Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer Time

9:30am on the Patio

Women’s Book Club

First meeting September 29 Registration is free — Receive weekly email — Reading “In His Image” Jen Wilkins — Purchase Book on Amazon

September Sermon Series DNA

Beginning September 9

REVIEW:

DisciplesPath beginning in September

Beginning September 9 or sooner in your Gospel Fellowship

What the Problem is; our contemporary cultural context: Here is what we face

What comes to your mind when you hear the word, TOLERANCE?

D.A. Carson wrote a book entitled “The Intolerance of Tolerance”, in it he says,

“The traditional/modernist use of tolerance: ‘I may disagree with you, but I insist on your right to articulate your opinion, no matter how stupid or ignorant I think it is.’

That is tolerance.”

“Now tolerance means that you must not say that anybody is wrong.

You have to say that all positions are equally valid.

Neither the old tolerance nor the new is an intellectual position; rather, each is a social response.

The old tolerance is the willingness to put up with, allow, or endure people and ideas with whom we disagree; in its purest form, the new tolerance is the social commitment to treat all ideas and people as equally right, save for those people who disagree with this view of tolerance.”

This cartoon seems to capture the new use of the word

Every human being has a line and if you cross that line, my tolerance becomes intolerant

We all have a cieling, and I can stand a person or group of people until they hit the cieling

At that point we are comfortable writing them off, they’ve spent all the tolerance I possess, now they must pay for their sin

Think about it, have you ever said or ever heard someone say, “The audacity of this person to do X...”

Introduction: Epic Stories in the Bible

Or, “I cannot believe they would do that _____ and get away with it.”

We’ve talked about Courage from David and Goliath, Redemption from the story of the Exodus and Faith from the story of Jesus Healing the Paralytic and today we’re going back into the OT to the story of Jonah.

Right kids?

How many of you like being tattled on?

How many of you have ever tattled on your bro or sister?

Why?

Because what they did was an offense against YOU and they deserve to be punished!

Time out - is it wrong for us to think and act this way?

Didn’t King David pray for God’s just judgment to fall on his enemies?

I will be the first to admit, I struggle with knowing how to respond to the news of the atrocities that happen on a daily basis in the world.

Do I pray for evil doers or do I pray that God’s wrath would be poured out on them?

What the Bible says; the original readers’ cultural context: Here’s what we must do

We actually all find ourselves in these types of situations all the time.

But let’s put ourselves in the position of the prophet, Jonah for a few minutes

OT prophet who prophesied during a time when Israel had rebelled against the LORD.YHWH sends this prophet named Jonah (Dove son of faithful) on a special mission to deliver a message because their evil had come up before God.Jonah rejects God’s mission and flees to the end of the known world.On his way the LORD uses the sea and the wind to cause Jonah to wake up to not only his disobedience, but also his apathetic heart.As Jonah realizes that he is the cause of the storm he tells the sailors that throwing him overboard was the only way they would be rescued.

And he was right.God used an instrument of death (great big fish) to not destroy Jonah, but spare Jonah from death.Jonah has this moment of self-realization where he sees that what he thought he wanted so desperately really took him to the bottom of the sea floor in the stomach of a giant fish.Jonah repents of his disobedience and God causes the fish to vomit Jonah on the beach.

The LORD hasn’t changed his mission in any way and he gives Jonah the mission again.This time Jonah responds in obedience to the plan.

He proclaims the message, the Ninevites repent of violent and evil ways and God relents of the judgment He initially intended.The purpose of the book of Jonah:

OT prophet who prophesied during a time when Israel had rebelled against the LORD.

YHWH sends this prophet named Jonah (Dove son of faithful) on a special mission to deliver a message because the evil of the Ninevites had come up before God.

Jonah rejects God’s mission and flees to the end of the known world.

On his way the LORD uses the sea and the wind to cause Jonah to wake up to not only his disobedience, but also his apathetic heart.

As Jonah realizes that he is the cause of the storm he tells the sailors that throwing him overboard was the only way they would be rescued.

And he was right.

God used an instrument of death (great big fish) not to destroy but to rescue Jonah.

Jonah has this moment of self-realization where he sees that what he thought he wanted so desperately really took him to the bottom of the sea floor in the stomach of a giant fish.

Jonah KIND OF repents of his disobedience and God causes the fish to vomit Jonah on the beach.

The LORD hasn’t changed his mission in any way and he gives Jonah the mission again.

This time Jonah responds in reluctant obedience to the plan.

He proclaims the message, the Ninevites repent of violent and evil ways and God relents of the judgment He initially intended.

The purpose of the book of Jonah:

SLIDE - To Reveal the Inconceivable Greatness of God

Wow, that’s great, right!?

SLIDE - 1. Humbly

The Ninevites Were Really Bad People

SLIDE - 2. Indignantly

When Isaiah encountered YHWH in , his experience with YHWH brought him to this place of severe self-recognition:

We need to understand how the Hebrew people viewed themselves and how they viewed the way YHWH interacted with them and those outside of Israel.

(ESV) — 5 And I said: “Woe is me!

For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

When he saw himself for who he was, he was then able to see the LORD for who He is.And out of that experience flowed his obedience:

Not only was the Assyrian empire the most brutal empire and the long standing enemy of Israel, they were pagans.

They were not moral people.

They were outside of the general favor of YHWH.

(ESV) — 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

So in a very real sense, the Jews saw themselves as special people.

This served to be an indictment against them.

Because they were a people chosen by God, not because of their goodness, but because of God’s goodness.

We need to understand how the Hebrew people viewed themselves and how they viewed the way YHWH interacted with them and those outside of Israel.Not only was the Assyrian empire the most brutal empire and the long standing enemy of Israel, they were pagans.

They were not moral people.

They were outside of the general favor of YHWH.So in a very real sense, the Jews saw themselves as special people.

This served to be an indictment against them.

Because they were a people chosen by God, not because of their goodness, but because of God’s goodness.Jonah, and the Hebrew people had developed a God that was different than YHWH.

They had put their version of god in a box and they were happy to worship that god as long as he stayed in his place.

I’ll show you what I mean:

Jonah, and the Hebrew people had developed a God that was different than YHWH.

They had put their version of god in a box and they were happy to worship that god as long as he stayed in his place.

I’ll show you what I mean:

(ESV) — 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

(ESV) — 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

(ESV) — 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

Before skipping to far over that first line, the irony isn’t as clear in English translation as it is in Hebrew: “It was evil to Jonah with great evil.”

In other words, what God had done in relenting of judgment on Nineveh was evil to Jonah with a great evil.

It displeased him exceedingly, he was angry WITH GOD!

He obviously lacked understanding here.

Why would God NOT punish the Assyrians?

They were at the very least an excessively brutal military force in the world.

There was only gain that could come to the rest of the world by the removal of the capital city of Assyria.

It was not a secret, Jonah hated the Assyrians.

But instead of rejoicing in the withholding of more death he takes the path of self-righteous pity.

Any chance a true prophet of God has an opportunity to be a part of God’s plan in the earth should bring joy.

And now we get the confession:

And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish;

This is the second prayer of the book, but it has such a different flavor to it.

In we get this picture of a man who is humbled by his own sin and thankful for the grace of God.