An Unlikely Revival

Pray & Intro: How do you feel about second chances? Really good about it when it’s for me… and quite a bit less thrilled when it’s for the guy who royally screwed up and hurt me (or someone I love) in the process.

· I hear people say, “If anyone deserves a second chance, it’s him.” – But that defies logic b/c by definition a second chance is undeserved. That’s why it’s called grace.

· Jonah doesn’t deserve a second chance. (Jonah’s fail is of epic proportions.)

· What is perhaps even more unlikely than the unlikely messenger is the unlikely revival that takes place in Nineveh as a result of Jonah’s preaching. What’s more, God relents!

Jonah 3:1–10 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.

Jonah: Re-commissioned Messenger

1. The reluctant prophet gets a second chance.

a. Don’t miss the point of a second chance—to glorify God with your obedience and heart.

b. How many times have you failed and received grace to start anew? As rescued sinners every day is a second chance.  George H. Morrison, “The Victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”

c. Jonah gets a second chance to obey, which he does. “Jonah arose and went to Nineveh.”

2. Jonah preaches a message of Divine judgment.

– “overthrown,” same term for Sodom and Gomorrah

a. Jonah preached the message that God told him. – for every preacher, parent, Sunday school teacher, Awana leader, and sometime discipler —> We cannot teach what WE think people need to hear, nor what they want to hear, but only the message given to us by God. That message is only to be found in his word.

b. The Sermon: It is eight words in the English language and five words in the Hebrew.

c. He preaches it with gusto. He cried out. He let ‘em have it.

d. A message of divine judgment is a warning. – Famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

e. A warning of God’s wrath is indeed a loving action because it is a call to repentance and faith. “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, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matt. 12:41)

f. Yet 40 days – The window of grace is a limited time, and for each of us, we do not know how long we have.

Nineveh: Repentant City

1. Nineveh was indeed a great city for its day.

a. Central Nineveh was fortified with walls up to 100 feet high and surrounded by a moat 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep.

b. Greater Metropolitan Nineveh was some approximate 60 miles wide, with upwards of 600,000 inhabitants. (Esp. if you take the 120,000 at the end of Jonah to mean small children.)  3 days journey makes sense when you account for the fact that Jonah is going about preaching.

2. Nineveh was “a great city to God.” And it experienced a revival like no other.

a. Established by Nimrod (Gen. 10:11). The same Nimrod, “a mighty hunter,” who was probably the leader of the people during the tower of Babel fiasco.

b. The same Nineveh that would later become the capital of the Assyrian empire (called the land of Nimrod in Micah 5:6), and conquer Israel, and later have to be prophesied against under Nahum and then overthrown by God (over a century after Jonah).

c. Why a great city to God?  Magnifying the grace and glory of God.

3. The people of Nineveh not only heeded the warning, but they “Believed God.”

a. Such is always the absolute crux of repentance and faith. (God is right. God is just. God can save.)

b. Evidence of their turning, their humbling before God (even the king): Mourning (in sackcloth and ashes), Fasting (denying the flesh), Seeking God – Praying (call out mightily to God), Turn from his evil way and the violence that is in his hands.

4. Their hope, although slim: v. 9.

a. It’s not like they had repeated calls to repentance. (unlike some people!)

b. It’s not like the message was encouraging, nor was Jonah himself, as we observed earlier.

c. Their hope: Maybe God will turn from his fierce anger at our sin if WE turn from our sin. And maybe, just maybe he will be sorry (be moved to pity, have compassion) and relent from disaster and we won’t perish if we turn to him to save us.

d. When we cry out to God for salvation, our hope is sure, b/c of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, having died for our sins, being buried in the grave, and rising again to defeat sin and death.

God: Relenting Sovereign

(relenting of his anger and their certain disaster)

1. When people repent, God relents. – They turn from their sin and He turns from his anger and purpose of destruction.  (condition)

2. Reminder: “We do not obligate God to forgive us when we repent. Instead, repentance appeals to God’s mercy, not His justice.” Dave Guzik

3. Have you repented and received God’s grace to you in Jesus Christ by faith?

Conclude:

Why does God relent when people repent? His glory is magnified by the manifestation of His grace.

Why should you and I exult in God’s relenting when people are repenting? Why should we be thrilled that he is the God of second chances?

1. We are the recipients of grace. Just how grateful are you?

2. God is the recipient of glory. Just how zealous are you for God’s glory? (and in obedience to his will)

PRAY

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