Sermon Tone Analysis
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Welcome to part four of Jonah the Story of You.
I’m so glad that you are here today.
What we are discovering is that this odyssey of Jonah isn’t about some random prophet who was swallowed by a fish.
Oh, it’s much deeper and personal.
What we are discovering in each chapter is that Jonah’s story is really our story, and today we are going to see this played out in a very profound way.
If you have a Bible or device, find Jonah chapter three.
If you are using the YouVersion Bible app, go to Events.
Then find Iowa City Church.
All the Scriptures, sermon notes and another Bible reading plan through Jonah is there.
If you have already read Jonah during this series, read it again.
If you haven’t read all of Jonah yet, you need to take some time this week to read through it slowly.
Especially after this sermon.
Have you ever noticed that you become a different person once you are sitting behind the steering wheel of your car?
You put on your sun glasses.
You put on some sweet driving music, La Grange from ZZ Top.
You pull out on the road cruising, your king of the road.
When you are behind that wheel, you are always right and everyone else is always wrong.
You may have been driving too fast, but the driver still shouldn’t have pulled out in front of you.
This has happened to me.
I was cruising along and I came up behind a slow car.
It’s frustrating.
Can’t they even drive the speed limit?
You finally get some space to pass…so you blow on by and give a quick glance to the right to let them know they are getting passed by someone driving the correct way.
A few miles down the road a car comes flying up from behind me and passes me like I’m standing still.
My first thought?
Idiot!
They’re going to kill someone going that fast!
Talk about being a hypocrite!
I have my own standard that applies only to me…and I can’t even live up to my own standard!
Back when I was going to seminary, I would drive two and half hours one way to go to class.
I had a lot of windshield time.
Anyway, that last year of driving I racked up three speeding tickets in the same calendar year.
I was on probation and had to driving school again.
I remember my first class, we were all there for the same reason.
We all had to introduce ourselves and talk about how we got there.
My introduction went like this: Hi.
My name is Tom.
I’m a youth minister, and I like to speed.
It was so embarrassing.
However, I haven’t had a speeding ticket since.
You could say that each time I was pulled over, I had a chance to change…but it took three tickets and a driving school class for me to change my ways!
You know, what’s interesting?
Each of those speeding tickets was in a way like a prophet.
Each officer told me, that if I don’t change my ways…a worse judgement was coming, and I didn’t listen.
I thought I could keep driving with my definition of right and wrong.
We all have this way of wanting to live life on our own terms.
We want to define right and wrong, good and evil.
The problem is, we don’t even live up to our own personal standards.
So what does it take to help awaken us from our hypocrisy?
What does it take to turn things around and find true life?
Jonah chapter three has some insightful solutions to this age old problem.
If you are new with us, here’s some really quick background.
Jonah is a prophet of God.
God asks Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the largest, most powerful empire on planet earth at the time and tell them that God was going to bring judgement on them for their wickedness.
Jonah wants nothing to do with this and he decides to pursue life by heading west, as far away as possible.
He boards a ship heading for Tarsus.
In a huge act of grace, God sends a storm and a fish to grab hold of Jonah’s attention.
While in the belly of this fish, Jonah realizes God’s severe mercy and agrees to do what God wants.
So we pick up with Jonah lying on a beach after being vomited out of the fish.
God gives Jonah the same word as before.
Go to Nineveh and proclaim the message God has for them.
Here’s the difference.
It’s the word “obeyed”.
Which means, he did what God asked him to do.
Here is why this is such a significant event for Jonah.
The Ninevites were quit literally the enemy.
This was the capital city of the fierce, violent, brilliant, and yet most brutal people on the planet.
I want you to feel something similar to what Jonah felt for these people.
It will help you understand this entire story.
Archeologists uncovered the ancient city of Nineveh.
It’s located near the modern city of Mosul is northern Iraq.
In the ruins they found the royal palace of Sennacherib.
If that name sounds familiar, he shows up in your Bible.
Specifically in 2 Kings 18, when he had his powerful army come into Judah and lay siege to and destroy the city Lachish.
Like most good victors, you record and commemorate your victories.
So in this palace there are these huge reliefs, like carved 3-D pictures.
They tell the story of the defeat of Lachish and you can view them in person the British Museum.
Picture of Reliefs in the British Museum.
Let me show you just a few of them so you understand what kind of people they were.
Here’s a picture of the Assyrians impaling prisoners from Lachish.
Here’s a picture of the Assyrians filleting alive two prisoners.
Here’s a picture of a Jewish family going off into exile with the Assyrians.
I show this to you to understand how feared, hated and evil the Assyrians were.
Not just to the Jewish people, but to everyone.
Now you understand why Jonah ran when God wanted him to go tell the Ninevites that they were wicked.
Jonah is thinking, “Let them burn God…let them burn.”
This also helps you understand what Jonah is about to do.
Look at verses 4 and 5.
Okay, this is a massive city.
However, Jonah gets a days journey into the mission and people begin to respond.
Now, before we get into their response, I want to focus on Jonah’s sermon.
In English it’s 8 words.
In Hebrew it’s 5 words.
He doesn’t say why and it doesn’t say who is going to do the overthrowing.
Now, you all are very smart people.
What is going on here?
Jonah, is obeying alright…in the least possible way.
He’s telling them the message, but that’s all.
He still wants them to be destroyed.
What is so shocking is that the people of Nineveh believed God.
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