Jonah 3:1-5 - The Transformed Messenger

Imagine a fitness coach who lectures on healthy habits, but secretly eats fast food every night.

Or a physician who warns patients about high blood pressure and poor diet, but hasn’t exercised in years and skips their own checkups.

Or a parent who lectures their child about self-control, but only moments later loses their temper in traffic.

Or a coach who tells players to stay humble after victories, but then gets boastful when his own team wins.

If humans are anything, we are inconsistent. Hypocrisy is everywhere.

And the prophet Jonah was no exception. He didn’t live out what he believed – at least not until he had a transformational encounter with the God of grace. That encounter involved a daunting command from God, exposing the idolatry of his heart, repeated refusals to turn back, public failure, and terrifying distress.

But God was committed to His servant. In fact, it was through these events and the repentance God graciously granted that Jonah’s life – though still far from perfect – began to align with what he believed. No believer – not even ministers – naturally lives out what we believe. We’re all hypocritical because our corrupt nature still influences us.

But God, in His mercy, will not allow us to remain content with that. Christ came into the world and perfectly lived out God’s will, so that through Him we might increasingly live out what we believe. There were no inconsistencies in Christ the Lord. He fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of those who would trust in Him.

This is why all believers – and especially the Lord’s servants – must rest not on credentials but on Christ. We must find relief from our weariness in Him. Our souls must rest in Jesus. Scripture calls us to come to Him and to keep returning to Him. Only Christ gives us the hope and power to live out our beliefs, and only through Him can we encounter the God of grace. When we do, He transforms us.

And by God’s design, ministers must lead the way in this. Those who administer the Word and sacraments must be transformed by grace. And when that happens, it will be evident – in three ways shown here: the message proclaimed, the boldness displayed, and the fruit produced.

Before we look at these verses, I want to clarify something doctrinally. It’s true that every believer learns about grace through the book of Jonah just as every believer learns from Paul’s pastoral letters to Timothy and Titus. But we must be aware that the pastoral calling of those who preach God’s Word is not the same as the general calling that every Christian has to speak about Christ.

Scripture describes a clear distinction between the ministerial office and mutual ministry – and if when the difference is ignored, the church not only loses sight of the authority and responsibility Christ gives to His ministers, but also of the fact that every believer, in their own way, participates in the work. And for our roles, we all need a transformation encounter with the God of grace. So let’s look closer at this together.

See verse [1] “Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, [2] “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” God’s preacher receives another chance. His behavior was disappointing but not disqualifying.

To be clear, God never removed Jonah from his prophetic office. Sometimes ministers are removed from their ordained role according to God’s Word. Jonah was disciplined by God but not deposed from office. Rather, these events were how God shaped the prophet’s heart.

Jonah now has an addition to his story that he didn’t have before. He’s experienced grace in a deep and real way. So there’s a difference in the message and in the messenger. That difference is hinted at in the Hebrew text. How so?

Well, there is a subtle difference in the wording. Verse 2 can be translated as “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” The Hebrews words are different from Jonah 1:2. ESV translators didn’t handle it that way, interpreting it as the “functional equivalent” of the wording in Jonah 1:2 In other words, they viewed it as two different ways of saying the same thing, which is not invalid.

But many scholars feel that the difference, though subtle, is significant – especially given what had taken place in Jonah’s life. Jonah was different now. Much of his self-righteousness had been stripped away. He now realized that he wasn’t really different from the Ninevites. He knew he desperately needed God’s forgiveness and grace – just like them. He knew he desperately needed deliverance from God’s condemnation – just like them.

Good acoustic guitars sound better as they age. Did you know that? When one first comes from the workshop, the tone will be bright but a little stiff. However, after years of playing, with time for the wood to dry and settle, a warmer, richer sound will emerge that only time and tension can produce. A weathered, experienced guitar gives a wonderful, deep tone.

The LORD’s servant is similar. Time and tension can affect his sound. Like the guitar, the preacher’s composition changes. Same man, but different. And you can literally hear the difference. When the LORD transforms His servant by grace, it will be evident in the message proclaimed.

Listen closely to a minister’s message. Not so much his style, but his content. Take his message as a whole. Has grace affected him? Is it now affecting him? Where does his confidence lie? Where does his hope lie?

Now look at verse [3] “So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. [4] Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

It’s not necessary to read this as saying that the width of Nineveh was a three day walk as the crow flies or in a straight line. For three days Jonah zig-zagged around the huge city calling the people to trust in Yahweh and turn from their sins.

It’s not unusual to see “40 days” in the Scriptures. Richard Phillips points out that it always signifies a time of preparation or warning. So, the time before the great flood when God spared Noah, the time that Israel was tested while Moses was on the mountain with God, and the time Jesus was tested in the wilderness. It’s a definite amount of time after which will come either judgment or grace.

The same is true here. 40 days is new to Jonah’s message, however. Apparently God told Jonah that as well. Picture the man Jonah, walking around the streets of godless Nineveh. It’s possible that his appearance was affected by being in the great fish, but it’s only speculation; there is no evidence in the Scriptures. For three days he criss-crosses the densely populated heart of the Assyrian empire.

There was all manner of wickedness and immorality in that place. And Jonah, who had run in the opposite direction, now preaches throughout the city with confidence and courage. Why was he so bold? Being inside a great fish can affect a man, but it was more than that!

Often, one who has failed before is the best one for the assignment. Jonah felt the sting of failure, but then was restored. He knew the pain of regret, but then was redeemed. The great apostle Peter denied the Lord Jesus three times. He was devastated and ashamed. But after the resurrection, Christ came to Peter and reassured him, telling Peter, “Feed my sheep.” After that, empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter was fearless for Christ. The grace of God strengthened his heart.

The pulpit, where the whole counsel of God must be preached and where worship is led on the Lord’s Day, must be marked by boldness for the truth. The preacher who will not call a spade a spade will not do. Without a true preacher, you cannot have a true church. But what must be the source of this boldness?

It can’t be self-righteousness. And it can’t be self-confidence. Those wouldn’t help Jonah. It’s really very simple, but still it eludes many preachers. The great Puritan minister Jeremiah Burroughs wrote, “Those cannot preach to the hearts of people that have not had Jesus Christ preaching to their hearts before.” Training and gifting aren’t bad – they’re essential – but they aren’t enough.The man must be changed by grace. And when the LORD transforms His servant by grace, it will be evident in the boldness displayed.

This is a confidence not in credentials or charisma, but in Christ crucified. Confidence not in methods or in the man, but in the message of the cross. In Romans 1, Paul boldly declared, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” If our ministers do not believe in the power of the pure gospel – in the power of the risen Christ Himself – what are we doing? Where is our hope?

Now look with me at this final verse. [5] “And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” This is fascinating, and it should have been shocking to the Israelites in Jonah’s day and to first century Jews when Christ came on the scene because the language of belief here is like that describing Abraham in Genesis 15 when he believed Yahweh.

This is true faith – it is real trust in God – and it’s rightly followed by a sincere demonstration of repentance. The Ninevites mourned their sin. They grieved over what that had done.

How’s your attitude toward your sin? When you hear the message of the cross, if your heart is not pricked with regret and godly sadness, either you have never truly had a life-changing experience with God’s grace, or you’re so far removed from that experience that you have forgotten it, or your false hopes have assumed the first position in your heart. And if you’re content to rebuff the call to repent, that’s very dangerous. Remember, sin is very deceptive. It will trick you, and it can ruin you.

Jonah had a message to tell. It was a message of God withholding final judgment for a guilty sinner. It was a message of pursuing that sinner, rescuing him from the clutches of death, and restoring that sinner to favor with God Himself. But Jonah didn’t just say the message. He was living the message.

His life presented the message. Richard Phillips says Jonah was “a living sermon:” a theologically sound, spiritually vibrant, sincere, God-centered sermon. And with a sermon like that, God will bear fruit according to His will. Acts 5 in the NT says, “God exalted [Christ] at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And then in Acts 11, “When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Only God gives the increase. Only God sovereignly controls when and where fruit is produced. But He bears the fruit through the ministry of a transformed servant. And when the LORD transforms His servant by grace, it will be evident in the fruit produced.

So today, where do we encounter this grace? Where is this grace found for ministers and members of the body of Christ? It’s not so much “where” as it is “Who.” It’s with Christ. Grace came to us – and continually comes to us – through Christ. “From His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”

True Christianity doesn't just confer with principles or philosophies. We commune with a Person. And as we stand before His table now, to meet with Him here, will you be like the Ninevites? Will you put true faith in Yahweh, grieving your sin and turning from it to do His will? Christ receives all who come to Him in true faith, and to them He gives us the strength and wisdom to live according to what we say we believe, and to fulfill our roles in the building of His Church.

Let’s bow together in prayer