Revival in Ninevah

What an exciting day in the history of our church! It’s not every day that we have the opportunity to dedicate a new building on our campus. But that is exactly what we’re going to do this afternoon.

At noon, we’re going to head down to the parking deck area for barbeque lunch. Then we’ll walk over to the new Multi Purpose building for a short program and then we’re going to dedicate that building to God!

We’re going to hear from Caz McCaslin, who grew up here and who founded “Upward Basketball.” He’s going to share with us what we can anticipate in the near future by including “Upward Basketball” in our Ministry Plan. And on behalf of hundreds of children and families that will be reached for Christ in the coming days through our new building , thank you for your giving that has made it all possible.

Now look with me to the Old Testament book of Jonah! All of us can identify with the prophet Jonah , can’t we? For instance: he had spiritual and physical struggles. He had a rebellious streak. He disobeyed the word of God! He even tried running from God! He received a second chance from God.

In fact, we can identify with Jonah in every chapter of his book. For instance, in chapter 1 he is running from God. In chapter 2 he is running to God. In chapter 3 he is running with God. And in chapter 4 he is running ahead of God.

Now today we move into chapter 3. Now that’s the chapter God longs for us to not only move into, but to live in: running with Him.

Now we have learned from Jonah what a mess we cause when we run from God! He put those closest to him in great danger and so do we when we run from God!

One thing God has used over the years in my life to motivate and inspire me to run with Him is my family. In fact, the greatest thing any Father or Mother can do for their family is to run with God!

That’s what we find in chapter 3: Jonah running with God! And as a result, God used him to launch one of the greatest revivals in history! Those who others said would never turn to God, turned to God! Those who others said would never repent of their sin , repented of their sin! And God used one man , one man running with Him to alter the lives and destiny of thousands.

And let me say: if revival took place in Nineveh, it can take place anywhere, including Marietta, Georgia! What took place in Nineveh gives me great hope for what can take place here!

Revival in Nineveh

Jonah 3.1-10

1 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[a]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!”

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.”

Now as we consider the Revival in Nineveh , the first thing we read about beginning in verse 1 is:

(1) The Pursuit of the Lord.

Now let’s notice a few things about the pursuit of the Lord. For instance ..

–His pursuit was personal.

Verse 1, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah …” Here is Holy God pursuing this running rebel named Jonah. I’m so grateful that the times in my life that I’ve run from God, that He has pursued me personally. Just as he pursued Jonah He has pursued Ernest Easley and He has pursued you too! So , His pursuit was personal. But not only was it personal , -His pursuit was persistent.

Verse 1, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time …” You ought to underscore those words in your Bible and never forget them!

“ …the second time.” Our God is the God of a second chance! He persistently comes after us when we run from Him.

Back in the garden of Eden, God said to Adam and Eve, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it , you will surely die.” So what did they do? They ate of the tree! They disobeyed the word of God just like some of you here today. You’ve made choices that contradict God’s word. You’ve made decisions willingly and knowingly that contradict God’s word, just like your parents: Adam and Eve! And rather than running with God, you’re running from Him!

Do you remember what God did with Adam and Eve? He came a second time in the cool of the day to mend their broken relationship.

Let me ask you this: what if the first time you heard the message of Jesus and His love for you and you decided not to repent of your sin and be saved, and you never heard it again. Chances are that very few of us would have come to know Him and His forgiveness. Most of us here are in the family of God today because the Lord came to us a second time or a third time or a fourth time, or a tenth time.

I’ve heard people say, “Woe is me. I’ve messed up and missed God’s best for me.” We’ve all missed God’s best for us. God’s best was in the garden. Ever since the fall of man, God has been the God of a second chance.

I think about Samson, who had so much going his way, until he sinned. But in his last days, God gave him a second chance and used him in great and mighty ways.

I think about Moses and David and Peter! The Bible is full of examples of people like us who blew it whom God gave a second chance! Don’t think that your mess up is beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness! He is the God of the second chance. His pursuit was not only personal and persistent …

-His pursuit was purposeful.

Vv. 1-3, “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 to extent.” If there was anybody on earth that needed to know God’s love and forgiveness, it was the Ninevites. As God pursued Jonah, He did so with the Ninevites in mind! And every time God pursues us when we run from Him, He does so with the lost in mind!

(1) The Pursuit of the Lord.

(2) The Preaching of the Word.

Verse 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.”

Notice that …-his preaching was clear. Short and to the point! “If you don’t get your life right with God, in forty days, you’ve had it!” Every one of us who teach and preach the word of God can learn something from this preaching prophet named Jonah. Everybody who heard his preaching understood what he was saying! His preaching was extremely clear! So his preaching was clear.

-his preaching was convicting.

Wherever Bible preaching takes place, you can know that conviction takes place. Often on Sunday, I’ll have somebody walk out saying, “Preacher, you really got to me today! You really convicted me today.”

Folks, I’ve never convicted anybody in my life. That’s not my job! My job is to preach God’s word.. It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to impart God’s word! And as He imparts it into your heart, conviction comes! And that’s exactly what happened in Nineveh!

Verse 5, “So the people of Nineveh believed God ..” It doesn’t say that they believed Jonah! It says that they believed God!

Let me show you something in Luke 11. Jesus was talking about Jonah! Vv. 29-30, “And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, ‘This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.” Verse 32b, “…for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”

Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites! A sign of what? Jonah had ran from God. God sent a storm to redirect his life. God then sent a fish to give Jonah some more time to think about the direction of his life. He repented and after 3 days in the belly of a fish, he was vomited onto dry land. And now this prophet is standing before them as a sign! A sign of the reality of God’s judgment! And then he says, “You’ve got 40 days to get right or YOU’VE had it!”

They had heard what God had done and when Jonah opened his mouth, they knew his message was from God! Verse 5, “So the people of Nineveh believed God.”

Now you talk about a revival! Verse 5 tells us that they believed God! Now their faith was in God! Then it says that they “proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.”

Yes, his preaching was clear and convicting, but ,

-his preaching was contagious.

Verse 6, “Then the word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne (for you see, now there was a new king in town) and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.” The king got right with God!

Verses 7-9, “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 everyone 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?”

Now here is how our second chance God responded to their faith and repentance: Verse 10, “The 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.” Now you talk about revival! The king got right on down to the animals! The whole wicked city of Nineveh got right with God because of one man, Jonah, who repented and rather than running from God, he decided to run to God so that he could run with God!

“Go to Nineveh! Get out of your rebellion! Get out of your mediocrity! Run with Me and let’s change this world for Christ!”

Now don’t miss this! Here’s what God told Jonah: “Go to them!” “Go to Nineveh.” That sounds a whole lot like the great commission that Jesus gave in Matthew 28.19-20, “Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations …”

Let me tell you something about the great commission of Matthew 28: God has always had the great commission, even as far back as Jonah! And that commission is unchanging!

What would have happened if Jonah waited for them to come to him? “If they really want to know God, they know where I live.” God said, “Go to them!”

I challenged our staff this week in our annual staff retreat to start finding ways to get the gospel to the Ninevites of Cobb County! Start budgeting , start calendaring , start planning and lets get busy finding ways to “go to them.”

And like Jonah, we’ve got to go so that we can show and tell! Show them Jesus so that we can tell them about Jesus! Without his going and showing them the power of God and telling them about the love of God , the Ninevites would be in Hell this morning!

Last Saturday Julie and I went to the afternoon show at the Fox Theatre. As we approached the parking area, I noticed an open jeep with two young men in the front seats and a young woman in the back seat. About the same time I looked over there, the young man in the passenger seat leaned over and gave the driver , another young man, a big kiss on the mouth.

I couldn’t believe my own eyes! I told Julie what I had just seen and said, “we’re becoming a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.” We then turned the corner and started down the street where we park. Well, we were sitting in traffic and parked on the side of the street was a van. And from the passenger side, a man got out.

He had a large bandetta on his head, leather gloves on his hands, an oversized shirt and looked like he hadn’t shaved in a few days. From the other side of the van, a tall woman got out putting her clothes back on. She didn’t look like the kind of girl that you bring home to meet your parents!

And then suddenly it hit me: they are why the church is here! That’s what we are to be about! We’re here so that we can get the message of God’s love and hope and yes judgment to all the Ninevites of Atlanta!

For us to truly impact this generation and this community for Jesus, we’ve got to find ways to “go to them.” Sunday School and worship alone is not getting it done! And yet, I believe that God wants to use us to get the gospel to those out there.

Our time is spent, so let me just say this: One man who stopped running from God and began running with God was used by God to turn an entire city to Him. If we’re going to attract people to Jesus, we cannot be running from Him! We’ve got to be running with Him!

Moms and Dads, run with Jesus and help bring your children to Jesus! Businessmen and women, run with Jesus and help bring your work associates to Jesus! Students, run with Jesus and help bring your classmates to Jesus! Decide today: I am going to run with Jesus!

 

When you run from God, you place those closest to you in danger. When you run with God, you are on your way to bringing others around you to Jesus.