Themes of the Bible: Called (Jeremiah 1)

 

Themes of the Bible: Called (Jeremiah 1)

If you’ve got your Bibles, you can open to Jeremiah chapter 1. We've been doing this series for the last several months, working our way through some of the big messages that God has for humanity in His Word. This week is Jeremiah chapter 1. I'm very excited for next week, you need to read the 3rd chapter of the book of Daniel. Now some of you will know this as the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Others of you know them by their names Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Regardless, it is Daniel chapter 3 for next week. This week, Jeremiah chapter 1. So, to begin, one of the things to pick up on from the 1st chapter of Jeremiah is that many times, life thrives in difficult places, because that's God's will. If you've seen Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum, has that famous line, “life finds a way.” That is a very true statement, and that's the account of Jeremiah.

We know a lot about Jeremiah compared to other figures in the Bible. And by ‘we’ I mean scholars, I'm just throwing myself in there because why not? We know a lot about Jeremiah compared to other figures in Scripture. We know about who he was, his upbringing, things about Jeremiah and he personifies this reality. Let me give you a brief history lesson because we all love those. Okay, and I'm going to make a parallel here understanding you probably don't know biblical history maybe as well as you know, American history, so I'm going to use that as an analogy. By this time, the Israelites God's people are unified for a long period of time. If you remember where we were several weeks ago, the children of Israel were led out of bondage in Egypt by Moses. Moses that leads them out of bondage in Egypt and serves as their leader. He leads them through the wilderness, and they're out there right on the eastern edge of the Promised Land, and then Moses dies. And there's a logical successor for Moses. The guy that takes over for him is Joshua. Joshua takes command. Everybody knows Joshua is going to be in charge. He leads them across the Jordan River into the promised land and they conquer the promised land. And then when Joshua dies, there's not an obvious successor. And we go through this difficult moment in Israel's history where they are led by these random individuals that God will raise up, and they were called the judges. The judges will go for a period of time, people like Samson, Shamgar with his little oxgoad, and all that stuff. So, you got all these guys. And then you'll have girls because Debra's in there, but then you'll have this time of the monarchies. The first king is King Saul who reigns over Israel and then his successor, David reigns over Israel and his successor, his son, Solomon, reigns over Israel, and Israel is unified through that entire period of this history. These are strong kings. But then what happens? Well, when Solomon dies, there's a glaring lack of leadership in Israel and the country splits and breaks into civil war. This is where we can use the American analogy, right? We had the early presidents who were strong leaders, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, etc., and then you get into the lackluster president era, the ones that you never remember. And you think, did we really have a president named Millard Fillmore? And you have Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, the ones we all forget about. And then the country breaks apart in the Civil War. Okay, same thing that happened with Israel and Israel splits between the Northern Kingdom like we had the north in the United States. The north in the United States kept the name of the country, United States of America, and the South took on a new name, and its the same thing here, Israel splits, and you have Israel in the north and Judah, they take the name of one of the tribes, Judah in the south. Now here's the difference between their civil war and our civil war. In our civil war, the North is successful at Gettysburg, Pickett's Charge fails, and Lee is defeated at Gettysburg and the whole tide of the war changes. The Union wins and the country comes back together, and everyone lived happily ever after. . . Well, that doesn't happen with Israel. Israel remains split between these two kingdoms. And they live under this awkward, tense truce for several hundred years. And it's during this time period that Assyria becomes the major world power. So, you’ve got the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah, and here comes the big boy of Assyria and they want one thing. It's the same thing every kingdom on earth, every kingdom of man always wants, they want conquest. They want to take over land and territory. It's not just the European explorers who wanted to conquer the New World, as we're often told today, every era of history, every civilization wants to conquer and take over land and Assyria, about 700 years before Jesus, comes along and obliterates Israel. They take out the northern kingdom, and the people that remain from Israel in the northern kingdom, intermarry with the Assyrians. And that develops what we call the Samaritan race. You remember in the New Testament, the story of the Good Samaritan, and all of that, okay, this is where the Samaritans come from. The Assyrians that move in and they blend with the Israelites, and Judah is left untouched. About 100 years later, a new kid on the block shows up who’s bigger and stronger than Assyria. This new kid is Babylon and Babylon comes along and swallows up Assyria. So now, Babylon controls what used to be the northern kingdom, and they are ready to take on Judah and wipe them out. God's people are in serious trouble.

Judah is threatened from the outside. But that's not all that is happening in Judah. Judah is also tormented from within. There is religious corruption, priests that are using their positions for their own profit and power, political strife. All of that is tormenting Judah from within, they’re threatened from without, and they're falling apart and crumbling from within. And Jeremiah is born at this unpleasant moment, this crack in the history of the world of God's people. That's when Jeremiah and his ministry comes into focus.

One of the reasons I had you read the first chapter of Jeremiah is because of the religious corruption and political strife. Does this not sound familiar? Because it should. Religious corruption and political strife: Are there better descriptors for what the time period is that we're living in now and for our civilization than religious corruption and political strife? Jeremiah, he is a man for our time. Why do I say that? Think about the United States for just a second; our most influential intellectuals, the scientists, the educators, the politicians, all of the people that are leading our society are totally oblivious to our spiritual poverty. They won't address the problems that we have. When's the last time a political leader said ‘you know, our real problem here isn't guns or real problem here isn’t drugs, our real problem here is sin.’ And until we get a handle on head, until we accept that truth, we're just slapping band aids on the problem. Politicians love to sweep out cobwebs and leave the spiders, because if you don't kill the spiders the cobwebs come back and who do you need more of? You need more politicians. This is the time period that we're living in. Ours is a civilization, our media, our academia, our institutions, our government that is largely led by people that regard faith as either a little veneer that we wear to earn votes, or it's superstition. That's what faith is to them. That's the society that we're living in right now. And then our churches, by and large, are serving watered down doctrine. You can't get people to come to church unless you water down the doctrine and say what itching ears want to hear. People want to hear the things that they believe and so you simply repeat those and wrap them in Christian language and people will come in. Sex abuse scandals in churches and the effort to tamp that down, or the effort to use that to exploit the situation and make yourself popular as you tear down the church. Instances of religious idolatry, political idolatry, cultural idolatry. They are at all-time highs is rampant in our society. And yes, there are pockets of genuine faith that please God, and let us be one of those pockets of genuine faith amid sinful decadence that is everywhere, but largely, this is our culture.

This is the condition that young people are being raised in. And the proof is in the numbers. When questioned, by generation of “Do you have a 100% confidence, absolute belief in God?”  or ‘believing in God without a doubt.’ The oldest generation, The Silent Generation hovers around 68% belief. The Baby Boomers, they're holding steady 63% or so. Generation X is actually becoming more certain of God, and they're tied with the boomers, some think that pretty soon they're going to surpass them as the most faithful generation. I would have never guessed that. Now, the millennials, that my generation, we're sitting at just above 45%. And there’s a sharp drop for Generation Z, at only at 24 percent, making them the most faithless, atheistic generation ever in American history. Now, my point with sharing this is that we may acknowledge that Gen Z isn't worshipping God, but we're all still worshiping. Human beings are made to worship. We're just choosing idolatry over God. The idol of self and the idol of sex and the idol of whatever you want to fill in, we're still worshiping, we're just worshiping something other than God, but this is the reality of the culture that we're living in. That's why I'm saying to you, Jeremiah is a man for our time, because the very circumstances that he was surrounded by are the circumstances we're surrounded by.

So, here's the biblical dilemma: when I'm reading God's words through and about Jeremiah, do I just substitute my own name in for Jeremiah? Is that appropriate? Can I really do that? Is God saying the same thing to me that he said to Jeremiah, and is that good biblical scholarship? I want you to look at verses 4 and 5. These are the popular verses of Jeremiah 1. [Read Jeremiah 1:4-5]. Sound biblical scholarship tells me I can't just substitute my name in there, because it's pretty clear that God is speaking to an individual. He's speaking specifically to Jeremiah. Jeremiah has been set apart for a specific purpose at a specific moment in time. His specific purpose for his time is different than our purpose for our time, but we too have been set apart. Don't lose sight of that.

There is an example in Jeremiah that even though his calling was specific, we were also chosen for a specific time and place, having been predestined by God's foreknowledge. He knew that we were coming, and he set the time for us to live and the place for us to live. What's happening in our culture, God's not sitting up there saying ‘Oh, I didn't see that coming.’ He knew that that was going to happen. And he knew if that's going to happen, I want you there for such and such a purpose. At that very moment, he's the master chess player. He's putting pieces where they need to be. He wants us here just as he wanted Jeremiah there. He has put us here to be instruments to bring him glory, in our time, in the same way he did with Jeremiah and his time.

Additionally, we’re similar to Jeremiah and the sense that God knew us and called us before we were even born. The master chess player, He's putting us where he wants us and it's our option whether or not we're going to follow along with it or not. This is important. Just like Esther, we can choose to follow God's purposes, or we can choose not to, and you know what's going to happen, God's will is still going to work out, regardless of what we choose. Remember what Mordecai said to Esther, ‘Look, if you don't do this, deliverance for the Jews will come from another place.’ God will protect his people. God will not be thwarted; your decision is done. No scheme of man, no scheme of Satan is going to thwart the will of God. See, that's the point, God's will, will be successful. You and I have the choice whether or not to submit ourselves to His will and be used by him. God is telling Jeremiah; you've been part of my sovereign plan and will, from before you were even born, I had a plan and a purpose and a calling and a destiny for you. And that's not just an interesting tidbit thrown out there to Jeremiah. He's encouraging him. I have a plan, submit yourself to my plan, be used by me and you'll be protected. You'll be blessed if you follow.

I want you to notice the similarity. What does Paul say to the church in Galatians, chapter 1 verse 15, “But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles. . .” There's the same theme in the New Testament. The way God set apart Jeremiah is the way that he has set apart and called those of us under the new covenant. We've been set apart for a purpose as well.

Let’s go back to verses 4 and 5 and look at the four actions of God that you see here where he says, ‘I did this.’ This is God speaking and what does he tell Jeremiah? I formed you, I knew you, I set you apart, I have appointed you. Well, what are those things? What does it mean when God says, ‘I formed you’? Here's the point. What this is getting at is God has made us and equipped us, you and I, exactly as we need to be for his purpose. God has a plan and a purpose and a calling for your life and you have been equipped and given everything you need to fulfill that purpose. A few weeks ago, we were talking about those who were born handicapped. Okay God says that we're fearfully and wonderfully made, but how does that apply when you have someone who is physically or mentally handicapped? That doesn't really seem to make sense. How can they be fearfully and wonderfully made? This is why because God has equipped us exactly as he needs us for his purposes. Do you know the joy and emotions that handicapped people can bring to others? Do you have any idea of the audience that people with physical handicaps can garner that you and I cannot? [Kevan Chandler story]. People have been made and designed and equipped and formed by God exactly as they need to be. They are exactly as he wants them to fulfill His will and his purpose on Earth. That's what he's saying to Jeremiah. I knew you. He says he knows us by name, He knows who you are and he has a plan for you. Maybe your purpose is in New York City and he's going to call you there, maybe, yours is in Bangladesh and he's going to call you there, or he's called you to San Luis Obispo county. Regardless of the where, you are being called individually, truly to serve His kingdom. Thirdly, ‘I set you apart.’ We are called away from the rest of the world. There's a lot of pressure, especially in a culture like this. ‘Well, if we follow God's ways, what's going to be said about us on social media? What's going to be said about us if we hold this and when the whole culture is going that way? Still, we have been called to be set apart just as Jeremiah was. You know how loved Jeremiah was in his culture? Not much, and that's the same thing for us. And fourthly, he says ‘I've appointed you.’ I have called you to specific tasks. To fulfill His purpose Jeremiah was called to certain things. We have been called to our own tasks. That's what we're learning.

Now I want you to notice Jeremiah's response. When God calls him in verses 4 and 5, look at what he says in verse 6. [Read Jeremiah 1:6]. That's how Jeremiah responds. Now interestingly, there's two reasons that he's fearful about this. Jeremiah isn't really sold out on going and fulfilling God's will. Why? Because his message to Judah is not going to be pleasant and easy. You read what the message was right? He was to go to the people of Judah and tell them that Babylon is about to come and destroy you all. That's what's going to happen you're about to get obliterated and destroyed. So, you better repent because bad stuff is on its way, people are going to gravitate towards that, and when you go out and prophetically proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God and the need of repentance, that's nothing that can be earned. You don’t get a huge audience. That's why corrupt churches shy away from and water down that kind of doctrine because people don't gravitate towards those kinds of messages. So, this message is not going to sell really well. And the second reason is because he’s young. Who's going to listen to me? Look how young I am. None of the elders in Judah are going to listen to what I have to say. What if I make a mistake? They're going to exploit that. I don't even know what I'm doing. . . Remember, David had been groomed in the in the palace of Saul before he came to take over, and Joshua had been Moses’ his right-hand man. I haven't done anything preparatory and you're calling me to do this now? I want to say on behalf of Jeremiah this reaction is not that uncommon. When God calls people, when he speaks to them and says, ‘hey I want you to come and do this for me.’ What Jeremiah does is a pretty standard reaction. When I was called by God as a 17 year-old, my reaction was to say, ‘thanks for your consideration, but no.’ How about Mary’s response to the Angel? ‘I'm a virgin. Do you not know how this works? I can’t really become pregnant if I'm still a virgin. . .” It’s the same reaction. And Jeremiah has the same general response.

We know that he was between 17 and 20 and he's being called to go and prophetically condemn the people of Judah. 17 years old and he's being called to do that. Look at verses 7 and 8 how God responds to him. [Read Jeremiah 1:7-8]. This protest of Jeremiah was true, he was young. But the point that scripture is teaching you is that its irrelevant. If God calls you, God knows what he's doing. He's not confused or naive about what he's doing. So, don't argue with him and say, well I'm too young, I can't do this. God will call on young and he will use those young people who are willing to respond in faith. David was not too young when God called him to protect his father's flock, to defeat Goliath, to serve Saul in his kingdom. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born. If this guy was called when he was a fetus, no one else is too young to be called and used by God.

Alright, let’s move on to verse 9. [Read Jeremiah 1:9-10]. What God is stressing is that Jeremiah is being called to proclaim the Word of God. And that's what makes personal application of this passage so much easier than say personally applying the call of Moses to our lives. Moses was called to perform signs and wonders. I have not been called to perform signs and wondering that's why I'm not out parting the Salinas River to try to draw attention to the kingdom of God. The way you and I have been called, comes from Matthew 28:19-20. The Great Commission. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And you might say, ‘Well, God has never reached out and touched my mouth and said, I've given you my words.’ Stop it. He hasn't touched your mouth, but what is he done? He's provided the greatest miracle that we could possibly imagine, he has given you His Word. Know it, learn it, speak it, and if you do that, God will be with you in the same way He promised to be with Jeremiah.

Now, understand that our words will not always be well versed. See after God tells Jeremiah to go and warn what Babylon is going to do, look down at verse 17. [Read Jeremiah 1:17]. This is a clear and it is a resolute command to Jeremiah for him to be prepared to undertake God’s work with the promise that I will be with you. That should sound very familiar to Christians. Then, look at those illustrations in verse 18 in how God describes what he will do for Jeremiah, and those who he calls to preach His word. [Read Jeremiah 1:18]. These are hardened defensive structures that can withstand attack. That's what God promises if you walk in His will. That's what you are and what you will become and that should also sound very familiar to Christians in this area, because that's what we've been told. [Read Ephesians 6:10-12]. Put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground. You will be that fortified city, you will be that bronze wall, you will be unmoved. You'll be capable of standing and proclaiming God's message. God will see his will accomplished. If you trust in that no matter what happens, no matter what people do to you, what they say to you, no matter the threats that you are under, you keep preaching God Word. That was the call to Jeremiah, and this is why Jeremiah is such an example for us now.

Jeremiah’s his life was not an easy one. He didn't have a plan. He was not embraced. He wasn't loved, his family rejected him, and his friends had rejected him, and was called the weeping prophet for a reason. But how did this story end for Jeremiah? It never ends for God's people here on Earth. Ultimately, Jeremiah was judged not according to man's standards. What the culture thought was right and wrong. And I would simply remind you that our ultimate judge will not be judging by society’s standards or earthly standards or your own standard, because God has set the standard. He's told us what it is, and you will be judged according to this. So, I would encourage us all to choose God first in this wicked, depraved, and corrupt generation just as Jeremiah did.  

Let’s pray.