Dear Christian friends:

All three of the lessons appointed to be read on this Sunday give us a sense of urgency in the matter of missions and evangelism. In the Old Testament we have the prophet Jonah preaching to the people of Nineveh: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." Don't you think that's an urgent message?

In the Epistle Lesson St. Paul warns: "The time is short!" --- This world in its present form is passing away." (1 Corinthians 7:29-31) In the Gospel Lesson Jesus proclaims: "The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news. No doubt about it: the cause of missions is an urgent one.

What is needed for this urgent cause of missions to succeed is a corresponding sense of urgency in us, which I fear we don't always have. True, we agree that we are to be about the Father's business, the business of the Kingdom, but don't always give it the urgency and priority that it needs to succeed.

In our text, which is the Gospel Lesson for today, Jesus and His disciples display urgency in the Gospel ministry. Hopefully, this will inspire us to have a sense of


Urgency in His ministry was displayed by our Lord. Despite adverse circumstances our Lord began to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Although His cousin and co-worker, John the Baptist, had been put in prison by King Herod because of his bold preaching, Jesus did not hesitate to take up His preaching duties. (verse 14)

Our text tells us, "After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God." Jesus did not allow persecution from men, Kings or the devil to delay Him. (verse 13) Jesus' conduct here in our text and in the verse preceding our text makes it clear that the work of God's kingdom must go on in spite of adverse circumstances. It's urgency supersedes all other considerations, even danger to our own person.

Jesus even describes the kingdom of God with urgent language. Jesus preaches, "The time has come." (verse 15) The Greek word He used for "time" (Kairos) actually means "the right time." So Jesus is really saying, "The right time has come." The right time has come for what? The right time for two things to happen: the right time to tell the Gospel and the right time to repent and believe it.

Too often people think or say, "Now is not the right time." When St. Paul was witnessing to Governor Felix about righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." (Acts 24:25)

When I was a missionary to the deaf in Montana, a young Crow Native American girl who sometimes came to our services at Billings, told me, "I do not plan to become a Christian now. I want to have a good time while I am young and can enjoy life. When I am old I will get right with God." I told her, "You have no guarantee from God that you live to an old age. You could die today or tomorrow.

When it comes to witnessing and telling the Good News people also say, "Now is not the right time. I have other things on my mind now. I have to get established in my business and raise my family. Later on I will have more time and energy to give to the church and its missions." But the Bible says, "Remember Thy Creator in the days of thy youth." (Ecclesiastes 12:1) Again it says, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)

If we are going to repent or if we want to warn someone to repent, we had better do it today. We have no guarantees about tomorrow. (read verse 15 again!)

Whenever a message calls for repentance, as Jesus' message here does, it implies it is urgent. In the Old Testament Lesson we heard how God sent Jonah to preach to the wicked people of Nineveh. He said, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed. (Jonah 3:4) As I said before, that was an urgent message. Although Jonah did not use the word "repent", it certainly is implied. If God did not intend for them to repent, He simply would have destroyed the city and people with no Jonah and no warning. Even negative preaching is Good News. Preaching implies urgency, both for the preacher and his audience.

Jesus' haste in calling His disciples also shows His urgency in the business of the church. Listen again while I read about that in our text and see if you don't catch Jesus' sense of urgency and also the disciples'. (read verses 16-20!) Furthermore, Jesus had a sense of urgency regarding the fulfillment of His ministry here on earth.

He said, "I must be about My Father's business." I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities: for thereto I am sent." "I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work." "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and the third day rise again."

If we love Him, if we have the mind of Christ, we will say, "I must be about my Father's business!" Urgency should be displayed by us also. However, because of our sinful lethargy, our cowardly nature and our confused priorities, we do not respond with urgency to the urgent cause of missions as we should. This is the problem.

Statistics show that the rate at which the average Episcopalian invites someone to church is once every twenty-eight years. They didn't give the Lutheran rate. I'm sure that most of us would be ashamed to hear it also.

When is the last time you invited some unchurched person to come to church with you? How often during the course of a year do you witness to someone about your faith and hope in Jesus? Do you have a prayer list of unchurched persons for whom you pray? How much of your annual income do you give for the support of your church and its missions?

Does our record show that we have a sense of urgency for missions and witnessing such as Jesus displayed? True, we have our excuses: we plead preoccupation, lack of time, lack of skill, and the urgency of other activities. But these excuses won't hold water with Jesus.

How can we overcome our sinful lethargy and fear? How can we find the wisdom and power to rearrange our priorities so Jesus' mission has top priority in our lives? Through the Gospel our Lord Himself supplies the urgency He desires in us. This is the solution to the problem. The same gospel that is the object of our sense of urgency is also the source of our getting a sense of urgency. The Gospel is a most powerful message.

Look how the gospel preaching of Jonah straightened out the wicked people of Nineveh! Jonah preached a very simple sermon, one sentence, just eight little words: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed." (3:4) The outcome? "The Ninevites believed God. (3:5) Wow!

After Jesus had preached the Gospel to Peter and Andrew and invited them, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (verse 17) "At once they left their nets and followed Him. (verse 18) Isn't that amazing?

In both cases, only the powerful gospel could account for such tremendous results. So we, when we really hear the gospel our lethargy and fears will vanish and we will get our priorities straightened out! Therefore, it is really the dear Lord Jesus Christ who makes us "fishers of men."

Notice the emphasis in Jesus' promise to Peter and Andrew when He called them: "Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. The emphasis is on Jesus' activity, not ours. What ever good we do, He does it in us. We are fishers of men as we follow our dear Lord, observing His grace and methods.

Observe His amazing grace in dealing with the Ninevites and Jonah in the Book of Jonah: This city of Nineveh is so bad it does not deserve to exist. God would be perfectly just to destroy it without warning. But because of His amazing grace He decides to send Jonah to go and warn the people. But Jonah doesn't want to go. He didn't want to go because he feared that the Ninevites would repent, and God would forgive them and take them into favor, which he felt would be a slur on Israel.

He was jealous for the honor of his country. The repentance and reformation of Nineveh would shame the hard heartedness of Israel that was not repenting and hated to be reformed. The favor of God shown to these Gentiles was an ill omen to the Jewish nation, as if they would be rejected and the Gentiles put in their place.

So Jonah buys passage on a ship going west to Spain instead of east to Nineveh. However, God is determined to show compassion to Nineveh and to His disobedient prophet. So He sends a violent storm to attach to the ship. Jonah is found out and the sailors reluctantly toss him into the raging sea and the storm ceases. God prepares a great fish to swallow Jonah and the great fish, at God's direction starts heading back to Israel. After three days and three nights in the belly of the fish Jonah repents and prays. God orders the great fish to vomit Jonah on the beach. In great mercy God sends Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh and preach, which he does and Nineveh is saved.

Now we may think that we are better than Jonah, but we are not. How many times have we gone west when God told us to go east? The grace He showed to Jonah He shows also to us, not just twice, but day after day, Sunday after Sunday since our baptism. And God can do this because His Son, Jesus, went east when He asked Him to go east! Jesus never boarded a cruise ship when He was supposed to bind up the broken-hearted, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, cleansing to the lepers, and life to the dead.

The perfection of Jesus is now our perfection through faith in His name. In that faith we are "Jonahs," resurrected from death, and go where God tells us to go; (Matthew 12:40) "for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so also was the Son of Man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth," and then resurrected to a new, glorious and victorious life. We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, that like as He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

Through the Gospel our dear Lord instills in us a sense of urgency for missions and witnessing. This precious Gospel of God's grace in Jesus empowers us to respond to His urgent call to mission work immediately, wholeheartedly, and completely, just like a chastened Jonah.

Amen.