God's Boundless Grace
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The New King James Version Chapter 3
3 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
The People of Nineveh Believe
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?
10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Today we are continuing in our series in Jonah about God’s grace.
We will be taking a look at how God’s grace is boundless.
Turn back with me to
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I 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-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
This chapter starts with God calling Jonah again to go Nineveh.
Has this happened to anyone?
Have you been called to something, then decided to run away from it and later God calls you back to it?
a great city.
Or has God given you a second chance at something regarding our faith?
The answer is most likely a yes, He called us to repentance and then to accept the call on our lives.
It is important to realize that God was giving Jonah a second chance here, to go be the prophet that he was called to be.
We are seeing that God’s grace is greater than our sin, our running.
Great city: 750,000 to a mil people roughly according to historians.
Exceedingly: we may think that it was just a really big city.
The Hebrew word is Elohim is what was translated to mean exceedingly here.
Elohim is another word for God. Another way for the Israelites to refer to God.
So we could read verse 3 has “God’s great city.”
Now we may be sitting here thinking, whoa whoa whoa pastor slow down,
A couple of Sundays ago you told us how wicked the city of Nineveh was, so how in the world could it be God’s city?
I think God wants us to remember what was said in
The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.
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The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
You see Nineveh and all those who dwell in it are God’s
Does not necessarily mean that they have turned to God or even believe in God.
Though even that does not change the fact that God is relentlessly pursing them so they may come to know Him through repentance and His grace.
The same is true for us today, God wants us to turn from our sins and embrace Him.
To realize that we are His creation and quit running.
God has authority over every nation, and all the people who roam this planet.
God is telling us that He gets to call the Ninevites to account because they still belong to him whether they believe it or not.
God has that authority over us and everyone in tbs life.
God can speak a word of judgment over Nineveh because ultimately they have to answer for their life.
God’s grace knows no bounds.
Isah
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
Isaiah is saying no matter how far we go and stray, no matter how far we run, God’s grace can get to us and save us.
SO matter how wicked the Ninevites were God could save them.
Do we think there are people who are impossible for God to reach?
If we are honest yes, there have been people who come to faith that instead of rejoicing we say it wont last.
OR we think it is our-self.
HE is crying out for us to join Him, and he is reachng out for those who fo not HIm.
So Jonah goes and says
And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
He relays the message, which in Hebrew is a 5 word message
May not seem like grace and mercy but yet there is a reality that their evil has come before Him and he is against it.
Jonah is the reluctant prophet in this story, we get a picture of what God is like and what Jonah is like.
Jonah is saying they are going to get destroyed.
Jonah did not want them to repent and believe.
Are there people in our lives that we do not want to be forgiven or know mercy, be transformed and forgiven by God?
God’s message gets through regardless of Jonah’s heart
The context is, God gives them 40 days, to give them time to turn their lives to Him.
If he wanted to destroy them He would not have sent Jonah to warn them.
Hebrew word for overthrow is also the same word that could be translated to reversal or change of heart.
So they could have heard this message
“Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed or changed, transformed, given a change of heart.”
It is a message of repentance!!!!
Nineveh repent, Jonah/Israel repent, us today right here and right now repent.
So what happened to the people of Nineveh
Well lets see
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?
Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Jonah
They repented and were spared!!!
God relented from the disaster because of the fact they repented and turned from their evil ways.
Think of our lives, what have we had to repent from?
Now it may not be considered as wicked of the Ninevites or even other people we know but we still had to repent.
We have a firsthand experience of what repentance and God's boundless grace can do in our lives.
Just imagine who different this world would be if we were more concerned with be a light of that grace and sharing it with others,
That means no compromising our beliefs to fit in but instead to boldly proclaim the need we have for Jesus.
(Hammer it home and wrap it up.)