I. Introduction
A. We are now beginning the second half of our eight week series on the book of Jonah. And today we are going to focus on the revival part of the story.
B. Jonah 3:1–10 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. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 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.” 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.
C. There is a disadvantage growing up in Sunday school or in a family which reads Bible stories to their children. We get so accustomed to the stories of the Bible that when we’re adults, it’s easy to miss the drama and the shock of the stories. And this is certainly true for Jonah.
1. And though the most shocking part of the story may seem to be that Jonah got swallowed by a great fish and was vomited out on dry ground, I don’t think that’s the most amazing part.
2. It seems to me that the sudden conversion of a pagan city containing 120,000 people to the God of Israel is even more stunning. As far as we know, it was history’s first great revival, and the only great OT revival, though one is certainly pictured in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones.
a. Ben & Michelle’s old town revival – wonder, awe, tears of joy, many years of faithful service
II. Revival is a strange phenomenon.
A. Ordinarily, nonbelievers come to Christ individually. But every once in a while, God dramatically brings many to Himself in the same location, at the same time (or in rapid succession).
B. A brief history of revivals
1. The first great revival in the NT was Pentecost. It was followed by a several aftershock revivals through the book of Acts (e.g. Acts 8, 10, 19).
a. Simon Magus offered to pay money for the power to make it happen (Acts 8:9-24).
2. There is a rich history of revivals in the last 300 years or so.
a. Most famous in America and England was the Great Awakening, under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, John & Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield.
b. There have been many other amazing revivals as well. Last fall I read about the great revival in Korea in 1907. It is a wonderful story to read.
3. Sadly, in what came to be called the Second Great Awakening, a man named Charles Finney persuaded many that revival is something which can be engineered: that if we just have the right mood music and the right preaching style and the right manipulation of emotions, then revival will inevitably occur. This philosophy has strongly impacted the modern American evangelical church.
C. You see, in the Bible it is clear that our Lord is the Lord of revival.
1. Repentance is not something man can generate. Repentance is something God grants.
a. 2Timothy 2:24–26 says, “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
2. Conversion doesn’t just happen. Every conversion is a miracle of God, like in the creation when He spoke and there was light.
3. God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. – 2Corinthians 4:6
4. John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
5. It happens only at His order and at His enabling.
6. He doesn’t just allow us to come to life, He brings us to life.
7. Ephesians 2:4-6 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
8. And to whom does He give life? “The Son gives life to whom he will.” – John 5:21
9. The Lord Jesus is the captain of the heart and the Lord of salvation.
III. The revival in Nineveh
A. Take note of the language here.
1. Strong, vivid language is used here to describe “the great city” (3:2) of Nineveh.
a. “Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.” (3:3)
(1) Considerably larger than Washington, DC (in area).
b. “Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons” (4:11)
2. Jonah’s proclamation is reported in very matter-of-fact language, as if it was easy.
a. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
b. He spends a day walking into the heart of the city, where he stops and delivers his message.
c. That’s the totality of the description. It’s very understated. It’s not very impressive.
3. And yet, listen to how vividly the resulting repentance is described in v.5-9 “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.’ ”
a. This was not a shallow, or formalistic repentance. It involved every person, all 120,000 of them. It involved a dramatic repentance, full of acts of humility and repudiation of evil and violent ways, and prayer and changes of behavior.
b. As far as I know, there has never been a greater revival in human history — in terms of one place at one time.
4. So, the language tells us something. The city was enormous, the revival was vast and deep, the proclamation was so-so.
B. One more thing about this revival: it was temporary. It didn’t last very long. How do we know this?
1. First of all, there’s no record in the Bible or in history of Nineveh believing in the God of Israel.
2. We also know this because it wasn’t that long after this that the Assyrians attacked and destroyed Israel forever, and then ruined most of Judah as well.
3. No revivals are permanent. They are extraordinary outbreaks of the Spirit in the lives of a large group of people at the same time. There have profound lasting effects, or else it wasn’t a true revival. But the revival itself always dies down and comes to an end.
a. Last fall we stopped in Northampton, MA — there’s a museum, there are buildings/locations where this or that happened, but no signs of the Great Awakening. Even in Jonathan Edwards own church the revival didn’t last that long. Ten years later he was booted from his church.
4. But, it seems to me, this revival was designed to be temporary. It was a GLIMPSE of a new era, not the new era itself. It wasn’t time yet for the Gentiles to be brought fully and permanently into the household of faith. This revival was prophetic — it pointed forward to something greater.
5. And this explains why it was so vast as well. It foreshadowed the greatest revival of all: the great Gentile revival which started with Christ and continues on into our day.
IV. What lessons can be learned from God’s revival in Nineveh?
A. In the story of Jonah we see God’s tremendous power to revive. The Ninevites were largely ignorant; they were hard-hearted; they were immoral — UNTIL God breathed His Spirit on them and turned their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. God turned their dry bones into a great army.
1. What was the key to this revival?
a. Was it Jonah’s great preaching? Was it his brilliant strategy? His eloquence? His love for the Ninevites? His years of fervent prayer for revival in Nineveh?
b. Jonah wasn’t praying for Nineveh – he didn’t want them converted. Israel certainly wasn’t praying either. And Nineveh wasn’t praying for itself — they were still going full steam in their sin.
c. No one was praying, but God did it without any prayers.
2. It’s so clear here that God doesn’t need us in order to bring about revival. God doesn’t need our efforts, our resources, our money, our prayers, or even our willingness in order to work revival.
a. God used Jonah’s simple message to produce revival in Nineveh.
b. But He does it in a way that makes clear He doesn’t need Jonah.
c. Revivals often come after serious programs of prayer. But God doesn’t need prayer to do it.
d. He can do mind-blowing work through whatever instrument He chooses, no matter how modest.
(1) Or He can do it through no instrument at all. E.g., the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.
(2) He has the ability to overcome previously insurmountable barriers to His word effortlessly.
3. God calls us and commands us to give of our resources and to give our efforts and our prayers. But He commands this for our sakes, NOT BECAUSE HE NEEDS US!
a. What is needed for revival ultimately is not the church praying, it’s not the church evangelizing, it’s not the church giving its resources and its energies, it’s not even the church living holy lives.
(1) It’s God the Holy Spirit choosing to move.
(2) “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” John 6:63
b. He can move with or without our prayers, with/without our resources, with/without our efforts.
c. Usually He chooses to use prayers, efforts, resources. But sometimes He doesn’t – just to make it clear that it is Him, not us, just to make it clear that it is by grace, not by human effort.
4. Why is this idea so important? Paul answers that question in Ephesians 2:8-9, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so THAT NO ONE MAY BOAST.” (And he makes the same point in 1Cor.1:26-30.)
a. When revival comes, it’s always very tempting for people to take credit for it.
b. “It was our prayers! It was our preaching! It was our longing for it!” We should be saying: “It is You, Lord! It’s not me, it’s not us. It’s You! It’s all You!”
c. It’s “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit!” says the Lord. (Zech.4:6)
d. For this revival, God used an army of one. And even that one wasn’t especially impressive.
e. It reminds me of the story of Gideon’s army (Judges 7:1-25).
f. We are prone to assess probabilities. And that has its place. But God loves to destroy expectations and defy odds. He loves to do the unexpected. He loves to say, “With Me, all things are possible!”
5. God, of course, gives us the privilege of participating through our efforts/resources/love/prayers.
a. But He doesn’t need anything we do. It is a blessing to us to be used.
6. And we are obligated to pray and give and care and work.
a. But we are also obligated to realize that these things do not in themselves produce revival.
b. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)
7. This is why we pray. We don’t pray because prayer is powerful, we pray because God is powerful. We must never give the glory to prayer.
B. In this story we also see that in His great mercy, God is willing to revive even the most sinful of sinners.
1. And this is what has happened in the great revivals of history. It opens peoples’ eyes! Think Saul.
2. In the Great Awakening, George Whitefield preached in this area, and there God saved a local drunk named Peter Cornwell, and he started and pastored a church, Broad Run Baptist, which originally met up on a hill a few miles from here near where he lived, which was therefore given the name Saints Hill (around 1745).
3. Though God’s wrath against sin is great, His mercy toward sinners is even greater.
4. As we see with Jonah, our compassion can never keep up with God’s.
5. “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand.” (4:11)
C. But what He has done for us is even greater than what He did for Nineveh.
1. We were no better than the people of Nineveh. We were the enemies of God and of His people.
2. Romans 5:10 “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”
3. Even though we were His enemies, He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us.
4. How much He must love us to have done that!
D. But what about those who have never come to Christ?
1. Jesus actually made reference to Jonah’s revival in Nineveh in Matthew 12:41 which speaks to those who have heard the message of Christ and have still refused it, “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.”
2. Let’s think about this for a moment:
a. First of all, Jesus isn’t embarrassed about the story of Jonah. He reaffirms that it actually happened. He’s not embarrassed to be identified with Jonah, nor is He embarrassed that Jonah proclaimed to Nineveh that God was going to destroy them. He’s not embarrassed about the reality of a judgment day. And He’s also not embarrassed to say that He is greater than Jonah.
b. But secondly, Jesus makes it clear here that people who are given more knowledge are going to receive more punishment on the judgment day if they refuse to repent and believe.
3. Beloved, these are the words of Jesus. Don’t take them lightly. This is a matter of life and death.
4. Someone far greater than Jonah has come to our Nineveh, and He has said, ‘You will perish if you do not repent of your sin and yield your life in faith to Me.’
5. The good news is that God is willing to relent. But not unless we repent.
6. If the message of Jonah needed to be heeded, how much more the message of the one of whom Jonah is but a glimpse!