Sermon Notes — Medina Community Church

The Passage · Jonah 3:1–10 · ESV

vv. 1–4 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against 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, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” vv. 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. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh: “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 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. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” v. 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.

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Part One

The God of Second Chances

vv. 1–4

Chapter 3 opens almost word for word like chapter 1. The same God commissions the same prophet with the same call. The ¹ of God is not up to the messenger of God. It belongs to God, and it does not change.

God did not sit Jonah in timeout. He did not lecture or rebuke him at length. He recommissioned him as if the failure had been dealt with. ² does not change the thing you are supposed to do. Discipline changes you.

What Jonah showed in chapter 2 was a full acknowledgement of God from a place of desperation — but his ³ toward Nineveh had not shifted. Chapter 4 will make that plain. Yet the word comes again. God is a God of second chances for Jonah, and He can be a God of second chances for you.

Jonah’s sermon: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Eight words. No explanation. No mercy explicitly offered. The minimum that could pass as a message. And yet the existence of the ⁴ is the existence of the chance at mercy. Forty days is grace.

“If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.”

Jeremiah 18:7–8

Reflect — Is there something God has been calling you to that you have been putting off? What does Jonah’s second chance say to you?

Part Two

The Response of Nineveh

vv. 5–9

“And the people of Nineveh ⁵ God.” The phrase is the same language used of Abraham in Genesis 15 and of Israel at the Red Sea in Exodus 14. The narrator is signaling genuine, saving faith — not a performance or a formality.

No extended persuasion. No signs or miracles. One prophet, one day into a three-day journey, with the shortest recorded sermon. The pagans ⁶ faster than the prophet of God did. God saves who He wants, how He wants, whenever He wants.

The king stepped off his throne (a place of honor), removed his robe (a sign of status), and sat in ⁷ (a sign of humility). The most powerful man in the most powerful city in the world laid everything aside and led the whole city to follow. This outcome was outside the realm of possibility. God’s mercy flashes brightest exactly there.

The king’s prayer: “Who knows? God ⁸… so that we may not perish.” He makes no claim on mercy. He does not say God is obligated. He throws his entire city on the character of God and waits. That is the posture God is after.

“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.”

Matthew 12:41

The book of Jonah is a ⁹ for Israel. A people with the law, the prophets, and the temple — yet slow and reluctant to respond. The Ninevites they despised were faster to believe than those who were supposed to know better. Jesus says: don’t be that generation.

Reflect — Who have you written off as beyond God’s reach? What is God saying to you through the response of Nineveh?

Part Three

The God of All Mercy

v. 10

“God relented of the disaster.” This is not God changing His ¹⁰ or being surprised. Jeremiah 18 already showed us: this is God’s stated operating principle. When people turn from evil, He relents. The mercy is not a reversal of character. It is His character.

God did not relent because they wore sackcloth or skipped meals. Verse 10 is clear: He saw how they ¹¹. True repentance is confessing with turning. God is after the posture of the heart, not the performance.

This pattern runs through all of Scripture. Exodus 32: Israel builds a golden calf and Moses intercedes — God relents. 2 Samuel 12: David confesses adultery and murder — God puts away the sin. Luke 19: Zacchaeus repents — salvation comes to his house. When people ¹², God relents. All the time, every time.

“Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

Exodus 34:6

Conclusion

He lavishes His wondrous mercy in ways that defy our expectations.

God sent a prophet to the worst city on earth, knowing they would turn on day one. That is not a God who takes pleasure in the death of the wicked. That is a God who is not willing that any should perish — who demonstrates His love in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The mercy you think is too wide to reach someone has not yet reached its limit. If God worked through eight words of a reluctant prophet to bring 120,000 people to repentance, He can work through your words to reach one person. You are the messenger. Obey and let Him handle the rest.

“God saves who He wants, how He wants, whenever He wants.”

My Response — One thing I am taking from this message

Prayer