Sermon Prepared by James McCullen
Email Preach Him with Dr. Jim
An Analysis of A GREAT CITY
JONAH 2:10 - 3:4 (NASB)
An Analysis of A GREAT CITY
JONAH 2:10 - 3:4 (NASB)
INTRODUCTION: Many people today move away from the city. They like to come to the Jewel of the Ozarks Mtn. View. God does not try to get away from the city. He has a plan in the text. Notice God did not change plans for Nineveh. He also did not change people. He could have but He did not. He wanted Jonah. The job was designed for him. It is not a one man message, but it may not be an any man message God didn't choose to use anyone, God chose Jonah and He chose him to go to a particular city. Notice with me the information concerning this great city.
I. THE SOVEREIGN OF THE CITY
II. THE SIZE OF THE CITY
III. THE SIN OF THE CITY
IV. THE SERMON OF THE CITY
I. THE SOVEREIGN . . OF THE CITY
upon the dry land.
1. It may be assumed that it was the coast of Palestine.
2. Jonah found himself upon land, safe but chastened.
3. When God had him at His mercy, He showed him mercy.
a. He made his commitment in a crisis. HE MEANT IT.
JON 3:1 Now the word of the \Lord\ came to Jonah the second time, saying,
1. God is the God of a second chance. Sovereignly so.
2. Note the renewed charge to the penitent Prophet.
3. A call from God once unwelcome becomes sweet.
JON 3:2 "Arise, go to Nineveh
. Implies that he was then settled, perhaps at Gath-heper.
2. God's call is still "go". Can't spell go sit or sing or pray.
3. Go in spite of the world, go in spite of self, go whatever should
be his fate.
4. Go to Nineveh. God selects the field of labor for his ministers.
ILLUSTRATION:
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), the movie director, told a parable in
"Guideposts" (1959) about the unknown. There once was a king who was granted
two wishes. His first was to see the future. But when he saw all that lay
ahead - the beauty and the pain - he immediately asked for his second wish;
that the future be hidden.
"I thank Heaven," the master of suspense proclaimed, "that tomorrow does not belong to any man. It belongs to God."
APPLICATION:
God reigns as sovereign, of the city, the town, the world.
II. THE SIZE . . OF THE CITY
JON 3:2 "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city
1. A great and proud city.Nineveh was no small city. Its circumference
was some sixty miles. The walls around the city were one hundred feet tall
and broad enough for three chariots to be driven abreast. It was fortified
by huge towers. Its population was estimated at 600,000 to 1,000,000.
Jon 3:3 Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,
1. Most magnificent of all the capitals of the ancient world There
were gorgeous temples and princely palaces. It included parks, gardens,
fields, people and cattle within its vast circumference.
2. The entire metropolitan area. A Great aggregate of cities? Might
gain support from Genesis 10:11-12.
". . . a three days' walk."
1. This would be sixty to seventy-five miles in circumference.
2. A day's journey would be twenty to twenty-five miles.
ILLUSTRATION:
Many of us go regularly to Springfield Missouri. We some times drive
across it. How long do you think it would take to walk from one side of
the city to the other? Is Springfield Mo. 20 miles from one side to the
other? Then Nineveh was three times that size.
APPLICATION:
Our area is growing and much of the growth comes from people moving
away from the city. The size of the city causes a mixed bag of goos and
evil.
III. THE SIN . . OF THE CITY. Jonah 1:2 & 4:11
JON 4:11 "And should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city
in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know {the difference}
between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"
When the Ninevites captured a city they slaughtered all the leading
citizens. When I say slaughtered, They stretched men out flat on the ground
and tied their hands and feet to stakes and literally, with a knife, skinned
them alive. They drove a pointed pole into the lower chest of others; picked
them up, placed the pole in a hole, and left them there squirming until
they died. They made pyramids out of human skulls to mark the route the
conquerors had taken.
One historian says, men were actually skinned alive, children burned, some were blinded, some had hands and feet, noses and ears cut off.
GOD IS CONCERNED. HE EXPECTS JONAH TO DO SOMETHING.
What about us today? ABORTION!
Can we Legislate Morality? Check our laws that's what most of them are trying to do.
ILLUSTRATION:
Yehiel Dinur survived the holocaust of World War Ii. Many years later,
he was called upon to testify at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the
architects of the holocaust. As he stepped into the courtroom and saw Eichmann,
he broke down in uncontrollable sobs.
Was Dinur overcome by hatred? Fear? Terrible memories? "No," said Dinur to Mike Wallace of CBS News. "I was afraid about myself...I am...exactly like he is."
APPLICATION:
More people usualy means more sin. Some are sucked up in the flow of
sin. Always someone is more preverted than the others.
IV. THE SERMON . . TO THE CITY
3:2c the proclamation which I am going to tell you."
1. "Proclaim" means sound it out loudly, plainly, urgently.
2. Emphatic I, God is commanding, see that you preach no other message
than Mine.
3. God gives the message. God's authority plain, and uncompromising.
4. Not his own imaginations, nor any fine things of his own spinning.
5. The Church is to preach, to proclaim what God commands it.
6. God's thoughts are the converting forces.
JON 3:3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of
the \Lord.
1. He was now as prompt to obey as formerly to flee.
2. Jonah saved from the jaws of death gives a ray of hope to Nineveh.
3. In what spirit should God's servants go to do His work?
a. Strict in obedience.
b. Simply in trust.
c. Scheduled for readiness to service.
d. Satisfied to trust God for the results of their mission.
JON 3:4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk;
1. Jonah proclaimed his message of judgement all day long as he traveled
into the city.
". . . and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be
overthrown."
1. Yet; indicates an implied promise, some long-suffering of God.
2. Forty days of grace are granted. Grace always comes before judgment.
Noah's Ark door open 7 days after they went in.
3. Grace because God loves.
4. God knew exactly the day when Nineveh's lease of mercy should end.
5. Forty days a number of a probation or testing.
6. In this sermon two things are noteworthy
a. It was direct, simple, and plain.
b. It was also alarming. It sounded just one note, and that was a note
of warning. He cried out.
ILLUSTRATION:
Recently I heard Ray Comfort teach with conviction the need to share
with the non-Christian the law and judgement of God. He likened it to flying
on an airplane. The pilot turned on the intercom and said "I'm sorry to
inform you we are about to loose the tail section of the plane. This plane
will crash. Please take a parachute from under the seat and strap it on
your shoulders.
A man sitting next to you continues to watch the movie. You ask "sir did you hear the captain?" He answers "yes but I think I have plenty of time. I am really enjoying the movie. You say oh please put on the parachute. It will help you more than the movie. It will give you peace of mind etc. No! No! You tell him get that parachute on or you will splatter all over the ground.
Application
MAT 21:44 "And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust."
Judgement is coming. To the cities and to the towns. We need to be ready.
CONCLUSION:
I. THE SOVEREIGN . . OF THE CITY
II. THE SIZE . . OF THE CITY
III. THE SIN . . OF THE CITY
IV. THE SERMON . . TO THE CITY
