Jonah 3

Sermon

Jonah 3 ESV

1 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. 6 The word 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 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, 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 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.

Go through the story. shouldnt take long

Notes on the story and the gospel

Jonah has been called to be a missionary

In a way, Hes called to go tell people the gospel.

lets Explain the gospel -

What does the word gospel mean? (good news)

What is the gospel? (jesus died on the cross)

but isnt that bad news?

Do you understand that the bible says people deserve to go to hell?

But the good news is they dont have to go.

Jesus paid the price for peoples sin.

(if some of that is not clear or very confusing, come talk to me after or text me sometime.)

So The whole story is not just gods love

and its not just gods wrath on sin

There can be no good news without bad news.

people have to hear they are a sinners, or there is no need for being saved.

Jonah didnt want to go because he didnt want God to show mercy on the people because of their disobedience to God.

Yet he wanted God to show mercy to him in his disobedience.

In this story, we see God showing mercy and grace to both the sharer and the one shared to

We also see that God is sort of relentless in his Calling to Jonah. He wants Jonah to go now.

When is the right time to tell someone they will go to hell because of their sin if they dont have Christ?

Jonahs calling is for now.

There also seems to be urgency in Matthew 28:18-20 to GO NOW and make disciples.

So why are we not going to share?

Because:

We do not want to share bad news

We dont want to offend

Would rather not deal with it

We do not want to share good news

We do not want them to hear?

“its unfair of them to find forgiveness because they are too bad?”

This is not emergency for the survival of the church. God is in control. But this is urgency for someone to repent of sin right now!

Think of how crazy this picture is:

Jonah 3:6–9 ESV

6 The word 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 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, 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 turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

Not only is everyone repenting, but the king even puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes and mourns like someone has died.

Take aways

No arrogance allowed

Jesus died for your sin of pride from being a christian as much as he died for the sin of the one whom you have been called to share with

The gospel will go forward.

Jonah wasnt doing it for the right reasons but God worked any way

Paul said the same thing

Philippians 1:15–18 ESV

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

Stop worrying about saying the right words and focus on having the right obedience

People do not get saved because you say the right things.

They get saved because of God

That happens when you are faithful to go

Beauty of models like Romans Road and 3 circles is that its not about the right words. Its about knowing what scripture and having a conversation with them.