Six Markers Of True Repentance
Jonah: The Wayward Prophet • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsThe Ninevites are a wholistic (almost) picture of the nuts and bolts of repentance. They teach us that in repentance we (1) see our sin, (2) weap over our sin, (3) confess our sin, (4) hate our sin, (5) run from our sin & (6) run to Christ.
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Awakening Prayer
Awakening Prayer
Nicole Clark
Student Led Scripture Reading
Student Led Scripture Reading
Trenton Tucker:
1 Then 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.” 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. 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!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
Kaitlyn Frantz:
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Jonah 3:6-
Weekly Briefing
Weekly Briefing
Hi - notes here.
So let’s hop right on in - oh, real quick I believe I have another sermon on which means it is entirely possible we will be back here next week. It’s all up to the Lord. Okay, :
1 Then 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.”
So, Jonah has been spewed from the great fish/whale and he receives again a word from the Lord. Everyone, I want us to sit on this for just a moment: Jonah received the word of the Lord “a second time.”
Everyone together say this: Our God is a God of second chances. Look, isn’t that part of the message of the gospel - you’ve blown it, you’ve wrecked your life, your life is like a Brown’s Sunday afternoon - right? It’s the first 30 minutes of Star Wars: Episode Six. Like, it is the Bachelor meets Twilight meets Back Street Boys meets T-Swift’s new album. It’s bad. Your life is a wreck - that is the bad news that makes the good news sweet - like Fruity Pebbles, but like way better.
So, yes we’ve messed it up in our sin, but Jesus steps in and brings us a second chance. He lifts us up from our sin, gives us His holiness and brings us into the family. And then the rest of our life as believers in Jesus Christ is nothing but repentance and faith. I love this quote from Tertullian an early Christian “I was born for no other end but to repent.” Students, marvel that God is a God of second chances. In the gospel I love what JD Greear said in his book Gospeli “There is nothing I can do to make you love me more and there is nothing I can do that will make you love me less.” That is the bell of freedom that the gospel rings.
So, Jonah receives the Word of the Lord to go to Nineveh and preach a message against. Let’s see what Jonah does:
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. 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 3:3-
Jonah goes. In fact that’s exactly what he told God he would do from the belly of the whale.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Jonah 2:
“What I have vowed I will pay.” Here’s that in 21st century language: “I told you I would go - so I’ll go.”
So he goes to the great and evil city - remember, these dudes were bad mama-jamma’s. Not only that the city is huge - to walk across it we learn it would take three days. So (v.4) tells us that Jonah goes and preaches his 8 word (in English) sermon. The actual sermon is 5 words in Hebrew.
Katie practiced it with me:
Six-Flags Illustration: walk all day
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40 days and you guys are toast! Mic drop. Like, seriously what if I got up here to preach to you and was like - you are all sinners (which is true) and you are going to perish in your sins. And then I was like - BAM! That’s all you got! Well, like the ABC’s of preaching tell us that you have to help people know what to do after they hear the message - but not Jonah. You guys are all going to die! Haha!
5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
Jonah 3:5-
But the people of Nineveh - as wicked as they were - heard and believed. Now (v.6-9) go into detail and basically zoom in on how (v.5) happened. See this verse told us they believed God, and called for a fast and put on sackcloth and ashes from the greatest to the least. And, here is how that happened.
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
First, the king heard and repented.
7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
And then he issued a decree that all people and animals do likewise.
Jonah 3:7
Now, why the animals?
What do animals do when they get hungry?
They moan, beg or wail. They cry out!
Do animals need to repent?
No, that’s weird. That’s like asking do Dinosaur’s need insurance. It doesn’t apply. It’s wrong - categorically. Rather, it was just a continuing symbol of an outward expression of an inward condition - sorrow.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
So, the king was just like - if we repent, maybe God will relent.
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
And the king was right. When they truly repented of their sin God held back the disaster He had in store for them.
עוֹד
From this chapter we learn 6 markers of true repentance. To be truly repentant you must:
English Standard Version Chapter 3
forty
1. See Your Sin
1. See Your Sin
Isn’t this exactly what happened in Nineveh?
Jonah came and was like - 40 days and Nineveh you are toast - and what happened? They believed God. That’s what (v.5) says. They saw their sin and they owned their fallenness.
Now, I think sometime we drink our own cool-aid, don’t we? We look in the mirror and we think, “man I’m pretty great. I got this going and those friends and these new shoes and that girl friend.”
And just like the Evil Queen from Snow White - we begin to think we are the fairest of them all. You can’t be repentant if you can’t see your sin. If you don’t recognize that you have rebelled against God and you are a traitor like Loki - well, you can’t repent. This is the first marker in true repentance - seeing your own sin.
The second marker of true repentance is:
2. Feel Bad About Your Sin
2. Feel Bad About Your Sin
The third marker of true repentance is that you:
3. Confess Your Sin
3. Confess Your Sin
The fourth marker of true repentance is that you:
4. Hate Your Sin
4. Hate Your Sin
The fifth marker of true repentance is that you:
5. Run From Your Sin
5. Run From Your Sin
And, finally the sixth marker of true repentance is that you:
6. Run To Christ
6. Run To Christ