Too often we fail to heed the advice of Jesus in Matthew 7:1-5:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
Have you ever hastily jumped to a conclusion about someone else only to later discover the same is equally true with you or worse? Sometimes I believe we do this with characters from the Bible. Now it is true that God has revealed and preserved the Biblical record of their lives to serve as an example to us (Romans 15:4), but we have no right to condemn their actions if we are guilty of the same. One of the foremost examples of this is likely Jonah. Have you ever “jumped on Jonah” in the pulpit because of his actions? We likely all have. But have we ever stopped to consider that we might be just as guilty of prejudicial inaction as he was? Such is the examination for our sermon starter this week:
Title: Jumping on Jonah
Text: Matthew 28:19-20
Main Point: God has always had a concern for the souls of the entire world. A great deal of emphasis is put on the Israelites in the Old Testament as being God’s covenant people (and they were), but God still had a world-wide desire for righteousness. That world-wide desire never ceased, thus the terms of the Great Commission. We see that, preach it, and know it – but still we sometimes jump on Jonah for his blatant bias and prejudice against the Assyrians in Nineveh while we sometimes hold a prejudicial view toward others. Instead of hypocritically jumping on Jonah, we first need to ensure that we develop God’s universal love and all that it entails.
Discussion Points:
1. God’s Love Despised Wickedness (Jonah 1:2) – God hates sin (Proverbs 6:16-19; Psalm 5:4-6; Revelation 2:6). But in Jonah 1:3 we learn that Jonah did not feel the same. If Jonah truly hated the wickedness of the people of Nineveh he would have gladly gone and cried out against their sin. We jump on Jonah, and rightfully so, for not hating the sins of those people enough to speak out against them, but how often do we take pleasure in the guilt of others? 1 Corinthians 13:6 – love does not rejoice in iniquity, but in truth. Do we truly love man as God has commanded us to love – a love that despises wickedness?
2. God’s Love Delighted in Repentance (Jonah 3:9-10) – Once they repented, God did not hold a single grudge against the people of Nineveh – instead He showed them mercy. The reason He showed them mercy was because He delighted in their repentance (2 Peter 3:9; Acts 17:30-31). Jonah, though, delighted in their guilt (Jonah 4:1-3). He hated those people enough that not only did he despise them for their sin, but He despised God for showing mercy on them. We jump on Jonah, and rightfully so, because of the contempt he showed towards their change of life, but do we ever feel contempt for the same. Matthew 20:1-16 – the parable of the hired laborers reminds us of the attitude that is ever present among some brethren relative to the previous guilt of others. Do we truly love as God loves unless we can truly rejoice in the penitence of a lost soul?
3. God’s Love Delivered Compassion (Jonah 4:6-11) – In this closing chapter God illustrated the severity of Jonah’s wrath and the extent of His own mercy. The gourd was prepared by the mercy of God to shield Jonah from the heat of the day. When the gourd was eaten up Jonah’s anger was kindled because that mercy was retracted. God reminded him that his concern was misdirected. We jump on Jonah because of his lack of love and compassion for these lost souls, but do we sometimes find ourselves unwilling to show Christian compassion to those who need it the most? God’s forgiveness is perfect (Hebrews 8:12). True forgiveness receives the compassion of God and demands the compassion of us all in the process. If we are unwilling to give it then we do not love as God has told us to love.
I pray that instead of arbitrarily jumping on Jonah that we will use the mistakes Jonah made to avoid making similar mistakes. Let’s preach the love of God and all it offers as motivation to, first, accept it and then to incorporate a similar love in our lives as His children!