Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good Morning First Baptist Church Counce!

It is great to be with you all this morning.

I would like to thank Bro. Jimmy for having me come back and preach this morning.

Also, thank you to all those that helped our worship through music happen.

It really is great to see all the familiar faces and some new faces.

I have prayed diligently for this church over the last 4 years but especially since we left.

This body of believers has lost many wonderful servants who are rejoicing in the presence of the Lord today.

I personally look forward to seeing them again in the future.

This morning we are going to be diving into the Book of know some in this room is hoping that I am about to say a specific passage but that would be to good to be true, sorry Mike we are looking at the whole book of Jonah this morning.

We will be in various sections of the book so if you have trouble keeping up the verses should be on the screen.

If you are taking notes this morning the title of the message is “Treasonous Anger.”

Charles Spurgeon wrote:

In the long line of portraits of the Doges in the palace at Venice one space is empty, and the semblance of a black curtain remains as a melancholy record of glory forfeited.

Found guilty of treason against the state, Marino Falieri was beheaded and his image as far as possible blotted from remembrance.

As I regarded the singular memorial I thought of Judas and Demas, and then, as I heard in spirit the Master’s warning word, “One of you will betray me” (), we asked within our soul the solemn question, “Lord, is it I?” Every one eye rests longer on the one dark vacancy than on any one of the many fine portraits of the merchant monarchs, and so the apostates of the church are far more frequently the theme of the world’s talk than the thousands of good men and true who adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

Hence the more need of care on the part of those of us whose portraits are publicly exhibited as saints, lest we should one day be painted out of the church’s gallery, and our persons only remembered as having been detestable hypocrites.

Spurgeon, C. (2014).

Spurgeon Commentary: 2 Timothy.

(E.

Ritzema, Ed.).

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

This morning we are going to examine how God’s sovereign plan moves Jonah to a treasonous decision that he must make which we as believers are equally faced with today.

Let’s pray together and then we will dive in.

I. God’s call forges rebellion in Jonah.

Fill

Jonah 1:1-3

Jonah hears the Lords call, his immediate reaction is not to serve God but to flee from the work he has called Jonah too.

Why would he do this?

Well first and formost

First and foremost, Nineveh is one of the capital cities of the wicked Assyrian Empire who has been in squirmishes with the nation of Israel and neighboring cities and nations.

Thus, it is the enemy of Jonah’s people, Israel.

Secondly, Jonah could be fearful of going to them.

They were known for their brutality, sexual immorality, and child sacrifice.

We also know that their wickedness was great enough that God is sending Jonah in order that they might repent so he would not destroy them.

It would probably be safe to compare their wickedness to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Regardless of all the reasons why, Jonah chooses to reject God’s call committing treason against God in his rebellion and attempts to flee for a city in the opposite direction from Nineveh.

APPLICATION:

We also often go out of our way to avoid sharing the gospel with those in our life.

We offer a variety of reasons why.

Maybe, we aren’t comfortable.

Or we feel unprepared.

Or simply do not want to share the gospel.

We cannot fall into those traps, if you are a child of God.

He has called you to evangelize and disciple those around you, those that you come in contact with otherwise it is disobedience and you are committing treason against God.

Not only do we see that God’s call leads to Jonah’s rebellion, we also see that.

II.

God’s intervention leads to obedience in Jonah.

God is not pleased with Jonah’s disobedience so God intervenes in the situation.

First, we see that

How does God intervene?

A. God sends a storm.

Jonah’s brought other people into his sin through disobedience.

The men on the boat did not know that Jonah was fleeing God but in his sinful action.

God brings the storm upon all of the ship.

Application:

I have included a rendering of a ship that this storm would have been thrashing about on the sea.

When we sin and rebel against God, we also bring harm to those around us.

Yet, we so often do just that.

When we are unwilling to share the gospel we are telling those people that we do not care for them.

When we sin sexually not only are we causing harm to the other individual in that practice, we cause harm for our future spouse, current spouse, our children, our relationship with God, and/or the community and usually its a combination of many of these.

When we drinking alcohol can hurt our witness, drunkenness is sinful, hurts the family, and makes us do foolish things.

Ultimately, our sin does not solely effect us but also those around us.

Ultimately, it is not Jonah who’s attention is grasped with the storm.

He is sleeping.

It is the sailors who wake him and discover that it is Jonah who has caused this death storm to arise through fleeing God’s call upon his life.

Which results in the men reluctantly throwing Jonah into the sea.

Which brings us to the second intervention God sends Jonah’s way.

Fill in details leading up to this point.

B. God sends a fish.

Fill

Jonah

At this point, you know Jonah is saying well.

It’s official I am dead.

God sent this fish to show me who’s boss and I’m dead.

I can even hear him saying something like “Well at least I don’t have to go to Nineveh.

But as he sits in the belly of the fish.

God moves Jonah’s heart as he sat in the fishes stomach for three days.

It is then Jonah prays a pray of repentance.

Really, a prayer of remembrance of who God is.

God then tells the fish to spit out Jonah.

Application:

It seems we as Christian’s often suffer from the same forgetfulness of Jonah.

Usually, we have these great periods of obedience we draw near to God and love doing so.

Then we begin to drift, we become lazy.

We stop praying as much, reading as much, and enjoying the presence of the Lord which results in our hearts growing cold and disobedience abounds.

We must guard against that reality.

Instead, we must remember the goodness of God and repent daily of our sin and shortcomings.

We have seen that God intervened through a storm and a fish yet God also intervenes in a third way.

This time,

C. God calls Jonah, again.

How does Jonah respond?

onah responds in obedience.

It is here that Jonah finally obeys God’s call and goes to Nineveh.

God didn’t give up on Jonah.

He went through extreme measures to get his attention.

But God never gave up on him.

Application

Praise God that He never gives up on us either.

He is constantly pursuing us.