Jonah Christians Part 1
Scripture: Jonah 1-4; Second Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 12:40
Recently when I arrived here at Church there were two people asleep in the parking lot. One was disabled and had a wheelchair while the other kept there things in a grocery cart. Immediately my mind shifted from mentally preparing for the Church service to wondering about safely parking and waking the individuals and getting them to leave before our services started. I cautiously woke them up and explained to them that they had to leave as our church services would be starting soon. They immediately began to gather their things to leave. I came into the Church to put my things down, but the Spirit led me to go back out and give them some money so that they could purchase some food. When I went back out, I asked them had they eaten and if they had money for food. I gave them enough money for a couple of meals for the day. They said “Thank you and God bless you.” When I came back into the building feeling like I had adequately addressed the situation and provided them with a blessing, the Holy Spirit began speaking to me. He asked me, “Did you see them?” I was like, “Of course I saw them. I spoke to them and gave them money for food. I blessed them.” The Holy Spirit asked again, “Did you see them?” I thought for a moment and then realized what I “hadn’t” done. Sure I had spoken to them and gave them money for food, but my focus was on encouraging them to leave so they would not disrupt the service.
The Holy Spirit walked me through what I had not done. The first thing He said was I did not introduce myself or asked them their names. Next, He said I did not pause and ask them if they needed prayer. And the third thing He said was not easy for me to hear: I did not invite them to stay for the service, although we are limited by not having handicap access. Now I understood clearly what He was showing me. I did not really see them – I saw through them. I saw a temporary interference to my normal routine that I needed to handle. Yes, I saw two individuals, but I did not personally see them as God sees all of us. When the Holy Spirit unveiled my actions and motivations to me, I stopped what I was doing and went back outside to introduce myself and to try to undo what I had done, but they had already left the property. How I handled this situation has bothered me since it happened. I repented and asked God for forgiveness, but I cannot undo how I made those two individuals feel when my focus was encouraging them to vacate the parking lot versus taking the time to minister to them – taking the time to really see them. In this situation, I acted like someone I will be talking about for the next two week - a Jonah Christian, which is the title of this morning’s message.
Before I go into the story of Jonah, I first want to make sure you know that I believe that the story of Jonah is true. Now you might be wondering why I feel the need to make this statement. Well, mainstream Bible scholars generally regard the Book of Jonah as fictional, and often at least partially tongue-in-cheek. They do not believe that it really happened. Throughout history, there have been a lot of discussions as to whether or not Jonah ever existed. It has also been questioned as to whether or not there was ever a large enough fish that could swallow a man and preserve Him. To these points I would submit this: while the throats of most whales are too narrow to swallow a man, there are species of whales that can, for example the sperm whale. These whales could swallow a man and preserve his life and this is a proven fact. However the most convincing piece of evidence that Jonah existed, and that his story is true are settled for me in two passages of scripture. The first is Second Timothy chapter three and the second is Matthew chapter 12, where our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ compares His death and resurrection to what happened to Jonah. In Second Timothy 3:16 we read the following: “(16) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The verse says, “All scripture,” from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, is given to us by God. And verse 17 tells us why God inspired the Bible to be written: “(17) That the man of God (the person who is a child of God) may be complete (fully mature), thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
The “every good” work all mature believers have is the ability to share the gospel with confidence and boldness. New Light, based on these two verses alone, the mainstream Bible scholars I referred to, who believe that the book of Jonah is a work of fiction, do not believe what God Himself has said about His Word. And because of this, they have disqualified themselves to handle the Word of God because they are not mature believers. And New Light, I am not the blood-washed child who challenges the words of the God, whose Son’s blood washed away his sins and made him clean. To that point, Jesus mentioned Jonah specifically as it related to helping His disciples understand His death and resurrection. My Lord and Savior said in Matthew 12:40, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jesus was comparing His time in the grave before His resurrection with the time that Jonah had been inside the fish. He would not have stated it this way had this story not have been true. Also Jesus references Jonah a second time in Luke 11:29-30. It records, “(29) And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, ‘This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. (30) For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.” Again, Jesus refers to Jonah as a prophet who prophesied to the Ninevites. So, the mainstream Bible scholars who do not believe the story is true are showing us that they are deceived, and I, along with the Apostle Paul, say, “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. (19) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’; (20) and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’” (First Corinthians 3:18-20) So, let’s talk about Jonah. Please turn with me to chapter one.
In the first two verses, we see God's goodness, His mercy and His love for the inhabitants of Nineveh. Verses one and two read “(1) Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, (2) ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’” (Jonah 1:1-2) God looked down and saw the wickedness of Nineveh and selected Jonah as His messenger to go to the people to call out their sinful ways and get them to repent so that He would not destroy the city. God was acting out of His mercy, His goodness, and His love for those people. You see, God is good, all of the time. He is not like we are. He is always good. He did not have to reach out to the people of Nineveh, but that was His nature. If we are to emulate God, we would choose to focus on the people – seeing the good rather than seeing through the eyes of inconvenience. We would not look pass the people to reach the next thing; we would take the time to see them. God saw the people of Nineveh and He knew that they could be saved. Let’s continue with verse three, as we’ll get our first glimpse of a Jonah Christian.
“(3) But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” (Jonah 1:3) I am not sure what Jonah was thinking in his desire to flee from the presence of the Lord. Maybe he did not understand what David knew when He wrote “(7) Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? (8) If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. (9) If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, (10) even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139:7-10) Jonah ultimately found this to be true, but let's examine his attitude. First, he was one of God's prophets, so he should have understood that he could not run from God. Also, as a man of God, you would think that he would have been extremely happy to be called upon by God to reach out to people who were on their way to hell. But Jonah’s attitude, his pride, did not allow for this. Instead of doing what God told Him to do, he went in the opposite direction. He literally made the decision that he was not going to do what God had commanded him to do. With that decision, he began to fight against God.
The first identifying trait of a Jonah Christian is they believe “they can pick and choose the things of God that they will do.” And this does not just apply to God “calling” them to do something; it applies to every area of the person’s life. A Jonah Christian believes that regardless of what God is telling them to do or what He is trying to do in their life, they can choose whether or not they will do it. I will admit that they are right in the sense that God created us with the ability to choose and we are totally free to make our own decisions. He gets joy when we choose to follow Him, but He will not force us. He wants us to love Him so much that we choose to obey and walk in fellowship with Him. However, if I am a Jonah Christian that will be hard to do because I will only walk in fellowship with God when it pleases me, when I am getting something out of it, or when I agree with Him. This is why Jonah Christians readily accept the saying that “I am just a sinner saved by grace.” When you evaluate the sentence, as you would in an English class, you see this one sentence makes two proclamations. The first one “I am just a sinner,” which is false because the Bible says that once we got saved, we ceased to be “sinners” as a way of lifestyle. The second statement, “I am saved by grace” is actually true because we are all saved by grace. But here is the thing to remember: the second statement makes the first statement obsolete. It puts the truth that we are no longer sinners in the past. When the second statement is true, the first statement becomes, “I was a sinner, but now I have been saved by His grace.” Jonah Christians live as if the second part of the statement did not cancel out the first part, and if it didn’t, they truly are still sinners who need to be saved by His grace! Let’s continue with the second trait.
In verse three we also find the second trait of a Jonah Christian: they “refuse to do good for someone because of their dislike towards them.” In Jonah’s case, it appears that he simply did not like the people and did not want to do anything that would save them. He avoided going to Nineveh because he detested the Ninevites. They were Israel's enemies, and Jonah did not share God’s concern for them. The evil of Nineveh was legendary in ancient times, and it was often experienced firsthand by the Jewish people (see the book of Nahum.) Still, at the root of Jonah’s unwillingness to go to Nineveh was his great hatred for them. They had proven themselves again and again to be the enemies of Israel. They were seen as cruel torturers who descended on rival nations like a plague of locusts – destroying and consuming everything in their path. This was Jonah’s opportunity to witness them getting what he believed they deserved. Have you ever been there? Have you ever had the opportunity to witness one of your enemies getting what you believed they deserved when you could have intervened and stopped it? If you have and you didn’t, then you acted like and were a Jonah Christian in that instance. Jonah looked forward to their destruction, as we will see later.
New Light, when Christians get to the point where we are refusing to do good because we do not like someone or for whatever reason that constitutes sin for us. James 4:17 says “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” This is very serious for our Father because it is not limited to just doing the right thing as it pertains to your interactions with another person. It means doing the right thing all the time. If we are on our jobs and we know we should do something, although we will not get into trouble if we do not do it, for us it is sin if we do not do it. But I want to go back to Jonah’s attitude. He hated these people, and he would rather see them destroyed than receive God’s mercy and goodness. Jonah Christians would rather see people destroyed than to witness God’s love change their lives. They do not want people to repent and be saved because of their hatred towards them. If someone has done something to you and you couldn’t care less if they lived or died; if they went to heaven or hell; then you are living like a Jonah Christian and in danger of missing Heaven! Jonah wanted the people of Nineveh destroyed under the wrath of God. He understood God’s judgment, but he also understood God’s great mercy. He did not want Nineveh to repent or be forgiven and, because Jonah knew God’s willingness to forgive sin when there is a true change of heart, he fled rather than tell the Ninevites of the coming judgment. Let’s continue.
The next trait I want to point out about Jonah Christians is that they will allow their attitudes/actions to harm others without caring. When Jonah boarded the ship for Tarshish, he thought he could escape without obeying God and delivering the people from destruction. But God had other plans. Jonah 1:4-6 records the following, “(4) But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. (5) Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. (6) So the captain came to him, and said to him, ‘What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.’” God sent a storm to challenge the ship that Jonah was on. The captain and sailors began doing everything they could to stay afloat. Do you know what Jonah was doing while they were trying to save their lives? He was below deck sleeping! Jonah Christians will cause problems for others and not care – they literally will do what they are doing without consideration of how their actions affect others!
As you read the rest of this chapter, you find that when they got out to sea, Jonah fell asleep without even worrying about the storm that was coming. You see, Jonah had enough faith in God that he knew he would be okay, so he went to sleep without a care in the world. Maybe he thought he had actually gotten one over on God, but he was wrong. God brought a great wind on the sea to where the boat began to sink. The sailors began throwing their cargo over the side in an attempt to stabilize the boat. Jonah slept through all of this. All the men called upon their gods to save them, but to no avail. Finally, they found the one person who had not called upon his God and were surprised that he was asleep. They woke him up and demanded that he call on his God to save them. Then they cast lots to see who had brought this “bad luck” on them and, guess what, the lots fell on Jonah. When they realized he was running away from his God, they became very afraid. When they asked him what they should do, he calmly told them to throw him off the boat, but they did not want to be responsible for his death. They tried harder to row. Finally they had no choice. Jonah 1:13-15 records the following: “(13) Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. (14) Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, ‘We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You.’ (15) So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.” (Jonah 1:13-15)
After the men had thrown their cargo overboard in an attempt to save themselves and the ship, they finally came to understand that they were in the storm because of Jonah. Regardless of their cargo and its value, it was lost because of Jonah, and nowhere is it recorded that Jonah apologized for their loss. I want us to understand that when we are living like a Jonah Christian, or we if we are not but those closest to us are, we can experience loss because of the nature of the Jonah Christian and how they respond to circumstances that do not directly affect them. Jonah was sleeping while the sailors did everything they could to save the ship and his life too. He was asleep – not even caring that he had put the lives of the sailors in jeopardy. This is how a Jonah Christian acts – especially when they are dealing with someone that they think is getting what they believe they deserve. When the sailors were faced with the decision to cast Jonah off the ship, they tried their best to find a way to secure the boat without throwing him over. However, they finally came to the realization that they had to make that decision and they cast him off. Once Jonah hit the water, the winds stopped blowing and the waves stopped crashing against the ship and everything was calm. What I want you to see here is the difference between the sailor’s attitude when dealing with Jonah after finding out he was the source of their loss and Jonah’s attitude for causing it. They were grieved at throwing him overboard believing they were causing his death. It bothered them greatly to the point they ask his God to forgive them. This was not the attitude that Jonah had towards the people of Nineveh. Jonah Christians will always accept the care, support, and concern expressed towards them by others without giving it in return.
I will finish this message next week, but before I close let me summarize the traits discussed this morning so that you might reflect on them this week. The first trait of Jonah Christians is they believe they can pick and choose the things of God that they will do. They may hear the Spirit directing them towards a path, but if it’s not what they want to do they will respond like Jonah and walk in another direction. Because they see themselves as still sinners who are saved by grace, disobeying God does not cost them their salvation so they can always make a another choice next time. This is a dangerous position to hold as a supposed child of God. The second trait of Jonah Christians is that they will refuse to do good for someone because of their dislike towards them. Jonah Christians will not aid those that they dislike – regardless of what the Bible says about loving your enemies. The last trait of Jonah Christians is that they will allow their attitudes/actions to harm others without caring. If you have a Jonah Christian who puts you in a bad situation where you might suffer loss on their behalf, they will not care! They will take the attitude that it wasn’t their fault even though if you had not been supporting them you would not have suffered the loss in the first place. The two words that describe these first three traits of Jonah Christians are selfish and self-centered. It’s all about them – what they want, what they believe, and how they feel. If these traits are evident in your life today, it’s time to repent and remove them. God is a loving God and He is always ready to welcome us home when we have strayed and believe me, Jonah Christians have strayed far from their home. I will conclude this message next week.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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