DOING IT RIGHT!
Jonah 3:1-10
S: Grace
Th: My Life as God’s Light
Pr: God is gracious and compassionate.
?: How? How is it observed?
KW: Results
TS: In our study of Jonah 3, we will observe three results of God’s grace and compassion.
INDUCTIVE
God’s grace and compassion causes…
I. JONAH TO RESPOND OBEDIENTLY (1-4)
II. THE NINEVITES TO REPENT DRAMATICALLY (5-9)
III. GOD TO RELENT MERCIFULLY (10)
RMBC 7/29/01 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Notebook: Bad day (drink the poison)
A fellow is standing at a bar, just looking at his drink. For a solid half-hour, he just stares at it. Suddenly, a big trouble-maker type of guy steps up next to him, takes the drink and chugs it down. The poor guy starts crying.
The big guy says, "Come on man, I was just joking. Here, I’ll buy you another drink. I can’t stand to see a man cry."
"You don’t understand," says the first fellow "This day is the worst day of my life. First, I sleep through the alarm this morning and get into the office late. My boss fires me on the spot.
"I leave the building to go to my car and find, that in just the few minutes I had been inside, it had been stolen. The police were no help; they say I am probably out of luck.
"Luck? I get a cab to return home, and when I leave it, I realize that I have left my wallet and all my credit cards on the back seat. I try to get the cabbie’s attention as he drives away, but no. Off he goes.
"I get inside the house, much earlier than anyone had expected. Surprise, Honey, I’m ho-ome. I find my wife has packed her bags and left.
"1 leave home, and come to this bar. I stood here seriously thinking about ending it all. And 1 was ready to do it. Then you show up and drink my poison..."
1. Have you ever really had a bad day?
Nothing seems to go right…
I am sure we have all had those kind of days.
Jonah knew what it was like to have bad days.
First, he was in a slimy fish and then because of an involuntary emesistic reaction, he finds himself up on a beach.
(The medical people will tell us that is a technical way of referring to “throwing up.”)
But, because of this involuntary emesistic reaction, we find that…
2. Jonah gets a new start with his life.
The fact that Jonah gets a new start, really is amazing.
After all, he really had made a mess of things!
Let’s remember…
3. Context: Jonah’s initial response to God’s call was less than inspiring.
God had called Jonah to go to Nineveh.
Since he had no interest in going to Nineveh because of his disdain for them as Israel’s enemy, he decided to go a different direction.
So, instead of heading east, he headed as far to the west he could possibly go at that time—Spain.
But Jonah’s disobedience resulted in God bringing about an intense storm, which threatedned the ship, and which had frightened the sailors to the point that they were fervently calling on their gods to save them.
At the same time, they were casting all the cargo overboard.
Finding Jonah sleeping soundly below deck, the captain of the ship rebuked him for sleeping and commanded him to pray (which he apparently never did).
At the seamen’s initiative, lots were cast to determine on whose account the ship was about to sink.
After an interrogation, Jonah told them he was at fault and what they must do to save themselves and their ship—cast him overboard.
Only after God thwarted their diligent efforts to get Jonah to shore did the sailors consent to do as Jonah had instructed them.
They preceded this act with a prayer that expressed their concern for putting an innocent man to death.
When Jonah was cast over the side, the sea calmed and the seamen worshipped the God of Israel with sacrifices and vows.
If the first chapter revealed anything, it dramatically contrasted Jonah with the unbelieving sailors.
He was disobedient to the command of God; they obeyed what God told them to do through Jonah.
They prayed frequently and fervently; Jonah did not.
They had great compassion on Jonah; he seemingly had none on them.
When we come to chapter two, we find that Jonah is starting to get it.
We find a "psalm" of sorts.
Jonah’s "psalm" centers on the prophet’s dilemma, danger, and deliverance.
When Jonah gives the glory to God for his physical deliverance, God commanded the great fish to spit Jonah up on the beach.
You may not like to hear this, but…
4. We are not so unlike Jonah.
When God asks us to do something we don’t want to do, we too run away.
How many times has God impressed your heart to do something, or to avoid something, or go someplace, but you went ahead anyway?
As soon as we do that, we guarantee the outcome—failure!
But the important thing to learn about failure is not to stay a failure.
ILL Notebook: Failure (Jordan)
You may remember the Michael Jordan Nike commercial several years ago showing this nine-time All-Star, four-time MVP, two-time Olympic gold medallist, this once-in-a-century icon arriving at the game, heading to the locker room. His stride is easy, his smile secretive and knowing as he moves down the gauntlet of fans and well-wishers. He walks like a winner. After all, he is Michael Jordan, the man who made the impossible seem routine and the merely difficult look easy. Yet in the voice-over he says: “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost more than 300 games. Twenty-six times I have been trusted to take the game-winning shot…and missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
This must be Jonah’s lesson as well.
It is important not to continue to be failure.
It is time to do it right.
So we find…
OUR STUDY:
I. JONAH RESPONDS OBEDIENTLY (1-4).
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. Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
1. God recalls Jonah.
He comes a second time to Jonah.
He had commissioned him once to go to Nineveh.
Now that He has caught him again, it is time to recommission him.
Think about this for a moment…
Does God stoop to use those who have rejected His calling, turned a deaf ear to His word, and pursued a course of determined disobedience?
The answer is an absolute, “Yes.”
If it were not so, there would not be too many of us here, or any for that matter.
Jonah is now experiencing the unmerited grace of God!
And there is a change for Jonah.
Now…
2. Jonah willingly runs with God, instead of running away.
He had run away.
He had run back.
Now it was time to run with God.
But it had not come easy.
It came with the discipline of God.
God’s discipline helped him to be more obedient and more flexible.
So, now he goes to Nineveh, the international outlaws, hated by the whole world.
They were the Nazis of their day.
Though Jonah’s opinion of the Assyrians has not changed, he is convinced that God’s message must be given.
So…
3. Jonah proclaims the message God has given him.
It essentially went like this, “Forty days more and Nineveh is toast!”
“In forty days, you guys are out of here!”
Now, that was a message of good news, wasn’t it?
You have to believe that he enjoyed giving the message.
The number forty had religious significance.
It was a time of waiting for divine activity.
For 40 years, Israel wandered in the wilderness.
For 40 days, God had sent the flood.
So this was an unambiguous announcement of judgment and divine wrath.
The text tells us that literally, Nineveh was a great city to God.
It was huge.
The greater Nineveh area was probably sixty miles in circumference.
So, for three days, Jonah walks across the city, giving the message of God.
He doesn’t worry about the result, whether it is good or bad, he simply proclaims the word.
But it did have an effect!
ILL Notebook: Preaching (preaching’s effect)
Many years ago, The British Weekly published this provocative letter:
Dear Sir:
It seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a great deal of time preparing them. I have been attending church quite regularly for 30 years and I have probably heard 3,000 of them. To my consternation, I discovered I can not remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s time might be more profitably spent on something else?
For weeks a storm of editorial responses ensued...finally ended by this letter:
Dear Sir:
I have been married for 30 years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals—mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet...I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago.
Who knows how many messages the Ninevites had heard.
But one thing is for sure…this one worked!
For…
II. THE NINEVITES REPENT DRAMATICALLY (5-9).
The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the news 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. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast 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.”
1. The people experienced the holy hush.
As Jonah spoke, people stopped and listen.
The commerce died down.
It got quiet.
And God moved…
They heard the truth and believed.
It was the most incredible and unexpected response imaginable.
It was overwhelming.
It was unanimous.
Everyone repents—from the highest to the lowest.
A revival breaks out instantaneously.
For as they have heard God’s message through Jonah, they have come to realize that it is true.
They have each personalized it (“It is true of me!”).
They believed God.
Note the text does not say that they believed Jonah.
This is very significant.
They believe God.
It is the response of faith, not just of fear.
And we can tell, for…
2. They were motivated to put their belief into action.
They declared a fast.
And they put on sackcloth—a scratchy burlap that acknowledges that one deserves God’s judgment and affliction.
It happened everywhere, in every stratum of society, from the bottom on up.
This was not a top down matter.
This is not some human coercion, like the preacher singing adding one more verse of “Just as I Am” to get more people to the altar.
This is real revival.
And as the people are persuaded, so is the king.
He leaves his seat of authority and humiliates himself by sitting in ashes.
This was really serious business.
The king even includes the animals in the acts of repentance—even they have to wear the sackcloth.
Symbolically, they represent the heart of the whole nation.
They become an effective visual aid of the change that was occurring in their hearts.
By doing all of this…
3. They hoped for a reprieve.
The king asked all the people to cry mightily unto God—to do so with great urgency.
They were to offer wholehearted prayers of repentance.
And there was good reason.
They were bad.
They were evil.
They had been wicked, violent, unrighteous, atheistic, and proud.
They had disregarded the Lord.
The kings of Assyria especially had ruled with iron fists.
They were tyrants who controlled the religious, economic, and military establishments with cruelty.
They cultivated terror.
Now, God had even brought conviction the king of Assyria.
And…
III. GOD RELENTS MERCIFULLY (10).
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
There is something here we must always remember…
1. God is compassionate.
God loves people.
God is always for people.
He is merciful, longsuffering, and committed to finding those that are lost.
But, we should never presume on His compassion.
For…
2. God does not ignore righteousness and justice.
God is always against sin.
He judges evil wherever He finds it.
So, while He loves us, He does not overlook our sin.
For if He did overlook our sin, He could not really be for us.
We need it removed from our lives.
It has to be judged.
It has to be destroyed, for it is everything that God is not.
But the good news for us (as it was for the Ninevites of Assyria) is that…
3. God does not desire destruction; He desires salvation.
God’s plans and purposes for humanity never change.
God does not change.
He wants us to receive the great gift of salvation and wholeness that offers to us.
And we can receive it, not because we deserve it, but because God desires to give it.
God desires to make us a new creation.
This is what happened in Nineveh.
Jonah proclaimed the word of God.
People believed God.
And Nineveh became a new creation, not because they deserved it, but because God desires to give it by His power, compassion and grace.
APPLICATION:
ILL Notebook: Grace (misfits)
After worrying for half an hour that they wouldn’t get on an overbooked flight, Ken Langley and his wife were summoned to the check-in desk. A smiling agent whispered that this was their lucky day. To get them on the plane he was bumping them up to first class. This was the first and only time they had been so pampered on an airplane—good food, hot coffee, plenty of elbowroom.
They played a little game, trying to guess who else didn’t belong in first class. One man stuck out. He padded around the cabin in his socks, restlessly sampling magazines, playing with but never actually using the in-flight phones. Twice he sneezed so loudly they thought the oxygen masks would drop down. And when the attendant brought linen tablecloths for their breakfast trays, he tucked his into his collar as a bib. Truly a misfit for first class!
You know, we see misfits all the time in church.
They are people who obviously do not belong.
They are people who embarrass us.
They seem inferior.
But, you know what the real truth is…anytime we have thoughts of superiority, we must remember that we don’t belong there any more than they do.
And here is what we must celebrate…
1. GOD IS GRACIOUS AND COMPASSIONATE.
Because God is gracious and compassionate, we can belong to this marvelous thing called the body of Christ, the church.
Because God is gracious and compassionate, we can respond to His good words to us.
Because God is gracious and compassionate, we can repent of our evil ways and be determined by His power to live a life characterized by His holiness.
Because God is gracious and compassionate, He will relent of His judgment when we turn to Him.
You know…
2. If Nineveh can repent, anyone can repent.
I believe Jonah was faked out.
I think (and he certainly hoped it would be this way) that they would reject God’s good news.
But they did not.
They repented of their evil.
Perhaps there is a person or a group of people that you do not like at all.
Perhaps you think it is hopeless for them.
…an alcoholic parent
…an abusive spouse
…the children who terrorize the neighborhood
…that deranged neighbor
…the criminal in prison
…that co-worker is always trying to make you look bad
And when it comes down to it, you despise them.
You consider them hopeless.
But…if Nineveh can repent, anyone can.
No one is hopeless!
This means…
3. We are to be gracious and compassionate.
We are called to love, not hate.
We are called to care, not be inconsiderate.
We are called to be of good courage, not be afraid.
4. We are to faithfully proclaim God’s message (Romans 10:9).
It is good news!
As Paul writes in Romans…
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Interestingly, it is the person of Jonah that points us to Jesus.
For Jonah becomes a sign of what occurs to Jesus.
He is a demonstration of the power of resurrection.
So, let us celebrate together that Jesus is Lord.
Let us proclaim it faithfully.
For with the faithful proclamation of the Word comes belief and repentance and salvation from a compassionate and gracious God.
Repent.
Perhaps you need a new start today, because up to this point you haven’t been a whole lot better than the Ninevites.
Your life is characterized by…
…sexual indulgence
…pride
…selfishness
…lack of love
…laziness
…materialism
I encourage you to discover that God is gracious and compassionate, so much so, that He is not content to leave you as you are, but lead you to what you must become.
Today’s counselors are
BENEDICTION:
God is gracious…and because He is, He gives each one of us the opportunity to serve Him again, even after we have blown it; rejoice that God is giving you that second, third, fourth, fifth chance (and the numbers could go on, couldn’t they?).
God is gracious…and gives us the opportunity to repent of our misdeeds; He gives us the opportunity to understand the wickedness of our own ways and the great offense they are to His character and person.
God is compassionate…for when we realize the error of our ways, He relents from the judgment we so richly deserve and provides through His Son, Jesus, us the salvation we so desperately need.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
