Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

How many of you like to go to the beach?

How many of you who like to go to the beach actually like to go to the beach?

Stages of getting more comfortable wading out deeper into the ocean

Who is just straight-up scared of the ocean?

Facts About the Ocean that Might Scare You

We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the depths of the ocean.

About 90% of the ocean is unmapped.

Colossal squids can grow up to 14 meters long (roughly 42 feet).

If you are a person who enjoys being on land and does not like to venture out into the ocean, someone might refer to you as a “landlubber.”

As we begin learning about Jonah, we will see that he was a spiritual landlubber.

He did not want to venture out into the unfamiliar in following God’s calling.

And the truth is, God called him to do something that was definitely scarier than wading out a few feet into the ocean.

Background to the Book of Jonah

Minor Prophet - simply means that what was written was shorter than the major prophets

Differs from many of the other prophetic writings because it reads more like a story.

The writings of other prophets mainly contain the message that God wanted to convey through them, but in Jonah; we see that God had a message to get across through Jonah’s story.

The events we read about in the book of Jonah also take place before the kingdom of kingdom of Israel is taken into captivity.

The Gospel is the story of God’s dealings with Israel and the Church—it is resolved in the person of Jesus Christ.

Greater Narrative of God’s Chosen People, the Nation of Israel

Calling of Abraham to the father of God’s chosen people

Isaac

Jacob

Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers and wound up in Egypt, eventually becoming second in command to Pharaoh.

After being reunited, his family all came to live in Egypt, thus relocating the Jews who then began to greatly increase as a people.

A Pharaoh came along who did not know Joseph and from fear of the Jewish people overtaking all of Egypt, the Egyptians enslaved the Jews.

Then, along came Moses, a Jew himself who had been adopted by Pharaoh’s household and was raised as Egyptian royalty until he became angry with the way his people were being treated and murdered an Egyptian who was beating a Jew!

He fled into the wilderness until God spoke to him through a burning bush and told him to lead His people out of Egypt into the promised land.

After much resistance, Pharaoh let God’s people go and Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness where they received the Law and wandered around for 40 years because of their unfaithfulness until God finally led them to the promised land and led them to victory over the people who inhabited those lands.

Then, the Israelites entered into a time period where they enjoyed living in the promised land, but did not obey God.

Everyone did as they pleased and God raised up judges like Samson and Gideon to judge the people until finally, the people of Israel decided they wanted a human king like all of the rest of the world instead of being satisfied with God as their king.

God granted their request and gave them kings to rule over them, some good, but mostly bad who led Israel in a downward spiral to eventually be taken away from their land and into captivity by the Babylonians and Assyrians.

But, Jonah is actually called by God to go to the Assyrians in Nineveh.

The Israelites were awaiting a Messiah that they would eventually find in Jesus, but many of them didn’t recognize Him when He did come in spite of all of the signs God gave them so that they might recognize Him.

One of those signs is the sign of Jonah.

Every time you read your Bible, look for Jesus.

This is a call to action.

“Arise” conversation, not a “You need to sit down to hear this” conversation.

Jonah, like many of us probably enjoyed learning about God and was satisfied simply with sitting in the classroom rather than being on the battlefield.

Jonah was comfortable in the classroom and God called him to go where he was not comfortable.

Assyrians

Scary

Assyrian brutality and cruelty were legendary.

The Assyrians were known to impale their enemies on stakes in front of their towns and hang their heads from trees in the king’s gardens.

They also tortured their captives—men, women, or children—by hacking off noses, ears, or fingers, gouging out their eyes, or tearing off their lips and hands.

They reportedly covered the city wall with the skins of their victims.

Rebellious subjects would be massacred by the hundreds, sometimes burned at the stake.

Then their skulls would be placed in great piles by the roadside as a warning to others.

Jonah decided that he would rather quit the prophetic ministry than preach to such people

Assyrian brutality and cruelty were legendary.

The Assyrians were known to impale their enemies on stakes in front of their towns and hang their heads from trees in the king’s gardens.

They also tortured their captives—men, women, or children—by hacking off noses, ears, or fingers, gouging out their eyes, or tearing off their lips and hands.

They reportedly covered the city wall with the skins of their victims.

Rebellious subjects would be massacred by the hundreds, sometimes burned at the stake.

Then their skulls would be placed in great piles by the roadside as a warning to others.

Jonah decided that he would rather quit the prophetic ministry than preach to such people

It would be like if God called you to go to ISIS and call out against them and their evil.

Different

not Jews

cultural barriers

racial barriers

religious barriers - Ashur and other gods

not God’s chosen people

God’s purpose for Israel was to reveal Himself to the world through them in an attempt to reach all peoples, not for Him to be selfishly hoarded by the Israelites

Part of Jonah’s response was probably out of pride (“holier than thou”)

Jonah’s Response in Modern Day Terms

“They’ll never listen.”

Jonah rose, but not to accept God’s calling.

Can anyone actually escape God’s presence?

“They can’t change.

They don’t want to change.”

Jonah goes to Joppa and meets “the pirates who don’t do anything”

Nineveh was about 500 miles east from where Jonah was

Tarshish was about 2,000 miles west from where Jonah was (the farthest place to the west that Jonah knew of, modern day Spain)

If he had known about this continent, he probably would have come here.

This should sound a little bit familiar...

Their gods were no gods at all.

But one day, the one true God manifested in Jesus Christ would calm the sea as their gods could not.

Similar to drawing straws

Common way for people in the ancient world to try and seek knowledge from their gods

The word he used was “Yahweh”—God’s personal name in the Old Testament

Jonah asks to be thrown overboard

Desperate attempt to get back to land failed and they realized their only option was to throw Jonah overboard.

I doubt that Jonah knew what was going to happen when he asked to be thrown overboard.

He might have very well been asking to be killed, but God was not done with Jonah yet.

After seeing all of this, these pagan sailors called out to Yahweh, the Lord, the one true God begging for mercy.

Then, after seeing the sea calmed they realized this was only something the one true God could do and even made sacrifices to God.

That’s how impressive this incident was.

This is intended to point us to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

God is showing us that where a sinful man deserves to die for disobeying God and tries to flee from His presence, God puts in his place His own Son—a sinless man who did not deserve to die, perfectly obeyed God, and willingly went to those who did not deserve God’s grace.

Jesus did what Jonah failed to do at first by coming to us.

In Jesus’ story, we are the evil, sinful, wretched Ninevites.

But, Jesus didn’t run.

He came on full speed ahead.

He got His hands dirty.

He got messy.

He pursued and continues to pursue and chase after us.

Will you learn from Jonah’s mistake and Jesus’ success?

But, even in Jonah’s story he gets a second chance to do right—to love the unlovable, and to turn back to God.

Call for Response