OPEN: How many of you have heard the story of Jonah? (every hand went up)
Now, how many of you believe Jonah was a righteous man? (most raised their hands)
How many of you believe he wasn’t a righteous man? (a small show of hands)
I personally believe Jonah was a righteous man. In fact, I believe he was unquestionably a better man than I am or ever hope to be. After all, God entrusted him with the responsibility of preaching to the town of Nineveh – 120,000 people – and because of his preaching they repented of their sins and God spared their city.
The book of Jonah is a great story.
Jonah, the prophet of God is told to go preach to the town of Nineveh and tell them to repent or God would destroy them…
But Jonah doesn’t want to go. We’re not told why he rebelled against God’s command (perhaps the Ninevites had been responsible for some tragedy in his life or family), but Jonah was so determined NOT to preach to the city of Nineveh that he decides to board a ship and travel to a city way on the other side of the civilized world – the city of Tarshish.
Tarshish was about as far as you could get away from Nineveh and still be on the map
Jonah not only rejects God’s command… he thinks he can run away from God. But, of course, God had other ideas.
Jonah 1:4 tells us that “the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.”
The storm is so ferocious that the sailors (who are accustomed to the harshness of the sea) were scared out of their wits. They began to make sacrifices to their gods, they threw cargo overboard to lighten their load. And then, they realized they had a prophet on board – Jonah. So they approached Jonah to ask him to pray to his God. Jonah, of course, realizes that this is all his fault and he tells the sailors "Pick me up and throw me into the sea and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Jonah 1:12
Jonah 1:17 tells us that “the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”
Inside the belly of that whale, Jonah repented and prayed for forgiveness. At that, God caused the whale to have stomach problems… and the great fish spit him out onto the shore.
Jonah washed himself up, and proceeded to go to Nineveh and preach the message God had given him.
Wonder of wonders, the people repented. The King himself of the city took off his royal garments, put on sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he declared that everybody in the city was to fast and repent of their sin.
The people repented… AND GOD SPARED THE CITY. It’s a great story. Jonah must have been one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament. Jesus even compares His own death and burial and resurrection to Jonah’s time in the whale:
“…as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:40
What a great story… Jonah preaches a powerful sermon that causes an entire city to repent of their sins…but hardly anybody ever likes the end of the book of Jonah… which reads:
“But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, ‘O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.’” Jonah 4:1-3
What???? Jonah was angry that God spared Nineveh?! That’s right. And as far as we can tell… Jonah never changed. At the end of the book Jonah is still a bitter angry man. (bummer)
APPLY: This morning we’re going to talk about bitterness.
Hebrews 12:15 tells us: “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
God warns His people… be careful! There are sins that will rob you of God’s grace in your life.
In verse 16 God tells us to beware of sexual immorality, and in verses 16 & 17 He warns against godlessness (seeking the satisfaction of this world over God).
But God kicks this list off with perhaps the deadliest of the sins known to man: bitterness
Why do I say that bitterness is perhaps the deadliest of sins?? Two reasons.
1st – Bitterness causes trouble and defiles many.
I have seen churches split because of bitterness. I’ve seen terrible divisiveness reek havoc on congregations supposedly gathered to worship God. Someone within a congregation becomes so angry over an offense they’ve suffered (or believe they’ve suffered) and they’re so angry they can be relentless in seeking their revenge.
They struggle to enlist others in their cause.
They’ll bring trouble into the church of Christ.
AND THEY WILL DEFILE many because of their bitterness.
ILLUS: My dad once told me about the time that his church asked him to be Sunday School Superintendent. He and mom talked about it and prayed about it… and he accepted the job.
But a few weeks later, it became apparent why the Elders had asked him to take the job. Nobody else wanted it. Apparently, there was a young couples Sunday School class meeting in the basement that had gotten out of hand. It was taught by a pair of spinster sisters who had apparently developed such a negative and bitter attitude that they’d run off all the men in the class and now only had a small group of women.
I suspect the Elders had approached the sisters about their behavior, but they defiantly continued to meet in their basement class.
What the Elders wanted dad to do was dissolve the class. And so… he did.
One Sunday Morning he went downstairs, pulled aside the dividers they used, and said: “Ladies, I’m sorry, this class will no longer meet here.”
He told me the ladies in the class literally came at him with claws extended. Even my dad, a big strong man was a little scared by their behavior.
The sisters had so engrained their bitterness and sectarianism into that class that their bitterness had defiled the faith of those other ladies as well.
The first reason bitterness is so deadly is because it causes trouble and defiles many. Sexual sin and godlessness are deadly as well… but only bitterness enrolls others in its cause.
But why can such bitterness so successfully attract others? Because (and this brings me to my 2nd reason that bitterness is so deadly) bitterness is essentially a “religious” disease. It’s a “religious” disease, because – those who are bitter are convinced that they are right.
They are so convinced they are right, they argue their case so effectively that they convince others that they’re right. After all, they are ONLY seeking justice. That other person… or group… has offended them and these people must be made to pay the price.
They must render their pound of flesh
There must be satisfaction or the bitterness will continue for ages.
For years (after those sisters had been removed from their class) they would come to church, take communion, and then leave before the sermon. They did that till they died! Their defiance and bitterness caused them to declare to that congregation that their cause was still just.
Bitterness is also a “religious” disease because those who allow it to take root in their souls – take God’s throne for their own. They sit in judgment of those they are bitter with.
James 4:11-12 warns the church of his day: “Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you— who are you to judge your neighbor?”
WHO ARE YOU to judge your neighbor???
Bitterness is terrible and deadly sin because it
1. causes trouble and defiles others AND
2. it causes the bitter person to nudge God off His throne & sit in judgment themselves.
That’s what happened to Jonah
He wanted justice. But he didn’t want God’s kind of justice. Nineveh had been a wicked and evil city and it deserved to be annihilated. It’s people deserved to die.
But when the city repented… and God spared them Jonah sat down and he COMPLAINED:
"O LORD… this is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” Jonah 4:2
And that’s how the book of Jonah ends - the prophet still sitting in his bitterness and anger. For all we know – he continued to be consumed by his bitterness till he died. What a terrible way to end a book. What a sad conclusion to a story of redemption and grace
But I think that’s why God had the book written as it was. He wanted us to be shocked by Jonah’s response. He wanted us to see how terrible a disease “religious” bitterness could be. AND so in Hebrews 12:15 He warns: “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
(pause…) How many of you do NOT want to become bitter?
Jonah was a great prophet. A man of God who was honored by Jesus to be the model of His own death, burial and resurrection. BUT Jonah fell prey to the disease of bitterness.
If it can happen to him it can happen to me… and it can happen to you.
So if bitterness can even infect the best of us how can we stop ourselves from allowing bitterness to take root in our souls?
1st – We need to acknowledge God’s sovereignty
We must determine that we WILL NOT nudge Him off His throne.
We must decide to give Him the right to judge
We must decide that we will give Him every cause of our bitterness.
1. Joseph had reason to be bitter with his brothers…
They were jealous of him, so one day they got him off by himself and they beat the tar out of him. They threw him in a pit and intended to leave him there to die… but by the grace of God, a caravan of slave traders came along and they said to themselves “Hey, let’s sell him into slavery. Let’s not kill him… after all, he is our brother!”
So they sold him for 20 pieces of silver and sent him off… never expecting to see his face again.
But they did. They saw his face about 15 years later when he was one of the most powerful men in Egypt. But Joseph was merciful to them and had the whole family come and live with him in the northern part of Egypt. Then their father died, and they became afraid, for they thought “now that dad is gone, surely he will seek revenge for our wicked acts”
But once Joseph learned of their fear, he called them together and told them “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” (Gen. 50:20)
In other words, Joseph was saying: I want God to be God
Joseph gave his bitterness to God.
2. When Job lost his family to the hands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans he said:
“The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.” Job 1:21
Job was saying: I want God to be God
Job gave his bitterness to God.
3. When King David was fleeing Jerusalem to escape Absalom’s army, a pitiful excuse for man crawled out from the woodwork and pelted him with stones and called down curses on David. David cousin Abishai looked to David and said “give me the word and I’ll take off the head of that dead dog” But David replied: “leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.” (II Sam. 16:11)
David was saying: I want God to be God.
David gave his bitterness to God.
SO… 1st we must give our bitterness to God. Acknowledge Him as being God. Give Him the right to judgment and lay it at His throne.
2nd – We must always resolve our conflicts
Jesus said: "…if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24)
If their a quarrel between you and a brother… don’t bother giving your gift to God until you’ve resolved the conflict. Forgive those who have sinned against you (don’t keep lists)
Repeat with me the Lord’s Prayer:
“Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be They name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts…”
“… we forgive our debtors?”
In other words Jesus said that God will forgive us our sins against Him in the same way in which we forgive others of their sins against us.
Jesus told a parable to illustrate this. He told of a servant who owed 10,000 talents (approximately equivalent to our nation’s yearly budget – in the billions). Obviously, the man couldn’t repay the king what was owed, so the King ordered that the man and his family all be sold into slavery to offset some of the loss. But the man pled with the King for mercy… and received it. The King forgave the entire debt and let him go.
On his way home, though, the forgiven servant encountered another man who owed him 100 denarii. The servant grabbed the other man by the collar and began to choke him – “pay back what you owe me!” he demanded.
Now 100 denarii is worth approximately $3000 or $4000. That’s a fair amount of money and the 2nd man didn’t have it. He pled for mercy (as the forgiven servant had before the King). But no mercy was given. The forgiven servant had the man thrown into prison until he could repay every penny.
The King heard of this atrocity and hauled the first man back into his court.
‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’
In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. (Matthew 18:32-34)
Notice, Jesus wasn’t trying to say that others haven’t hurt us or caused us pain and damage in our lives. What He is saying is that no one could ever possibly sin against us as much as we have sinned against our Father in heaven. No one could possibly owe us like we’ve owed God. But God forgave us our sins. He expects us to forgive others in the same.
CLOSE: Leonardo Da Vinci once had a terrible falling out with a fellow artist just before he began work on the "Last Supper."
The story is told that he determined to paint his enemy as Judas.
It was a perfect likeness.
But last of all, he set to work painting the likeness of Jesus.
No matter how he tried, nothing seemed to please him.
Finally, he realized that he could not paint the portrait of Jesus as long as his enemy had been painted into Judas’s place.
Once that was corrected, then the face of Jesus came easily.
OTHER SERMONS IN THIS “THAT AIN’T RIGHT” SERIES:
Damaging the Truth - Ephesians 4:17-4:32
Being Filled With the Spirit(s) - Ephesians 5:15-5:21
The Disease Of Jonah - Hebrews 12:14-12:17
It Was Just A Little Mistake - 1 Kings 13:1-13:32
Abuse of Power - Deuteronomy 18:9-18:14
