for you!

You were created and exist for God and His mission and His plan for your life. Hey! Can I ask you, as we’ve walked through Jonah, have you been a little disappointed in Jonah? I mean, over and over. . .not a whole lot of compliments in the book of Jonah for Jonah, right? Every time, at every turn, the entire book of Jonah leaves us longing for somebody better! And it’s almost like we want to ask God, “Really? Is that the best You could find? Could you maybe send us a better Jonah?” I’ve got good news! There is a better Jonah. I want you to see him in the New Testament. I want you to turn in your Bible. I know I’m asking you to turn, but you’ve got to it see it—you’ve got to see it! I want you to turn over to Matthew chapter 12. As you get there, let me set it up. . .

Jesus is preaching in the streets, and the most religious self-righteous people come up to Jesus. . .and they’re kind of leaning in, but they’re really skeptical of Who Jesus is—they certainly don’t believe He’s God—but it’s almost as if they give Him a chance. . .like, “Hey! We’ll give you a chance if You can show us a sign!”

So in Matthew 12, look at verse 38: “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” Have you ever been there? Did you ever not know what God wanted you to do? You kind of want to obey God, but you just don’t really know what He wants you to do? Have you ever asked God for a sign: “God, if You would just kind of write it in the sky, if you would give me a fleece, if you would just kind of write me a letter or something—then I would do what You want me to do. I would believe You, if you would just make it a little more obvious.”

Have you ever been there, felt like that? You don’t want to be that guy, because of what Jesus said next in verse 39: “But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given. . .” So, you don’t want to be called an evil person, you don’t want to be called an adulterous person—don’t ask for a sign. However, I want you to notice what Jesus said. . . “There will be no sign given except one.” “Really, there’s a sign?” Yeah there’s a sign that points to Jesus. He says no sign will be given “except the sign of the prophet [who?] Jonah.’” Jonah?! Jonah’s a sign? ‘Way back in the Old Testament? This obscure little book in the Bible? And this disappointing prophet is a sign? Jesus said Jonah is a sign that points straight to Jesus. Do you see what He’s doing?

Jesus is pointing to Jonah and says, “Jonah is pointing to Me. If you really want to believe Me, you had better get your nose in the Book of Jonah.” And do you know what He’s saying: “You’re going to be so disappointed in Jonah, it’s going to leave you longing for a better Prophet. I’m the guy!” He goes on and says, “Notice the similarities between me and Jonah:” “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Do you see the similarities between Jonah and Jesus? Scripture says right here, God sent Jonah and God sent Jesus. That’s what we’ve been celebrating at Christmas.

Secondly, Jonah preached (remember that eight-word sermon?) and Jesus preached. And God brought Jonah out of the belly of the fish—three days and three nights—and God brought Jesus out of the grave—three days, three nights. And Jesus is saying to these self-righteous religious people, “If you really want to know about a better Prophet, it’s me!”

Look at verse 41: “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. . .” –the implication is, “But you guys won’t repent at my preaching,”—but then notice this phrase (it’s the key to understanding the whole Book of Jonah. Jesus concludes with this): “Something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matthew 12:41) Do you want a better Prophet? Do you want to see somebody obey God? You just need to look at Jesus!

Jonah was an inferior savior—Jesus came as the Savior Who could save you and me. Think about it:

 

Jonah fled the presence of God.

Jesus brought the presence of God.

 

We celebrate Christmas around the Name Emmanuel. We’ve even sung it here this morning. Do you know what Emmanuel means? It means, “God with us.” He is here! He has come in the Person of Jesus! Jonah fled the presence of God, Jesus brought the presence of God.

 

Jonah became angry at God, and yet on the cross—

Jesus absorbed the anger of God.

 

 

Jonah would rather die than see sinners experience grace. (Remember he said, “Just kill me; I can’t even stand even to look at these people being forgiven!”)

Jesus would rather die than see sinners experience wrath.

 

 

Jonah reluctantly went to Nineveh as an angry prophet.

Jesus willingly became a Ninevite as an incarnational missionary.

 

Do you understand? You and I are no better than Ninevites—filled with evil, filled with violence. Jonah went, but he went reluctantly. He didn’t want to invest himself there. He didn’t want to live among them, he wanted to get in and get out as quickly as possible. What did Jesus do? Jesus came willingly—obedient to His Father.

Jesus came and became a man. The word “incarnational”—that’s a very important word in Scripture. The incarnation is a doctrine that we celebrate at Christmas. I’ve told you this many times—the word “carne”—you know, about a carnivorous animal, or a carnivore—you go and get chili con carne. . .what are you saying? The word carne means “meat,” and at Christmastime this is what we celebrate, we celebrate the incarnation of Christ. . .Jesus was not a man Who became god (that’s what every other religious system teaches). . .Christianity uniquely teaches this: God became man! In other words, God became “meat.” He became just like you and me. He became one of us! And the Bible says, “We have seen His glory, and He has dwelt among us!”

Jesus lived for thirty-three years experiencing all the pain and the agony. . .and the puberty and the pimples. . .and all of the heartache of living as a human being. . .and never at one time did He ever sin. He was sent by God as a missionary to preach a redemptive message, that all who will embrace the love of God—no matter what they’ve done—can experience a fresh start and a new beginning, and be saved from the justice and the judgment God should rightfully send on them!

That’s what we celebrate at Christmas, and that’s what we’ve got to come and bring to Him—is our worship. . .not trying to intellectually figure that out, not trying to answer every skeptical question—but to just stand in awe of the love of God, that He would want to become like me, to have anything to do with me, and to rescue me from the sinful condemnation that I rightfully deserve.

Do you know it? Do you know the love of God? Have you celebrated the Christmas story by more than just shopping and giving gifts? Listen. Christmas really is about a gift-exchange. It really is. God so loved the world that He gave His Son, Jesus.

You say, “What could we ever give back to Him?” We give back to Him our very lives! Our very nature, our very worship. It’s a gift-exchange. And in that gift-exchange, you make out a lot better than God does. Have you done it? Have you given Him yourself. . .a once-for-all final act of surrender that says, “I am not going to live asking myself the question, ‘What is better for me?’ I’m going to be living to answer the question, ‘What is best for God?’”

Have you done that? If you haven’t, maybe at this time at Christmas it’s a time for you just to fall, as Moses did, in worship. Why don’t we bow our heads for a moment and do just that? If you’ve never had a time in your life when you’ve understood that Jesus came willingly to rescue you, then why don’t you surrender your life to Him right now?

God loves you so much that He is willing to give you Himself. Would you willingly give yourself to Him?