Resurrection Man

Some messages aren’t urgent, but other messages are. For instance, if your child is running toward the street when a car is approaching, you will yell, “Stop!” And you’ll yell it with urgency because your child’s life depends on it.

When Jonah went to the city of Nineveh to preach the message God gave him, the Bible tells us that he cried out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4 NKJV).

That wasn’t the first time Jonah cried out. After three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jonah said, “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice” (Jonah 2:2 NKJV). And God gave him a second chance.

In fact, Jesus validated the story of Jonah when He used it to illustrate His own death. He said, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 NKJV).

Jonah took the same desperation he felt in the belly of that fish and carried it with him as he spoke to the people of Nineveh. This was a man who had been transformed. Jonah was a resurrection man.

If you’ve encountered Jesus Christ, then you, too, are a resurrection person. Unbelievers are looking for someone who is real. Jonah was an authentic voice, and the people of Nineveh recognized that.

In the same way, if you can be real and authentic, if you can admit it when you make a mistake, and if you simply seek to be the best follower of Jesus that you possibly can be, then you will reach people for Him.