Salvation belongs to our God! – a sermon on Jonah 2:1-3:3a by Rev. Colin Pretorius.

The book of Jonah is a journey through the life of a prophet, but is also very much a description of the grace and mercy of a compassionate God. God is merciful to the people of Nineveh and sends Jonah to preach to them but the pouting prophet runs away. On his journey he runs into a stormy problem. Again there’s a hint of the salvation that’s available in the Lord, when the sailors are saved. And after acknowledging his sin and recognising God’s supremacy, Jonah turns into a praying prophet who recognises the supremacy of God. In his despair, he does what he was supposed to do from the beginning: praise God and vowing to worship Him with sacrifice and praises. And we can see that he now really “gets it” when he proclaims “Salvation belongs to the Lord.”

And it is on this salvation that belongs to the Lord that we’re going to focus today. You see, it is not just a theme of the book of Jonah but the message of the whole of Scripture. It is about the message of the gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ. What does it mean when Jonah cries out “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”?  What does it mean for us today in terms of our salvation, our security and our response? As we answer these questions, we’ll see just how deeply meaningful Jonah’s statement really is. We’ll see that firstly it means salvation is up to God, and not up to us. Secondly it means that salvation is final, perfect and complete. Thirdly it means that God’s salvation is worthy of our praise and finally God’s salvation is worthy of being made known.

• God’s salvation is His work;
• God’s salvation is perfect;
• God’s salvation is worthy of our praise; and
• God’s salvation is worthy of being made known.

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