Survivor Series:

Pastor Phillips' Sermon

Lenten Service, Wednesday, March 29, 2006

As I read earlier the basis of our meditation is Jonah receiving God's second time message, a commission, a message to proclaim, a place to go and do mission work, that wonderful city of Nineveh . Oh, that's right. It's not a wonderful city. In fact, it was so wicked that everybody in that area and in that time knew of its wickedness. Jonah knew for sure. It was not a place he loved and, yet, God had compassion on them.

Last week, we talked about Jonah in that place of pain inside the fish and how he prayed to God for help and God delivered him and the fish deposited him out on dry land and it's really interesting to think about that experience in a very real sense as that fish spit Jonah out and plopped him up on the shore, it was as if he was born again. Because this was the second time he is commissioned by God and now he has a different perspective on life. Now he's not as prone to turn the other way and run for Tarshish. Now he's a new man.

So he received the command again. “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim the message I give you.” Go and proclaim. That's his mission. Go and proclaim. It's pretty simple. Go and proclaim. This time Jonah is obedient. Not too surprising, is it? I'm sure he doesn't want to find out another way God might use to persuade him to obey, so now Jonah is in line with all those other people that obey God. Jonah has fallen in step with the wind, the sea, and the fish and now he's going to obey God, too. Isn't it ironic that the wind and the sea and the fish are more obedient when God commands them than His servant, Jonah?

Well, how does this horrible and wicked city survive? How did the Ninevites survive? They justifiably deserved God's punishment. Sometimes I'll call my dad and talk to him and I'll say, “How you doing, Dad?” You've heard this, right? His answer, “Better than I deserve.” And what he's talking about is that he is forgiven and saved by God's grace, not because he deserves it. And that's where we all stand, together with the Ninevites. We have nothing in us that makes God compassionate towards us. It's in Him, His heart, His character that makes Him compassionate.

So how does Nineveh , that terrible and wicked city survive? Well, Number 1, they survive because they heard the word of God. Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned. Forty more days. That was the warning. That was the message. That was the word out of the mouth of God's prophet for those people. Romans 10:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Words of warning. That's what God gave Jonah to tell those Ninevites.

A few years ago, in New Jersey , we had this outdoor rally and it was a neat event. It was a community event. People from all around came and we had bands, Christian bands, playing. We had a little bit of extra property, so we set up outside with tents and all kinds of fun things for kids and I preached a message. We had a concert, and then I preached a message. And it had to do with a hurricane. Because, at that very time, there was a hurricane coming up the Carolina coast. And, of course, if you look at a map, New Jersey 's part of that coast. And all along the Atlantic coast, they were saying “Avoid Floyd. Avoid Floyd. Hurricane Floyd is coming.” So people were going and they were telling their relatives and their neighbors, “You have to get out. The hurricane's coming.” That's the only decent thing to do to warn your neighbors. You'd do it, wouldn't you? If you knew something was coming that was damaging and destructive to your neighbors, you'd knock on their door, you'd make the phone call, you'd cross the street and warn them they were in harm's way. That's what God was doing when He sent Jonah to Nineveh . He sent Him to proclaim the message that would save them to get out of harm's way. Because God's wrath is greater than any hurricane. And, in forty days, it was going to make landfall on Nineveh . So the first reason they were saved is because they heard the message that God had for them. They heard His word.

The second reason they were saved, it says in Verse 5, the Ninevites from this wrath of God, was because they believed. It says, “The Ninevites believed God.” I find that amazing, supernatural, in fact. Because these people had lived lives of wickedness and violence. And it's very unusual for people to turn from that and change. But, with God, all things are possible. With His holy spirit speaking that powerful message and working in those hearts, anything is possible. So, when they heard that wonderful word of warning, they believed it. And instantly, they declared a fast. No eating or drinking for people and animals. That sounds funny. They put on sackcloth, which is rough cloth, not used for clothing normally, but an outward sign of an inward disposition of repentance and humility. They put this rough clothing on, not just on themselves but even on their animals. Animals in sackcloth? How bizarre. Not exactly. In fact, Herodias tells us, after the death of Masistus, the leader of the Persian cavalry who was slain by the Greeks in the battle of Cithaeron in 479 B.C., Mardonius, the Persian general, together with the whole army, mourned his death by cutting off their hair and the hair of their horses, according to their custom. So, although it may seem bizarre and strange to us to portray our repentance and our humility through our animals, it wasn't that unusual for them.

Another thing they did in response to God's word is they sat in the dust. It said the king stood up, took off his robes, put on sackcloth, and sat in the dust. Dust, ashes? More signs of what's going on inside, an outward display of the inward disposition. Then it says they called upon the Lord, asking for forgiveness. Not only that, but it says they gave up their evil ways and violence. Wow. They didn't just hear it. They didn't just talk about it. They acted on the word of God they had heard. This reminds me of a story in the New Testament. Remember when all the people were going out to John the Baptist to be baptized? It says in Matthew 3:5-8, “People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan . Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River . But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them, ‘You brut of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.'” The Pharisees and the Sadducees were hypocrites. They just wanted to check out John the Baptist and see what was going on incase they needed to straighten him out or arrest him or do something else. But the people of Nineveh were not hypocrites. They did produce fruit in keeping with repentance. They heard that wonderful word, and they believed it.

The third reason they survived was because God had compassion. God had compassion. Verse 10 says, “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened.” God's love and compassion. It's what compelled Him to send Jonah the first time. It's what compelled Him to send Jonah the second time and give him the very words and work with His holy spirit through that word and open the hearts of those Ninevites and create faith so they believed God. And directed them to repent and turn from their sin. They had received God's compassion. Romans 5:6-8 says, “You see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteousness man. Though, for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God didn't wait for Nineveh to shape up before He sent them the prophet. He sent Jonah into the midst of their sin. God didn't wait for us to straighten up when He sent Jesus. He sent Jesus right into our world to suffer and die for our sins.

How did the Ninevites survive? They survived because God had compassion on them, even though they were notoriously wicked, God had compassion on the Ninevites so He sent Jonah to warn them they would soon be destroyed. The Ninevites survived because they believed. Isn't it wonderful that God cared enough about the Ninevites to send Jonah? Isn't it wonderful that the friends and neighbors in the path of Hurricane Floyd warned their neighbors to get out of harm's way? Now it comes down to us. Who are the Ninevites in our lives? How will they survive? May God bless you as you go and proclaim His love and His forgiveness to your Nineveh . Amen.