Relentless | Part 3: When The Entire City Turns Around | Senior Pastor Keith Stewart

RELENTLESS
Part 3 | When The Entire City Turns Around
Senior Pastor Keith Stewart 
August 02, 2026

Have you ever secretly wondered if someone is beyond God's grace? The book of Jonah asks a far more uncomfortable question: What if the real problem isn't that God loves our enemies... but that we don't?
 
This weekend we'll discover why the greatest miracle in Jonah isn't a man swallowed by a great fish. It's an entire city transformed by the grace of God—and a prophet who still struggles to accept it.
 
What happens when God extends mercy to people we think don't deserve it? And what if the greatest obstacle to revival isn't "out there"... but in our own hearts?
 
Join us this Sunday for RELENTLESS – Part 3: When an Entire City Turns Around
 
You may discover that the hardest person for God to change isn't Nineveh... it's Jonah. And maybe, at times, it's us.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Icebreaker
 
1. Have you ever been given a second chance that changed the direction of your life? What happened?
 
Digging into the Passage
 
2. Jonah receives the exact same calling in chapter 3 that he received in chapter 1. What does that teach us about God's persistence and His purposes for our lives?
 
3. Why do you think the people of Nineveh responded so quickly while Jonah remained so resistant to God's grace?
 
4. One of the key ideas in the message was that "The Ninevites believed God," not simply Jonah. Why is that distinction important?
 
Going Deeper
 
5. The Hebrew word hapak can mean either "to overthrow" or "to transform." How does that deepen your understanding of what God intended for Nineveh?
 
6. The sermon suggested that judgment is God's last resort, while redemption is His delight. Where else do you see that pattern in Scripture or in your own life?
 
7. Jonah experienced extraordinary grace but struggled to extend grace to others. Why is it often easier to receive God's forgiveness than to celebrate it in someone else's life?
 
Personal Application
 
8. The sermon said: "We always believe more in the power of Nineveh than we do in the transforming power of God's grace." Where do you see that tendency in yourself or in today's culture?
 
9. Is there a person or group of people you find difficult to believe God could genuinely transform? What might that reveal about your own heart?
 
10. Near the end of the message we asked: "Will I allow Him to transform me?" What is one area of your life where God may be calling you to turn—to experience your own hapak?
 
Prayer
 
Spend time praying for three things:
•  A heart that celebrates God's grace wherever it appears.
•  The humility to recognize areas where prejudice, pride, or bitterness may still exist.
•  Courage to say "yes" to whatever transformation God wants to accomplish in your own life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Can I say amen to a course that just said Amen? Interesting. Perfect message or perfect song for this message because I'm going to tell you about the origin of the word amen in today's message. We've been in a series about the book of Jonah. I'm calling it relentless because it's all about God's relentless pursuit, not just of those far and away and outside of his kingdom, but of his own prophet as well. Today's message is going to be no different. If you're joining us for the very first time and you haven't been here for the first two parts in the series, you're not going to feel left out. I promise you, I'll give you enough background that you'll feel this message stands on its own. But you can always check out prior messages from Spring Creek on our YouTube channel. So we have a YouTube channel simply called Spring Creek Church, and you look that up and you'll find every message going back for like five or six years, I believe. So you can not miss out. Or if maybe there's a topic that I'm not addressing anytime soon, you can go there and you can find a lot of different topics from addiction to marriage to parenting, you name it, you can find it all there. It's a valuable resource. Well, today's message I'm calling when an entire city turns around. As we get started, let's pray. Father, we're grateful for the time we've had to worship, to lift up your name and song, to be reminded that you're here, that you literally inhabit the praise of your people. And because you're here, we're going to continue in that spirit of worship. Because worship is about keeping you central in our thoughts and in our heart. And we want to keep you central in everything we're thinking and all that we're feeling as we listen to your word. So God have freedom in today's service to do in, through, and for us what each and every one of us needs. In Jesus' name, amen. So last week, when we last saw Jonah, he was praying in the belly of the great fish. His prayer has been called a psalm of Jonah because he really literally employs the language of the psalm in his prayer. But unlike the Psalms of David, Jonah's prayer is not God-centered. It's very Jonah-centered. Without a doubt, the most troubling aspect of Jonah's prayer in Jonah chapter 2 is a total lack of repentance. I mean, there's not one word of, I'm sorry for what I've done, or even saying to God, you were right and I was wrong. Instead of brokenness, we find kind of a self-righteous prayer, condemning the Gentiles for their idolatry while lifting himself up as a true worshiper. And in light of that, it's amazing that God saves Jonah anyway. But like we learned last week, God gives Jonah grace because grace is what Jonah needs, not what he deserved. So God chooses Jonah. He's grumpy, he's got a bad attitude, he's filled with prejudice, he's the opposite of what a prophet should be. Even in the faith department, everybody in this book has more faith than Jonah. The sailors on the ship had more faith than Jonah. The people of Nineveh have more faith than Jonah. Quite possibly, even the whale had more faith than Jonah. I mean, literally, everybody you encounter in the book has more faith than he does. But God is free. God is free to choose the most unlikely people to do the most unlikely thing. It's just another example of how abundant God's grace really is. You have to remember God's choices are based on who he is, not who you are. In the same way, God is free to choose the Assyrians. He's free to love Nineveh, Jonah's sworn enemy. Even though they've done evil, even though they've disobeyed God's laws, even though they fought against God's people, God is free to show them grace because grace is based on who he is, not on who you are. This is the irony that the book returns to again and again. The irony is Jonah receives grace upon grace, on top of even more grace, but he can't extend an ounce of it to anybody else. Jonah resents the Assyrians receiving grace. And yet, Jonah is absolutely dependent on grace just to be alive. So this next chapter where we are today, chapter three, represents Jonah's wake-up call. And as we're going to see today, it didn't have nearly the effect on him as it should. Nevertheless, it's his second chance, his do-over, his new start. And that's where we pick up our story with the God of the second chance. So the focus of this chapter is all about this, another chance for Jonah. I want you to hear how the story begins in Jonah 3, 1 to 3. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I'm going to tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' wall. So we have here God repeating to Jonah exactly what he said in Jonah chapter 1. He tells him to go to Nineveh and say what he once said, to do what he once done. You could call this Jonah's recommissioning. He failed to follow God the first time. Now he's being given another shot to do it right. But think about this for a minute. All of Jonah's running and resisting of God, where has it gotten him? A lot of wasted time, a lot of wasted energy, a series of very negative experiences, yet he ends up right back where he started, much worse for the wear. It's an important lesson, I think we need to not forget. Even though God gives second chances, amen. Aren't you glad he gives second chances? I've been the recipient of a second, third, fourth, fifth, and etc. But even when God gives second chances, there's always consequences. Wounds heal, they still leave scars. And for those scars that we have, sometimes they're a reminder of the road we took instead of the one we were intended to take. But God is gracious, he's always drawing us back to Himself, always reconciling with us. I love the way John Ortberg said it. Redeeming is what God is into. He's the finder of directionally challenged sheep, the searcher of missing coins, the embracer of foolish prodigal sons, his favorite department is lost and found. So from the beginning, God's plan was for Jonah to preach to Nineveh. That was God's plan in chapter 1, verse 2. It's still God's plan here in chapter 3, verse 1. God's plan for Jonah has not changed one iota. Maybe this is what George Morrison, he was a well-known Scottish preacher from a previous generation. Maybe it's what he had in mind when he wrote the victorious Christian life is really nothing more than a series of new beginnings. I look back over the history of my walk with Jesus, and I would say, he's given me more new beginnings than I can count. Oftentimes, chances to begin again, to start anew in a fresh way. So Jonah's given a new beginning, but it represents something else. It's another chance for Nineveh. So in the book of Jonah, the writer tells us three times that Nineveh was a great city. In fact, verse 3 of this chapter literally says in the Hebrew, Nineveh was great to God. Now that's an amazing description. The Bible says that it was so large that it required three days just to walk across it. Now, think about Nineveh as kind of like the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. You have Dallas in the middle, it's ringed by all of these suburbs. Well, Nineveh was literally built the same way. There's Nineveh proper in the center, and then you have like these suburban areas, these other cities, five of them that ring the outside of Nineveh. That total uh circumference was 60 miles. So there's aqueducts, there's canals, there's huge gardens, huge walls. They say you could drive three chariots abreast side by side along the top of the walls of the city of Nineveh. The combined population of this area with Nineveh proper and the other cities was somewhere between 600,000 and a million people. So this is a big city for ancient day standards and maybe the biggest city in the world at the time. Now here's the thing to keep in mind: God wants the Ninevehes to know that judgment is coming, but not because he wants to destroy the Ninevites, because he wants to save them. Judgment is always God's last resort. You can see that in every page of the Bible. It's always his last choice. His preference is to save, his preference is to redeem, his preference is to bring people back from the brink. That's God's heart. It's why Peter wrote this. So God sends Jonah on a rescue mission. Since we're dealing with a prophet with bad attitude, it shouldn't surprise any of us to discover this next truth. It's the worst and shortest sermon ever. Now, I actually thought about calling today's message the worst sermon ever preached, but I was afraid you might think it was, I was talking about my own message today. And I really don't want to do that. I really want this to be good. But this message, I want us to delve into it. I want to tell you why I call this the worst and shortest sermon ever. So the first point is Jonah presented. On the very first day, Jonah enters the city. He proclaims 40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned. The sermon is short, very short, lacks any grace whatsoever. He basically says, Hey, you all are going to hell. I'm happy for it. Turn or burn, get right or get left. In the original Hebrew, the sermon's even shorter. It's only five words. That's it. No illustrations, no poems, no pithy little slogans, no alliteration. Doesn't even have a joke to lighten the mood. I mean, it's as if Jonah is saying, There you go, God. I did it. I preached what you wanted me to preach. I'm done. I'm out of here. But here's the crazy thing about this sermon. The worst sermon I've ever heard was used by God to become the most successful single sermon in history. Not because Jonah was well researched and well spoken, it had nothing to do with Jonah. What the Bible says in verse 5 is the Ninevehes believed God. It doesn't even say they believe Jonah, they believed God. The word believe in Hebrew is the word Amon, from which we get Amen. So when you say Amen, what you're saying is, I believe. I agree. Yes, that's true. So anytime you say amen, you're agreeing with the truth that a speaker or a person is speaking at the time. So of course we assume that there's more to Jonah's sermon than just those five Hebrew words. There likely was more to it than that. Scripture tends to record preaching and conversations as summaries or abbreviated versions of what was said. But in offering this as the summation of the sermon, the idea that Scripture wants to convey is that Jonah's message is harsh, it's direct, it's short, and little else. Here's the deal: it's easy to be amazed by the miracles in the book of Jonah. I mean, you should be amazed. In chapter one, when you see the storm at sea miraculously calmed in an instant, that should blow you away. When you see the prophet saved by the great fish, again, miracle. If I'd seen either of those things, I'd never forget it for the rest of my life. And probably you wouldn't either. But those miracles don't even come close to the miracle that happens in this chapter. One Bible commentator explained it like this: He said, Here is the record of nothing less than the greatest mass conversion in history. So get this. As Jonah tries to make a beeline to the exit, folks start mobbing him in the aisles. To his amazement, they're all saying the same thing. You're right. We want to repent. We want to get right with God. Tell us how to do that. There is nothing in the book of Jonah that explains why this happened. I mean, it could be that the sailors, you know, aboard the ship, the Phoenician sailors, maybe they arrived in the city before Jonah did. And they'd heard that testimony and it kind of set them up that something special was coming. It could be, like some scholars, like uh, who was it, John Hannah, suggested, that there was a total eclipse of the sun that occurred around the time of the writing of the book of Jonah. That could be the truth too. And the Assyrians would have interpreted that as a sign of divine anger. That could be the reason. But the truth is, we don't know why, apart from this being a genuine work of God. But what I can tell you for sure is this Billy Graham never experienced anything like this. When an entire city turns to God, you see, the most amazing thing about this book is not that Jonah is swallowed by a whale and lived to tell about it. It's that an entire city of hundreds of thousands of people responded to this message. The greatest revival in the history of the world happened because of a one-sentence sermon preached by a prophet who didn't want to be there, who was hoping the people wouldn't respond, who hated the people he was preaching to. What are the chances of that happening? Zero, apart from the work of God. Apart from God being a part of that message, that would never ever happen. But here's the deal: Nineveh is ripe for revival. Jonah didn't know that. God did. This was Jonah's moment, and the people responded in droves. Now, something along the same lines happens in the New Testament with Jesus in John chapter 4. Many of you know this story. It's a Samaritan woman. So Jesus meets this woman at the well. Now, here's the thing you have to remember. Jesus intentionally, the Bible says, goes through Samaria. Most Jewish people in the first century would avoid Samaria. The prejudice against Samaritans between Jews and Samaritans ran deep. And so they would literally go miles out of their way to go around the country of Samaria to go wherever their destination was taking them, but they wouldn't go through there. They hated, despised the people so much. But the Bible says Jesus needed to go, had to go through Samaria. And when he goes through Samaria, he meets this woman at the well. And you all are very familiar with that story. But at the same time, and this is the part of the story that very seldom gets told, at the same time, he sends his disciples into the Samaritan village to get bread. Alright? Now, we're only told the details of one of these encounters. But in the story, and John wants you to think about this, there's two encounters happening between Jews and Samaritans. Jesus with the woman at the well and the disciples in the city. We only know about Jesus and the woman with the well, but we're supposed to think about what's happening in the city. So get this. What ends up happening? Jesus breaks down years of animosity and intolerance and racial hate by talking to this woman. The conversation moves from asking for a drink of water, you remember the story, to talking about living water that could satisfy her spiritual thirst. Now the question becomes what's happening with the disciples in the city? Jesus has deliberately tasked them with going in to get bread. Do you think they're doing the same thing Jesus is doing at the well? Do you think they're going in there saying, listen, we need bread, but I want to tell you about the bread of life who's seated right outside this city, who can satiate your spiritual hunger like no other? Do you think the disciples did that? You know they didn't. You know how they we know that? Because of the reaction they have when they come out of the city. When they see Jesus talking to this woman, they are shocked. They're dismayed. How can Jesus be talking to this Samaritan woman? Yet God does a special work in this woman's life because Jesus talks to her, engages her. She goes into the town to tell people about Jesus. The next thing that happens, Jesus says to his disciples, Lift up your eyes and see the fields are white under harvest. That's what he says. Now imagine the moment he says that, you see this parade of people coming out of this Samaritan village, being led by that Samaritan woman. They are coming out to meet Jesus. Because this woman has gone into town telling everybody that the one who can satisfy their spiritual thirst, their spiritual hunger, is outside and you need to come meet him. She had an encounter with Jesus that changed her life. Now she wants everybody to be a part of that. So think about what Jesus is saying when he tells his disciples, the fields are whitened to harvest. It's ready to be picked. He's saying, these same people you passed by ignored and snubbed in the city. They were ready. They were primed. They wanted to respond to the good news. You just walked through a totally ripe field and didn't realize it was ready to be harvested. I had a short conversation with a woman who was a social outcast in her town. But the moment she became aware of who I am, she wanted to tell other people about me. They're here because she believed. But you, the disciples, you missed out on the miracle because you allowed your prejudice, your prejudgments towards Samaritans to get in the way of what God was longing to do. The people were ready to respond to the message. The field was ready to be harvested, and they were oblivious to what was going on around them. Now, what you need to understand is what happened in Jonah's day with how ready the Assyrians were to respond to this message, what happened in Jesus' day, and the Samaritans so ready to respond to this message is still happening today. And God is sending us into fields that are often ripe unto harvest. But you see, we form these prejudgments about certain types of people. And because we have these judgments about certain types of people, we're not open, we're not responsive, we're not ready to share the good news. We just assume they're too far from God to make a difference anyway. And we walk through ripe fields unaware. What the book of Jonah has challenged us to do is to lift up our eyes to see people the way God sees people so that we can love them the way He loves them and bring them into God's family. So are we going to be like the disciples who have their preformed judgments about a certain group of people and thereby are passed over for these opportunities? Or are we going to be like the Samaritan woman because we know who Jesus is, that we're infectious to let other people know about how Christ can truly transform their life. So back to our story. I'd like to share with you two ways of looking at Jonah's message. Now it's really interesting the word that God gives to Jonah. He tells them to prophesy against Nineveh that they would be overthrown in 40 days. The Hebrew word for overthrown is hapak. What you need to understand is there are two very distinct different meanings for the word hapak in the Old Testament. Hapak can mean judgment like what fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. So let me read that to you. Genesis 19, 25. Thus he, that's God, overthrew Hapak, those cities in the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities and also the vegetation of the land. I have no doubt that when Jonah preaches that God's going to overthrow the city, this is what he has in mind. God ash in a flash. Remember that? Do that thing again. What you did to Sodom and Gomorrah, do that to Nineveh. That's what Jonah's expecting. But here's the thing Hapak is used in an entirely different way in scripture, too. Not just overthrown or overturned, it can also mean to be turned from. In other words, transformed into something entirely new. And this meaning is actually probably more dominant than the other meaning. So let me show it to you. God turned, that's Hapak, the hearts of the Egyptians. That's Psalm 105. God turned the sea into dry land. That's a transformation, right? That's haph. God turned Balaam's curse into a blessing. That's haphak. God turned sadness into joy. God turned Moses' staff into a snake. That's all examples of hapak. Exact same word. Here's what I'm saying. Jonah is thinking, I hope God overthrows this city. God intended another kind of hapak, transformation rather than destruction. Jonah preaches one hapak, God's got an entirely different hapak in mind. God's preference has never been for destruction. His preference is always transformation because judgment is his last resort. Redemption is his delight. Which leads me to this, the posture of faith. I want you to notice what happens when Jonah declares this message. The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest of the least, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust. Now there's something in this verse that's easy to pass over, so I'm going to show you something a little bit about understanding story literature or narrative literature in the Bible. Notice how the Bible says the king arose. He says he arose from his throne. I'll explain why this is important. In Jonah chapter 1, God told Jonah to arise. Later, when he's down in the hull of the ship, the captain goes down beneath the lower decks and he finds Jonah and he tells him to arise. And then in Jonah chapter 3, the way this begins, God tells Jonah a second time to arise and go to Nineveh. What the writer is doing is building a theme. But look at whose turn it is now. Now it's the king who arose from his throne and put on sackcloth. He literally stood up when he heard the word of the Lord. Why is that important? Because it shows us how God wants his prophet to respond. Throughout this story, God's been telling Jonah, get up, arise, get busy doing what I've done. But when this king, who knew nothing of God, heard the word of the Lord for the first time, without any outside prompting whatsoever, he stands. Standing up is the posture of faith. It means I'm paying attention to what God is saying. I'm going to respond in the immediate. I'm putting myself in a position to receive more from God. God's prophet has to be repeatedly told to do this. But when This person, this king, is sensitized by God. He does it automatically without having to be told. Bottom line, scripture is reinforcing once again, the pagans respond better than God's prophet. So the king arose from his throne. In other words, he's taking God's word seriously. He takes off his robe. That's a demonstration of an act of submission. He covers himself with sackcloth. That's a demonstration of his brokenness. And then he sits in the dust, symbolizing repentance. A life that is growing spiritually is marked by humility. It's a foundational principle in Scripture. Listen to how Peter said it. Clothe yourself with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Jonah is filled with pride because he hates the Ninevites. It's now the pagan's turn to show this king, to show God's prophet how you're supposed to respond to God. Once again, God's word is contrasting how spiritually sensitive the outsiders are compared to his own hard-hearted prophet. So that tells me, don't be quick to judge how far people are from God. They might be closer than you think. And if your heart is filled with judgment and prejudice towards certain people, they are already closer to God than you are. Here's something else most preachers don't point out. Everybody in the story is an anti-Jonah. And what I mean by that is this: so in stories, you want to pay attention to characters and how they relate to one another. When Jonah was told to declare God's judgment on Nineveh, his first reaction is to rise, hop into a boat, get under the covers, and go to sleep. But when the king heard of God's judgment, he arose, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, sat in ashes. He does the complete opposite of Jonah. So he's an anti-Jonah, the opposite. Consider the people. With only one prophet who spoke a very brief and harsh message, they respond with zeal. When God gave Jonah very clear instructions, he resisted and he ran. So the people of Nineveh are an anti-Jonah. We already saw this in chapter one as well, didn't we? In chapter one, the sailors pray. Jonah doesn't pray. The sailors show compassion on Jonah. Jonah's not the least bit concerned for them. The sailors end up worshiping Yahweh while Jonah is in full retreat from Yahweh. The sailors are an anti-Jonah. These are the things you're supposed to notice when you're reading a story. Who are the characters? What do they do? What do they fail to do? And then when you compare them with one another, what do you learn from them? Then there's this Nineveh repented. Do you know the response to the world's shortest, worst sermon in the Bible? The Ninevehes did the unimaginable. They repented, they got right with God. So listen to the explanation. This is verses four through nine. Then Jonah began to walk through the city, one day's walk, and he cried out and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. Then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation, and it said, In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and let men call on God earnestly, that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish. Now it's significant that the Bible says the people believed God. Again, it doesn't say they believe Jonah, they believed God. Even though the prophet has less than pure motives, the people were still able to hear God speaking through his message. There's absolutely no parallel for this anywhere else in the Bible. Jonah was the most successful evangelist in the history of the world, with more than 120,000 converts in a single day. Think about that. It never happened when Jesus was preaching, not that many. Not with Paul. Even in the New Testament, the greatest day of salvation, the day of Pentecost, 3,000 people gave their life to Jesus Christ. This is far exponentially more than any of that. It is the greatest revival in the history of Scripture. The Ninevites heard one sermon from one preacher, a sermon that emphasized wrath, not love, yet they repented and were forgiven. That's all it took to straighten out an entire city. Why? Because they were ripe. They were ready. The good news spread like wildfire. The king, the government officials, community leaders, ordinary Jones and average James, they're all repenting. They even made their cows sit in ashes and sackcloth. Will Willeman, he's a well-known bishop in the Methodist Church, he said, You preach in such a way as to provoke bovine repentance? That's impressive. When you get the cows repenting for the things you're saying, I mean, that really is. That's an impressive sermon. So the king stood up, a sign of his serious intent. He removes his royal robes, a sign of his humility. He covers himself with sackcloth, a sign of his mourning. He sat in the dust as a sign of his repentance. The mighty king of Nineveh knows he's guilty. So he throws himself on the mercy of God. Now here's the deal. Most people think when it comes to sermons, their primary purpose is to teach listeners. And that's true. But as someone who's preached and delivered sermons all my life, let me let you on a little secret. I always learn more from my sermons than you ever will. You spend 40 minutes listening to me on a Sunday morning. I spend on average about 20 plus hours a week wrestling with its content. You hear me read a text one time. I've read, reread, re-reread that over and over again. It's in my thoughts and my prayers for the better part of a week. So the byproduct of my sermon preparation is I learn more from my messages than anybody who's ever listened to them ever will. And there's always pages and pages of stuff left over that didn't make the final cut. Now I wish I could say that Jonah learned from his message too. But everything in this book suggests otherwise. The conversion of the pagans on board the ship, all of them becoming worshipers of Yahweh, what effect did that have on Jonah's view of the lost people outside of Israel? None. God's miraculous deliverance of the prophet through the great fish, even though he didn't deserve it, even though he never confessed being wrong, did Jonah finally understand God's abundant grace? No. And now, even though he's put as little preparation as he could into this sermon and truly wishes his audience would all go to hell, he just has single-handedly witnessed the greatest mass conversion in history. Does Jonah finally get it? No, he does not. He still doesn't get it. You see, at this point, Jonah should really be the foremost expert on grace who's ever lived, shouldn't he? He's been the recipient of massive grace. But somehow that grace doesn't get communicated over into his belief system or his actions. And then finally, God relented. So in verse 10 it says, when God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he declared he would bring upon them, and he did not do it. God relents when we repent. He doesn't bring judgment, he brings forgiveness. In another place, God says, if I threaten to uproot and shatter any evil nation, and that nation turns from its evil, I will change my mind. God is saying, if people will turn, I will change. Now, God changing his mind is not some impulsive or whimsical act. It's pre-planned. It's a part of this small print in the final contract. God is so committed to our restoration that he pre-plans to relent when we repent. He determines ahead of time that if we will return to him, he'll welcome us home. So there is a God who's in Scripture who doesn't act according to script. God is powerful and God is free. He's powerful enough to bring the mightiest nation to its knees and never doubt that. He did it with five little words from a surly preacher who hoped no one would listen to him. God is not bound by our agendas. God is not bound by our prejudice or by our plans. He is free. He's free to have his own agenda, free to have compassion on the Ninevites. He may not like what they're doing, but he's still free to love them, to reform them, and redeem them. The irony in the story is this: all of us like God's grace in our lives, but we're not sure we can trust it in other people's lives, especially people we don't like. We're suspicious of the conversions of people that we find unacceptable. We think if they're so unacceptable to me, then surely they must be unacceptable to God too. We find it hard to believe that people can really change. Well, let's call that what it really is. That's the Jonas syndrome. That's pride, that's arrogance. It's a perverse satisfaction in finding wrong in other people. Here's the problem in a nutshell. We always believe more in the power of Nineveh than we do in the transforming power of God's grace. This is so important, let me say it again. We always believe more in the power of Nineveh than we do in the transforming power of God's grace. Alice Cooper was an immensely popular rock musician. Every baby boomer recognizes his name. He was the first shock rock act. That made him the epitome of everything critics hate about rock and roll: rebellion, immorality, excess, like few others have ever been. But a lot of people were surprised when it was announced that Alice Cooper converted to Christianity. Evidently, he gave his life to Jesus Christ back in 1995 and has been involved in a Bible church in Phoenix, Arizona. I've even read that he sings in the choir and he helps out in the nursery. Now, can you imagine for just a minute a new family showing up at church with their baby and going to the nursery, and it's Alice Cooper there to receive your baby. Now, the most surprising aspect of this story is not that this former man of darkness is now a believer. The most surprising aspect of this story is the number of Christians who don't believe it. It makes me wonder which miracle is really harder to believe? That Alice Cooper became a Christian, or that the grace of God could actually transform someone like him? Listen to his words as a believer. Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's real rebellion. So he came to understand what it meant to really embrace Jesus Christ as his leader, and he knows he's swimming against the stream now. So there's a lot of lessons in Jonah. Grace is the biggest one of them all. He'll extend it to whomever he chooses. Anybody who puts a fence around God's grace is on dangerous ground. You better be careful about who you declare is in and who's out. No matter what you may tell yourself, it's God's pleasure to redeem the lost. Because it doesn't matter what they've done or where they've been. It doesn't matter how deep the hole or deep the shame. God knows the heart and he honors genuine repentance. The message of Jonah is God is into changing lives, and he'll go to great lengths to do that. So the question becomes: can God save Jonah? That's the real question the story is asking. What will become of the prophet who doesn't love what God loves? Stay tuned because there's one more chapter of the story, and we'll go there next week. So as we close today, there's one final thing I want to point out and we'll be done. Jesus goes to this story in the New Testament. Jesus quotes from this story. Got two powerful lessons he's going to draw from it, but I want to show you what he had to say. He does this in response to the scribes and the Pharisees. Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, Teacher, we want a sign from you. He answered, A wicked and adulterous generation, asked for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. So the Pharisees, you get this story, they're asking for another sign. And Jesus goes to the book of Jonah to address this issue they're bringing up. In particular, he's going to cite two lessons from it. The first lesson is about the sign request itself. Jesus promised there would be one final sign that would be given. He calls it the sign of Jonah. In the same way that Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, Jesus said, I'll be in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights. In other words, the resurrection would be the final sign to Israel. His death, burial, and resurrection is irrefutable proof that he is the Messiah. But there's one more lesson that Jesus would not leave untouched: the parallel between Nineveh and the scribes and the Pharisees. Now, Jesus points out to these religious Noadals that the Ninevites immediately repented at the preaching of Jonah, and they had far less evidence. They had no signs and miracles like what Jesus had already performed in their presence. They had no extensive teaching like what Jesus had done among them every day teaching. They didn't have decades of learning from God's word what to look for in the coming Messiah. What they had was a lousy, short, five-word sermon, and still they believed. If the crowds of Jonah's day were persuaded by so little, if the Ninevehes could repent with very little evidence, then the problem with the Jewish leaders was not a lack of evidence. The real problem is not about evidence at all. Because then the problem wouldn't be solved by another sign. Their problem was the same as Jonah's problem. No amount of evidence in the world can change the heart and mind of someone who willfully rejects truth. Hearts that are open to God quickly respond to their need and to and they respond to that. Those that aren't won't. So Jesus is making clear. Now listen to this. This is real important. Jesus is saying this. The book of Jonah is a warning to religious bigots. The Ninevites didn't have what the Pharisees did. So Jesus said, Come judgment day, the Ninevites will rise up, and they're going to say, We converted with nothing but the lousy preaching of Jonah. But we knew that was God talking to us. You had everything. You had pages and pages from God's word in Scripture. You had prophet after prophet coming to you. You had God Himself in human flesh, Jesus Christ among you, showing you the way, performing incredible signs, teaching you, and that wasn't enough for you? That's hogwash. This is not about your mind and your heart not being convinced. This is about your stubborn willfulness. So if that's Jesus' message to the Pharisees of his day, what are the implications for us? If the people of Nineveh will rise up on judgment day and stand as witnesses against the Pharisees, what does that say to us? Those of us who have the entire historical record of all of this recorded in the pages of the Bible. Who have not one but multiple Bibles, including reference Bibles scattered throughout our home. Who have resources multiplied beyond number at our fingertips through our computer and through our smartphones. So that on that final day, no one can honestly say, I didn't know. You see, every one of us is being turned into something. Either our pride is going to harden us or grace is going to transform us. Nineveh was turned. Jonah resisted being turned. The Pharisees refused to be turned. The real question of this book has never been, can God transform Nineveh? That was easy peasy. It was a piece of cake, no problem at all. The real question has been why allow him to transform me? See, God speaks his hapak. And some of us think, well, that's just judgment. The hard times are gonna fall. No, God's intention is transformation in that. So he's inviting you to turn from darkness to light, from shame to grace, from death to life. Each and every one of us is responding to God in one direction or the other. The only question is which direction, really. So I want to do something to close with this message. I don't always do on a Sunday morning, but just being aware that many times we have people in our audience who maybe their first time to Spring Creek, maybe the first time to church in years. And maybe for the first time, you're understanding that God really does love you incredibly. And maybe you're understanding that Jesus did die for you, that he was buried, he rose again. And because he's a living savior, he can enter your life and transform it in ways that you can't even imagine. And I just want to invite you, if you do not know him, if you do not claim to be a Christ follower, to begin that today. You say, but Pastor, I don't have all my questions answered. Neither do I. Okay? More than 50 years of following Jesus, I still got questions. Got a list when I'm in God's presence. Okay, God. This one, I promise, it's the last one. And we'll go through those questions. Having questions, that's not the issue. Settling the big question is you were made by God, you were loved by God, you were loved by Him in an indescribable way. He died for you, gave His life for you, was buried, He rose again, He's living today, He wants to live in you. And so when I call and I ask God to enter my life, that I want to become a Christ follower, I'm saying, God, I'm taking the first step. What I'm saying is, God, I want you to do in through and for me what I can't do for myself. This is not about self-transformation. This is not about you making a new resolution in your heart. This is about God being invited into your life to change you from the inside out. And so I'm gonna pray a simple prayer that you can join me in. And if you mean this sincerely in your heart, I promise you God will do for you what he did for me and countless others. And I also want to challenge every believer in this room that the book of Jonah is a very serious message to God's people about who we count as in and who we count as out. And that we better be very cautious before we ever say that somebody's unreachable. God can reach into every crevice no matter how deep. God can redeem every life if they're willing. And God is in that business of changing lives today. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to walk through a ripe field not knowing that someone with the simplest of words would say yes to Jesus just because I stopped to have a conversation. That's the challenge of Jonah, that's the challenge of John chapter 4. Are we aware that we're surrounded by people every day of our life who are ready, willing, and able to respond to God's call, but they just need an invitation. Let's pray. Father, I just want to pray for anybody in this room who would not consider themselves a Christian today, who've not surrendered their life to you. And though they still have many questions, don't we all? I pray that they would take that first step of faith to act on what they do know instead of what they don't know. That they would say, Jesus, I want you in my life. I don't understand it all. I want you to help me to understand it better. But I know enough to know that you made me, that you love me, that you died for me, you rose again. And I'm asking you to come into my life. I can't change myself, I can't change my want to, I can't change my have to, I can't change any of that. But you can. So, God, do in me and through me and for me what I can't do for myself. I confess, I'm a sinner. To be a sinner means I choose my own way. And I've been choosing my own way instead of your way for all my life. And now, God, today I'm choosing your way. So, God help somebody to pray that simple prayer, to mean it in their heart, and to know that you respond to the sincere desires of our heart. And I pray for every Christ follower in this room that we would take the message of Jonah to heart, that we would think about how easy it is that we can make a judgment call about certain people being beyond redemption, being beyond your loving touch, and at the same time be walking among those people, and many of them ready to respond to the invitation of Jesus Christ. And we could be in on that if we could just go looking at people through your eyes and loving them where they are and inviting them in to a lifestyle that will change them forever because of what Christ has done for them and what Christ will do in them. So, God, use us all for your kingdom. Help us to be aware that there are people surrounding us every single day who just need a word from God, and you would be pleased that we would be the conduit. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless y'all.