So, let’s look at our passage together and marvel at what God once did, and pray that He does it again….
Spirit led words though they are few; will amaze the world in what they will do. Ask the Ninevites.
I) Revivals Demand a Stern Message (3:4)
Jonah entered the outskirts of the great city and began to preach sermons on judgment, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4).
I think this was the title or subject of Jonah's sermons. We do not have a record of his entire sermons in the Bible. This only seems to be the subject that he spoke on. He preached on the judgment of Almighty God against the city, because God said, "Their wickedness is come up before me" (Jonah 1:2).
But the people of Nineveh did not stone Jonah, or imprison him, as he doubtlessly expected they would do. Instead, when he preached on judgment, "The people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast" (Jonah 3:5).
II) Revivals Follow Sincere Repentance (3:5–9)
Repentance is hatred of sin and turning from it unto God in the light of his mercy. Scripture highlights four parts of the sincere response of the Ninevites, which serve as a model of genuine repentance today.
A) Repentant People Believe God’s Word of Judgment (v. 5)
From whatever preaching Jonah did, the Ninevites gathered enough of God’s true identity not only to believe in him and trust his mercy, but to recognize God’s sovereignty despite the predicament in which they found themselves. The most basic response to a confrontation with God is to believe him. Without believing God, there is no salvation.
The question is for each of us to answer: Do you believe God?
B) Repentant People Grieve Their Wicked Condition (v. 8)
The Ninevites’ grief was blatant; they wore it! In the ancient Near East sackcloth and ashes externalized inner grief and mourning (Job 1:20; 2:8). They were using the body as an auxiliary to the soul. By fasting they afflicted their bodies to bring them into harmony with their afflicted souls.
Sin isn’t a joke to repentant people. It is a tragedy. When confronted with their sin the Ninevites “were sorrowful, miserable, broken, and grief-stricken over their sin as they suddenly realized that their wickedness had offended God . . . A similar experience of repentance is needed today.”
C) Repentant People Put Away Their Sin (vv. 8, 10)
A truly penitent person turns from his evil ways. Sinners cannot draw near to God simply by affirming he exists or by regretting their shortcomings. The king told each Ninevite to turn from “his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands” (3:8). We can’t expect salvation if we refuse to part with the sins for which Christ died.
D) Repentant People Appeal to God for Mercy (vv. 5, 9)
The thought of being rejected by God so horrified the Ninevites that experiencing God’s mercy became their main concern. The king’s decree asked, “Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish?”
Even this modest hope “should quicken you and stir you to cast yourselves upon his free grace.” Why assume that you must remain unsaved? The Ninevites didn’t.
The Ninevites are our sign. They teach us how to repent. They warn us to lament our sins now or to lament them forever in hell.
III) Revivals Depend on God’s Mercy (3:10)
The Lord is not the God merely of second chances, but the God who accepts even those who have squandered their entire lives in rebellious living.
God didn’t change his mind; he changed the Ninevites! The proud, wicked, atheistic people against whom he had threatened judgment ceased to exist when they were made into a new creation by God’s grace.
Watch us on our YouTube channel, our website or our Facebook page
https://www.youtube.com/@midwaybaptistnc1670
https://midwaybaptistnc.org
https://facebook.com/midwaybaptistn
