Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: The Importance of a Question

The questions people ask us have the tendency to either make us stop and think or quickly pass them by as insignificant.

Most often the question how are you doing with no context brings a response of OK, just life, doing good, ect...

But that same question posed by a close friend in a moment of sadness and hurt will bring a very different response.

But a good question has a way of drawing us in and contemplating an answer.

it makes us think deeply and answer slowly.

(now great questions don’t all have to be serious some are just informative:

- Who is your favorite character from a fictional novel and why do they resonate with you?

- Where would you like to spend the rest of your life and why?

But the questions that usually stick with us the longest are the questions posed by good friends when we are headed down bad paths.

-Do you truly believe that no one else is affected by your decisions?

-When this road ends who will be there to pick you back up?

-IS this more important than your family?

-Is this more important than your faith?

The question that the Lord posits for us today is: “What right do you have to be angry”

But let’s take a second and journey our way one more time to how we got to this point....

(Overview how we got here)

Chapter one begins the book in a very negative light Jonah takes off rejecting the faith and anything to do with a God who would send him to preach to the Ninevites, these Assyrians consumed in their sin and evil who had tormented Israel for generations, and who now were flailing, just as Israel “appeared to be succeeding”

(remember in 2 Kings Jonah was a prophet to the wicked King of the North who God was merciful to and fulfilled his promises to restore the land, in spite of their evil ways)

but God doesn’t let him run away, so rather than return to God Jonah would rather die, but God in his mercy saves him through a fish.

Which leads us to the beauty of chapter 2 and Jonah’s prayer of repentance and declaration that God is the God of Salvation.

From Here Jonah is recommissioned and goes preaching his 5 word sermon in Nineveh leading to an overwhelming transformation as the people all turn from their wickedness and turn to God.

And this right where we would like the book to End, unfortunately that was not the case, for Jonah was not satisfied with his merciful God (who again gave wealth and lands to the wicked King Jeroboam II in Israel and who had just not a few months back saved him from certain death because of his own stubborn rebellion)

God’s response to Jonah will teach us a great deal about ourselves and more importantly about God

I. God Questions our heart towards People (1-4)

-Jonah ‘s response to the Mercy of God should immediately hit us in the face

-John had literally not to long before had cried out that Salvation belonged to the Lord (knowing that it is only by God’s will that these things come to pass)

-As a Prophet Jonah is well acquainted with he character of God, he has studied the truth he has even experienced it, but here we begin to see he doesn't appreciate it.

-So just as Chapter 2 began with a prayer of the prophet in response to God’s mercy so Chapter 4 will once again echo a similar structure but with a far different tone and

-In 2 Jonah takes a few days but comes to realize what a blessing having a merciful God who will not let you go means, but by chapter 4 he doesn’t believe that his God is just in displaying that kind of care to his enemies.

-He quotes the book of Exodus:

Ex.

-This section of Exodus is when God restore the people of Israel and remake the commands renewing his covenant after they built the golden calf and turned on him at Sinai.

-Jonah knew God, but was hoping that the final part of this verse would be the heart of God not the first part.

We are not supposed to read Jonah and then think to ourselves, “How ungrateful that Jonah is!

I would never be so unloving to others as he is.”

Rather, we are supposed to think, “If the heart of a prophet of God can become so wrongly hardened to God’s priorities, God’s love, and God’s mercy, how much more do I need to watch over my own heart!”

We need to ask ourselves, “Is there any coldness in my heart toward the things for which God’s heart is warm—the things for which he shows love, mercy, and compassion?”

Jesus will offer a parable which will mirror the attitude of Jonah well towards a merciful God:

Summarize the prodigal son

-Jonah has the heart of the Older brother that we see echoed in the 1st century pharisees who encountered Jesus

Luke 15:

-The heart of the older brother believes his anger is justified because there are those who do not deserve forgiveness

-In a way it is to place oneself in place of God determine that you are a better judge and arbiter of justice

-because for Jonah His anger stems from a feeling that God is being unjust in displaying mercy to these Ninehvites

-So

-God allows Jonah a moment to rant then steps in with that all challenging question.: “What Right do you have to be Angry”

-In our own lives are there areas where we see people blessed by God you think don’t deserve it.

Do you think you are more deserving of God gifts then others?

-Are there any groups of people who you would rather see wiped off the earth than come to faith?

-Jonah has no response to god’s question it pierce to the heart and he is left speechless, he knows it’s true but is unwilling to accept it so he walks away and waits hoping God will see things his way.

-So god will coming to Jonah again, this time though he will set a challenge before Him in the form of a physical blessing that he will then take away, forcing Jonah to confront the reality of his petty priorities.

if this be true then: “What right do you have to be Angry”

II.

God Questions our heart towards ourselves (5-9)

-Jonah goes out and builds a small hut for Himself (based on its location would have been random stones and twigs not enough to make a substantial roof)

-It seems from the text he is hoping God will either change his mind, or that the repentance of Nineveh is false

-God again will appoint just as he appointed the wind and the fish in the first part of the book, he now appoints a plant to give him shade for his poor head

-So in this moment of Jonah being a pain God shows momentary mercy (which Jonah had to have seen as such)

-Jonah though doesn’t appreciate the giver of the plant but rather only the plant and its benefit to him

-But the text makes it clear he is overly joyed by the this plant, it is praise worthy

-In this we know he is not prepared for if the tide changes, as God will quickly do (He doesn’t have the will of Job: you give and take away)

-God Kills the plant by now appointing a worm and the wind once more to teach him a lesson about the Love of God (which seems odd in the moment) -but again God disciplines his children

-In this moment Jonah loses his mind and once again yearns for death, and once more God steps in and responds with his questions, but now with a new object: ‘What right do you have to be Angry for the Plant”

-God’s question challenges Jonah heart towards himself

-Think of the things God has blessed you with (non-of which according to scripture we deserve) and if tomorrow they were lost would God be unjust

-maybe we simplify it, is God unjust when you car breaks down, when you don’t get the front parking spot, when you hit every read light,.

when you never see that best life all those other people talk about all the time, is their injustice with God.

-Is the reality of your christian life about receiving blessings from God or being a blessing from God

-Jonah is man that was forgiven a lot and yet could only think about himself like the unforgiving servant Jesus teaches us about in .

-Focus on the forgiving work of Christ in our lives and how that should changes our perspective towards ourselves and the world

Which sets up God finally comment and question which focuses Jonah on the reality that he may know the words about God but he is missing the heart of God

III.

God Questions our hearts towards Him (10-11)

-Is our heart in line with His towards the nations, towards our neighbors, towards our co-workers

-God knows their sins (that he does not dispute) but he also acknowledges their ignorance of the full nature of what their sin means.

-they sin yes, but they are still people made in the image of God and that matters

- His use of the cattle points out the fact that even for him to spare the animals is more righteous and just than Jonahs complaint about the plant (cattle is way more important than plants (there ya go vegans enjoy your one verse)

-In this way Jonah is being challenged to identify how his priorities line up with Gods, and then evaluate why that is a problem if they don’t

-Being a christian is about being all in with Christ loving what he loves and doing what he did, it is as he said the action of Picking up your cross daily and following Him

-This final question of God is meant to ring in our ears daily

If there is nay hope though we should acknowledge thought that in chapter 4 unlike 1 Jonah continues to pray and communicate with God

Conclusion

We are not supposed to read Jonah and then think to ourselves, “How ungrateful that Jonah is!

I would never be so unloving to others as he is.”

Rather, we are supposed to think, “If the heart of a prophet of God can become so wrongly hardened to God’s priorities, God’s love, and God’s mercy, how much more do I need to watch over my own heart!”

We need to ask ourselves, “Is there any coldness in my heart toward the things for which God’s heart is warm—the things for which he shows love, mercy, and compassion?”

In concluding our series Mark Dever Offers 7 Applications for our text:

Practically speaking, what should we do?

Let me offer several suggestions:

First, learn about the “Ninevehs” around you.

Learn what the non-Christians at your work or in your neighborhood care about and enjoy.

It is difficult to care about people when you know nothing about them.

So give them a chance by learning about them.

Also, begin learning about foreign countries, the state of the church in those countries, and the prayer needs of those places.

Many resources can help you to do this, but one of the best must be Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World.

Buy a copy and begin praying through its daily calendar.

Second, show hospitality to all the “Jonahs” who travel through your city and circles.

When you encounter people committed to moving to places like Nineveh to share the good news of Jesus Christ, welcome them, greet them, and help them on their way.

Third, give support to Jonah and his work.