What Does Repentance Look Like?

What does God want from us?

Let me ask that a different way. Is the story of repentance something like this: I once cursed like a sailor but God really brought some serious conviction and now I don’t do it anymore? Or I once was and addict, I hit rock bottom, God gave me a second chance now I don’t do that stuff anymore, at least I try not to…but, oh how much I would just love one more hit. I’d love to get turned up one more time, but I know that God would be angry with me, so I don’t do it. You can replace this with any sin of your choosing…is repentance fundamentally, I once did this and now I don’t do this thing anymore?

Is that the fundamental nature of repentance? Is that really what biblical repentance looks like? Or is there something more to it?

Let’s ask another question this time about obedience. Am I fully and completely faithful just because I’m obedient? If God says to me “speak my words to this people” and I do it but I don’t really care much about the people I am speaking to, am I being faithful? If God tells you to do something in his word and you do it—but you do it begrudgingly—is that the obedience that God is looking for? Do I have to like and treasure God’s commands, or just do them?

This morning I hope to answer those questions from Jonah 2 and 3. If you remember last time we had Jonah a prophet running from God’s call on his life. But God catches Jonah and as the story ends in chapter 1 we see Jonah swallowed by a great fish.

Actually in the Hebrew Bible verse 17 of chapter 1 is actually chapter 2 verse 1. In the Hebrew Bible the first chapter closes with Jonah out in the sea...

We are going to see here in chapter 2 and 3 two stories of repentance. We will see that of Jonah inside the belly of the great fish…and we will see that of the Ninevites. As I read this passage of Scripture keep your ears open for the way in which both the prophet and the Ninevites turn to God.

Jonah 2–3 ESV

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 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!” 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. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 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, 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. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” 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.

Sermon Introduction:

What if the story of Jonah had ended right here. What if there wasn’t a Jonah chapter 4. If this is the very first time you’ve heard of Jonah—you were here with us last week, you heard those two chapters this week, and you haven’t peeked ahead into chapter 4. How do you tell the story at this point?

God called Jonah to preach to his enemies. He ran from that. God caught him. He preached to his enemies. They repented. End of story.

But Jonah 4 does exist. And spoiler alert what we see there causes us to question this narrative…it causes us to question everything we see of Jonah in chapter 2. Because Jonah 4 is a chapter of Jonah’s rage…yes, the preacher responds to revival with anger and suicidal rage. What do we make of that? What bearing does that have upon our earlier questions?

If Jonah is meant as a representative what does this tell us of the people of God?

Let’s briefly look at Jonah 2. The language here is of Jonah into further and further descent. Verse 4 is huge…it’s Jonah realizing himself away from God’s presence…then he longs for that again. Verse 6 we see God bringing his life from the pit. His life was fading away, verse 7, and he remembered the LORD…and he cried out to God. He learns the lesson in verse 8 of idolatry…those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs…That’s Jonah saying he was a dummy to run…verse 9 he says that he is going to do that which God asked him to do. Then we see the banner verse—Salvation belongs to the LORD.

I’ll go.

And the fish spits Jonah out onto dry land…as God tells it to do.

We do not know how much time occurred between chapter 2 and chapter 3. Hopefully Jonah was able to shower. We really don’t have any idea of Jonah’s mindset or anything after this. Was he waiting for a second chance? Did he want one? Was he a shell of a man? Did he still identify as a prophet? We don’t know any of these but we do know that “the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time”

This is phenomenal grace. Jonah gets a second chance to obey. And our story almost starts over. It’s like God hits reset. The language between 1:1-3 and 3:1-3 is very similar. Jonah has learned the hard way that salvation belongs to the LORD. And now he gets a second chance to get it right.

But there are a few differences between in chapter 1 and chapter 3 that will tip us off to a new direction in this story. First, you’ll notice that God’s commission the second time is worded a bit different. In chapter 1 Jonah was supposed to “condemn them” and here in the second he is to “proclaim to them”. Secondly, the first time around God gave the reason for the commission…”because their evil has come up before me”. But this time that part is missing and what we read is, “proclaim to them the proclamation that I’m going to proclaim to you”.

Jonah doesn’t get to edit God’s message or say what he wants. God says here is what I want you to say. Say it exactly like this. THIS IS BIBLICAL PREACHING! Be faithful to God’s Word. Preach and proclaim just what God would have you to do. This goes not just for us preachers but for all of us—you—who are Christians and ministers of the gospel…our call is to preach and proclaim the full unadulterated gospel. Don’t change the message. Say what God wants us to say.

And Jonah does it. He goes to Nineveh. We read a bit about a three day’s journey. Much talk has been made about this three days. Would it really take three days to walk through Nineveh? Not likely. More than likely this is an idiom from that time period which means 1 of 2 things or possibly both. First, that Nineveh is a really long ways away. It was a Hebrew idiom to refer to something far off as a three days journey…if it wasn’t far away then it was a one day trek. Or possibly it is saying that it’s significant. It was customary for big important cities to require a three day trip. The first day was to tell the king your business, day two you’d state your business, day three they’d help you get out of town.

It’s likely that something similar is taking place here. But Jonah doesn’t really even get to day two. The king is struck so quickly…the people are nailed with repentance from God’s message. It’s a simple message. We don’t know if there was more to it. We don’t know if Jonah shared his testimony. Or what. But what we do know is that Jonah gets an audience—or at least his message gets an audience with the king—and it brings about widespread legit get on your face before God repentance.

A couple points about this. First, it’s likely that God had been preparing their hearts for this message. Things hadn’t been going well in Nineveh or the Assyrian Empire. They were still really bad dudes—and often did these things to appease their tyrant gods—but crops were failing, borders were shrinking, natural phenomenon was happening and the people were ripe to hear a message from God. To put it in the terms of Jonah 2 or our message last week---their idols were coming up empty. So Jonah comes into the city and says “The God of both land and sea has a message for you and it isn’t good”. Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

Secondly, note that it is God’s Word which is doing the work. The king hears God’s word—he “receives it” that’s a word which is a “tear you up” type of word. It cuts him to the heart. It enters into the very core of his being…starts rattling around…busting stuff up. You know when God has done that with you haven’t you. When words leap off the pages of Scripture. You come to church it feels like the preacher is talking directly to you or about you. That’s God’s Spirit doing something very similar to what we see him doing here in Nineveh.

“40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” And it sends terror…but terror mixed with hope…down the spine of this great king. Which I must note another side point…notice how it says that Nineveh is a great city over and over again. We read that and think it’s talking about how big the city is…but the Hebrew literally reads a city great to God or even a great city of God. That’s significant because it is showing us—and Jonah that God’s sovereign rule extends through all of creation. And as we’ll come to find out so does his mercy.

There is something else you need to know about this message. When you hear “40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown” you hear words of destruction. And I think Jonah did too. I’ve wondered—again that’s often what we do when we come to a story like Jonah, we read do the best we can, but at the end of the day at times we are just doing a bit of guesswork—does Jonah think that this second time that Nineveh is going to be destroyed. You get the idea that this is what he thought by the way he responds and waits for their destruction.

If you are Jonah you hear a word like “will be overturned” and your mind immediately goes to Sodom and Gomorrah. Many commentators believe that Jonah makes this second trip to Nineveh fully thinking that their destruction is inevitable. As one put it, “If the purpose of the mission was simply to announce Nineveh’s certain doom, then Jonah could reconcile himself to the unpleasant task of prophesying to Assyria.”

But there is something about the Hebrew language that Jonah must have conveniently overlooked. The word for “overturn” can also mean “change/reform”. Nineveh’s destruction then suggested two possible outcomes—one, the one that Jonah hoped for was burn it to the ground, the second one, was changing it to the core—overthrowing the old order of things and replacing it with a repentant Nineveh.

So there is grace even in this little message…not to mention the fact that God gives them 40 days. And this king doesn’t say, “ah, 40 days lets eat drink and be merry. No he says, 40 days, let’s repent. Let’s get on our faces and turn to this God and maybe he will relent from this disaster”. It’s even stronger than that though and I think the author chose very intentional words here…it says, “he believed God”. Does that sound familiar?

It’s words used of Abraham. The father of the Jewish nation. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He uses that language here in verse 5. Now what is going on verse 6…I think it’s a flashback. It’s kind of giving more information of the first 5 verses and highlighting the widespread repentance in Nineveh. A few things to note.

First, note that it is thorough. This is why we see even the cattle being involved. Don’t forget that this is a message for Israel. And what is happening in Israel at this time? Not repentance. They are so far away from God. We see this stuff in the prophet Isaiah. Read Isaiah 1:2-17. Interact

It’s the same that he said in Isaiah 29 and what Jesus said of the Pharisees: These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. But it is so much more with the Ninevites. This is authentic repentance. It’s not just outward ritual. The repentance for Nineveh goes deep. It’s far-reaching. Just as well known as their wickedness is their quick repentance. And it does something Israelite “repentance” never did—leads to actual ethical reform. Yes it has changed behavior but it is changed behavior from the heart.

It’s doing something else Israel wasn’t doing. Responding to God’s Word. Did you notice that in Isaiah 1. God was speaking to them repeatedly and they were stubborn and not listening. But here…perhaps the first message they ever hear from the mouth of God…and they respond. Simple message—the power of God in saving them. (Oh, what great hope this is for us with those in our lives)

We also see that this king’s posture is different than Israel’s. He is placing himself in the sovereign Kings hand. Maybe God will grant repentance. It sounds like Rack, Shack, and Benny in Daniel. Even if “He doesn’t we won’t bow”. That shows authentic confession and repentance. Are you able to accept the consequences of your sin? Do you hate the seriousness and yuck of sin? Here’s the question do you want the punishment for sin to be gone or do you want the sin…the love for sin in your heart…etc. to be gone. Do you want to not want to sin anymore? You see this reflected in the king’s heart. He is cut to the heart and says…we are going to change…and we are going to do this whether it ends in destruction or not. If our last days are holy and God still, in his justice, brings judgment then so be it.

That is a heart that has changed towards God. That is a heart that agrees with God about sin. And, I want you to notice here in verse 10 what God responds to. Does he respond to their sackcloth? Their ashes? Any of the rituals or symbols of repentance? No. He responds to their ethical transformation. He responds to the fruit that their changed hearts have produced.

So, let’s return to our original questions.

Is repentance simply I once did that thing and now I don’t or is it something more? Is it an absolute change of heart and mind? Is obedience simply doing what God told me to do or is there something more to it? Am I supposed to treasure God’s commands or just do them?

If all God cared about was obedience then we wouldn’t have Jonah 4. We’d just see a prophet who had now been compliant…he did what God told him...Nineveh was saved…revival broke out…who cares if the prophet is angry in his heart and thinks God did something evil.

If you had the opportunity would you happily change certain parts of the Bible? And if so, what does this say about our hearts? I think Jonah thought that it was okay that he could sit outside the city of Nineveh and wait for its destruction and that everything was just fine and dandy…”there…I did what you wanted me to do”.

Oh but God cares so much more about our hearts. We’ll see this more next week. But for now notice that God isn’t done with Jonah. He is after more than just obedience. He wants Jonah to treasure his commands. He wants to give Jonah his heart of compassion. He wants to give Jonah his eyes for the Ninevites. And he wants to do the same thing with us.

What God does with Jonah should open up many questions for our hearts. What of my obedience? Does God just want lip service? Is that all I’m giving to him? You going to repent with your heart or with your rituals?

Sam Allberry is an author and a minister of the gospel and he is a man who struggles—hates that he struggles—with same sex attraction. Here is how he interacts with our question:

The call to sexual purity is a radiant command. There’s far more satisfaction on offer through obedience than disobedience. The command, unwelcome and frustrating at first, has become a blessing. It’s not always easy. But it’s radiant.

As we walk with the Lord we see more and more the goodness of his ways. Should we like what he commands? Maybe not at first. Maybe some commands will always be a particular struggle. But to resent his law, or to want to change it, is to say that we know better than God. To follow, even initially through gritted teeth, declares that we’re trusting God knows more than we do.

But rather than thinking we’ll obey it when we like it, we should instead resolve to obey it so that we like it.

Allberry is learning the lesson that Jonah was to learn. God doesn’t just want begrudging obedience. He desires us to have hearts the reflect his. To not do this is to have hearts that are off center. God wants our affections. So many of our problems are worship problems. This is the case with Jonah.

His ethnocentrism, his lack of mission…Israel’s ethnocentrism and lack of mission…is fundamentally a worship problem. That is what Jonah would have us to see. Israel’s heart has gone far from him. It’s an extended picture of what we see in Isaiah 1.

So my prayer for us this morning is that some of these questions would ring about in our hearts and souls:

You going to be merely compliant or joyously obedient?

God isn’t after moralistic and merely obedient people—he isn’t about creating older brothers—he wants prodigal son type of worship. Slay the fattened calf. Celebrate. Party at the wonder of redemption.

There are two views of the Christian life and what God wants from us. One is the way of Odysseus the other is the way of Jason: The story starts with Odysseus traveling on his ship back to Ithaca. Odysseus has just rescued his king’s beloved wife Helen. On his way to take Helen back to Ithaca they must travel by the Sirens. The Sirens appeared to be beautiful. They were entrancing. Countless sailors would sail by the island and be enticed to come ashore. Once they got close to the shore however, their boats would crash on the hidden rocks beneath. They would be captured by the demonic cannibals that lived on the island. It was a trap and everyone knew it, but their call was so seductive that it seemed no man could resist.

Odysseus had a strategy. He told all of his crew to put wax in their ears and not look to the left or to the right. But Odysseus wanted to hear their beautiful music. He commanded his crew to tie him to the mast of the ship, and that no matter what he would say or do for them to not untie him until they were a safe distance from the island. Odysseus was completely seduced by the sirens. If it were not for the ropes tying him down, he would have succumbed. His hands were restrained but his heart was captivated by their beauty. Outwardly he had won the victory, but inwardly his heart desired the beautiful song of the sirens.

Now there was another man named Jason that would pass by the Sirens. But Jason’s solution was different. Rather than being tied to the mast or sticking wax in his ears, he hired Orpheus. Orpheus was the best musician in the land. Whenever the crew was passing close to the Sirens he ordered Orpheus to play his most beautiful, alluring, songs. Jason and his men did not even pay attention to the sirens. They were captivated by the beauty of Orpheus’ tune. They won the victory of the Sirens because they had heard something far sweeter, far more noble, far more soothing.

Now this is what we are confronted with. Whenever we stand in battle, whenever temptation is waging war on us, will we be like Odysseus; outwardly rejecting but inwardly craving the pleasures of sin. Will we struggle through life battling with sin not because our hearts have been transformed but because we are shackled by fear and shame? How will we struggle with sin, outwardly conforming all the while inwardly desiring sin? Or will we be like Jason? Will we be so captivated by the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ that sin no longer looks good to us. That is the only way to fight sin. Whenever you are so enthralled, enamored, in love with Jesus Christ will you be able to say “no” to sin, and mean it.

For unbelievers: Maybe you’ve thought Christianity is about being a good person…obedient…doing more good stuff than bad stuff. This actually raises the bar. We can’t do this. We can’t perfectly obey like this.

We need Jesus. Jesus did this. And his record is given to us. And it transforms us. So what do you want to do?

Christian…what does your obedience and repentance look like?

Key to holiness is falling in love. Where does such a thing come from? It comes from the work of God…wrecking us…breaking our hearts…etc. Jesus is the perfect Israel. (Contrast Jesus with Jonah’s unfaithfulness…his obedience…why did Jesus obey…his record is given to us…)