Sermon: Don't Leave Out a Word

Julius: The first reading will also serve as the basis for the sermon this morning from Jeremiah chapter 26. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, the following word came from the Lord. This is what the Lord says. Maybe they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring about the disaster I was planning because of the evil things they have done. You are also to say this to him. This is what the Lord says. If you will not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again, but you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make the name of this city a curse word for all the nations of the earth. the the prophets, and all the people listened as Jeremiah spoke these words at the house of the Lord. When Jeremiah had finished saying everything the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people, then the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him and said, You must die. Why do you prophesy in the name of the Lord that this house will be like Shiloh and that this city will be desolate with no one living here? All the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the Lord and sat in the entrance of the new gate of the Lord's house. Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, this man deserves the sentence of death because he has been prophesying against this city as you heard with your own ears. Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the things that you have heard. Now, reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring about the disaster he has pronounced against you. But as for me, look, I am in your hands. Do with me whatever seems good and right in your eyes. But you can be certain of this. If you put me to death, then you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live here. For it is true that the Lord has sent me to speak to you all these words in your hearing. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We pray. Lord, fill our hearts with your word. Make us children of the light. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. How important is a word? A single word. In the case of the 1631 publication of the Bible, which came to be known as the Wicked Bible, one word was fairly important. In that Bible, they forgot one word, the word not. In Exodus chapter 20 verse 14, right in the middle of the Ten Commandments, God commanded the Israelites, Hence the wicked Bible. That word makes a big difference, doesn't it? That's the difference between a beautiful marriage and a broken marriage. And not only is it important when it comes to the sixth commandment, but it was important in the lives of those publishers. After that, they were disgraced, they lost their jobs, and they died in poverty. One word can be very important. And you know that, and I know that, and even Jeremiah knew that. So why did God feel the need to remind him of this? To tell him in our reading for today, Jeremiah, do not hold back a single word. Well, we know how important words are, but we also know how even a single word can be something that people don't want to hear. A single word can cause a pretty big reaction. And so Jeremiah and sometimes we don't share a word, a single word. Sometimes we hold back words because we're afraid of how people are going to react. And you can see. Why Jeremiah might be afraid of this with the words he had to share. We read about them in Jeremiah chapter 26. We read, And in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, the following word came from the Lord. This is what the Lord says, stand in the courtyard of the Lord's house and speak to people from the cities and towns of Judah who have come to worship at the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I have commanded you to tell them. Do not hold back a single word. Maybe they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring about the disaster that I was planning because of the evil things they have done. The beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah. Now Josiah was a good king. You could share the Bible with him and he would be excited. But his son Jehoiakim was not like that at all. He's most notorious for the account in the Bible where he receives a scroll of God's word from Jeremiah. and sentence by sentence he tears it off and throws it into the fire. This is not a guy who had a very high view of God's Word and God's people started following him. They started taking out the knot in all of God's commands. They thought, shall have other gods, you shall murder and hate, you shall commit adultery, you shall steal, you shall give false testimony and use your words like arrows to hurt other people. And King Jehoiakim had an army of false prophets who backed him up, who said, yeah, sure, this is what God says. You guys are fine after all. Look around at the beautiful temple. Look around at Jerusalem. Everything seems fine, so you must be good with God. And into that situation, God tells Jeremiah to share these harsh words of judgment. This is what the Lord says. If you will not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants, the prophets whom I have sent to you again and again, but you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make the name of this city a curse word for all the nations of the earth. Because God's people were using the temple as a good luck charm, as if if they had that and they went to church once in a while and did some sacrifices, they could do whatever they wanted in their lives, God said, I'm going to destroy this place. I'm going to tear the temple down brick by brick. I'm going to make it like Shiloh. Now Shiloh in the Old Testament is where the tabernacle was. So before they had their permanent church building, their temple, They had their temporary church building, the tabernacle, the tent where they would meet with God, which followed them in the wilderness and was with them in the promised land until the temple was built in a city called Shiloh. And the same thing was happening back then. They thought, ⁓ who cares what God says? We still have our church. It's still up in Shiloh. And so God allowed enemies to come and invade and destroy their church, destroy the tabernacle in Shiloh and make it desolate. And so God is saying, you take my words for granted, if you hold back a single word, I'm going to do that to the temple. And he also says, I'm going to make the word Jerusalem a curse word. They were using as a good luck charm here. They're saying, ⁓ Jerusalem, you're so beautiful. Everything's fine. And God said, I'm going to destroy Jerusalem so that it will become a word people use like a curse. Like if you hit your thumb with a hammer, you go, ⁓ Jerusalem! People are going to say, don't pull a Jerusalem. That's how bad it's going to be. And so these were the words Jeremiah was sharing with these people. How do you think they're going to react? Sometimes it's scary to share God's word with people who don't know it at all, who don't claim to be Christians. But sometimes it's even more scary to share it in a situation like Jeremiah had here with a group of people who do have a church, who do go to church, who do have at least a Bible on the shelf, and to tell them, listen, you're not doing what God says. You're not following that Bible on your shelf. That can be even more scary. Just imagine, we just approved building a fellowship hall. Very exciting. A building is going up. It's like we're expanding things like that. And we've got groundbreaking next week. Can you imagine if we get that little golden shovel and we start the groundbreaking and I look at all of you and say, this building is gonna stand empty because you guys are spiritually empty. People are gonna drive by on Holdridge and shake their heads and they'll say, Don't pull a Mount Olive. you'd probably throw me out with the playground equipment. This is supposed to be a happy occasion! Now I'm not called to share that, but of course, I am called to pass on the message of God's word. And yeah, we can take to heart this message from Jeremiah today. And I get to share that. We cannot use physical buildings as an excuse for covering up sin. We can't say, well, I'm going to church, it's fine, I've got a Bible on the shelf. No, the Lord does want us to build ourselves up spiritually and he wants us to repent when we haven't followed every single one of God's word or shared them faithfully. So that is something to share and that's not a feel-good message either. And sometimes you get to share messages that aren't very nice. You aren't called to be a public prophet. You aren't called to be a pastor to speak publicly. But God speaks through all of you. and you all have the Word of God, and so there are opportunities in life where you get to share the Word of God with people. Yes, maybe even with fellow Christians or people who say they are Christians. And it can be scary because if you're not going to hold back a single word, sometimes you have to share words that are going to be offensive, that people aren't going to enjoy. And so what holds us back in moments like that? Well, it's fear of how people will react a lot of the time. They're afraid that they're going to get upset with you, that you're going to ruin a relationship, things like that. It's fear of how they will react. And that's how Jeremiah felt, and that's how I feel sometimes. But if we let that stop us from sharing God's word, then we are caring more about their reaction than their salvation. We're caring really more about ourselves and how this will affect us than how God's Word might affect them and save them. So we need to share God's Word. And amazingly, that's what Jeremiah does here in Jeremiah 26, but it's not like he's some superhuman who always did this perfectly. If you go back six chapters, you find Jeremiah saying, that's it. I'm not sharing God's Word anymore. People just keep getting mad at me. Jeremiah chapter 20 verse 9 says, if I say I will not mention God or speak in His name anymore, then there's a burning fire in my heart, shut up in my bones and I'm weary of holding it in. I cannot. In other words, Jeremiah tried to stop talking about God's word. He was tired of people getting mad at him, but he couldn't because that message was working on him. and it's worked on us. What was Jeremiah's message? Why did God want him to share it? Well, we heard it in verse three, it said, maybe they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring about the disaster that I was planning because of the evil things they have done. That's what God wants. Maybe people will listen and turn and be forgiven and God will not bring disaster on them forever. And so Jeremiah, by the power of the word of God, shares the word of God. He says, repent or this place will be like Shiloh. How do you think the people reacted? We read, When Jeremiah had finished saying everything the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people, then the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him and said, you must die. Why do you prophesy in the name of the Lord that this house will be like Shiloh? and that this city will be desolate with no one living here." So they didn't take it so well. And what is Jeremiah going to do now? Is he going to back off? No, he continues like this. Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city, all the things that you have heard. Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring about the disaster he has pronounced against you. But as for me, look, I am in your hands. Do with me whatever seems good and right in your eyes. But you can be certain of this. If you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live here. For it is true that the Lord has sent me to speak all these words in your hearing. Despite their reaction, Despite the fact that they seize him and say, are going to kill you, Jeremiah says, do what you want. I don't care what you do to me. I'm not worried about myself. God sent me to share his words to save you. So listen, reform your hearts. And yes, if you kill me, you'll bring innocent blood on your heads. I'm just sharing what God told me to share. And God wants to save you. Remind you of another prophet in the Bible? Jeremiah, probably more than any other prophet in the Bible, reminds us of Jesus. He's called the weeping prophet because Jeremiah spent half his time weeping over the people and the temple and Jerusalem at people who didn't listen. And that's just like Jesus. He held out his arms to Jerusalem and the temple and the people and he wept. He said, how often I've longed to gather you together. I love you. Just listen. But unlike Jeremiah, who wasn't killed here, if you read one more verse, there's good news. It says, ⁓ then they listened. Unlike Jeremiah, who is spared and his innocent blood isn't shed, Jesus' blood was shed. And he was glad to shed it for us. Jesus was the perfect prophet in Jeremiah's place, in my place, in your place. He never shied away from sharing the word of God because He wasn't selfish, he wasn't worried about himself, he just wanted to save people. And so Jesus shared the word of God even though it meant he would be seized and he would be killed. But the innocent blood that he shed on the cross wasn't just a testimony of what people deserve for not listening to God, it also was the blood that gives God's word its saving power. Jesus wanted to die in our place so that he would take the disaster on himself, so that it wouldn't happen to us that we would become like Shiloh, that we would become like the temple in Jerusalem became. Jesus took the disaster of hell on himself that we all deserve so that God could give us blessings instead, so that God wouldn't punish us. And Jesus still, every time we have communion, he says, turn and listen, repent of your sins and come here. here's my innocent blood shed for you that makes you perfect in God's eyes. Jesus was the perfect prophet who shared God's words so that we could be saved. And that's really why we don't want to hold back a single word of what God says either, because these are the words that save. And God lets us share them. Those poor publishers of the Wicked Bible. They were banished from the publishing industry after that. You don't get to share God's word anymore. But that's not how Jesus treats us. You think of some other publishers of God's word that didn't do so well, the disciples Peter and John. When Jesus was seized for sharing God's word, they ran away. They stopped sharing God's word. But what did Jesus do after he rose again from the dead? He came to Peter and John and he said, hey, you guys still get to share my words. You get to share how I saved you and I want to save others. And it didn't go well for them. Peter and John shared God's word after Jesus went into heaven and what happened? They were seized and they were thrown in prison. And the leaders said, stop talking about Jesus or else. And how did Peter and John respond? They said in Acts chapter 4 verse 19, able to refrain from speaking about the things that we have seen and heard. We can't hold it in, we can't hold back not even a single word. And that's our response too. Because Jesus has shared all the words of salvation with us and then told us you can share these words too, don't hold back a single word. What's our answer? Jesus. We couldn't even if we tried. Amen.

Jeremiah 26 · chapter mention Exodus 20:14 Jeremiah 26 · chapter mention Jeremiah 20:9 Acts 4:19