Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Jonah 3: History's Greatest Revival

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

In Jonah chapter 3, Jonah is commissioned by God to preach a powerful message to the people of the Nineveh.This short message that brings about the greatest revival in human history is true for us today:1. Your sin is great2. Your time is short3. Your judgment is sureBut as we will see in this chapter, God is also rich in mercy.Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. In this episode, we cover the third chapter in our series on the book of Jonah. Let's dial in. Now, if I asked you what you think it would take to pull off a successful outreach night, what would you say? Actually, let's say we are praying for a revival. What do you think you would need? Well, maybe in your mind you have some ideas.

It starts with Dodger Stadium packed out with people ready to hear the gospel. A famous preacher, a couple famous Christian athletes, a huge budget, and lots of volunteers with lanyards, of course. Maybe even one of those dudes twirling a sign around that says, you are welcome here. Assuredly, there would be lots of volunteers wearing matching t-shirts and an announcement that a popular Christian band would be capping off the night. Maybe you're thinking that all of this would be difficult to pull off without offering some food. So you think you have to appropriate some funds for food trucks and various concession options. Potentially you have other ideas, but have you ever considered what God needs to reach the lost? Does he need a stadium,

a big band, or celebrity Christians? We're going to find the answer to that very question in Jonah chapter 3. In this third chapter of Jonah, God uses a sermon that is composed of five Hebrew words from an imperfect, disobedient messenger named Jonah. And he uses that to bring about the greatest revival in human history. In terms of size, there is no account in all of history that matches the magnitude of this event that takes place in the third chapter of Jonah. Well, let's recap. So back in chapter two, verse nine, Jonah says salvation is from the Lord. And that very next verse reads that Jonah was vomited back up onto dry land. Jonah

is prepared at last to listen to what God has to say to him. Maybe it's worth asking once again, why is God so concerned about the Ninevites? Well, chapter four tells us because there are 120,000 people there who do not know their right hand from their left. What does this mean? Well, we take this to be children. And this means that there are hundreds of thousands of people living in Nineveh that are living in spiritual darkness.

In chapter 1, verse 2, God had told Jonah that the wickedness of the Ninevites had come up before him. The idea here is that the sin of the Ninevites was like a foul stench in the nostrils of God. All of Nineveh was crying out, sin here, sin here, sin over here, God, what you hate, what you despise, it's here, it's here. And God tells Jonah, go to these people and warn them, tell them. Why? Well, how are they to be reached? How are they to be saved? And how are they to know the mercy of God without a messenger? Are you beginning to grasp the heart of God? He is concerned about the lost. And if a whole city is to be reached,

then God needs to do something out of the ordinary, something unusual. And this is what God does in Nineveh and their great spiritual need. And as we will soon see, the most remarkable component of the book of Jonah is not the great fish, but the great God who uses a simple and concise message to bring about great repentance in Nineveh. The whale spitting Jonah up on dry land was really more of the beginning to this story than the end of it. The real story starts here. The curtains are drawn and the drama is about to unfold.

Let's dig in. Let's read this third chapter. And as we do, it'll be no surprise that this third chapter begins with words remarkably reminiscent of chapter one. Let me read all 10 verses. Verse one. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, arise, go to Nineveh, the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation, which I am going to tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now

Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk and he cried out and said, yet days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. Then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let man, beast, herd, or flock

taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water, but both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth. And let the men call on God earnestly, that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish. And when God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them, and he did not do it. Well, we need to examine the content of this message closely. This is an important and wonderful chapter. God commissions Jonah, arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it, watch this, the proclamation which I am going to tell you. The latter portion of this verse is crucial. Listen here. God is

saying, go and preach the exact message I am going to give you. Now that of course is extremely important because in the 21st century, many like to doctor up the word of God. We like to exchange the word of God with the word of man. Many people today believe that if we really want God to work, then we need to take what is within his word and make it more palatable, more appeasing for people so that then they are drawn to its truth. But Jonah and us today are not at liberty to go into the city of Nineveh and simply say what he wanted to say, nor was Jonah at liberty to go into the city of Nineveh and tell them what they wanted to hear. Jonah was there by divine commission to say nothing except the word which God had given to them.

And through the preaching of Jonah, the Holy spirit is going to convince the people of three great realities. Number one, he was going to tell them that their sin was great. Jonah's message was simple. Forty days in Nineveh will be overthrown. The Ninevites would have known Jonah to be a prophet of the Most High God. There was no question as to the reason behind their looming destruction. It was their sin. Jonah's brief message to the Ninevites encapsulated the reality that sin is an offense to a holy God. Nineveh would have heard the stories of the God of Israel, the one that had delivered his people from the powerful Egyptians. He was a holy God

who detests sin. And in the message of their impending judgment, the people were confronted by the gravity of their sin. I already read this in chapter one, verse two, that God tells Jonah that the sin of the Ninevites had come up before him because truly every sin of every Ninevite was before the eyes of God. How true is this for us today? Every sin you have ever committed is before the eyes of him who has created all things and observes all things. You have no secrets to God. The book of Numbers says, be sure your sin will find you out because God has already found out and already knows the sin in your life. He knows. And the great sin of the Ninevites has created a great chasm between them and a holy God. And through the preaching of Jonah,

they sensed the reality of this separation. It became real to them. But not only did they recognize that their sin was great, they understood secondly, that their time was short and Jonas preaching. He tells the people that they have 40 days and then they will be over thrown. Now here's what the text does not say. It doesn't say that they heard of their impending doom in 40 days and then they lived it up for another 39 so that then on day 39 in the final inning, they could repent and confess right before their coming judgment. No, on the contrary, they realize that even tomorrow is a gift that cannot be expected or taken for granted. So after being reminded of the brevity of life and their looming destruction, they are pierced. They know that their date with judgment,

regardless of its timing, is sure. They understood that their sin was great and their time was short. But additionally, thirdly, they understood that their judgment was sure. Jonah's message said 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. This word literally means to be demolished, to be judged. There was no ambiguity in the mind of the Ninevites in regards to what would happen after the allotted days for them were completed. They were to be destroyed. The God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever issues a chilling warning through his prophet Jonah. Judgment is sure. I remember reading the book Love Wins by Rob Bell when it was initially published in 2011. The thrust of the book was that ultimately God's love trumps his justice. His love wins. Sadly, the same idea

is communicated constantly in our cultural climate. But even if you have grown up hearing that God doesn't judge sinners, that idea melts in the heat of Jonah's message given to him by God. The most unloving thing you could ever hear is that God doesn't punish sin. It might be disguised as care and concern, but those who truly care for others will not withhold from them these certain realities found in Jonah's preaching. Oh, your sin is great. Your time is short and your judgment is sure. Now let's look at the people's response in verses 5 through 9. Awaken to the seriousness of their spiritual condition. They recognize the pollution of their lives and the seriousness of their sin and the danger of God.

Meaning that God isn't someone to be trifled with. He's not someone we can trick. He's not tame. He's not a domesticated animal. He's a holy, inescapable, righteous judge. Verse 5 reads, then the people of Nineveh believed in God and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. It says that the Ninevites believed in God, which means more than a mere acknowledgement of his existence. They believed in him and they believed because they responded to the preaching of God's messenger,

Jonah. People are not led to faith through imagination. God's word given through God's messengers gives God's people faith. This is what it says in Romans 10. Faith comes by hearing. Now, one of the things to notice is that Jonah's name is not mentioned throughout the rest of this chapter because he's not the main character of this story. God is. The goal of preaching isn't to draw attention to the messenger, but to the God who gives the message and who extends grace. Now, notice the humility of their response in verses six through nine. They cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes, which is a symbol of total brokenness. And one of them says, oh, how can this God, his wrath be satisfied? How can his anger towards our sin be absorbed? Is there a way that the

judgment we deserve could be borne by another. This is the type of thinking running through Nineveh. And it says that the king speaks up. He says to his nobles, listen, maybe, just maybe, God will extend to us an opportunity to be forgiven, to change, to repent. He could have just come in and wiped us all out without any warning at all. But he said 40 days. Maybe that means there is still a glimmer of hope. In verse 9 of chapter 3, the king says,

Who knows? Or another translation says, Who can tell if God will turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we do not perish. There is no assumption here that God ought to be merciful. We live in a world that minimizes the offense of sin as a minor misdemeanor and then presumes upon the forgiveness and mercy of God. But here, here in Jonah 3, the king shows us a picture of biblical brokenness, a dependency upon mercy that is altogether undeserved and unexpected. Because that's what mercy is, right? Undeserved and unexpected. The king says, you never know. God may actually respond in this way. There's no pleading

of his case here, no minimizing of his offense, and no blaming of others. Now finally, let's look at their works. The brokenness over their sin was validated by the transformation in their lives. They respond to the word of God, proclaim a fast, put on sackcloth, and then we are instructed by the king in verse eight, the people are, I quote,

to call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence, which is in his hands. The people didn't just offer a half-hearted apology. They committed to change. This is a biblical reality. There is no true belief without some corresponding action. Now look at verse 10. It says, when God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way,

then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them. And he did not do it. Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet to come from Galilee. But some 750 years after Jonah, another prophet from Galilee would come, the greater Jonah. And the message that he would preach might surprise you. It's strikingly similar. We think judgment preaching is an Old Testament construct,

but Jesus was a judgment preacher. Jesus promised judgment and called on everyone to repent. The central components of Jonah's message are often the fundamental ingredients of Jesus' preaching. Listen to the words of Jesus. Matthew 4, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. Jesus is saying your time is short. Mark 1, 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Jesus is saying your time is short. Mark 1 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Luke 13 3, Jesus says,

unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Luke 13 5, unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Matthew 12 41, dial in here. 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. The message that Jonah preached was so often the same message Jesus preached. And it is the same message that must be proclaimed today. Your sin is great, your time is short, and your judgment is sure. But the question that the king asks in verse 9 is the question all men must ask. Who knows, the king says, maybe God will turn in his anger. Is there a way that God can forgive my sin? Oh, is there a way where the judgment due to me can be paid for by another?

Who can tell? The king asks. Now, we live 2,700 years after the time of Jonah. But the answer to those questions have been settled forever. It was settled at the cross of Jesus Christ Do you understand that? That on the cross, Jesus bore the judgment you deserve if you're in Christ. Sin is always paid for. It's never pardoned in the sense where it's waved away. It's paid for either by the sinner forever in hell or by Christ Jesus once and for all at the cross. Why? Because God is not

just a God of holiness and justice, but he is also a God who is abounding in love for lost sinners, a love demonstrated at the cross towards those who were still his enemies. In Ezekiel 33, God says, I take no pleasure in the punishment of the wicked. Then the question is, what brings God great pleasure? Well, the biblical answer is the salvation of one sinner. Well, then how then can we be saved? Matthew 11 says, come unto Jesus Christ in faith. In this chapter, we see the breadth of God's character, his burning anger towards sin, but his grace, mercy, and love towards sinners who turn to him in faith. Are you afraid of dying? Are you afraid of judgment? Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live even though he dies. He who believes in me will never die. The whale could not hold Jonah and the grave could not hold me. Come to me that you may have life and the forgiveness of your sins. Stay dialed in.