Sermon Tone Analysis

BIG IDEA

God's Word will not return without achieving its purpose, and we can know the purpose by observing the results of the Word's work.

Even though the Prophet Jonah is antagonistic to God's Plan for Nineveh and attempts to thwart this plan at every turn, and thus preaches "the lamest sermon ever preached," in merely eight Words of God, God's Word effects the greatest mass-repentance in human history.

Bringing emphases to Jonah in 2:9, "Salvation comes (100%) from the LORD."

Opening Illustration

<<Note: Dramatically deliver the ‘broccoli part’ to mimic a caricature of the political stump speeches with speaking tone, cadence, and delivery , vis-a-vis, ‘passionate and a bit over-the-top.’>>

I do not mind telling you who I voted for to be President, in the 1992 Presidential Election!

I cast my vote for the re-election of President George Herbert Walker Bush.

What I loved so much about our 41st President was his hard-line stance on something very near and very dear to my heart // broccoli.

The President and shared a life-long distaste of broccoli.

You know, that was 29 years ago this month / AND STILL / I remember well those blessed words of liberation which he spoke on behalf of so many: //

Read my lips—No / More / Broccoli!

(okay, a bit of a paraphrase)

Still, I’ll tell you, that hard-line stance alone, in my humble opinion, should have catapulted President George Herbert Walker Bush into a second-term.

As columnist Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times on that day, “It’s the proclamation that every child, and many adults, have dreamed of making their entire lives, but never dared.”

Yes, I suppose there were critics.

Nationwide, some doctors / and all mothers / were aghast that the President would say such a thing!

But // responding to his critics about the broccoli ban // President Bush stood his ground.

He said:

''I do not like broccoli, and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother / made me / eat it.

And now that I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!''

Well, the “Broccoli Backlash” continued.

And in November of 1992 // President George Herbert Walker Bush became the first Republican President to lose a re-election bid since Herbert Hoover back in ’32.

And I / Blame the Broccoli . . .

!

Well, it’s been almost 30 years // and as I look back now, I see where President Bush had made a serious miscalculation.

You see, when it came to broccoli, there was a higher power he failed to consult, and her name was, Barbara Bush.

The President described the First Lady, (his wife of 45 years at the time), as a ''totalitarian” when it came to broccoli.

President Bush did not consult the First Lady before declaring his independence from Broccoli.

She warned him that she had a mind to serve him a meal of broccoli soup, with a broccoli salad, a broccoli main course, and then, in Mrs. Bush's own words, ''finish it off with a little broccoli ice cream.''

Maybe // President Bush should have just eaten his Broccoli //

It may / or may not / be true that DECLARING HIS INDEPENDENCE from Broccoli cost President Bush the election of 1992.

WHAT is undoubtedly true / is that / sooner or later, Mrs. Bush was going to make the President ate his broccoli anyway.

//pause//

Declaring Our Independence

That’s the thing about declaring our own independence: it simply won’t work so long as there is a HIGHER AUTHORITY above us to which, or to whom, we must defer.

And like President Bush and his Broccoli . . .

when someone is not the FINAL and ULTIMATE AUTHORITY . . .

then declaring independence may not be that wise.

//pause//

Just ask Jonah . . .

Jonah tried to DECLARE HIS INDEPENDENCE from God and found out the hard way that // he’ll be eating his broccoli anyway.

And that’s exactly what we see as CHAPTER 3 of Jonah opens:

The “If I Were God” Game

3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time,

Think about that.

Let that sink in: Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time.

I sort of want to shove that broccoli in Jonah’s face!

But God didn’t do that.

If I were God, I would tag on some fierce words to verse 1, like . . .

“get in there and do your job!” and “this had better never happen again!”

But God didn’t say that.

When you and I try to play the “IF I WERE GOD” game we never end up doing what GOD would do, and worse, we seem to always end up DECLARING OUR INDEPENDENCE from God.

For example, DO YOU remember what happened when Jonah played the “IF I WERE GOD” game?

Jonah said:

“If I were God . . .

I would destroy every last one of those stinking, wicked, idolatrous, Ninevites!”

But God didn’t want that.

And personally, IF I WERE GOD, I wouldn’t trust Jonah with the mission.

But God is Going to give to Jonah a second chance, and then a third chance, and a fourth chance, and GOD would give Jonah even a 999th chance, or more.

And this is what God gives to you and me as well, just as HE is giving the same to Jonah—

//pause//

And that’s a good thing, because Jonah is going to play the “IF I WERE GOD” game two more times here in Chapter 3:

First, When Jonah’s plan to undermine God’s Word on the streets of Nineveh backfires . .

Jonah will need God’s Mercy again.

(THIS WEEK)Second, When Jonah refuses to help the Ninevites understand Repentance . . .

Jonah will need God’s Mercy again.

(NEXT WEEK)

Let’s look at the first “IF I WERE GOD” game Jonah plays in Chapter 3:1.

Jonah’s plan to undermine God’s Word on the streets of Nineveh.

Visualize Jonah’s Day in Nineveh

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.

4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey.

And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God.

They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

As Jonah stepped through the massive gate, he probably looked up at Nineveh’s 100’ walls and probably wondered what this would look like when they all came tumbling down in 40 days.

Jonah didn’t want to be here.

This crusty, grim, and grumpy Prophet of God had walked to the center of the city, probably found a stone bench and stepped up onto it, and no doubt drew the attention of at least some of the thousands of people in this city.

He cleared his throat, and called out in the loudest, clearest voice he could:

“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

//pause//

There, he’d said it.

GOD’s 8 little POWERFUL words.

He stepped down, walked right out of the EAST GATE, to a hill outside the city, sat down, and planned to have a front row seat to watch their destruction in 40 days.

He did what God had told him to do.

He said what God had told him to say.

And in Jonah’s mind, there was no way these wicked, brutal, idolatrous, pagans would repent of their wickedness over those 8 little words.

//pause//

As we see, how wrong he was.

The text tells us that the Ninevites “believed God” — not Jonah, but God.

In the hands of Jonah, these 8 words became the lamest sermon ever preached; but these weren’t Jonah’s words, and even Jonah’s (many) attempts to thwart the message came to nothing; Jonah was just a messenger.

The Ninevites knew that These 8 words were the Words of God . . .

And those 8 little Words of God effected the largest mass-repentance of people in human history.

//pause//

Let that sink in deep.

THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD in REPENTANCE

LISTEN: GOD’S WORD holds GOD’S POWER to accomplish what He wills.

Isaiah 55:11 My Word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Now, apply this to the Ninevites.

According to Isaiah 55, all we need to do is look at what happened after His Word was sent to them.