Jonah and the Power of Repentance | A City Transformed | Jonah 3:1-10

Show Notes

Episode 630: 
In this episode, we delve into the biblical narrative of Jonah, specifically focusing on Jonah's mission to the city of Nineveh. We explore how God gave Jonah a second chance to deliver His message to the Ninevites, who were known for their wickedness. Jonah's reluctant obedience leads to a miraculous response from the people of Nineveh, who collectively repent and turn from their evil ways.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. We're back. We are. We were just here five. Minutes ago when we recorded our last one, but we're back today because for you, hopefully. It's another you made it. That's right. We sat here in this chair all the way. We're back all the way. So today Chris is everybody's favorite segment, is it? Yes? And oh how wonderful it must be for our first time listeners to join us on a day where it's everybody else's favorite segment. I can only imagine how what it's like for the to be their first time yes, right, to experience the glory and the wonder of your outrage on behalf of all the rest of us. In this segment, we love to call what made Chris mad this week? By the way, because you're we vicariously are angry for the rest of us. By the way, all I hear whenever you say you know we delighted it is that Chris gets labeled for always being mad. Well, Jeff gets labeled for being happy. No, that is not because we've done what makes. Jeff happy happy this week? Yeah, but not a long time. Yeah, that's right, that's right. That's not many things which she did like three weeks ago. That's true. All right, So what made me mad this week? I only had to think about thirty seconds? Yes I know, yeah, I know. But something happened in the church lobby. But it doesn't have anything to do with church. So here's what happens. I'm standing there with a group of people talking with like at. Least four people, okay, and this person. Who I don't know very well, who literally I only met maybe. Twice, comes up to me and how dare they? No, no, no, that's all I'm ahead of myself. And says to me, what's my name? Oh that's a tough one? Is what's my name? A tough one? That's a tough one. Come on, you should remember what's my name? And I'm like, I'm like, listen, if you're going to do that, would you first of all, not do that in front of people? Because I actually don't know these. Other people very well at all, right, and so what you're doing and if they were making friends, we can maybe laugh at all, sure, but what you're doing is you're putting. You're making me sort. Of look like I'm a pastor who doesn't care about people. Right, And by the way, they don't know if I should know your name. And so this person went out of their way and they weren't thinking, right, they weren't thinking. Probably they were just doing that. But that's just not very nice to do to people. On a Sunday. You only shake hands or great, a few thousand people, A few thousands. By the way, that's not exaggeration, that's clearly a few thousand people. So I will say hi. I won't shake hands necessarily with with that many. I'll do maybe one hundred and two hundred hands, but I will probably say hi to Let's just say at least a thousand, right, personally, I look at them in the eye. And say, hey, how you doing, good morning? Right, at least a thousand, and so for this person to say, what's my name? What's my name? What's what? What's my name? You should know it? What's my name? So listen, because I introduced myself to you the last time I was here a month and a half ago, correct, correct, So let. Me tell you. Let me tell you the brilliance. I hope they're listening. I hope you're listening, and you know who we're talking about. Yeah, you want me to? Did you want me to go after him like that? No? No, no, I do not. I do not. Okay, Well, sorry, I'm sorry this person doesn't listen to the podcast because they seem a little bit new. But they could be. They might be, they might be. So let me tell you the brilliance of a person I met that changed my world. I'm not kidding, okay, because I give this advice to everybody ever since I met this person. Okay, and uh uh wait wait uh a brain feart. I don't remember his name. You don't have to, I don't have to, You're right. So let's call him Bob Johnson. Okay, okay, that's our favorite. I remember his name. I remember his name now, but well we're still call. Him Bob Johnson. Okay, okay, so uh so let's say Bob. He meets me, right, and he walks up, and. Here's what he does. So shake my hand. He walks up and he goes, hey, how you do I have Bob Johnson? And he tells me his name, and I'm like, oh good, to see it. Next time I see him, he goes, Hey, how's it going, Bob Johnson. I'm like, okay, And I kid you not when I say, he must have said his name to me thirty times, and I said, I go, why. Do you do that? I know your name by now, And he goes, Oh, it doesn't matter if you know my name. He goes. I always assume nobody knows my name, he says. And I never want to make a person feel uncomfortable, So he goes, I always just say my name, just so honestly, they'll follow suit and they'll tell me their name, he goes, Because whether I know them or see them often or not, it doesn't matter. He goes. But I just assume that nobody knows my name. And so when I get like sometimes we'll meet at like eight o'clock in the morning before church starts. I'm thinking particularly of church, right, because I deal with crowds of people, and most of the time that's in a church setting, right, right, And so we'll pray with like a group of people, like all the volunteers at eight o'clock. I always say to them, Hey, here's a good practice. Don't ever assume anybody ever knows your name because you're not that important. And guess what, neither am I And I'm the guy on the stage, but I'm not that important and neither of you. Right, So walk up to somebody and you may see them every single week, but guess what, you're probably bad with names. So I say, who's bad with names? And it's like three fourths of the crowd raise their hands, right, So why would you if you're good with names, why would you ever ever assume that anybody knows your name? Right? Just be patient, be kind, consider others. And so I said, just walk up to somebody and say, hey, guys, are going Bob Johnson. So when you and I speak at Heritage, we're up on those great big screens. Yes, we're on stage in front of hundreds and hundreds and hundred of people at the time. Yes, we have to do four identical services on Sunday mornings and Sterling Heights to accommodate the crowds. And I'm telling you that it was the two weeks before Christmas? Was it two weeks before Christmas? I spoke, yeah, and a lady came up to me after the service, and I was just standing out in the lobby. Yeah, I was greeting people. I said, hey, so glad you came. She said, do you work here? I just spoke there, I'm a big twenty foot screen, right, she do work here? I said, yeah, I do, she said. She said, could you tell the gentleman who spoke today that that was a wonderful message? No, she I promise you. And I said, well, I'm the gentleman who spoke today. What I didn't recognize you? And then it's because you look so big on the screen then where there's normal people thirty five minutes Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. And then she was just surprised that I was that person. And she said, I guess I just didn't have it in my head that you'd be standing. Out on the lobby, you know, talking to people or whatever. So it was kind of a funny thing that you can kind of start thinking you're kind of important. Yeah, and then literally people sat in the room for thirty five minutes while you were talking. Yeah, did not realize they just met you. Right, It's kind of a funny anything like that, you know. So we have just like a minute. Let me let me show this quick story. My favorite, one of my favorite stories ever is I was a part of very large church. Had eight campuses, eight locations, which means they had eight lead pastors at eight locations, and so on. One campus was a guy named Dave. One campus was a guy named Jeremiah. One campus was a guy named Clint. One campus was me, right, and the other guy was Steve, you know, and. A few more. But I remember I did a wedding one time, and I drove all the way to Macana Island. And have you ever done the Grand Hotel? I haven't ever done a wedding, but I've been there. Oh you've been there? Yeah, okay, So we're on the port. Pretty great, pretty great. So we're on the ports of the Grand Hotel and it's pretty wonderful. So they're doing pictures and so we're all in these risers and there's probably I don't know, forty people for this one photo, and we're all lined up and I'm in the back row in these risers, standing next to this guy that apparently went to our church, you know, you know, a lot of people did, and I didn't know him. And he goes, he goes, let me tell you something, he goes, Hey, he goes, I just want to go out of my way. I just first time I ever met you. He goes, you are our favorite, You're the best. Blah blah blah. He just goes on and on and on. I'm like, oh, that is so thank you so much, thank you, you know, I really appreciate it. And he goes, he goes, yeah, he goes I've always said, he goes, we love you, Clint. So the entire time he thought I was the other guy, the other guy. So he give me this massive compliment. I'm like, I'm like, well, thank you so much. And he goes, you're the best, Clint, and I'm like, that's the other guy. But by the way, I didn't say anything. No, I wouldn't either. Just just let it go, Let it go, okay. So it makes you mad when people put you on the spot and demand that you remember their name. Well, I mean, it's not very polite. I will tell you. They don't do it with malicious intent. So come on, guys, give everybody else a break. We had we had a young girl at the World. She was like nine or ten, and when she first started coming to her to church, and she's very very outgoing, and she came up and she wanted to introduce herself. She wanted to know my name. She told me she really like me talking on stage. And her name was Kate. That's her name. Have you met Kate? You know Kate. She's very going. She's a teenager now, but when she's a little girl. And for a month, two months, every time she saw what's my name, and I'd be like, oh, I'm so sorry, I can't, and so I'd start making up funny names, right right, right, and yeah, yeah, and then finally she would say, don't remember my name. Name is Kate. But now I'll never forget Kate's name again. Right, So there is that is a mechanism to make people remember you too. Just put him on the spot. There's a panic at that moment, then you remember their name. But yeah, so anyways, well good talking about remembering people's names. Jonah certainly didn't forget the Ninavites. There, yo, therey. No, yeah, that's pretty bad. Oh boy. So God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. He didn't want to go. He got swallowed by a fish and then the fish spits him up on dry land under the beach. And now the Bible says in Jonah chapter three. Those are the first two chapters. Channel Chapter three says, then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time. I love He's a gout of second chances, don't you, Yes, it says, get up and go to the great city in Ninevah and deliver the message I have given you this time. Jonah obeyed the Lord's command, went to Ninevah. Good choice, Jonah, yes, so city so large it took three days to see it all. On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted the crowds, forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed. The people in Ninna believed God's message from the greatest of the least. They declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. When the king and Ninevah heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne, took off his royal robes. He dressed himself from burlap, and sat on a heap of ashes. Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city. No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. People and animals alike must wear garments of morning. Everyone must pray earnestly to God, they must turn from the evil ways and stop all their violence. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us. When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction threatened. Well there it is only ten verses. Go, Yeah, so the repentance of one hundred and twenty thousand people is all summarized in ten verses. So Jonah walks around and it says it took him three days to see it all. So think about that, three full days of walking. It's a big city. It's a big city. And so you're walking around and you're saying, hey, God's going to destroy you for your wickedness. And it says that they believed him. And then the king decreed that every single living thing, even the animals, would would show their repentance. And by the way, so he got serious about it, didn't he think about all the stories of the Bible. You know, you've you've read the Bible before, yep, once or twice on occasion. And so is there any other. What example of repentance that includes the exact lawyer verbiage of every single person and the quantity of one hundred twenty thousand people. Is there any other example of a mass repentance of this kind. I don't remember when. I don't think so either, not including the animals and all that. No, no, and so not that the animals were repenting. But what they're saying is everything that belongs to us, We're going to just bring it all in repentance to God. I guess it could be like if the nation of Israel repents, you know, if there are a million. People or something like that. Right, But the Bible doesn't necessarily day one man. It doesn't include the numbers though, right like it sometimes when referred to the entire nation, and you know, you wonder, is it everybody? But this is every single per like that. That's a pretty like you said the lawyer in your head, right like that. God gives us details for a reason. That's right. And I think it's one of the biggest. Yeah, I think it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest, example of repentance. And so here's what I believe. I said, I'll have to say this. I have to believe that perhaps God was preparing the hearts of the Ninavites for Jonah's arrival without even knowing it. You know, sometimes when a person walks in and it just seems like they've been wondering about God, or they're searching for God, or they're thinking about God, and maybe they're in a time of their life or a season of their life where they're just ready to receive the truth. And it may not be you may not necessarily be able to point it to one particular tragedy or instance in their life. It's just this was the season where they were ready to receive. And you know what, in those moments, it seems like the sermon could be on anything, and they would and they would return to God. You could read the phone Book, it seems like right, and it's like it's like they're just ready to turn their lives over. To God because God already prepared their hearts. Yes, and I'm obviously being sarcastic in the phone Book, right, but that's sort of how I view this. And there's no indication that God prepared the hearts and the invites, but I just think, you know, Goodness, Jonah, if that is true, if God prepared the soil, you know, like till the ground right, the hard ground of their hearts, then you know, is that too much to believe or hope for or expect that in itself would be a miracle? Right? I mean there, their reaction is nothing less, in my opinion, than a miracle. Right. You know, here are these. Wicked Assyrians who who are detestable in their practices and and and ruthless and awful, and all of a sudden they all immediately believe Jonah. Jonah walks around the city by himself. By the way, there's no indication as a servant, there's no indication as a companion. He's by himself, for crying out loud. He smells like fish. He probably well, he might have bathed in the river. Who knows a long way. Yeah, almost six hundred, So yeah, he's he's probably cleaned up by then. But but yeah, I just think that I just think that there's a sermon in there somewhere about you know, there are seasons of where God can prepare the hearts of like you know, you'd say, oh, I'm not going to go to this person and ask for forgiveness, because they'll never I know that person will wait a minute pray about it. God can change the heart of that person. God can do the groundwork. And so oftentimes when somebody comes up and says, Chris, will you pray with me in the lobby about something, oftentimes I pray, my wife filed for divorce. Well, guess what if that's you know, if they want me to pray with you, guess what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna pray for the condition of the spouse's heart. Right, you know, they just change their heart, do something in their life to grab their attention. I've often you're asking God to do what only he can do in that moment. Right. Yeah, I've often said this, but there are probably more categories than this. But I always have said there are at least three categories that God uses to get our attention. And the first one's conviction, which is a pretty churchy word to say, you know, God will speak to you and nudge you through the power the Holy Spirit. He'll he'll speak to you, He'll nudge you, He'll give you signs, he will direct you, he will bring thoughts into your mind. So conviction, right make you feel guilt in a lot of cases. So God will use conviction, misery and tragedy and oftentimes and those aren't the only categories. But if God does use the tragedy of Jonah, right, chances are he tried to use conviction first. Right, So that so they're almost progressive, aren't they. It's like it's like conviction comes first, and when we will we ignore conviction, then comes misery. And then when we ignore the misery, God storm. Yeah yeah, God forbid, then comes tragedy. Right. So so I prefer conviction. I prefer that God only have to nudge me through conviction. Oh that's really convicted. That's that's really convicting. As I'm saying this, it really is, yeah, because because the times that I that I ignore God's conviction, you know, God, please spare me of misery tragedy. Right. Yeah. So Jonah doesn't the Book of Jonah doesn't say with the sins of Ninevah where But Nahem, who also wrote a little book in the Bible, he wrote about. The sins of Ninevah during this. Time, and he says they had evil plots against God. I don't know what that means, yeah, right, basically that they were rejecting God. And they were doing their own thing. They exploited the helpless, so they were constantly abusing, exploiting helpless people. They had extreme cruelty in war. It's pretty horrible. And Nahum chapter two talks about that. Then they had idolatry, prostitution, and witchcraft totally saturated their society. So it's just all evil all the time. Right, and God looked at them, and even though they were plotting against him, he had compassion on them. And it's just a warning. He doesn't say, hey, repent and I'll rescue you. He just says it's coming. Because then he sends it. The Lord spoke to Jonah a second time. Get up and go to the great city of Ninevah and deliver the message I have given you. Jonah goes and says what God told him, forty days from now, Nina will be destroyed. So what we don't get is some big speech from Ninevah from Jonah. Hey, guys, i've been thinking about this. I got some things you might want to know. Funny thing happened to me on the way to nineva today, right, kind of thing. He doesn't do any of that. He just goes and he just goes and says God's words to the people. That's it. And it's the. Power of God's word that God uses to bring conviction right. And I think a lot of times we feel uncomfortable sharing the Gospel or trying to encourage a friend or a family member to turn towards God and do the right thing, because we think we have to win some kind of God argument as opposed to just letting God's words speak for themselves. If you just knew God's words, if you could take them to what God's Hey, this passage really means something to me. Here's what the Bible says, right, and let God's work speak f themselves. That Hebrew says that God's word is what's quick and powerful, sharper than any to a short just let God's word do the cut right. Let God's word do the work. You don't have to because in Romans he says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So if we want them to come to faith, they don't have to hear our words, they have to hear God's words. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so I think that that's one of the things. You know. Again, we commend our listeners for spending time with God's word. I hope you're reading a Bible on your own. I know people who have bought a Bible and they're reading along with us every day. You know when they do that kind of thing. And the Holy Spirit has all these tools then to use. As you begin to put God's word in your mind and in your heart, He'll begin to use those words. So we haven't done this in a while. This podcast is built around the idea of too guys that are just friends who like to talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways. And we don't do a bunch of research before we come in. So the theologians that are listening to the podcasts, they know clearly right. But what we do is we just come in and we take what's on the page, along with the reservoir of what God's put in our hearts and minds already from spending the time. In his word. We just talk about it. Right, We've got a good study Bible in front of us, but we also kind of walk through this idea and if you have a pen of paper, write these down, type them on your phone. Whatever we ask a few questions in our minds. In our heads, if you ever listen to the pattern of how we talk, we'll usually talk about what got our attention, right, So we read the passage and then we talk about what got our attention. Then we'll start talking about things we learned about God in this passage. Yep, we talk about things we learned about humanity. Isn't that typical people do? Where God says to do a thing? We run from God? Right? God's a god a second chance, as we said, Right, So we highlight things about God. What does this tell us about God? Was it tell us about people? And then we start to ask is there a command that we should be obeying? Is there something that should apply to my life right now that I should be obeying? Is there a sin to a Yeah, I don't want to run from God. I want to do what God told me to do. Is there a promise to claim God's word will not come back empty? Right? Those kinds of things. So we read through these passages and we ask a few key questions. What I learned about God or what caught my attention? What I learned about God? What I learned about people? Is there command to obey? Is there a promise to claim? Is there a sin to avoid? And then the last thing usually for me in any time I'm reading the Bible is who should I talk to about this? What should I tell? And I think that's where Christians miss it a lot of times. Is what if you had a co worker at work and you said, Hey, you know, today I was reading a story about Jonah. If you go into work today going God give me an opportunity for a meaningful spiritual conversation with this friend of mine, and you just continue to have this conversation about what you've been reading in God's Word. It's amazing how often those open up spiritual conversations in the future. Right. And it's the one thing we miss is we take in God's word for ourselves, we forget to bring it to others. But if we would bring God's word to others, we don't have to win an argument. We're just bringing God's word and we help others begin to discover. And that's all Jonah did is he says, hey, forty days from now, none of us is going to be destroyed. And the people believed, from the biggest to the littlest, from the most powerful to the weakest. There it seems like a pretty simple message, but it transformed the whole nation. Right. It's because it wasn't his thirty five minutes on stage. It was God's words directly that convicted him. Yeah, and God promises the bless his words, not ours. That's right. And even as communicators and as pastors, we need to remember that. So you know, when you're up on stage communicating a thought or a biblical idea, just know that, like you can't just you know, rely as a communicator on your own talent or your ability to you know, communicate. Or tell a story or whatever. You have to realize that a sermon is only a good sermon if it's based on and it is centered around God's words, because God promises the bless his words, not ours, right, So his words of the blessings. And then, by the way, all those questions that you mentioned, I would only add one more. I would say, always in my mind also ask is there an action step or a response specifically I need to have? Right, So it's like, so it's like and you short of indicated that, yeah, well all. Those is there? Command obay a sindo avoid? Right? Those those are all actions. But yeah, but there's some other action. That guys are some other specific action like I need to bring up with my girlfriends, right, you know what I mean? Something like that. And then just a phenomenal thing. We don't have it very long, but a phenomenal statement is they put a stop to their evil ways. God saw what they did, and he changed his mind. So you want to know what changes God's mind? Moses prayer, his supplication on behalf of his people. The Bible said, God changed his mind. And here the repentance, the genuine, honest, good goodness, repentance of the people, full on as all in repentance. And God goes, okay, I'm not gonna wipe him out. So there's a quick note, and we'll finish with this quick note says God responded in mercy by canceling his threatned destruction. God had said that any nation on which he had pronounced judgment would be saved if it repented. In Jeremiah chapter eighteen, God forgave Nina Nineveh just to see had forgiven Jonah. And then here's the key statement. The purpose of God's judgment is always correction, not revenge. He's always ready to show compassion to anyone willing to seek him. That's great, what a great phrase. Yeah, that's great. His intent is not revenge, his intent is correction. The problem is a lot of us we're so stubborn we don't want correction, and so then God's left with no other choice. But here one hundred and twenty thousand people were rescued because of it. Yeah that's awesome. Well, hey, that is our time. And guess what. Today's Friday, which means people have to wait till Monday to wrap up the story of Jonah in chapter four. Yeah, I know, it's a cliffhanger all weekend. I wonder what happens. Oh no, so hey, hopefully we'll see you then on the Bible, Gosh,