Welcome to Turning Point. You may think of revival as an outreach that inspires dozens, or perhaps hundreds. But in the Bible, a single revival changed an entire civilization. Today, Dr. David Jeremiah examines that revival described in the book of Jonah.
which impacted more people than even the day of Pentecost. Listen as David introduces his powerful message, The Anatomy of Revival. And thank you for joining us today here on Turning Point. You know, there's a lot of discussion these days among Christians about revival, and some people believe that the assassination of Charlie Kirk was the beginning of that revival. Certainly, there's been a stirring among the younger people in our nation.
Whether we're headed toward a revival or not, I'm not sure. But what is a revival and what takes place when revival happens? We're going to talk about that today from the book of Jonah in part one of the anatomy of a revival. But before we do that, let me just remind you that Turning Point is sponsoring a conference cruise to the Caribbean December 26th through January 2nd. It's our annual conference cruise to end the old year and begin the new year on the right track.
We'll be visiting Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay with Michael Sanchez, Uriel Vega, and lots of other friends who will come along to make this a great experience. If you're interested in coming with us, Go to our website, which is davidjeremiah.org, and get the details. Plan to join us this. Christmas and New Year as we go to the Caribbean together.
Here is the Anatomy of Revival, Part 1. I recently saw a copy of the colour. Of the Denver Post that was dated January 20th, 1905. The headlines across the top of the page read, Entire city pauses for prayer. even at the high tide of business.
Remarkable outburst of gospel sentiment provoked by renewal. Evangelist Chapman and his associates cause a hush. To spread over the populace while the noonday meetings draw congregations in unprecedented numbers. For two hours at midday, all Denver was held in a spell. The marts of trade were deserted between noon and two o'clock.
This Afternoon, and all worldly affairs were forgotten, and the entire city was given over to meditation on higher things. The Spirit of the Almighty pervaded every nook, going to and coming from the great meetings. The thousands of men and women radiated this spirit which filled them and the clear Colorado sunshine was made brighter by the reflected glow of the light of God shining from happy faces. That event chronicled in the newspaper. Happened in nineteen oh five when a revival swept through a city.
and changed that city for a period of time. The impact wasn't limited to Denver. Similar movements were taking place. all over the place and other cities all over the United States. Today Some people believe we may be seeing the beginnings of something like that.
Again. in certain places. I cannot personally confirm every report that I hear. I do not always believe everything that I see. But I can simply weigh those stories against what I know to be true in the Word of God.
And we're going to do that today because Today's story about Jonah. is about a revival. God loves to bring renewal to a culture. I do know that. In recent years, the word revival has surfaced again and again.
in many conversations. People are asking about it. It's not Unusual for people to have a conversation about it over the dinner table around the water cooler at work. Is revival beginning to happen in America? I think people are asking about it and they're wondering what it would look like if it happened in our time.
Now, most of us who are in the church grew up with the word revival in our vocabulary. As you know, my father was a pastor. And we would announce revival, almost as if God were scheduled to come for two weeks at certain times and places. We call these meetings revival meetings, and they happen in the church that I remember the first two weeks in August every year. What we called revival were actually evangelistic campaigns.
Because revival in Scripture Concern God's people, and evangelistic campaigns concern those who are lost. You can't revive somebody who doesn't have life in the first place.
So a revival is not where people get saved. Revival is where Christians get renewed. And what we're going to see today in the book of Jonah is better described as a great awakening because. There is no reason to believe that the people of Nineveh had any prior faith in God. Yet they experienced an awakening.
And the seeds of it show what happens when God moves upon a nation. When God moves upon a people, When God moves upon a church.
Someone once said that the way to revival is simple. If the sleeping will wake up, And the lukewarm will fire up, and the dishonest will confess up. And the discouraged will cheer up, and the estranged will make up, the church will pray up, then revival will come up. Those things happen when revival takes place. If all that took place in our culture was what I just read.
I want to show you from the Word of God What happened in Jonah's day? What God did when the prophet Jonah was a part of a great awakening. When we read the New Testament, we usually think of Pentecost as the greatest event of its kind. And on the day of Pentecost, as you remember, 3,000 people were converted. But when you read Jonah and you discover that there were hundreds of thousands in Nineveh.
And Scripture says, from the greatest to the least they turn, You are looking at an awakening unlike any recorded in history.
Some believe the greater Nineveh area may have approached a million people. Pentecost affected thousands. This awakening Of Jonah's affected an entire civilization in a short time. I want us to see how this looks from God's perspective. The book of Jonah is often treated as the story of a runaway prophet, and that it is.
But for every reference to Jonah, there are multiple references to God. This is not just a book about Jonah. This is a book about God and what He does when a prophet resists him. and when he chooses to bring awakening to a nation. Let me suggest to you some of the things about awakenings.
that were true then and are true now. First of all, they involve a God-appointed prayer.
So let's talk about this from God's perspective. One of the characteristics of this awakening, whatever name we give it, is that it began with God-appointed prayer. The book of Jonah contains prayer several times. The sailors prayed when they did not know what to do with Jonah. Then Jonah prayed a little, then he was in the fish, and he prayed a lot.
In that prayer in chapter 2, I believe God began to do a work in Jonah's heart. And it was still unfinished, even though he was now a preacher. The Bible says in chapter 2, verse 1, Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly. God was getting Jonah serious. Jonah was getting serious with God.
At the conclusion of his prayer, he made a statement that lies at the heart of what happened in Nineveh. In verse 9, he said, Salvation is of the Lord. He came to that conclusion, and God placed that message upon his shoulders. as he carried it into the city. Whenever there has been true renewal, True awakening.
Prayer has always been at the beginning. Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century began with the call to prayer. The work under David Brainerd grew out of days and nights spent before God. A remarkable display of God's power took place in Rochester, New York, under Charles Finney. It spread throughout New England and to Great Britain.
And Finney attributed the power of his ministry. to the spirit of prayer that prevailed. There was also a revival about 75 years ago in Outer Hebrides. Many remember the evangelist Duncan Campbell, but few remember Peggy and Christine Smith. Peggy was blind and Christine was crippled with arthritis.
Unable to attend any of the awakening meetings, these two elderly women prayed day and night. until God poured out revival on their island. when people later tried to understand what happened They traced the power of the meetings. back to those two women who prayed. Billy Graham preached to more than 215 million people in person during his lifetime.
And about three million people walked forward in his crusades to say yes to Christ. But before he entered a city, people prayed. while he preached. People prayed. After the crowds went home, people prayed.
The crowds were visible, but the prayers were not. But Billy Graham believed the prayers were the strength behind everything God did. Near the top of our prayer list. We should consider putting revival That's number one. and asking God if He would send revival to our nation.
if he would send it to our church. And first of all, that he would send it to us personally. A God-appointed prayer. That was the first thing about revival. The second thing is they had a God-appointed preacher.
The second characteristic of revival in this story is that there was a God-appointed preacher named Jonah. Our Lord referred to the 40 days of Jonah's preaching in the book of Luke. Here's what he said. For as Jonah became assigned to the Ninevites, So also the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.
For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. They repented at the preaching of Jonah. God had a preacher, and that preacher carried the message to the city.
God Could have caused revival without a preacher. We know that. God can do anything. He could, but he does not because his plan has always been the preaching of the word of God. Romans says it this way: How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him? of whom they have not heard. And how shall they hear? without a preacher. When Billy Graham went to London in 1954, Many people thought it was all glory and headlines.
But when he went there he faced great opposition. The London Times mocked him as a foolish man who would return to America humbled because he brought a simple gospel to a sophisticated society. Yet God's people prayed. And God used that preacher greatly. More than two million people attended the meetings over a 12-week period.
and thousands gave their lives to Christ. I cannot imagine that. I have done a few rallies over the years in arenas. I've never done more than two in one week and always had a day in between. Billy Graham preached for twelve weeks every night of the week.
I don't know how he did it, but God helped him do it, and God used that. to bring a great awakening to Great Britain. In the passage from Luke, we are told Jonah was a sign. When he went to Nineveh he was assigned in two ways. His preaching was a sign.
And Jonah himself was a sign. Consider what would happen to a person after days in the belly of a fish. Many believed that digestive juices would bleach the skin and remove the hair. And bleached skin and no hair, Jonah was walking through the streets of Nineveh, declaring. Yet forty days and judgment is coming.
His appearance alone was a sign. When you saw him coming down the street, you've got to listen to this guy. He's a strange dude. He commanded attention. and people listened.
But not only his presence, but his preaching also. The Jews were enemies of Nineveh. and this Hebrew walked their streets, warning them to repent or face destruction. Revival preachers are usually marked by great boldness. You've probably heard a preacher so gripped by God that he no longer cares what people think.
Jonathan Edwards is a perfect example. If you read his story, you will come to a place where he preached a sermon that became famous. A sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He read his sermons word for word. He hardly ever looked up from his manuscript.
But when he preached the sermon like that, sinners in the hands of an angry God, people cried out in terror, and those who were there said they felt as if they were being dangled over hell. as they heard the gospel, many of them for the first time.
So there was a preacher, and Jonah was the preacher. There's only one explanation. He was a man filled with the power of God, and God is going to use his preaching. as we discover, to bring many to himself.
So there was a God-appointed prayer. There was a God-appointed preacher and there was a God-appointed proclamation.
So here's what the proclamation was. Preach to it the message that I will tell you. God said to Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh and I want you to tell them what I tell you to tell them. Jonah didn't need any long preparation. He did need to go and study.
God just told him what to do. And in verse 4 it is recorded, And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day, and he cried out and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. That was his whole message. just eight words in the English Bible and five words in the original Hebrew, Jonah walked the streets and announced that judgment was coming and it was going to happen in forty days.
Now, whenever God blesses a preacher, it is because he preaches the message God gives him. I know that sometimes today we hear preachers and we wonder where did they get that? Because it sure didn't come from the Bible. I am grateful to have a book that contains everything God wants me to say. I don't have to look anywhere outside this book because this is the total revelation of God.
People ask me why I preach the Bible, and I'll tell them because that's the thing God promises to bless. When I get outside the Bible, I'm on my own. That can end up pretty disastrous. Here's what I put down. I begin with the text, and then I preach what's next.
That's how you get going as a preacher. That helps me stay out of trouble. Keeps me from picking on anyone. If you get caught in the passage, that's because you came to church on the wrong Sunday. And I had nothing to do with it.
You know, I used to hear people say, well, he's coming to church on Sunday, I'm going to preach on that. No, you don't want to do that. You want to preach what God tells you to preach, and that's what Jonah did. Very short message, but it was God's message to Nineveh.
So Jonah went to Nineveh with the Lord's message, yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. What did that mean?
Well, in the scripture, 40 days often is a time of testing. Moses was 40 days on the mountain while Israel was tested and failed. Because of disobedience, they wandered forty years in the wilderness. Even the Lord Jesus was tested 40 days in the wilderness.
So when you read about 40 days, In the Bible, it is often a time of testing. The people understood this was a final opportunity for them. 40 days left. And they would have to repent. His message was a message of judgment.
If they didn't change, God's judgment was going to fall. We don't hear much of that these days. We don't hear many preachers preach against sin or preach about the coming judgment of God. When I teach on prophecy and I tell you what is ahead for us, And what is ahead for those who reject the Lord? I often get criticism.
People say this is not positive.
Well Let me tell you, it's better to feel conviction now. and joy later than to feel comfort now and regret later. You'd be better off to hear the truth. And the Bible is filled with the truth. When I preach the Bible, I will come to some passages.
that we might swallow hard when we hear them. but they're there for our benefit. They're there for our blessing. They're there for our salvation. We who preach today proclaim more than Jonah did.
Jonah warned of a coming judgment. We proclaim a judgment that's already taken place. At the cross, a holy God placed the judgment for sin on his righteous son. Jesus took my judgment and yours. And now God says that whoever receives Christ Will not bear that judgment because it has already been borne for him by the Lord.
on the cross.
So whenever we preach, we must not only speak of the accountability and of judgment, but we must make much of the cross where judgment and mercy meet. Billy Graham once told a crusade in Dallas back in 1953. Afterward, a friend said to him, Billy, you didn't speak about the cross. How can anyone be converted without seeing the cross? You must preach the blood that was shed there.
Graham admitted that he was upset at first, but during that night he realized it was true. And before morning, he resolved never to preach again without clearly presenting Christ's death and resurrection. If you listen to Billy Graham over the last years of his preaching, You know he never preached. without coming back to that. You know, Franklin Graham, his son, is a friend of mine.
And I've noticed that Franklin does the same thing. Franklin never talks. Unless he talks about that. There is great power in preaching the judgment of God. For the Calvary judgment.
and for sins that have already been forgiven. That is the good news of the gospel. In revival, there's always a God-appointed prayer. There's a God-appointed preacher. There's a God-appointed proclamation.
and there's a God-appointed place. Where did this revival happen? It happened in Nineveh. What a strange place for a revival to start. Nineveh wasn't the kind of place you'd want to raise your children, I promise you that.
It was a wicked and violent city. We've already noted that some of the terrible practices of its people, how they treated their enemies with cruelty. and into that culture came Jonah, preaching judgment. He could not have chosen a city that needed awakening more. It was the most wicked city of its time.
Chapter 3, verse 8: When the king issued his proclamation, he said, But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. And cry mightily to God, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Nineveh was a violent city. We have a Pretty good illustration of that going on in our world, what has been happening in Iran. that group of people over there, that nation.
Brutally killed 38,000 of their own people because they didn't agree. with the government. And if you read the story of the cruelty of Iran, You discover a lot of things. That's the kind of thing that happened in Nineveh. And it's hard to believe that it could happen anywhere in our world today, but it has happened.
This was a violent society. As I've studied revival, I've noticed something. God often begins His work in the darkest places. And there the light shines the brightest. I have never visited a city in America that is not a candidate for revival.
and our own community here in San Diego. are not sheltered from sin and brokenness, It's present all around us. Revival is needed here as much as it is anywhere, and God often chooses places like that. to begin his work. And as we head toward the midterm elections, and listen to what's happening uh in the news cycles, you realize there isn't anything that's going to make major changes in our nature, in our country, in our politic.
apart from a movement of God himself. And I believe that can happen. I I believe that God couldn't do that and that He wants to do that. And the question is, do we want him to do that bad enough, to do the things we need to do to get ready for it to happen? We'll have more about the revival in Nineveh tomorrow here on Turning Point.
In the meantime, let me remind you that we have a beautiful calendar that we're featuring during this month. It's the calendar for 27, and it's a 14-month calendar that's really going to brighten your life. The theme for this year is the light of the world. And it's focused on the passages where Jesus says, you are the light of the world because first of all, he is the light of the world. Ask for it when you send your gift during this month.
And we'll see you next time right here on this good station. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's series, Jonah the Runaway Prophet, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine Turning Points and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call us at 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of our 14-month 2027 calendar, The Light of the World, and deepen your faith daily throughout the coming year. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International and New King James Versions, available in several attractive and resilient cover options. Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org/slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Jonah the Runaway Prophet on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
