Jonah Chapter 3
Our God is a God of Second Chances
Introduction
What’s the worst sermon you’ve ever heard preached? My guess is that it’s probably not even close to being as bad as the one Jonah preached to Nineveh. After being vomited ashore, Jonah marches to Nineveh to proclaim the message he has been sent to preach: repent or be destroyed. Yet it wasn’t the quality of Jonah’s message, but the quality of his God that turned the city back to Him. The biggest miracle in the story of Jonah isn’t that he survived in a fish, but that an entire city repents! Here we see a city – a people who were far from God – repent of their sins. God relented from destroying them.
Main Idea: God is one of second chances. He forgives the repentant.
Conversation Starter
Q. Have you ever received a second chance to do something that you had previously failed at? How did that feel? Did you do anything differently the second time around?
Q. How does the structure of Jonah 3:1–3 parallel 1:1–3? What are the similarities? What are the differences?
Q. Why do you think the Ninevites responded in the way they did? What did they recognize about themselves?
Q. The Hebrew word for “repentance” occurs four times in Jonah. All four of them are within the verse of 8-10, which signals the emergence of a new and important theme. What do you think that is?
Q. How does God respond to the repentance of the Ninevites (3:10)?
Q. What does God’s response teach us about His character?
Personal Reflection and Application
Q. Is God calling you into repentance today? What, if anything, is holding you back?
Challenge
As believers, God has called us to join Him on a mission in making disciples. Take some time to think of people in your life who don’t know Jesus. Pray for them. Where might you see an opportunity to connect with them?