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Dec 17, 2017

Enter into the ministry of reconciliation

Enter into the ministry of reconciliation

Passage: Jonah 3:1-10

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Enter In: An Advent Series in Jonah

How many stories do you know center on reconciliation--of people, families, nations, or worlds? How has reconciliation of any sort shaped your story--or how might it be different had it happened? One could argue the whole of the Bible is a story about reconciliation--between God and humanity, between persons, and between humanity and the truth about itself. Jonah the prophet mostly recedes into the background in chapter 3, leaving the recipients of his message at the forefront. At center stage though is lessons in God’s reconciliation.

Theme:     How many stories do you know center on reconciliation--of people, families, nations, or worlds? How has reconciliation of any sort shaped your story--or how might it be different had it happened? One could argue the whole of the Bible is a story about reconciliation--between God and humanity, between persons, and between humanity and the truth about itself. Jonah the prophet mostly recedes into the background in chapter 3, leaving the recipients of his message at the forefront. At center stage though is lessons in God’s reconciliation.

The Third Week in Advent
(the beginning of the Christian Calendar)
Gaudete (“Rejoice!”) Sunday

Order of Worship

Call To Worship (Advent Candle Lighting): Psalm 146:5-10
Reading: Old Testament: Isaiah 55:6-11
Reading: New Testament: Romans 10:14-17
Corporate Confession of Sin (see readings below)
Assurance of Pardon: Romans 5:10-11
Central Text: Jonah 3
Sermon Title: Enter into the ministry of reconciliation
Response: Communion
Benediction: Numbers 6:24-26

12.17.17 Lyrics

12.17.17 Slides

Readings/Scriptures

Call To Worship: Psalm 146:5-10
LEADER/LIGHTER: The third candle on the Advent wreath is called the Shepherds' candle. It remembers the first in a long line of people who joyfully shared the good news of the Savior's birth. The candle is a different color, reminding us that our period of waiting is half over.

LEADER/LIGHTER: 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; 7 who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

PEOPLE: 10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!

 Reading: Old Testament: Isaiah 55:6-11

6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Reading: New Testament: Romans 10:14-17

How then will they 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 comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Corporate Confession of Sin:

Father of mercies, we confess that we have sinned against you. By your Holy Spirit, come and work repentance into our hearts. Help us to see you as you are: with outstretched arms, a loving heart, and power to save. Help us to see Jesus, the friend of sinners, and to follow him more faithfully. As we have received him, so strengthen us to walk in him, depend on him, commune with him, and be conformed to him. Give us an experience of your grace that makes us bold for others, that we might joyfully tell our friends and neighbors of your saving mercy. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: Romans 5:10-11

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Central Text: Jonah 3

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 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. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 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.

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Benediction: Numbers 6:24-26
Leader: May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; may the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace
People: Amen

Post-Service Text: James 2:13
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Related Scriptures:

  • Luke 1:46-55
  • Luke 11:39-32
  • 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
  • 2 Corinthians 7:5-13

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. Retell the chapter in your own words. What happens? What strikes you as important, odd, or bewildering?
  2. Did Jonah do just as he was told? Make your case.
  3. Why might have Nineveh’s new belief in God, in response to Jonah’s warning, expressed itself in fasting and dressing in sackcloth?
  4. Explain this distinction: Jonah 3 shows us the marks of being reconciled to God; Jesus shows us the means to it.
  5. Neither the crewmen who call out to God in chapter 1, nor the Ninevites who show contrition in chapter 3 acts with any presumption that God will show them mercy. How can we be confident in His willingness to extend mercy without being presumptuous? How might we know if presumption has overtaken us?

Extra Credit: When does God show mercy: before or after we acknowledge our error(s)? What do you see in the account of Jonah so far to make your case?

Quotes:

We live in darkness. People know this by the time they turn 21; if they don’t, they’re seriously disturbed. - @ANNELAMOTT

Coming into the kingdom
I was like a man grown old in banishment,
a creature of hearsay and habit, prayerless, porous, a survivor of myself.
Coming into the kingdom
I was like a man stealing into freedom when the tyrant dies,
if freedom is freedom where there are no eyes to obstruct it,
if the cold desert and the hard crossing were still regions of me.
I remember unremembered mountains, unspeakable weeds,
a million scents and sights I did not recognize
though they flowed through me like a land I inhabited long before belonging or belief. . . .  -  Christian Wiman, “Coming into the Kingdom”

Find someone who disagrees with you and invite them to your table. . . .Give them a platform. . . .You challenge them. But you don't challenge them rudely or violently. You do it politely and intelligently. And when you do things that way chances are they will reciprocate and give you a platform. So he and I would sit down and listen to one another over a period of time. And the cement that held his ideas together began to get cracks in it. And then it began to crumble. And then it fell apart. - Daryl Davis

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