Word of Salvation – Vol.48 No.42 – November 2003
True Repentance
Sermon by Rev J Haverland
on Jonah 3:5-9
Scripture Readings: Joel 2:12-17; Matthew 12:38-50
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The theme of this sermon is about the whole city of Nineveh repenting of their sin and calling urgently on God. And the purpose of the sermon is to explain what true repentance means and to call us and our nation to this in the hope of God’s saving grace.
On October 30, 1938, someone named Orson Welles made a radio broadcast announcing a Martian invasion of America. It was purely fictional – a hoax – entirely made up; but there was a huge response. His broadcast spread disorder and terror from one coast to the other. Police headquarters, newspapers and radio stations were swamped with calls from terrified people. Whole neighbourhoods were evacuated as homeowners rushed out into the streets to save themselves from danger. All this for a broadcast that was completely false – yet it generated a huge response in America.
The prophet Jonah lived long before the invention of the radio. He was not a sensational broadcaster or a popular tele-evangelist. He was a prophet of God who came preaching in the hot and dusty streets of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. But he proclaimed a message that was true; that had to be believed; that people had to take seriously. And they did. There was a huge response to his message. News of this Jewish prophet spread rapidly through the town and, no doubt, Jonah found himself addressing large crowds of people.
At first these people were curious, but then their curiosity changed to fear and anxiety. The writer tells us very simply that “The Ninevites believed God.”
They could have dismissed Jonah as a crazy prophet from Israel. “Fancy coming all this way across the desert to tell us this!” They could have tried to explain it away as the product of his over-active imagination, or reasoned that his message was motivated by his hatred of the Assyrians. But they didn’t. They could have minimised the message, arguing that it wasn’t going to be all that serious. Jonah was painting it too bleak – it was too gloomy. But they didn’t do that either.
They could have run this past their own gods. The supreme god for the Assyrians was Asshur. In addition to it they had twelve other important gods and 4000 inferior gods who supposedly looked after all that was going on in nature and in human life. They counted themselves fortunate to be protected by so many gods. They could have consulted them. They could have trusted in these deities for salvation. But they didn’t.
They “believed God”, the Lord. They believed that their city was under the judgment of God and that doom was hanging over them. In response to this they repented. Today we want to look at what this means. What is true repentance? How did the Ninevites display this? Should we be doing this today? Can we expect this in our own country in the future? As we consider this we will see how the people of Nineveh: 1. Confessed their sin;
2. Changed their behaviour;
3. Hoped in God.
1. THEY CONFESSED THEIR SIN
The first evidence of this is that they proclaimed a fast.
A terrible bomb blast occurred in a nightclub in Bali late in 2002. Many Australians and some New Zealanders were among those who were killed. Both the Australian and New Zealand prime ministers spoke against those who had planted the bomb and offered their condolences to the families of those who had died. Neither of them mentioned God. Neither of them urged people to pray.
Contrast that with the address to the nation of President George W Bush after the September 11 attacks the year before. He called the people of America to prayer. He urged them to seek God.
Or we could go further back in history to the days of the English Puritans who dominated the British Parliament for a decade in the seventeenth century. Between 1640 and 1647 the members of parliament regularly called for national days of fasting for all the people of the country.
This is what happened in Nineveh many years before that. The people of the city declared a fast and then the king himself, along with his nobles, made an official proclamation: “Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock taste anything; do not let them eat or drink” (vs 7).
Of course people can fast without meaning it; it can be merely out of habit, or to impress others, or simply for health reasons. But it can also be a genuine sign of repentance, of sorrow over sin.
There is a place for this in our life and experience as Christians. We are not used to any form of self-denial. We are not used to waiting for anything at all. Instead, we are used to having all our needs met instantly – we are used to immediate gratification. Sometimes it would do us good to fast as an expression of our sorrow over sin.
The people also put on sackcloth. There is no command about this in the Bible, but it was a common practice among the people of Israel and the other nations. Children, this means that they would take off their normal clothes and put on a sackcloth, a rough fabric that was uncomfortable to wear and that no doubt made them itch and scratch. The King told the people to put on sackcloth, and not only the people, but also the animals! This was a Persian custom – they made the animals participate in their ceremonies of mourning and penitence.
Again, people could do this merely to impress others with their piety, to show off their spirituality, to make a good impression to their neighbours. But it could also be a genuine expression of penitence, of mourning, or sorrow over sin.
We know that this was genuine because it was accompanied by prayer to God. The king gave the proclamation: “Let everyone call urgently on God” (vs 8b). This wasn’t just a matter of outward show. They called on the Lord from their hearts. They called on him urgently and earnestly.
We pray regular prayers of confession to God, but sometimes we are just saying the words. We know that’s what we should pray, but we don’t really mean it. We are going through the motions. But our prayers of confession need to come from our hearts. Like David’s plea for forgiveness in Psalm 51:1-3
“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgression
and my sin is always before me.“
It’s not enough to just say the words; we must mean what we say – confession must come from your heart. You must “call urgently on God.”
But saying the right words from the heart is not enough. The people of Nineveh showed the depth of their repentance because…
2. THEY CHANGED THEIR BEHAVIOUR
The Assyrians were well-known in the Ancient world as a violent and cruel people. The people of Israel feared them because of this and so did the other nations around them. About 100 years later the prophet Nahum spoke against Nineveh; “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!… who has not felt your endless cruelty?” (Nah 3:1,19). The king himself acknowledges this when he called on the people to “give up their evil ways and their violence.”
True repentance involves facing up to specific sins and doing something about them. The New Testament word for ‘repent’ means to turn around. It refers to a change of mind and of direction. Genuine repentance will produce a change of life. You cannot have Jesus as Saviour if you will not have him as Lord; and if he is Lord then he must rule your life and direct your behaviour. If not, then your repentance is empty and worthless. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” (2 Tim 2:19). The people of Nineveh did that – so must we – and so must anyone who turns to the Lord to be saved.
We have seen, then, how they acknowledged their sin and how they changed their behaviour. That brings us to consider how…
3. THEY PUT THEIR HOPE IN GOD
The king expressed their hope in God in verse 9: “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” This echoes the words of the captain of the ship in chapter one where he says to Jonah, “Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us and we will not perish” (vs 6). He was speaking for himself and his sailors. Here the king is speaking for himself and his city. This is what he hoped for.
The king had some hope for this because of God’s warning. You may get a letter from your power company informing you that you have not paid your account; if it is not paid in fourteen days your supply will be cut off. The implication is that if you do pay in fourteen days the supply will continue.
Or think of your plastic card. When you pay something by credit you get thirty days (or more) interest free. It is a period of ‘grace’. That’s all the grace you get from the credit company because then you get charged at a whopping interest rate! The king of Nineveh was hoping that God would be gracious.
Or compare this situation to having a pain in your body. That is a warning that something is wrong. You need to get it attended to soon. If you don’t something worse may happen. If you do you may be able to avert further problems.
The Lord set a time limit for Nineveh – 40 days. That time period gave the king the hope that God might be gracious to them. If they did repent and turn from their evil then God may not send his judgment on them. They put their hope in God.
The people of Nineveh probably didn’t know much about the Lord. They didn’t have much information about His character or much knowledge of His attributes. But they knew enough to give them hope. They knew enough about Him to plead for His mercy.
The prophets called the people of Israel to put their hope in God and His mercy. Joel preached to Israel and said, “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing” (Joel 2:13-14).
We can have the same hope today, especially because we know much more than the Assyrians, and even much more than Israel, about the love and mercy of God. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came in Jesus Christ. The life and death and resurrection of Jesus is the greatest demonstration of the love of God. “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This is God’s certain promise. Never despair of God’s love and mercy. Cast yourself on His grace. Trust in His kindness. Never give up hope.
True repentance consists of a genuine confession of sin that leads to a change of behaviour and that is accompanied by a hope in God.
Before we leave this subject, let’s consider A FEW BRIEF APPLICATIONS from this passage.
First of all, expect a response to the gospel.
We know from the next chapter that Jonah expected them to respond. He thought they might repent. But when we talk to people we often don’t expect anything. We don’t expect people to believe.
A young preacher came to Spurgeon one day in his study and said that he wasn’t seeing many people converted under his ministry. Spurgeon asked him, “Do you expect to see someone converted every time you preach?” “Oh no, sir”, replied the young preacher. “Well”, said Spurgeon. “That’s your problem. You aren’t expecting enough! You have your sights set too low.” Often we are the same.
The people of Nineveh responded to the message of Jonah. Now One greater than Jonah is here. The Lord Jesus has come and today we are preaching about Him. Not everyone will believe in Him, just as the Jews of Jesus’ day did not believe. But some will hear and believe. We need to believe this and keep talking to people and praying for them and not give up. Don’t be discouraged if someone doesn’t respond the first time you speak to them, or if they turn down your initial invitation to come to church. Keep praying for them. Speak to them again. Ask them again. Don’t give up. Expect a response.
Secondly, expect a large response.
Here a whole city turned to the Lord. This was a ‘people movement’. A mass conversion. Sometimes people come to faith one at a time. Other times people come to faith in large groups. Certainly everyone must make up his own mind. Conversion must be a personal experience for each individual. But sometimes the Holy Spirit works powerfully in large groups.
Think of the Day of Pentecost when Peter preached and 3000 were converted. Think of the Reformation in Europe that converted whole towns and regions to the protestant faith. In the 1630s there was a great revival in Scotland. In Wales there was a revival in 1733, another in 1859 and another in 1904.
We need to pray for this today. Of course we can’t demand anything of God nor can we predict what God will do. Too often we hear Christians make ‘prophecies’ about revival. But the Holy Spirit will work when and where He pleases. Let’s pray that He may work powerfully in this country of ours, and bring great reform and revival.
So we should expect a response to the gospel, and we should expect a large response, and thirdly, we should expect a response from all peoples. This is a primary theme in this book of the Bible. God was concerned about Assyria as well as Israel; about Nineveh as well as Jerusalem; about the poor in the back streets of the city as well as the king on his throne.
This is just as true today: God is concerned about all the nations of the world. He wants all peoples to hear the good news of the gospel. He want all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. He wants this for the rich and the poor; for male and female; for young and old; for the least and the greatest. Peter told Cornelius, “God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (Acts 10:34-35).
Let’s keep proclaiming the good news about Jesus; and let’s do this expecting a large response from all people. Let’s do this calling all men to true repentance, to a confession of their sin, doing what is right, and putting their hope in what Jesus has done on the cross.
Amen.