In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of Jonah and the city of Nineveh. He highlights the incredible missionary miracle that occurred when the entire city, possibly consisting of up to a million people, repented and turned from their evil ways. Despite the magnitude of this task, Jonah, the reluctant preacher, faced the challenge of preaching to a million people without any modern tools or resources. The preacher emphasizes the greatness of God's grace, mercy, and kindness, and urges the audience to recognize the importance of the great commission, the concern for lost souls, the possibility of great change, and the potential for great condemnation.

Jonah chapter 3, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey, that meant it took three days to get through it, and Jonah began to enter into the city of days. Jonah chapter 3, and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey, that meant it took three days to get through it, and Jonah began to enter into the city of days journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. This chapter describes probably the greatest missionary miracle in all of recorded history. Here is a city of probably a million people. When you get to the end of chapter 4, you discover there were a hundred and twenty thousand children who didn't know their right hand from their left hand, and you have some older children, and you have to have some parents, and some aunts, and some uncles, and the possibility we have anywhere from six hundred and fifty thousand to a million people, all of whom repented and turned from their evil way. A whole wicked city repented, and the judgment of God was averted. I say it again, this is probably the greatest missionary miracle in all of recorded history, and yet, and yet, the preacher was reluctant to preach, and he hated the people he was preaching to. We'll find that in chapter 4. God honored his word, God worked, and a city was saved. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. I'm glad that our God is a God of the second chance. Now, some of the saints won't give you a second chance. In fact, half of them won't even give you a first chance. Saints are very skeptical of each other. We have saint watchers these days who have their binoculars, and they're watching the saints. Don't you dare stumble, you're done for. Jesus said to Peter, we ought to forgive each other seventy times seven. By the time you have forgiven somebody four hundred and ninety times, you're pretty well in the habit of forgiving, aren't you? God forgave Jonah, and God gave Jonah another chance. Because Jonah disobeyed the will of God, it didn't end Jonah's life. The will of God is not a machine that falls apart if one part isn't working. The will of God is a living relationship, and if some part of that relationship is not right, God compensates for it until he can make it right. It's like your body. When your gallbladder starts hurting and starts causing problems, the rest of your body compensates until you can get that thing fixed. The will of God is this way. I say it again, the saints aren't this way. David said, let me not fall into the hands of man. Let me fall into the hands of God, greater his mercies. And God was merciful to Jonah, and God gave him another chance. Let's consider the factors that are involved in this marvelous miracle of the repentance of an entire city. We don't see things like this happening today. We see great citywide meetings, but sad to say, three months after the meeting is over, life is back where it started. Except for the people that got saved, we haven't seen entire cities repent. What are the factors that are involved in this magnificent, amazing miracle? Well, there are at least five factors that are involved. Fasten your safety belts, here we go. Factor number one, a great city. God says this, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city. He said the same thing back in chapter one. Verse two, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city. When God looked down upon Nineveh, he saw a great city. Great in several respects. It was a great city historically, one of the old, old cities. Christian archaeologists are not quite sure how old Nineveh was. Some go back 3,000 years, some say 4,500 years. Suffice it to say that Nineveh was an old city. Genesis chapter 10, you find Nineveh being founded by Nimrod, a great city in history. All down through the years, there had been this city of Nineveh. The city was not only great in history, it was great in size and in splendor. The archaeologists tell us that the city of Nineveh, with the suburbs, the other cities that were around it, formed a 60-mile radius. If you wanted to go right through Nineveh, it would take you three days to get through there. In one section of it, there was a wall eight miles in circumference. I read somewhere that in the walls of Nineveh, there were 1,500 towers. So when Jonah came to Nineveh, he was coming to a great metropolis, a major city surrounded by some suburbs, and it would take three days to walk through that city. Great in size and in splendor. The Lord tells us over in chapter 4, verse 11, it was a great city with 120,000 little children and much cattle. It's interesting that God's concerned about the animals. This city was great in power. The city of Nineveh was no small power in its day. It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. It would be as though God said to one of his servants, Arise, go to Moscow. Arise, go to London. Arise, go to Paris. Arise, go to Nineveh, that city of great power. And the Assyrian Empire was growing about that time, which explains why Jonah didn't want to go. He would have been very happy to have all of his enemies destroyed. You know, God asks us to go to people who are our friends and our relatives and share the gospel with them. We don't do it. God asked him to go to his enemies and share the gospel. That's a real test of love, isn't it? The city was great in sin. I will not frighten you tonight with accounts of what the Assyrians used to do. You can read about them in the encyclopedia. They were known for their violence. In fact, the king mentions the violence in verse eight. Turn every man from his evil way and from the violence that's in their hands. Later on, Nahum the prophet announced the doom of Nineveh. If you want to read the little book of Nahum and find out all the things that the people of Assyria did, they used to skin people alive, used to cut their tongues out, used to even take little children and impale them on stakes and let them hang out there in the sun until they died. They had no mercy. They'd bury people alive. They had no mercy. They were known for their violence and their wickedness. It was a city great in sin. Now, if I were God, that's a good thing I'm not. It's a good thing you're not. If I were God, I would have said arise and watch me wipe Nineveh off the face of the earth. Jonah, I want you to see what I can do. I'm sending down one angel and that one angel is going to wipe that place clean. But God didn't do that. God's not doing that to Chicago. Why should he do it to Nineveh? You know why God didn't do that to Nineveh? Two little verses from the New Testament tell us why. Jonah could never have quoted these verses. He didn't know them, but he knew the truth of them. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You see, they say in verse 9, we want God to turn away from His fierce anger that we perish not. They were perishing. And my Bible says God is not willing that any should perish. God who will have all men to be saved. God's attitude toward them was one of great kindness. Chapter 4, verse 2, Jonah said, I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. And God looked upon a great city and saw it great in history and great in size and great in power and great in sin. And He matched all of that greatness with the greatness of His grace and His mercy and His kindness. A great city. I wonder what God sees when He looks at Chicago. Many, many, many times I have flown over Chicago, daylight at night, beautiful at night. Chicago is just beautiful at night. If you come in from Michigan over the lake and you fly into Chicago, that skyline is, I think, the most beautiful in the United States. You people from San Francisco can argue with me afterward. It's gorgeous. And I've looked down upon the city of Chicago and my first response has been what a beautiful city. And I've said to myself, what does God see when He looks at this city? Does He see great violence and great wickedness? Jesus looked upon the city and wept. Jeremiah looked upon the city and wept. A great city. Which leads us secondly to another factor, a great concern. God was concerned for Nineveh. Now Jonah wasn't concerned. Don't you kid yourself. The only reason Jonah went to Nineveh was because God made him. He went against his will. You see, this book begins with chapter 1 verse 2, arise go to Nineveh. Then you read in verse 3, but Jonah. Now whenever you find a but in the Bible, you've got a contrast. But Jonah. In other words, I'm not going to do what God told me to do. Well, if you're going to be but Jonah, then in verse 4 of chapter 1, you've got but the Lord. You start butting up against the Lord, He'll but up against you. But the Lord sent a storm down. Jonah went down, down, down, and God spanked Jonah. God chastened him. Finally, Jonah said, I quit. I quit. I will. I will. I will. God spoke to the fish and the fish vomited him up. And God speaks to Jonah the second time. And in verse 3 of chapter 3, you don't find but Jonah, you find so Jonah. Big difference. If you'd have had a so Jonah back in chapter 1, you wouldn't have had to worry about chapter 2. That's the trouble with our lives. God says, do this. We say, but God says, all right, you're going to fight me. I'll fight back. You know, God treats us the way we treat him. Okay, I'll fight back. And so he did. Then finally, we have so Jonah. Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh. Jonah went because he had to. That's the reason most people do the things they do. They have to. I better read my Bible. I don't enjoy it, but if I don't, the roof may cave in. Oh, I better go to church. Somebody will miss me and they'll think I'm a hypocrite. Why do we do what we do? You'd think Jonah would have said, Lord, thank you for the privilege you've given me of taking your message to a people who are perishing. Oh, what a privilege to be an ambassador for God. Instead, he said, I'll go. I don't want to. So I've told you the story about the little girl who was standing up in the front seat of the car. His father was driving down the highway. This was before the days of safety belts. And he said, honey, sit down. She said, no. He said, sit down. She said, no. He said, if you don't sit down, I'm pulling over to the side of the road and you won't be able to sit down. So she sat down and she drove along very primly for a while, and she said, I'm still standing up inside the way the saints are, the way God's people are. I'll go. We don't sing. I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord. We sing. I'll go because you're making me go, dear Lord. God was concerned. God was concerned for Nineveh. Chapter four, verse 11, God knew how many children were in Nineveh. Isn't that interesting? Mr. Moody came home from a service one night and his wife said, were there any decisions? He said, yes, there were two and a half. She said, two adults and one child. He said, no, two children, one adult. The fella is half lived his life and he's only got the other half left to live for God. The kids have got a whole life to live for the Lord. God's concerned about the children. When the mothers and dads brought the children to Jesus, when he was here on earth, the disciples said, get away, get away. He's not concerned about children. Jesus said, you permit those children to come to me. Don't you forbid them? God knew how many children there are there. God knew how many children there were in Nineveh. He knew how many animals there were. God's concerned about animal life. You know why? The wickedness of men touches nature. We are in a mess today with our ecology because of sin and people to make more money, make more money are pouring all this glop into our water. Make more money. The land is being ruined and the air is being ruined. The animals are being ruined. I took a spring walk last night, a little chilly. I bundled up for it and my wife and I were just walking around the neighborhood. It was very quiet. And I said, you know, one of these days, Rachel Carson's prediction may come true. A silent spring. There may dawn a spring one day when there won't be any life. We've killed it all. God's concerned about the animals. And God's concerned about the man and God's concerned about the children. God's concerned for the city. Evangelicals, by and large, aren't too concerned about the city. Our churches are escaping the cities as fast as they can. I know there are problems involved. I live in the city of Chicago. My children have gone to school in the city of Chicago. I pay taxes in the city of Chicago. I know what it's like to live in the city. I was born in the city. I was raised in the city. And with the exception of five years of my life, I lived in the city. I suppose I have breathed enough pollution to at least give one part of me something. I'm sure in one week's time here in the city of Chicago, as I go around visiting, Pastor Filken has the same experience. I'm sure I must breathe a pack of cigarettes. Just breathing the air of Chicago. God's concerned about the city. Whenever Paul went preaching, he went preaching in the cities. Did you ever notice that? I was reading in the book of Acts where he bypassed a couple of towns. Paul, you should go to those towns. Oh, no, I'm going to go to this big city over here. They'll reach out to those towns. Paul went to the cities. A great concern. I think God's still concerned for people, don't you? I think God is still concerned for children. I was glad to hear what Fern had to say about ministry among the Indian children. A great concern. Now, this leads us to our third factor, a great commission. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. And so Jonah arose and went and he got there and said, man, is this a big place? You know, the little town he came from in Galilee wasn't anything to brag about. It was just one of those small places like you see, no one main street, great city. Now, this commission is ridiculous. Look, here is one man versus a million. Here is a man without an automobile, a PA system, a flannel graph board, a track, a radio, a TV set, a printing press, an airplane, a telephone, not even a mimeograph machine, not even a piece of carbon paper. And one man, reluctant as he is, faces a million people. It's crazy. If you and I had been in Galilee when our Lord was about to ascend up to heaven and he looked out and here were more than 500 of his followers and he said, I'm sending you go into all the world, preach the gospel. We would have said, that's crazy. Our missionary friends can do this much better than I can. Wherever you go in this world, you're going to find Coca-Cola. I saw Coke bottles and Coke signs in weird places in Africa. Singer's sewing machine. Is there a place in Africa where you don't find Singer's sewing machine? There must be, I'm sure, but it's hard to find. When my brothers were in the Marine Corps and got shipped off to some forgotten place, not even on the map, in China, there was Standard Oil. You know how they get there? A fella calls in his board and says, okay man, here is an area where we haven't penetrated yet. Get over there and do it. And they do it. And we can sell sewing machines and oil and soft drinks all over the world. We can get in. We can't get there with the gospel. It was a rather audacious thing. It was a rather ridiculous thing. A great commission. You, one man, facing a million people, how in the world can you do it? I'm sure that you felt this way. I felt this way going into high-rises. You know, you stand there and look at these high-rises. You get dizzy. How in the world can one person or one church do anything about the six million people in this greater Chicago area? Well, there were several things that were in Jonah's favor. Several things that were not in his favor. He was a Jew going to Gentiles. He was an enemy going into the enemy camp. He was one man facing a million people. And he had a very unpopular message. If he had gone in and said, God has said you will defeat the Jews, that would have made him a hero. But his message was very unpopular. In 40 days, Nineveh is going to be overthrown. People don't want to hear that. But he had some things in his favor. You know what they were? You never want to forget this. Number one, God had called him. God had called him. When he stood by the walls of Nineveh and said, I'll never make it, God said, look, I have called you. When Paul found himself in the wicked city of Corinth, surrounded by all kinds of foul, wicked sewage, and they began to oppose the Apostle Paul, he was ready to quit. God appeared to him and said, Paul, don't you leave this city. I've called you here and I'm with you. I have many people here. And Paul stayed for 18 months and built a church. I'm sure there are times in our lives when we say, I can't knock on one more door. I can't do one more thing except for one thing. God has called me. Jonah had the assurance of the calling of God. Now he had something else. God gave him the message. Jonah didn't go in and say, I think I'll get myself elected to the junior chamber of commerce. Then I'll start influencing people. I'll penetrate the structure. We hear a lot of this today. The way to win people to Christ is to penetrate the structure. My Bible says, arise and go and preach. Don't you ever minimize the preaching of the word of God, the teaching of the word of God, the sharing of the gospel. God not only told him where to go, but God told him what to do. You preach the message that I give you. But he had a third thing in his favor. He was a walking miracle. I told you last Sunday evening that there's no doubt in my mind that Jonah actually died in that great fish. During those three days and three nights, he was in the innards of that great fish. I don't doubt that the gastric juices went to work on Jonah. And then Jonah woke up and found himself alive and said, Lord, I'll do what I'll do it. Out he came. And when he came out, he didn't come out the way he went in. He was different. He was a walking miracle. Nineveh worshipped a goddess whose image was a fish. It's remarkable. And when Jonah came and showed up, people looked at him and said, man, what has happened to you? I was dead. Now I'm alive. They said, we can sure see that Jonah was a walking miracle. God's commission involved a mandate. You go a message. Here's what you preach and a miracle. You live. In such a way that people will notice the difference. I think we need this today in the city of Chicago. A great commission. Would you notice a fourth factor as we hurry on? A great change. What happened? The people of Nineveh, verse five, believed. Verse nine, they talked about God repenting. And in verse 10, God saw that they had repented. There are actually three repentances, three repentings in chapter three. Jonah repented and Nineveh repented and God repented. Now, when God repents, God doesn't change. God does not repent of sin the way you and I do. The word repent just simply means to change your mind. In the Bible, repentance is simply changing your mind. And the people of Nineveh changed their mind. They had been worshiping a false God. Now they're going to turn to the true God. They had been full of violence. Now they turned away from their violence. They had been guilty of sin. They turned away from their sin. They had been haughty and proud and arrogant. Now they humbled themselves. Even the animals repented. There are some animals in my neighborhood that I wish would repent. They cried out to God. You see, something happened to their emotions, fear of judgment. In 40 days, Nineveh is overthrown. And something happened to their emotions, fear. Nothing wrong with godly fear. Jesus preached about judgment. In fact, Jesus said more about judgment than he said about heaven. Paul preached about judgment. And as he reasoned of righteousness and temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled. The prophets preached about judgment. Nothing wrong with a godly fear. I went to the doctor the other day and had my annual autopsy. And I do this every year for one reason. I want to stay well. Pain hurts. Sickness hurts. And surgery costs money. Fear of sickness sends you to the doctor. Fear of accident sends you to the mechanic. Fear of starving to death sends you to the table. Nothing wrong with fear. Something happened to their emotions. They were afraid. Something happened to their minds. They said, we've been thinking wrong. All of our thinking has been wrong. And something happened to their will. They did something about it. The Sunday school teacher said to his class, what is repentance? A little boy said, repentance means to be sorry for your sin. And a little girl spoke up and said, please, it means to be sorry enough to quit. That's what they did. They said, we're going to quit our violence and quit our sin. A great change took place. True repentance is beautifully pictured here. The king on the throne, God on the ash heap. He leveled himself. He put himself with every sinner. And God repented. That means that God changed, not his attitude, but his actions. God's nature never changes. God can't change for the worst because he's holy. And God can't change for the better because he's perfect. His nature never changes. But God's workings with men change. I'm glad they do. Jonah is glad they do. God said, Jonah, either you repent or you're going to get it. And Jonah repented and God repented. Nineveh, either you repent or you're going to get it. And Nineveh repented and God repented. You know why God repented? Because he's the kind of a God that Jonah talked about in chapter 4, verse 2. A gracious God. Merciful. Slow to anger. Of great kindness and repentance of the evil. God in his grace gives us what we don't deserve. And God in his mercy does not give us what we do deserve. And God in his kindness graciously forgives us. A great change. I'm going to go one step further and ask you to turn now to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. There is a fifth factor involved. We'll touch upon this. A great condemnation. Jesus said this. Matthew chapter 12, verse 38. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, speaking about his death, burial and resurrection. Now verse 41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. Wait a minute. You mean those pagan, heathen, Assyrians are going to judge and condemn the Pharisees and the scribes with their scrolls of the law and their tithing and their washing and their praying? Yes. And not only that generation, but this generation. I want you to know that the people of the city of Chicago are facing a great condemnation by the people of Nineveh. Let's finish the verse. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah is here. Jesus talks about three greaters in this chapter. He talks about a greater than Solomon and a greater than Jonah and a greater than the temple. Back in verse six, he's greater than the temple. He's the priest. Verse 41, he's greater than Jonah. He's the prophet. Verse 42, he's greater than Solomon. He's the king. He's greater. What's he saying? He's saying if the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, how much more will this generation be condemned that did not repent at my preaching? Greater than Jonah. Now Jesus is greater than Jonah, greater in His person. He's the very perfect Son of God. Jonah wasn't perfect. If the Ninevites repented at the preaching of a rebellious, reluctant prophet, how much more should you repent at the preaching of the perfect, holy, spotless Son of God? Greater in His person. Greater in His love. Jonah didn't love the people he preached to. Jonah chapter 4, we find him sitting outside the city, sulking, watching to see if God's going to blow the city up and hoping that He will. Jesus looked upon the city and wept. Greater in His love. Greater in His message. Jonah came preaching judgment. Forty days and Nineveh's going to be a stack of ashes. Jesus didn't preach that. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He came preaching a message of grace and salvation. Therefore, the judgment is the greater. Jonah said, throw me out of the ship and kill me and they'll be calm. He made a sacrifice to bring calm. Jesus made a greater sacrifice to bring peace. He died on a cross and bore on His body my sin and the sin of the whole world. Jonah died for his own sin. Jesus died for our sins. Therefore, the judgment is greater. Jonah just preached to a million people. He had a message for one city. Jesus has a message for the whole world. Too bad the whole world can't hear it. All Jonah offered to them was a stay of judgment. This doesn't mean that the whole city was saved in the evangelical sense. He just offered stay of judgment. Jesus in His message offers abundant life, eternal life. Today and forever. And so I say there is a great condemnation because Jesus is greater than Jonah and Nineveh condemns us today. Nineveh heard one preacher, one preacher and repented. Chicago has heard everybody and still won't repent. You can punch your radio on any time of the day and hear somebody preaching the gospel. You can walk into a bus station, you find the gospel. You walk into a Walgreens drugstore, there's a Bible. Here's a city that heard one preacher preach one sermon, no illustrations, just one sermon and they repented. By the way, how many preachers have you heard? Have you repented yet? Nineveh heard a message of judgment and repented and yet we're preaching a message of grace and love and forgiveness. Nineveh had no evidence that what Jonah was saying was true. They said it may be. If possible, God will repent and God will change His mind. We can give to any lost sinner absolute assurance that if he trusts, he'll be saved. They had no assurance. It may be. There's a great condemnation here. These people had 40 days in which to repent, but they didn't wait 40 days. When they heard that message, it began to spread from mouth to mouth. In the Orient, things spread quickly. And before you know it, the whole city, the king on his throne, the slave in the street was bowing before God in repentance. They didn't wait 40 days. How many days have you got before judgment's coming? You don't know. You haven't a clue. Somebody could walk out of this church tonight and be gone. You don't know. You don't know. They knew and didn't wait. Do you know that lost sinners in the city of Chicago who have heard the gospel and they've been witness to and they've been prayed for are going to face a greater condemnation than some of these people we hear about in South Africa or Central African Empire or Ethiopia who perhaps have never seen and never heard? If there are such persons, as I leaf through the hymnal week by week and Pastor Dinley and I pick out some of the songs, it's interesting to see how many of these old missionary hymns talk about the heathen nations. The heathen nations. I'm living in a heathen nation. America today is a heathen nation. We may have in God we trust on our currency. That's as far as it goes. There's going to be more judgment on the sinners of Chicago because they have seen a flood of light. There's a great condemnation. Now, the story doesn't end there. God is more concerned about the worker than he is the work. And so next week, the Lord willing, we're going to look at chapter four and see how God had to save his own preacher and deal with him. Now, is God dealing with you tonight? God has dealt with me in the preaching of these missionary messages. God has dealt with me. God says there's a great city all over this world. There are great cities that need the gospel. There are small places that need the gospel, too. There's a great commission. Let's go. There's a great concern. God is burdened to see people want. There can be a great change. And if there isn't, there's a great condemnation. Where are you in the picture? God has written each of us somewhere into the script. Where are we? You say, well, I've never been saved. Then come and give your heart to Christ. You say, well, I am saved, but I'm not dedicated to the Lord. I don't really care about lost souls. Then get it straightened out. You say, I'm trying to serve the Lord and I'm fighting a battle. That's all right. God's given you his mandate and his message and his miracle. Go right ahead. Preach the word. Share it. And God will do the rest. Heavenly Father, we would not be reluctant witnesses like Jonah. Yet, even in his reluctance, you did something great. Oh, how much you can do in the power of your spirit and your word. I pray, Father, for the one who needs to be saved tonight. You'll speak to that heart. For the reluctant, rebellious Christian who needs to be yielded, you'll speak to that heart. Speak to us as a church family surrounded by a great city that needs the gospel. I ask in Jesus name. Amen.