Jonah : More Than An Apology
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From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Is repentance something you do in order to come to God or is repentance something you do after coming to God? Is repentance is making an apology? Telling God you are sorry for your sins? Is repentance the bad feelings we have in the aftermath of sin? Is repentance turning away from sinful behavior and getting your act together? Does repentance happen one time in accepting Jesus or is it an ongoing action after accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord?
But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
Q. Do we first repent in order to come to God or do we repent after we come to God?
Q. Do we first repent in order to come to God or do we repent after we come to God?
A. Repentance happens after God gets us!
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 overthrown!”
Repentance first begins with an overturning of our mind.
Jonah 3:5 (NKJV)
So the people of Nineveh believed God . . .
“We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness . . .” Steps to Christ, page 23
Q. Is repentance making an apology to God?
Q. Is repentance making an apology to God?
A. An apology is a part, but not the whole, of repentance.
An overturned mind leads to an overturned heart.
We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in heart . . .
Steps to Christ, page 23
Jonah 3:5–8 (NKJV)
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God . . .”
Q. Is repentance the bad feelings we have in the aftermath of sin?
Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, exclaimed, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.” Matthew 27:4.The confession was forced from his guilty soul by an awful sense of condemnation and a fearful looking for of judgment. The consequences that were to result to him filled him with terror, but there was no deep, heartbreaking grief in his soul, that he had betrayed the spotless Son of God and denied the Holy One of Israel.
Steps to Christ, pg 23
Q. Is repentance the bad feelings we have in the aftermath of sin?
A. It is a part, but not the whole, of repentance if the bad feelings concern being deepl heartbroken for how sin impacts God, ourselves, and those we sin against.
When our minds are overturned to believe God, and when our hearts have been overturned to humility, that is what leads to an overturning of our hands.
“We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in heart, there will be no real change in the life.”
Steps to Christ, page 23
Jonah 3:8 (NKJV)
… cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
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.
Q. Is repentance turning away from sinful behavior?
Q. Is repentance turning away from sinful behavior?
A. Yes - as God produces change from the inside out!
Changed behavior is the best apology!
Jonah chapter four veres one through four
Q. Does repentance happen one time in accepting Jesus or is it an ongoing action after accepting Jesus?
Q. Does repentance happen one time in accepting Jesus or is it an ongoing action after accepting Jesus?
A. Repentance continues as we grow in Christ.
Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?