Mars Hill Church | West Seattle » Jonah

Jonah 4:1-11 | The God of This City

Pastor Adam Sinnett — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:48:46 +0000

So far, in the first three chapters, Jonah looks bad. He receives clear instruction from God to go to Nineveh, but runs. God tries to get his attention with a storm, but he sleeps. God sends a non-Christian captain to convict him, but he doesn’t listen. God uses a pagan dice game to call him out, so he asks to get thrown overboard. Jonah nearly drowns, but God graciously rescues him. Finally, after getting spit up on the beach, covered in fish puke, Jonah gets the idea that there’s no avoiding God so he goes to Nineveh, preaches an unspectacular five word sermon, the entire city falls on its face before God, repents of their sin and God relents from the promised disaster.

But, instead of getting better, it gets worse for Jonah in chapter four. Here we learn of Jonah’s initial motivation for running from God. Jonah knew that God is a “gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (4:2, cf. Ex 34:6-7), and he couldn’t stand the thought of Nineveh being forgiven its sins and accepted by God. Therefore, after leading one of the greatest revivals of in history, Jonah becomes angry with God for offering grace and mercy to these wicked, violent unbelievers, even after his great declaration, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (2:9). God then patiently and graciously uses a series of questions and an object lesson to point out Jonah’s great self-centeredness and self-righteousness, being more concerned for a mere plant, and his own comfort, than the souls of an entire city (not to mention the cows!).

Jonah’s heart is revealed. Jonah likes God’s blessings when they’re in his favor, he prefers personal comfort over others coming into relationship with Jesus Christ, and he forgets that he is no different than the Ninevites. Jonah elevates the blessings that God has given him to enjoy (i.e. salvation, shady plant, etc), above God, and then advises God on how best to distribute such blessings to others. We do the same thing, acting just as self-centered and self-righteous. This chapter challenges us to assess our lives in Seattle and ask whether we’re more concerned for our personal well being than the spiritual well being of this great city.

Questions for application:

What are the “shady plants” in your life?
Are you more concerned with them than with getting to know and love Jesus?
What are you willing to give up for the sake of others knowing Jesus?
Do you know and feel that you are no different than anyone else in this city?
Who are 3-5 people in your life that God wants you to love on, pray for, and point to Jesus?

Check out the notes here: JONAH 4:1-11 | THE GOD OF THIS CITY

Listen to the audio from Sunday’s sermon

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Jonah 3:1-10 | The Mission of God

Pastor Adam Sinnett — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:09:15 +0000

We left Jonah, at the end of chapter two, vomit-drenched standing on the beach having spent the last three days inside a great fish. As he comes to his senses, and his eyes acclimate to the light, the word of the Lord comes to him a second time, saying “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” (3:1) Given a second chance, this time Jonah obeys and goes to Nineveh (modern day Mosul, Iraq) which was approximately 500 miles away, requiring a month long journey. Upon arrival, he delivers an unconvincing and unspectacular five-word (in the Hebrew text) sermon (3:4) warning the people of Nineveh of the impending judgment of God.

Following God’s words of warning through Jonah, the entire city immediately repents through fasting, wearing of sackcloth (a sign of grief and humility), sitting in the dirt, and turning from their violent and evil ways (3:5-9). Compare this to Jonah’s less than urgent and immediate response in chapter one. The word spreads explosively and reaches the king of Nineveh, who calls for citywide repentance. God accepts their heart-felt repentance and graciously withholds the promised disaster (3:10), much to the dismay of Jonah as we learn in chapter four (4:2).

Like Jonah, we too are called to proclaim the Word of God, which always accomplishes what it sets out to do (Isa 55:11), in the city of Seattle (Mt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8) even if conveyed through a reluctant and less-than-perfect messenger.

All biblical mission involves “going”, “seeing”, “feeling” and “doing” (cf. Mt 9; Acts 17:16-34). We are called to “go” to the people of the city, “see” the lives and needs of the people of the city, “feel” as God feels for the people of the city and “do” as God would have us in proclaiming the Gospel to the people of the city. Jonah does eventually “go”, “see” and “do” but does not “feel” as God does for the people of the city of Nineveh as we see in the next chapter. Statistically, the longer someone is a Christian the fewer non-Christians they know and the less they care about them. Only when you and I go to people and see their lives and needs do we feel for them as Jesus feels for them, thus paving the way for us to rightly and sincerely share the Gospel of Jesus with them. Our job is to be faithful, albeit imperfectly, and leave the results to God. May the Gospel explode in Seattle, as it did in Nineveh, and bring the city to its knees in repentance – beginning with us.

Check out the notes here: Jonah 3: 1-10 | The Mission of God

Listen to the audio from Sunday’s sermon

Or right click “save as…” to download it here

Jonah 1:17-2:10 | The End of Ourselves

Pastor Adam Sinnett — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:35:51 +0000

Last week, we left Jonah sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Owning his sin and realizing that he cannot run from God, Jonah places himself in God’s hands and is thrown overboard into the sea. This week we look at chapter two, Jonah’s prayer, which recounts his downward descent into the deep darkness of the frigid water and subsequent miraculous salvation. Yet though it’s Jonah’s prayer from inside the fish, the main character is God. It is God who ultimately cast Jonah into the sea (2:3), it is God who controls the currents and waves (2:3), it is God who rescues Jonah from death (2:6), it is God who tells the fish to place Jonah back on dry land (2:10) and it is ultimately God who determines salvation (2:9).

As Jonah sinks into the sea, the currents throw and control him (2:3), the light of the world above slowly disappears, the dark silhouette of the roots of the mountains come into view (2:6), and he becomes tangled in a bed of seaweed (2:5). Jonah reaches rock bottom, the end of himself, a descent that began in the first chapter (1:3,5,2:6). He finds himself on the brink of death (2:2,6), likely going in and out of consciousness (2:7), when out of nowhere God graciously rescues him through an unlikely hero, a fish. Finding himself inside a fish, Jonah seemingly reconsiders his understanding of the grace of God (2:6,8) and offers up the psalm of thanksgiving recorded in this chapter.

Similarly, our lives are much like Jonah’s journey, filled with God’s loving initiation (1:2), our running from him (1:3), God’s pursuit of us despite our running (1:4,6,7,17) and coming to the place where we realize that we are not competent to run our own lives. As it has been said, we are not competent to run our own lives until we realize that we are not competent to run our own lives. (Tim Keller) There is a road in life that appears to be a dead end, called the End of Yourself. It is at times a dark road, filled with fear and questioning, yet it is there at the end of the End of Yourself we meet Jesus. What is seemingly a dead end is in fact the road to life (Jn 14:6; Mt 11:28,29). The key to the Christian life is to stay on this road, the End of Yourself, following Jesus, giving up your map for his map (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 2:20; Mt 16:24,25) for it is there that we most clearly see our sin and only there we experience the grace of God.

[Note: For more on the Christian life as allegory I highly recommend John Bunyan’s, Pilgrim’s Progress.]

Check out the notes here:
Jonah 1:17-2:10 | The End of Yourself

Listen to the audio from Sunday’s sermon

Or right click “save as…” to download it here

Also, check our our Jonah page in the new Mars Hill Media Library.

Jonah 1:1-17 | We Are Jonah

Pastor Adam Sinnett — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:43:12 +0000

This month we are diving into the book of Jonah. On Sunday we began with chapter one and examined how we are very much like Jonah. The book of Jonah is about a prophet from Gath-hepher (2 Kings 14:25), 3 miles northeast of Nazareth, who lived during the reign of Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.). God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh, a major city within the Assyrian empire, to preach repentance (1:2). The Assyrians were merciless enemies to the north, whom Hosea and Amos (Jonah’s contemporaries) prophesied would eventually conquer northern Israel (which happened in 722 B.C.) Probably knowing this, and that God was gracious, merciful, and likely to forgive them (4:2), Jonah runs (1:3). He couldn’t handle the thought that Israel’s sworn enemies, and perhaps the very people that God would use to destroy Israel, are the exact people whom God wants Jonah to call to repentance and offer forgiveness. This great book confronts us with sin, grace, and God’s love for all the nations of the earth, even those we would consider our enemies. In it we are forced to examine our own selfishness, self-righteousness, and reluctance to participate in God’s unfolding plan of salvation in this great city of Seattle – and like Jonah, we must own our sin and fly to Jesus.

For the King,

Pastor Adam

Check out the notes here
Jonah 1:1-17 | We Are Jonah

Listen to the audio from Sunday’s sermon

Or right click “save as…” to download it here

Also, check our our Jonah page in the new Mars Hill Media Library.