Jonah Part Three
The Revival Nobody Saw Coming
Jonah 3:1-10 NIV
1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” 10 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.
Exodus 34:6 (NIV)
6 “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness”
God is a God of second chances. He is scandalously merciful and relentlessly pursuing. Not because we get it right, but because He is faithful.
Typical Prophetic Message
“Thus says the Lord”
Sin specified
Consequences explained
Call to repentance
God named
Mercy offered
Jonah’s Message
(?) Missing authority
(?) No clarity on what’s wrong
(?) Vague
(?) No invitation to change
(?) No mention of God
(?) No hope
Belief is more than a mental agreement- it involves a true, life-altering response.
- God’s judgment is not the opposite of love- it’s an expression of it.
- Apathy is the opposite of love, not judgment.
- God longs to show mercy.
Matthew 12:41 (ESV)
“ The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
