Series: Jeremiah
Finding Our Prophetic Voice
VBC
Pastor John Johnson
Jeremiah 20:1-9
November 10-11, 2012
“The Uncongenial Bible”
One of my more terrifying memories as a kid was on a ride called The Hammer
-I was maybe 10, and the local city fair came to town
-and when I got on the ride, I was in a capsule that circulated while going up and coming down
at a dizzying speed
-and the sadistic operator would occasionally stop it midway just to hear our screams
Reading Jeremiah is something like this—one minute you are moving upwards—and then
suddenly you plunge down, not sure you won’t possibly fall out
-getting vertigo in the process
-the 20th chapter of Jeremiah is just one example—Jeremiah is all over the place—from anger
to doxology to bitter cry
-and behind it all—God is saying exactly what we need to hear
-it has to be understood in its context in chapter 19
-Jeremiah enters into the heart of the city—and notice where he goes—read verse 14
-not to the politicians—not to the merchants—not to Wall Street—not to the media
-Jeremiah stepped out of Topheth—the city dump—the place of unspeakable evil practices
-into something that smelled equally as bad—the courtyard of the temple—the religious
establishment—and he spoke
-this was the prophet confronting the priest
-the outsider confronting the religious institution
-for like our culture today—much of the problem can be traced back here
-for if this goes bad—than the rest goes bad
APPLICATION—many of us are disconcerted by the moral slide of our nation—the results of an
election seem to give evidence that the slide is worse than we thought
-Al Mohler—a significant evangelical voice—made this statement about Tuesday in
yesterday’s NY Times—
-“An increasingly secularized America understands our positions, and has rejected them.”
-but just as in Jeremiah’s day—we would be remiss if we assumed it to be the failure of
political strategists, lobbyists, or media
-the breakdown is more serious—the keepers of the faith have failed to be a prophetic voice
-as John Stott once put it—
“Our Christian habit is to bewail the world’s deteriorating standards with an air of rather selfrighteous dismay. We criticize its violence, dishonesty, immorality, disregard for human life,
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and materialistic greed. ‘The world is going down the drain,’ we say with a shrug. But whose
fault is it? Who is to blame?”
“Let me put it like this. If the house is dark when night fall comes, there is no sense in
blaming the house, for that is what happens when the sun goes down. The question to ask is
‘Where is the light?’
If the meat goes bad and becomes inedible, there is no sense blaming the meat, for that is
what happens when bacteria are left alone to breed. The question to ask is ‘Where is the
salt?’”
“Just so, if society deteriorates and its standards decline, till it becomes like a dark night or
stinking fish, there is no sense in blaming society, for that is what happens when fallen men
and women are left to themselves, and human selfishness is unchecked. The question to
ask is ‘Where is the church? Why are the salt and light of Jesus Christ not permeating and
changing our society?’”—John Stott
-Jeremiah stood before the temple and in effect said—where’s the temple? Where’s the light?
-Israel was called to be a light to the nations
“I, the Lord, have called you for a righteous purpose,
And I will hold you by your hand.
I will keep you and I will make you
A covenant for the people
And a light to the nations
In order to open blind eyes”—Isaiah 42:6
But Israel lost its light—and became as a dark as the nations—How did this happen—does this
happen? Jeremiah tells us—
1. Israel became self-sufficient
-greed overcame gratitude—they imagined that it was their own power that got them
their wealth
2. they began to lose their moral bearings
-they began to worship themselves and other gods
-that which they once opposed—they now accepted
3. those called to guard the faith drifted into bad religion
-prophets no longer took the time to meet in the council of God—23:18
-the Lord’s word was no longer in them—5:13
-hence—preaching became as wind—their words as straw—23:28
-preachers spoke from their own heretical minds self-invented words—words that were
comfortable—not radical
-words that tickled ears—that treated the life threatening wounds superficially—verses—
8:11
-they were good humor men who in their quest to woo the crowd watered down their
message
-had their self-deceptive slogans—it doesn’t get any better than this/ our best days are
ahead—23:17
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-it’s not unlike today—as pointed out by Ross Douthat—
“America’s problem isn’t too much religion or too little of it. It’s bad religion: the slow motion
collapse of traditional Christianity and the rise of a variety of destructive pseudo-Christianities
in its place.”—Bad Religion, How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat
-we too are seduced by religions that stroke the egos, indulge the worst appetites
-messages that are a distortion of the real thing
-so what happens? What does Jeremiah show us?
1. God raises up prophets to counter the lie
2. God gives prophets His message, His self revelation
-one that does not smooth things over
-but rather—cuts through the hardness—exposes false premises—and penetrates selfdeceptions
-He exposes the life of self-centeredness and proclaims the truth of God-centeredness
-as Brueggemann puts it—prophets speak to the real deathlines that hover over
unrepentant hearts—with the candor born of anguish and passion
-when God does this—He will give words that burn
-“I am going to make My words become fire in your mouth—and it will consume”—5:14
-so Jeremiah stood in the religious public square, the place that claimed to be the
embodiment of God’s presence—and declared—
-God has had enough of your indifferent affluence—your cynical oppression—your
presumptive religion
-and so—death is at the door—there is an evil that is coming—read 19:15
-and here’s what happens—
3. Prophets generally get ignored, rejected, abused
-Jeremiah spoke to a culture with glazed eyes
-with ears that heard but did not listen
-with hearts too encased in their own fantasy—too hardened for truth to penetrate—read
20:1-2
-the disciples wondered why Jesus spoke to the religious leaders in parables
-and He replied—“…this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes”—Matthew 13:15
-Jeremiah faced the same religious leadership
-THE IRONY—those who become the greatest obstacle to truth are often the “devout”
-so like Jesus—who was eventually arrested and beaten and nailed to the cross by the
religious
-Jeremiah was struck, battered, beaten up, and placed in stocks overnight by the prophet
policeman—the one in charge of keeping order, dealing with troublemakers
-made a public spectacle by the holy establishment—ridiculed and taunted
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-full of fury—he warned that that the whole institution was under a death sentence— read
verses 3-6
-but Jeremiah—as he was prone to do—also let his anger overflow to God—read verses 7-8
-this combative distance between God and Israel is at times a combative distance felt by
Jeremiah
-the God who promised to be with Jeremiah often leaves him feeling abandoned
-the promise that Jeremiah would be this fortified wall of bronze—seems so irrelevant
-he must have heard some in the crowd yell—“So how’s that working for ya?”
-the language is even more raw than waters of deceit
-here, Jeremiah tells God he felt lit. seduced, “overpowered”
-he likened his relationship with God to a woman accosted
-this again is the work of a poet who wants the reader to linger over his words—feel his
emotions—for poetry is intestinal language
-his main grievance is with this self-revelation of God that that has forcibly entered and
accosted his life—1:9
-and now he is forced to speak what God has implanted–verse 8
-and whenever he preaches—what he calls for is more costly than the crowds are willing to
accept
-it is negative, critical—even violent
-it’s all doom and gloom—disgrace and derision 24/7
-we understand—who would preach this book?
-as Alistair Begg responded when I told him I was preaching Jeremiah—Why?
-who will listen to “turn or burn” preaching?
-how will that attract a crowd, grow a church?
-better to hide that part of the Word
-Jeremiah tried to—but that created its own set of problems— read verse 9
-it sounds like Jeremiah tried to get out of the prophetic office for a time—deliver pizza
-keep to himself—talk about sea shell collections, the benefits of fish oil
-or immerse himself in quietism, head for a Benedictine retreat center
-anything but be a prophetic voice!
-but something terrible happened inside
-he discovered God’s prophetic word cannot be stuffed away in the heart like the artificial
Christmas tree in a closet
-it is too powerful, formidable, fierce—it rages inside
-this fire in his mouth—if kept within—leads to major heartburn
-confined in his bones—one becomes worn out containing it
-it has to work its way back out in speech, in a life lived
-others have had to deal with the uncongenial nature of the Word
-when John ate it, he got sick—Revelation 10:10
-it left a bitterness—the word has that effect
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-at first it is sweet—we recite verses we like
-all things work together for good—Romans 8:28
-but we soon find it is not all to our liking
-what started as a wonderful meal does not settle so well, may soon turn bitter
-we were almost flattered—and then we find ourselves humbled
-it calls us out! it exposes!
-there are things hard to hear—harder to obey
-it woos and then it rebukes and reprimands us—slaps us on the head when we start
worrying
-it plants us, establishes us, feeds us—but it also prunes us—sometimes with severity
-we try to fit it into our scheme—try to domesticate
-we turn things into promises that are not intended promises
-we “sand off” the rough edges so that it slips into our way of thinking-Peterson
-we configure it to suit our personal theology or personal ethics
-we have become quite good at being “text-nitions”—reconfiguring the text to make the word
say whatever we want
APPLICATION—so what is God saying to us, the church?
1. there’s only one hope for a nation—His prophetic word
2. and one hope for prophets—they are convinced of its power
-that it is a whole lot more than information and instruction
-it creates and destroys, sets forth—and brings forth
-that far more than inform—it encounters
a-what if we had the same encounter with God’s word as Jeremiah?
-what if we began to experience it as something “wild” undomesticated, of another world,
another reality?
-that can redeem, renew, refresh, restore—transform hearts?
-that it if we consumed it and let it spread through our bloodstream—it would feel like
fire?
3. what if we experienced something of the truth of Jeremiah 23:29
-“Is not My word like fire and like a sledgehammer that pulverizes rock?”
-that it at times totally crushed our hardness
4. what if we came with the expectation that the words of Hebrews 4:12 are true
-“the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two edged sword,
penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow”
-that at times it touches our deepest levels of experience
5. what if we found that in remaining silent that it would explode inside?
-what if we found ourselves feeling the same passion as Paul—“Woe is me if I do not
preach the gospel?”
-my guess is—the nation may not feel so dark
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