What does First B Jackson teach about book of jonah?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on the book of Jonah returns to a single unsettling question: are we genuinely glad that God loves the people we have written off? Every message on this book has pressed that question hard, because the whole story is built on the irony that the man of God is the rebellious one, while pagan sailors and violent Ninevites are the ones who respond well.
The teaching traces Jonah's repeated refusals from the beginning. God calls him northeast to Nineveh, the brutal Assyrian capital and long-time enemy of Israel, and Jonah turns and goes as far west as the known world reaches. Pastor Stan and Pastor Mark have both pointed out the absurdity of trying to flee an omnipresent God on a boat that God made, crossing a sea that God made. Jonah knew exactly who God was and exactly what God was likely to do with Nineveh if Jonah showed up, and he wanted no part of it. The sailors on that ship behaved better than the prophet did, working and praying and worrying about innocent blood on their hands, while Jonah slept. When the sea calmed after they threw him over, those same sailors called out to the Lord and made vows to Him. Jonah's worst moment became the occasion for a group of outsiders to come to faith.
Van Jones, who preached through the whole book in August 2025, noted that Jonah's prayer from inside the fish is only partial repentance. Jonah rehearses his distress and God's rescue but never really confesses his nationalism, his hatred of the enemy, or his pride. God answers anyway, the fish deposits him on dry land, and God gives the exact same command a second time. Jonah goes, but his sermon to Nineveh is five Hebrew words with no explanation of sin and no mention of God by name. The entire city repents anyway, from the poorest resident to the king who steps off his throne and sits in ashes. The book ends not with a celebration but with Jonah furious in a booth outside the city, and God pressing the question he has been pressing all along: should I not care about these people? The teaching here holds that the book of Jonah is less about a fish and more about whether the servants of God share His heart for those they would rather see judged.
Taught from Jonah 1-4 · Jonah 1:1-3 · Jonah 4:2 · Matthew 12:38-40 · Jonah 2:8-9
The passage taught · Exodus 34
1 Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.
3 No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”
4 He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- August 17, 2025 No and Lord Van Jones walks through the entire book of Jonah, showing how God patiently pursues a reluctant, angry prophet and calls us to love even the people we most want to see judged.
- March 27, 2022 The Book of Jonah - Sunday, March 27, 2022 - 11am Service The pastor walks through the entire book of Jonah, showing how God's mercy toward enemies challenges our own willingness to share the gospel with people we would rather see judged.
- March 27, 2022 Nobody Acts Like You Expect In This Story Jonah is more than a fish story. A Wyoming pastor walks through the whole book to ask: when God shows mercy to your enemies, how do you respond?