Good morning, everyone. I'm going to be reading from chapter 1 of the book of Jeremiah.
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah,
the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
Then he said,
And then I said,
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,
For I am only a youth.
But the Lord said to me,
Do not say,
I am only a youth, for to all whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,
Behold, I have put words in your mouth.
See that I set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms,
to pluck you up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Jeremiah, what do you see?
And I said,
I see an almond branch.
And then the Lord said to me,
You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.
The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying,
What do you see?
And I said,
I see a boiling pot facing away from the north.
Then the Lord said to me,
Out of the north, disaster shall be let loose upon the inhabitants of the land.
For behold, I am calling the tribes of the kingdom of the north, declares the Lord,
and they shall come, and everyone shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,
against all its walls, around and against all the cities of Judah.
And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me.
They have made offerings to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
But you dress yourself for work.
Arise and say to them everything that I command you.
Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.
And I behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls,
against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.
They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you.
For I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.
Good morning, everyone.
Well, I'm going to be speaking this week and next week from the opening chapters of the book of Jeremiah.
And let me just say briefly how that came about, and then we'll get into it.
How did it come about?
Well, some of you will have received an email this week, or most of you probably,
to say that I've started work as a pastor here as of this month,
which is we moved the start date forward a month.
And I think maybe...
I think maybe the elders were worried I'd sit around doing nothing, so they asked me to preach.
And so we've pushed our series from Jonah back a couple of weeks.
We'll start that in a couple of weeks, and I'll be speaking from Jeremiah.
These talks have grown out of a series of talks I gave for NCS at Windicon a few years ago.
So the book of Jeremiah had been largely opaque to me.
I really...I knew some bits of it, but I didn't really have a sense of the book as a whole.
And so I was eager to tackle it myself.
It makes up 5.2% of the Bible, Jeremiah.
And yet maybe like me, you're sort of unfamiliar with it.
So that's why I wanted to tackle it with NCS.
And as I prepared that series, I fell in love with the book.
But I was also sort of exhausted by preaching it.
And so after preaching it at a conference a few years ago, I then kind of just...
I don't know, like I kind of hid it away in a cell in my mind and locked the door and threw away the key.
But recently I've been sort of trying to peek in through the keyhole just to try and reabsorb some of the lessons I had from the book.
And so it's something I've been thinking about.
I thought it might be helpful for us to think about together.
I'm not promising a series on the book of Jeremiah, but we are just going to dip our toes in the water in the first couple of chapters over the next...
Oh, this week and next.
But I want to start by asking you a question.
Do you expect it to be easier or harder to be a Christian over the next 40 years?
If you consider the next four decades ahead of us, do you think it'll be easier to be a Christian or harder to be a Christian?
Now, I'm no expert when it comes to predicting the future.
I think there can be a tendency among Christians to be doomsayers and pessimists, and I think we should resist that temptation.
But I think we would be naive if we were to say we expect it to be easy.
Absolutely, in certain parts of the world, it will certainly not be easy.
I'm thinking, for example, of northern and central Africa, countries like Nigeria and neighbouring countries where Islamic extremists run rampant terrorising and murdering Christians.
But even in the West, even in Western countries like Australia, politics and political discourse have become increasingly embittered.
And sometimes Christians are either drawn into that or even fall afoul of it.
You might remember in September last year the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
I think that's an indication that there's an undercurrent of resentment in our society that can turn violent.
And it emerges particularly at the intersection of religion and politics and social issues.
Now, I think outright violence will likely remain rare.
But sadly, violence is not inexplicable, given that there is, in some segments of our society, this undercurrent of hostility.
Of course, hostility is not the whole story.
It's not the full story.
We're also, in our society, seeing a rise in sympathy toward Christianity and interest in Christianity.
So I have a friend who's a university lecturer.
And he's a lecturer in politics and political theory.
As his university started back in the last couple of weeks, he's been teaching 800 first-year students in political theory and politics.
And his interest in free speech and his argument against sort of the encroaching of post-modernism in academia, which has sort of led to an erosion of the concept of truth.
So he's opposing that.
That has led him to greater openness towards Christianity and even to engaging with the Bible.
He's not yet a Christian.
But there is sympathy there because of how he feels, where he feels our culture is heading and his discomfort with that.
But no doubt, hostility is also present in at least some segments of our society.
Now, in that present social climate, there are two risks, I think, for us as Christians.
Here are, or there may be a number of them, but here are two.
One risk is that we might become defensive, you know, develop an us-versus-them mindset.
And so rather than trying gently to persuade those with whom we disagree, we, you know, we put the walls up and just aggressively assert our own rights, us-versus-them.
But there's another risk, and that is that we might, that Christians might become timid, fearful, withdraw, cowed into silence, keep our heads down, try not to be noticed, try to avoid trouble.
That's a danger, too.
Well, the Bible passage today, Jeremiah chapter 1, will encourage us that we don't need to be defensive and we don't need to be timid as we engage with our world around us.
Will you join with me in prayer?
Then we'll come to the text.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can gather here today and reflect on your word.
And now we ask, Lord, that the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts may be acceptable in your sight.
Our Lord, our Rock, our Redeemer.
Amen.
We'll have a look again at chapter 1 of Jeremiah, verses 1 to 3.
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
The first two verses of the introduction to this book capture the dual nature of the text we're reading here and indeed of all the Bible.
But the dual nature of the text here, verse 1, these are the words of Jeremiah.
Verse 2, this is the word of the Lord.
That's the dual nature of Scripture, both a divine and a human word.
The Scriptures, including the book of Jeremiah, is a divine word, infallible, perfect, true, powerful.
God asks in Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 28, what does straw have in common with wheat?
And he's talking about his word.
He's comparing his word, which is true and good and which nourishes the soul, with the empty imaginings of false prophets.
What does straw have in common with wheat?
In the next verse, Jeremiah 23, verse 29, God says, is not my word like a fire?
Is not my word like fire and like a hammer that breaks rock in pieces?
God's word is powerful.
This is the word of the Lord.
But when we read Jeremiah, we are also reading the words of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah, now there are some books in the Old Testament where the author is unknown and essentially irrelevant, the human author, that is.
Jeremiah is not one of those books.
The man Jeremiah is very much present in this book.
These are his words and they can't be separated from the life he lived and the things he experienced.
Much of the book of Jeremiah, in fact, already existed in written form in his lifetime.
But some ordering and framing took place after his death, like this introduction, verses 1 to 3, and a final chapter, an epilogue in chapter 52.
But who was Jeremiah?
Well, Jeremiah, we're told, he was the son of Hilkiah, which is a common name, so that doesn't tell us much.
He's one of the priests at Anathoth in Benjamin.
Anathoth is near Jerusalem, so near the capital city, about five kilometres to the northeast of Jerusalem.
And so in this book, we'll often find Jeremiah in Jerusalem, at the temple or at other places in the city.
We'll see him speaking with priests and indeed with kings and officials.
His membership in a priestly family may have given him some access, some standing, but it seems he wasn't particularly of high rank himself.
Well, Jeremiah was a young man when the Lord called him and he had a long ministry spanning about 40 years.
And spanning the reigns of five kings, three of those five kings are named here.
The other two only ruled for three months each.
And each of the three named kings, Josiah, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, are significant in the events that unfold, especially the second and third of those.
But the events of the first chapter, his prophetic call, it seems, occurred in the 13th year of King Josiah.
So this is around the year 626 BC.
And yet at the outset, we're told about another event, an event that at that time was future, that would occur 40 years later.
At the end of Jeremiah's ministry, in the year 587, the end of verse 3, the captivity of Jerusalem.
The captivity of Jerusalem was a series of forced deportations by the Babylonians of the people of Judah into exile in Babylon.
The most momentous of those was in 587, where after a horrific siege, King Nebuchadnezzar captured the city.
He burned the city with fire.
He burned the temple to the ground.
And he carried off thousands of people as captives.
And for those who lived through Jeremiah's ministry, that's the captivity of Jerusalem.
That was future.
And so in a sense, it was prospective.
It was perhaps one possible future outcome.
Maybe even a remote outcome in their minds.
But for those of us who read the book of Jeremiah in its final form, that is in the past.
And that terrible event casts its shadow over the whole book.
So that comment at the end of verse 3 is sort of a major spoiler of what was coming in the rest of the book.
And it places Jeremiah in that biblical history for us.
Well, this is where the book's heading.
But it begins with God calling young Jeremiah, this young priest, in the 13th year of Josiah's reign.
Verse 4.
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
And before you were born, I consecrated you.
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
I mean, we see here in verse 5 the breadth of the Lord's authority.
That God is sovereign over time, past and future.
Before I formed you, God says, I knew you.
And we see that God's power is active at the macro and the micro level.
God forms the unborn child in the womb of his or her mother.
And God rules over nations.
The same Lord who determines the fate of nations also assigns the place and the calling of each individual.
He says to Jeremiah, I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
But Jeremiah himself is not so sure.
Now at times, God calls people who are eager for appointment.
So when God calls Isaiah, Isaiah says, or when God calls for someone, Isaiah says, here I am, send me.
But often God calls those who have their own self-doubts.
So King Saul, on the day that Samuel presented him to Israel, had to be fetched from where he was hiding among the supplies.
Jeremiah had his doubts.
Verse 6.
Then I said, ah, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.
You know, I do not know how to speak.
That objection had been tried by Moses before, as Lachlan mentioned in the kids talk.
They've been tried by Moses, but God wasn't buying it.
And maybe Jeremiah knew that that objection wasn't good enough on its own.
So he adds, I'm only a youth.
You know, Moses, he was a mature man when you call it, but I'm just a, I'm a youngster.
But God will have none of that objection either.
Verse 7.
But the Lord said to me, do not say I am only a youth, for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Now, I don't know if, Lachlan, I don't know if you're reading the script of my talk, but I also had an illustration about a balance bike in here.
So I'm going to press on with that.
When one of my kids is scared to try something new, I'll try to convince them that it's within their ability.
That they're able to do it.
You can do it, I'll say.
I'll try and encourage them.
And so, when they're making that transition from, you know, discarding the training wheels from their bike, I'll say, well, remember, when you rode a balance bike, you could balance on the balance bike.
You don't need training wheels on your pedal bike.
You can do it.
I'll try to reassure them to bolster their self-esteem, their self-confidence.
Is that God's approach here?
Well, not exactly.
God doesn't say, well, Jeremiah, remember, like, you won a prize in school for public speaking?
You're the best man for the job.
He doesn't say that.
In fact, he doesn't really engage with Jeremiah's objection at all.
He just dismisses it.
He just restates the call.
Don't say, I'm only a youth, for to all whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Just restates the call in the form of, this time, of a command.
You must go.
You must speak.
So don't be surprised if God calls you to a task that seems beyond your ability.
God doesn't need our self-confidence, and God's not hindered by our self-doubts.
God doesn't call the gifted.
God gifts the called.
God's not hindered by our self-doubts.
And sometimes the Lord sends us where we would not choose to go.
But he never sends us on our own.
Look at verse 8.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.
God reassures Jeremiah, promising his presence and his protection.
I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.
Now, and I guess it is reassuring.
But you might also realise it's reassuring in a foreboding kind of way.
Like someone lending you a car for a long trip and saying,
just make sure you have NRMA roadside assistance on speed dial.
You know, it doesn't really inspire confidence.
Or someone telling you as you head out for an ocean swim,
don't worry about the sharks, they prefer surfers.
Do not be afraid of them, says the Lord.
Hang on, hang on.
Why do I need to be afraid?
Just slow down a bit.
I will deliver you, says the Lord.
Hold on up a moment, God.
Why will I need deliverance?
See, not only is God calling Jeremiah to something he doesn't think he can do,
but already Jeremiah will sense that there will be opposition
and there will be danger.
But God will give Jeremiah what he most needs.
Verse 9.
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth,
and the Lord said to me,
Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
It's a symbolic action that illustrates Jeremiah's call to be a prophet.
Henceforth, Jeremiah's words would not be his own.
He would speak as the mouthpiece of God.
But every word he needed, the Lord God would give him.
And finally, God again reiterates Jeremiah's call,
filling out what his ministry would be about.
Verse 10.
See, I've set you this day over nations and over kingdoms
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.
God repeats what he's already said in verse 5,
that Jeremiah's a prophet to the nations, plural.
There are times throughout the book where we might be tempted to forget that
and think that Jeremiah's just a prophet to Judah,
just a prophet to the people of Israel.
But from the moment of his call,
God says his ministry has a wider scope.
It's to the nations.
But you'll see here, it's not just as in verse 5,
to the nations,
but here in verse 10,
I've set you this day over nations
and over kingdoms.
In Jeremiah's day,
it would seem like the little kingdom of Judah
was utterly at the mercy of greater forces,
of world powers,
of conquering invaders.
And humanly speaking,
it was.
But the deeper reality is that
all the nations
and all the kingdoms of the world
and all their cities
and all their armies
are subject to the word of God.
Nigeria, Yemen, Afghanistan, China,
the United States, Australia,
all subject
to the word of God.
The word of the Lord stands
over all nations and all kingdoms.
And what was the word of God
regarding the nations and kingdoms
of the world in Jeremiah's day?
Well, it's summarised in those six verbs
in the second half of verse 10,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.
Now, those six verbs are weighty ones
in the book of Jeremiah.
When they pop up later in the book,
it's worth taking notice.
But three things are evident
just from Jeremiah's commissioning here.
First, we see that Jeremiah's message
would be mixed.
It would involve both negative and positive.
There's plucking up,
but there's planting.
There's destroying,
there's breaking down,
but there's building.
There's a mix.
There's negative and positive.
But secondly,
the balance would lean decidedly
in one direction.
There would be more that is negative
than positive,
more demolition than recreation.
And yet thirdly,
the negative precedes the positive.
First comes the destroying
and overthrowing,
then the building.
First comes the plucking up
and breaking down,
then the planting.
To borrow an expression
from one commentator,
the message of Jeremiah
is that there would be
terrible trouble,
but then wondrous renewal.
And we hear some of that
same message again
in the teaching of Jesus,
don't we?
That there will be terrible trouble,
but there is wondrous renewal.
Now, in one sense,
the call of Jeremiah the prophet
ends at verse 10.
And in the rest of chapter 1,
we hear the first two messages
the Lord gave to his newly
appointed prophet.
But they are messages
which clarify,
further clarify,
Jeremiah's call.
Now, I've divided them
into three points
on your outlines,
just to make it a bit easier
to follow.
But technically,
there are just two messages here.
You see the first one
in verse 11 introduced,
and the word of the Lord
came to me.
And that one's brief,
verses 11 to 12.
But then in verse 13,
we have the word of the Lord
came to me a second time.
And that seems to encompass
all of verse 13 to 19.
Now, if verse 13 is the second time,
then verse 11 must be the first time,
which means that when it says
the word of the Lord
came to me in verse 4,
well, that's not counted
in these two messages
in the second half.
It's kind of in a category
of its own.
So it's the verses
4 to 10,
like the commissioning,
and then these two words,
which help explain
the commissioning.
So what are Jeremiah's
first messages?
They involve an almond tree,
a boiling pot,
a fortified city,
an iron pillar,
and a bronze wall.
So first,
an almond branch.
Look at verse 11.
And the word of the Lord
came to me saying,
Jeremiah,
what do you see?
And I said,
I see an almond branch.
Then the Lord said to me,
you have seen well,
for I am watching over my word
to perform it.
Now,
how many of you like puns?
Gareth,
Gareth likes puns.
Yep.
Simon likes,
yes.
Yep.
Joel,
yep.
Okay.
I can see,
yep.
Some people like puns,
some people don't like puns.
Well,
God obviously likes puns.
So if you like puns,
you're in divine company.
Because what we have here
is a word play.
Almond branch is the word
shakade.
And watching is the word
shakade.
And in fact,
shakade,
shakade.
In fact,
if you write them out in Hebrew,
the consonants are identical.
It's only when you sort of
vocalize them out in vowels
that you have a different
expression of those
consonants.
So the same three
Hebrew consonants.
So God's using a word play here.
He's using a pun.
And the whole point of this
visual pun,
the almond branch,
is I am watching,
shakade,
over my word
to perform it.
I am watching over my word
to perform it.
Now there are two reasons
we need to know this,
that God is watching
over his word
to perform it.
First reason we need to know this
is that if God is watching
over his word
to perform it,
then his word
will be performed.
It will be fulfilled.
Everything God has said
will happen.
Every promise God has given
his people
will be fulfilled.
Every purpose God has
will be accomplished.
God is watching over his word
to perform it.
In the pages of Jeremiah,
there are people who say,
no,
God will not
pluck up and break down.
God will not
destroy and overthrow.
But God is watching
over his word
to perform it.
He will do
what he says he will do.
On the other hand,
when God's plucking up
and breaking down
is underway,
when he's destroying
and overthrowing
is complete
in the
captivity of Jerusalem,
mentioned in verse 3,
at that time,
one could scarcely
dare to believe
so terrible
would the times be.
One would scarcely
dare to believe
that God will build
and plant.
But God is watching
over his word
to perform it.
And when you read
in the word of God
that our saviour
will return,
that we'll see him
face to face,
that we'll be
raised like him,
that he'll transform
our lowly bodies
to be like
his glorious bodies,
that as we saw
at the church camp
last weekend
in 2 Peter 3,
there is a new heavens
and a new earth,
the home of righteousness.
And moreover,
when we read
that God is guarding
his people,
guarding us
until that day,
that God is
carrying on
the good work
he began in us
until it's complete,
when we read
all these things
we can know
that God is watching
over his word
to perform it.
His purposes,
his word,
his promises
will not fail.
There's a second reason
it's good for us
to know that God
is watching over
his word to perform it
and that is
if God is watching
over his word
to perform it,
then it is not
up to us
to watch over
his word
to perform it.
Now let me explain
what I mean there.
Of course we do
watch over his word
as we wait
for its fulfillment
and we listen
to his word
as we seek
to obey it,
but we don't
watch over God's word
as God watches
over God's word.
That is,
we don't
arrogate to
ourselves
the responsibility
to ensure
God's word
is fulfilled.
That is God's
doing,
not ours.
In the past
several decades
there has been
much emphasis
on church growth.
Church growth
manuals,
church growth
conferences,
church growth
workshops
and we expect,
can expect
leaders of church,
pastors,
elders and so on
to grow the church,
to have a vision
for growth
and so on
with measurable
goals and strategies
to achieve
those goals.
But we must remember
it's Jesus Christ
who said,
I will build
my church
and it's God
who places
the parts of the body,
every one of them
just as he
wants to.
Now of course
we,
church leaders
but all of us,
all believers,
we need to give
ourselves
to the means
that God has,
that Christ uses
to build his church.
We must give
ourselves to those
means,
to the word of God,
to prayer,
to deeds of love.
But remember
it's God
who's watching
over his word
to see
that it's fulfilled.
It's God
who will do it.
And that's the first
message Jeremiah
received,
the almond tree,
the almond branch,
God is watching.
What about the second
message?
The disturbing
news for Jeremiah
is that before
the building
and planting
must come
the plucking up
and breaking down,
the destroying
and overthrowing.
Verse 13,
the word of the Lord
came to me
a second time
saying,
what do you see?
And I said,
I see a boiling pot
facing away
from the north.
Then the Lord
said to me,
out of the north
disaster
shall be let loose
upon all the
inhabitants
of the land.
For behold,
I am calling
all the tribes
of the kingdoms
of the north,
declares the Lord,
and they shall come
and everyone
shall set his throne
at the entrance
of the gates
of Jerusalem
and against
all its walls
all around
and against
all the cities
of Judah
and I will
declare my
judgments against
them for all
their evil
in forsaking me.
They have made
offerings to other
gods and worshipped
the works of
their own hands.
Christians.
Now this is what
lay ahead for
Jerusalem.
This is what
lay ahead for
Jeremiah,
for the Lord's
prophet.
The boiling pot
tilting towards
Jerusalem from
the north,
pouring out
disaster.
Actually pouring
out the worst
kind of disaster.
A disaster that
was completely
justified and
thoroughly deserved.
You know it's
bad enough when
we suffer and
we don't
deserve it
because if we
suffer and we
don't deserve
it, then we
might at least
hope for some
sympathy.
But to suffer
only the just
desserts of our
own wicked
deeds, as God
says he is
doing there,
here in verse
16, I will
declare my
judgments against
them for all
their evil, to
suffer the just
desserts of our
own wicked
deeds as
Jerusalem was
about to do,
what hope
is there?
What sympathy
can there be?
All of this
would have been
very unwelcome
news for
Jeremiah.
Had he remained
a priest in
Anathoth, his
life would have
been much more
serene.
I mean, yeah,
there would have
been that trouble
at the end of it,
but he could have
avoided 40 years
of trouble.
Jeremiah chapter
one is not a
very encouraging
job description.
If I were
Jeremiah, I'd
probably be going
back to seek.com.au
and, you know,
trying to find
another time and
place that needed
a profit.
But of course,
that wasn't up
to Jeremiah.
You may well
remember Lord of
the Rings, the
words of Frodo
to Gandalf.
I wish it
need not have
happened in my
time, said
Frodo.
So do I, said
Gandalf, and so
do all who live
to see such times,
but that is not
for them to decide.
All we have to
decide is what
to do with the
time that is
given to us.
And what must
Jeremiah do with
the time that was
given to him?
Verse 17.
But you,
dress yourself
for work,
gird up your
loins, dress
yourself for work,
arise, and say
to them everything
that I command
you.
Do not be
dismayed by
them, lest I
dismay you
before them.
And I, behold,
I make you
this day a
fortified city,
an iron
pillar, and
bronze walls
against the
whole land,
against the
kings of
Judah, its
officials, its
priests, and
the people of
the land.
They will
fight against
you, but
they shall not
prevail against
you, for I
am with you,
declares the
Lord, to
deliver you.
The Lord says
that the whole
land would be
against Jeremiah.
The kings,
Jehoiakim and
Zedekiah, would
be against him.
Officials,
priests, people,
would be against
him.
But as he
spoke God's
word, this
young son of
Hilkiah, this
reluctant prophet,
would prove to
be as unbreakable
as the message
he proclaimed.
I make you
this day a
fortified city,
an iron pillar,
and bronze
walls.
There may even
be some deliberate
irony here,
you know, that
they're featuring
in this book,
two fortified
cities, Jerusalem
and Jeremiah,
and one would
outlast the
other.
At the entrance
to the temple
of the Lord in
Jerusalem were
two great bronze
pillars, each
eight metres tall,
you can read about
them in 1 Kings
chapter 7, two
great bronze
pillars, symbols
of the Lord's
strength.
death.
In Jeremiah
chapter 52
verse 17, when
the Babylonians
captured Jerusalem
and burned the
temple, they
took those
pillars, they
broke them in
pieces, and
they carried the
bronze off to
Babylon.
But though
Jerusalem and
the temple would
fall, and though
Jeremiah the
prophet would
suffer and be
mistreated, he
would nevertheless
remain unbreakable
because of God's
protective presence
and God's power
to deliver.
Julio Rubel
was an evangelist
in Colombia
in the 1980s
and 1990s,
and God
worked through
him to save
many, to
bring many
to know
Jesus and
to bring
renewal in
the church.
And yet
his ministry,
his evangelism
and his
ministry, he
was constantly
facing threats
from drug
cartels who
opposed his
work.
After years
of preaching,
he was
eventually gunned
down by
assassins
and died
for the work
of the Lord.
But shortly
before he
died, he
said this,
he said,
in the face
of these
threats he
was receiving
from the
drug cartels,
he said,
I know
that I
am absolutely
immortal
until I
have finished
the work
that God
intends for
me to do.
And the
same is
true for
each one
of us,
isn't
it?
Each of
us who
have the
gospel on
our lips,
who have
a commission
to the
nations,
who have
the promise
of God's
presence with
us.
God has
prepared works
in advance
for you to
do, he
promises you
that in
Ephesians
chapter 2.
Some of
those works
may seem
to be beyond
your ability.
some will
be things
you wouldn't
have chosen
for yourself.
Sometimes
people may
even fight
against you.
But we
are absolutely
immortal until
we have
finished the
work God
intends us
to do.
For
Jeremiah,
that meant
40 plus
years of,
40 plus
hard and
painful years
as he
outlived
kings,
outlasted
cities,
and kept
proclaiming
the word
of God.
I wonder
what it
might mean
for each
of you.
Will you
join with
me in
prayer?
Amen.
Heavenly
Father,
you are
the Lord
of nations
and you
are watching
over your
word to
fulfil it.
No word
and no
promise of
yours will
fail.
We thank
you that
you are
with us
by your
spirit to
deliver us.
Thank you
that we do
not need to
fear
whatever
sufferings or
threats we
may face.
Lord God,
please give
us hearts
that are
willing to
obey you.
Wherever you
send,
Lord,
may we
go.
Whatever you
command,
Lord.
Thank you.