Key Truth: God delights in sovereignly showing compassion to those who repent from their sin and turn to Him.

Introduction:

What are you most afraid of someone finding out about you?
What impact is that fear having on your identity?

“Faith and repentance are connected together . . . as no one can willingly submit to God, except he has previously known his goodness, and entertained a hope of salvation; for he who is touched only with fear avoids God’s presence; and then despair prevails, and perverseness follows. How then was it that the king of Nineveh had seriously and undissemblingly repented, while yet he spoke doubtfully of the favor of God? To this I answer, that it was a measure of doubt, which was yet connected with faith, even that which does not directly reject the promise of God, but has other hindrances.”

John Calvin, Commentary on Jonah

The Ninevites Repent from Their Violent Ways:

Jonah 3:6-9

What does your practice of repentance look like?
What can you learn from the Ninevites’ example?

“A mind renewed is also a heart with affections reoriented toward God. When we think God’s thoughts, our hearts swell up with desire for Him above all others. Consequently, redeemed heads and redeemed hearts lead to redeemed hands. How do you know that what is in the head has gotten down into the heart? You look at the hands.”

Anthony Carter, Running from Mercy: Jonah and the Surprising Story of God’s Unstoppable Grace

God Relents from the Impending Disaster

Jonah 3:10

How have you experienced God’s compassion through repentance?
How can your experience of God’s compassion build up our church and the coming generations?

“The jewels of spiritual service are always quarried in the depths of spiritual experience. Never is this more true than in revival. That is the significance of the motto of one of the Welsh revivals: Bend the church and save the people. Will we be bent, and broken for God’s service? Will the sin of Jonah in our hearts become the sign of Jonah? Only when the sign of Jonah is seen in the church will the power of God be seen in the world.”

Sinclair Ferguson, Man Overboard!: The Story of Jonah

Application:

Jonah 3:6-10 teaches us that 

-  God delights in sovereignly showing compassion to those who repent from their sins

-  God does not spare us from every consequence of our sin but He gives a new identity in Christ

-  God uses our repentance to build up the church and the coming generations 

Benediction: 

Jude 20-25