Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Well we begin our fall season here in Merritt and as I stated last week we will be working our way through the book of Jonah.

There are various reasons why I set out to study various books of the Bible and this study was brought about by having a book brought to my attention from my dear wife.

It was written by Timothy Keller, a prolific writer and pastor in the States and it was a collection of sermons brought together over several years.

Interesting enough, one of the times He preached through Jonah was directly after the 9/11 period.

He has titled his book, Rediscovering Jonah: The secret of God’s Mercy.

It got me thinking, Is God’s Mercy a secret in your life?

Have you come to fully understand how God’s mercy is played out in the world, and our lives as followers of Christ.

As I read through the book of Jonah and read through Keller’s take on the book of Jonah, I was really intrigued by the message of this minor Prophet.

It is my hope that by the end of this series, you will have a greater understanding of the prophet Jonah, a deeper understanding of God and His mercy, and a stronger desire to follow Christ and a willingness to follow the call of God upon your life.

Background about Jonah

This book, if you still haven’t located it in your Bible is the fifth of the minor prophet.

If you were to read the Hebrew Bible they would be grouped together.

In case you were wondering and maybe you are knew to the faith and study of the Bible, These books are minor not because of their importance, rather their length.

The minor prophets take on various styles and this book was almost completely written as a narrative and for most people they believe that the prophet himself penned these words even though the text itself doesn’t clearly state this fact.

So who was this prophet.

The text gives us a glimpse

Jonah, the son of Amittai, from Gath Hepher in Galilee (cf. 2 Kings 14:25; Josh 19:13)

He was known to prophesy around the reign of Jeraboam II.

What is interesting to note is this was around the year 793-753 BC a time in which the Assyrian country was on the verge of becoming a weak nation.

Up until this point, Nineveh, was a fierce and strong city known for it’s pagan ways and brutality towards its competitors.

On person stated,

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 7: Daniel and the Minor Prophets (1.

Background)

The consciousness of weakness and possible defeat would go far to explain the readiness of Nineveh to accept the prophet’s message.

One last item or thought about this prophet before we jump into the text,

Jonah was the only prophet that was charged by God to go to a pagan nation.

The other prophets spoke about the nations, but He was asked to go.

I guess that is why I titled today’s message

Are you sure?

Maybe today, you have been seeking the Lord’s direction for your life and the message you have been getting begs you to ask the Question

Are you sure?

Being followers of Christ, there may come times in our lives where God is asking something from us

in response we cry out, or the question,

Are you sure?

This entire book answers that question

Let’s read,

God Spoke

The beginning of the book gets down quickly to the heart of the matter,

God Spoke.

A Holy God, the creator of the universe, the one that sustains the world came to a man and spoke.

The text is not clear in what manner God spoke, in fact if you read the Hebrew there is not a clear way the message came it arrived.

It’s an often similar experience with other recorded prophets in How God communicated with them.

One person wrote,

In many cases there must have been the overwhelming certainty of the divine message without any consciousness of how it had come.

In other words, we don’t know if it was an audible voice, in a dream or it came to him

Pause for a moment,

pause

This whole book can be summed up in the following way

It is about God speaking to a prophet

The Prophet’s response to the spoken Word of the Lord,

God’s Response

The Prophet’s lesson

It’s a book not centered around a fish,

It’s not a book centered around a lost people group,

It’s about a God who pursues His Prophet and displays Grace.

It has all those elements, but

You will learn that God continues to be a God full of compassion and Grace no matter where you find yourselves.

But the Chapter begins with,

God Spoke.

Let me tell you something about God, He still speaks today.

The Word of the Lord is this book we have in our midst today.

One way that God speaks to us today is through this Word.

One of the greatest Joy and greatest fear is standing in front of you every Sunday and speaking.

My desire is that you Hear the Word of God.

I don’t want my words to get in the way of the Message from God.

Often people come up to me after a service and say, “Great sermon, Pastor”

If we have the chance, I often like to respond by saying,

“What did God speak to you about today?” or “What did you hear from God today?”

God still speaks today.

You see

WE know God

We Grow to be like Him as He dwells within us

We Give to others because of what He has done.

God speaks to others through us.

So I ask you today, What has God spoken to you about lately?

Or should I ask, are you waiting and listening for God’s Voice?

As we walk through the book of Jonah, I want you to listen to what God said to Jonah, observe how Jonah responded to God’s Word and compare how you respond to God’s Word in your life.

God’s Message

God spoke, His message came to Jonah.

If you read the text, the message was quite clear.

It was an imperative,

Stand up!

One thing is certain, God’s voice was clear.

There wasn’t any confusion on the part of God or Jonah.

Stand up, Go!

Notice it wasn’t,

Jonah, It would please me greatly if you would consider as part of your ministry to pack your bags and head off to the place I want you to Go.

You know, that city to the east of us

or this way

Jonah, I have a spot on the mission trip of a lifetime, and was wondering if you would free up your schedule and gather funds so that my message could be heard to the people of Nineveh.

The scope of God’s Message

The scope of God’s message was clear,

The evil forces of the day, was so repulsive that God, the God of compassion was tired of it and wanted it to stop.

Folks,

To the Jewish readers of the day that first heard this story, it would be a shocking story on several accounts.

The first I mentioned earlier.

Jonah was being asked to go to another people group and become a missionary to those people.

He was begin asked like no other prophet before him.

Go to Those people.