The Radical
Nature & Significance
of Preaching
"Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee."
Jonah 3:2 (KJV)
. . .
In 2018 a Pew Research study was done on the topic of why people go to church. It, of course, followed a study that had found that the number of people going to church on a regular basis had begun to drop off. This study wanted to find out what was keeping people in the church. Among Americans, what was the motive that they had for keeping up with this tradition.
As we might expect, the number one reason why people attended religious services was “to become closer to God.” But some of the other top reasons included things like ensuring that their children had a moral foundation, to become a better person, and for comfort in times of trouble. Some others said that they go in order to be a part of a faith community and some said that they simply feel an obligation to go.
One answer showed that 59% of those surveyed said they went because they found the sermons to be helpful.
I appreciate that almost 60% of the people had a genuine interest in the messages. I am certainly glad that people find them to be “helpful!” And I don't know that there's anything exactly wrong with all the answers. However, I do have some mixed feelings about it. I just wonder if it is the right focus.
I hope that if we were to take this kind of survey, we would be offer an answer that would be a little more substantial. I hope that we could answer in a way that is much less pragmatic. When you go to church I hope you can say, “I go to hear the Word of God.”
Yes, it is an obligation to go to church. Yes, you can get a moral foundation for your children. Yes, it’s good to be a part of a faith community. And, you will certainly grow and become closer to God.
Certainly there are lots of things we could say, but I would hope that one of the top answers (if not the #1 answer) would be that you seek to be present in worship as often as possible because it is there that you hear the Word of God. Even if no one else came or if you didn’t know a soul, you went because in that place you expected to hear what God hath said.
One of the great articles of the Reformed tradition is its focus on the ministry of the Word. Specifically, the proclamation of that word. It has been said that the central part of the worship service is the preaching of God’s Word. While there may be good music and wonderful fellowship, the main event--so to speak-- has always been the preaching of God’s Word. So even if there was not good music, and even if the fellowship was less than desirable, there was still a reason to head off to the church when Sunday rolled around. There in that place the Word of God was going to be proclaimed.
As we come to our passage today, we have an opportunity to reflect on why this is true. We are shown, at least in a small way, why we should not only have a high view of preaching, but (in a practical way) why we should be eager to attend to the preaching of God’s Word.
As Jonah went to Nineveh, he was given an assignment. His mission is really laid out in a very succinct way in verse 2. And what you find in verse 2 is that Jonah had one job. And we could translate the passage like this: He was to proclaim the proclamation that was proclaimed to him.
As we sit here this morning and listen to the word being preached, I want us to learn a little more about the significance of what exactly goes on here.
As we think about Jonah’s ministry in Nineveh, I’d like us first of all to think about the power of preaching.
I. It’s immense power
Last week we noted how Jonah was less than enthusiastic about his mission. God had called him to preach, but he was less than dutiful in fulfilling the job.
We further noted how the word of God spread like wildfire throughout the territory. It was one of the greatest games of telephone that has ever occurred. The Word permeated the countryside as it was passed from neighbor to neighbor. It then spread all through the suburbs. It fanned out through the city, going through each of the streets and the alleyways. People came under great conviction and they all joined together in great acts of humiliation before the Lord.
It was a testimony to how God can cause his word to run swiftly ahead. It was evidence of how ordinary, everyday people can be effective in transmitting the word of God.
But it should not be missed that it all started with a preacher. The epicenter of this great revival was the voice box of Jonah. Ground Zero was not the throne room of the Assyrian king. Not at all. It’s s Jewish man on the outskirts of the realm of Nineveh. It was his proclamation that ignited it all. Reluctant though he be, it was his declaration of the truth that initiated the chain of events.
So, no matter how wonderful it may be to witness how the Word of God advanced, we must not forget that the real force of the event originated in Jonah. It was his preaching the proclamation that had been proclaimed to him that caused the radical shift in society. The fanning out of the word that occurred was merely the wake of Jonah’s preaching campaign. It was merely the blast wave which emanated away from the explosive power of Jonah’s preaching.
To that end, what Jesus says about the Ninevites is noteworthy. He does not say that they repented as a result of friendship evangelism. The men of Nineveh did not turn to God because people gossiped the gospel, as they sometimes call it. Jesus said that they will rise up on the last day and condemn because they repented at Jonah’s preaching.
Why is it important to stress this? It is because people tend to underestimate the power of preaching. People have a low view of preaching. People often want to pursue other things besides the ministry of preaching. And the great fault of the church is that we have such a disregard for preaching and we don’t see it as the powerful thing that it is.
It is not an unfair thing to say. When you look around the church, you will often find symptoms of how preaching is not regarded as the most powerful, most desirable ministry that we have.
One of the testimonies to this is the decline of the evening worship service. Having morning and evening worship used to be a standard thing among the churches of God. It wasn’t because people missed morning services and they could make it up in the evening. It wasn’t because there was a Bible verse that said you should attend church twice on a Sunday. It was because they understood the power of preaching. They knew it had a transformative effect upon them. They understood that the proclamation of God’s word would mold and shape them. It would have an effectual power upon them to bring them into line with God’s and his Law. So they held the public proclamation of God’s Word in such high regard. And they were motivated to come out twice to church to listen to it.
Similarly, in recent years the stress has been laid on small groups. Churches emphasize getting into a home group or particular bible study or Sunday school class. There has actually been in the last 30-40 years a proliferation of Bible studies. And sometimes you will hear people actually say that “that is where the real ministry happens.”
While Bible studies are wonderful and certainly have their place, we should recognize that they do not measure up to the proclamation of God’s Word. As a matter of fact, as you look through the New Testament, you find the emphasis is always on preaching.
We call him John the Baptist, but he was more of a preacher than he was a baptizer. It was his preaching that lead people to be baptized.
Jesus spent the majority of his time giving sermons. He went from city to city, synagogue to synagogue preaching and teaching. When he could not get into a synagogue, he used a field or the shore of a lake. His focus was always on preaching.
The same can be said of Paul. He even said that he came not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Indeed, he gloried in the foolishness of preaching. Why? Because it was the “Power of God.” By it God destroys “the wisdom of the wise.”
Likewise, Paul told Timothy to “Preach the Word.” Timothy was to preach it in season and out of season. In other words, he was to preach it all the time. Why? Because it was the most effective way of convincing and converting sinners. There is no greater way of building the saints up than by means of preaching.
All of this is to remind you of how much you should crave and desire the preaching of God’s Word. It should remind you of the high regard you should have for preaching. Most of all, you should not doubt how great an effect it can have upon you. There are a lot of good things in the church that can help you grow. But the one thing that will help the most is sitting under the ministry of the word. Doing it as often as you can and taking in as much as you can, that will be more edifying to your soul than anything else.
The Word of God has power when it is proclaimed. And we should not underestimate what really happens when the word of God is preached. It may not be as dramatic as what happened there in Nineveh, but its impact is just as certain. God speaks. God acts. God works. God moves. And it all happens when the word of God is declared.
That’s the first thing to take to heart then. We need to understand the power of preaching. But I also want you to take note of something else in our text. The passage before us also helps us to understand the nature of preaching.
II. Its emotional nature
We just said that preaching has power. But what else can we say it? Well, I want you to understand that preaching is unique. It is not just any old proclamation, it’s a special kind of proclamation. It has power, but it also has emotion. It has vigor. You can say that it has heat that it produces.
Sometimes it is asked, “What is the difference between teaching and preaching?” And the answer to that is “If you must ask, then you probably have not experienced good preaching.”
Others have said that preaching is “doctrine on fire.” It is not just a doctrinal dissertation. It is not just where people sit in pews and you as a minister download information to them. It is much more than that. It involves much more. Specifically, it involves the heart.
Then there was the old baptist who sat in the back pew and said, “The preacher’s stopped preaching and gone a meddling.”
The Lord says to Jonah, “Go to Nineveh, that city and preach to it the preaching that I bid thee.” If you have the ESV it says, “Go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it.”
The word in Hebrew is qara, which means to make a loud declaration. You could also translate it as “to cry.” Not the kind of crying that means shedding tears and weeping softly to yourself. It’s the kind of crying out that rushes out of you; think of the kind of yelling a child may do when he’s in agony.
The idea is that Jonah is not just to speak or project his voice. He’s to speaking earnestly. It’s an intense speaking. It’s loud, maybe even shrill.
As a matter of fact, the same word is used in verse 8 to describe how the people of Nineveh are to call out to God. You understand that the Ninevites, when they hear Jonah’s message, they are cut to the heart. They are fearful for their lives. They believe that a cataclysmic judgment is going to fall upon them. So they don’t just pray to God. They don’t just say, “Hey, I’d really like to get through this.” They make a loud proclamation to God. They are crying out because they are in agony. They are making a proclamation of their intense sorrow and fear. There’s real verve in the words because they need mercy!
This is part of what makes preaching unique. It is what oftentimes separates it from simple teaching. In teaching you convey information. You relay the facts that need to be known. In preaching you not only relay the information, you attempt to speak with heart. That’s because you are speaking to the hearts of others. You sometimes have to get worked up. Sometimes you have to be a little loud. You need to get real serious and invoke warnings.
There is a quote that I came across. It is from a guy by the name of Henderson. It goes like this:
“Such earnestness becomes a ministry that has to do with immortal souls, asleep and dead in sin, hanging on the brink of perdition, and insensible of their state. The soft speaking, gentle toned, unmoved preacher, is never likely to awaken souls.” [ Henderson, cited from the footnote in Calvin’s Commentary, ]
So understand this when you are listening to a message. Understand this when you are critiquing a sermons. There could be the temptation to say, “Well, the old guy got a little worked up up there today.” They can say that out of annoyance or maybe a little embarrassment. He’s just so emotional.
But understand this: When a man speaks from the pulpit, he speaks about the issues of life and death. He deals with that which pleases God and that which provokes Him. He’s responsible for the souls under his care. And some of them may be on the brink of hell. Deep inside he does not know if he will see them next week. And this may be their last time to turn to Christ for mercy.
And you might want to say, “Well, the old preacher got a little worked up today, didn’t he?” Well, indeed he did. And that’s just part of what may happen when someone is truly preaching the word of God.
To grasp the importance of preaching, you must understand its power and its nature. But there is one more item to factor in. And that it is its substance.
III. Its limited substance
I don’t think it should be missed that there were very specific parameters to Jonah’s preaching. Jonah was not allowed to proclaim anything he wanted. As a prophet and ambassador of God he he had a set message. He was to proclaim the proclamation that the Lord proclaimed to him.
In other words, Jonah could only speak that which God had spoken. What was revealed to him was to be revealed by him. Nothing more, nothing less.
And we see in the following verses exactly what that message was. In this particular instance, God had a message of judgment. “Yet 40 Days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” That was Jonah’s message at that particular moment.
But as we look at this, we understand something about the nature of preaching. Preaching is, at its core, a declaration of God’s Word. It is proclaiming what God himself has first proclaimed. You understand that when a man stands in a pulpit he has one duty. He has a script that he is to go by. He is to declare what God has said. It is to be God’s Word and only God’s Word.
And this is where a lot of preaching today goes awry and fails to actually become a true proclamation of God’s Word. It is because it leaps beyond the Scripture and is not confined to the truth of what God has revealed.
This is why a lot of preaching has turned into talks on life management. What happens is that someone will get up and talk about how to cope with different problems that people may face. You have stress. You have emotional upheaval. You have challenges that you face in the workplace and with your health. So the preacher thinks it is his responsibility to help you cope with these problems. And a lot of times what the guy up front is doing is taking certain prompts from the world of psychology or he will attempt to give you some basic tips on how to live.
This is not truly preaching. For it is not a real declaration of God and his Word. That guy has gone beyond the Word, picking up ideas from the world around him. He has not taken his ques from God, but from the “perceived needs” or what they used to call “felt needs.”
That’s certainly not what Jonah was doing. Jonah didn’t look around and say, “These Assyrians could really use some lessons in anger management. They really are a violent people and they would be much better off if they just learned some basic principles of how to express themselves. Maybe some breathing techniques would really help them.”
No. When Jonah came to them, he came declaring God’s Word. As a result, he confronted their sin and brought them something much greater than personal reform. He brought them to faith in the Lord.
You understand that we do not use the bible as a springboard for what we want to say. We do not try to pick and choose what we want to say from the Bible. Nor do we try to add to it. We simply are to let the Scriptures dictate the message, fill the message, and guide the message.
And, when this is faithfully done, you should recognize what is coming to you. You understand something of the sanctity and the gravity of that moment. When the Scriptures are explained rightly, it is as if God himself is speaking. There is something truly transcendent about it. It is not merely an explanation of what the Bible says. It is not simply a Bible lesson. It is a proclamation of God himself.
Perhaps this is one of those reasons why people do not really grasp how meaningful and now important the sermon is. Maybe people would be more ready to attend worship if they understood what exactly was happening when it comes time for the sermon.
And if someone asks you, “What did you do at church today?” You should be able to respond by saying, “I heard the Word of God.” But you might also say, “I heard God speak; God spoke to me.”
Conclusion:
In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul talks about his ministry as an apostle. He says of himself and his fellow preachers, “We are the ambassadors of Christ, inasmuch as God is making his appeal through us. We implore you, be reconciled to God.”
In those words he expresses all that we find here in Jonah. As an ambassador the minister of God fulfills a roll. He speaks on behalf of God. And he speaks for God because he is speaking God’s message.
And he speaks with fervor. He implores. He begs. He pleads. He cries out from his heart one thing: the call to be reconciled.
And he does so because that is the most effective way to achieve that very thing. He speaks because he knows the power of it. In declaring the word of God, souls will be turned to God.
Why is it that you go to church? Why should you want to go to church? It is because there you will find someone who proclaims the proclamation that God had proclaimed to him.
As we might expect, the number one reason why people attended religious services was “to become closer to God.” But some of the other top reasons included things like ensuring that their children had a moral foundation, to become a better person, and for comfort in times of trouble. Some others said that they go in order to be a part of a faith community and some said that they simply feel an obligation to go.
One answer showed that 59% of those surveyed said they went because they found the sermons to be helpful.
I appreciate that almost 60% of the people had a genuine interest in the messages. I am certainly glad that people find them to be “helpful!” And I don't know that there's anything exactly wrong with all the answers. However, I do have some mixed feelings about it. I just wonder if it is the right focus.
I hope that if we were to take this kind of survey, we would be offer an answer that would be a little more substantial. I hope that we could answer in a way that is much less pragmatic. When you go to church I hope you can say, “I go to hear the Word of God.”
Yes, it is an obligation to go to church. Yes, you can get a moral foundation for your children. Yes, it’s good to be a part of a faith community. And, you will certainly grow and become closer to God.
Certainly there are lots of things we could say, but I would hope that one of the top answers (if not the #1 answer) would be that you seek to be present in worship as often as possible because it is there that you hear the Word of God. Even if no one else came or if you didn’t know a soul, you went because in that place you expected to hear what God hath said.
One of the great articles of the Reformed tradition is its focus on the ministry of the Word. Specifically, the proclamation of that word. It has been said that the central part of the worship service is the preaching of God’s Word. While there may be good music and wonderful fellowship, the main event--so to speak-- has always been the preaching of God’s Word. So even if there was not good music, and even if the fellowship was less than desirable, there was still a reason to head off to the church when Sunday rolled around. There in that place the Word of God was going to be proclaimed.
As we come to our passage today, we have an opportunity to reflect on why this is true. We are shown, at least in a small way, why we should not only have a high view of preaching, but (in a practical way) why we should be eager to attend to the preaching of God’s Word.
As Jonah went to Nineveh, he was given an assignment. His mission is really laid out in a very succinct way in verse 2. And what you find in verse 2 is that Jonah had one job. And we could translate the passage like this: He was to proclaim the proclamation that was proclaimed to him.
As we sit here this morning and listen to the word being preached, I want us to learn a little more about the significance of what exactly goes on here.
As we think about Jonah’s ministry in Nineveh, I’d like us first of all to think about the power of preaching.
I. It’s immense power
Last week we noted how Jonah was less than enthusiastic about his mission. God had called him to preach, but he was less than dutiful in fulfilling the job.
We further noted how the word of God spread like wildfire throughout the territory. It was one of the greatest games of telephone that has ever occurred. The Word permeated the countryside as it was passed from neighbor to neighbor. It then spread all through the suburbs. It fanned out through the city, going through each of the streets and the alleyways. People came under great conviction and they all joined together in great acts of humiliation before the Lord.
It was a testimony to how God can cause his word to run swiftly ahead. It was evidence of how ordinary, everyday people can be effective in transmitting the word of God.
But it should not be missed that it all started with a preacher. The epicenter of this great revival was the voice box of Jonah. Ground Zero was not the throne room of the Assyrian king. Not at all. It’s s Jewish man on the outskirts of the realm of Nineveh. It was his proclamation that ignited it all. Reluctant though he be, it was his declaration of the truth that initiated the chain of events.
So, no matter how wonderful it may be to witness how the Word of God advanced, we must not forget that the real force of the event originated in Jonah. It was his preaching the proclamation that had been proclaimed to him that caused the radical shift in society. The fanning out of the word that occurred was merely the wake of Jonah’s preaching campaign. It was merely the blast wave which emanated away from the explosive power of Jonah’s preaching.
To that end, what Jesus says about the Ninevites is noteworthy. He does not say that they repented as a result of friendship evangelism. The men of Nineveh did not turn to God because people gossiped the gospel, as they sometimes call it. Jesus said that they will rise up on the last day and condemn because they repented at Jonah’s preaching.
Why is it important to stress this? It is because people tend to underestimate the power of preaching. People have a low view of preaching. People often want to pursue other things besides the ministry of preaching. And the great fault of the church is that we have such a disregard for preaching and we don’t see it as the powerful thing that it is.
It is not an unfair thing to say. When you look around the church, you will often find symptoms of how preaching is not regarded as the most powerful, most desirable ministry that we have.
One of the testimonies to this is the decline of the evening worship service. Having morning and evening worship used to be a standard thing among the churches of God. It wasn’t because people missed morning services and they could make it up in the evening. It wasn’t because there was a Bible verse that said you should attend church twice on a Sunday. It was because they understood the power of preaching. They knew it had a transformative effect upon them. They understood that the proclamation of God’s word would mold and shape them. It would have an effectual power upon them to bring them into line with God’s and his Law. So they held the public proclamation of God’s Word in such high regard. And they were motivated to come out twice to church to listen to it.
Similarly, in recent years the stress has been laid on small groups. Churches emphasize getting into a home group or particular bible study or Sunday school class. There has actually been in the last 30-40 years a proliferation of Bible studies. And sometimes you will hear people actually say that “that is where the real ministry happens.”
While Bible studies are wonderful and certainly have their place, we should recognize that they do not measure up to the proclamation of God’s Word. As a matter of fact, as you look through the New Testament, you find the emphasis is always on preaching.
We call him John the Baptist, but he was more of a preacher than he was a baptizer. It was his preaching that lead people to be baptized.
Jesus spent the majority of his time giving sermons. He went from city to city, synagogue to synagogue preaching and teaching. When he could not get into a synagogue, he used a field or the shore of a lake. His focus was always on preaching.
The same can be said of Paul. He even said that he came not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Indeed, he gloried in the foolishness of preaching. Why? Because it was the “Power of God.” By it God destroys “the wisdom of the wise.”
Likewise, Paul told Timothy to “Preach the Word.” Timothy was to preach it in season and out of season. In other words, he was to preach it all the time. Why? Because it was the most effective way of convincing and converting sinners. There is no greater way of building the saints up than by means of preaching.
All of this is to remind you of how much you should crave and desire the preaching of God’s Word. It should remind you of the high regard you should have for preaching. Most of all, you should not doubt how great an effect it can have upon you. There are a lot of good things in the church that can help you grow. But the one thing that will help the most is sitting under the ministry of the word. Doing it as often as you can and taking in as much as you can, that will be more edifying to your soul than anything else.
The Word of God has power when it is proclaimed. And we should not underestimate what really happens when the word of God is preached. It may not be as dramatic as what happened there in Nineveh, but its impact is just as certain. God speaks. God acts. God works. God moves. And it all happens when the word of God is declared.
That’s the first thing to take to heart then. We need to understand the power of preaching. But I also want you to take note of something else in our text. The passage before us also helps us to understand the nature of preaching.
II. Its emotional nature
We just said that preaching has power. But what else can we say it? Well, I want you to understand that preaching is unique. It is not just any old proclamation, it’s a special kind of proclamation. It has power, but it also has emotion. It has vigor. You can say that it has heat that it produces.
Sometimes it is asked, “What is the difference between teaching and preaching?” And the answer to that is “If you must ask, then you probably have not experienced good preaching.”
Others have said that preaching is “doctrine on fire.” It is not just a doctrinal dissertation. It is not just where people sit in pews and you as a minister download information to them. It is much more than that. It involves much more. Specifically, it involves the heart.
Then there was the old baptist who sat in the back pew and said, “The preacher’s stopped preaching and gone a meddling.”
The Lord says to Jonah, “Go to Nineveh, that city and preach to it the preaching that I bid thee.” If you have the ESV it says, “Go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it.”
The word in Hebrew is qara, which means to make a loud declaration. You could also translate it as “to cry.” Not the kind of crying that means shedding tears and weeping softly to yourself. It’s the kind of crying out that rushes out of you; think of the kind of yelling a child may do when he’s in agony.
The idea is that Jonah is not just to speak or project his voice. He’s to speaking earnestly. It’s an intense speaking. It’s loud, maybe even shrill.
As a matter of fact, the same word is used in verse 8 to describe how the people of Nineveh are to call out to God. You understand that the Ninevites, when they hear Jonah’s message, they are cut to the heart. They are fearful for their lives. They believe that a cataclysmic judgment is going to fall upon them. So they don’t just pray to God. They don’t just say, “Hey, I’d really like to get through this.” They make a loud proclamation to God. They are crying out because they are in agony. They are making a proclamation of their intense sorrow and fear. There’s real verve in the words because they need mercy!
This is part of what makes preaching unique. It is what oftentimes separates it from simple teaching. In teaching you convey information. You relay the facts that need to be known. In preaching you not only relay the information, you attempt to speak with heart. That’s because you are speaking to the hearts of others. You sometimes have to get worked up. Sometimes you have to be a little loud. You need to get real serious and invoke warnings.
There is a quote that I came across. It is from a guy by the name of Henderson. It goes like this:
“Such earnestness becomes a ministry that has to do with immortal souls, asleep and dead in sin, hanging on the brink of perdition, and insensible of their state. The soft speaking, gentle toned, unmoved preacher, is never likely to awaken souls.” [ Henderson, cited from the footnote in Calvin’s Commentary, ]
So understand this when you are listening to a message. Understand this when you are critiquing a sermons. There could be the temptation to say, “Well, the old guy got a little worked up up there today.” They can say that out of annoyance or maybe a little embarrassment. He’s just so emotional.
But understand this: When a man speaks from the pulpit, he speaks about the issues of life and death. He deals with that which pleases God and that which provokes Him. He’s responsible for the souls under his care. And some of them may be on the brink of hell. Deep inside he does not know if he will see them next week. And this may be their last time to turn to Christ for mercy.
And you might want to say, “Well, the old preacher got a little worked up today, didn’t he?” Well, indeed he did. And that’s just part of what may happen when someone is truly preaching the word of God.
To grasp the importance of preaching, you must understand its power and its nature. But there is one more item to factor in. And that it is its substance.
III. Its limited substance
I don’t think it should be missed that there were very specific parameters to Jonah’s preaching. Jonah was not allowed to proclaim anything he wanted. As a prophet and ambassador of God he he had a set message. He was to proclaim the proclamation that the Lord proclaimed to him.
In other words, Jonah could only speak that which God had spoken. What was revealed to him was to be revealed by him. Nothing more, nothing less.
And we see in the following verses exactly what that message was. In this particular instance, God had a message of judgment. “Yet 40 Days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” That was Jonah’s message at that particular moment.
But as we look at this, we understand something about the nature of preaching. Preaching is, at its core, a declaration of God’s Word. It is proclaiming what God himself has first proclaimed. You understand that when a man stands in a pulpit he has one duty. He has a script that he is to go by. He is to declare what God has said. It is to be God’s Word and only God’s Word.
And this is where a lot of preaching today goes awry and fails to actually become a true proclamation of God’s Word. It is because it leaps beyond the Scripture and is not confined to the truth of what God has revealed.
This is why a lot of preaching has turned into talks on life management. What happens is that someone will get up and talk about how to cope with different problems that people may face. You have stress. You have emotional upheaval. You have challenges that you face in the workplace and with your health. So the preacher thinks it is his responsibility to help you cope with these problems. And a lot of times what the guy up front is doing is taking certain prompts from the world of psychology or he will attempt to give you some basic tips on how to live.
This is not truly preaching. For it is not a real declaration of God and his Word. That guy has gone beyond the Word, picking up ideas from the world around him. He has not taken his ques from God, but from the “perceived needs” or what they used to call “felt needs.”
That’s certainly not what Jonah was doing. Jonah didn’t look around and say, “These Assyrians could really use some lessons in anger management. They really are a violent people and they would be much better off if they just learned some basic principles of how to express themselves. Maybe some breathing techniques would really help them.”
No. When Jonah came to them, he came declaring God’s Word. As a result, he confronted their sin and brought them something much greater than personal reform. He brought them to faith in the Lord.
You understand that we do not use the bible as a springboard for what we want to say. We do not try to pick and choose what we want to say from the Bible. Nor do we try to add to it. We simply are to let the Scriptures dictate the message, fill the message, and guide the message.
And, when this is faithfully done, you should recognize what is coming to you. You understand something of the sanctity and the gravity of that moment. When the Scriptures are explained rightly, it is as if God himself is speaking. There is something truly transcendent about it. It is not merely an explanation of what the Bible says. It is not simply a Bible lesson. It is a proclamation of God himself.
Perhaps this is one of those reasons why people do not really grasp how meaningful and now important the sermon is. Maybe people would be more ready to attend worship if they understood what exactly was happening when it comes time for the sermon.
And if someone asks you, “What did you do at church today?” You should be able to respond by saying, “I heard the Word of God.” But you might also say, “I heard God speak; God spoke to me.”
Conclusion:
In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul talks about his ministry as an apostle. He says of himself and his fellow preachers, “We are the ambassadors of Christ, inasmuch as God is making his appeal through us. We implore you, be reconciled to God.”
In those words he expresses all that we find here in Jonah. As an ambassador the minister of God fulfills a roll. He speaks on behalf of God. And he speaks for God because he is speaking God’s message.
And he speaks with fervor. He implores. He begs. He pleads. He cries out from his heart one thing: the call to be reconciled.
And he does so because that is the most effective way to achieve that very thing. He speaks because he knows the power of it. In declaring the word of God, souls will be turned to God.
Why is it that you go to church? Why should you want to go to church? It is because there you will find someone who proclaims the proclamation that God had proclaimed to him.