Sermon Tone Analysis

Phil 2:5-

and14

,

Prayer

Introduction

Alright, we are now to chapter 3 in our study of Jonah.

It has been quite the rollercoaster of a story.

It started rather abruptly with God calling the Israelite prophet Jonah to go preach to the Israel’s evil, national enemies the Ninevites.

Of course, Jonah goes the opposite direction and finds himself at the mercy of the Sovereign God of the universe.

He is thrown overboard to calm the storm that the Lord brought upon him and the sailors.

The storm ceases, the pagan sailors worship God and Jonah is as good as dead.

But God sent a fish to swallow Jonah.

He spent three days and three nights in the fish and was subsequently vomited back on to land.

While in the belly of the fish, Jonah composes a song of praise and thanksgiving, and it seems Jonah is a new man.

Ready to listen to and obey the Word of God.

How is that for a “cliff notes” version of the story?

A quick summation of what has been going on with Jonah.

Passage

Our passage this morning is and picks up exactly where we stopped.

If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these words are among the most important words we can hear today.

says, “

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”

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.

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

And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

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.

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything.

Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God.

Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows?

God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”

Thank you, you may be seated.

The beginning of chapter 3, the passage we just read starts out almost exactly like the very first chapter.

The Word of the Lord came to Jonah and told him to go preach to Nineveh.

Now if we were to read the book of Jonah for the very first time, never having heard the story, we would read the opening of the book and chapter 1 and assume that Jonah would receive the Word of the Lord and obey, and his rebellion would’ve been shocking, and rightly so.

Likewise, if this was our first time reading the story, we would hear that first verse in chapter 3 and really, truly wonder what this supposed prophet is going to do.

I mean, he’s probably going to avoid deep water for a while, but will he obey?

The reality is that God has given Jonah a second chance.

And we hear that, and we aren’t shocked by it because in reality, we’ve become accustomed to mercy and grace.

We’ve become presumptuous – assuming that God will give everyone a second chance.

God is merciful and gracious often, but He doesn’t have to be.

God does not owe anyone a second chance.

God owes everyone his just and burning wrath.

I say all this because second chances should shock and humble us.

The fact that Jonah survived his rebellion is shocking and amazing and should lead us to awe and wonder and worship.

The fact that God has recommissioned Jonah should do the same.

In fact, the very idea that there is a mission trip to Nineveh at all, that they are being warned of God’s judgment is praise worthy.

Again, sometimes we presume God’s patience and mercy and act as if we are owed second and third and fourth and fifth chances, and the reality is that we are not.

We can look at biblical character after biblical character who did not receive second chances.

Don’t be presumptuous.

God commanded Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh, and Jonah arose and went… to Nineveh this time.

When he gets there, he starts to preach.

On the first day, he begins to preach that Nineveh will be overthrown in 40 days and the people believe him.

In politics, we talk a lot about grassroots campaigns and things like that, but this really was a grassroots movement.

Jonah didn’t show up and go directly to the king and deliver his speech.

He proclaimed the Word of God and the people believed him.

They immediately began repenting and it became such a big ordeal in such a short amount of time that finally the king ends up hearing about it.

Let’s try to make this real for us so that we can wrap our heads around how amazing this is.

Let’s say an Iranian man lands at airport in Washington D.C. and immediately – on his way to his hotel – begins proclaiming that God told him that in 40 days, Washington (and by extension the rest of the nation) will be overthrown.

What do you think the response would be if that were to happen tomorrow morning?

Do you think anyone would listen?

I think the guy would be labeled as a terrorist, arrested, and never heard from again.

Or maybe he would just be sent to that nice place with the strait jackets and padded walls.

I certainly do not think that our response would look like the Ninevites.

I don’t think we would turn in repentance.

Oh, his message might get uploaded to YouTube and be featured on the 5:00 news.

He might go viral, but not like Jonah did in Nineveh.

I do not think repentance would sweep the Capitol and then the nation.

I don’t think the president would call for a national fast and repentance.

And this is why the men of Nineveh will stand in judgement over the Pharisees who demanded a sign from Jesus.

They had no sign, and they repented and the pharisees had lots of signs and stood condemned.

And frankly, I think these wicked Ninevites will stand in judgment over many of our countrymen as well – and even over us if we do not listen and repent.

I want to shift gears for a second and address a question that almost always comes up in the story of Jonah.

Did Jonah lie?

He said that Nineveh would be overthrown in 40 days, but then it wasn’t destroyed.

is clear that if a prophet speaks a word of prophecy and it does not come to pass, then that person is not a real prophet and should die.

What do we do with that?

There are a couple points I want to make here.

First of all, nowhere does God actually tell Jonah to prophesy to Nineveh.

God tells him to preach, to call out, but we are not told directly from Scripture that this is a predictive prophecy.

That may seem like a distinction without a difference, but I can assure you it isn’t.

Second, the very fact that Nineveh is given 40 days’ notice is not indicative of an absolute prophecy.

The fact that there were 40 days instead of “You all are about to die.”

Suggests that there was a recourse, and we know the Ninevites took that recourse.

Third, Jonah’s message actually did happen.

Now, I know what you are thinking, that you know the story and you know that Jonah gets mad because Nineveh wasn’t destroyed.

You are absolutely correct.

Nineveh was not destroyed, but that wasn’t what God told Jonah to say.

Jonah didn’t say, “Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

He said it would be overthrown or overturned.

The Hebrew word used for overthrown certainly can me destroyed or toppled, but it actually has a broader range of meaning than just destroyed.

It can also include ideas like turning around and going another direction.

That sounds a lot like repentance.

That sounds a lot like what did happen.

Nineveh was overturned, from the greatest to the least, the people turned from their wickedness.

For all of Jonah’s failures, we can’t call him a false prophet.