The Repentance of the Ninevites (Jonah 3)

Announcements

Starting this Sunday, we’re offering two different worship guides per service—we have our regular worship guides that are exactly the same but due to some requests we also have slightly larger worship guides that include the musical notation for those that can read music. We aren’t printing as many of the ones with musical notation in them, so be aware, if we run out, you might just have to stick with the regular ones but each week, if you’d prefer one with the musical notation in it, just remember to ask on your way in and we’ll be sure to give you one.

For those of you that have already spoken to me and plan on going to Faith Night at the Altoona Curve tonight at 6pm—if you haven’t already paid for your ticket, you can do so by dropping your money in the offering box in the back of the room. We ended up saving a little bit of money on the tickets, so rather than them be $11 each, they were $9 each. So, keep that in mind as you pay for your tickets in that way. I wanted to pick up the tickets yesterday but due to some unforeseen events, I was unable to make it to Altoona to do so but Natalie and I will be at the ballpark fairly early to pick up the tickets, so when you get to the Curve, just send me a call or text me or Natalie and we’ll bring your tickets to you.

Bible Study & Prayer — every Wednesday at 7pm, online via Zoom.

June 27th, 2021 we’re going to have our Sunday morning Worship service at Coldstream Dam. This is a one-time service at the park and it will still be at 10:30am. Everything about the service will be the same with the exception that we’ll be at the park. There is a long picnic table that we can all sit at but you might want to bring a folding camp chair for comfort’s sake. After the service, we’re going to have a picnic at the park—I do need someone who is willing to bring a small grill and willing to cook burgers and hot dogs. If you’re willing to help with that, please get in contact with me as soon as possible, it’s a few weeks away, so the sooner the better.

July 4th, 2021 we have a quarterly business meeting right after the service. It shouldn’t last too long (since none of our quarterly business meetings do) but be aware there are a few things we need to vote on by secret ballot.

And like I keep mentioning, on July 11th, 2021, we have a missionary coming in to speak with us during the morning service. I keep reminding us so that we can do whatever we can to bring as many people with us that Sunday. He and his family are still on deputation but they hope to be in France as soon as possible to plant churches and teach theology. He’ll take about 10 minutes to present his ministry and then he’ll preach during that service as well.

Don’t forget to worship the LORD through your giving. We give to the LORD because he has first blessed us. In order to help you with your giving, we have three different ways for you to give: (1) check and cash giving can be done in-person through the offering box in the back of the room; debit, credit, and bank transfers can be done by either (2) texting the number 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at graceandpeacepa.com and selecting the “Giving” option in the menu bar. As always, everything you give goes to the building up of this local church as well as the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Central Pennsylvania.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship

Our call to worship this morning is found in Psalm 19 and is on page two of your worship guides. Psalm 19 is a psalm of David written as a reflection of David’s observation of the heavens. As we responsively read Psalm 19, you’ll notice that the first six verses focus on what we call General Revelation, God making himself known through his creation—the heavens, the sky, the stars, and so forth; and the next seven verses focus on what we call Special Revelation, God making himself known through his Word—his law, his precepts, his testimony, and so forth. As David reflects on God’s general and special revelations, he not only praises and worships the LORD for his creation and his Word, but he also ends his reflection with a statement of commitment or maybe we could call it a prayer of consecration.

Please stand and join me in reading responsively Psalm 19, I’ll read the odd-numbered verses, please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 19 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Congregational Singing

Wonderful, Merciful Savior

Good and Gracious King

Be Thou my Vision

Scripture Reading

Our Scripture reading this morning was written by the apostle Paul to the believers in Rome. It’s Romans 10:1-7 and he actually starts the chapter by speaking of the unbelief of the Jewish people and his desire and prayer for them to actually be saved. He writes that they have a zeal or desire for God but not according to knowledge—or in other words, they claim to want to know God but they don’t actually know God, which is why the Jewish people sought so hard to attain righteousness through simply following the Law of the Old Testament.

Paul writes that while the law had its purpose, which was to point them to the Messiah and help them live a life separated from sin, true salvation comes through belief in Jesus Christ; and only those who call upon the name of the LORD will truly be saved. And he closes that thought by explaining that in order for them to actually believe in Jesus Christ, someone has to proclaim Jesus to them because without hearing the Gospel, they cannot obey the words of Christ.

This obviously connects with our sermon series throughout Jonah thus far. God sends Jonah to go to the Ninevites but Jonah refuses to go to Assyria and God utilizes a drastic means in order to bring Jonah back into obedience. All the while, God wants the Ninevites to hear about salvation to all people but they haven’t heard it because the one who was sent to proclaim the truth ran the other way.

Let’s read together Romans 10:1-17.

Romans 10:1–17 ESV

1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Sermon

Introduction

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working through our summer series, which we’ve titled Nineveh. And like all of our primary sermon series, we’ve been working through whole books of the Bible, verse-by-verse and thought-by-thought in order to expose or make known what the text itself says. From the beginning of this series in particular, I’ve intentionally asked you to put aside any preconceived ideas that you might have about Jonah have from Veggie-tales and Sight & Sound and I’ve encouraged us to simply look at what the text says—that isn’t to say that Veggie-tales and Sight & Sound’s adaptation of Jonah is completely antithetical to the Bible, I’m only encouraging us to not allow their artistic liberties to color what the text itself says.

So, just in way of reminder, let me get you back up to speed with where we are in the text before we jump into this morning’s passage. So far in Jonah, we’ve studied:

God’s call to Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry out against it for their great evil. We spoke a bit about just how evil Nineveh was (so much so, that their own king admits that they were exceedingly wicked in chapter 4) and for whatever reason (probably due to the exceedingly wicked state of the Assyrians), Jonah determined that he didn’t want to go to Nineveh and he jumped aboard a ship going to Tarshish.

I explained that from where Israel was, Nineveh was towards the northeast and was a land-trip but Joppa (where he climbed aboard the ship) was in southwestern Israel—the complete opposite direction and Tarshish (though we don’t know for certain) was located in modern-day Spain, which at the time of Jonah would’ve been as far west as really any person travelled. He didn’t just disobey God—he ran the complete opposite direction, over sea rather than land, to the furthest city he could run to.

As we all know, he really doesn’t make it that far. They start their journey and relatively soon, the LORD causes a great storm on the sea and during the panic, the sailors realize that the reason for their suffering was Jonah and Jonah tells them to throw him overboard to save themselves, which they eventually do, and Jonah gets swallowed by a great fish.

We spoke about that great fish for a little while last week to knock back some misconceptions that some people have about the fish—for instance, some people think that Jonah was swallowed by a whale but the Hebrew literally says he was swallowed by a fish. And I explained that the reason for that misconception has to do with a mistranslation, as well as several people taking artistic liberty in their portrayal of this historical account.

Jonah is swallowed by a giant fish that was appointed by God to swallow him, and then he prays this beautiful prayer in chapter 2. I made it abundantly clear, that this prayer of Jonah’s was not a prayer of repentance—nowhere in the prayer does he repent from disobeying God and nowhere in the prayer does he repent from not preaching to the Ninevites.

But his prayer is filled with thanksgiving—not for saving him from the fish, because remember at that point in time, he was still within the fish, but for saving him from drowning in the sea.

Jonah closes that prayer with one of the most ironic statements he could possibly make, “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” And I explained that it was ironic because if he truly believed salvation belonged to the LORD, he wouldn’t have had an issue going to the Ninevites to preach salvation because he would’ve realized that he didn’t have a right to decide who should hear the truth and who shouldn’t even be given a chance.

He finishes that prayer and the Bible tells us in Jonah 2:10, that “the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.” And that is precisely where our passage continues this morning. Read with me Jonah 3:1-10.

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.

As we study this passage, we’re going to look at it in two primary parts: (1) Jonah Preaches to the Ninevites (1-4), which includes God telling Jonah again, to go to Nineveh and call out against it but this time, Jonah actually follows through and (2) The Ninevites Repent (5-10), which shows us the response of the Ninevites to the message from the LORD through Jonah. And subsequently the response of God to their response. There are actually a number of different facets that we’re going to look at in this passage—including the fact that God can utilize anyone despite themselves and the simple fact that God wants all people to repent from their sins. All of which will encourage us to repent from our own sins and help others seek repentance through Jesus Christ alone.

Prayer for Illumination

Jonah Preaches to the Ninevites (1-4)

Jonah 3:1 starts by telling us that “the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.’”

It’s intriguing to me that the LORD would have to go to Jonah again and tell Jonah, yet again, to go to Nineveh. I say that for two reasons:

It makes it seem as if Jonah was spit out by this fish and he immediately forgot why he was in the fish in the first place.

You can almost imagine it—Jonah experiences this massive storm that the Bible calls a great tempest, he gets thrown overboard and swallowed by a fish; and even after praying a prayer of thanksgiving for God saving him from drowning, he gets back on dry land and in my opinion, it’s surprising that he wouldn’t just immediately go to Nineveh.

This is a little bit of speculation but I do believe that it tells us the extent of Jonah’s heart issue against the Ninevites. After experiencing such a tremendous trial in life while knowing that the trial was due to his disobedience, which he did know that the trial he faced was due to his disobedience (that’s why he told the sailors to throw him overboard in chapter 1)—after experiencing all of that, you would think his first response after getting back to dry land would be to walk immediately to Nineveh and proclaim the message of God, but God has to tell him to go again.

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

So, again, this is the second time that the LORD calls or commissions Jonah to go to the Ninevites and this time around, God doesn’t repeat the message but since this is a repeat of his commission, we can assume that the commission is the same as Jonah 1:2, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

This tells us, that despite Jonah’s initial disobedience, the mission has remained the same and the LORD’s will for Jonah has also remained the same.

This also tells us that despite Jonah’s disobedience, the LORD in his mercy and his patience allows Jonah to have another opportunity to do what he has called him to do, which actually should be encouraging to us who have been disobedient to the LORD or who have willfully chosen to go the other way.

The difference between chapter 3 and chapter 1 is that in chapter 3, Jonah actually does what the LORD tells him to do. Vs. 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. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’” These two verses tell us several details that are worth noting:

First off, Jonah actually obeys this time, which is in contrast to his initial response. He not only obeys this time but he does it immediately, there’s really no hesitation this time around. Jonah arose and went to Nineveh because that is what the LORD told him to do.

Secondly, we’re told of just how large of a city Nineveh was and how important that city was. The Bible calls Nineveh a great city and we’ve already discussed several times that when the Bible calls Nineveh a great city, it does not mean that Nineveh was a morally great city or that it was a great city to be in and in this particular context of Jonah 3:3, the idea of Nineveh being a great city actually has to do with importance rather than morality.

Nineveh was a city that was important to God and we might ask why that is, the answer is really found in the last chapter of the book when God says, “Should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left.” Nineveh was important to the LORD because there were tremendous amounts of people who were lost.

The Bible emphasizes the amount of people by making the statement “three days’ journey in breadth.” And there is some debate as to what the Bible means by this. Some think it means that it would take three days to explore all the different streets and nooks and crannies of the city, others think this has to do with how long it would take to walk across the entire city, and some think that this has to do with how long it would take to walk around the city with some pointing out writings from that time-period explaining that Nineveh was 5-7 miles round.

I personally think that it means the Bible means that it would take three days to explore all the different streets and nooks and crannies of the city.

But regardless of the exact meaning of “three days’ journey in breadth”, the point is that Nineveh was a huge city with a large amount of people that God cared for because of their lack of salvation.

And as Jonah goes into the city, he makes his proclamation in Vs. 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.’”

Jonah goes into Nineveh and your understanding of what the Bible meant concerning Nineveh being a “three days’ journey” informs what the Bible means when it says that he went a day’s journey in the city.

If you think that the Bible means that it would take that long to walk across the city, then that would mean that Jonah is a third of the way into the city when he starts to proclaim that Nineveh will be overthrown.

If you think that the Bible means that it would take three days to walk around Nineveh, then that would mean that Jonah is on day one of three in walking around the outer perimeter of the city proclaiming that Nineveh will be overthrown.

Or if you think that the Bible means that it would take three days to explore all the different streets and nooks and crannies of the city (like I do), that would mean that Jonah has just started his first of three days going through every street and nook and cranny proclaiming that Nineveh would be overthrown; and in my opinion that seems to make more sense than the alternatives.

Jonah begins to go through the city proclaiming that the city is about to face judgment but the only part of his message that we see in Scripture is, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

Which is interesting because it is such a brief message and it is literally the bare minimum he could have said. Now, he very well could have said more than this but honestly, knowing how he felt about the Ninevites and the Assyrians, it wouldn’t be surprising if this is literally all he said.

Why do I say that? Because he didn’t want to go to Nineveh and he didn’t want the Assyrians in Nineveh to hear about the incoming judgment—why? Because as Jonah 4 tells us, he didn’t want them to actually be forgiven by the LORD.

So if this is all that he says concerning the impending judgment, it tells us that his heart is still against the Ninevites and the Assyrians and that he’s only proclaiming this to them because God has made it clear to him that he needed to go and preach this message.

NAC, “While it is not clear that this was all he had to say, the text does suggest that God’s message was brief and that Jonah simply preached it repeatedly. If these words were the sum total of the message, no reason for the destruction was given, nor was the manner of destruction described. There was not even an explicit call to repentance. Jonah’s dialogue with God in the fourth chapter suggests that he may have preached this message with the secret hope that Nineveh would be destroyed.”

Despite Jonah’s sinful initial response and his apparent disdain of even preaching the message now to the Ninevites, something absolutely amazing happens. Despite the fact that Jonah really doesn’t tell them how they can prevent the destruction or really what’s going to cause the destruction, the little bit that Jonah told them was enough to prompt them into repentance. Read with me Vs. 5-10.

The Ninevites Repent (5-10)

Jonah 3:5–10 ESV

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.

The Bible continues in Vs. 5-8 by tellings us the response of the Ninevites to what might seem like the lackluster proclamation of Jonah. Despite his lack of oratory skills or better yet, lack of desire in seeing the Ninevites come to repentance, the LORD utilized the few words that Jonah spoke to change the hearts of the Ninevites.

In other words, it didn’t take much convincing for the message coming from Jonah to sink in and convict them to repent.

Vs. 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. Vs. 5, is of note for three reasons:

First off, we’re told that the people of Nineveh believed God—this informs us that despite common misconceptions, in the Old Testament, it wasn’t keeping the Law that saved a person.

Occasionally, you hear from people that in the Old Testament, people were saved differently than in the New Testament but that simply isn’t true.

Salvation has always been contingent on repentance from sin and belief in God, we know that for sure from Hebrews 11 as the author of Hebrews works through several examples of faith, all from the Old Testament who didn’t gain salvation through keeping the Law but by believing in faith, “By faith Abel [was] commended as righteous,” “By faith Enoch . . . was commended as having pleased God,” “By faith Noah . . . became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

The false idea that salvation in the Old Testament came from keeping the Law is based on an incomplete knowledge of the Law and why it existed.

People in the Old Testament, just like the Ninevites, were saved when they believed God.

Secondly, Vs. 5 is of note because it tells us that the conviction of sin and belief in God started with the common people with the king coming to repentance afterwards.

This tells us of authenticity behind their belief. What I mean by that is that if the king had made the declaration of their repentance before the people exhibited any signs of repentance then we couldn’t be sure if the people themselves actually repented or if the king just decided they were repentant.

And before you ask, how could the king decide that they were repentant and that they believe? In reality, he couldn’t, but several times throughout history, kings and rulers determined what their subjects believed.

Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome in 323 AD. And by virtue of his position as emperor, he made the declaration that Christianity was what everyone in Rome believed—did that mean that everyone in Rome actually believed in Christianity? Absolutely not.

If the king of Nineveh had decided that the people were repentant and believed God, we would have reason to doubt that the people were actually repentant and believed God

But since the people are the first to respond, it provides some validity that all of the people truly repented and believed.

Third, we’re told of the extent of their repentance. This point actually extends from Vs. 5 all the way to the end of Vs. 8, but let’s just take a moment to look at Vs. 5 before jumping into 6-8.

In Vs. 5, we’re told that the people “called for a fast and put on sackcloth,” which are both actually things that we typically don’t do today. So, let’s talk about what it means to fast and put on sackcloth.

Fasting is something that’s actually what we would call a spiritual discipline, though most people today don’t actually practice fasting. It isn’t something that Christians are commanded to do nor are Christians required to do but the Bible actually speaks of fasting in a good way.

Often, when we think of fasting, the emphasis is on not eating. As in, our focus isn’t so much on what we should be doing while we fast but rather on what we aren’t supposed to do while we fast—the issue with this is that the point of fasting isn’t the not eating, it’s what we’re supposed to be doing while we fast.

So, what is the purpose of fasting? It’s to take the time and effort that you would normally spend preparing food and eating food and to use it to reflect on God, to worship and praise him, and to simply pray.

In a context like the Ninevites, their time of fasting is meant for them to reflect on the sins that they’ve committed, reflect on the judgment that comes for sin, and to repent from their former ways.

Now, your question might be, “What’s up with the sackcloth?” Why are they walking around in essentially burlap sacks?

Sackcloth was a type of material that was made from black goat’s hair and was often very course to the touch, so like a burlap sack, it would be itchy and uncomfortable to wear.

In the Ancient Near East, sackcloth would be worn during very specific times and it would occasionally be accompanied with sitting in ashes or rubbing ashes onto the head and forehead.

When would people wear sackcloth in the Ancient Near East? The primary time would be during times of mourning over the death of a loved one. Sackcloth would be worn to show the sorrow that the individual felt about the loss of a person—David does this when Abner dies in 2 Samuel 3:31 and Jacob does this in Genesis 37:34 when he thought that Joseph had been killed.

In Vs. 6, we actually see the king of Nineveh also put on sackcloth but he also does something else, “The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.”

So you might ask, what’s the deal with the ashes? Sitting in ashes while wearing sackcloth would typically be done any time there was either a national emergency or in times of repentance from sin and I think the prime example of someone doing this in the Bible would be when Job, who lost his family, lost his home, and lost all his possessions and health, simply sat down while wearing sackcloth in ashes while utilizing shards of clay to scrape the boils off his skin.

Sackcloth and ashes were utilized as an outward sign of one’s inward condition. The sackcloth and ashes didn’t result in the saving of the Ninevites, it was an outward sign that showed that they were filled with sincere grief, repentance, and humility.

What this tells us is that the Ninevites truly felt conviction for their wickedness and their sins to the extent that they were willing to humble themselves and repent and believe in God for their salvation.

As we continue reading in the passage, we see the extent of their conviction and repentance in the way that their leadership responds. In Vs. 6-8, the king of Nineveh issues a proclamation “and published through Nineveh” this decree.

Vs. 7, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, her nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 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.”

This decree issued by the king of Nineveh, tells us the extent of their conviction and their willingness to repent from their sins. The most powerful person in Nineveh was willing to humble himself and take the lowest position in sackcloth and ashes as a symbol of his humility towards the LORD.

The king calls for all the people to fast, wear sackcloth, to turn from evil and violence, and to plead with God to relent.

And quite frankly, it gives us a good picture of how we should respond when we’re convicted of our sins—we should humble ourselves, we should pray, we should turn away from our sins, and we should ask God to forgive us.

Which by the way, to humble yourselves, pray, turn away form your sins, and ask God to forgive you is by very definition, what the Bible means when it tells you to repent.

Now, if you’re like me, you’re wondering, “why exactly is he also calling for the animals to also fast and wear sackcloth?”

I don’t think there’s any evidence to think that the king thought that the animals necessarily needed to repent in the same way that the people did.

I don’t think that the king thought that by having the animals fast and wear sackcloth that the animals would receive any benefit from it.

What I think this shows us is the complete desperation that the king felt and that the people felt. The people recognized how severe the incoming judgment would be probably in relation to their severe wickedness; and with that in mind and in their desperation, they did everything they possibly could in hopes that God would forgive them, we can see this in the king’s final statement in Vs. 9:

“Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

That first phrase, “Who knows?” Shows us again, that desperation that he’s experiencing and that all of the Ninevites are experiencing.

They realize that their wickedness deserved punishment and they were throwing themselves to the mercy of the LORD.

Tyndale OT Commentaries: “Like the pagan sea-captain and his crew [(chapter 1)], the king and his nobles acknowledge the absolute freedom of God to do as he pleases. They realize only too well that pious actions and prayers can never merit or guarantee divine forgiveness; God is under no obligation to pardon. There remains, however, the hope that he may look upon them with mercy and turn away from his fierce anger. A complete turnabout by the Ninevites may possibly encourage God to do likewise.”

Which we find out in Vs. 10, that it does, “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.”

What we learn from the response of the Ninevites to Jonah’s preaching and the response of God to the Ninevites’ repentance is this, that regardless of how wicked the Ninevites were and despite their evil past, God still chose to forgive them and save them. Why did God do that?

Because the Ninevites, who were completely and utterly guilty of their sins, recognized that they were sinners and without a Savior, they had no hope.

And since they recognized that they had no hope without God, they did the only thing they possibly could—they threw themselves on the mercy of God, they repented from their sinful ways, and they cried out for salvation.

Which is precisely what an unbeliever needs to do today to experience the same saving faith that the Ninevites experienced in that day.

So, then the question for us becomes, “how exactly do we apply a passage like this to our lives today?” Let’s take our last few minutes to discuss some application:

Application

And I think we have to start with one more general application point before we really dig out the application from the rest of the passage and it really concerns the topic of salvation:

We’ve spoken multiple times about the wickedness of the Assyrians, which would include the Ninevites. We’ve spoken about their great violence towards the nations that surrounded them and their inhumane treatment of people groups that they conquered as an empire.

I pointed out that even the Assyrians knew just how wicked they were when the king himself makes the point that everyone needs to stop being evil and violent in Jonah 3:8.

And it is clear that because of their wickedness and violence, Jonah didn’t actually think that the Ninevites deserved forgiveness of their sins

And yet, the LORD still endeavored for Jonah to preach a message of coming judgment that results in the whole city being convicted, repenting, and believing.

What I’m driving at here, is the simple fact that God is willing to forgive anyone who simply repents from their sins and believe in him, even those who were known for their wickedness and their violence.

As far as I know, no one in this room or viewing us online is known for their wickedness and violence (though I could be wrong) but according to Scripture, there is none righteous, no not one; and according to James, breaking any aspect of the Law of God makes you guilty of breaking all of the Law.

So, while you might not be known for wickedness and violence, according to Scripture, until you repent from your sins and believe in Jesus Christ, you are just as guilty of sin as the Ninevites were, which means that you are going to experience judgment after this life.

And just like Jonah’s proclamation to the Ninevites was that judgment was coming, my proclamation is that judgment is coming but unlike Jonah, let me tell you there is one way to not experience that judgment.

Romans 10:9-11, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

Salvation from the incoming judgment against sin is readily available through Jesus Christ but only if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe.

You just have to do as the Ninevites did—weep over your sins, turn from your evil way, and cry out to Jesus Christ.

Now let’s look at some specific application from the passage:

Jonah Preaches to the Ninevites (1-4)—This first section, doesn’t tell us a great deal of what the passage is about other than the simple truth that Jonah was told again to go to Nineveh and proclaim the incoming judgment against them and we’re told that this time, Jonah obeyed. There are two primary application points that I’d like for us to understand from this first section:

Despite our own hearts, God can utilize us to proclaim his Gospel to those around us

Jonah has clearly exhibited multiple times that he didn’t care for or care about the Ninevites; and when we get to next week’s passage, we actually find out that Jonah absolutely hated the Ninevites; but despite this hatred towards the Ninevites, the LORD is still able to utilize Jonah to preach a message that brings the Ninevites to repentance.

Now hopefully, you don’t hate the people around you who you’ve been called in Matthew 28 to go and make disciples of (because let me remind you that the type of hatred that Jonah had towards the Assyrian was sinful)

But what this does tell us is that despite ourselves, God can still utilize us to proclaim his Gospel if we simply obey him and try to make disciples of every nation:

This means that we don’t need to worry about having the most eloquent speech to present and we don’t need to be concerned with whether or not we have the right words to say as we present the Gospel to those around us.

The LORD utilized Jonah’s short proclamation, “in 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown,” and his wrongful attitude, and hatred to convict a whole city to repent.

This tells us that if the LORD is able to utilize someone who didn’t actually want to help the people that he was sent to, surely he can utilize you to present the Gospel to people that you actually care for and love.

Don’t allow your perceived lack of eloquence or a lack of experience to stop you from trying to fulfill the Great Commission, if the LORD could use Jonah, he can certainly use you.

In addition, the application point here is that, DESPITE our own hearts, God can utilize us to proclaim his Gospel.

That also means that even if you’re living in sin and refusing to obey Jesus, God can still utilize you to proclaim his Gospel to other people

Though oftentimes, this looks more like you being a cautionary tale, just like Jonah.

Even when we initially respond with disobedience, God can still choose to utilize us as part of his plan.

Sometimes when we realize how sinful we are and we commit yet another sin, we can get discouraged and think that we’ve messed everything up.

And as we continue in that mindset, every new sin that we commit causes us to continue snowballing into that mindset—so that as we continue to live our lives and we continue to fall into sin, we think that we’ve ultimately messed everything up so bad that God couldn’t use us anymore.

Let me remind you of Jonah’s initial response to God in Jonah 1—a response filled with so much sin that he deliberately ran as far as he possibly could from the presence of the LORD, while still sinful, didn’t stop the LORD from using Jonah.

This teaches us, that no matter how much we sin or how badly we sin—we cannot frustrate God’s plan enough to stop it or to prevent God from accomplishing his goal.

And what this also teaches us is that when we do sin, God still blesses us with the ability to continue serving him despite our sins.

We just need to repent and get back to work.

Essentially, from the first four verses, we need to constantly be turning away from our sin and we need to get back to work with confidence because the LORD can utilize anyone for his plan.

The Ninevites Repent (5-10)—in the final six verses we read about how the Ninevites believed God, fasted, repented, and threw themselves onto God’s mercy in hopes that God would relent from his fierce anger and not judge them. There’s really two applications that I want us to draw from this section:

First off, I want us to take note of their response when they realized their sin—often, people who claim to be Christian today, don’t take seriously their own sin. We justify it or we try to downgrade the severity of our sin— “it’s just a white lie,” “no one will see or notice,” “it doesn’t hurt anyone.”

But the truth is, any sin is sin—even if we perceive it to be little, even if we don’t think anyone will notice, and even if it doesn’t outright hurt anyone.

And the issue is that when we start to justify our sin in this manner, (1) we are definitely still sinning, but (2) we’re starting down a slippery slope. After a while, the lies keep building, what we didn’t think would be noticeable is readily apparent, what didn’t hurt people becomes tremendously painful. What we considered little sins lead to much larger sins.

The response of the Ninevites when they realized that they were in sin and deserved punishment is exactly how we need to respond to our sin today. We need to grieve our sin, we need to repent from our sin, we need to cry out to God because of our sin, and then we need to rest in Jesus Christ to mercifully take care of our sin.

We must respond to sin in this manner or sin will continue to tear us apart—John Owen, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”

So, first off, take all your sin seriously—grieve it, repent from it, cry out to God because of it, and rest in Jesus for taking care of it.

Secondly, what this passage teaches us is that no one on this side of eternity is too far gone—occasionally, we think that way about people but as far as God is concerned, they have all of this side of eternity to repent and believe.

Which tells us, that regardless of what type of sin someone committed or how evil we perceive them to be, they can still repent and believe.

This also tells us, that loved ones, friends, and family members that we’re concerned about when it comes to salvation—just as long as they’re still on this side of eternity, can still come to know Jesus Christ.

So what should we do concerning loved ones who refuse to believe? Jonah 3 tells us that until the day of judgment, there is always hope.

So, keep hoping, keep praying, and keep being the witness of Jesus that you were called to be.

Put simply, what we can learn and apply from Jonah 3 is this: (1) take your sin seriously—grieve it, repent from it, cry out to God because of it and rest in Jesus to take care of it, (2) don’t ever think that you’ve ruined God’s plan for you through sin—simply repent and get back to work--God can and will still utilize you, and (3) keep hoping and praying for those that you love that have yet to believe, though the time is shortening, there is still time.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

I Will Sing