Let Them Give Up Their Violence

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Christianity, Spirituality

4.8 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

The book of Jonah is awfully relevant to our situation, especially today. Jonah has been asked to go to the capital of Assyria, the great rising, emerging imperial world power. It was a violent place. It slaughtered helpless people. Jonah’s response to that is anger. He wants them punished. He is angry at them for their violence. Yet, in one of the great surprises in all of biblical narrative, there’s probably no more surprising turn than what we see in this book. God refuses to accept either the violence of Nineveh or the poisonous anger of Jonah. Let’s take a look and see what this text tells us about violence. First, the surprising sources of violence. Second, the remarkable strategy we should take with violence. And then lastly, the ultimate solution for violence. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 7, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 3:1-4:5. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for listening to Gospel in Life. Today Tim Keller is taking us through a series
0:07.2	on the Book of Jonah, a story about much more than the reluctant prophet being swallowed
0:12.1	by a great fish. And you may be surprised at how profoundly it speaks to the issues we
0:16.8	face today. After you listen, we'd love it if you'd rate and review the podcast. It will
0:21.6	encourage others to listen so they can experience the life-changing message of the gospel,
0:26.1	because the gospel changes everything. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller.
0:32.5	Greetings from Jonah chapter 3, verse 1, through chapter 4, verse 5.
0:37.9	Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim
0:43.4	to it the message I give you. Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
0:49.2	Now Nineveh was a very important city, a visit required three days. On the first day,
0:54.8	Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed, 40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned.
1:01.5	The Ninevehs believed God. They declared a fast and all of them from the greatest to the least
1:06.8	put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off
1:12.4	his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation
1:18.7	in Nineveh. By the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let any man or beast heard or flock,
1:26.8	taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth,
1:33.5	let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
1:39.0	Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not
1:44.8	perish. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion
1:51.3	and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. But Jonah was greatly displeased
1:56.9	and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, oh Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home?
2:03.3	That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate
	...

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