The Most Efficient and Effective Sermon Ever (Jonah 3)- Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple

As we do come to the word, let's take the word

and open it. And open it to Jonah chapter three.

We're simply picking up where we left off. Having

looked at Jonah two last time, and we noted in

Jonah two that Jonah finally did. the thing that

he should have been doing the whole time. He

finally, in the belly of the fish, he prays,

doesn't he? God speaks to the fish and the fish

spits him out onto dry land. And so we see that

God is not finished with the prophet Jonah. And

this is very important for us to understand because

Maybe you've felt like this before. Have you

ever, have you ever struggled with a sin that

just, it just seems to never go away. You continually

fall into temptation, right? And you begin to

wonder, maybe you have, does God still love me?

Does God, can he still use me? What will he do

with me? Surely he won't do anything with me.

I continue to sin daily and thoughtward indeed.

God doesn't love me anymore. God can't use me

anymore. Well, friends, Jonah, the prophet, is

here to show you something different than that.

Because God, our God, is the God of second chances

and third chances and fourth and fifth and on

up. And so God's not finished with Jonah and

Christian. God's not finished with you either.

Let's read the text Jonah 3 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 and

so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according

to the word of the Lord now Nineveh was an exceedingly

great city, three days journey in breadth. 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 believed

God. They called for a fast and 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. He 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, herd 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 turned from their evil way, God

relented of the disaster that he had said he

would do to them. And he did not. The grass withers

and the flower fades, but God's word stands forever.

Let's pray. Oh, Father, we do thank you for this

word. It is such an encouraging word to us that

even as we see the faults of Jonah, we recognize

that you are still at work and this is how you

operate. You operate through people who do struggle

with sin. Lord today as we look at this we realize

how desperately we need your help We need your

help to understand this and we need your help

to apply it And so would you give us all of that

we pray for Christ's sake amen. I Said a week

or two ago That the most miraculous miracle in

the book of Jonah is not that a prophet survived

in the belly of a fish. That's not the greatest

miracle here. Chapter 3 shows us the greatest

miracle here. The changing of the hearts of all

of the people in a very large city and not just

the people here. Even the animals are mentioned

as well. Jonah goes to the city of Nineveh. And

he proclaims what the Lord has him to proclaim.

And I'm calling this the most efficient and the

most effective sermon ever, because again, we're

looking at the repentance of an entire city and

a city that was known for its cruelty, a city

known for its violence, a city known for worshiping

idols. But God is merciful and he turns them

from these things. Today I want to look at Jonah's

commission, Nineveh's repentance, and God's compassion.

Let's look at the commission first there. Go

to verse two. Arise, go to Nineveh. Perhaps at

this point you're having some deja vu going on.

You're like, I've read these words before. Well,

if you look in chapter one, you do see these

words. Chapter one, verse two. Arise, go to Nineveh,

that great city. And so we have heard this before.

And so what we recognize is that, yes, Jonah

was saved from drowning, but Jonah is not saved

from the mission that God has for him. And so

arise, go to Nineveh. Now, we don't exactly know

where the fish spat the prophet out. It could

have been somewhere near Joppa. It could have

been anywhere along the coast. But either way,

we recognize then that Jonah has a ways to go

to get to Nineveh, no doubt. He had a lot of

thinking to do on his journey there. And we've

already seen this in chapter one, how Jonah did

not want to go, right? And we also mentioned

how it's not very common in the Bible for these

Old Testament prophets to be sent to these wicked

nations. Most of the work of the prophets against

the nations is done from home. Think of it as

early remote work, right? Working from home.

That's what usually happens, but not so with

Jonah. He gets spat out of the fish and then

he receives the exact same mission. Don't go

to some other place. I'm still intending for

you to go. to Nineveh. And we've said that this

is a cruel place, so no judgment from us, right?

We're like, I don't want to go there either.

But also notice something with this commissioning

here. It is a little bit different from chapter

one. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and

call out against it the message that I tell you.

That second part of the verse there is not present

in the first. So this tells us here that God's

going to give Jonah the exact words to say. In

effect, Jonah has everything he needs. He's got

the where, Nineveh. He's got the when, right

now. And he's got the what. He's got the message.

And so he goes there to proclaim the word of

God. verse 4. Yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be

overthrown. Now I don't know if the people of

Nineveh would have understand the 40 -day motif,

but Israelites would and Christians who know

their Bibles would. We see this motif of 40 days

several other places in Scripture. For instance,

you remember the Great Flood. You remember Noah

in the boat, right? Genesis six through nine.

And how long is that flood? It's going on for

40 days. You also may remember the Israelites

with the golden calf. After Moses learns about

this, he is with the Lord interceding for the

Israelites for 40 days. You can find that in

Deuteronomy. Chapter nine. And so both of those

events involve judgment. They both involve 40

days and they both involve great populations

of people and even animals. And so we see some

significance here in some relation to other scripture.

Also, look at this word, though, for overthrow

at the end of verse four. That word overthrow

is very significant. It's the same word that

is used in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And so the message there was of judgment. And

here within the book of Jonah, for Nineveh, it's

destruction or it's repentance. What's it gonna

be? What do you want? To be destroyed or to repent?

And so we see what happens here. The people of

Nineveh do turn from their sin. and they turn

to the Lord. So let's look at point two, Nineveh's

confession. We see what happens in verse five.

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They

believed God and their actions show it, which

shows us something that is essential for preaching

and teaching the Bible. Preaching of the word

must connect with the heart. Preaching of the

Word must connect with the heart. That's what's

happening now in this sanctuary. That's what's

happening now in sanctuaries all across the world.

That as preachers preach, they're not just sharing

information. This is not just head knowledge.

This is not a TED Talk. This is not a lecture,

right? It's a sermon. And the Holy Spirit works

through the preaching of God's Word. You perhaps

remember Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing

and hearing by the word of Christ. And so do

not just receive this message with your head.

It must resonate within your heart. It must be

received with faith. And if you were to examine

the sermons throughout scripture, you would see

this. you would see that there's not power in

the preacher. It's not about his greatness. If

it was, you'd need a new preacher. Instead, the

Holy Spirit works faith into the hearts of people.

The Holy Spirit is the one encouraging and convicting

and comforting and equipping. The Holy Spirit

works through the preaching of the word. Years

ago, I worked for a Christian camp and I've...

told many of you about this place that I love.

But one time working there, I was asked to preach

kind of a last minute chapel service, not to

campers, but to counselors, staff members. Again,

it was very last minute. I hadn't had any preaching

courses in seminary. I didn't know what I was

doing, but they needed somebody to step up and

perhaps foolishly I said, yes. And as I got into

the pulpit that day, and again, this is a very

small gathering in a chapel up in the mountains,

as I was behind that lectern and I started to

preach, and I couldn't even tell you what the

text was or anything about the sermon, but I

just knew this is the worst sermon anybody's

ever preached ever. All I wanted was for it to

be done. All I wanted was to get out of the chapel

and for nobody to say anything ever about this

sermon. As I concluded the sermon with prayer

and singing, I made a beeline for the door. Just

when I was about to step outside the door, a

staff member caught me and said, can we talk?

And she said, that really helped me. That really

helped me. I'm dealing with some stuff right

now I'm dealing with some serious sin issues

some serious family issues your sermon helped,

but but can we keep talking? Of course I said

sure You see the Holy Spirit works Even when

the preacher doesn't want to do the work, right?

What preachers really need to do and I would

say this applies to teachers whether you're teaching

adult Sunday school or maybe you're with the

kids What the preacher the teacher needs to do

is preach the word and then get out of the way

Preach the word and get out of the way and that's

what Jonah does. He preaches what the Lord says

We have only this just sentence to go on I don't

know if he added anything to this I kind of think

what's here in the text is all he preached all

he said So this is not a carefully crafted sermon.

There is no scintillating illustration here.

There's no joke There's no three points. There's

no alliteration. Jonah simply speaks what the

Lord would have him to speak. He is obedient

to the Lord because there's power in the word.

And friends, this is how the Bible teaches preachers

to preach. Perhaps you know this text from Second

Timothy four, verse two. It says, preach the

word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove,

rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and

teaching. We are to preach the word. You are

to teach the word. And you see the response of

the people of Nineveh when that happens. They

respond in repentance. In effect, the very thing

that Jonah didn't really want to happen does

happen because God works through the Word, even

when the preacher doesn't want to preach it,

because God's Word will not return void. It produces

the effect that God wants it to produce. And

so you see the response of the people here. There's

the calling for the fast. There's the putting

on of the sackcloth, right? And this happens

from everybody, from the greatest to the least,

even all the way up to the very king. And you

see that the king is brought to humility, right?

He exchanges his throne for a seat in ashes.

He exchanges his robe for sackcloth. And then

he makes this proclamation, nobody, no man, no

beast, you are not to taste anything. Some of

you have animals. Some of you work on a bit of

a farm. How difficult must it be to keep the

animals from tasting anything? Think about how

this would disrupt the entire economy for animals

to not be allowed to eat or to drink. They are

taking this so seriously. And you might even

say, well, why? The animals... They're not the

ones who sinned here. They're not responsible

for the immorality. Well, they may not be responsible,

but the animals surely are affected by it. And

yet, as we have said before in the book of Jonah,

we see all of creation responding positively

to the Lord, right? We have mentioned that. With

the fish, we've mentioned that as God brings

up this great windstorm. We're gonna see that

in chapter four with this plant and this worm.

Everything complies with what the Lord wants.

And now Jonah finally is two. And so you see

what happens in verse eight. They are responding

to this proclamation and the king is saying,

Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and

let them call out mightily to God. Once again,

we see the importance of prayer within the book

of Jonah. But I also think it's interesting within

Jonah's words, the words that the Lord gives

him to say, he doesn't have to say what is wrong

with the people of Nineveh. He doesn't say what

their sin is. How come he doesn't have to? They

know it they know what their problem is and so

rather than the prophet saying what their problem

is the king does that let everyone turn from

his evil way it says and from the violence that

is in his hand and so they are to leave that

sin that violence that cruelty in the past and

They are to turn to God and that's what they

do Friends, we know, because we've discussed

it, what their problem was, what their sins were.

What about us? What are the sins that you are

battling today? What's going on in your hearts?

Is it envy? Is it deceit? Is it lust? Is it gossip?

Is it disobeying parents? Is that idolatry? What

is it, friends? I don't know, but I can tell

you the solution to these things. If you would,

go to James chapter 4. Turn to James chapter

James 4 · chapter mention James 4 · chapter mention

4. James is in the New Testament. It's right

after Hebrews. This is going to tell us whatever

sin you are battling against, this tells you

what to do about it. James chapter four, verses

eight through 10. And I would encourage you to

take time on this Lord's Day to further consider

these words. It says, draw near to God, and he

will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you

sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded.

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter

be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom Humble

yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt

you And so even as maybe most of that doesn't

sound so positive doesn't sound so fun. We see

the hope of that passage Draw near to God and

he'll draw near to you And so you see, this is

what Nineveh is doing. Even the king here, he

doesn't seem to have assurance that God will

relent, but he knows that they in this city,

they must do everything to turn from sin. And

this tells us that sometimes, even when we do

repent, which we must do, we still sometimes

have to face the music, don't we? There can still

be consequences for sin even after we turn from

it But there is hope here Because you can be

sure That when you draw near to God in faith

in Christ When you truly repent of your sin,

you can know that God really does forgive you

because he sent his one and only begotten son

for this This is why Jesus came. And so today,

if you're listening, maybe you're online, maybe

you're here. If you don't know Jesus, if you

have not turned in faith to Jesus, be a Ninevite.

Be a Ninevite and not one of the cruel ones,

not a violent one, but a repentant one. Whether

you're among the least or you're among the greatest,

whether you're a man or a beast today, know that

Jesus came to forgive sin. And be assured of

it. Look in verse 10. Look in verse 10 for God's

compassion here. When God saw what they did,

how they turned from their evil way, God relented

of the disaster that he had said he would do

to them. And he did not do it. Repent and relent.

This is clearly the work of God's mercy. These

people were cruel. They were idolaters. And Jonah

was a complete stranger, right? Why should they

listen to Jonah? This should not be the recipe

for repentance. Cruel, violent people, stranger

walks in, says repent, and they do it. That doesn't

make any sense by the world's standards, does

it? But God works by his word, and he is compassionate

to forgive those who repent. And God is trustworthy

here, because as he said, he would relent. That's

exactly what he does. When they turned from sin,

he did not destroy them. I was thinking a lot

about this this week, and I want to put a question

into your head. How would the story of Jonah

be different if you didn't have the first two

chapters? How would the story of Jonah be different

without the first two chapters? Suppose Jonah

had immediate obedience. that as soon as the

Lord told him, arise and go to Nineveh, he was

like, yep, okay, here I go. What if we didn't

have those first two chapters? Why do we even

need those first two chapters? Friends, we need

these chapters because we learn so much about

the compassion of God. We learn so much about

the compassion of God for Nineveh and for those

pagan sailors on the boat. And even for Jonah

himself, God has so much Patience with Jonah,

doesn't he? He does. He does. And so today, if

perhaps you're thinking, well, I did that sin

again. And I really blew it. And this surely

has to be the last time. God's done with me.

He doesn't love me. He doesn't want me. He doesn't

work through me. Today, know this. God doesn't

cast off his people. when they sin. God's not

finished with Jonah, and God's not finished with

you yet either. And the entirety of scripture

shows this, right? That God works through messed

up people to bring glory to himself. Look at

the lineage of Jesus, right? The lineage of Jesus

is a who's who of seriously faulty people. Or

look at Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Or for those of you who have been studying the

book of Judges, right? God works through those

judges. God works through David, and his sins

are very transparent, aren't they? God works

through Paul, who called himself the chief of

sinners, and so, yes, God can still work through

you. He is not done with you. He is not. What

we know from Scripture, the phrase that's said

throughout Scripture is that God is merciful

and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and

steadfast love. The book of Jonah proves that

to be true. And so what do we gain by including

the faults of the prophet, his disobedience,

his prayerlessness, and his near -death experience?

We gain everything by that. For we are encouraged

to know that Jesus loses none of those the Father

has given to him and that God can do mighty and

wonderful things through his people. And that's

what he does. And all of this shows us what God

was really doing in the book of Jonah. He was

readying the world for his full display of his

mercy in Christ. In Christ, the whole world is

not destroyed due to sin. In Christ, you do not

perish but have everlasting life. In Christ,

there is a disaster transfer where the disaster

that should have fallen upon you and upon me

instead falls upon Christ as Christ is our substitute

and our perfect substitute at that. God is at

work, friends. He is. And as I begin to conclude,

I want to point out one more thing to you. I

mentioned the 40, 40 day example. that we see

throughout scripture. There's another one. You

remember that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness

for 40 days, and yet he never sinned. Jesus is

victorious over sin. He's victorious over the

grave. And in doing so, he has secured salvation

for all, for all who trust in him. And so today,

keep trusting in Jesus. Keep looking to him in

faith. and repent and walk in new obedience.

Let's pray.