[8:00 a.m.] Arise, Go, and Give His Message (Jonah 3:1-4)

All righty, if y'all would go ahead and remain standing for

our scripture reading. Just to let you know, I was

assigned Jonah three six through 10 and was told on Wednesday

that Mark was just going to focus on one through 4.

But he told me to go ahead and do what I was planning on doing.

So I'm going to preach the whole chapter.

I cut off limbs last night to shorten it as best as I could.

So give your attention to the reading of God's Word.

I will be reading all of chapter 3, one through 10.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time,

saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out

against it the message that I tell you.

So Jonah arose and he went to Nineveh according to the word of

the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly

great city. Three days journey in breath.

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he

called out. Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall

be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh

believe God. They called for a fast.

They put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of

them. The word reached the king of

Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe,

covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

And he issued A proclamation and published through Nineveh by the

decree of the king and his nobles.

Let neither man nor beast heard, nor flock taste anything.

Let them not feed or drink water, 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. Who knows, God may turn and

relent and turn from His fierce anger so that we may not perish.

When God saw what they did, how they turn from their evil way,

God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to

them, and He did not do it. This is the word of the Lord.

All right, you may take your seats.

Let me quickly pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we

do need your Spirit to open our eyes and to illumine the reality

of this incredible text and what it means for us.

So I pray now that by your Spirit you would unveil to us

the reality and the glory of your grace in this passage.

And I ask that you would be pleased to do this for your

glory and for our good in Jesus name, Amen.

All right, Jonah is a story of two passions, Jonah's passion to

run away from the presence of God and God's passion to pursue

sinners who run away from him. And one of the themes of this

incredible book is found in the word great.

What happens in this book? It's greater than expected.

We have a great storm. We have the sailors who have

exceedingly great fear. There's a great fish, there's a

great city, and there's a wicked people's great repentance.

But chapter 3, it opens with great grace.

You see, after Jonah's disobedience in chapter 1, he's

rescued and he's restored in chapter 2.

And now in chapter 3, he's recommissioned.

And don't let the significance of verse one pass you by.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

The first time it came, Jonah disobey, disobeys, and flees

from the presence of God. So the fact that there is even a

second time is absolutely amazing.

What prophet has ever disobeyed God in the Old Testament?

None of them. He's the only one.

And we have plenty of examples of people not getting second

chances in the Old Testament, right?

Lot's wife didn't get a second chance.

King Saul did not get a second chance.

Ozza, when he reached out to grab the ark, he did not get a

second chance. So what could be more startling

and more humbling to Jonah than to get a second chance?

It's as if nothing has changed since God first called Him to go

to Nineveh. You see in chapter 3, what do we

see? God responds to Jonah's great

sin with great grace and mercy. And this blew me away and it

cost me a lot of hours of thought over this.

In Luke 11 verse 30, Jesus says that Jonah became a sign to the

Luke 11:30

people of Nineveh. And I don't know what this means

in this context because there's so many questions that I have,

like when Jonah was spit up, vomited from the fish, I mean

how long did it take him to get to Nineveh?

Did he go home 1st and take a shower?

I mean, was he bleached white? We don't know.

But did the Ninevites know about the Fish Tale?

Did they know the story of a disobedient prophet who was

rescued, restored, and recommissioned?

So in what way was Jonah assigned to the Ninevites?

Well, I think that Jonah's rescue, that his restoration and

his recommission is a sign that points to the fact that God is

both merciful and just. I don't know if the Ninevites

knew Jonah's story before he preached, but I do know this,

that God's message to Jonah is the same message that Jonah

preached to Nineveh. And some of y'all like Pete.

What are you talking about? Jonah's eight word sermon does

not communicate great grace. It communicates great judgment.

Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Let's evaluate this for a moment.

Remember the theme word. Great things in this book are

greater than expected. In chapter 1 verse 2, we're told

how great the city of Nineveh is.

In chapter 3, verses 2 and three, Nineveh's greatness.

It's emphasized again, but this time it's greatness is doubled.

It's an exceedingly great city. Three days journey in breath.

Now this could mean it's so big that it takes three days to

cross all of it. Or the city, it takes three days

to take it all in. There's one day journey from the

suburbs, one day for business, and then one day for the return.

So I think Jonah's in verse four, one day journey means it

takes three days to take it all in.

But the importance and greatness of this city, it's emphasizing 1

little Hebrew word in verse 3. The word Now normally in Hebrew

narrative when the continuation of a story goes, they put in the

letter Bob, which means and it's a connective, but it's not here,

which means this is signaling something different.

It's telling us, look, pay attention, this is important.

What's so big about the size of Nineveh and its importance?

Answer. It's remarkable repentance after

Jonah preaches. In verse 4, Jonah begins to make

the journey into the city and then in verse 5 we are told that

all of Nineveh believes God and repents.

This is why I almost entitled the sermon Every Preacher's

Dream. I mean, what preacher would not

want to see such great repentance and belief in God

after he preaches This is the greatest revival in the history

of the world Here, the whole city from the least to the

greatest repents. So chapter 3, it's not just

about God's great grace to Jonah, it's about God's great

grace to Nineveh, and it's about Nineveh's great repentance.

So how is Jonah's message yet 40 days and Nineveh will be

overthrown. How is this a message of grace?

This sounds like a message that threatens God's judgment,

doesn't it? Well, if God had intended to

destroy Nineveh, then why send Jonah to warn them?

If God wanted to wipe them out, then why did he not just wipe

them out? Why does he give them 40 days to

repent? Answer.

Because God is both merciful and just.

See the first word in Jonas sermon that communicates this.

Yet yet this pronouncement of judgment, it carries the hope of

being saved from it. Yet 40 days, which means this

can be reversed. And so does this word

overthrown. See this Hebrew verb, it means

to overturn. It's used to describe the

destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but it's also a word

that means to turn a ground, to transform.

So although Nineveh was not overturned, it did experience a

turn around. See, Jonah's sermon is about

God's justice, but it holds out the hope that God is merciful.

God is both merciful and just. And because He is, I have to ask

this question. Why do we not repent and return

to God quicker when we run away from him and sin?

If our hearts passion, which Jonah shows us, is to run away

from the presence of God, then what do we need to do?

Repent, turn back around and return to the God that we're

running away from, whether it's for the first time or whether

it's for the thousandth time. But here's something we need to

understand. Repentance.

It's not a one time thing. Martin Luther when he pinned his

95 thesis to the door, his first thesis was this.

Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when he said repent,

here's what it means. He will that the whole life of a

believer be 1 of repentance, which means he's arguing that

the Christian life, it's a life of ongoing repentance.

Why? Because what does he understand?

He understands that we still have sin that indwells us.

We still have a disposition within us to run away from God,

and it will be with us until glory.

Which means sin never takes a break.

Sin never goes on vacation. It's always active, especially

when it seems least active. So because sin it's always

active, we need to be what I call regular repenters.

See, some of you you may be so deceived by sin that you are not

regularly repenting because you think you had nothing to

confess. You just equate sin with bad

behavior. And oh, what I did was not

really that bad. But if sin is a condition, if

it's a power that we're all under, it goes deeper.

It goes to the motivational aspects in our heart.

Why do we do what we do? So I can act good outwardly but

yet inwardly be full of sin. So some of you think I haven't

really done anything that needs to be confessed.

And then there are some of you whose heart has become so hard

that you know you sinned and yet you stubbornly refuse to

acknowledge it. You don't want to return to God

because you're enjoying your sin and I don't want to give it up

yet. And then there's others of you

who are believing the lie that you cannot return to God.

God has had enough of you. You're believing the lie that

your sin is so bad that God can't forgive it, or the lie

that you send so much that God's grace, it's reached its limit

with you. It's run out.

See chapter 3. It's actually meant to make it

easier for us to understand repentance and then lead us to

repent. See, as we look more closely at

Nineveh's remarkable repentance, what's actually even more

remarkable than their repentance is the character of the God who

relents from destroying them. See, look at verse 5, which is

not in your bulletin, actually. So they'll grab a Bible and look

at verse 5. The whole city believed God,

we're told. It doesn't say that they

believed Jonah, they believed God in chapter 3.

As I said, it leaves us with so many unanswered questions

because I'm always like, OK, did Jonah just preach this eight

word sermon at once and then walk away?

Or did he continually preach it the further and further he went

into the city? We don't know, but we're given

three concrete bits of information about Nineveh's

repentance, which is going to help us to better understand

repentance. First, look at how quickly they

respond. Here there is no hesitation.

They immediately believe God. They call for a fast and they

put on sackcloth. They immediately believe and

then repent. And the order is significant.

They believe God first and then act in repentance.

So what does this show us? Repentance is easy.

It's not complicated, and it should happen quickly.

God does not require you to run a marathon in order to return to

Him. Just trust Him and Sprint to Him

as fast as you can. When you've run away, you don't

need to clean yourself up first in order to return to Him.

Come as you are in your unclean condition and run to Him as fast

as you can. And the second, look at how far

reaching their response is. And verse 5, from the greatest

to the least is reached, which means nobody's left out.

This covers all types of people without distinction, from the

most wicked to the least wicked. There's nobody unique here.

There's nobody whose sin is beyond reach.

There's nobody whose problem it's too great or too small.

So this goes for the rich, this goes for the poor, this goes for

the influential and the non influential.

This goes to man, woman, parent, child, king, peasant, great,

small. All are reached.

Which means what? The grace of God can reach

anybody from the greatest to the least.

Trust God and run to him more quickly to repent.

And then third, I want you to notice how deeply this reaches

them. What do they do?

They call for a fast, so they're restraining from eating.

And then they put on uncomfortable clothes.

Sackcloth, OK, it's very rough material.

Why are they doing this? To show their humility.

And then in verse 8, they cry out mightily to God.

See, the depths of their repentance is illustrated by the

king in verses 6 through 8. I want you to notice what he

does when word reaches him. He leaves his throne, He removes

his robe, and he covers himself in sackcloth and sits in ashes.

To leave his throne is saying what?

There's only one king, and it's not me.

I am under the authority of a greater king.

I will bow to him. I will seek his forgiveness.

He is greater than me. And then to put on sackcloth and

to sit in ashes. It signifies grief.

It signifies mourning. It's a sign of humility.

My life is over. I'm as good as dead.

So all I can do now is depend on the mercy of God and then notice

the decree in verses 7 through 8 that is issued.

The fast and humility. It's extended to the animals as

well. Could you imagine trying to get

an animal to wear sackcloth? Can you imagine the effort it

would take to not feed them or let them drink?

How uncomfortable this is. It's almost as if they know that

their sin has affected all of creation and then notice the

deep change in their behaviour. Everyone doesn't just cry out

mightily to God, they turn from their evil ways, they

acknowledge their violence, and they stop abusing people.

See, this isn't just confessing general sins.

Oh, I'm a Sinner. They're confessing specific

sins. Each turning from their evil

ways, whatever that evil is, they each acknowledge the

specific evil that their hands have done.

So Nineveh isn't just confessing their sin, they're changing

their ways. They're turning away from their

evil and they're turning towards God for mercy.

Jonas sermon caused the greatest revival in the history of the

world. The most wicked and brutal

people in the known world at this time turn away from their

evil and turn towards God, begging for mercy.

Nineveh's repentance is absolutely remarkable here, but

to me what is more remarkable is that they repent after being

given such little grace. See Jonah's message yet?

40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

It holds out the hope that this warning could be overturned.

But the people of Nineveh don't know for sure.

They repent hoping that God will relent.

And the words of the king show us that they don't know for

sure. Who knows, maybe he will.

God may relent and not destroy Nineveh, or he may not relent.

They don't know the heart of God for sure here.

There's no good news in Jonah's message.

There's no explicit message about God's character, about

God's goodness, about God's love.

Jonah isn't wooing them with God's compassion and grace.

He's warning them of God's anger and judgement, and there's no

call for them to respond at all. In other words, there's nothing

in Jonah's message that tells Nineveh what to do, only what

God is going to do. So Jonah only preaches justice

and judgement. So if Nineveh can repent in such

a remarkable way, if the most wicked people in the known world

can turn away from their evil and turn to God for mercy when

they are given such little grace, then what is keeping you

from repenting and returning to God when in Jesus we have

greater grace? The Ninevites did not know that

God is both merciful and just. But you do.

The Ninevites didn't know that God is gracious.

He's slow to anger. He abounds in loyal, steadfast

love. But you do.

In Matthew 1241, Jesus says the men of Nineveh will rise up at

the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

For they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And behold, someone greater than Jonah is here, which means what

is God saying? Look, I only showed Nineveh 1%

of my grace. But in my son, I'm showing you

all of my grace, all of my goodness.

In my son, I prove to you that I hold nothing back, but I give

you all of my goodness. I'm for you.

My first step towards you is always grace.

Brothers and sisters, Nineveh's remarkable repentance does not

compare to the gracious character of God.

If God can relent from destroying the most wicked

people in the world, then won't He relent from destroying you?

If the Ninevites can repent with such little grace being shown to

them, how much more should we repent now that someone greater

than Jonah is here? Someone whose grace is so much

greater? Someone who doesn't run away

from his enemies but pursues his enemies with love and

forgiveness. Someone who doesn't preach God's

judgment, but who preaches God's salvation and peace because

Jesus came to receive God's judgment for you.

Because Jesus pays for all of your sins.

Penalty. He's pleading with you.

Trust me. Return to me.

Run to me as fast as you can. Whether it be for the first time

or whether it be for the millionth time.

I will always take you back. You can come back.

See repentance. It's easy when you see the

greater grace of Jesus. Repentance goes deep when you

see how on the cross, God's mercy and justice meet.

Amen. Let me pray, Father, help us to

be regular repenters. Help us to know that no matter

what we've done, we can return to you.

And when we return to you, you forgive us, You renew us, You

restore us. So help us to be like Nineveh,

who was shown little grace and yet they repented.

And because of Jesus, we've been shown great grace.

So we should always repent, but help us to do so.

And I pray that you would for our good and for your glory, in

Jesus name, Amen.