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JONAH: ALL ABOUT JESUS | LESSONS

Lesson 1: Control and Compassion

Lesson 2: Jonah's Prayer

Lesson 3: God's Plan

Lesson 4: Jonah's Anger

Written by: Alex Anderson

This guide will help you, as a Small Group Leader, to understand what we will be teaching and discussing each week. At the end of each lesson, you will find four or five discussion questions based on the following framework:

Be Together – Start your Small Group time by asking how the students are doing. Find out how their week went. Consider asking them to share a high and low point from their week.

Think Together – The first few questions will engage students’ minds and how they think about God, the world, and themselves.

Share Together – The last few questions will engage students’ hearts and hands. These questions should probe them to consider changing their lifestyles, repenting, and loving others with the kind of love they’ve received from God.

Pray Together – Always end Small Group time by asking for prayer requests and praying over the students based on the message of the lesson.

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

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LESSON ONE CONTROL AND COMPASSION |JONAH 1Main Idea | Even when we run or grow weary, God shows compassion to his people.

We have all experienced times when we thought we were in control and we believed we were making the best decision. Yet we ended up making a poor decision, or we were caught and found to have made a wrong decision. When those moments occur, often we do not receive much compassion from the people around us. There is often an “I told you so” that hangs over our heads.

Meet Jonah. Jonah was called by God to go to Nineveh. He was to go “and call out against it, for their evil” (v. 2). Instead, Jonah said, “No, I think I’ll go this way, take my own route, and go my own way.” Some of us can relate to this on many levels. Pride creeps in and says, “Hey, God. I can make my own plans ‘cause they are better than yours. My path will work out just fine. Let me do me.”

Most of you know the story of Jonah. If you don’t, let me quickly fill you in. Jonah decides that he knows more than God and he does not want to fulfill the command he was given to go to Nineveh. Instead, he hops on a boat going to Tarshish. While on the journey, the Lord causes the sea to become violent. Waves crash into the ship, and the men fear for their lives. They find out that Jonah is running from God, and they decide the best thing to do is throw Jonah overboard and pray the sea calms down. Immediately, it does. A fish then swallows Jonah, and he is in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

What does this mean? First, I want you to know that this story is actually about God and not about Jonah. God had a plan for Jonah, and God intended for that plan to be fulfilled and accomplished. Do you see the compassion God has for Jonah in this story? Do you see the care and the extent to which God goes to make sure his children are protected?

This can be us. This is us. We, who were once far off, have been brought near. We, who were once running away from God, have been called to him. The Lord, who has complete control over our lives, also has enough compassion to take great care of us, even when we are running the other way.

Jonah came to the end of himself. It took being out of control for him to personally understand that God was in control. He needed to understand that obedience means following the way of Jesus. You are never too far off, never too far gone, never too far into making your own choices that the Lord cannot swallow you up with a great fish in order to take you where you need to be. This is the unfortunate reality for some of us who are hard-nosed, prideful, selfish, or control freaks. We need a big wake-up call in order to listen to God.

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If you hear one thing from this lesson, hear this: The Lord is in control and is also compassionate toward his people. The Lord loves you enough to guide you but will also show you compassion when you want to walk your own way.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS1. In what ways do you try to control your own life? In what ways are you un-

willing to surrender control to the Lord?

2. Have you had a “fish” moment in your life? What did that wake-up call look like?

3. How have you seen the Lord’s loving hand, his compassion, in your life?

4. What can you learn from the first part of Jonah’s story?

5. How does this story affect the way you view God?

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LESSON TWO JONAH'S PRAYER | JONAH 2 Main Idea | Jonah’s prayer is not a request to be saved from the fish but thanksgiving for being saved by the fish.

One time I was driving a group of friends to the airport, and we were running late. I was driving a rental car in an unfamiliar area, and all I could think about was not missing our flight. I found myself in a turn lane when I needed to go straight. I checked my mirror, gunned the gas, and boom! I hit a car. What would your reaction have been in that moment? I can tell you how the friend next to me reacted—he immediately started praying. My reaction? Well, we’ll leave that between me and the Lord.

In our Scripture passage, Jonah is on the run. He’s been brought low and is out of control. A fish swallows him, and what does he do? He prays. Imagine this—you are in the belly of a fish and you are alive. If that’s me, I’m praying, “Lord get me out of here!” Jonah doesn’t do that. Jonah doesn’t pray to be rescued from the belly of the fish. What does he do instead? He thanks God that he is in the belly of the fish—that he has been rescued.

How often do our prayers sound like “Lord, please take this thing away from me”or “Lord, please get me out of this situation. Will you please just make this go away?” rather than “Lord, thank you for saving me. Thank you for calling me your own. Thank you for sustaining me and pulling my life up out of the pit of eternal death.” This is what Jonah prayed. His prayer was thanksgiving surrounded by gratitude for salvation.

I don’t imagine that the fish swallowed Jonah immediately. It doesn’t specifically say that in the text. I imagine Jonah being in the sea, struggling, even sinking perhaps. Imagine the bottom of a nasty lake—gross seaweed and thick, sticky mud. Jonah is almost drowning in that. Verse 6 includes imagery that he is heading into the land of the dead and that he will be there forever. That is where your life is heading without Jesus. You need to know that without Jesus, your life has been thrown overboard. You are drowning. You are heading for the seaweed. Your eternal destination is at the bottom of the sea. And there is no rescuing yourself from that place.

The last part of verse 6 is crucial, “Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.” Jesus rescues you from that pit of destruction. Jesus rescues you from the seaweed. Jesus rescues you from you. That is what Jonah gives thanks for. He is thankful that he has been rescued. Jonah 2:9 says, “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you. Salvation belongs to the Lord.”

In the moments when you want so badly to be rescued from hardship, remember that, even in the hard or gross moments, salvation belongs to the Lord! Remember that in him there is joy, in him there is peace, in him there is fullness of life.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How do you respond to hard situations in life? Do you pray, run, avoid, or blame?

2. During hard situations, what do your prayers center upon?

3. What have the first two chapters of Jonah shown us about God?

4. Can you relate to the story of Jonah? If so, how?

5. What is one application you can implement this week?

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LESSON THREE

GOD'S PLAN | JONAH 3 Main Idea | There is never a group of people too far gone for the Lord to redeem them.

Sometimes we feel like we know exactly what the Lord has asked us to do. It seems so clear. Then it changes. In that moment, who was wrong? Were you wrong? Was God wrong? Did you misunderstand? Did you miss something? Did God miss something?

Jonah was clearly told to go to Nineveh. He was to tell the people God was going to punish them and destroy their city because of their sin. That was the plan all along for Jonah—the plan that Jonah originally ran from and the plan that Jonah finally got onboard with. Jonah knew the plan the whole time.

Do you want to know the plan for your life? Most people love knowing the plan and knowing that it is the right one. What happens next in our story probably blew Jonah’s mind. God has turned Jonah’s life upside down in an effort to get him to go to Nineveh to proclaim that the city would be destroyed in forty days. When Jonah finally does it, the king of Nineveh makes a proclamation that his people should quickly turn from their wicked ways, and in verse 9 he says, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

What happens? God did turn! He relented, and the coming disaster was avoided. God did not do what he said he would do to the people of Nineveh. Astounding! Incredible really. But imagine Jonah. He went to warn the people of pending destruction, and it turned out that God saved them instead. Imagine the thoughts running through his mind. Imagine the dismay. Imagine the anger he experienced. God took a people he was going to destroy, a people who honestly deserved destruction, and saved them.

Sound familiar? You, me, everyone is on a path to destruction. A path involving our sin-stricken selves. What I see from God in this story is the ringing gong of compassion that God has for all people. God had compassion on the people of Nineveh. He had compassion on Jonah. He has compassion for you and me. Our plan, our paths lead to punishment. Yet because of the Lord’s great compassion, through Jesus, we have life.

God’s plan all along was to use Jonah and to show compassion on a people who do not deserve it. We are Nineveh. Aren't you grateful that God shows you compassion? Aren't you grateful that you do not have to hold the plan? God has the plan. You must be willing to follow him.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is your reaction when things change or don’t go the way you expected?

2. How often do you think about the compassion that the Lord has for you?

3. Jonah had to experience severe circumstances to learn what God was trying to teach him. Describe a time in your life when God used severe circumstances to teach you a lesson about himself.

4. Name a sin that God has rescued you from.

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LESSON FOUR JONAH'S ANGER | JONAH 4 Main Idea | The more you celebrate the grace the Lord has shown you, the more you will want to tell others of the grace the Lord offers.

At this point in our story, Jonah is angry. He is angry because God saved the Ninevites from destruction. Jonah vents to God saying, “I made my own plan and went my own way because I knew you would save them.” Then Jonah asks God to take his life. But God determined it was better for him to live than to die. That’s a pretty intense statement to make. It's interesting to note that when Jonah was in the belly of the fish, his prayer showed gratitude that his life had been pulled out of the pit of destruction. Yet, when God does the same thing for Nineveh, Jonah is angry.

Stop and think about this for a moment. Maybe you are already thinking that Jonah has some problems. How can Jonah not see that God saving 120,000 people from destruction is a good thing? How did he miss that? How did he get so far off? Consider the past few days of Jonah’s life, the emotional, physical, and spiritual journey he has been on. Tired. Weary. Broken. All of us in this room have been there. At times like these, we can miss the singlemost important thing that is right in front of our faces. It is so central, but we miss it.

Jonah missed the extravagant grace the Lord had shown him. Jonah was consumed with himself. He was consumed with his comfort, and because of that, he missed the grace of God. 120,000 people were saved, and he did not celebrate! And he hadn’t really celebrated his own salvation once he was delivered.

If your cup is overflowing with Jesus, then Jesus spills out of you. When Jesus spills out of you, then people will know you are a Christian. We ought to celebrate the incredible work the Lord has done in our lives! Also, we should be just as excited for the work the Lord is doing in others. If someone gets saved, we ought to celebrate.

When you walk the halls of your school, do you consider that your friends are just like the Ninevites and that they are destined for hell? Do you run into your school wanting to share Jesus? Or do you hop on a boat heading in a different direction? Let’s set our hope on Jesus in such a way that we want others to hear about him. And let’s celebrate when they are saved by his grace!

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What are you most afraid of when sharing Jesus with others?

2. What spills out of you most? Jesus? Yourself? Sports? Academics?

3. How often do you consider the grace the Lord has shown you?

4. Who do you know that needs to know and hear the grace of Jesus? Pray together with your small group for this person.

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