17th May 2025

17th May 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Jonah 3)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


The Lord was clear that He was going to bring great disaster upon Nineveh in response to their wickedness but before any calamity fell upon the city, Jonah was to go and call the Ninevites to repentance. Jonah wasn’t desperately keen on this task and famously headed in the opposite direction but, via the belly of a great fish, Jonah finally arrived in the great but exceedingly wicked city.


Jonah wasn’t a long winded preacher as some like to say I am. He perhaps preached other sermons in Nineveh but the single one recorded for us has only got eight words - “yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3v4). I’m amazed at the impact of those eight words - Jonah preached, the Spirit worked and the entire city of Nineveh repented.


By this stage I hope you know what the Gospel does and it’s impact is the same today as it was when Jonah travelled through Nineveh. The Ninevites were spiritually dead without hope and without God in this world but at some point the Holy Spirit blew through the city. Just as Jonah was regenerated in the belly of the fish, so too did the Spirit bring regeneration to every resident of Nineveh. He caused them to be born again and with new hearts they freely responded to the Gospel as preached by Jonah.


Now let us be clear, the Ninevites were not good people - none are! They had been wicked in the past and would be wicked in the future which would eventually lead to their destruction. But in Jonah’s day, the Lord decreed that He would count a generation of Ninevites as righteous. They repented of their sin and put their faith in the Lord and as such He justified them.


The blood of Christ would one day pay the price for Ninevite sin and Jesus knew all about what had gone on years before declaring that the generation of saved Ninevites would stand in the judgement to come (Luke 11v32). They would not perish but they would have everlasting life.


Regeneration had swept through Nineveh and the regenerated populous called upon the name of the Lord and were saved. God did not bring disaster upon them but met them instead with abundant grace (Jonah 3v10).


What does the Gospel do? It saves sinners from disaster and sees them declared righteous in the sight of God. Today Ninevites sing in heaven because of the grace of God. Won’t you plan to join them?  


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q86 What is faith in Jesus Christ? Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.
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