A Call to Repent

Introduction

Have you ever had someone come up to you and say, “I have good news and bad news to tell you”? This is something that we are accustomed to hearing. Generally there is a followup to this statement where they ask if we want to hear the good or the bad news first. Some of us want to hear the good news and then the bad while others are the opposite. We really don’t like hearing “bad” news, do we? Regardless of what the news is, we never enjoy receiving bad news. Likewise, we don’t like sharing bad news with others because we know that it’s not a positive message to share. On Thursday of last week at Lebanon High School we received an email saying that we had a staff meeting to attend in the gym at 8:30am. As we made our way into the gym and began to spread out there were murmurs about what the meeting was about. There were all sorts of rumors circulating and eventually the principal appeared with the microphone and asked if people knew what he was about to announce. Several hands went up while the majority had no idea what was going on. The principal announced that Lebanon High School was starting the school year in their hybrid learning plan where half the students would show up on Monday/Wednesday while the others would come on Tuesday/Thursday. There were many reasons why this decision was made by administration, but as the announcement was made by the principal you could hear the concern with the staff. Teachers had prepared the whole week to have 30 students in their classes and were planning accordingly. Having just found this news out, there was some stress and concern due to this “bad” news.

We don’t like receiving bad news. Even if it isn’t all that bad, we don’t like hearing messages that go against our way of thinking. Why is this? Why do we dislike hearing bad news and why do we hate being the bearer of bad news? Because of the impact it will have. Think of the boss that has to go and tell an employee that they are now fired. Think of the principal who has to tell hundreds of teachers that they need to completely retool their lessons in 2 days before the start of school. Think of the prophet who tells a wicked city to repent of their wickedness and turn to God. These are not exactly ideal situations to be in - yet, sharing the bad news is crucial. If we never tell people that they must repent of their sin and stop living for themselves and instead live for Jesus Christ, they might feel good about themselves but they are hopelessly lost and dead in their sins! Sharing the bad news isn’t fun, but we must be obedient, as Jonah was, to call people to repent and trust in the One, True, Living God.

Jonah 3 NASB95

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. 4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8 “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9 “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” 10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

Like Jonah, we are commanded to preach the Gospel (1-3)

In the opening few verses we see a very similar message to Jonah as we saw back in Jonah 1:1-2. As we talked last week, Jonah was given a second chance. He had disobeyed, he suffered the consequence and now he was commissioned to do the thing that he was called to do from the beginning: go to Nineveh and call them to repent. Aren’t you thankful for second chances? Aren’t you thankful that God is a God of mercy? Jonah had received this second chance and he obeyed in verse 3 as he actually went to Nineveh. If you look at Jonah 1:2

Jonah 1:2 ESV

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

Jonah 3:2 ESV

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”

So Jonah is told to arise, go and proclaim. In chapter 1 we see that he is to call out against the people of Nineveh for the evil and wickedness. In chapter 3 we do not see specifically what he is supposed to proclaim. Many scholars note that it is the same message as before in chapter 1 - a call to repent. This is likely the case.

Think for a moment about our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. We like Jonah are called to arise, go and proclaim. What are we supposed to proclaim? We are supposed to proclaim the truth of the Gospel! We see a great summary of this in 1 Corinthians 15

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 NASB95

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Jesus Christ was born, lived a perfect life, died for our sins and rose from the grave. We proclaim this message to people around us because it is so important! We discussed this briefly during our Wednesday night Bible study a few nights ago… Our world loves to tell our children that they are perfect - maybe you don’t fall into this category, but seriously there are millions of children who are told daily by their parents that they are perfect and that they never do anything wrong. To these children who are being told this, what happens as they get older? Maybe they are invited to church with a friend in Junior High and they are introduced to Jesus Christ who came to die for our sins. This confuses the student because they’ve been told that they’re absolutely perfect - why would they need someone to die for their sins whenever they’ve never sinned? Do you see how important it is for us to share and teach what the Bible teaches as Christians? Don’t tell your kids and grandkids that they’re perfect or that they’re enough on their own - they’re not! What Scripture shows us is that we are sinners and we need a Savior.

We need to share the Gospel. Both sides of it. On the one hand you’re not good enough. You are bad. You are dead in your sins and trespasses. You are wicked. This is not a fun message to share and it’s not a fun message to think about, but it’s the truth of Scripture - if you don’t repent and turn everything over to God then you’re going to spend eternity in a place called hell. That’s not being judgmental, that’s being Biblical! This is the bad news. But the news doesn’t stop there - we are sinners and Christ died for sinners and He is good enough! The Lord loves giving mercy to sinners. The question that we need to ask is do we love doing this as well? Do we love giving mercy to others?

We love receiving mercy for ourselves whenever we fall short. We love getting the benefit of the doubt when it’s ourselves. What do we do whenever it’s someone else, though? Do we love giving mercy to others? Sometimes it’s hard! When it’s hard we must remind ourselves of our sin and how we have received mercy from God that we did not deserve either.

Like Jonah, we encourage people to repent (4-5)

As we share the Gospel message with others, this starts with us being the “bearer of bad news” and most of us don’t like that task. We must encourage people to repent and turn their eyes upon Jesus as the age old hymn puts it. This is exactly what Jonah does. He goes to this “exceedingly great city” and we wonder why a wicked city can be called exceedingly or extraordinarily great? The reason why is because this was a very large and powerful city. We talked about how the Ninevites were notorious for their torture of others and their military expertise. This was not only a powerful city but also a populated one. We see in Jonah 4:11 that there were over 120,000 people in the city. Scholars debate as to how many people lived in the city and we will discuss this more in depth next week, but this is a place with at least 120,000 citizens or roughly the size of Springfield nearly 2600 years ago. Big place and scary people who could easily torture and kill Jonah!

What does Jonah tell these people in verse 4? He tells them that the city will be destroyed in 40 days. In the Hebrew text, Jonah only says 5 words. Can you imagine a sermon that is only 5 words long? This would be a dream come true for some of you because you’d get home around 11:30! Truly, though, Jonah says 5 words and we see in verse 5 that the people get the memo and they repent! How on earth does this happen with 5 small words?

We know that words are powerful, don’t we? Jonah doesn’t get into the deep parts of Scripture. He doesn’t give a PhD dissertation or preach for hours and debate scholars like Paul did in Athens as we see in Acts 17. What does he do? He tells them what God commanded him to. As we saw last week in Jonah 2:9

Jonah 2:9 NASB95

9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord.”

Salvation is from the Lord! The Gospel is the power of God. The people didn’t repent because Jonah convinced them per say, they repented because they were convicted by God. They were responsible to repent here and that is exactly what they did. They believed Jonah’s message.

What was Jonah’s command here? To arise, go and proclaim this message from God. What was the result? The people repented. Check out what we see in Jeremiah 18 regarding what will happen whenever a nation repents.

Jeremiah 18:7–8 NIV

7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

These people repent and instead of receiving punishment and disaster, God promises to relent. Do you see the direct command here? We as followers of God are to encourage people to repent as we share the Gospel message with them. Maybe that is by using 5 words like Jonah did or maybe that is by helping people out in their time of need and telling them about our testimony or what Jesus has done in our lives. I love what Donald Whitney says about opportunities to share the Gospel, “They won’t just happen. You’ll have to discipline yourself to ask your neighbors how you can pray for them or when you can share a meal with them. You’ll have to discipline yourself to get with your coworkers during off-hours. Many such opportunities for evangelism will never take place if you wait for them to occur spontaneously. The World, the flesh, and the Devil will do their best to see to that. You, however, backed by invincible power of the Holy Spirit, can make sure that these enemies of the gospel do not win.” Friends, we have to make these things happen. The Lord will give us the opportunities, but if we are not prepared or if we are not disciplined then we will blow them time and time again. We must prepare ourselves to share the Gospel message.

We pray that people will repent and turn to God (6-10)

Have you ever heard someone say, “Try your best and leave God the rest”? This was a statement that I’ve heard used often in athletics. We know that God’s plan will be accomplished regardless of our shortcomings and flaws as messengers - this is the awesome truth of Isaiah 55:11 as we see that God’s Word will never return void! While God’s plan will come about, we have a duty as Christians to share the good news and to be the most prepared as we possibly can be! To study God’s Word and to memorize it so that we can share it! It doesn’t stop with the message and the conversation, though. Whenever it comes time to bail hay, as many of you do in the summer months, who does all the work? You, the farmer, do! This work looks very tiring as it is often done in very hot conditions. Think about what Paul says about evangelizing with others in 1 Corinthians 3

1 Corinthians 3:6–7 ESV

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

Who brought about the growth? Was it Paul? Was it Apollos? Was it Jonah? No! It was God. We know that whenever we share the Gospel with others that we can do absolutely nothing to open their eyes. You can show them a Billy Graham crusade video on YouTube where he would talk about the cross very passionately and talk about the weight of our sin but that person will simply not get it unless they are convicted by the Holy Spirit because we are lost without Christ! You and I can do absolutely nothing regarding reaping a harvest - that is up to the Lord - it’s above our pay-grade. What is our responsibility? To share the message and to pray for the people. To quote a former teacher, “It’s not our job to save everybody, it’s out job to be faithful to Jesus and to tell the good news.” - what does that look like? To share the Gospel and pray that they would repent.

When was the last time that you prayed for your enemy? If I were to ask you when was the last time that you prayed for President Trump you would probably answer that you did so this morning or within the past week. What about Joe Biden? Does he need our prayers right now? I think it’s safe to say so. Jonah shared this good news to the entire city full of wicked people - including the king! We see in the concluding verses of chapter 3 that the king makes a decree for everyone to cover themselves in sackcloth and turn from their wicked ways. He goes on to say that they will not eat, drink and even the animals will be covered with sackcloth. The king heard this message and said that the whole city needs to get right with the Lord - friends can you think of a nation that needs to hear this message right now? Regardless of what happens in November, this should be our prayer for our country. That we would repent of our wicked ways and humble ourselves before a holy God!

Why did the king do this and why should we pray that our nation would do the same? Jeremiah 18:7-8 for one, but also 2 Chronicles 7:14

2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Friends, we’ve got to humble ourselves as Christians and pray that others would repent of their wickedness and turn and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord. We see that the king of Nineveh does this and we see in verse 10 that God does not bring about judgment and destruction upon the city - instead he shows mercy. You know where this is going. This should be our prayer for our nation. That we would repent and turn to God. Some people think that our nation is beyond the point of no return - or that if Biden wins in November that we are doomed and that Christians will be rounded up into concentration camps and given a microchip in our arms - I’m not kidding by the way because people are sharing this garbage on Facebook. Our nation needs revival and to turn to the Lord - who has to lead this? The church. Nothing will ever stop the church of Jesus Christ - Christ Himself said so. Yet, some people think that Jesus is wrong. They think that a bad president will stop the church of Jesus Christ. Friends, we give presidents way too much power. God is immutable, meaning He doesn’t change. Hebrews 13:8 shares this fact. Christ has been building His church and will continue to do so until He returns. No virus, person or law will stop that!

Just as God threatens judgment upon Nineveh, there are people facing the upcoming judgment of God today. That judgment could come during this life but it will certainly come in the next, but if you reject Jesus you will face that judgment. The incredible hope is that God also offers mercy. But there is also a message of judgment - we must be obedient to share both with our world as well.

Conclusion

Before we conclude, we must evaluate ourselves tonight. Have I repented and placed my trust and faith in Jesus? Am I living for Him today? We must know Christ and make Christ known to others. You can’t skip to step 2 without first doing step 1 - kind of like whenever you skip an instruction for assembling a new piece of furniture. We can’t get out of step here. First you and I need to check our heart and ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to any places that we need to repent of right now. After that self-exam time, though, we like Jonah are called to share the Gospel message with others and encourage others to repent and trust in Jesus Christ. As we do this, we pray for their salvation. We know that God is in control and that God is a God of mercy. We trust in God’s Word where it says that God’s ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We trust in God’s Word where He says that He will build His church and nothing will stop it.

So what are you trusting in tonight? Trust in the covenant keeping God who cannot go back on His promises and who is full of forgiveness, grace and mercy. Share His Gospel with others this week.