Intermediate lesson eleven - book of Jonah

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF JONAH

Church: Smyrna                                       Lesson 16 out of 39                                       Theme: Mercy

Background Information:

ü  We asked in the book of Ruth, “How can the creation know how to share God’s mercy?"

ü  In 2 Chronicles we were awakened to learn how the world will try to confuse the message of Jesus’ sacrifice with pride.

ü  In Proverbs, we learned from a wise man how to remember to be a witness who can understand how to present our body as a living sacrifice by running the race and getting a crown.

ü  In Ezekiel, we learned how to be a witness who lines up our testimony with the Chief Cornerstone (the sacrifice Christ made) by warning people with mercy and wisdom that God hates abominations.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of Jonah:

I can live among a neighbor with peace who is choosing not to look at the sacrifice Christ made and fear the Lord or share God’s mercy.

Essential Question:

How does the world teach us to deny God’s mercy, not fear the Lord, and build a temple with pride?

Book of Jonah:

Have students read pages 54-57 in The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Realizing that Jesus made a sacrifice for our sin and how He can make an intercession for us is important. The world is not teaching us how to look to Jesus’ sacrifice and to fear God and share God’s mercy by loving our neighbor.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

We cannot make people stop performing abominations, but we can tell them to look at the sacrifice that Jesus made and to warn them with wisdom and mercy that God hates abominations.

Remember the Rock God Established:

The prophet Jonah did not want to warn Nineveh about the coming judgment. Instead, he went by boat in the opposite direction.

While Jonah was on the boat a huge storm came. Each sailor cried out for help to a different god! The captain went down and woke up Jonah. He asked Jonah, “What do you do, what is your country, and also who do you live among?” Jonah told them he was a Hebrew who feared the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and dry land. Notice that Jonah said he feared God. Then the men on the boat were afraid because Jonah told them he was running from the presence of the Lord. They asked Jonah how to calm the sea and Jonah told them to throw him overboard. After being thrown overboard, a big fish swallowed Jonah. Jonah believed he was in the belly of hell, and he prayed to the Lord. Jonah knew that regarding vanity forsakes mercy. Jonah was scared. He made a vow to the Lord to sacrifice to God by being thankful to God and witnessing to the people of Nineveh. Then the fish spit him out upon the land. When the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time saying, “Arise and go to Nineveh to preach what I tell you to preach,” Jonah arose and went to Nineveh.

Jonah got up off the beach, washed the fish vomit off, and went to the capital of Nineveh. But Jonah did not preach a message of repentance to the people or mercy. Instead, Jonah yelled, “Nineveh will be judged in forty days.” Jonah yelled this same message in the streets for three days. Jonah only gave a message of God’s anger and wrath. He did not include a message of salvation that included the coming Redeemer/ Jesus sharing God’s mercy.

Jonah did not agree with the Lord saving the people of Nineveh because they had performed abominations against the people of Israel. Even though the people of Nineveh did not hear a message of mercy, they repented with a true heart. The people humbled themselves.

When Jonah delivered the message, he did not introduce himself. He did not include any mercy in the message, only wrath and punishment. Then Jonah told God, “This is why I went to Tarshish because I knew you were merciful and gracious and slow to anger and full of great kindness.” Jonah was angry and bitter about how God had saved the people of Nineveh. Jonah was looking for another salvation message that would have only allowed him to show mercy to those he wanted to show mercy to. Lying vanities (pride) will deny mercy to other people, so people can regard themselves as more important. Lying vanities will cause people to forsake their own mercy.

Today the world is trying to do the opposite of what Jonah did. The world is trying to influence neighbors to believe lying vanities that exclude fear of the Lord from the sacrifice Jesus made. The world is teaching that a neighbor should accept another neighbor's abomination if the neighbor can justify an abomination. The world is not telling us how God hates abominations.

The book of Jonah describes metaphorically what it looks like for people who go to hell by showing Jonah in the belly of the fish for three nights. When building our temple, we should not only include fearing the Lord but also the message of mercy that the sacrifice of Jesus teaches.

Having pride in the church of Smyrna will spiral into a more serious sinful behavior of lying vanities in the church of Pergamos. The prophet Jonah was not humbled before God to be a witness to the people of Nineveh because they had performed abominations against Israel. This deterred Jonah from sharing God’s mercy with the people of Nineveh and is an example of how Jonah’s sinful behavior of pride spiraled into believing lying vanities. Jonah even said, “When we believe lying vanities, the lying vanities will forsake our own mercy.” In the next church Pergamos, the next sinful behavior is lying vanities.

Activity:

The activity directions are located in Appendix 5 – Section 3.

Students will build two different structures that represent the choices we make in life when we are building our internal temple. We will line up with the Chief Cornerstone or with the worldview.

Conclusion:

Does the world teach us to line up with the Chief Cornerstone (the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made)?

Next Lesson:

The next church is Pergamos, which teaches us how righteous behaviors will spiral from accepting God’s grace to sharing God’s mercy, and repenting when we line up our living sacrifice with the Chief Cornerstone. By not lining up our living sacrifice with the Chief Cornerstone, we will seek prosperity, be proud, and believe lying vanities. The prophet Jonah realized pride would spiral into lying vanities.