A Great Awakening! (Jonah 3)
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
9-25-19
Mulligan
I occasionally play golf. Not well, but I do play from time to time. I’ve learned there are different kinds of people who play golf. There are those who take it super seriously. I’ve played with a few of those. They didn’t allow me to use my “foot wedge.” Then there are those who don’t take it as seriously. I like playing with those kind of people better.
I remember playing with a friend when I first started playing golf and absolutely crushing it off the tee…right into the woods. I sighed and resigned myself to spend some time the poison ivy looking for a little white ball.
My friend stopped me, pulled a ball out of his pocket and handed it to me, and said, “You get a mulligan.” Do you know what a mulligan is? It’s a second chance. I teed it up again…kept my eye on the ball…beautiful swing…crushed it…right down the fairway.
The mulligan gave me a second chance to hit it straight, which I did. Then I hit it over the green into the woods!
Sometimes we get second chances in life. This morning, we are going see that God in His mercy gave Jonah a mulligan on his mission to Nineveh and the results were spectacular!
A Runaway Prophet
We are continuing our series on the OT book of Jonah. God said go to Nineveh and proclaim judgement. Instead of going 550 NW to Nineveh, Jonah boards a ship bound for Tarshish, which is 2,500 miles east!
God said go and Jonah said no. He knew it was a suicide mission. Imagine a rabbi standing on a street corner in Berlin in 1942. But he also hated the Assyrians and had no interest in seeing them get a chance to repent. The love of God was reserved for the Jewish people alone and the Ninvites were a brutal people who had terrorized Israel.
Jonah finds himself in the middle of the sea in a terrible storm. Jonah might run but God would pursue him.
The sailors understood this was a supernatural storm and began praying to their gods. The captain went below deck and found Jonah asleep. He woke him up and begged him to pray.
After casting lots, the sailors discover the storm is Jonah’s fault. He tells them that he is a Hebrew and that he worships the God who created the land and the sea.
The sailors are terrified. You are running from the God that created the sea…in a boat…on the sea?!
He tells them to throw him overboard and the storm all stop. What’s the best way to get out of going to Nineveh? Dying would work.
They have more compassion that he does and try desperately to row back to land. They finally give up and pray to Jonah’s God and ask that they not be punished for throwing him overboard.
They hurl Jonah into the sea and the storm stops immediately. The sailors break out in worship on the deck while the sulking prophet treads water waiting to drown.
But God had other plans. He appointed a big fish to swallow Jonah and he spent three days and three nights in the most interesting air B and B ever!
From the belly of that big fish Jonah finally did pray, that’s what we studied last week from Jonah two. If you weren’t here last week, I would encourage you to watch the sermon on our FB page.
It was a conflicted prayer. He was thankful that God sent the fish to rescue him but he still wasn’t sorry for his disobedience. He still had no interest in seeing the brutal Ninevites receive mercy from God.
Remember the big idea of Jonah:
God is a God of extravagant grace, especially to those who least deserve it!
Turn to Jonah 3.
Prayer
A Second Time
“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.” (Jonah 3:1-3a)
This is such an encouraging verse! God gave Jonah a second chance. He certainly didn’t deserve it. It was God’s mercy toward Jonah.
We looked at this last week, but it is worth repeating because some of you need to hear this.
God gave Jonah a second chance to fulfill the mission that he gave him. He didn’t have to. He could have let him drown in the sea and used someone else. But that’s not how God works.
He gave Adam and Eve another chance after they drove the bus of humanity right off the cliff of sin.
He gave David another chance after his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband.
He gave Peter another chance. After Jesus had risen, He ends up sitting on the beach with Peter eating fish. He asked him three times if he loves Him. Each time Peter said yes. Why three? Because that’s how many times Peter denied Him. He was restoring him and preparing him for the mission he had ahead of him.
If you think you’ve gone too far and can’t be used by God anymore because of all the things you’ve done, you are wrong. God wants to give you a second chance, just like He did with Jonah.
This verse is a parallel of Jonah 1. Jonah is told to “arise and go” in verse one but he goes as far in the opposite direction as possible. Here in verse three, he is told to “arise and go” - this is an urgent call to action.
Notice again God calls it a “great city.”
What made Nineveh “great?”
Its size. It was a huge metropolitan city located on the banks of the Tigris River, near modern day Baghdad, Iraq. The walls were so thick that it was said that you could hold chariot races on top of them with three chariots across.
Its strength. Assyria was the world power of the day. They ruled the known world for over 1,700 years.
Its sin. We learned about the Assyrians brutality when we studied Habakkuk together but let me remind you.
These people made ISIS look like Mr. Rogers. They skinned people alive and then would hang the skins on the wall. They buried people alive up to their necks and then drove a stake through their tongue. They cut off both legs and one arm so they could shake their hand as they died.
But they didn’t just act this way toward their enemies but also toward each other. Nahum says that they participated in witchcraft, prostitution, child sacrifice, and murder.
The destination hasn’t changed and Jonah doesn’t get to say whatever he wants to say - “proclaim the message I give you.” This would be a message of impending judgment on the Assyrians.
He realizes it might be a suicide mission but the last time he disobeyed he ended up in a whale of trouble so he heads out toward Nineveh.
Remember that he has been vomited by the fish on the beach. Can you imagine? Mommy, what’s that? It’s a big fish and it just threw up a man!
Nineveh is 300 miles inland. His skin was probably bleached white, his hair may have been gone, and he smells like puke. Then he walked a month in the desert. They probably smelled him before they saw him!
A Five Word Sermon?
Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.( Jonah 3:3a-5)
Nineveh was extraordinarily large city for that time, measuring 7.5 miles across. It was much like Chicago and the suburbs, you really can’t tell when when you leave one and enter another.
There was a three day protocol for ambassadors and prophets. The first day you would make yourself know to the city. The second day you would proclaim your message. The third day, tie up loose ends and leave.
Jonah doesn’t follow this protocol at all. On the first day through Nineveh, he immediately starts preaching the message that God gave him, “40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
It’s only five words in the Hebrew. Was that the entire message or was that a summary of the message? Or was that the part that he emphasized the most? We aren’t really sure.
I’m inclined to believe this was what he emphasized in his message. You guys are going to get what’s coming to you.
No matter how the message was conveyed, the results were dramatic. The Ninevites “believed in God.” The news must have spread like wildfire. The people began fasting, a sign of repentance, and wearing sackcloth, a type of burlap that was very uncomfortable that symbolizes mourning.
This is crazy! These are the brutal, violent Assyrians that didn’t trifle with Israelites. Then Jonah walks into town, proclaims that judgement is coming, and the people hit their knees. What could explain this reaction?
At that time in history, the Assyrians were without strong leadership and had been attacked from the north. There had been two plagues, a famine, and a solar eclipse that had the people freaked out already.
It is also important to note that the Assyrians worship the fish God. Then Jonah comes into town, looking like a madman, claiming he had been in the belly of a great fish. It seems that the people of Nineveh had been prepared for this message.
But there is another explanation, a supernatural explanation. Remember verse 9 of Jonah 2 - Salvation is from the Lord. The Holy Spirit took Jonah’s words and set them on fire in the Ninevites hearts! The message was preached by a prophet that was lukewarm at best toward the prospect of Nineveh receiving mercy but God still used his words to start the greatest revival in the Bible.
And this was a very unique revival - it was a bottom up revival. The people had started to fast and pray. And then the message reached the king.
A Proclamation of Repentance
When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
Let’s look at the king’s response. He “rose” from the throne. He “took off” his royal robes. He “covered” himself with sackcloth. He “sat down” in the dust.
He literally is “overturned.” He joins the people and issues a proclamation.
He intensifies the general fast. He commands that no one should eat or drink, not even the animals. What do cows do when they are hungry? They moo loudly. Imagine the noise in the city?
He commands everyone to call urgently to Jonah’s God and to give up their “evil ways and their violence.” This is actually the word for “footpath.” They are to turn from the violence that is a way of life to them. He knew that it why they would be judged.
He doesn’t know much about Jonah’s God but he is hoping that He is a God of compassion and He will relent from destroying them.
Jonah watches the people repent and stands back and waits. He is secretly wanting God to send lightening and destroy them. They don’t deserve mercy. They can cry out to God till the cows come home, mooing all the way.
They deserve judgement.
So what does God do?
Have Mercy
“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.” (Jonah 3:10)
The King James Version of this verse is very misleading. It reads that God “repented.” God does not need to repent of anything. The better idea is that God “relented.”
Jonah proclaimed, “You’ve got 40 days to get your act together.” The Ninevites cried out to God for mercy and God, in response to their actions, did not bring on the judgement He had promised.
Jeremiah proclaimed the same thing:
“If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.” (Jeremiah 18:7)
Now, did Nineveh really repent? Jesus said they did:
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matthew 12:38-41)
They did repent but the judgement was not canceled it was merely postponed. 150 years later, the Assyrians would if fact be judged and be utterly destroyed.
What can we learn from these verses?
Application
We have a message to share!
Someone recently asked me what our mission statement is. I’ve been s part of churches that spent months crafting a mission statement. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no need to do that. Jesus gave us our mission statement right before He returned to heaven:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Just like Jonah, we have been called to “arise and go” with the message He has given us.
Yes, I’m talking about the e word - Evangelism. The best definition of evangelism I’ve ever heard is, “One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
It’s an urgent message and we have been entrusted with being God’s ambassadors crying out in this dark and dying world that there is hope.
But before we can share the Good News, we have to walk the way of Jonah and share the bad news.
I hate being the bearer of bad news. There is a room in the ER that is just for that - bad news. As a pastor, I’ve been in that room far too many times. I’ve told children that their parent died. I’ve told parents that their children have died. It’s brutal.
When I was running a counseling center in Mississippi I had to fire my office administrator. I begged my boss to do it but she put it on me. I delivered the bad news and she cried. Then I cried. I hate telling people bad news.
But when it comes to the Gospel, it is absolutely vital that we help people understand the bad news because it is only in the light of the bad news that the Gospel is truly good news.
What if you were watching someone on the train tracks with headphones on and you saw a train coming. Would you be hesitant to tell them of the danger because they may laugh at you? No, you would yell and try to get their attention. If you wanted to be a hero, you would tackle them off the tracks.
Far worse than a train is coming:
The wages of sin is death….
Because of sin we are separated from God and are hopeless and helpless to save ourselves. We cannot hop high enough for God’s holiness. We can’t ever be good enough.
That’s the bad news. And it’s really bad. Hell is real and real people go there for eternity.
We love John 3:16 but most of the time we skip right over the warning…Shall not perish…
But the Gospel is GOOD NEWS!
The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. (Romans 6:23)
God is a God of compassion and He would rather die than live without us.
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8)
All that God asks you to do is to agree with Him that you are a sinner, admit your need of saving, and surrender to Him.
It’s what the Ninevites did. The Ninevites heard the message and believed God. They repented - a church word for changing your mind that leads to a change of direction. They confess they were wrong and cried out for mercy.
It’s what Jonah refused to do while in the big fish!
By the way, I’m not sure you saw the story out of Union Seminary about the chapel in which they confessed their sins and repented to…plants. Yep. Plants. Yes, the seminary that Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught at in the 1930s.
Plants cannot forgive you but if you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you of all your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)
That’s the message that we have to share. There is hope in Jesus.
I’m not asking you to do what Jonah did. Don’t stand on 24 and yell at the cars going by: “40 more days and Chenoa will be overturned.”
Build relationships with people. Not as gospel projects but as people you love and care for. Share your story. Invite them to church. Point them toward Jesus.
You may not feel very qualified to do that. Greg Laurie says, “God is not looking for ability simply availability.
Jesus met a woman at a well. She had been married five times and she was living with a man. After her interaction with Jesus, she went back into the village and said, “Come and see a man who told me everything I’ve done. Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:29)
This woman didn’t know much but she knew she had to tell people about Jesus and she set off an amazing village-wide revival!
There is no one beyond the reach of God…not the Ninevites and not you or that friend, family member or neighbor.
We cannot save anyone - God does that. Salvation is from the Lord. But we are called to be faithful in sharing.
God used a friend named Aaron Teaford to help bring me to Christ.
God is doing amazing things right now.
Benny Hinn repented on national tv and said he would stop preaching the prosperity Gospel.
Kanye West says that, thanks to Chance the Rapper, conversations with him, he is now a born again Christian and his new musical project will be titled, “Jesus is King!”
I read this question this week and it has been on my mind ever since. If God answered your prayers for salvation that you prayed last week in one fell swoop today, how many people would be saved?
B. God loved Nineveh and He loves Chenoa!
God loved Nineveh. It was great in size, strength and sin but God’s love was for the city.
God loves Chenoa. He does. There are 1,800 people in Chenoa, the vast majority do not attend church at all. God loves them. He loves your neighbors. He loves the people who live in the big houses. He loves the people in the apartments.
The question for us is - do we as a church love Chenoa? God has planted us as a church in this community to be a lighthouse.
That’s what the FallFest is all about. It is an opportunity to simply reach out to our community and tell them that we are here for them. Take the flyer and walk across the street and invite your neighbors. Invite that guy at the gym that you’ve met.
It will be a very laid back time of hanging out of fun, food, and fellowship.
I’m very excited about this. I want to go so far as to say that if you don’t invite someone to come (you can’t make them come) then I’m going to tell you not to come. If you don’t invite someone, you don’t understand the purpose of the fall fest. It’s not for us. It’s for the community. ?
C. A Great Spiritual Awakening starts with us
There has been a group praying for revival in this community for over a decade.
We can’t make revival happen but history shows there are some things that happen before revivals. John Piper lists six:
Faithful preaching
Unceasing Prayer
Intentional Unity
Earnest Seeking of God “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6)
Pervasive Repentance - Sinners in the hands of an angry God. Read it straight from the page in a low monotone voice. People were on the floor on their faces crying out to God for mercy for their sins.
Effective Evangelism
I read recently of an Iranian Christian couple that moved to the states. After a few months, the wife come to the husband and said she thought that they should move back to Iran. What? It’s one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. She said, “The church here in America is sleepy. If we stay here, we will get sleepy. It’s already starting.” So they moved back to Iran so they could live out their faith with a white hot passion.
But it's not all bad news.
Jose Rondon, reports on a revival taking place at the Fort Leonard Wood military base, in Missouri, where 1,400 soldiers have received and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
