PREACHING REPENTING The Sign of Jonah 2 10
- Slides: 9
PREACHING & REPENTING
The Sign of Jonah 2: 10 • Like the Israelites marching into Canaan, Jonah may have been preceded by his sign. • At some point, God “resets” the story and begins a second time in ch. 3: 1 as in ch. 1: 1. • This time we get to see a second story. What would have happened if Jonah never ran?
Arriving at Nineveh Jonah 3: 3 • Ellul: “Nineveh is nothing other than the nest of a brood of rapacious birds. ” • A city built by Nimrod the plunderer, Gen. 10: 10 -11 • Nahum 3: 1 Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder – no end to the prey! • Nahum 3: 19 … All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?
The Message Jonah 3: 4 • Worst preacher ever. • Worst program ever. • Worst sermon ever. • Worst news ever.
Why Do They Believe? Jonah 3: 5 1. Maybe the sign of Jonah worked. 2. Maybe God knows hearts and circumstances that we don’t know. 3. Maybe sometimes you just fling the truth out there and works because it is from God. Ultimately, they believed because he preached!
Why Do They Believe? Karl Barth on Romans 1: 16: “Anxiety concerning the victory of the Gospel … is meaningless, because the Gospel is the victory by which the world is overcome. By the Gospel the whole concrete world is dissolved and established. It does not require representatives with a sense of responsibility, for it is as responsible for those who proclaim it as it is for those to whom it is proclaimed. It is the advocate of both. ”
Why Do They Repent? Jonah 3: 5 -9 • They are afraid (v. 5). • They are united (v. 6 -7). • They are ashamed (v. 8). • They are unsure (v. 9). Ultimately, they repented because they believed!
Why Are They Forgiven? Jonah 3: 10 • God knows the hearts of men. • God knows the actions of men. • God is merciful. Ultimately, they are forgiven because they repented.
Can You Hear? Matthew 12: 39 -41 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 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. ”
