Unjust Grace (Which is pretty amazing)

The Unwilling Evangelist & God's Unjust Grace The Unwilling Evangelist & God's Unjust Grace Pre-Reading Read the book of Jonah… It’s only four chapters long… You can probably read it all in about 10 minutes and it’s actually pretty funny... Is there anything about Jonah that stands out to you in this story? ________________________ Digital Media: Bible Project: Jonah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLIabZc0O4c For Kid’s: What’s in the Bible: Prophets (2 Episodes) https://www.rightnowmedia.org/Content/KidsSeries/664 Concerning Nineveh... It’s important to understand that Jonah wasn’t just being sent to some random city who needed to hear about God... In his day, Nineveh was the heart of the Assyrian Empire, the empire which conquered the vast majority of Israel and forcibly resettled thousands of these conquered Israelite's throughout the Assyrian empire… For a Jew like Jonah the right thing for God to do to the Assyrian Empire and cities like Nineveh, would be to completely wipe them out. They certainly deserved it… What are some modern day equivalents that you can think of?________________________ This story reminds us that God is grieved by the sinfulness and brokenness of creation… These things should grieve us too... Who does God Send... Why do you think God sent Jonah?________________________ Why do you think God chose Jonah to do this? ________________________ Would you have made the same choice? (I certainly wouldn’t) Let’s be clear… Jonah is no hero... Exported from Logos Bible Software, 3:00 PM July 14, 2020. 1 Are there any reasons why you think God wouldn’t send you to share Jesus with others? _________________________ Jonah is a lot like most of us… Flawed, disobedient, unforgiving, even vengeful… Yet God still graciously works through him… Can you think of any times that God has worked through unlikely people? _________________________ It’s incredible to see the way that God sticks with Jonah throughout this story. It’s worth noting Jonah’s behavior also isn’t justified/ignored due to God having worked through him... Forgiveness is hard… God’s Grace is Offensive... How does Jonah react to Nineveh repenting upon hearing his message? _________________________ It is easy to accept that God would love and long to forgive those who we think deserve it… Maybe those who have been unkind, a bit dishonest… If you are honest, are these any people who you would you would prefer didn’t receive God’s forgiveness... Can you think of any instances where someone has truly experienced repentance, forgiveness and transformation?________________________ Can you think of any situations where someone has demonstrated “Love for their Enemy”? Did it make a difference? ________________________ Two weeks ago we looked at Jesus sending the disciples… Looked at how sharing Jesus is hard, we face rejection, we aren’t sure we are up to the task… But sometimes, it might get even harder if we actually succeed… That our “enemies” are convicted by the Holy Spirit and turn to Jesus… We may need to let go of any hope, even satisfaction that God would bring some kind of destructive judgement to those who have hurt us… We should also acknowledge that Jonah took a massive risk going to Nineveh… He wasn’t being called to do something safe or easy... For Jesus, loving his enemies lead to the cross and was only overcome in the resurrection... Forgiving also doesn’t mean pretending nothing happened…We need to acknowledge that as a church our forgiveness has, at times, been exploited by those who would continue to harm and abuse others… We live in the midst of a broken world and simply knowing that God has forgiven someone doesn’t make it acceptable to cover up things that prevent those who have harmed others from being held accountable by the law of the land… Exported from Logos Bible Software, 3:00 PM July 14, 2020. 2 Jonah Reminds us... • That God is grieved by brokenness of humanity and creation, something that should grieve us too... • We may not like those God sends us to, but we are required to love them… This can be really hard… It can all be really risky and unsafe... • We may think that some deserve to be punished by God, But God may have other plans… God’s grace may seem unjust to us, even if our human institutions will still demand justice and punishment. • We may not be Christ-Like, but this doesn’t prevent Christ being shared through us… God has worked through people like Jonah for a long time and still does... • There even seem to be instances where those outside of God’s people are sometimes drawn in to God’s purposes too... • God is more gracious, patient and loving than we can ever be… That is good news… Have you ever felt that God wouldn’t send someone like you to share Christ with someone else? What’s holding you back? _______________________ Exported from Logos Bible Software, 3:00 PM July 14, 2020. 3