The Word of God
Most of us are familiar with the Great Commission, let me read the verses at the end of Matthew 28:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Over the years I have heard many sermons preached on this passage, and the vast majority focus on the word GO. We hear from preachers that the emphasis is on the going, we hear examples like Peter stepping out of the boat and we use the phrase – “if you want to walk on water, you’ve got to step out of the boat.” We rightly recognise that if we sit still and do nothing, then the Word of God doesn’t spread and is not proclaimed to the nations. However, we wrongly put the emphasis on the action of going! You see that emphasis places huge significant on us, and what we will do. It therefore reduces the focus on the Word of God and what it can do.
With help from the book of Jonah, I want to show each of us that the emphasis in Gospel ministry, is not in fact on the going, but on the very Words of God themselves! In taking Gospel ministry seriously, we must place the emphasis on the Word, or we could be in danger of becoming loud mouths with nothing significant to say!
1. It is the Word of God that sends!
Consider Jonah 1:1-2 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city”
The phrase “the word of the Lord came to” occurs over 100 times in the Old Testament and tends to introduce some form of divine communication to a prophet. What I mean by a prophet is a divinely chosen individual, who God has tasked to give a specific message to his people. Usually, a message of blessing or of judgement. Notice what the Word does here in Jonah, the Word sends – “Arise, go to Nineveh.” Jonah was static, he was in one place, until the Word of God told him to get up and go. If it was not for the Word of God sending, Jonah would have stayed in the same place. If it was not for the Word of God sending, we would likely have little knowledge of who Jonah was.
When we reflect on this and apply it to the great commission, that command of God to go out to all the people and proclaim the Gospel, so that all mankind have the opportunity to know their creator, we find an important lesson. If it were not for the Word of God sending, we would remain static, we would remain where we are and think little of what is further than our own social boundaries. For it is the Word of God that captivates the heart in such a way that we are sent into all communities and nations to preach the Gospel. It is not the going that motivates, it’s the Word that motivates the going.
2. It is the Word of God that expects obedience!
Consider Jonah 3:1-2 “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city”
Jonah chapter 1 was wonderfully read to us just a few moments ago. It would be true to say that the Word of God motivated Jonah to go, yet instead of going where the Word commanded, he went in the opposite direction. Oh, he certainly went, he went as far away from the Word as he possibly could go. Jonah showed a head strong naivety. He thought he could outrun the Word of God, yet he soon found himself against the creator God Himself. It is the creator God who can command the wind, the waters, and the animals of the sea, orchestrating the turnaround of the disobedient Jonah.
By the time we get to chapter 3, Jonah has been cast out into the sea, has been swallowed by a large fish, has repented from his sin and has been spat out onto a beach – quite an ordeal to go through. Look at the Word of God that comes after such an ordeal, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city.” The Word has not changed, for the word of God expects obedience. Jonah has not fulfilled the task, so the same Word is given, get up and go, do what I command, be obedient to my Word. And that is exactly what happened next, Jonah 3:3 “So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh.”
The Word of God is compelling, when the Word commands, we are to obey. It is more than simple duty; our obedience speaks of our love for the Word of God. John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Apply this principle to the great commission, if we place the emphasis on the Go, we are in danger of becoming like Jonah, no longer static, but utterly useless to Gospel ministry! For it is not hard to get up and go, we do it every day, you are all living testaments of going, because you all got up and came here today. We must place the emphasis on what the Word of God commands, not simply on the go. The great commission commands us to preach the Gospel, to baptise, to teach the Word of God and to do so without prejudice to background or location. We are commanded to take the Gospel to both local communities and global nations. If the emphasis was on the go, well we could simply enjoy a nice holiday on the Mediterranean coast. We must recognise, that is not what the Word of God commands!
3. It is the Word of God that declares!
Consider Jonah 3:4 “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
When Jonah finally grasped that the Word of God was sending him, and obedience was expected, we see that the Word of God comes again, this time with the communication that is to be declared. These are not the words of Jonah; these are the words of God! Nineveh, the great city has been found wanting. They are dead in their sin, and in forty days that death would become a reality. Yet in this declaration there is hope! For now, they know, they have an opportunity to change their ways and find themselves under the blessing of God rather than His wrath.
When we take the great commission seriously, we will see that we have no words of our own to declare. We have something exponentially better; we have the Word of God to declare. Romans 10:13-15 “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 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!”
You can see the picture building, can’t you? The Word of God sends us out, the Word of God expects our obedience, and the Word of God gives what we are to declare – the good news of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something, if you are declaring anything else other than the good news of Jesus, you are declaring something that holds no hope, no power, no authority, and no salvation. It is the Word of God we declare, for it is the Word of God that holds eternal significance.
4. It is the Word of God that transforms!
Consider Jonah 3:6-10 “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.” 10 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.”
Do you think if Jonah declared something else, other than the Word of God, that it would have had similar reactions? Jonah would have just been a man, a bit bedraggled, shouting loud about nothing worth listening to. However, when he declares the Word of God, from the highest, being the King, to the lowest, being the citizens of Nineveh, we get an immediate and extreme reaction.
The response of the Ninevites was immediate, they believed God and put their belief into action by fasting and putting on sackcloth. Both actions were Old Testament signs of Humility, grief, and true repentance. Consider Nehemiah 9:1-2: “Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.”
The king recognises that full repentance is needed. He orders all people into a fast and to be covered with sackcloth. More than that he commands all to cry out to God in urgent prayer, to stop all evil and violence. The King understands that it can’t just be about stopping the evil actions, but their hearts need to change! Just like the ship’s captain and the crew in chapter 1, the King also knows that God has the freedom to do as he pleases, but he hopes through their repentance and pleading that God will relent and show compassion, letting them live rather than being destroyed. It reminds me of a verse that we are quoting a lot during this Coronavirus pandemic. 2 Chronicles 7:14 – “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” God blesses those who humbly come before him in repentance, and that blessing is complete transformation.
Returning to the Great Commission, if the emphasis is only on the go, we have little expectation of anything meaningful happening. However, if we place the emphasis on the Word of God, we can be expectant of Gospel transformation. For the Word of God does not return void, it carries power to change even the vilest of sinners into righteous children of God. The Word of God is central to this transformation.
5. It is the Word that is central to Gospel Ministry!
Consider Jonah 3:10 “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.”
The Word of God sent Jonah to the Ninevites. The Word of God when obeyed, declared both destruction and hope. The Word of God transformed the openly sinning Ninevites to a repentant and humble nation. All of this led to the salvation of the Ninevites! What is central to Gospel Ministry? The Word of God!
Well, if Jonah has taught us that the Word of God is central to ministry, how do we begin to understand that in our own context, as New Testament Christians, as followers of King Jesus?
Scripture, being the word of God, is not just what we read in the text we have in front of us, but in fact the person of Jesus Christ. John, in writing Revelation, sees the image of the great warrior Jesus and says in Revelation 19:13, “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.” It is not the first time that John attributes the word of God to Jesus. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” If we just a go a few verses later in verse 14, John states “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” You see the word of God is not just the text in our Bibles but is in fact Jesus himself. When we read the Bible, we read the words of God, but more than that, as John Stott wrote, “The Bible is the portrait of Jesus.” As we read the Bible, we see Jesus.
The ultimate plan of God’s word is to point us to the great salvation we receive in Jesus. When you walk through God’s word, you will see the truly awesome salvation plan that everything points to.
Point 1 – We are God’s creation - (Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth)
Point 2 – The fall of man - (Genesis 3:13 - Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate)
Point 3 – We are all sinners - (Romans 3:23 – for all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God)
Point 4 – We face punishment - (Romans 6:23a – for the wages of sin is death)
Point 5 – God’s solution - (John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, will not die, but have everlasting life)
Point 6 – Only through Jesus - (John 14:6 - Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.)
Point 7 – Repentance - (Acts 2:38 - Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins)
Folks, this is the message of the Word of God! This is the Gospel!
To close, let me return to the great commission, but let me read it in reverse, and I pray that in doing so, you will see what I mean when I say, the emphasis should not be on the Go, but on the Word of God, for it sends, it expects obedience, it declares, it transforms and it is central for the Word of God is Jesus Himself:
Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.
Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Make disciples of all nations,
Therefore, Go!