Jonah Christians Part 2 Series

Jonah Christians Part 2

Scripture: Jonah 1-4; Matthew 12:40; Luke 11:29-30

Good morning, New Light. This is part two of the message I began two weeks ago about Jonah Christians. As we read through the first chapter of the book of Jonah we looked at several attributes of Christians who act like Jonah. You know the story, so I am not going to spend much time reviewing it. God had sent Jonah to Nineveh, which was an extremely wicked city, to give the people an opportunity to repent and not incur God’s wrath. Jonah did not like the assignment, so he tried to avoid obeying God by getting on a boat to Tarshish. While Jonah was asleep below deck on the boat, a storm with strong winds arose causing the men to throw their cargo overboard in an attempt to save their ship. This, however, did not change the situation. It was only when they threw Jonah overboard did the storm and strong winds cease. Now, with this in mind, I am going to remind you of the major points I called to your attention in the first message, and I am simply going to list them. You will have to go back and listen to or read the first message for the details. The first trait of a Jonah Christian that I identified was that they believed “they can pick and choose the things of God that they will do.” The second trait that I discussed was Jonah Christians “refuse to do good for someone because of their dislike towards them.” The third and last trait that I pointed out in the first message was that Jonah Christians will allow their attitudes/actions to harm others without caring.

Now, before I continue with this message this morning, I want to pause and tell you a story. Remember how I said that Jonah hated Nineveh to the point that he wanted God to destroy them and that he did not want them to receive God’s forgiveness and be saved? Jonah had made the determination that the people of the city deserved God’s wrath and judgment and that he did not want to stop it. With this in mind I want you to listen to this story. “There was this man who died and went to heaven. When he got there he was concerned about some of the things he saw. First, it was as beautiful as he had imagined, but then, with great surprise, he saw several people that he knew while he was alive on earth. When he looked at them, he noticed how quiet they were. Jesus, noticing his surprise, asked him about it. The man points out his next door neighbor who never talked to him and said he could not believe that the man was in heaven. Next, he pointed out the town drunk and the mean store owner, both of whom he could not believe made it into heaven. He went down the list of people in heaven that he was surprised to see. Finally, as he rationalized why they were so quiet, he said that they were probably quiet because they recognized that they did not deserve to be there, and they were happy and grateful for what they had received. Jesus looked at the man and explained to him that all of the people he saw were happy and talking just moments before. When the man asked why they were quiet, Jesus replied ‘Because they are surprised to see you here.’” Jonah Christians often carry this same attitude, believing they know who deserves to go to heaven and who does not. Jonah Christians are unaware that many of them will be surprised beyond their wildest imaginations “if” they, in turn, do not get into heaven. Keep this in mind as I finish out this message.

Jonah told the sailors that in order to save themselves and the boat, they had to throw him overboard. Although they initially resisted, they finally complied. Once again, God, in His goodness, saved Jonah. God could have let Jonah drown for his rebellion, but God loved the people of Nineveh and He needed Jonah to deliver the message of their destruction to give them an opportunity to repent. So, to save Nineveh, God had to save Jonah. God prepared a large fish to swallow Jonah and keep him alive. Imagine what Jonah went through in the belly of that great fish for three days. You’d think after that experience that he would have been a changed man. Well, let’s see if that was the case. One thing I want to stress at this point in defense of Jonah is that his limited beliefs about God were part of his motivation and his problem. You see, during his time, the Israelites believed that God was limited to the temple, that He was not really everywhere. Also they believed since the Jews were the chosen people, God’s grace was limited to only them. He had to go through a transformation in thinking to carry out his assignment. And, without spending a great deal of time on this, our thinking will also need to go through a continuing transformation process until the day we see Jesus face to face.