Jonah 3:6-9

* I begin with a question this morning, “What happens when revival comes?” about the need for
a spiritual revival and many today have never born witness to a moving of the manifest
presence of God. Thus, these have little idea about what to expect. So this morning, from
Jonah, let’s spend a few minutes looking at what actually happens when revival comes.

* Turn with me to Jonah 3. Do you remember how we got to this point? It was a divine
call, a determined run, a disaster at sea, a destitute man, a distressed prayer, a directed
preacher, and a decisive action. Now, the common people of Nineveh have repented,
turned to God, and a spiritual awakening is breaking out all through the city. (READ)

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

3 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of
Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

3 
Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very
large city; it took three days (relevance: Jonah in the belly of big fish & Jesus
Resurrection) to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city,
proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed
God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on
sackcloth.

6 
When Jonah’s warning 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. 7 This is the
proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or
drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently
on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet
relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

10 
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he
relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

* Let me offer 3 results of God will move through your life.

1. Lives are changed. Think about this, God has sent Jonah to Nineveh to preach His word. If
God sent Jonah, God is giving power to the words and the message of Jonah. It seems that
everywhere the message went out, God honored His message and people’s lives were affected.
God is clear in Isaiah when He says, “My word will not return void.” Think about this, the man of
God and the word of God empowered by the Spirit of God will lead to lives changed by the
power of God. Here is what many miss today; this change affects all of life. It affects desires,
schedules, attitudes and actions. It doesn’t simply affect “a part of life” or a “compartment in life”,
it affects ALL of a person’s life.

2. Word Spreads. When spiritual awakening happens, there is no need for a public relations
person to promote it. Flyers, handbills, signs, nor mail outs are required to let people know.
Candidly, if you ever find yourself in the middle of a spiritual awakening, just “TRY” to keep it
from being known and you may wind up one of the most frustrated people around. Truth is,
word will get out. Why? Because just as surely as you can’t stop bad news and lies from
traveling, good news which is consistent, will make the gossips columns in the same. The
scripture said, “When the word “reached” the King. When God gets loose, both lives and lips are
loosed and the word gets out. Lives are loosed to live in a way they have never known or even
imagined. Today, we think freedom is doing what “I” want to do, but real freedom comes in
completely doing what you are designed to do. When we do this, another thing happens to us.

* Our lips are loosed. Let’s consider this thought just for a second. Why is it seemingly so
difficult to speak a word in behalf of what we say we believe so dearly? Could it be that we are
afraid someone will discover or point out a “chink” in our armor? When our lives are loosed the
obvious outcome is that our LIPS are also loosed. It is a natural outgrowth.

3. No one is exempt. When God begins to move, He knows no boundaries. In Nineveh, His
powerful word reached all the way to the throng room. There are two words in this sentence to
which I will draw your attention; the first is ‘word’ and the second is ‘reached.’ The text says,
“When the “word reached” the King.” “Word” is also translated as tidings, message, and news.
The Hebrew words would convey something like a matter, an issue, or a cause. Certainly the
changing lives within the city of Nineveh rose to every level. It was being talked about in the
stores, on the streets, in the houses, and had now made it to the Whitehouse. It had “reached”,
“had touched”, or “arrived” in the throng room. Scripture makes no indication that Jonah was in
the throng room, so it must have been the power of the message, the power to change lives,
and the power of God giving supernatural support to the message of “repentance.” Did you
realize that repentance is the first message Jesus gave? There is no substitute for repentance.
 40 days if Nineveh would not listen to Jonah,
God will ruin Nineveh. Well, we see that in
Matthew chapter 24 verse 1, it reads:

Jesus left the temple and was leaving

but his disciples came near him and
called his attention to call His
attention to its structures. Then Jesus
says this to them. “Do you see all these
buildings?” He asked. “I tell you the
truth, not one stone here will be left on
another, each will be thrown down.”

Jesus understood that the people who He preached

to in a call to repent would decline Him. And given
that He understands that He is a parallel of Jonah,
He knew that if they rejected Him, their city would
be ruined. And what was that city that Jesus was
called to preach to? Jerusalem!

Jesus basically said to them. Listen to me, repent or

the same thing that would have taken place to
Nineveh, will happen to you. However they didn’t
listen. They had Him crucified. Now when Jonah
was preaching to the Ninevites, he said that if they
did not listen to him, their city would be ruined in
40 days. 40 days right here is not a coincidence.
Jesus went to preach to those in Jerusalem and
unlike the people in the story of Jonah, they
rejected and killed Him. So now when we look
back in history, we ought to see something that
happened to the city of Jerusalem 40 years after
they killed God’s messenger Jesus. Well, with
numerous historical sources, references and
archaeological evidences, most historians concur
that Jesus was killed in 30 AD.

Well, when we look at history, we will see that the

single largest event that happened to the Jewish
people was the fall of Jerusalem when the Romans
came and threw down its walls and annihilated its
temple. And it is an absolute historical fact that the
date that Jerusalem was destroyed and its city
overturned was in 70 AD! This is huge! This is
huge because this here is historical evidence that
precisely 40 years after Jesus was killed in 30 AD,
Jerusalem, their city was destroyed in 70 AD!
“Forty days” means “forty days,” but it does seem that God has chosen this number to help
emphasize times of trouble and hardship and God shows his grace and faithfulness.

In the Old Testament, when God destroyed the earth with water, He caused it to rain 40 days
and 40 nights (Genesis 7:12). After Moses killed the Egyptian, he fled to Midian, where he spent
40 years in the desert tending flocks (Acts 7:30). Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40
nights (Exodus 24:18). Moses interceded on Israel’s behalf for 40 days and 40 nights
(Deuteronomy 9:18, 25). The Law specified a maximum number of lashes a man could receive for
a crime, setting the limit at 40 (Deuteronomy 25:3). The Israelite spies took 40 days to spy out
Canaan (Numbers 13:25). The Israelites wandered for 40 years (Deuteronomy 8:2-5). Before
Samson’s deliverance, Israel served the Philistines for 40 years (Judges 13:1). Goliath taunted
Saul’s army for 40 days before David arrived to slay him (1 Samuel 17:16). When Elijah fled from
Jezebel, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19:8).

The number 40 also appears in the prophecies of Ezekiel (4:6; 29:11-13) and Jonah (3:4).

In the New Testament, Jesus was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights (Matthew 4:2). There were
40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:3).
LIVES ARE CHANGED

Every person has a form of physical limitation, whether it be in talent, ability, or circumstance.
These limits are what also makes us unique from everyone else, and are the pathway to
discovering a strength far beyond our human abilities.

These limits are necessary to show us where our human strength ends, and where God’s
strength and power in our lives are essential and real. Too often I view prayer as a “last resort”
rather than my primary source of strength.
Prayer is how God gives us the courage to take risks, turns our weakness to strength, helps us
to love the unlovable and forgive the unforgettable.
 What personal limits do you resist asking God and others to help you overcome?
 Do you desire comfort more than change? How does this affect your attitude about growing
spiritually and pursuing God?
 Do you believe more in your physical limits and weaknesses than in God’s power to help
you overcome and change?
The only thing we have control over in life is our decision to choose God. It’s the choice to build
our faith rather than abandon it when we run up against our own limits and weakness, and it’s
the choice to be influenced by spiritual friendships rather than go it alone.
Each time we choose God, we will become internally, spiritually and emotionally stronger by
deepening our reliance on God and embracing his perspective rather than our own.

THE WORD WILL SPREAD

In this second letter to the Corinthians, we discover Paul encompassed by the sort of difficult
circumstances that would cause most people to fall apart. Paul tells his readers that he was
pressed out of measure and attacked by the enemy of our souls, insomuch that he, "despaired
even of life!" He was tossed about by every possible difficulty and danger, but Paul learned a
valuable lesson... that he must not trust in his own abilities but only in God.
Paul discovered that by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, God's promises are sure, His
Word is true, His grace is sufficient, and all things work together for good to those that love the
Lord their God with all their heart and are fitting into His plans and purposes. Paul knew that in
his own strength he could not overcome the sin nature that governed his life. Jesus had said,
"without Me you can do nothing." But it was a joyful day when Paul discovered, "I can do all
things through Christ, Who gives me the victory - because His grace is sufficient and His
strength is perfected in our weaknesses."
Despite all the difficulties and dangers that encompassed his life, Paul was able to i) experience
in his life... ii) declare with his lips... iii) write in this letter to his Christian brothers and sisters in
Corinth that the answer to all our needs and the antidote to all our fears is Christ, "but thanks be
to God," was Paul's victorious cry when he discovered the truth, "thanks be to God, Who always
leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of
Him in every place."
Paul's bold confession of God's sufficient grace and victory over every issue he faced, gave
witness to a life that had died to self and lived only for Christ. It demonstrated Paul to be a man
who followed in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Himself Who lived in total dependence on His
Father by presenting his life as a living sacrifice - a freewill offering - a burnt offering that is holy
and acceptable unto God.