Religion | Christian » Niniveh Repents, God Repents, You Repent

Source: http://www.doksinet Jonah 3 “Nineveh repents. God repents You repent” Dear Friends of Jesus Christ, Have you ever experienced Deja vu? You are working a job at a new location with new people except that it seems like you know this location and these people from somewhere. Or it’s Christmas time and you are gathered around the same old Christmas tree with the same people and the weather outside and the setting of the party brings you back to a Christmas of yesteryear. Sometimes there’s dejavu in sports The USA loses to Ghana by a score of 2-1 to get knocked out of the World Cup. It was dejavu from 2006. After Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit back to back homeruns multiple times for the Yankees in the early 1960’s, Yogi Berra, the Yankee catcher famously said, “It’s de ja vu all over again.” We have those moments in life where we think to ourselves, “I’ve experienced this before.” That’s verses 1-2 in chapter 3 of Jonah The Word of the Lord comes to

the Jonah “Go to Nineveh and preach my truth.” Jonah must be thinking, “I’ve heard this command from God before. I’ve been in this position before” It’s déjà vu except that Jonah is a different man this time. Jonah obeys the word of the Lord this time. He goes to Nineveh and preaches We haven’t talked about Nineveh since the opening of chapter 1. Nineveh is one of the largest and greatest cities in the world at this time. 120,000 people is massive for an ancient city. That would be like 12,000,000 people today The archeology that I read said that the ancient ruins of Nineveh were 7.5 miles in circumference (That is, you would be a 7.5 mile journey to walk around the outskirts of the city) It’s massive It’s Beijing. It’s New York It’s London Nineveh is also the enemy of Israel Nineveh became the capitol of Assyria who threatened Israel greatly and eventually carried Israel off to exile. The first Jewish readers of the Jonah text think to themselves, “Jonah is

goin’ preachin’ into enemy territory.” It would be like an American preacher bringing the word of the Lord to Moscow, Russia in the 1960s during the cold war. It would be like a Taliban Afghan Christian bringing the word of the Lord to Washington D.C today Jonah is going into hated enemy territory. It’s got to be dangerous He must be at least a little bit afraid. For all Jonah knows, the Assyrians might decide to chop his head off Jonah’s message is doom and gloom. His message is fire and brimstone His message reminds me of the most famous sermon in American history. Do you know what the most famous sermon in American history is? It was given by Jonathan Edwards 270 years ago. It was entitled, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” Jonathan Edwards true message was quite simple. His message was: You are a serious sinner and God is angry about your sin and there is a real hell and it’s hot and you’re going there unless you turn to God who has graciously given you

Christ. Jonah’s message fire and brimstone message is: “Forty more days living like this and your city Nineveh will be turned into hell. The God of Israel says so” The greatest miracle of the book of Jonah is not the miracle of the great fish. The greatest miracle of the book of Jonah is not even Jonah’s resurrection on the beach, which we talked about last week. The greatest miracle of the book of Jonah is verse 5a “The Ninevites believed God.” That’s amazing Imagine you are a Ninevite This foreign nobody from a land of nobodies comes into your world class city and tells you that his foreign God is about to destroy your powerful people. You would expect the Ninevite response to be, “Who does this man think he is and what has his God ever done?” You Source: http://www.doksinet would expect the Ninevites to respond with laughter and scoffing. You would expect them to throw Jonah out of the city like people threw the missionary Paul out of their cities 700 years

later. But that’s not the response The response is: “The Ninevites believed God.” And that has to shock the daylights out of the Israelite reader, many of whom don’t believe God. Do you know that there is a difference between believing God and believing in God? Believing in God or (to put it another way) believing that there is a God is easy. Even Satan believes in God. Satan knows that God is real Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God.? Big deal So does Satan Over a billion people in this world believe in the Christian God. Over a billion people believe that he’s real But how many people really believe God? How many people believe God like the Ninevites believe God? To believe God like the Ninevites believe God is to trust God with your everyday life. Ninevites trust that God is going to do what he says he is going to do in their everyday lives. They believe that God will intervene in their lives either negatively or positively They really trust God. Their actions

prove it! The question for the Israelite reader and for you and me is this: Do believe in God or do you believe God? Do you simply believe that there is a God who has a Son Jesus or do you actually trust this God with your everyday life? Your actions or lack of actions will tell you the answer. In 1855, a famous European tightrope walker named Charles Blondin moved to the United States. The act that made him famous was walking on a tightrope 160feet about the gorge of Niagara Falls. He did it multiple times He did it blindfolded On one occasion, he did it with his manager on his back and after he crossed he turned to a stranger in the crowd and asked him, “Do you believe I could do it again, only this time carrying you across?” The stranger said, “Of course you could.” Blondin said, “Well then hop on” The stranger said, “no way.” He believed in Blondin, but he didn’t believe Blondin. He didn’t really trust Blondin with his life The question is: do you simply believe

in God or do you really trust God with your life? Your actions or lack of actions provide the answer. The Ninevites actions prove that they really do trust God. They stop everything and declare a fast from the greatest of them to the least. The king of Nineveh exchanges his robes and throne for sackcloth and dust. And to show that they are really serious about God, they include the animals in the fast, which was a sign in some ancient cultures that they were serious about mourning. These Ninevites believe God They really trust God. Their actions prove it A word that captures the change in the Ninevites is the word “repentance.” Repentance is “the act of turning.” In verse 8 the king calls on all the people to turn from their evil and their violence. In verse 10, God observes that this is exactly what they do The Ninevites turn from their evil ways. They repent They were walking toward evil They stop, turn around and walk toward God. What is the best way to know if someone is a

true believer? Repentance. If a person’s life is turned away from sin and turned toward God then that person is a true believer. Repentance involves our whole person. You turn your mind, your heart, your will, and your actions toward God. It’s the whole person You turn your mind, heart, will, and actions away from trying to earn salvation and toward Jesus Christ who earned it for you. You turn your mind, heart, will, and actions away from worshipping work, hobby, or money and toward worshipping God. Away from laziness and toward loving Source: http://www.doksinet people. Away from sexual immorality and toward sexual purity Away from trying to be in control and toward surrendering control to God. Away from unforgiveness and toward forgiving those who have hurt you. Away from hording money and toward generosity Away from pride and self-worship and toward humility. Away from being easily angered and toward patience. It’s about turning your mind, heart, will, and actions - your

entire self - toward Jesus and his way of life. All of us stumble at times. Even those of us who have trusted God for a long time stumble back into sin sometimes. But those who truly trust God always repent Those who truly trust God always turn back toward God again and again and again until there is no more stumbling in that particular area or until the Lord returns. We’re always turning back to God. True believers are not too stubborn to repent What do you need to repent from today? In what way do you need to turn back toward God? It’s not too late and you’re not too bad to repent toward God again today. The reason we can repent toward God and find him waiting with open arms is that God also repents. God does not repent from sin because he is perfect, but he does turn sometimes. In Exodus 32, after Israel made a golden calf and worshipped it, God told Moses he was going to destroy Israel and start over. But, he changed his mind He repented. He turned and had mercy God was going

to destroy Nineveh He changed his mind. He repented He turned and had mercy (vs 10) I believe that at some point or another God had it in his mind to destroy all of humanity because of our sin. He repented. He changed his mind He turned and sent his Son to save us When you think about it, even Jesus repented in a sense. He did not repent of sin because he committed no sin. But, in a sense, he repented in the Garden of Gethsemane He did not want to go to that cross. He asked his Father if there was a way out He did not want to bear the immense punishment for your sins and mine. He asked his Father if that cup could be taken away. His struggle in the Garden that was so fierce he even sweat blood. But he got up and turned toward the cross and walked to it And as he hung there, his Father turned his wrath away from you and me and toward his Son so that it would be possible for you and me to turn toward God and be reconciled. May you trust the God who has turned from punishment to mercy.

May you trust the Jesus who turned to the cross because he loved you so. May you turn your entire life over to him. Amen