Reach Them Before They Die

Text: Jonah 1:1-12, 3:1-5

Sinning Strippers - These ones mustn't die like this. Reach out!

In the opening verse of the book of Jonah chapter one, we are told that the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me."

As the word of the Lord came to Jonah, so it comes to all believers today (Matthew 28:19,20; Mark 16:15). We must all go into the world and preach the gospel to all people before they die in their sins. But as in Jonah's day, some of us run to Tarshish or give one excuse or the other. Just as Jonah could not hide himself from God, so can we not, no matter how hard we try to evade this onerous responsibility to friends, relations, and indeed the entire humanity.

The excuses believers, Christian ministers and workers give today for failing to engage in the business of soul winning include: One, lack of formal education. Some say they are not learned. They forget that Apostle Peter and some other apostles of Christ did not have formal education; yet they won souls for Christ in their hundreds as was the case on the day of Pentecost or as was the case when Philip, the evangelist went to Samaria and turned the whole city to the Lord (Acts 2:14-41; 8:5-12).

Two, fear of persecution. Some believers fear that if they preach the gospel some people who did not know them as Christians will get to know and they will persecute them. They forget that persecution is nothing strange. The Bible says, "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12).

Therefore, if we reach out to the dying sinner, we would have pleased the Lord. But if we neglect this divine responsibility for any reason, we will face the wrath of God.

Jonah (a prophet of God) learnt his lesson the hard way. Believers should learn from Jonah's ordeal in an attempt to evade the responsibility of reaching out to the people of Nineveh before God's appointed judgement.

Thank you for reading.

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