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Jonah’s Leftovers // Jonah 3:1-4

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Sovereign To SPARE // Sent Again

"1Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” " ~Jonah 3:1-4 ESV

BACKGROUND

JONAH GOES TO NINEVEH ~ COMING SOON!

VERSE 1

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying

THE MSG of 2nd chanceS

1″Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,”
Jonah 3:1 ESV
Jonah has quite literally had his life turned upside down because of his failure to obey God’s call on his life.
Jonah’s rebellion was all because he knew God’s mercy could quite possibly be poured out on in Nineveh.
 
As previously discussed, Jonah hated the people of Assyria because they were  cruel and terrible to
the Israelites.
 
We must sit down for just on quick second here before we move into the next part because it would be too easy to whitewash Jonah’s sin.
We need not overlook the rebellion of Jonah and only look forward towards God’s forgiveness and second chance. Make no mistake, Jonah was in sin. Jonah’s actions were fueled by hate
and possibly racism. There is no place for the feelings of hatred and racism within the family of God. They exhibit the exact opposite of the
heart of God, given that the scriptures clearly say that Christ came to die for all men and woman. Paul says within the church there is neither
Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free.
Additionally, if you run from God or allow sin to run rampant in your life
there is no guarantee that you will continue to get chances.
 
Remember, God was willing to kill Jonah and the fishermen if they did not throw him into the sea. In the case of Jonah, God is on a wake-up mission.
 Which reminds us to, “Be killing sin or it will kill you” – John Owen
 
How amazing is it that God does not give up on us when we are dumb? God does not embrace cancel culture. God does not turn his back on us even when we turn our back on him. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;” Lamentations 3:22
 
Just as those who are in rebellion cannot escape His judgment, we cannot escape His mercy. For our heavenly Father lavishly gives grace and
forgiveness generously to all who ask. God might be angry at your rebellion, but he is never angry at your
return.
Maybe you are like Jonah was, on a mission to run away from God’s call on your life. Possibly, you’re running from God because you are bitter and angry because life has not turned out for you as you thought it should
have. God wants you to step out of brokenness an into his healing. He wants
to give you (like Jonah,) a second chance to follow Him and to live out the calling he has for you in your life.
“God’s forgiveness extends to the worst offenders and to anyone who wishes to receive it-not because of who we are, but because of who He
is.”- Charles Swindoll

VERSE 2

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”

THIS MSG IS GOD'S

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” Jonah 3:2 ESV
 
The words found here in verse 2 of chapter 3 are the exact words found in verse 2 of chapter 1.
 
We do not have a clear picture how much time has passed since he has been spat from the mouth of the fish but none the less, the call is the same. “Go preach against the way of life of the Ninevites.” “Go, preach a message of repentance.” This message he is called to preach is not one of his own accord or his personal dissertation on his beliefs on their culture and practices. He is called to go and deliver a very specific message from God. Many people look at this verse and get this grand picture of Jonah behind a pulpit preaching his heart out. Preaching with such vigor he must use his handkerchief from his $1,000 suit to wipe the sweat from his brow. This is a poor depiction of the actual events and it also diminishes the effectual call of God on sinners’ hearts.
 
The message that God has given Jonah is completely God’s message and Jonah is to leave it untarnished or changed into his narrative.

VERSE 3

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth.

Welcome to nineveh

3″So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.” Jonah 3:3 ESV
Nineveh was in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. At the time of Jonah, it was the largest city in the world. Nineveh was about seven and a half miles long—an enormous city for ancient times. Scholars believe it was about 120,000 in population when he was called to go preach there. Nineveh was an important junction for commercial routes crossing the Tigris on the great roadway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, thus uniting the East and the West, it received wealth from many sources, so that it became one of the greatest of all the region’s ancient cities, and the last capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

VERSE 4

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” "

A FULL GOSPEL MSG

4″Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Jonah 3:4 ESV
 
We don’t know what the reason as to why Jonah decided to stop in this particular part of the city or neighborhood. Maybe God gave him a “Holy Geiger counter,” to alert him to the place of most importance within this massive city.
 
From there he delivered what is translated to just 8 words in English. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” The cynic in you might say, “I know he must have preached more than that.” The realist in you is going, “I wish that was the length of your sermon!”
 
In all reality, as you will see next week these words prove to be very effective and moving the hearts and minds of the people of Nineveh. How?!?!? Because the Gospel is not a used car, and it does not need a used car salesman to do its bidding. We treat the gospel as if it were “weak and ineffective.” That we need to “spruce it up,” a bit before we deliver it. That we need the music or lights “just right,” or people will not respond. We say things like, “your life will never be better.” When we know that is NOT promised in the scriptures. All the gospel needs from us is our voice box, our willingness to be used.
 
God is not entrapped by our clever words or tone of our voice. We fail to share the Gospel so often because we believe we are unqualified or need more training to do it right. When God just needs you to open your mouth and He will take care of the rest.
 
Sometimes we need to deliver a message that no one wants to hear… God has called Jonah to go preach a message of repentance. Preaching repentance is never a popular message. You are telling people they are living in sin or in rebellion against God and they need to ask God for forgiveness and turn away from their sin. A message of repentance is difficult even when folks are somewhat aware of God and His grace, (but can you imagine going to Nineveh where the people are especially heinous). Yet Jonah is faithful to his second call and delivers the short 8 words that God calls for him to speak.
 
We need to pause here. God has called us to do the same thing in Matthew 28, Acts 1, and every call he gave to his disciples. We are to tell the full Gospel. Without the full Gospel we do not know what we are saved from or how precious the grace of Jesus actually is. It is going to be just like telling your mom her prized china has been destroyed and it may go over like a lead balloon, but that is for God to work out. The good news does not need our polishing for it to be effective, we are not called to lessen the blow either. When we attempt to make the good news of Jesus more palatable it is no longer good news. It is nothing more than moral religion and cosmic child abuse.
 
The truth is, there is a hell, and we will go there if we attempt to live however, we want. Grace is free for those who are willing to repent and turn from their sin. But where there is no repentance there is no forgiveness of sin. That is the message of the Gospel. Jesus did not call for us to be perfect or that we would become perfect in this life….But but but…. we cannot say that we have fellowship with Jesus and still walk hand-in-hand with Satan doing whatever we want.
 
According to the scriptures we cannot profess Jesus as Lord when our lives are completely embroiled with sin. We are called to have honest gospel conversations with our generation pointing them to the cross where grace came down and set us free.
 
Like Jonah we will be going into enemy territory to do it. But to not do it would be the definition of hate, because when we don’t we are saying to them…I would rather not offend you in this life more so than save you from the eternal life you will lose if I don’t.
 
But we feel disqualified because of our past…. If anyone should have been disqualified from preaching a message of repentance it would be Jonah. This dude had to be eaten by a fish…eaten by a fish to have his heart wrecked by God. Yet God, put him right back out there on the mound to pitch the Gospel. Just because you have done some dumb things in your life does not mean you are unable to ever speak from a place of authority again. Culture has setup this false paradigm where if you make a mistake, you can never lead or speak truth again. God has always used broken people to share his message of repentance to the world. This is a tool the enemy has sowed into our society because it effectively discredits anyone from being able to speak from a place of authority on the scriptures or moral issues.
 
Like Jonah when we speak, we do not speak on our authority or from a position based on our good deeds, rather we speak on the authority of the word of God. Our message is one of yielded authority wherein we say God is the arbiter of truth and His truth condemns your unrighteous actions therefore I am compelled by the word of God to speak against them.

SUMMARY

Jonah is a sign of repentance to a people in need of repentance. He turns from his rebellion and runs towards God. God does not rebuff him but welcomes him into his arms. God might be angry at your rebellion, but he is never angry at your return.
 

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