Good
morning, Calvary! It is good to be with
you once again. Please open to the OT Minor
Prophets, the book of Jonah. We are
going to read all of Chapter 3, don’t worry its not that long. I am a bit obsessed, to be honest, with the
book of Jonah, I’m not really sure why I find it endlessly interesting as both
a writer, history lover & the theology behind the book. It’s an oddly
subversive book hidden in a much under-appreciated section of Scripture.
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Let’s read:
----Jonah Goes to Nineveh
Chapter 3 -
Then the word of the Lord came to
Jonah the second time,
saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out
against it the message that I tell
you.” 3 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. 4 Jonah
began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!” 5 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.
And the
People of Nineveh Repent
6 The Word of the Lord reached the
king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered
himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a
proclamation and published throughout 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, 8 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. 9 Who knows? God may yet turn and
relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 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.
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Let’s pray:
Our Great & Glorious God, you
are righteous & holy while we are not. You are just & merciful where we
fail so often to be either. You call & we run, you warn & we ignore…lay
hold of us God, make us heed the messages in your Word, gift us with your
repentance, turn us from our sin & make us more like you. Amen!
Man’s Great
Need!
Intro:
There is some good news in
today’s passage for us friends. Good news in the form of universality. It
applies not to some, but to all. Part of this good news for me as a pastor is
that I don’t necessarily need to know all the secret dreams & unfulfilled wishes
of your life. I don’t need to know all your personal failings &
shortcomings to preach to you. I don’t even need to know your latest MRI
results, therapy session notes, family dynamics, or frustrations with work or
even your amount of mounting debt. And I honestly don’t mean to sound
insensitive in that line of thinking but
why, you ask? Because primarily the Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t all that
concerned with your felt needs!
Many other pastors today in the American seeker-driven church
culture will be happy getting rich writing you books about these secondary (or
more likely tertiary problems) you may have in your life. If you’re interested
I could point out all the purpose-driven, get-rich-quick by sending me your
seed offering, best-life-now, name-it-&-claim-it, circle-maker-prayer “shacks” full of theological
error & false doctrine! Got itching ears, they sure do yearn to scratch
them! But the universality of today’s message is regarding the need for a Gospel
& our response to the Gospel. The gospel is God’s answer to your biggest
problem (one that you may not even realize you have) & it’s not related not
your health (or even your death), it’s not your finances, it’s not even your
current level of sexual satisfaction – its sin & a Just Judge. Your main problem in life is not a million little
self-help issues. It’s this; God wants, desires, and expects you to be perfect!
Are you perfect, friend?
(Pause)
In the New Testament, Matthew
5:48 – this is Jesus reaching the pentacle of his famous Sermon on the Mount,
he’s already addressed our errors in philosophy, the OT Law, anger, lust,
divorce, the making & breaking of oaths & vows, revenge & he caps off
this chapter by saying, “Therefore (or because of all this) you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Maybe we don’t
like this Expectant Perfection language we could replace it perhaps with a few
other choice ideas. We could be Cosmically Complete, or Divinely Moral, or like
Peter says we could be set apart, be Holy like God Himself is holy. But God
isn’t just holy, is he’s holy to Nth degree. He’s Holy, Holy, Holy…as the
angels say. Are you transcendently holy, Calvary? But perfect gets across the point. Basically,
what does it mean to obey the OT Law & stand righteous before God on your
own? Perfection! And implied here too, by the way, God is Just so he will justly judge us for not
being perfect.
(Pause)
So what’s the answer to Man’s Great Need then? Maybe we can reboot
the OT Law (reboots are popular these days) but this time we can make it easier
to obey & then judge ourselves off based off our own law like the pagans
do. Do we dig down deep & become legalistic? What if we picket sinner’s
houses & pagans places of employment, will that make them more righteous?
What if we picket each other’s houses will that make each of us righteous?
Once upon a time when I was just waking up to theology &
Christian doctrine I spent about 2 years as a faithful disciple of Rob Bell.
Rob is a populist liberal theologian & pastor from about 5-10 years ago.
Well once I was watching Rob on a panel of modern “spirituality & thought”
(I think it was Super Soul Sunday), you know Oprah’s friends: Deepak Chopra,
Rob Bell, probably had Tony Robbins, TD Jakes, Osteen – these kinds of people
& a sincere young man asked Rob directly, I’ve done something, something I
know is sinful, something wrong, something bad & now what do I do?
Clearly the Holy Spirit was working on this boy, grieving him over
his sin, convicting him of unrighteousness, he should have been called to repentance, faith in the works of Christ
done for him & good works in keeping with that genuine repentance! But softly & sweetly Rob in all his
vegan hippie love-y dove-y voice basically said, Friend, Christianity is like
Buddhism, there is no Just God that’s angry over your sin, so just forgive yourself,
wake up tomorrow, paint a picture of your feelings if you need to, pet a cat &
try harder next time. Don’t believe me, buy a copy of Rob Bell’s the “The gods
aren’t angry” DVD & you’ll see his point for yourself. So I guess try harder
Calvary, try harder to be self-righteous, try harder to be perfect, try harder
to be self-justified; if you think you can pull it off.
Friends, this god that ignores sin (even your sin), isn’t the God
who was, who is & who will be your final judge on the Last Day. That god
that I heard described on TV isn’t the God who judged Babel in its arrogance
& pride, who judged Sodom & Gomorrah in their perversion & lack of
charity, it’s not the God of the Book of Judges or the Prophets who called out
even God’s own Elect nation Israel from their sinful idolatry &
faithlessness & judged them nationally time & time & time &
time again, calling them to repentance. Calvary this Just-less Judge I heard of
on TV is not the God who becoming Man was Crucified over sin: your sin, my sin.
This isn’t the God of the Bible. So what is the God of the Bible really like? Jonah
teaches us quite a bit.
The main children’s story version of Jonah has already happened. And
don’t get me started on how much “whitewashing” so-called Christian children’s
books do to the actual biblical stories…Jonah we learn was a real, historic
prophet of Israel confirmed to us by the book of 2nd Kings Chapter
14. Jonah we can assume liked being a prophet of God to God’s people at
least. He was granted the job by God to bring some good news to Israel under a
bad king Jeroboam II. Israel will be blessed in battle, expand, succeed,
increase, have divine favor – Woo! He sounds like a property preacher.
Oh man, isn’t it great to be the bearer of good news to God’s people? It feels
good, they’re happy, you’re happy, God’s happy, right? Well this same
well-known prophet receives another message from God. Alright great! What now,
will our produce multiply, will our flocks double, will gold coins fall from
the sky & directly into our pre-modern 401K’s?! What’s the news, God!? God
wants Jonah to head to the kingdom of their fiercest enemies & warn them of
God’s coming judgment. Wait what!? No God, they aren’t Your people like we’re
Your people. Are they sinful? Then smite them in all your awful smite-y-ness!
Don’t warn them! God forbid! And what if they repented? And we know from the
story that Jonah is told to go to Nineveh (capital of the Assyrian Empire) told
to preach & proclaim God’s Justice to God’s enemies.
And Jonah says - nope! And he runs the opposite way; instead of
renting a 4 X 4 for the long trek inland to Nineveh (modern Iraq, I believe) he
does the opposite & rents a spot on a boat & sails to Tarshish thought
to be in the region of Modern Spain. Now I’m gonna skip over the drama of Jonah
Chapters 1 & 2 as great as they are & how clearly they points us to
Jesus cause I preached that sermon already, you can listen to that sermon
online some other time.
The Gospel point is: as terrible & sinful & selfish as
Jonah was; God was still there. As far as Jonah ran from God by land or sea, God
was still there. As Jonah hid the truth from the sailors; God was still there,
and when Jonah prefigured Christ in the Calming of the Stormy Sea & his
self-sacrifice to save the pagan sailors; God was there & as Jonah drowned
in the depths of the sea God was there. And when Jonah repented, friends, God
was already ahead of him armed with a miraculous fish, an early submarine you
might say, and God used this fish to raise Jonah up from the depths of the sea
the way Jesus brought forth Lazarus from the depths of the grave!
Now
4 quick points to consider as we step back into the past. And these are not sermon points but simply confessional
ideas to mull over & consider as you listen. Point 1 – honestly, Jonah
kinda sucks: he’s worthless, selfish, disobedient, longs for the destruction of
his enemies & is either an implied racist or at least xenophobic. Point 2 –
And I’m sorry to say it beloved, but you remind me (at times) of this Jonah.
Point 3 – Not to be outdone by you, but I remind me of this jerk Jonah. Point 4
- Unbelievers, you remind me of both pagan Ninevah & this Jonah! And
finally point 5: thank God that God is sooooo unlike you & me, pagan
Ninevah & Jonah. Recognizing, what the NT tells us that Jesus is the better
Jonah!
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My sermon is entitled: Man’s Great Need!
The sovereignty of God – verse 1
Now the word
of the LORD came to Jonah the second
time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it
the message that I tell you."
Verse 1 says God told Jonah to go a 2nd time. Why a 2nd
time? Well we already discussed it. Jonah had already disobeyed, fled, lied
& cheated God & God did not let him go, God was faithful (when Jonah
wasn’t). Faithful to bring him back & restore him & use Jonah as he
does later for Peter the denier, Paul the persecutor, as he does for you &
me.
This shows
the amazing love of God to His wayward people. Though Jonah did everything he
could to resist the first call
of God, after Jonah repented God called him again - though God was under no
obligation to do it. He did it out of mercy and grace, and I think once you
read through all 4 chapters of Jonah, God did it to teach Jonah & us a
lesson about Himself.
Commentators
say: "By paralleling the book's opening, almost word for word, the author
skillfully conveys the idea that Jonah is being offered a new beginning." A new
life after his repentance, a chance to obey now where he hadn’t before, sound
familiar? This is Salvation language; this is Sanctification on display!
Let’s be
honest. How many of us who have been called to deliver the Word of the Lord,
would still be doing it, if it were not for this patient and perfecting grace
of God? Surely not many! Fellow preachers & pastors realize how have we
failed Him, and broken down in our ministry. Know that yes even for preachers
this God of grace still saves, forgives, restores & uses.
To this
passage the Great Spurgeon once said, But God was determined to do the work through Jonah, so God did not give up
on the reluctant prophet. "Suppose that this problem had been given to us
to solve - how shall this particular city be moved to repentance? How shall
Nineveh’s vice be forsaken and the God of Israel worshipped by all its inhabitants from the highest to
the lowest?
First off,
if we had not been paralyzed with fear by the scope of this project, which is
the most probable, we should, nevertheless, have sat down carefully to consider
our plans. We should have parceled it out into this & that missionary; we
should have needed at least several hundreds, if not thousands, of able
ministers; at once, expenses would have to be incurred, and we should have
considered ourselves bound to contemplate the erection of innumerable churches
in which the Word of God might be preached. Our machinery would necessarily
become cumbrous; we should find that we, unless we had the full resources of an
empire, could not even begin the
work of bringing Nineveh to repentance.
But what
says the Lord concerning this? Putting aside the judgments of (Man’s) reason,
and all the plans and schemes which flesh and blood so naturally follow, he
raises up one man. (Here’s a Messiah
illusion if I’ve ever heard one) By a singular providence he qualifies that one
man for this mission…to bring many to repentance." What Spurgeon is
getting at is 1 weak preacher backed by God is better than an entire
infrastructure of men working under Man’s own schemes & so much church-growth
devices.
This time,
Jonah went to preach with unquestioned obedience. But we must ask, "Why Nineveh?
Why now?" The People of Nineveh were not
praying for revival, nor were they
interested in it. To a degree, Jonah has a point. The Assyrians qualified
better as candidates for God's sovereign judgment than as candidates for
God's sovereign grace. But then again, don’t we all & isn’t that the
point of Grace that you don’t deserve it?
The story teaches us Jonah's successful preaching campaign had nothing to do with Jonah's ability or the Assyrian's worthiness. It’s Sola Gratia! All of
grace. All we can say for sure is that God had a purpose beyond mere human
understanding. And if we take John 3:16 seriously, then we must conclude that
before God showered Nineveh with grace; He reached out to them because he loved
even them. If a just God can love
even wicked Nineveh, then he can love even us who don’t feel at times worth His
trouble.
Perhaps we
can look at God's Sovereign choice in saving the Assyrians differently. Maybe
this represented God's plan to produce more good in the world by saving the
worse people in the world, as an example to others. Modernizing this event
would be akin to famed theologian Deitrich Bonhoffer in Germany marching to
Hitler’s house during WWII & ending up with Hitler & all of Nazi
Germany crying out to God for mercy & turning from their violence against
the Jews, gays, Christians & gypsies. In the end, the revival at Nineveh is
nothing short of a sovereign work of forgiveness that actually produced
change. The great irony of the book of Jonah is not a crazy fish story but that
the greatest miracle in Jonah is the Salvation of Nineveh & that he didn’t
lightning bolt his own worthless prophet.
The work of
God’s Word – verse 2
God told
Jonah go and "preach the message that
I tell you." While spiritual renewal may occur without a particular
preacher or prophet, it never occurs without divine truth. And here
Jonah declared the Word of God. Interestingly, the prophet didn't sugar-coat the truth out of fear of offending the audience.
He neither clamored for their favor,
nor practice friendship evangelism,
nor trembled from their threats. This scenario reminds the preacher of
his duty as a messenger of God to preach the Word in season & out of
season.
Now listen.
Let consider if I took Sandra out somewhere expensive to eat on a date. If I
caught my waiter redoing my meal on the way to the table I’d be like wait!
You’re not the cook, why are you all up in my food? We preachers do NOT give up
our own messages; we merely deliver the message already served up to the
waiting ears of God’s people. We preach the Word & if we do not we are not
God’s preachers! Open your eyes & unstop your ears Calvary EVERY thing the
bible tells pastors not to do is on grand display in pulpits across the
country. The HS says preach the Word, and pastors tell folksy stories. The
Bible says feed the flock & pastors present 5-minute stand-up routines. The
bible says this is already the Word of God & its all you will need for every
good work & many young pastors like myself are want to preach anything BUT
this Word. There is a warning here to you all preachers or people under
preachers to NOT put up with worldly philosophy or poetic sophistry from the
pulpit. Preach the message; receive the message that God has told us to!
But we must
speak the truth in love
While we
might question Jonah's motives based on the last chapter of the book notice
here that surprisingly declaring the message of God's pending judgment against
a lost humanity qualifies as an act of love. Its shocking; I know. But it
is God’s Love & His Mercy that warns of coming destruction!
Think
of Sodom & Gomorrah no warning, except for Lot & his family but think
of Israel’s long history the entire point of prophets & judges is Israel
sins, God sends prophets to warn & after Israel fails to repent, they is
sacked or enslaved or whatever.
Now
think of the 1 that is Love personified friends: Jesus Christ talked more of
hell than anyone in Scripture not some enraged bible-thumper but someone who
knows as fact what lies beyond the veil of death & cares enough to
tell you Halt! Caution! Bridge out, don’t keep going!
I
once heard this story from a missionary Lou Nicholes of a huge rainstorm down
near Louisiana where a bridge across a large stream was washed out. Soon after
the storm a man was driving down the road in his car, and just as he rounded a
sharp curve, he saw ahead of him the tail lights of a car suddenly disappearing; he
threw on his brakes…good thing because a barge had struck the bridge and
knocked a section out. Several other cars had already plunged over into the
waters below unable to see through the rain the bridge was out. He immediately applied his brakes
and barely got stopped before plunging in to the swollen waters. After he backed
his car to the side of the road he was still trembling with emotion as he
thought about what would have happened if he hadn’t been able to stop. As he
got out of his car he heard a familiar sound in the distance, from the
direction he has just traveled. He was sure it was some large bus coming and
probably loaded with kids and if the driver wasn’t warned he would not have
time to stop the bus before plunging into the water and probably many would be
killed. Immediately he ran in the direction of the approaching bus. He could
have stood by the side of the road smiling and waving “being positive” but
instead he got out in front of the bus frantically waving his hands shouting
STOP before it was too late and many would lose their lives.
Now
suppose you’re the bus driver however, & you miss the warning or choose to
ignore it. Maybe you don’t think it applies to you; perhaps you don’t
believe in gravity, or you just don’t want anybody telling you what to
do. Whatever the reason, you find the Law of Gravity holds true despite
your apathy, ignorance, rebellion, or unbelief regarding the warning.
Our
society today is fast approaching the “bridge out warning!” Our Creator
has ordained a final Day of Judgment and has lovingly erected “warning sings”
in both nature and in His Word, but too many people are spurning these “warning
signs,” and society is heading for disaster. It is in Love that we warn others
of the coming judgment, not glee for the judgment to come.
As preachers,
we offer the truth to all people
The Word of
God extended to the commoners in the streets and leaders in the palace. God's
offer of grace extends to all races in all places. This, of course, reminds us of
our commission to go into the entire world with the gospel. Through the Spirit,
God the Father gives faith through the Word of Christ to whomever He choses; or
more simply God brings sinners to repentant faith. But conversion that’s His
job; our job is to defend the faith; to share our faith. Our job
is to do good to others & make disciples, to extend grace
& love, even to our enemies as we were once God’s enemies & he graced
us.
Now we come to verses 3-4
So Jonah arose and went to
Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a
three-day journey. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk.
Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overturned!"
Jonah arose
and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD: Having learned the lesson that
resisting the will of God is both futile and counter-productive; Jonah now
obeys the call and goes to Nineveh.
But Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day
journey: Atheists love to pick at this statement. Three
days travel to cross Nineveh; it couldn’t have been that big! The idea behind
this statement probably refers to how long it would take to walk through the
city of "Greater Nineveh" think the metropolitan area around the city
or
time it took to travel through its various districts preaching this message
Jonah had been called to share. 3 days journey my best guess is suburb by suburb or
market by market Jonah traveled here & there & did as God required of
him but read ch 4 before you give him a pat on the back he’s still a pretty
petty & wretched man.
Yet forty
days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! Jonah emphasized to the people of Nineveh what
would happen if they did not repent - the city would be overthrown in
judgment. Undoubtedly, we can assume this was not Jonah's whole
message to the people of Nineveh; but clearly it was his emphasis.
"Overthrown"
is a word applied to the destruction of Sodom.
I thought about calling this sermon: A tale
of 2 cities contrasting God’s judgment on Sodom & God’s grace at Nineveh.
Sodom is the example of what happens when we do not repent – sure
destruction. Sodom & Ninevah are to us examples like the 2 thieves on
the crosses with Christ, we will end up like 1 of the 2, unrepentant destined
to destruction or calling out for mercy & destined for Paradise to use
Jesus’ word for the repentant thief. The sheep or the goat, the wheat or the
chaff, the Rich man or Lazarus, we also will exemplify to others 1 of these 2
options, which will you be?
We see that
Jonah preached this message with earnestness. And such earnestness becomes a
ministry that has to do with immortal souls, asleep and dead in sin, hanging on
the brink of distruction, and ignorant of their state. So sinners & people
perk up your ears yet 40 days & you might yet be overthrown! Do no dare to
presume upon the gracious patience of Christ to see you through the next 41
days when there is time enough for repentance now!
The response of the people of
Nineveh – verse 6
This revival
was totally unexpected. And, initially, it was undesirable by even the
preacher Jonah. Jonah himself admits in chapter 4 that he did not want to
preach in Nineveh NOT because he was scared of them; but because he
hated them & knew God to be merciful. Consider the probability that
this brutal king would suddenly repent and turn to God. For that matter, why
did they even listen to Jonah? Some commentators have suggested that the gastric
juices of the fish bleached Jonah's skin & their pagan religion would
have made them sensitive to this “Fish Prophet.” Others cite existing fear
around heavenly occurrences like meteors or eclipses that had already
been seen by the Assyrians & would have already superstitiously caution
them against an impending disaster; but we cannot quantify any of this without
it being in the actual text. All we do know is God wanted this to be, and God
used Jonah &these events for His means & to His ends & it was so –
sovereign divine Election & conversion on the part of the “free-will” of
Yahweh.
Paul, the
Apostle, had a similar experience with God. While traveling to Damascus to
imprison & persecute more Christians, this hostile enemy of Christ suddenly
and unexpectedly encountered Christ. And that confrontation resulted in a
radical change in his life - Sovereign conversion.
This truth
brings hope to all those parents that plead with their wayward children to
return to God and to all those pastors that plead with their indifferent
congregations to return to God. God has and can move suddenly even on
those that don't even expect or want to hear from Him. He can call & lead
to repentance those who aren’t even seeking Him, since God is not
seeker-sensitive (whatever that term is supposed to mean)!
Revival – verse 10
When God's
people experience revival, lost people that once completely ignored God come to
Him in repentance. To say it differently, God must do something to us
first before He does anything through us.
"God
relented" or spared the Assyrians from destruction. Of course, this
pictures God's grace because the people did not deserve His mercy. We should be
careful to remember that no one deserves Divine mercy. But, from a human
perspective, if anyone lacked moral decency and deserved wrath, it was
they. ** Archeology – example ask for mercy w/o fight**
The word
"repentance" isn't in this passage; but repentance isn't really a
word, it is something you do – you turn from your anger; from
your former ways & former un-belief in the act called repentance & call
our for mercy and these people didn’t say repentance, they did
repentance.
The people
of Nineveh believed God: Repentance begins with believing God. As we
believe Him and His Word, we have the power to transform our lives such as He
allows. You can do many other things associated with repentance, but if they do
not begin with believing on and trusting God, they are all useless works of the
flesh.
The people
of Nineveh … proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth: Repentance means doing
something. The people of Nineveh fasted, mourned as if for the dead, and they
did it from the highest to the lowest (from
the greatest to the least of them).
If
repentance is anything, it is not business as usual. When
repentance comes, something has to change and something has to be different.
In their case, the people of Nineveh took off their normal clothes and put on sackcloth
- a thick coarse cloth, normally made from goat's hair. Wearing it displayed
the rejection of all their earthly comforts and pleasures.
Let man and beast
be covered with sackcloth: They even repented on behalf of their animals,
dressing them as if the animals were in mourning for the dead. Their beast?
Theologically their beasts didn’t need to repent but EVEN THIS teaches us that genuine
baby faith need not be 100% theologically astute to still be TRUE faith.
That’s good news for all of us.
But let man
and beast … cry mightily to God: Repentance means crying mightily to God.
It means coming to God with a passion and seriousness about your sin and your
need for His mercy and forgiveness.
So much of
modern "repentance" today with its claims of excuses and reasons
why we sinned, is really not repentance at all. It is only an attempt to
justify and excuse our sin. **very whiny** But God my up bringing….but God
my circumstances….but God my income bracket….Nevertheless, you sinned or you
didn't; if you did, there is no excuse, and if you haven't, there is
no need to repent. Repentance and excuses simply don't belong together.
Friends I’ve sinned soo much that I need to even repent of my “good works;”
which could be better & more frequent, meaning even my good works aren’t
“good” enough!
Yes, let
every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands: Repentance means to change your
mind and turn from your previous sinful thoughts & actions.
In the
Christian life, repentance does not describe what you must do to turn to
God; it describes the very process of turning from sin & to God. When we
truly turn to Him, we turn away from the things that displease Him.
Who can tell
if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger: Finally repentance is hope
– a new hope – in the mercy and love of God. It hopes that God will relent
and that the repentant people will not perish.
Ironically
Jonah (of all people) could more effectively preach a message of
repentance because he had known his own need to repent. Being a repentant
sinner didn't disqualify Jonah from preaching repentance; it made his preaching
all the more effective. That’s a good reminder for us today.
Salvation is
a sanctifying work of God–
3:7-9
Notice the
transformation of the prevailing culture. Only God could produce such a
radical change in an entire city. Remember that when God regenerates the soul,
outward manifestations of holiness should follow. The convert that still feels
comfortable in his former rebellion probably was never converted in the 1st
place.
So finally, what’s
God's response to the people's repentance?
Then God saw
their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the
disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
God saw
their works … and God relented: God honored their repentance, even though their past
sin was still reason enough for an outpouring of judgment. The State would
never forgive a cold-blooded serial killer who merely vowed to never do it again,
yet God being even more merciful than the State relented from His judgment
against the people of Nineveh.
Remember we
do not obligate God to
forgive us when we repent. Instead, repentance appeals to God's mercy, instead
of His justice.
God relented
from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do
it: So we must
ask. Did God's relenting make Jonah a false prophet, when he prophesied Yet
forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown? Not at all, for a few good
reasons.
First, God
acted in total consistency with His Word: The instant I speak concerning a
nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck them up, to pull down, and to destroy
it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will
relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. (Jeremiah 18:7-8) Jonah's preaching was like all
warnings of judgment: it was an invitation to repent and a chance to avert the
promised judgment. Jonah’s words had an implied
"if you do not repent" along with them. Remember that we are probably
not told the sum total of Jonah's preaching; though we should assume that the
statement in Jonah 3:5 is the central theme of what
Jonah said, we should not assume it was all that he said.
Calvary, Jonah
knows the God of heaven…this is who I am a God of both mercy & justice!
This is how God described Himself to Moses way back in Exodus - The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses
there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6The Lord
passed before him and proclaimed, “Yahweh, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness, 7keeping
steadfast love for thousands,a forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the
guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s
children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8And Moses quickly bowed his head toward
the earth and worshiped. 9And
Moses said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the
Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our
iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
God is a god
of grace yes, but a God of grace & justice both so let us not presume upon
either but call out for his mercy. Eventually, God did judge Nineveh (as
recorded in the book of Nahum). Nevertheless, in light of their repentance He
delayed it another 150 years, probably passing this entire generation before
executing His justice against the next generation that did not continue in
their repentance.
Conclusion
If you are
here & you’re already a Christian I’ll tell you again continue to Repent
& put your faith in the Merciful works of God in Christ for your Salvation.
If you are here & you are not a Christian, let me briefly tell you about
The Great Exchange. Man’s Great Need is fixed in this idea. You are not
perfect. You need someone else’s perfection to stand in your place. This is the
idea that lead Dr. Martin Luther out of trying to earn God’s favor &
into the History books.
Christianity
is uniquely different from all the other world religions, in this aspect.
God
reconciled sinful man to Himself by making His sinless Son the sin-substitute
and dying in the sinner's place. Jesus Christ paid the death penalty for the
sinner so that God could set the sinner free and declare him righteous in His
holy presence. Moreover, He did more than just forgive us our sins; He imputed
the perfect righteousness of His Son in to us. A great exchange took place.
Christ got all our sin and guilt; we got His perfect righteousness. His
righteousness was exchanged for our sin. Repent! Believe in this Great Exchange
done for you from a gracious heart of a merciful God! Then honor this
God by being gracious & merciful to others, not to earn your station before
Him; He’s already done the hard parts for you. But just to say thank you,
because you will want to, because his spirit will be in you making you more
& more like him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, For our
sake God made Jesus to become sin who knew no sin, so that in Christ we
might become the righteousness of God. And because God did all the work He gets
all the Glory, Soli Deo Gloria.
**Believe in
this God! Not the Justice-less god I was taught of from TV, this is the God of
Scripture, repent! & not just maybe…he will relent from His Justice that is
due you, I’m quite sure from the NT that He WILL relent & give you mercy
instead of justice on that last day!
@@@
Let’s pray:
Today we’ve seen in the
example of the history of Jonah an example of Your love & mercy not just
for the Jews only but for the whole world. We have been called in their example
to repentance & faith, to cry out for mercy & to do deeds in keeping
with an honest repentance. We pray that by your Spirit & grace we mature
further than that of poor Jonah & do not exalt in the coming destruction of
others, nor claim that You’ve have done evil when you extend mercy even to
those we don’t like. Let us not run from your presence but follow you &
preach your Word, warning the world of the Judgment to come that we might save
some. We thank you too for the New Testament that shows us that the bar you
have set for Salvation is beyond our grasp & realizing this, have firmly
planted our faith in the Great Exchange of your Son. Thank you for the gift of
faith & for Christ’s perfection given to us & for Your sovereign grace
in Salvation.
Christ your work on the cross
becomes that bridge that connects a sinful humanity with a sinless God. Without
that bridge no man could cross the stormy sea of sin that separates a
rebellious world & a Just God. God
you’ve done it all for us; we do not do it for ourselves. For this you are
eternally worthy of praise & worship & the example to us in this next
year that we begin to exemplify this same selflessness, charity, justice & mercy.
May your name be praised on Earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.
