The Runaway: This Time Around
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: It doesn’t matter where you’ve been before - this time choose to obey God!
Jonah Responds
So Do the People
So Does God
Jonah Responds
When we obey God, the Holy Spirit will empower us to be bold witnesses for Jesus Christ.
Jonah 3:1-5 ESV
“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against 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, 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!" 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.”
After Jonah’s repentance, the word of the Lord came to him again for the same people in the same city.
Nineveh was called a great city by God.
Why didn’t Jonah want to go there in the first place?
God was disturbed by the evil going on in the city, but rather than ignoring it or simply overthrowing it, he raised up a prophet to minister to it.
God always gives people, cities and nations a chance before overthrowing them.
The chance that God gives is a warning of destruction from the mouth of his prophet.
God was giving the people of Nineveh forty days.
Nineveh was called great in not only importance, but size, taking three days to travel across.
It would be hard to even know where to start to address the issues there, but God called Jonah to be intentional rather than intimidated by the task set before him.
He walked a day into the city, right in the middle of its happenings and began to engage those who were there.
Jesus would later say about to his followers:
Matthew 5:13-16 ESV
“"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
The people of Nineveh were living in their sin, thinking it normal until they were confronted with the word of the Lord.
The beautiful thing is that by God’s grace, when the people of Nineveh heard Jonah’s warning, they believed God.
And as they believed God, they responded in humility with fasting and repentance.
Revival broke out so that every person in the city, from the greatest of them to the least of them, turned to God.
If that is what God did in Nineveh through the preaching of one man, what can God do in our great city with a church that loves him, honors him and preaches his good news?
But how?
We have tools.
Learn to use the One to One as a tool to minister the good news of Jesus to a family member, friend, neighbor or co-worker who needs to come into relationship with Christ.
So Do the People
When we obey God, we will see even the most unlikely people respond in repentance and faith.
Jonah 3:6-9 ESV
“The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 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, 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. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."”
The king of Nineveh, the gatekeeper of all that went on in the city, was compelled to remove his sign of authority and sit before God in humility at the preaching of God’s unadulterated word.
The word of God did not have to be watered down to produce God’s desired effect.
Because the fear of the Lord was birthed in the king of Nineveh as Jonah preached, the king called the entire city to fast and call upon Yahweh.
The king of Nineveh, who now believed God, called the people of the city to “turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.”
This is the essence and goal of discipleship as Paul the apostle later described it to Timothy:
2 Timothy 2:2 ESV
“and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
The hope of the king Nineveh was that through fasting, repentance and calling upon the name of the Lord, that the people of Nineveh would fall upon the mercy of God and not be destroyed for their sins.
This is the hope that the gospel of Jesus brings to individuals, families, cities and nations.
So…
Are you a gatekeeper in your city?
Do you know one who is?
Have you responded to the word of the Lord to you and for your city?
The question then becomes:
Why does it matter whether I choose to obey God going where and to whom he’s called me?
It is because according to God, literal lives and destinies are on the line.
Consider these passages:
Ezekial 33:7-9 ESV
“"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.”
Romans 10:13-17 ESV
“For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
So Does God
When we obey God, Jesus has room to move in grace and power to turn disasters away from individuals, families, cities and nations.
Jonah 3:10 ESV
“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.”
The response was more than lip service.
When God saw what the people of Nineveh did in turning from their evil way, he relented and did not destroy the city.
But I thought God doesn’t change his mind?
God did not change his mind, but the people their allegiance and behavior, so that relationally, they found themselves in a position to be recipients of God’s mercy and grace.
Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter where you, your family, city or nation have been before, this time you can choose to obey God!
And in doing so, God can release times of not only refreshing, but renewal and revival when we look to his resurrection life!
Jonah 4:11 ESV
“And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"”
Always remember that we serve the God who with miracle power brings dead things to life!
His kindness can lead the hardest heart to repentance and any situation on the brink of disaster into his glorious grace.
Scriptures upon which I stand as we go out like Jonah to preach:
There is no walking out any of this without first having deep daily roots in relationship with Jesus.
Psalm 2:8 ESV
“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”
Isaiah 60:21-22 ESV
“Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it.”
John 14:12-14 ESV
“"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
John 15:7-8 ESV
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
John 15:13-16 ESV
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
Acts 5:42 ESV
“And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 ESV
“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher