Staying on Point :: Jeremiah 15:15-21
You know, O Lord.
What’s the point? How many times have you asked yourself this question?
What’s the point in working so hard when I think it’ll be all for nothing?
What’s the point in making my bed when I know that I’ll just mess it up again?
What’s the point in speaking the Word of God to my friends and my neighbors when I believe they’ll rebuff me ... ridicule me ... ignore me ... persecute me?
It seems hopeless. ... So we ask ... What’s the point?
3. It’s a mighty difficult thing to share the Gospel with the world, isn’t it? Most of us are downright intimidated by the prospect.
But the gospel aside, I don’t think there’s anything more difficult about being a Christian than calling your brothers and sisters to repentance.
I am not talking about doing this with just the brothers and sisters of Trinity Lutheran Church. I am talking about your actual brothers and sisters, those closest to you. I’m talking about your friends and neighbors, too, your husband, your wife, your sons, your daughters ... all those who have turned away from God, who’ve declared in word or action that they have more important things to do than listening to the Word of God, recognizing their sin, and their need for a savior.
Many of them have asked, what’s the point? And you don’t know how to answer.
Now, meet the prophet Jeremiah.
Today, Jeremiah is lamenting life and the point of his ministry. He knows he’s been called to bring his brothers and sisters to repentance. And he feels downright discouraged about his prospects. Being a Christian, he says, is far more difficult than I ever could have imagined.
When I speak of Christ, I am persecuted and cursed by the people all around me. They don't want to be shown the law. And if they don't want to refuse to acknowledge their sin, they won't hear the gospel. And now God, you’ve laid a burden on me, and I think you’ve abandoned me. Jeremiah is saying, what’s the point?
The truth is, it’s hard to read the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah is filled with laments like this and even more so the calls to repent. We as Americans don’t like to lament or repent. Too often we don't want to listen, thinking it doesn’t apply to us. Jeremiah delivers hard words to hear.
Instead, I want to hear about eternal life. I want to hear about how good I’ve got it. I want to hear about the good things in life, about how God is gonna prosper me.
Five years after Jeremiah was called to be a prophet, King Josiah ordered repairs to be made on the Temple in Jerusalem. During the process the priests there found something called the Book of the Law of Moses. You know it as Deuteronomy. When this book was read to King Josiah, he was so impressed with how good and true the Law really is that he began reforming the Jewish religion because of how false it had become. The people had developed poor worship practices. They began turning God's gifts into their gifts to God. They embraced false theology, reducing the sacraments into something they do. They allowed their religion to merge with others. They had set themselves above God.
So Josiah tried to guide the nation back to being faithful to the Lord.
But the prosperity prophets of the day were having none of it.
Thus, God called Jeremiah, among others.
Your words were found and I ate them, Jeremiah tells us. Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice. I sat alone because your hand was upon me.
And so Jeremiah poured all of his energy into his confirmation. He went on to dedicate more than 40 years of his life sharing God’s good word with the world around him. He abhorred what is evil, and he held fast to what is good.
Yet the world around him wanted to silence him. They wanted him to conform to them. And when he refused to be silenced, and when he refused to conform, they wanted to kill him.
Sound familiar? It should.
2. The world around you isn’t listening either. So we ask, why bother speaking the Word of God? Right?
Today in our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah 15, Jeremiah has reached this point. He is thoroughly discouraged by his task because no one wants to listen to the Law, even though it is good and true and shows us the true character of God.
More than that, God had even told Jeremiah that all of this would happen, that the people weren’t going to acknowledge their sin, that they would ignore him, insult him, persecute him ... They didn’t care what God had to say.
But you really should start asking yourselves at this point, do you?
Do you really fear God’s wrath?
Do you really avoid every sin?
Do you really expect only good from God in every situation?
Or do you worry and complain about the changes God is bringing to you?
Is the Word of the Lord really evident in your speech and conduct?
Are you actually keeping all the vows you made to the Lord?
Are you really being diligent in your prayers?
Or have you become lazy, bored, and distracted?
We haven’t even begun to talk about the hatred in our lives, the adulteries, dishonesties, the covetousness, or how like Peter we too become an adversary to Christ, opposing the point of his ministry.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, hear God’s word for you today. Repent every one of you in the name of Christ. Join Peter and ask the apostles in recognizing your sin and your need for a savior.
As you confess your sins, God who is faithful and just forgives you, just as he told Jeremiah ...
Therefore, thus says the Lord, If you return ... and I WILL restore you ... you will stand before me. If you utter what is precious, you will be as my mouth. Then they will return, too.
Stay strong and faithful, brothers and sisters. For whoever would save his life would lose it, but whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ will find it.
1. He knows you and remembers you!
And he has promised to save you and deliver you.
We often forget this point of scripture. But God never does. We erroneously think that the world will gratefully receive God’s truth; then when the world turns against us, we become angry with God, doubting his faithfulness.
But today, we are reminded once again that our Lord, who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, will not leave you or forsake you. Through the repentance he gives to you, he comforts you and forgives you.
I am with you, declares the Lord, to save you and to deliver you. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless. Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.
In this promise, you have peace..
This promise is the point of scripture. It was fully realized in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who pointedly told the disciples this was going to happen, that he ... like Jeremiah before him ... was going to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise from the dead ... all to save and deliver the people from their sins.
Our Lord Jesus Christ took on flesh for this very reason, so that he would bear the full wrath of God for us to bear the full vengeance of God, because vengeance is his.
Jesus took on flesh to deliver The Promise of Promises, by saving us from the hands of the wicked (not only of others but of ourselves) through his holy hands which were pierced for your transgressions on the cross. Jesus took your sin to Golgotha and saw to it that your sin was condemned and paid for once for all. Jesus delivered you from the punishment for sin by becoming sin for you. He overcame death for you by rising to new life, and delivering to you into eternal life.
More than that, our heavenly Father has showered you with the ever-flowing water of life in Baptism, which fortifies you daily through the repentant drowning of the old man and the raising of the new man. Before you were a dead cistern, but now his water and word are giving you life that enables you to confess your sins and receive absolution.
In the same way, He longs to fill your cup of salvation at this altar, strengthening your faith in him as he delivers to you the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
Do you see the point now?
GOD LEADS YOU THROUGH REPENTANCE TO SAVE YOU AND TO DELIVER TO YOU INTO ETERNAL LIFE.
Thankful to have God’s approval — his forgiveness and new life in Christ — we can now live for his pleasure, regardless of the disapproval we are sure to receive from an unbelieving world. And we can now respond to his call of taking up our cross and following Jesus, refusing to compromise on any point of God’s Word.
Most importantly, we can look to Jesus and hear his Gospel, of how he has lived for us, died for us, risen from the dead for us, and ascended into heaven to prepare a place of eternal life with him.
He knows you will struggle, but he will be with you forever.