“REVIVAL   IN   NINEVEH”   (Jonah 3:1-10)

Mar. 21^st, 2004

 

Int.     The Biblical account of Jonah has been disbelieved and ridiculed by modernist and infidels alike for generations. If this story isn’t true, then Jesus was a false prophet. He claimed it to be true. (Mt. 12:40)

 

          This whole book is dedicated to a Revival in Nineveh. We ned such a revival in our day.

 

1.       Outline of the book:

 

        a.        Jonah Protesting (Chapter one)

        b.        Jonah Praying (Chapter two)

        c.        Jonah Preaching (Chapter three)

        d.         Jonah Pouting (Chapter four)

 

I.       THE    CITY    OF    NINEVEH (A CITY OF SIN)

 

        A.       NINEVEH    WAS    A    GREAT   CITY.  (Ch. 3:3)

 

                  1.        Founded by Nimrod shortly after the flood.

                   2.       It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.               

                  3.        It was the Chief city of the world at that time.

                  4.        It was great in wealth and size.

                  5.        It was sixty miles in circumference.

                  6.        It’s streets and Avenues were 20 miles long.

                  7.        It’s walls were 100 feet high and thirty feet wide.

                  8.        It was a city of great wickedness.

                  9         They skinned their captives alive and hung their skins on the city walls to let all comers beware.

 

                            Note:   America has become an unsafe “city” too.

 

        B.       NINEVEH   WAS   A   WICKED   CITY.

 

                  1.        Professor Sayce says: “The barbarities which followed the capture of a town would be almost incredible, they not a subject of boast in the inscriptions which record them. Assurnatsir-pals’s cruelties were especially revolging. Pyramids of human heads marked the path of the conqueror; boys and girls were burnt alive or preserved for a worse fate; men were impaled, flayed alive, blinded, or deprived of their hands and feet, of their ears and noses, while the women and children were carried into slavery, the captured city plundered and reduced to ashes and the trees in its neighborhood cut down.” 

 

II.      THE   CONCERN   OF   GOD   FOR   THIS   CITY.

 

        A.       THE   LORD’S   CONCERN   FOR   HIS   PROPHET   JONAH.

 

                  1.        The Lord had sent Jonah to prophesy to this city.

 

                  2.        We are to warn the people of our towns and country.

 

        B.       THE  LORD’S   CONCERN   FOR   NINEVEH.

 

                  1.        God   manifest his Sovereignty in forcing Jonah against his will.

 

                  2.        Jonah’s   unconcern   for   Nineveh   is   alive   today.

 

                            1.        Our unconcern is seen in our educational system.

                  

                            2.        Our unconcern is seen in our Pulpits today.

 

                            3.        Our unconcern is seen in our Political system today.

 

III.    THE   CRY   OF   REPENTANCE   IN   CHAPTER   THREE

 

        A.       WE   SEE   THAT   REPENTANCE  IS   NOT   ALWAYS   FROM CONVICTION.

 

                  1.        Our churches are full of people convicted in their conscience without any real change in their actions.

 

        B.       WE  SEE   THAT   REPENTANCE   IS   NOT   BEING   REMORCE

 

                  1.        Our prisons are full of men and women who are sorry—(sorry that they got caught)

 

        C.       REPENTANCE   IS   A   CHANGE   OF   HEART   AND   MIND WHICH LEADS   TO   A   CHANGE   OF   ACTIONS   IN   ONE’S   LIFE.

 

                  1.        Jonah   repented   in   the   “Whale   Tabernacle”

 

                  2.        We can experience   the same kind of a Revival when we get:

 

                            a.        Dis-satisfied with self.

 

                             b.       Dis-satisfied with  complacency over our  little sins.

 

                             c.       When we make a renewed covenant with the Lord.

 

                             d.       When we narrow our interest.

 

          D.      JONAH   PREACHED   THE   LORD’S   MESSAGE.

 

                  1.        He   didn’t soft-peddle the message either. (Forty days and nights & Nineveh shall be destroyed.)

 

                   2.       His   message   was   believed   too.

 

                  3.        Years   ago,   there   was   a   man   in   W. Va.   that   defied   God   and   lightening struck   his   son   just   ten   feet   away.   He   learned   to   fear   God   in   a   hurry.

 

                  4.        The   Bible   warns   about   the   consumption   of   alcohol; yet people continue in drunkenness.

 

                   5.       The   Bible   warns   against   adultery   and   yet   people   continue   to   live   in   sin.

 

                            a.        Girls   in   Appomattox   school   wear  a   black   bracelet   to   advertise   that   they are   sexually   active.

 

                  6.        A Christian magazine went to a church that was supposed to be sound in the faith and questioned the young people. They professed salvation. They said that they didn’t go to movies, dances or drinking parties, but on morals, there was a total breakdown. 78 % of them admitted having sex after professing faith in Christ.

 

        E.       NOTICE   THAT   NINEVEH   CRIED   UNTO   THE   LORD.

 

                  1.        600.000 people in sack-cloth and ashes. (Jonah 4:11)

 

                  2.        The people of Nineveh believed God.

 

CONCLUSION: (Jonah 3:10) “.....They turned from their evil way....”