By Pastor Bruce K. Oyen
This is a posting of my third sermon outline on the Book Of Jonah.
Each one of these sermon outlines covers a complete chapter in this interesting and challenging Old Testament book about Jonah's experience in his walk with God. Like the previous sermon outline postings on Jonah, you will find a skeleton of a sermon on which to put some thoughts of your own.
Some thoughts about preaching.
Some of my thoughts about preaching can be found in my previous postings on Jonah. The main thing I want to re-state is that it is best to learn to preach from a full heart and memory, and to not read a sermon manuscript. If you bring a sermon manuscript to the pulpit with you, have it clearly outlined so that you can follow it without reading much of it. To do so will require learning the content of a sermon manuscript well enough to not be dependent on it. To learn to do this is to give oneself freedom in the pulpit to use one's facial expressions and other body language during the sermon. To not be dependent on a manuscript allows the preacher to look at his listeners, to talk to them, to connect with them in a way that is not possible if the preacher is mostly looking at sheets of paper.
Jonah's Re-commission, Obedience, And Success.
Jonah 3:1 - 10. Read entire chapter to congregation. Then, go back and preach through the outline. While doing so, make application to Christians and non-Christians.
1. First, consider Jonah's re-commission, verses 1 and 2.
A. Its content: 1:1,2; 3:4
1. God would judge Nineveh, unless the people repented.
2. The meaning of repentance.
3. Repentance still to be preached. E. g. Luke 24:47; Acts 17:30.
B. Its foundation:
1. God's grace.
2. Jonah's repentance.
3. Nineveh's need.
C. Its main lesson: God gives repentant rebels another opportunity to serve him.
2. Second, consider Jonah's obedience, verses 3 and 4.
A. It was an inconvenience to his comfort.
He had to travel 550 miles the old-fashioned way.
B. It was a challenge to his prejudice against and his hatred for the Ninevites.
He had to put these things behind him.
C. It was a test of his faithfulness to God.
1. He had to speak of God's coming judgment of them for their sins.
2. He had to speak of God's love for the Ninevites.
D. It put his life in danger.
The Ninevites had a reputation for killing their enemies.
3. Third, consider Jonah's success, verses 5 - 10.
A. This was not his first success.
2 Kings 14:25. A previous prediction had come to pass.
B. Some reasons for his success.
1. God wanted him to be successful.
2. He faithfully delivered God's message.
3. Perhaps previous famines and an eclipse of the sun had made the Ninevites think their gods were angry at them.
4. The Ninevites accepted Jonah's message and repented.
C. Some characteristics of his success.
1. It started with the general public, verse 5.
2. It spread to Nineveh's king, verses 6 - 9.
3. In other words, it started at the bottom, so to speak, and worked its way up.
D. Proof of his success.
1. The people and the king believed God.
2. They gave symbolic demonstration of their repentance.
3. They made significant changes in their behavior.
1. They turned from their evil way.
2. They turned from their violence.
4. Because they had repented, God did not judge them for sins.
Have prayer about this subject.
Closing song:
A fitting song to sing at the end of such a sermon is the well-known one called:
"Trust and Obey (For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.)"
