Sermon Tone Analysis

We last looked at the book of Jonah when we launched our Who’s Your One? Campaign.

The goal of the campaign was for each member of Harrisburg to identify one person who doesn’t know Christ and begin praying for them, sharing the gospel with them, and inviting them to join us for worship and our weekly ministries.

COVID wasn’t far behind this push that we made a few years ago… and I think the circumstances Christians are facing in our country right now lend themselves to a faithful application of what we see in the book of Jonah to our hearts and lives today.

A summary of the events recorded in Jonah…

Jonah 1

God sends him on a mission to warn the Ninevites saying, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

(Jonah 3:4).

At first, this message sounds simple and sweet, yet bleak.

But Jonah runs to Tarshish (1:3), the opposite direction from Nineveh.

His disobedience was perhaps as theological as it was geographical.

Notice that Jonah ran “to flee the presence of the LORD” (1:3).

David Stronach of UC Berkley offers an example of why Jonah might have bolted, “In a stone pillar, one Assyrian ruler boasted of ‘nobles I flayed.’

He reported: ‘Three thousand captives I burned with fire.

I left not one hostage alive.

I cut off the hands and feet of some.

I cut off the noses, ears, and fingers of others.

The eyes of numerous soldiers I put out.

Maidens I burned as a holocaust.”

You can’t blame a preacher for not wanting to visit a place like that—either then or now.

Jonah 2

In Jonah 2, God puts Jonah in the belly of a fish for three days before spitting him back on shore.

In Jonah 3, Jonah obeys God’s command, and finally delivers the message to Nineveh.

Amazingly, the Ninevites repent, and God relents.

But how does Jonah respond?

You’d think this missionary prophet would rejoice.

Not so…

Jonah 4

Jonah 4:1 tells us the opposite: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.”

Why? Jonah 4:2 unpacks this adding an important flashback detail intentionally left absent from the beginning: “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

Jonah didn’t run because he feared the Ninevites killing him; he feared God saving them.

Similarities to our situation today:

Jonah looked down on the people of Ninevah, and many American Christians look down on those who are outside the church.

Jonah looked down them because they were an ungodly and evil people.

Ninevah was a major city in Assyrian kingdom.

We know that by the time Assyria falls in around 612 BC the city of Ninevah was the capital.

The Assyrians were enemies of Israel, and as the Bible says, they were evil.

Jonah struggled that God would extend the same forgiveness to the Assyrians, if they repented, that He gave to the Israelites.

Many American Christians struggle in the same ways toward those who are presently pushing the immoral and evil agendas of the day.

Jonah 4:1–2 (ESV)

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Jonah refused God’s call to take the message of repentance to Ninevah by going somewhere else, and many Americans refuse to take the message of repentance to our fellow citizens by simply doing something else.

In very simple and Biblical terms: Repentance is a change of mind and of behavior.

The word for repentance in both the OT and the NT means a change of mind and behavior.

You cannot repent with only a change of mind, and you cannot repent with only a change of behavior.

Jonah was sent to tell the Assyrians to repent, and they had much to repent of.

As we mentioned already they were the enemies of God.

They were evil, ungodly people.

They were the worst of their day… and Jonah did not want to take the message of repentance to such an awful people.

They might even kill him for simply bringing the message.

It was way worse than cancel culture in the days of Jonah.

(Side note: If you think being cancelled is persecution, I think there are a couple of thousand years of martyrs who would say otherwise.)

One of the primary reasons Jonah refused to take the message of repentance to the Assyrians is because he knew God would forgive them if they ask… and I hope that’s not our issue in the American church, but I can’t help but think it is an issue for some.

The same people who don’t want to invite the ugodly people around them to repent, are the same people that don’t want those ungodly people to join the church.

I believe this… that the future leaders of this church, the future leaders of Harrisburg Baptist Church are currently voting for the wrong people, pushing the wrong agendas, and likely attacking us for what we believe.

And the reason I believe they are the future leaders of our church, is because I believe God intends to change their hearts through the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The future of our church is sitting in living rooms all over the city right now watching something other than a church service.

The future of God’s kingdom was out too late last night drinking and partying.

The future of our church is living unfulfilled and completely committed to a lifestyle that is sinful, selfish, abhorrent, and ungodly.

God never intended for the church to only grow through the nursery.

God does grow the church through the multiplication of the family… but even more than that God grows His church through the multiplication of the gospel.

God sent Jonah to the most ungodly people he had ever heard of… and Jonah didn’t want them to repent and receive the forgiveness and grace of God.

But, praise the Lord that in the ways Jonah refused to go to Ninevah, Jesus willingly and joyfully came to call a sinful world to repentance and salvation.

Christians are repentant and sent to call other sinners to repentance.

Many Christians and pastors want to make a big deal about pointing out sin… but God doesn’t tell us to simply point out that others have sinned.

God sends us to tell sinners to repent.

God doesn’t just tell sinners to admit that they have sinned, He calls sinners to repent of their sins and walk in obedient holiness.

The way of Jesus is the way that God has always been and always will be.

That’s why he is called the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

In the OT Ezekiel said “Repent and turn from your transgressions” (Ezek.

18:30).

Jonah was sent to tell the Assyrians to repent…

John the Baptist said “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt.

3:2).

Jesus said “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Peter said “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38).

And Paul said God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).

“Repentance has never been easy.

No one likes to be told “Die to yourself.

Kill that in you.

Admit you are wrong and change.”

That’s never been an easy sell.

It’s much easier to get a crowd by leaving out the repentance part of faith, but it’s not faithful.

It’s not even Christianity.

Of course, there is a whole lot more to following Jesus than repentance, but it’s certainly not less.

“Repent,” Jesus said, or “you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5)."

Kevin DeYoung

In an article on repentance Kevin pointed out the difference between regret, embarrassment, apology, and repentance.

Regret- You don’t have to see your sin or admit wrong and be humbled to feel regret.

You just have to feel bad about the consequences of your actions.

It’s easy to have regret, but that’s not repentance.

(This section is from an article on TGC by Kevin Deyoung on Repentance)

“Embarrassment is easy too.

Suppose you’re out in the lobby after church and a group of you are chatting about “her.”

No one has talked to “her,” but you all talking about her–what’s wrong in her marriage, what’s wrong with her kids, what’s wrong with her house.

You aren’t strategizing how to help her.

You’re just talking about her.

And then you realize she’s been looking for her coat right behind you the whole time.

She’s heard the whole thing.

And as she bolts out of church crying, you feel just terrible.

You are so embarrassed.

Now, it may be that you are really struck in your conscience and you are moved to ask for forgiveness.