Jonah 3 God's Patience
SHOW VEGGIE TALES CLIP
Introduction
Don’t you love second chances? I love second chances. I remember many times in my life when I got second chances. One time was during the year of my 16th birthday. I got my grandfather’s Isuzu truck and I was off to the races. I was free. Well, for about two months, I was free until one day as I was heading home from school; I was driving too close to a friend of mine in front of me named Layla. She slammed on her brakes because of an accident in front of her and I slammed my truck in the back of her car. My dead went through the windshield and my truck was totaled. I thought I would never drive again. But my parents were patient with me and they bought me another car. It was a Nissan Sentra XE. It was a good car. A couple months later, I was taking a girl home that went with me to this party and as we were driving down Gtown road, a drunk driver pulled in front of me, hit me, spun me around, and my car flipped upside down in a ditch. There went my second chance. But this time, since it was not my fault, I got another car- a Toyota corolla ST coupe. It had DOHC which meant it was faster than a typical corolla and do you want to guess what happened? Yes, I was heading to work one day and as I came around this sharp curve on the country roads where I lived, this other car was in my lane, so I swerved and hit a brick mailbox. The funny thing was this brick mailbox belonged to a double wide trailer that had no bricks on it. But the bricks destroyed my car. They flew through the front windshield and out the back. The top of the mailbox flew into the air and landed on top of my car. I was actually transported to the hospital with minor neck pain but I was OK. Do you think my parents wanted to kill me? I totaled three cars in one year. They were patient and loving. I am still alive.
Review
God was patient with Jonah. Even after Jonah ran from the call of God, we see God gave Jonah a second chance and that is a piece of God’s patience and mercy with his creation. So tonight we need to see from this continuing story of Jonah how God’s patience with mankind allows everyone the opportunity to repent and give their life over to God.
So tonight, I want us to focus our attention on the Patience of God. We as Christians must see that God is patient with our sin so that none will perish but all will come to repentance.
In the Story of Jonah, God’s patience allowed 3 things:
God’s Patience allows:
1. God’s Message to be Delivered vs. 1-3
Jonah 3:1-3 (ESV)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. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!
We see reading through the book of Jonah, God’s patience with his servants. We can see through reading through the bible that God’s patience with his servants is part of his nature. God had patience when Moses argued with the God. God had patience with King David when he committed adultery. God had patience with Solomon. God had patience with Peter. God had patience with Paul. All these people have been used of God but they were not perfect. They made mistake, God gave them second chances because of his holy patience.
Jonah was a model of this. Jonah had run from God and now he had reconciled himself with God. So Jonah again had the opportunity to go and deliver this message to Nineveh. As we look at the text we can see some questions we can ask when called:
· How the Messenger should respond: God uses powerful words of immediacy as he tells Jonah for the second time to “arise and go.” These words almost repeat showing us that God expected Jonah to act quickly. God wants us to act quickly when he calls, whether the first or second time. Satan may try and convince us that we have plenty of time but God expects quick action. Like the director of an orchestra, God has set many different events in motion to create of symphony of his work. Quick action is expected.
· Where the Messenger must go: twice in these verses, God uses the word greatness to describe the city of Nineveh. The second use in verse 3 stands out because it should literally read, “Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city to God.” It was large and well populated, but more importantly, it meant a lot to God. He desired for those people to repent and believe in Him. I think it shows how much God cared for Nineveh since he did not give up on them even after their sinful ways and even after the rebellion of his prophet. God cares for the world, and when he tells us to go and preach a message to the world is shows his love for them.
o 2 Peter 3:9 tells us, “9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
o John 3:16-17 (ESV)16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
o Mark 16:15 (ESV)15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Who does God love? The world
How many does God want to repent? All
Where should each one of us take the gospel? The world
To whom should we take the gospel? The whole creation
· What is the message? Jonah’s message was simple and complex in the same sense. It was simple with just 6 Hebrew words that translate, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overturned.” Now the simplicity of the message is “repent or perish” which was a common phrase used by our Lord and Savior.
In 1818, General Andrew Jackson traveled from his home, the Hermitage, into downtown Nashville to attend a Methodist Conference. The famous circuit-riding preacher, Peter Cartwright, was to speak that day.
The pastor of the church had invited Cartwright with misgivings, for the evangelist was unpredictable. He had been known to knock a sinner down and literally drag him to the throne of grace. But interest had been high, and it seemed that everyone in Nashville had come to church that Sunday to see the eccentric Cartwright. His text was: “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?”
Cartwright had just read his text and had paused to let the words sink in when General Jackson entered the church and slowly walked down the aisle. Every seat was taken, and he stood for a moment, leaning against a pillar.
Peter Cartwright felt a tug at the tail of his coat. “General Jackson has come in!” the Nashville pastor whispered excitedly. “General Jackson has come in.”
The whisper was audible to most of the church. Peter Cartwright’s jaw tightened, and he gave the minister a look of scorn.
“Who is General Jackson?” shouted Cartwright. “If he doesn’t repent and get his soul converted,” he continued, saying in effect, “God will damn his soul to hell as quick as an unconverted pagan.”
After the sermon, Rev. Cartwright was advised to leave town immediately, for Jackson was known for his fiery temper and his deadly duels. Instead, the evangelist accepted an invitation to preach at a church right next to the Hermitage.
Jackson invited him to dinner.
· This is the simple urging of the Christian to the world. But the complexity of Jonah’s message was the word used for destruction. This two sided Hebrew word can mean to “turn over” or “destroy” or it can mean to “turn around” meaning to “repent.” So when Nineveh heard the message, they may have heard the doom of the message with the hope of repentance asserted as well. It is obvious that Jonah knew the outcome of the word used. For his heart was to see Nineveh destroyed but he knew God’s heart was to see them turn from sin. I commend Jonah for delivering the message that God wanted and not the message he wanted.
So we see that God displaying patience on Nineveh and on Jonah, allowed the message of repentance to be preached. In your life, God is patiently waiting on you to preach the message of the gospel. He is waiting because he wants the world to turn toward him. But the apostle Paul says, “how can they hear without a preacher…How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.”
The second truth is God’s Patience allows:
2. God’s creation to respond vs. 5-9
Jonah 3:5-9 (ESV)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. 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.”
In this case, we can see God’s creation respond in a positive way. The bible says:
· The people believed in God
· The people called for a fast
· The king arose from his throne
· The king removed his robe
· The king issued a proclamation: call out to God and turn from evil
The amazing aspect of this book is the relationship between Assyria(Ninevah) and the world. The nation of Assyria was “500 miles away from Jerusalem” and it dominated the ancient east for about 270 years” yet God was concerned for this pagan nation. The sailors and their pagan ways turned their lives over to God and now this group of savage, brutal warriors are, without hesitation, turning their lives over to God. Why? Because God is patient and waiting for the world to respond to his call.
It gives me a sense of urgency and patience for the world as well. Jonah’s experience teaches me that not only do I need to take the gospel to the over 1 billion people who have never heard the name Jesus, but I must also have the patience of God and wait for them to respond.
Amy will tell you that my number one sin in my life is impatience. It is the demise of the ADD sufferer. We that have ADD struggle to relax and wait. Bumper to bumper traffic, old people taking up the whole aisle in a store as they casually stroll searching for the depends section, long lines at the concession stands at ball games. These experiences make someone like me crazy mad and it is all impatience. But if I allow impatience to affect my spiritual life, I will give up on waiting for God to work in my life and I will give up on the world to respond to the gospel. Not everyone responds like the Ninevites did. Some take years to grasp the true message of faith and repentance. I cannot be impatient with the world concerning their response to the gospel, but I must wait. I must go and wait. In God’s timing and according to His will, they will repent like Nineveh did.
The last truth that God’s patience allows is:
3. God’s Grace to be Shown vs. 10
Jonah 3:10 (ESV )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.
Basically we see the end of the story as God’s patience paying off and Nineveh repenting. God is turns literally turns away from destroying them. He withholds his wrath upon them as he did many times in the bible.
Jeremiah 26:13 (ESV)13 Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.
God usually changed His mind and “repented” of His actions because of man’s intercession and repentance of his evil deeds. Moses pleaded with God as the intercessor for Israel: “Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people” (Exod. 32:12). The Lord did that when He “… repented [changed His mind] of the evil which he thought to do unto his people” (Exod. 32:14). As God’s prophet preached to Nineveh, “… God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them …” (Jonah 3:10). In such instances, God “repented,” or changed His mind, to bring about a change of plan. Again, however, God remained faithful to His absolutes of righteousness in His relation to and with man. [1]
They Repented, God Relented!!! How?-because God was patient with them, giving them opportunity to repent of their sins. So tonight we see that God is patient. He waits for his children to turn away from their sins. God’s patience allows his message to be delivered, his creation to respond and his grace to be shown.
We all have sin in our lives and many of you conceal that sin. God has given you ample time to repent and turn from that sin. God is patient but we see in Scripture that his patience is not eternal.
1 Peter 3:20 (ESV)
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
We see that God was patient for 120 years while Noah built the ark and God waited for the people in the world to turn from their sins or perish, but only 8 turned toward God and he unleashed his wrath on the world.
Will you turn to God and turn away from your sin? God is waiting but he will not wait forever. You could die tonight, unforgiven and you will face the judgment of God. Do not wait.
And if you serve the Lord Jesus Christ, remember the parable that Jesus told in Matthew of the servant who owed and debt. The master was patient in allowing that debt to be repaid but when the master discovered that the servant did not display that same patience to others, he was disciplined severely. God wants us as Christians to be patient with fellow Christians and the world.
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[1]Vine, W. E. ; Unger, Merrill F. ; White, William: Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville : T. Nelson, 1996, S. 1:202