Jonah 3 Welcome to Nineveh

Intro

We live in troubled times. Right now it feels like everyone is uncertain about what is going on in our world and we are all worried what that is going to look like in the future.

For the last year we’ve been going through a virus that cannot be controlled and has touched every single aspect of our lives.

We have had an economic collapse where millions of people have lost their jobs.

We have suffered government overreach and tyranny. There have been lockdowns where the government has forced hundreds of thousands of small businesses to close, many of them for good.

And everywhere you look our nation is divided and at a boiling point where it feels like even the smallest spark could make the whole thing go off.

Even the church has been touched by these troubled times. Many churches have been forced to stop gathering and falsely labeled as super spreader events.

And I don’t ever remember a time where we’ve seen this many wolves running rampant devouring sheep left and right.

I think we are in the midst of the greatest apostasy any of us have ever seen in our lifetime.

With everything so chaotic, how should we live in troubled times? What should be our role in all this? What is God calling us, the church, to do right here, right now to be a light to the world?

Do we need to hunker down and hope that all of our fears about persecution and the future will just go away?

Do we just keep pretending like nothing has changed and bank on everything will go back to normal?

I, for one, sure hope not. This last year has been a wake up call that the time of playing church is over.

The American Church has grown comfortable and fat while our world has been burning down around us.

If this last year has taught us anything, its that we need to remember our mission. God has given us a job to do.

The Big Idea of Jonah 3 is that...

God promises to save everyone who repents of their sin and trusts in Christ.

The judgment we’ve seen God pour out on our nation reminds us there is a heavenly Kingdom we should be living for.

That this is not a time to shrink back and go into ourselves. This is a time to go forth boldly with the gospel because people and our nation need God’s grace.

Usually when you preach through Jonah 3, you look at repentance and what it should look like in the life of the believer.

And we will do that some today.

But our unique times give us the unique opportunity to read Jonah 3 from a different perspective. To look at our mission and God’s power to save sinners.

I’ve titled this sermon, Welcome to Nineveh, because like Jonah, God has commissioned us to call out to an evil and wicked nation.

To proclaim the gospel of repentance so that like Nineveh, we might see a revival where God pours out his grace and saves sinners.

So let’s start looking at Jonah 3 and and what it means to commit ourselves to the mission God has given us with point number 1...

I. God Has Commissioned Us to Preach Repentance

Jonah 3:1-4 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.

This is God’s recommissioning of Jonah.

You’ll remember at the very beginning of the book we are told Jonah 1:1-3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

God came to Jonah and said, Jonah, I want you to get up and go to Nineveh. I want you to preach and raise the alarm that my judgment is coming.

But instead of obeying the Lord, Jonah got up and fled to Tarshish. He rejected his call to prophesy against Nineveh, and he ran away as far as he possibly could.

But God’s mission to save sinners was not going to be stopped just because some rebellious prophet decided to run away.

And you know the story. Jonah got on a boat. God sent a storm. The sailors threw Jonah overboard, and as he was about to drown, God sent a fish to swallow Jonah and save him from death.

Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, and while in the fish, he repented of rebelling against the Lord.

Then God spoke to the fish, and it spat Jonah out on dry land.

And that brings us here. You’ll notice the beginning of Jonah 3 is almost identical to the beginning of Jonah 1.

God gives Jonah three commands. Arise, Go, and Call Out.

The difference is in chapter 1, God said why he wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh. For their evil has come up before me. Which means their wickedness but also their trouble and the danger they were in because of their sin.

The emphasis is on God’s heart to save sinners.

But then in chapter 3, God says he wants Jonah to call out against it the message that I tell you. The emphasis here is on God’s message for Nineveh. God doesn’t just have a heart to save sinners, God actually takes action to save sinners.

He sends his prophet to preach his message.

And this time, instead of getting up and fleeing to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord, Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.

The Jonah that had renounced his call to serve God was gone. Now he was going to obey God’s Word. Verse 4...

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!”

When it says Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, in Hebrew it literally says Nineveh was a great city to God.

What that means is that Nineveh belonged to God. It was His city. He is King of kings and Lord of lords and He is sovereign even over pagan nations that do not worship him. God is the Creator of this world and everything in it belongs to Him.

And as soon as Jonah got into the city, he began proclaiming the word of the Lord. The message God had told him.

And God’s message for Nineveh was this. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

At first glance, this does not look like a message that proclaims God’s gracious salvation.

In fact, it looks like just the opposite. The message God told Jonah to preach was basically, More judgment is coming!

You’ll remember, Nineveh was in an period of chaos and decline.

Nearly a hundred years ago, Nineveh was on top of the world. They were in a golden age.

But for the last 70 years they were in an absolute free fall.

There was political turmoil and rebellion where governors were constantly rising up against the king, challenging his authority.

There were other nations rising in power and threatening Assyria’s kingdom.

And right before Jonah showed up, there was a 7 year famine in the land and a total solar eclipse.

All of this trouble, calamity, and disaster would have been signs for the Assyrians that their pagan gods were angry and about to destroy them.

And when Jonah comes to town, the message God has given him to preach is “All of this. All this trouble, all this turmoil is just a foretaste of judgment from the One True God. In just 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

Now this was a terrifying message because the word overthrown is the same word used to describe the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:25 where God rained down fire and sulfur on those wicked cities leaving nothing but smoke and ash.

So on the one hand, God’s message for Nineveh was a message of judgment and destruction coming against their wicked city.

But on the other hand, God’s message was also a message of grace and salvation. Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. In pronouncing judgment, God was giving Nineveh the opportunity to repent.

Sinners usually do not like to hear about God’s judgment. Even today, if you walk into just a random church, the chances about you hearing about God’s judgment are pretty slim.

But ironically, God warning sinners about his judgment actually points sinners to his mercy and grace.

God warns us about his judgment because God does not delight in the death of the wicked.

Ezekiel 18:23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

The message of God’s judgment is an evangelistic message because it warns men and women what will happen to them if they do not repent of their sin.

When God commissioned Jonah to go to Nineveh, it was to preach repentance. It was to preach that judgment is coming unless Nineveh repented.

And this is the same message God has commissioned us to preach to the nations.

Listen to how Jesus understood the gospel. In Matthew, when Jesus gave us the Great Commission, he was telling us what to do. Make disciples and teach them to obey.

In Luke, Jesus tells us what the message of the Great Commission actually is. What is it that Jesus has called us to proclaim to the nations?

Luke 24:46-48 Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

Jesus understood the gospel to be a call to repentance. That judgment is coming and the only way to be saved, the only way to be forgiven, is by repenting of our sins.

Now you might say, what about faith? I thought we were saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone?

Is a gospel that calls for repentance actually just a gospel of works?

But here’s what you need to understand, repentance and faith always go together. You cannot have one without the other. Repentance is always the fruit of faith.

Meaning someone who is genuinely saved by Jesus Christ, will live a life of repentance.

In his 95 Theses that sparked the Reformation, the very first thing Luther said was that all of a Christians life is one of repentance.

Repentance is the fruit of faith.

So Jesus said if you want to carry out the Great Commission, you must preach repentance.

And that is our message. That judgment is coming and unless people repent and turn to Christ, they will suffer God’s wrath.

But as you can imagine, repentance is not a popular message. When God calls us to repent, he is literally calling us to turn back or to turn around.

At its most basic level, repentance is turning your life from your evil and wicked way to go God’s holy and good way.

To turn from the path of disobedience to run on the path of obedience to God.

This is why the message of repentance is so unpopular. It proclaims that people are under God’s judgment for their sin and unless they turn to Christ and follow him, unless he becomes Lord of their life, they will not be saved.

So at some point, part of our witness to a lost and dying world needs to be like the witness of Jonah. Warning the world that judgment is coming unless they repent.

Oh but that’s so harsh! That’s so mean! Won’t the world feel like we are judging them? Won’t they be turned off from following Jesus? There must be some way to make the gospel less offensive.

Now I’m not saying this means we need to go out there and start trying just to offend everybody pointing at each person saying “You’re a sinner! You’re a sinner! You’re a sinner!”

The goal of evangelism is not to condemn people. Its to proclaim the glory of God and his glorious grace towards us in Jesus Christ.

But if we never get around to telling people about the bad news of God’s judgment, what good news are we actually preaching?

And if we don’t call people to repent, to turn from their sin, to bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8), to actually die to themselves and follow Jesus with all of their life, then we won’t make disciples.

All we will make is a trip of goats whose “gospel” will leave them on the Day of judgment saying “Lord Lord!”

The gospel calls everyone to repent. Jesus himself said in Luke 13:3 Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

As a church, God has called us to warn sinners of the coming judgment.

Like Jonah, repentance is the the message God has given us. Who are we to tamper with the message?

We preach repentance so that people will turn to Christ in faith and have their sins forgiven. Preaching repentance is all about preaching God’s grace!

But by and large, the American church has tried to water down the message God has given us. And we are seeing the bitter fruit of that today.

We have turned following Jesus into sentimental self-serving, self-love. We “win” people to Christ with a message that says: God loves you! Jesus will fix your life! You will get to go to heaven! You can have joy, and you can have your best life now.

Hear me. All of those things are true. And we should tell people the truths and the promises of the gospel because God is so good to us in the gospel.

But those things are not enough to make disciples who love Jesus with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Didn’t Jesus say Luke 7:37 He who is forgiven little, loves little?

A gospel that does not call people to repent of their sin, minimizes God’s great love, mercy, and grace and keeps people from glorifying God for all he’s worth.

We preach repentance because God’s terrible judgment magnifies God’s incredible grace.

Warning people of God’s coming judgment and calling them to repent of their sin, shows the world just how much God has loved us in Christ. Just how much he has forgiven us through his sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection.

And when we are forgiven much, we love much.

This was the gospel of Jesus and the Apostles.

The first time Jesus proclaimed the gospel in Mark, Jesus said, Mark 1:15 The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.

The Apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost preached a sermon that convicted the crowd who asked Acts 2:37-38 “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” And the church was born.

And when Paul preached to the Athenians on Mars Hill the climax of his message was Acts 17:30-31 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness.

Jesus and the Apostles did not preach a gospel of easy believism. They preached the message of repentance.

They preached a message that said Jesus is Lord, and all your life belongs to him.

If God promises to save everyone who repents of their sin and trusts in Christ, why would we ever change that message?

We should learn from Jonah who went into a city that was famous for their violence and cruelty. He went into the lion’s den, but that did not stop him from preaching repentance even though it had a good chance of getting him killed because that was God’s message and God gave that message to Jonah for the purposes of God’s work.

That leads us to point number 2...

II. True Repentance is a Work of God’s Grace

Jonah 3:5 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.

Now this section of Scripture is absolutely loaded with truths that God wants us to take to heart both for our lives and for our mission as witness in the world.

So from this section, I want to do two things. First, I want to show you what true repentance is and then I want to show you the big picture of what God did in Nineveh and how it speaks to our mission today.

So first, what is repentance?

What is repentance?

If repentance is an essential element of the gospel message, then we need to know what it is.

We touched earlier that repentance literally means to turn. It is a change in mind that leads to a change in life.

When someone repents, they stop going down the path of sin and wickedness, and instead they turn around to go back to God and his path of holiness, righteousness, and justice. In other words, good works and obedience.

But lest we think that God saves us by our repentance, God makes it clear in Jonah that repentance is the fruit of faith.

And the people of Nineveh believed God. Literally in Hebrew it says the men of Nineveh believed in God.

What that means is that when Jonah preached repentance, when he warned Nineveh about the coming judgment, the people of Nineveh believed God’s message and cast themselves on the mercy of the Lord.

They trusted in God. The same word is used in Exodus 14:31 after God destroyed the Egyptians by drowning them in the Red Sea. When Israel saw the Lord’s salvation, it says the believed in the Lord.

They put their trust in him. They put their faith in him.

And this is what the Ninevites did at the preaching of Jonah.

And then we see that repentance is the first fruit of faith. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

Here’s what that means. Repentance is a miraculous work of God. If we have truly been saved by Jesus, we will live a repentant life.

Faith in Christ, always produces the fruit of repentance.

It doesn’t mean we will live a perfect life. But we will live a life where we will turn from our sin everywhere it is found.

Big idea: Repentance is the fruit of faith.

So we should ask what does that repentance look like? What does it mean to turn from our sin?

And when we look at how the Ninevites took their first steps of faith, we see three things that characterize true repentance.

First, sorrow over sin.

Second, turning from sin.

And third, turning to God in renewed faith.

Jonah says that that all the people of Nineveh repented of their sin from the greatest to the least of them, and then the book zooms in on the king of Nineveh to show the nature of Nineveh’s repentance.

Because if the king of Nineveh is repenting like this, then it follows that the whole nation is repenting like this.

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.”

Sorrow

The Ninevites showed their sorrow over sin by fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes.

Fasting is a way of saying we need God more than we need food. We thirst for God and his salvation more than we thirst for water.

Sackcloth was a rough cloth that showed grief, humiliation, and lament. It was the clothing of the poor, so wearing it was how people humbled themselves before the Lord.

And sitting in ashes symbolizes judgement and destruction. You’ve heard the phrase nothing left but dust and ashes.

fFasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes was Nineveh’s way of saying to God we deserve judgment, but please give us mercy!

And I love the picture of the king Jonah gives. Where he was proud and committed to his sin, he does a complete 180. He removes his robe to cover himself with sackcloth. He gets up from his throne to sit in ashes.

When we repent we have sorrow for our sin. And this sorrow comes from the fact that we sinned against a holy and righteous God.

In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul makes a distinction between godly grief and worldly sorrow.

Worldly sorrow produces death, because worldly sorrow does not actually care about the sin or how it grieves God. It only cares about the consequence of sin.

Godly grief on the other hand produces repentance because godly grief is sorry for the sin itself. We hate its evil and we hate how we offended God.

Turn from Sin

The second thing the Ninevites show us about repentance is that we must turn from sin.

Verse 8 Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

When leading the people in repentance the king goes from the general to the specific.

He says let everyone turn from his evil way. In other words, let everyone turn from all of their evil way. And specifically, let us turn from the violence that is in our hands.

Violence was the sin that most characterized Nineveh

So clearly the sorrow over our sin must result in a renouncing of our sin, a putting away of our sin, to be true repentance.

Turn to God

Finally, biblical repentance does not wallow in our sin and misery as a way of showing God just how sorry we are in an effort to convince God to forgive us. Instead, we turn to God with renewed faith and throw ourselves on his grace and mercy.

The king of Nineveh said, Let everyone call out mightily to God. Let everyone call out to God with great force and urgency and plea for mercy.

And what does the Bible say, 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In confession, we aren’t just telling God we are sorry. We are agreeing with God that our way is sinful.

This is where renewed faith comes in, because if we know our way is sinful, then we don’t want to follow that path again, but instead walk in the newness of life.

That is what repentance is. And the gospel calls all of us to a life of repentance.

Our Mission Field

Now what does this show us about our Mission?

Ultimately, when we repent, what we are really saying is Jesus is Lord of my life.

So think about what that means. If God has called us to preach repentance, then that means when we go into the world as salt and light to share the good news, our message is not “Jesus is your buddy. Jesus is your cheerleader. Or Jesus is your personal vending machine who will give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”

Our message is Jesus is Lord. He is King of kings and Lord of lords and everyone owes all of their life and all of their allegiance to him.

Do you see why preaching repentance is so unpopular? Why its so hated by the world?

Its because the gospel says we are not our own. We are not the Lord of our life. Jesus is. And unless we repent through faith in him, we will all perish.

Hearing that, we can start to feel like Jesus’ own disciples who said in John 6:60 This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?

If that’s what we say, the world won’t listen to us! If that’s what we tell them barely anyone will come to Christ! We need to soften this. The Lordship stuff can come later. Let’s just get people in the door first.

But what you win them with, is what you win them to.

And if they do not come to Christ as Lord, they will not persevere with Christ as Lord of their life.

Now this can be very discouraging as we look at our mission field.

It is hard for us to see how a culture that is so committed to their sin would ever repent.

The Bible says the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4).

We no longer live in a culture where we just have a difference of opinion from the world around us. We live in a culture that has a fundamentally different worldview that determines how they see every aspect of their life.

Our culture no longer acknowledges God, or that even God exists. The religion of our day is secular humanism where this, mankind and creation, is all that there is.

And Man determines what is good and what is evil.

And when you couple that religion with the belief that there is no objective standard of truth or morality. That everyone determines for themselves what is true and good and right, you get the book of Judges where everyone did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).

We can look at our culture and see how far we’ve gone in rejecting God and his Word, and we can lose all hope that anyone can be saved.

I mean how can you convince a world that has gone so far down the path of sin that they can justify and cheer ripping apart the most innocent among us. How can you convince a world like that, that judgment is coming unless they repent.

Our temptation is to say they are too blind. They are too far gone. I am too weak and insufficient. Nothing I can say can convince them of the truth. All they will do is scoff, so why even try?

But we need to remember that repentance is a miraculous work of God’s grace. Nineveh had no business repenting, but God did a miracle. Nineveh’s repentance was a display, not of Jonah’s eloquence or ability to preach, but of God’s power to save sinners.

And we need to remember everyday when we go into our mission field, when we preach the gospel to our lost and dying world, it is still God’s power that saves sinners.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Paul says we are in a war. A spiritual war between the Kingdom of God and the Domain of darkness.

In Ephesians 6 Pauls says We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

We are waring against demons who have blinded the minds of the lost to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel.

And right now, as we look out at our mission field that God has sovereignly placed us in, we doubt and ask how can we possibly overcome such heinous evil. How can we win people to Christ when the world is so blind and so hostile to the gospel?

And that’s exactly what Satan wants us to think. He was us to feel hopeless so that we will give up and hunker down, and just wait for Jesus to come back. 

Because if the church refuses to go forth with the gospel then who will?

The lost will be destined to die in their sins.

But look what Paul says. The weapons of our warfare have divine power to destroy strongholds. To say it another way, the weapons of our warfare are mighty with the mighty power of God to destroy the arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God that keep people blind in their sin.

I think one of the things that keeps us from sharing the gospel is that we don’t actually believe the gospel has the power to overcome the lies and evil people believe to keep themselves from submitting all of their life to Christ.

When you share the gospel, even when its faulty and ineloquent, you are speaking with divine power that can free people, blinded by Satan, from their sin and rebellion.

Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

The only thing that has the power to destroy strongholds and free people from their sin is the proclamation of the gospel.

It is not weapons of the flesh. Its not a great personality, winsome charisma, eloquent wisdom, or cheap tricks and gimmicks.

Its the message that Jesus is Lord, and he was crucified and rose again three days later to forgive all of our sins.

Wasn’t that Paul’s own method of evangelism?

1 Cor 2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

It doesn’t matter if you stumble over your words or don’t say it perfectly. When you preach Christ and him crucified, you’re waging war with the power of God.

And God is the One who gives repentance, and if God has elected them to salvation then they will believe when God calls them.

This gives us confidence to preach because the world is not stronger than the gospel. The gospel has divine power to save sinners.

And every time we preach it, whether we win someone to Christ or they spit in our face we are successful in evangelism.

Think of it this way. If its not on us to save. If its God’s work. Then every time someone rejects Christ, we didn’t fail. We faithfully bore witness because we glorified God by proclaiming the glory of God.

Success in evangelism does not mean closing people and getting them to pray a prayer. Success in evangelism means faithfully bearing witness to the glory of God in the death and resurrection of Christ.

The world will perish unless they repent. And God has called us to run into the heat of the battle with the power of the gospel, and by a miracle of God’s grace he will save his elect and free them from the futility of their minds and their bondage to sin.

That takes us to point number 3...

III. God Will Save Everyone Who Repents

Jonah 3:10 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.

Nineveh is a testimony of God’s grace for all who repent.

God had promised to destroy Nineveh in 40 days. But when they repented. When they turned from their evil way and cast themselves on the mercy of God, God relented of the disaster he said he would do to them.

God removed his judgement and gave them grace.

And this is what God does for every person that turns from their sin and puts their trust in Christ.

In our sin we are all under God’s judgment. Yet, 40 days and we will all perish!

And Jesus said in Luke 11:30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

Because of Jesus all of our sins can be forgiven. Through faith in him and worshiping him as Lord through repentance God takes all of our sin and lays it on Christ.

God relents of pouring out his judgment on us and instead pours his judgment out on his own beloved Son.

This is how we are saved, and this is the only way any of our friends, neighbors, family or coworkers can be saved.

As we’ve been studying Jonah, we’ve been saying for weeks that our nation is under judgment. The Old Testament says wicked leaders are a sign of God’s judgment on a nation. We have been living with wicked political leaders for years.

And Romans 1 says that rampant sin and rebellion in the culture are signs that God has given us over to our sin.

America is Nineveh. Remember one of the specific sins they repented of was the violence in their hands.

The prophet Nahum gives us a picture of of this violence nearly 100 years after Jonah.

Nahum 3:1-3 Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder—no end to the prey! 2  The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! 3  Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies!

If Nahum came to America this would be his message. We live in a culture of lies and covetousness that rejoices in the slaughter of unborn babies.

And God has placed us here at this time to call out and warn everyone we can, “Repent! Repent! Jesus is Lord! Judgment is coming and the only way to be saved is through faith in Christ.”

Our nation needs to repent, and the church of Jesus Christ is the only messenger that can tell them.

And here is God’s promise if we repent.

Jeremiah 18:7-8 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.

I’ll tell you, even as I read that verse there is a part of me that says That’s impossible. Our nation is too broken. Too corrupt. Too evil. We will never repent.

And maybe so. We don’t know what God’s will is for our nation. But I guarantee you, people in Jonah’s day would have said the same thing about Nineveh.

The question is, do we believe God is powerful to save if he so chooses?

I mean just look at the revival of repentance God brought to Nineveh through the proclamation of Jonah.

Why were they so ready to repent? Jonah shows up and the whole city turns to God. And that’s because for 70 years they had experienced trouble and disaster. An age of decline, division, and public fear and uncertainty.

Does that sound familiar? What if all the trouble our nation is experiencing right now, all the political division, economic downturn, wicked rulers, sickness, disease and death. What if all of this is God preaching through general revelation, “This is just a foretaste of judgment?”

What if all the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty our nation is under right now is God making the fields white for harvest?

John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’?

In other words Jesus is saying aren’t you able to read the signs?

Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

This is not a time to shrink back.

Acts 17 says God determines the times and places in which men live. God has sovereignly placed our church here and now to proclaim his gospel to a world that desperately needs it.

Now more than ever before in almost all of our lives is a time for boldly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we should pray that God would do whatever it takes to bring our nation to repentance.

God will only save those that repent. And God has commissioned us with his gospel of repentance.

Can you read the signs?

Will we flee to Tarshish or will we go to our friends, neighbors, relatives, coworkers, and everyone who needs the gospel and call out the message God has given us?

The gospel has the power to turn the world upside down. But if we want revival for our nation, revival needs to begin here with us.

1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

Before we can go into the world to proclaim Jesus is Lord, we must worship him as Lord here in this place.

Before calling the world to repent, we must repent. We must repent of how much we’ve loved our life, our comfort, our security, the approval of man, all the ways we have loved the world and recommit all of our lives to Christ and his Kingdom.

The time of playing church is over. If we want to persevere and carry out the Great Commission, we need to get serious about living all of our lives for Christ and his Kingdom.

And then we bear witness, and let God do what seems good to him believing nothing, no evil, no power, no government, no lies, no resistance can stop his power to save.

Conclusion

God promises to save everyone who repents of their sin and trusts in Christ.

And this promise gives us confidence to obey the Lord in the Great Commission.

We know God has called us to go to the ends of the earth making disciples teaching the nations to obey everything Jesus has commanded us.

We know God has sent us with the power of the gospel. With spiritual weapons that have divine power to destroy every lie of paganism and false religion that blinds people from the glory of Christ.

And we know that God will save his elect. Whether we are sowing or reaping God is making the fields white for harvest.

When it feels like the world is against us and the task before us seems too impossible may we join with the saints in Acts 4 who prayed grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Matthew 9:35-38 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”