Dave Hentschel: Allow me to begin this morning with a true story.
Dave Hentschel: Travel back with me to the year 1956.
Dave Hentschel: When you get there, you're gonna find five young missionaries who landed on a sandbar in the Ecuadorian jungle.
Dave Hentschel: Among them was Jim Elliott.
Dave Hentschel: Jim Elliott was convinced that there was this one tribe who never had heard about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Dave Hentschel: The tribe was known as the Warani people.
Dave Hentschel: Back then they would refer to them as the Alka Indians.
Dave Hentschel: Everyone knew about this tribe, everyone knew the danger.
Dave Hentschel: The tribe had this reputation for violence.
Dave Hentschel: Their friends warned them not to go.
Dave Hentschel: Their families understood the risk that was involved here as well.
Dave Hentschel: But for Jim and for his friends, he believed deep down in his heart that there wasn't a people that were beyond the reach of God's amazing grace.
Dave Hentschel: Years earlier, he had famously written some words down that we all probably know when he said this he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Dave Hentschel: Jim understood that his life didn't really belong to him, that his life belonged to Jesus Christ, who had purchased him.
Dave Hentschel: And if Christ had given him his grace, how could he now withhold that grace from others who had never heard?
Dave Hentschel: So on January 8th, 1956, Jim and the team of four other missionaries made contact with the tribe.
Dave Hentschel: Instead of receiving them peacefully, what we know is that the missionaries were speared to death.
Dave Hentschel: There was a documentary produced which told that entire story called The End of the Spear.
Dave Hentschel: Many people back then, and maybe even many people today, conclude that that was a tragic waste.
Dave Hentschel: But the truth is that God was just beginning to write that story.
Dave Hentschel: It was just a few years later when Jim's widow, Elizabeth Elliott, along with Nate Saint's widow, Rachel Saint, decided that they were going to go back, that they were gonna return to pursue the very people who killed their husbands.
Dave Hentschel: They did not come there seeking revenge.
Dave Hentschel: They came there offering this tribe a second chance.
Dave Hentschel: They came there offering this tribe the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Dave Hentschel: And by God's grace, over time, through a miraculous series of events, a great number of Warani people, including the very men who were involved in those killings, placed their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dave Hentschel: The tribe has been transformed by the power of the gospel today.
Dave Hentschel: Here we are, a generation later.
Dave Hentschel: There are Warrani believers, there are Warani pastors, there are churches amongst the Warani people, and they are there because one person believed that God's grace was worth risking something to proclaim it.
Dave Hentschel: He is no fool who gains what he cannot keep, who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Dave Hentschel: Amen.
Dave Hentschel: But we are all sent.
Dave Hentschel: We all have neighbors, we all have coworkers.
Dave Hentschel: You like me, all have family members that are far from God, and God has placed them around us, and some of them may be difficult to love at times.
Dave Hentschel: So this morning I want to ask you a simple question, and I think it's driven from the text.
Dave Hentschel: The question is this Where is God calling you?
Dave Hentschel: But you're kind of afraid to go.
Dave Hentschel: Where is God calling you, but you're afraid to go?
Dave Hentschel: A family member, a friend, a coworker, maybe it's even somewhere beyond those individuals.
Dave Hentschel: The book of Jonah is asking a very similar question.
Dave Hentschel: God had told Jonah to go to a people who were violent, to go to this people who were wicked, to go to this people who were dangerous.
Dave Hentschel: Nineveh was the last place that Jonah wanted to be.
Dave Hentschel: Yet God's purpose was not merely to go there and announce his wrath and judgment, it was to extend grace.
Dave Hentschel: It was to offer them a second chance.
Dave Hentschel: And that's what this passage is about.
Dave Hentschel: And so the title of my message today is The God of Second Chances.
Dave Hentschel: And as you read through the text, it pretty easily divides into three distinct movements.
Dave Hentschel: You're gonna see God calls, you're gonna see the people repent, and then you're gonna see God forgives.
Dave Hentschel: That's the plan.
Dave Hentschel: Let's pray and ask the Holy Spirit for help here.
Dave Hentschel: Heavenly Father, as we open your word, give us ears to hear what your spirit is not only saying to your church, but to us, to our hearts.
Dave Hentschel: Just as you call Jonah a second time, I know that your grace pursues undeserving people like me.
Dave Hentschel: So humble our hearts, where we have maybe become resistant to your will, and strengthen us again in a fresh way to obey your voice without delay.
Dave Hentschel: Would you fill us with the compassion of the Savior for those that are far from you?
Dave Hentschel: Forgive us for relating to this thing like it's a burden and not a blessing, like it's a pain and not a privilege.
Dave Hentschel: So may your word accomplish exactly what you intend today.
Dave Hentschel: If there are folks here today who don't know you, would you draw them to repentance?
Dave Hentschel: Encourage weary saints here with your mercy.
Dave Hentschel: And make us all into a church, into a people, eager to proclaim the best news in all of the world, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior who offers a second chance.
Dave Hentschel: For we pray it in his name.
Dave Hentschel: And everyone said, Amen.
Dave Hentschel: All right, we left off last time.
Dave Hentschel: Oliver Aridi did a fantastic job.
Dave Hentschel: What an amazing young man.
Dave Hentschel: He ended with chapter 2, verse 10.
Dave Hentschel: Remember what that said?
Dave Hentschel: It said this, and the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah was vomited up onto the beach.
Dave Hentschel: Beach barf.
Dave Hentschel: Pretty gross.
Dave Hentschel: But there's really only two ways you could get out of that whale, and I guess this is be the preferred way that you would want to get out of that whale if you had to choose.
Dave Hentschel: Now, I recognize this account in the Bible, like maybe some other miraculous accounts in the Bible, seem extreme.
Dave Hentschel: And for that reason, I recognize that some people find this story to be very hard to believe.
Dave Hentschel: And I want to encourage you just with a little fact here.
Dave Hentschel: There have been documented cases, they are rare, but there are cases of human beings surviving, being swallowed and vomited back up by whales.
Dave Hentschel: You probably saw this one last year, it caught my attention, February 2025.
Dave Hentschel: There was this 24-year-old kayaker, his name was Adrian.
Dave Hentschel: He was in the Strait of Magellan near Punta Arenas, Chile, and this humpback whale suddenly surfaced right underneath of him, swallows him and his kayak, and the whale engulfs the whole person and then releases him a little while later.
Dave Hentschel: His dad was kayaking right next to him, and he had his phone and he videoed the whole thing.
Dave Hentschel: Go to YouTube and just watch that video.
Dave Hentschel: And it's unbelievable.
Dave Hentschel: As they interviewed this young man later, he described it.
Dave Hentschel: He described the darkness, he described the stinkiness, he described the slimy surface that he experienced in there before he was spit back out.
Dave Hentschel: And amazingly, this dude was uninjured, but understandably shaken up a little bit.
Dave Hentschel: Just go to YouTube after church, enjoy that story.
Dave Hentschel: It's unreal.
Dave Hentschel: I say that just to say that's not the only documented case.
Dave Hentschel: This has happened, it's rare, but the story's not as far-fetched as you might think.
Dave Hentschel: It reminds me of a funny story about a little girl who was riding on an airplane.
Dave Hentschel: The little girl was reading her Bible, and she happened to be sitting right next to an older man who was skeptical.
Dave Hentschel: And the older man who was skeptical turned to this little girl and said, What are you reading?
Dave Hentschel: She said, Well, I'm reading my Bible.
Dave Hentschel: And he said, Oh, I, you know, I don't know if I believe that book.
Dave Hentschel: I don't know if I believe that Bible.
Dave Hentschel: What are you reading in the Bible?
Dave Hentschel: She goes, Well, I'm I'm reading the book of Jonah.
Dave Hentschel: He goes, That's a perfect example.
Dave Hentschel: Do you really believe that?
Dave Hentschel: Do you really believe that a man could get swallowed by a fish and somehow survive all of that?
Dave Hentschel: And the little girl was, yeah, I believe it, and it's in the Bible.
Dave Hentschel: And the guy goes, Well, how's that possible?
Dave Hentschel: How could he possibly survive that?
Dave Hentschel: And the little girl goes, Well, I don't know.
Dave Hentschel: When I get to heaven, I'll ask him.
Dave Hentschel: And the guy goes, Well, what if you get to heaven and he's not there?
Dave Hentschel: She goes, Well, then you ask him.
Dave Hentschel: All right, these are the jokes, folks.
Dave Hentschel: For context, remember, there are two major scenes in the book of Jonah.
Dave Hentschel: Some of you'll get that later.
Dave Hentschel: There are two major scenes in the book of Jonah, scene one, scene two.
Dave Hentschel: They are almost identical in their structure.
Dave Hentschel: I love a good chart, but this is not just to show you a cool literary device.
Dave Hentschel: What this chart is showing you is demonstrating a theological principle that happens all over the Bible.
Dave Hentschel: And the principle is this: first, God does a work in you, and then he uses you to do a work in others.
Dave Hentschel: That's what our God loves to do.
Dave Hentschel: He loves to take a person, to redeem them, to clean them up, to take them out of a certain environment, and then after having done his sanctifying work, calls them back to go back into that same environment and carry his news of grace to others.
Dave Hentschel: That's what's happening right here.
Dave Hentschel: As we enter into scene two, we realize Jonah first was saved himself, and now who better to carry the message of salvation than him who had just experienced that?
Dave Hentschel: Jonah is now more prepared than anyone else to go.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah had sinned and Jonah was forgiven.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah had suffered and Jonah was now delivered.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah had prayed and Jonah received an answer, and now that experience has now uniquely qualified him to bring that same message of God's grace to the people of Nineveh.
Dave Hentschel: What past experiences might you have that have uniquely qualified you for God to use you in your life?
Dave Hentschel: And that brings us to our text today.
Dave Hentschel: As we look at scene two, we pick it up with chapter three and verse one.
Dave Hentschel: You say that was just the introduction?
Dave Hentschel: Yes, that was just the introduction.
Dave Hentschel: Buckle your seatbelts.
Dave Hentschel: Chapter three, verse one says this.
Dave Hentschel: Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.
Dave Hentschel: Everybody say, second time, second time, yes.
Dave Hentschel: Notice carefully what came the second time.
Dave Hentschel: Not forgiveness, not comfort, not an apology, not a new assignment.
Dave Hentschel: The word.
Dave Hentschel: Friends, God's grace often comes to us in the form of the word every Sunday, every quiet time, every conviction, every rebuke, every gospel invitation, the word comes again a second time.
Dave Hentschel: How many of you in here are thankful for second chances?
Dave Hentschel: How many in here are grateful that we serve a God who not only calls, but he calls back?
Dave Hentschel: Can I get a good amen?
Dave Hentschel: We couldn't save ourselves.
Dave Hentschel: We all needed a do-over.
Dave Hentschel: We all needed a second chance.
Dave Hentschel: We're not saved by works, we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Dave Hentschel: We come to this God and we thank him that no matter who you are and what you've done or how much you messed up, we have a God of second chances who says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord can be saved.
Dave Hentschel: In some ways, this is the story of the whole Bible.
Dave Hentschel: The Bible's filled with people who needed a second chance, who failed, and God in his grace pursued them a second time and he used them.
Dave Hentschel: Moses was a murderer.
Dave Hentschel: David was an adulterer.
Dave Hentschel: Rahab was a prostitute.
Dave Hentschel: Zacchaeus was a corrupt tax collector.
Dave Hentschel: Peter denied the Lord three times.
Dave Hentschel: Thomas doubted the resurrection.
Dave Hentschel: Yet the God of the Bible displays his grace for his people again and again and again.
Dave Hentschel: Isn't that your story too?
Dave Hentschel: I thank God for the story of my own salvation in my life.
Dave Hentschel: I thank God that the word of the Lord came to me a second time.
Dave Hentschel: That's what's happening here.
Dave Hentschel: And what did God say to do?
Dave Hentschel: Look at verse 2.
Dave Hentschel: It says, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.
Dave Hentschel: Notice a couple things going on here.
Dave Hentschel: First, that phrase at the beginning, arise, go, means go, go now, go immediately, go today.
Dave Hentschel: This is an imperative command.
Dave Hentschel: No time to waste.
Dave Hentschel: I think there's a principle here that we need to learn, and it's this whenever God speaks to you, do it now, do it immediately, do it today.
Dave Hentschel: Whenever God prompts you to do something, do it now, do it immediately, do it today.
Dave Hentschel: Not later.
Dave Hentschel: You know, sometimes Julie and I would run into these other parents that had this technique of parenting their little kids and they had the counting method.
Dave Hentschel: You know the counting method when kids are disobeying?
Dave Hentschel: They're disobeying and then the parents start this countdown, like one, two.
Dave Hentschel: Julie and I were not having any of that.
Dave Hentschel: We had something called first-time obedience.
Dave Hentschel: We're not counting to nothing, okay?
Dave Hentschel: That's what God wants.
Dave Hentschel: God wants us to have first-time obedience.
Dave Hentschel: Now we all know Jonah did not have first-time obedience.
Dave Hentschel: But here, this second time, it's a different story.
Dave Hentschel: And what a different scenario it is.
Dave Hentschel: Now, Jonah gets this message, and his response is, here I am, send me.
Dave Hentschel: And that needs to be our response to.
Dave Hentschel: In fact, church, would you say that with me?
Dave Hentschel: Here I am, send me.
Dave Hentschel: Amen.
Dave Hentschel: Notice the message that Jonah's supposed to give.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah's not to give his own message.
Dave Hentschel: Did you see that?
Dave Hentschel: The message that I will tell you.
Dave Hentschel: This is God's message.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah does not get to decide the content of the preaching himself.
Dave Hentschel: No, his conscience is held captive by the word of God.
Dave Hentschel: And my friends, the same is true today.
Dave Hentschel: The gospel of Jesus Christ is ours to proclaim, it is not ours to edit.
Dave Hentschel: My friends, there is not anyone, no matter how great of a minister you are, or how learned you are, or how acute you are, or how educated you are, that you don't have to observe this same exact rule.
Dave Hentschel: Whether that's James, whether that's Peter, the rock, whether that's Paul the Apostle, or any preacher today, Galatians 1 says, if anyone comes preaching another gospel than the one you've already received, let them be accursed.
Dave Hentschel: We are to give the message that God tells us to give.
Dave Hentschel: Verse 3 continues.
Dave Hentschel: It says this, so Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.
Dave Hentschel: Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breath.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah began to go into the city going a day's journey.
Dave Hentschel: This is fascinating.
Dave Hentschel: First of all, notice it says Jonah arose, and you may remember from back in chapter one that Jonah was constantly going down, down, down, down.
Dave Hentschel: Here we have the opposite.
Dave Hentschel: Now Jonah is beginning to obey, and he's going up, up, up.
Dave Hentschel: And that's what happens when you get back into the will of God.
Dave Hentschel: You go up, up, up.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah arose.
Dave Hentschel: Secondly, here is a man who has crossed into enemy lines.
Dave Hentschel: He is now into Assyria, and he is deep into this strange territory.
Dave Hentschel: He's a third of the way in.
Dave Hentschel: And he's bold, but he's alone.
Dave Hentschel: Think of what he might be seeing here in this great city.
Dave Hentschel: As he looks around, what a contrast to Joppa or to Jerusalem.
Dave Hentschel: Here he would have seen pagan temples dedicated to false gods.
Dave Hentschel: Here he would have come across tombs and monuments to other deities.
Dave Hentschel: He probably saw great military power as he walked through this city.
Dave Hentschel: And he probably also saw terrible things happening in the city of Nineveh.
Dave Hentschel: So Jonah goes and he preaches this message.
Dave Hentschel: And what does he say?
Dave Hentschel: What is his message?
Dave Hentschel: Now, if you go to seminary and you want to be a pastor, they have these preaching classes and you're supposed to learn how to preach.
Dave Hentschel: And they teach you how to do introductions.
Dave Hentschel: And usually they say you should craft an introduction with some care and some skill.
Dave Hentschel: And the common advice is to start with something soft.
Dave Hentschel: Start with a story or start with something inviting, some kind of hook or something like that.
Dave Hentschel: Give a gentle intro.
Dave Hentschel: If you're given the gospel, you know, start with this: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, that kind of thing.
Dave Hentschel: So this is the way they teach you to craft sermon introductions.
Dave Hentschel: I just want you to notice that Jonah completely missed that preaching class.
Dave Hentschel: Okay, so uh the text goes on to tell us this.
Dave Hentschel: This is what he said.
Dave Hentschel: It says, and he called out, quote, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Dave Hentschel: Now Jonah probably said more than this, but this was the summary, this was the gist of his message.
Dave Hentschel: And so he goes around to different locations throughout the city preaching with this warning: This city will be overthrown or destroyed.
Dave Hentschel: Same Hebrew construction as we read in Genesis 19, with the city of Sodom and Gomorrah being overthrown or destroyed.
Dave Hentschel: That's his message.
Dave Hentschel: Here it says that he gave them 40 days.
Dave Hentschel: 40 days in the scripture is oftentimes a period of time associated with having an encounter with God.
Dave Hentschel: And so Jonah wants these people, God, through Jonah, wants to give these people an encounter with himself.
Dave Hentschel: And I wonder as Jonah goes around preaching this message, what in the world is going through his mind?
Dave Hentschel: I wonder, what is he thinking?
Dave Hentschel: Well, he's probably thinking, this is so dumb.
Dave Hentschel: These people hate God.
Dave Hentschel: These people hate me.
Dave Hentschel: There's no way they're gonna listen to me.
Dave Hentschel: This isn't gonna work.
Dave Hentschel: Now, some of you, you might be thinking the same thing.
Dave Hentschel: In other words, you've got somebody in your life and you're like, I don't think this person's gonna listen to me.
Dave Hentschel: Maybe it's your parents, maybe it's your friend, maybe one of your siblings, maybe one of your children.
Dave Hentschel: Whoever it is, I want to encourage you not to underestimate the power of the word of God.
Dave Hentschel: God's word does what he wants it to do.
Dave Hentschel: The scripture tells us really clearly: God's word never returns empty or void.
Dave Hentschel: It accomplishes his purpose.
Dave Hentschel: The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.
Dave Hentschel: Here we have one of the most powerful moves of the Holy Spirit in the whole Bible, at least in the whole Old Testament.
Dave Hentschel: Nineveh was 500,000 strong.
Dave Hentschel: That's the size of Atlanta, Georgia.
Dave Hentschel: Just imagine all of Atlanta, Georgia turning to God.
Dave Hentschel: Just imagine a revival of that size.
Dave Hentschel: And here, Jonah preached like the shortest evangelistic sermon I think I've ever seen.
Dave Hentschel: There's no invitation, there's no stories, there's no illustrations, there's no worship team.
Dave Hentschel: John and Amy aren't coming up afterwards to have a closing song.
Dave Hentschel: There's no altar call.
Dave Hentschel: Yet we see revival.
Dave Hentschel: And do you know why?
Dave Hentschel: It's because salvation belongs to the Lord.
Dave Hentschel: I say that to encourage you.
Dave Hentschel: You might be a lay person, you may have an opportunity to share Christ.
Dave Hentschel: You're not formally trained in the ministry, you're not exactly sure what you're gonna say, and you're going, Do I really have what it takes to articulate the gospel?
Dave Hentschel: The answer is yes.
Dave Hentschel: You do not need a lot of sophisticated information to be able to share the simple message of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dave Hentschel: What happens here comes from a simple message.
Dave Hentschel: What happened to the Warani people when Elizabeth Elliott and Rachel Saint went back to minister the gospel to them was a result of the simple grace of God.
Dave Hentschel: And God used them mightily, and God wants to use you too.
Dave Hentschel: Here at NBC, we have one of the most robust missions programs that I have ever encountered.
Dave Hentschel: And we are doing this each and every day.
Dave Hentschel: So good to hear from missionaries every single week during this series.
Dave Hentschel: Now, some people struggle with this.
Dave Hentschel: Some people struggle with the whole concept of missions.
Dave Hentschel: And especially if you look at the data and the statistics, there are people, especially in the younger generations in Gen Z who object to missions in general.
Dave Hentschel: So when we hear stories like Jimmy Elliott's story or some other missionary work, they perceive that as a form of cultural imperialism or colonialism.
Dave Hentschel: And if that's your perspective, I just want to lovingly argue with you for just a minute by answering that question.
Dave Hentschel: Is global Christian missions unethical?
Dave Hentschel: Well, the first way I would answer that question is I would say, actually, let me acknowledge that sadly, there have been times in history where political conquest and the spread of Christianity have become intertwined in unhealthy ways and in sinful ways.
Dave Hentschel: And Christians should be honest about those failures and never defend coercion or exploitation.
Dave Hentschel: But I also want to say that that's not what happened with Jim Elliott.
Dave Hentschel: They were not backed by an army or a government or economic power.
Dave Hentschel: This wasn't the Crusades.
Dave Hentschel: They didn't come to seize land or extract resources or impose political control.
Dave Hentschel: Actually, they came willing to give their lives, not take somebody else's life.
Dave Hentschel: And because they simply believed the message of the Great Commission that every single people, regardless of culture or language, deserved an opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and freely respond, they decided to go.
Dave Hentschel: In that sense, Jim Elliott's story is closer to Jonah than colonialism.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah, like that, was sent not to conquer Nineveh, but to Preach.
Dave Hentschel: God did not send an empire, he sent one prophet.
Dave Hentschel: His mission was not domination, it was an invitation.
Dave Hentschel: And we have the same kind of message when we engage in global missions today.
Dave Hentschel: It's an invitation.
Dave Hentschel: So this was Jonah's message.
Dave Hentschel: It was blunt, it was brief.
Dave Hentschel: By all human reasoning, this should have failed.
Dave Hentschel: But what happens next is one of the most surprising moves of God in all of history.
Dave Hentschel: Part two.
Dave Hentschel: The people repent.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah preaches.
Dave Hentschel: Look what happens.
Dave Hentschel: Verse 5.
Dave Hentschel: It says, And the people of Nineveh believed God.
Dave Hentschel: This is a miracle.
Dave Hentschel: They didn't just believe in God, they believed God.
Dave Hentschel: Hebrews chapter 11 says, if anyone wants to come to God, first they must believe that he is and that he rewards those who diligently seek him.
Dave Hentschel: Until you start there, there's no spiritual beginning.
Dave Hentschel: They believed God.
Dave Hentschel: They believed what he said.
Dave Hentschel: They believed who he was.
Dave Hentschel: They believed what he says about people.
Dave Hentschel: They believed what he says about sin.
Dave Hentschel: And this is what happens.
Dave Hentschel: They believe God.
Dave Hentschel: Now you might be sitting back going, how?
Dave Hentschel: Like how did this happen?
Dave Hentschel: How did this one prophet go take this one simple message?
Dave Hentschel: And all of a sudden there's all this fruit.
Dave Hentschel: How could we explain this?
Dave Hentschel: Well, historians actually point out that during this time, the nation of Assyria was experiencing a series of famines and plagues and other natural disasters, which they would have seen as omens of worse things to come.
Dave Hentschel: And so in that way, it appears that the God of all creation was preparing the ground in advance before his prophet came.
Dave Hentschel: That's a sociological explanation.
Dave Hentschel: But then, of course, there's also the spiritual explanation that we serve a God who has perfect timing, who sends his prophet Jonah and pours out upon them his grace.
Dave Hentschel: He shows mercy to whom he shows mercy.
Dave Hentschel: And we know repentance is also a work of God.
Dave Hentschel: 2 Timothy 2.25.
Dave Hentschel: Repentance is a result of the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God.
Dave Hentschel: And so the people respond by believing God.
Dave Hentschel: And that's not all.
Dave Hentschel: It goes on to tell us more.
Dave Hentschel: It says they called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them.
Dave Hentschel: Now, back then, fasting and sackcloth, that would have been a posture of grief.
Dave Hentschel: That would have been a posture of mourning.
Dave Hentschel: That would have been a posture of repentance.
Dave Hentschel: That would have been a posture of seeking mercy from God.
Dave Hentschel: They are mourning over their sin.
Dave Hentschel: And this is what God calls us to do.
Dave Hentschel: King David, after he sinned, cries out to God with a humble and contrite spirit and says, Quote, I acknowledge my transgression before you, and my sin is ever before me.
Dave Hentschel: This is why the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Dave Hentschel: There is a time for mourning and humbling ourselves before a holy God.
Dave Hentschel: And when people do that, heaven takes notice.
Dave Hentschel: There's a poem written about those who humble themselves that really is wonderful.
Dave Hentschel: It says this, quote, on bended knee, replete with godly grief, see where the mourner kneels to seek relief.
Dave Hentschel: For from his full heart pours forth the gushing plea, God of the lost, be merciful to me.
Dave Hentschel: The light of life descends in heavenly rays, and the angels shout and sing, Behold, he prays.
Dave Hentschel: This is the response of Nineveh.
Dave Hentschel: And that's not all.
Dave Hentschel: It also tells us in verse 6, it says, the word reached the king, the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removes his robe, covers himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Dave Hentschel: Now many scholars believe the reigning monarch at this time was probably Shalmaneser III, or one of the two who followed him, Ashur Danil or Ashur Nirari.
Dave Hentschel: We're not totally sure, but those are the kings that overlap with Jonah's ministry, and history tells us that Assyria during their reigns experienced a series of crises, military setbacks, internal unrest, a significant plague, and there was actually a solar eclipse in 763 BC, which ancient peoples often viewed as an ominous sign.
Dave Hentschel: All of those events together, combined with Jonah's preaching, makes the king of Nineveh take notice, and he has this unusually receptive response to Jonah's message.
Dave Hentschel: Secondly, notice that this king removes himself from his throne.
Dave Hentschel: This king gets up off of the throne in an incredible act of humility in that time.
Dave Hentschel: This was a very powerful person.
Dave Hentschel: Here he is, humbling himself.
Dave Hentschel: These ashes, they would have been symbolic, meaning when something is burned like that, the symbol is that everything worthwhile is gone.
Dave Hentschel: So here is this king humbling himself in ashes, leading by example, providing really a model for government officials.
Dave Hentschel: Kings can lead their nations into sin.
Dave Hentschel: Kings can be responsible for leading a nation into misery, and kings and leaders can lead nations to a time of national repentance and prayer.
Dave Hentschel: Here we have an example of the latter.
Dave Hentschel: And he invites the whole nation to follow him in his example with this big proclamation.
Dave Hentschel: Take a look at verse 7.
Dave Hentschel: And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, quote, by the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything.
Dave Hentschel: Even the animals are going to fast.
Dave Hentschel: Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God.
Dave Hentschel: Let every one turn from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their his hands.
Dave Hentschel: Who knows?
Dave Hentschel: God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.
Dave Hentschel: This is the proclamation.
Dave Hentschel: The key term in this whole text is the term turn, or the Hebrew word shoev.
Dave Hentschel: It means to turn, to turn around, to turn aside, or sometimes it's translated to repent.
Dave Hentschel: And it is an absolutely central concept for what's going on here and what God calls us to do as well.
Dave Hentschel: Repentance is saying, I am sorry for the wrong that I have done.
Dave Hentschel: No apologies, no excuses, no equivocations, just I am sorry, period, full stop.
Dave Hentschel: Is it possible that you're here today and you've presumed?
Dave Hentschel: You've assumed that things were right between you and God, but you have never truly repented of your sin.
Dave Hentschel: I encourage you to do that today.
Dave Hentschel: This is what they choose to do.
Dave Hentschel: Second, I want you to notice they turn from their evil ways and their violence.
Dave Hentschel: The term violence there is the Hebrew term Hamas, same root as the Arabic cognate that we hear often today.
Dave Hentschel: That's what they were known for: violence.
Dave Hentschel: But here they turn from their violence.
Dave Hentschel: So just step back and observe this just for a second.
Dave Hentschel: Against all odds, against all expectations, including Jonas, this powerful city of Nineveh turns to God and repents.
Dave Hentschel: Can we just pause and thank the Lord for his mercy?
Dave Hentschel: Oh, thank you, Lord, for your mercy.
Dave Hentschel: Would you say that with me?
Dave Hentschel: Thank you, Lord, for your mercy.
Dave Hentschel: Think of it.
Dave Hentschel: Nineveh, proud in its invincibility and power, is now humbling themselves.
Dave Hentschel: They turn.
Dave Hentschel: Now, if you were God, how would you respond to their repentance?
Dave Hentschel: If you were God, how would you decide to act?
Dave Hentschel: Maybe if I was God, I'd be like, all right, prove it.
Dave Hentschel: If I was God, I'd be like, okay, I'll give you a year of probation.
Dave Hentschel: If you're serious, we'll be able to tell over time.
Dave Hentschel: But you gotta make sure you tell tell everybody that this is really serious, this is really gonna be true.
Dave Hentschel: Maybe that's how I would respond if I was God, but that's not what our God does.
Dave Hentschel: Part three.
Dave Hentschel: God forgives.
Dave Hentschel: Take a look at verse 10.
Dave Hentschel: When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented.
Dave Hentschel: God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Dave Hentschel: Notice those first three words.
Dave Hentschel: When God saw, it's all over the Bible.
Dave Hentschel: God and his eyes move to and fro throughout the earth that he might strongly support the one whose heart really belongs to him.
Dave Hentschel: God looks down and he sees, and he sees they repent, and he shows them compassion.
Dave Hentschel: It's absolutely amazing.
Dave Hentschel: And I want to focus on that because that's really the whole point.
Dave Hentschel: But you might be looking at this verse and you're feeling a theological tension with the word relented.
Dave Hentschel: What does it mean that God relented?
Dave Hentschel: Jonah 3.10 is a text that people point to as they struggle with what's called in systematic theology the doctrine of God's immutability or the doctrine that God does not change.
Dave Hentschel: Relented?
Dave Hentschel: Does God relent?
Dave Hentschel: The NIV has a very similar translation.
Dave Hentschel: It also uses the word relented here.
Dave Hentschel: If you go back to the King James in 1611, what they did was they translated the term with God repented, which seems even more confusing.
Dave Hentschel: If you go to a more modern paraphrase like the New Living Translation, not really a paraphrase, it's a translation.
Dave Hentschel: The New Living Translation says this: He changed his mind.
Dave Hentschel: Which doesn't seem to make me have any less of a headache.
Dave Hentschel: Some of you are looking at this going, okay.
Dave Hentschel: The Bible's really clear.
Dave Hentschel: God does not change.
Dave Hentschel: The Bible says God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
Dave Hentschel: Malachi chapter 3 is unequivocal.
Dave Hentschel: I, the Lord, do not change.
Dave Hentschel: So how does this work?
Dave Hentschel: And that is an excellent question.
Dave Hentschel: Throughout scripture class, we learn that God is immutable.
Dave Hentschel: He doesn't grow wiser because he already knows everything.
Dave Hentschel: He does not become better because he's perfect.
Dave Hentschel: He doesn't revise his plans because he already knows the perfect plan.
Dave Hentschel: And so theologian Herman Bavink writes in his Reformed Dogmatics, God remains who he is.
Dave Hentschel: If he could improve, he wasn't perfect before.
Dave Hentschel: If he could deteriorate, he would cease to be God.
Dave Hentschel: I mean, do you really want to fickle God who changes his mind willy-nilly?
Dave Hentschel: I don't think you do.
Dave Hentschel: So what does Jonah 3.10 mean when it says God relented?
Dave Hentschel: Well, the answer is that the Bible accommodates human beings.
Dave Hentschel: That the Bible often describes God in ways we can understand from a human perspective.
Dave Hentschel: And the big word that they use to articulate this is an anthropomorphism, or ascribing to God characteristics that are human characteristics.
Dave Hentschel: From where we stand humanly, it appears that God has changed.
Dave Hentschel: But what's really changed is actually the people standing before him.
Dave Hentschel: Again, Bob Ink is helpful here.
Dave Hentschel: He compares this to the sun.
Dave Hentschel: Like a sundial.
Dave Hentschel: The sun does not change.
Dave Hentschel: Yet if I step out of the shade and into the sunlight, my experience of the sun changes quite dramatically.
Dave Hentschel: Now the sun hasn't changed, but I have.
Dave Hentschel: If you put wax and clay under the same sun, one melts, one hardens.
Dave Hentschel: The sun hasn't changed.
Dave Hentschel: What has changed is the nature of the object before the sun.
Dave Hentschel: In this way, the real point of God's doctrine of immutability is that God's character never changes, that God's nature never changes.
Dave Hentschel: God is always going to be opposed to evil.
Dave Hentschel: God is always going to delight to show mercy to those who are repentant.
Dave Hentschel: God didn't change.
Dave Hentschel: Nineveh changed.
Dave Hentschel: God didn't change.
Dave Hentschel: Nineveh changed.
Dave Hentschel: Friends, God didn't change.
Dave Hentschel: Nineveh changed.
Dave Hentschel: They moved from rebellion to repentance.
Dave Hentschel: Their relationship to God was reoriented.
Dave Hentschel: And therefore, God's dealings with them made an adjustment.
Dave Hentschel: This is what football coaches say.
Dave Hentschel: You don't change, you make adjustments.
Dave Hentschel: So God made an adjustment.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah's warning, I think, in itself, you could read it as carrying with it an implied condition.
Dave Hentschel: This is common for prophetic warnings.
Dave Hentschel: There's an implied invitation here.
Dave Hentschel: There's an implied contingency in his prophecy, and that's common throughout the prophets.
Dave Hentschel: God's threats of judgments are meant to drive sinners to repentance.
Dave Hentschel: Jeremiah chapter 18 makes this very explicit.
Dave Hentschel: In fact, let me put it up on the screen and just read this to you.
Dave Hentschel: I think this will make sense in light of our text.
Dave Hentschel: Jeremiah 18, 7 says this if at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, or destroyed, and if that nation I warn repents of its evils, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
Dave Hentschel: This is exactly what's going on in Jonah chapter 3.
Dave Hentschel: Friends, God isn't changing his mind.
Dave Hentschel: This is God acting consistently according to his unchanging character.
Dave Hentschel: God in the Bible is called many things, but one of the things we call God is the rock.
Dave Hentschel: He's called the rock because he doesn't change.
Dave Hentschel: He's called the rock because rocks don't wake up in a different mood.
Dave Hentschel: He's called the rock because the mountain you climbed when you were 12 years old is still there.
Dave Hentschel: He's called the rock because the cliff doesn't suddenly turn into sand tomorrow.
Dave Hentschel: It's still a rock.
Dave Hentschel: Like that, God being the rock has character that doesn't change based on shifting shadows or changing emotions.
Dave Hentschel: God is immutable, he's unchanging.
Dave Hentschel: And that's actually why repentance works, because God never changes.
Dave Hentschel: And that's wonderful news.
Dave Hentschel: Because if God's mercy depended upon his changing mood, none of us could have any assurance when we come to him in repentance.
Dave Hentschel: But his mercy flows from his unchanging character.
Dave Hentschel: The whole reason repentant sinners can come to him is because he doesn't change.
Dave Hentschel: It's because he's always the same.
Dave Hentschel: Look at the verse again.
Dave Hentschel: The real surprise here in Jonah chapter 3 is not that God relented, it's that our God delights to do so.
Dave Hentschel: This isn't a reluctant God looking for an excuse.
Dave Hentschel: This is a gracious God who sends a prophet because he loves a people and he wants to draw them in repentance.
Dave Hentschel: In the very same way, when you and I repent, God shows compassion.
Dave Hentschel: Now, how can he do that?
Dave Hentschel: These Ninevehes had committed terrible evil and violence.
Dave Hentschel: Why can God do that?
Dave Hentschel: The answer is because someone else would bear the judgment in their place.
Dave Hentschel: Nineveh escapes judgment temporarily, but one day there would be a sin bearer that would come that would bear that judgment in a permanent sense.
Dave Hentschel: God never ignores justice.
Dave Hentschel: Every sin is judged.
Dave Hentschel: The question is where will it be judged?
Dave Hentschel: Either it will fall upon the sinner or it will fall upon the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dave Hentschel: That is good news.
Dave Hentschel: It means when I mess up, when you mess up, it means the word of the Lord comes a second time.
Dave Hentschel: A second time.
Dave Hentschel: And when you repent, it means God shows compassion on you.
Dave Hentschel: Friends, this is the good news of the gospel, and this is who our God is in the whole Bible.
Dave Hentschel: When he reveals himself to Moses, what does he say?
Dave Hentschel: I am the Lord, the Lord, gracious and compassionate abounding in steadfast love.
Dave Hentschel: 2 Peter 3, the Lord is not slow about keeping his promise, but he's patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
Dave Hentschel: And when his wrath is averted, and when we experience his mercy, we say, like the scripture tells us in Isaiah chapter 12, verse 1, I will praise you, Lord.
Dave Hentschel: Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away, and you have comforted me.
Dave Hentschel: Can you imagine one day when we enter into the gates of heaven and we experience the glory of paradise, and we're surrounded by others who've also been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Dave Hentschel: Can you imagine saying, Oh Lord, I will praise you.
Dave Hentschel: Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away, and you have comforted me.
Dave Hentschel: Friends, this is the kind of God we have.
Dave Hentschel: We have a God not just of second chances, but third chances and fourth chances.
Dave Hentschel: He doesn't give up on the Ninevites, He didn't give up on Jonah, and He didn't give up on you.
Dave Hentschel: So if you're here today and you've drifted away, you're far from God right now, and you think you messed up beyond His ability to forgive you, that's not true.
Dave Hentschel: I want you to hear this message from Jonah chapter 3 right now.
Dave Hentschel: His grace is greater than your sin.
Dave Hentschel: If you're here today, brother or sister, and you need a second chance, you need to repent today, then today is the day.
Dave Hentschel: Back then they heard the preaching of this man named Jonah, but someone greater than Jonah is here now.
Dave Hentschel: He's greater in his person, he is greater in his office, he is greater in his power, and he is greater in his influence.
Dave Hentschel: I'm talking about the true and greater Jonah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dave Hentschel: May I ask you, have you been resisting him?
Dave Hentschel: If they could not escape, for resisting this prophet back then who spoke from earth, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Dave Hentschel: Maybe today's the day where you need a second chance, and today's the day where you decide I'm gonna repent of my sins.
Dave Hentschel: I encourage you to do so.
Dave Hentschel: As the songwriter says, Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus is ready, standing to save you, full of pity, joined with power.
Dave Hentschel: And let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream, because all the fitness he requires is to feel your need of him.
Dave Hentschel: My brother or sister, if you're in need of that grace, the God of second chances stands ready to receive you today.
Dave Hentschel: And if you're here today and you've already received that grace, may we also remember that his grace is greater than the sins of the people that he has placed around us.
Dave Hentschel: And so who are they?
Dave Hentschel: This week we have this VBS program, 150 kids coming through.
Dave Hentschel: We get to share the good news of Jesus with them.
Dave Hentschel: We have a few open spots.
Dave Hentschel: If you know kids around you that would benefit from a week like this, throw out the invitation today.
Dave Hentschel: Who is it around you that needs a second chance?
Dave Hentschel: Some of you, as soon as I asked that question earlier, a face came to mind, a name came to mind.
Dave Hentschel: It was a coworker, it was your neighbor, it was your family member, somebody you've been avoiding because that conversation is uncomfortable, someone you've quietly maybe even assumed they're beyond hope.
Dave Hentschel: But the Jonah chapter three message is that they are not.
Dave Hentschel: That they are not beyond God's grace.
Dave Hentschel: And so let me ask you one more time.
Dave Hentschel: Where is God calling you?
Dave Hentschel: But you're afraid to go.
Dave Hentschel: Maybe some of you, God's calling you out on missions.
Dave Hentschel: I want you to come to our missions conference this fall, consider going with our team when we go to Senegal next year, talk to the McLeans at the table in the back after service and learn more about what steps you would need to take to answer a call like that.
Dave Hentschel: You never know how God would want to use you.
Dave Hentschel: Jim Elliott, never live to see the harvest.
Dave Hentschel: But God did.
Dave Hentschel: That's the question I think Jonah chapter 3 leaves us with.
Dave Hentschel: And it's a con it's a question that should haunt us today.
Dave Hentschel: Will I carry God's grace to the people he has placed around me?
Dave Hentschel: The gospel reached me when I didn't deserve it.
Dave Hentschel: It reached us when we didn't deserve it.
Dave Hentschel: And now we have the privilege of sharing the greatest news in all of the world that we have a God of second chances to those around us.
Dave Hentschel: Today we've seen Jonah do great things.
Dave Hentschel: But from our perspective, in the New Testament, after the Lord Jesus has come, the true and greater Jonah, we know that he's done even greater things.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah walked into the city that his enemies built, but Jesus walked into the city that would crucify him.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah announced judgment when he got to that city, but Jesus got to that city and he bore the judgment in their place.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah offered them 40 days.
Dave Hentschel: Jesus offers eternal life.
Dave Hentschel: Jonah reluctantly enters into Nineveh, but Jesus willingly gave up his life.
Dave Hentschel: Because Jesus Christ came, we now can go and take this message of the God of second chances to all of those around us.
Dave Hentschel: My challenge today is may we be a church that goes and tells others about this God of second chances.
Dave Hentschel: Amen.
Dave Hentschel: I'd like to invite the worship team to come right now as we pray and respond in worship.
Dave Hentschel: Would you pray with me as we close?
Dave Hentschel: Thank you, Father, for reminding us today who you are.
Dave Hentschel: You reminded us that you're a God of second and third and fourth chances.
Dave Hentschel: Thank you that your mercy is greater than all of our failures.
Dave Hentschel: Thank you that your patience exceeds our rebellion.
Dave Hentschel: Thank you that your grace is sufficient for every sinner who turns to you.
Dave Hentschel: Forgive us for the times where we've acted more like Jonah than Jesus Christ, reluctant to obey, slow to forgive, and hesitant to share the hope of the gospel.
Dave Hentschel: Instead, would you give us hearts that reflect your heart, reflect your compassion?
Dave Hentschel: With every head bowed, every eye closed in this place, if you're here today and you need a second chance from God, would you just place your hand over your heart as a quiet way of saying, Lord, I'm turning to you.
Dave Hentschel: Would you just take a moment and tell the Lord that you're asking him for a second chance?
Dave Hentschel: Would you just do that right now in the quietness of this moment?
Dave Hentschel: Just go ahead and do that and let God know.
Dave Hentschel: And Lord, we also pray for those in our lives who seem so far from you.
Dave Hentschel: Help us not to assume that they are beyond your reach, or someone else will get to them.
Dave Hentschel: Give us courage to enter into that city and to speak your truth with love.
Dave Hentschel: Trusting your word is powerful to save, just as it was back then.
Dave Hentschel: For we pray all these things through the mercy and grace and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Dave Hentschel: And everyone said,