Series: Bible Characters Jeremiah The book of Jeremiah is a tremendous book of 52 chapters. There are so many things that we could discuss in this book like: Communication; Prayer; Marriage; The Family, and the list could go on. And so tonight, I ve decided to talk to you about the subject of Understanding A God-Called Preacher. We need more preachers of the gospel today. But if a man is going to pursue preaching, he had better be God-called instead of man-called. To understand the preacher, we must first understand... A. Jeremiah s Lineage. I. THE MAN 1. He was the son of a priest (1:1). He was a PK. 2. He grew up in a town where only priests lived Anathoth. 3. His father s name was Hilkiah and could have possibly been the high priest in the reign of Josiah (1:2). If this is the case, Jeremiah s father would have been the priest that found a copy of the law of Moses, took it to king Josiah. Eventually, the king and the nation repented and briefly turned back to God (2 Kings 22-23). B. Jeremiah s Lifestyle. (1:2) 1. The peak years of Israel came under the reign of David & Solomon. But, because of their sins, the nation was divided into two kingdoms. a. The tribe of Judah (David & Solomon s tribe) kept the capital of Israel (Jerusalem) in the south, and the other eleven tribes kept the name of Israel in the north. b. By the time Jeremiah came on the scene, the northern tribe of Israel had sinned so badly that God judged them and they were taken into captivity by their northern neighbor Assyria which brought the northern kingdom of Israel to an end. c. Judah witnessed all of this and watched as God judged Israel and yet followed the same path. When Jeremiah comes on the scene, Judah is rushing headlong toward its own destruction. If you study the history of nations, you will find that when the cup of iniquity gets full, God cuts those nations off by bringing another nation into power for His own purposes. God told Abraham in (Gen. 15:16) that in 400 years, his descendants would inherit the promised land. But the people living there now would continue until then because... the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. d. Only God knows when the cup of iniquity is full. I wonder how full America s is? [1]
2. This is the situation in which Jeremiah was born. The only hope Judah had was that out of 13 or 14 kings, 8 of them were godly men. a. In the book of Jeremiah, the last of the godly kings is on the throne, Josiah. b. Jeremiah began his ministry when Josiah was trying to bring the nation back to God, and was making progress. That is the setting or lifestyle into which Jeremiah came. C. Jeremiah s Lifespan. (1:3) 1. When Jeremiah began his ministry the first thing God did was to share with him three spiritual truths (1:5). a. Truth 1 God knew Jeremiah before he was even conceived. b. Truth 2 God set Jeremiah apart for a special work before he was literally born. (sanctified) c. Truth 3 After Jeremiah s birth, God appointed him to be a preacher. 2. Jeremiah s response was not unlike the response of people today (1:6). He didn t want to do preach. But God then gave him two promises to lean upon. a. Promise 1 God will provide (1:6-8). b. Promise 2 God is all powerful (1:11-19). 3. Jeremiah began his ministry in the 13 year of Josiah s reign about 627 B.C.. He lived during the days of the prophets Nahum and Zephaniah and about 60 years after Isaiah. Daniel was younger than Jeremiah but was around at the same time. His ministry lasted more than 40 years. 4. Josiah s reforms didn t last long and at the end of Josiah s reign his son Jehoahaz took the throne for 3 months when he was then captured by Egypt and carried away in exile. 5. Jeremiah would live to see Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besiege Judah and take most of the people captive including Daniel. 6. Jeremiah remained in Judah to minister to the remnant, which is when he wrote Lamentations, but eventually was taken captive by rebel Israelites to Egypt (43:5-7). 7. There in Egypt, Jeremiah died, perhaps by being stoned by his fellow Jews, an unknown, unsung, and unhonored preacher. Now that we see some of what Jeremiah s life was like, it isn t hard for us to understand why he was considered a doom and gloom preacher. The circumstances in which he preached called for a warning to the people to repent and begin serving God or God s judgment was inevitable. Some preachers get the reputation of doom and gloom unjustly. The fact is, one reason we see our country in the state she is in today, is because preacher s have become afraid to preach God s judgment because it isn t popular. It wasn t in Jeremiah s day, and it isn t today. But notice too, that if we are to understand the God-called preacher, not only must we understand the man, but we must also understand... [2]
A. It Was A Commissioned Message. (1:9-10) II. HIS MESSAGE 1. It was only God s Word that Jeremiah was to preach (1:9). a. Though Jeremiah died in obscurity, he was still successful in God s eyes because he preached God s Word and not his own. b. Many times when the preacher preaches God s Word, God s Word convicts our heart, so people have a tendency to bring God s Word down by claiming it is only the opinion of the preacher. By doing this, we feel no obligation to listen or obey and therefore relieve ourselves of any guilt and responsibility. c. Paul told the young preacher Timothy to Preach the Word... It is only when preachers preach God s Word that they are successful in the ministry. Jeremiah knew that it was to God he must answer, not to men. 2. It was only God s plan that he was to accomplish (1:10). God s plan included... a. Four words of destruction. That like a plant Judah would be pulled out by the roots and destroyed so that she could not come back. This, of course, happened when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the Temple, the city, and the nation. 1) Root out 2) Pull down 3) Destroy 4) Throw down b. Two words of construction. That God would again rebuild the city, that the temple would be rebuilt, and that people would be gathered together as one nation. This has happened on and off throughout history since then, but will one day be completely fulfilled. 1) Build 2) Plant B. It Was A Costly Message. 1. Jeremiah had a compassionate heart, which made his message even harder to deliver. The first to oppose his message were the men of his own home town of Anathoth. a. They threatened to kill him if he didn t quit prophesying (11:21). b. The Lord came across this very situation in (Mat 13:53-58). c. The Lord s judgment of these men is recorded in (11:22-23). 2. Jeremiah took courage in the Lord and continued to preach God s message, but the opposition from the people, especially the leaders of Judah and the religious leaders, grew more intense. [3]
a. In chapter 20, he was struck and placed in stocks by the house of the Lord by the son of the priest and the governor. b. But notice his continued boldness and strength in the Lord to preach God s Word (20:4-6). 3. Jeremiah s tender and sympathetic heart for his people made him hurt tremendously. A preacher that is God called will experience this as well. The message hurts even him, just as it hurts a parent to discipline the child at times. a. Jeremiah s heart was broken for the people (8:18-9:1). b. He had a tender nature. His distress and sorrow for Judah were felt deeply insomuch that he wondered why he had been born (15:10; 20:14-18). c. It hurt him so deeply that he wanted to quit (20:7-9a). d. But every truly God-called preacher cannot quit, because the Word of God burns within his chest and he draws his strength from God (20:9b-13). 4. Jeremiah wasn t allowed to marry because of the great judgment that was to come (16:1-4). 5. To preach the Word of God, it cost Jeremiah a lonely life. A life without love, comfort or encouragement from a wife or family. It cost him his friends in Anathoth. It cost him his personal liberty. He became a man of sorrow known as The Weeping Prophet. 6. Why would Jeremiah continue preaching this message at such a great cost? The answer is found in (15:15-16). C. It Was A Conclusive Message. 1. As we ve seen, it was conclusive in the fact that God was going to bring judgment for sin. 2. But it was also conclusive in that it was a message of God s mercy as well. a. Remember, his commission was to tear down, but also to build up (1:10). b. One of his messages of hope is found in (18:1-10) entitled The Potter and the Vessel. c. As it was for Judah, so should the United States take heed to verses 7-10. 3. Another message of hope is found in (31:33-34). This is the new covenant and would supersede the law of Moses. This new covenant would provide exactly what the law demanded. It is a new covenant with mankind where God would call out a people for Himself from all the nations to form the bride of Christ (Heb. 8:7-10:39; Rev 21:1-9). 4. And there is one more message of hope from Jeremiah found in (32:6-15). It is here that Jeremiah buys a piece of property in his home community as a sign of faith in his own prediction of the restoration of Judah (32:15). Even though the land would be in the hands of Babylon, Jeremiah s faith in God is seen in (32:17) where he declares...there is nothing too hard for thee. [4]
Understanding some about Jeremiah, the God-called preacher, will also help you to understand the God-called preacher of today. Like Jeremiah, I pray that we preacher s will preach God s Word and never water it down or change its meaning. However, there is one more very important thing to learn. Even though the message is hard at times, it must be giving with compassion. When we remove compassion from the message, there is nothing but hardness. Is it any wonder why people are dropping out of churches that preach the gospel and going to churches that entertain. I realize that they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, but some of the blame must be laid upon the shoulders of the preachers. But may I ask you to be aware of something as the listener. No matter how hard the message may seem, if it is God s Word, and it is from God s man, we need to listen and obey and not make excuses to relieve ourselves of guilt and responsibility. What God say s, He will do. [5]