Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Amazing Disciples

Mark Howard

4. It’s Not My Gift

Kameron DeVasher

1. Orientation

2. What is a Disciple?

3. Your Gift or Mine?

5. As a Witness

Marshall McKenzie

7. Friendship Evangelism, Part 1

8. Friendship Evangelism, Part 2

Wes Peppers

9. How to Reach the Atheistic Mind, Part 1

10. How to Reach the Atheistic Mind, Part 2

Jean Ross

11. Divine Commission

12. Cycle of Evangelism

Jim Howard

13. Grow Your Church, Part 1

14. Grow Your Church, Part 2

15. Giving Bible Studies

16. Missing Members

Doug Batchelor

17. Christ-Centered Doctrine, Part 1

18. Preparing for Baptism

19. Discipleship

20. Gospel Presentation, Part 1

21. Gospel Presentation, Part 2

22. Christ-Centered Doctrine, Part 2

23. Outreach Lab

24. Keys to Success!

25. Nurturing New Believers

26. Fishnet Demonstration

27. Caveman Theology

6. Christ’s Method Alone

Dear Lord, now as we just reassemble and focus our attention on your Word, we pray again for the presence of the Holy Spirit, and to help your words come to life, pray the things that we learn and the principles that we'll be able to apply them to our lives and see fruit.

We thank you and pray this in Jesus' name.

Here Jesus makes a very important statement that's worthy of our attention.

Where He tells the people there's no sign that's going to be given to them except 1 particular sign.

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth.

And the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And indeed, a greater than Jonah is here." So Jesus makes this statement, no sign will be given but the sign of Jonah.

Now Jonah is 1 of the most interesting prophets and prophecies in the Bible because it's an incredible story.

Some people struggle to believe if it even is a true story about this wayward prophet who gets swallowed by a great nondescript fish, somehow manages to survive, not just for a few minutes, but for 3 days and 3 nights, gets regurgitated, and then goes on to have the greatest evangelistic meeting in biblical history.

You can understand why some skeptics and even some professed Christians say a story of Jonah is just impossible.

And I remember reading 1 time about a lady that was riding on a public bus, and she took the bus every day because she would go babysit for her daughter while she worked.

And just about every day she would take her Bible with her, and she'd read the Bible as she took the bus.

Well, there's another businessman, he was a lawyer and atheist, and he would take the bus and he'd often get up and give her his seat and they became acquainted.

He said, he said, Grandma, I see that every day you're reading your Bible.

She said, yes, sir, it's the Word of God.

He said, well, do you believe all of it's true?

And he said, you mean literally the stories you think are true?

That's the Bible says, thy word is truth.

He said, so you believe that Adam and Eve were in the garden and they talked to a snake?

And he said, and you believe that Noah built a big boat and 2 of each animal came on the boat.

He said, now don't tell me that you believe the Jonah was swallowed by a whale and came out 3 days later.

It's in the Word of God." He said, How can a man survive inside a fish for 3 days and 3 nights?

He said, Well, what if he's not in heaven?

She said, then of course you can ask him.

So 1 reason I believe that the story of Jonah is true is because Jesus said it's true.

He's also mentioned not only in the book of Jonah, but have you noticed there's a prophecy that's given by Jonah mentioned in 2 Kings 14 verse 25.

He lived and worked during the reign of King Jeroboam II.

And so Jonah is in the Bible as a real character who had a real ministry, and we have a time when he lived.

And his book, of course, is a record of an amazing account.

But all the Jewish scholars and rabbis believe that the story of Jonah was true.

Now, These stories in the Bible are true, but they're often then an allegory for other things.

In other words, the story of Joseph is true, but the story of Joseph is an allegory of Jesus.

Being sold by your brothers, forgiving your brothers, continuing to give the whole world this bread of life when there's a famine.

And so Joseph is an allegory, like David is an allegory of Jesus.

Jonah is often thought of as an allegory for God's people.

And what he went through is really a lesson of the Jewish nation.

He was called to bear the light to the Gentiles.

He didn't want to do it, and God found a way to do it anyway, through captivity.

And so it was after his captivity in the whale, he ended up doing the greatest good.

And so they've often seen Jonah as an allegory of their own nation.

So go to the book of Jonah, we're going to look at it.

I'll spend most of my time in the first few verses, but we will, God willing, get through the whole book.

The son of Amittai, dove, dove, yeah, like a piece.

The son of Amittai, and it said, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.

Now, Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian kingdom.

Assyrians, their capital city was Damascus.

Sometimes we get Assyria and Syria mixed up and it's easy to understand.

But Damascus is a lot closer, it's just north of Israel, whereas Nineveh was a lot further east and north, closer to the Mesopotamian Valley.

Now you could understand if God asked a Jew today to walk into the Palestinian Gaza Strip and pronounce that the Palestinians were wicked and God was going to judge them, that would not be very well received.

And for Jonah to go to the capital city of 1 of the avowed enemies of Israel and announce that they were going to be judged for their wickedness, it sounded like a suicide mission.

So you could see why he'd be reluctant to go.

But you know, God never tells you to do anything without promising that He'll sustain you.

And even if you would lose your life, you always need to do what God says, especially if you're a prophet.

It says, he arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

And he went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish.

So he paid the fare and he went down into it to go with them from the presence of the Lord.

Now, how does it usually work if somebody thinks they can flee from the presence of the Lord?

If you've got your Bible, you might want to turn to Psalm 139.

And there's some good lessons for us here.

Where shall I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence?

If I make my bed in hell, Behold, you're there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, interesting that even mentions the sea, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will hold me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall follow me, even the night shall be light about me.

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the light, but the night as the day, both the darkness and the light are both light to you." So even in the darkest places, you can't hide from God.

And so for a prophet to run from the Lord is a serious flaw.

And when it says he went to go to Tarshish, now, if you have a map of the Mediterranean, Tarshish was the furthest most seaport that the Phoenicians would go to when you went through the gates of Hercules, you know, where North Africa and Spain kind of pinch off the Mediterranean.

There was a, in Spain, there was a seaport there.

They're not exactly sure where it was, but they think they may have rediscovered it.

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Amazing Disciples

22. Christ-Centered Doctrine, Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

The Final Revival

36m

Facing the Final Judgment with No Fear

38m

A Voice of Warning

A Voice of Warning: The Time is Now

1h 2m

Waiting and Warning: Echoes from the Book of Ezekiel

1h 6m

Put Your Sword in its Place

45m

Plenary Sessions

Revived by the Spirit

1h 53m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounter with the Rich Young Ruler

42m

Jonathon Cherne Weekend

Enjoying Peace Before the Storm?

56m

My Redeemer is Faithful and True

1h

Drowning In the Will of the Almighty

34m

Experiencing Righteousness Through Faith in Christ

5. The Mind of Christ and the Impending Conflict

59m

Building a House for my Wife

53m

Sound Doctrine