Going After Strays

Pastor Roger Spradlin looks at the role of the shepherds in the Christmas story.

Sometimes our life gets off track a little. Jonah’s life got off track majorly. The reality is sometimes that’s us as well. When our life does get off track, the big question is this: How do we get back on track? How do we start over? That’s what Jonah 3 is all about.

Jonah chapter 2 is a record of Jonah’s prayer. Jonah has been swallowed by a huge fish and thinks he’s going to die. He’s slowly being digested alive and he cries out from the belly of the grave… and God hears his voice! God often uses a crisis to drive us to pray to focus our attention upon His Word.

God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach and Jonah says no way and he runs in the opposite direction. We read that and we’re tempted to think, well that’s too bad he made his choice. God said do this and he stood at the fork in the road, and he chose wrong that’s the end of the story, but it’s not. Because God is determined to perform His will not just in Jonah’s life… but in my life… in your life. God continues to work His will even when we resist!

All of us are prone to wander from, and even resist God at times. Jonah was not doing the right thing and now he’s caught. The message of the Gospel is for you and I, for people like us who have messed up, for people like Jonah who have blown it, and ran from God. The whole don’t need the physician, but the sick, Jesus said. And at this point, Jonah was spiritually sick, but he didn’t seem willing to admit it. Jonah just told them throw me overboard!

Are we really that much different from Jonah? Sometimes sadly some are not! As Christians, we should examine ourselves in light of the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 2… and really, it’s not just the nations, it’s our neighbors Because it was not simply about Jonah going to Mosul. It was about going and taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth to all the peoples of the earth.

The book of Jonah is not primarily about Jonah running from God. It’s not about a great storm. It’s not even about a great fish, or a great revival at Nineveh. The key is what the story tells us about the nature of God!

Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is at the bottom of that precarious situation you’ve put yourself in… that mess that you can’t clean up… and His arms are open ready to catch you. Are you willing to trust Him like a child?... realizing you can’t fix your life… but trusting that He can. Will you jump to Jesus in faith right now?

Jesus loves paying off people’s debt. He paid Peter’s Temple tax, but He offers you so much more right now. He wants to pay your debt of sin. That trillion dollar sin debt… He paid for it on the cross. But it only applies to you if you receive Him, if you trust Him. If you turn from your sin and you turn to Him in faith.

In Matthew 17, a father brings his son who is demon possessed to the disciples to be able to deliver the boy. They fail to meet those expectations and sadly, could not cast the demon out. Our culture still brings people who need help to the church today. They bring the helpless, the hapless, the hopeless and lay them at the feet of the church and we are to minister to them in the name of an absentee Lord. Sadly, we will not touch the culture because of our religious agendas, our words, or our debates… The culture asks why can’t you cast it out? ONLY JESUS CAN DO THAT! There must be a sense of dependence upon Him.