Jeremiah 1: Jeremiah

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0:00 The rest of us we're going to keep looking at people in the story of Scripture that God is working through or that have been called by God to do stuff in the world. And last week we looked at the story of Esther. And this week I want to look at the story of Jeremiah. Jeremiah might be the longest book in the Bible.

0:30 It's pretty long. It's definitely the longest prophetic book. Him and Isaiah kind of battled back and forth on that. Jeremiah had kind of a, he was a prophet at a tough time. Lot of upheaval, exile across a couple of different kings. He's sometimes called the weeping prophet because he had a hard life. And it doesn't seem like very many people listened to him, which would be kind of frustrating if you're a prophet.

1:00 And actually that's what made me think of it, think of talking about Jeremiah as someone God worked through because one of the more famous sections of Jeremiah is where he's complaining. It's in Jeremiah chapter 20. He's complaining to God about his job saying, I don't like this thing that you've called me to. And I'd rather not say the things that you give me to say, but if I close my mouth, the things that you give me to say are like burning up inside me like a fire and it has to get

1:33 out. And so what got me first thinking about the story of Jeremiah was that, like this calling that he has been something that even if he wanted to get away from, he couldn't get away from. I was contrasting that in my head to Esther that we talked about last week where Mordecai is saying, if you don't make a way for Israel, God will make a way for Israel, but who knows? Maybe it's just for this moment that you're in this position. And she has, it feels like this opportunity to make a choice.

2:05 Does she act within the character of God or does she act perhaps within her own self-interest? And she chooses to act within the character of God. Jeremiah seems to say he doesn't have a choice in the calling. And maybe you felt like that at times. Maybe there are jobs that you feel like you can't get away from. There are people that you can't unlove or stop caring for. There are problems that you cannot stop kind of thinking about and wanting to address like

2:41 Acorn's falling. So I was like looking at the story of Jeremiah. And we're going to start at the beginning of the story of Jeremiah, right in Jeremiah chapter 1 today. But before we do that, let me pray for us. Hey Lord, thank you for bringing us here this morning. We can move towards you because you have moved first towards us. We can love you because you have first loved us.

3:13 Lord, would you love us this morning? Renew us, heal us, restore us, convict us as only you can. Lord, in fact, you are the reason that we have come here. So meet us here this morning in keeping with your promise that you would. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I mentioned Jeremiah is a prophet and so it's worth reminding you that before the death resurrection ascension of Jesus and then the sending of the Spirit in Pentecost,

3:46 the relationship between humanity and God was different in some significant ways. And one of those ways was that humanity did not have kind of like direct access to God the way we do. Not everyone had the Spirit of God the way. Remember Joel said, they'll come a day where the Holy Spirit just poured out on all of you. Your old men and your children, your boys and your girls will all receive the Spirit of

4:17 God and will prophesy and speak on behalf of God. And before Pentecost it was not that way. The Holy Spirit would come on specific people for specific reasons. And even in the time of the prophets they had some of the writings. Perhaps they had the Torah, the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, but they didn't have all the prophets because all the prophets were not written and so they didn't even have the whole Scripture. So when you start to go and look for what God would want in a situation, you don't have

4:48 the full story of God to discern the character of God and you don't have the indwelling of the Spirit to pray and connect to God individually. So if you want to know what God is saying in the world, pre-Christ, it's a different ball game. And God did not want to leave his people in the world without clarity about his will. So he would dispatch, God would dispatch God's Spirit onto specific people for specific times. And we talked last time about Esther, there was no specific mention of the Spirit coming

5:21 which is like so miraculous. But like all the way back in Miriams, like in the time of the Red Sea, you can see Miriam is described as a prophetess, someone who speaks on behalf of God. And you can see that with Isaiah, he's described as a prophet in Jeremiah and Samuel. All these guys are, these people are prophets and Jeremiah is a prophet. He's speaking on behalf of God to the people of God in a world that can't hear directly from God, they hear from God through people.

5:51 Jeremiah is one of those. And I said he speaks at a difficult time, he does. It's like the people are far away from what God would want them to do, who God would want them to be. And so Jeremiah has to deliver hard words over and over again and he'd rather not. He spends his career basically telling people a lot of the time that they're wrong and they're doing the wrong thing, which sounds terrible. Have you ever had to tell someone that they are wrong and doing the wrong thing?

6:30 I have had to do that and it is not fun. Jeremiah did it a lot. And you'd have to be pretty clear about your calling for that to be your job and to stick with it. You have to know kind of that it was what God wanted you to do. You look at the beginning, Jeremiah had a pretty clear call. Jeremiah chapter 1.

7:03 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hylkiah, one of the priests who were in Anahath at 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 13th 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 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the 5th month.

7:33 So through several kings and then into captivity. Verse 4, Now the word of the Lord came to me, Jeremiah speaking, saying, Behold, I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Then I said, Ah, Lord, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth, but the Lord said to me, Do not say I am only a youth, for to all who I send you, you shall go, and

8:07 wherever I command you, you shall speak, do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. Jeremiah has the typical response that people have, not typical, but seems kind of common. Remember when God tells Moses to go speak, Moses is like, Am I? Paul has this kind of weird reaction. Jeremiah has this reaction, but the thing that got me that was really interesting is that first part, maybe you've heard it before, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

8:44 Before you were born, I consecrated you. This idea that God knew Jeremiah at the very beginning when he was being knit together. That sentiment comes up in more places than just that one. Finally, if you look just to the left in Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 49, Isaiah says something similar, it took me a minute.

9:17 Isaiah is a prophet like Jeremiah. He has some hard words, some kind words, but one of the most notable things about Isaiah is he gets a picture of a servant who is coming to serve Israel, who we later with hindsight can look back and see that Isaiah was talking about the promised Messiah to come. It's called the suffering servant. So here he talks from the vantage point of the suffering servant. God is giving Isaiah a picture of the way he'll deliver Israel. And then with that picture, Isaiah describes it that all people might hear and know the

9:52 way God is thinking. And in Isaiah chapter 49 verse 1, it says, listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar, the Lord called me from the womb. From the body of my mother, he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand. He hid me. He made me a polished arrow in the quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, you are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

10:22 But I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity. Yet surely my right is with the Lord and my recompense with my God. And now the Lord says, he who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has become my strength. We know that because of the way that Jesus quotes Isaiah a couple of times, like when

10:52 John the Baptist says, are you the one to come or should we expect another? And Jesus quotes back to him a prophecy from Isaiah of what it will look like when the Messiah comes that Jesus had a self-conception that this suffering servant language spoke about him. And we have several stories about Jesus going off by himself early in the morning to pray. And I can imagine Jesus praying to God, remembering these verses that he memorized as a kid from Isaiah and finding comfort when his family dismisses him, when the Pharisees are set

11:27 against him, when the persecution comes towards him, he can remember the words of God through the prophet Isaiah that says, while I was in the womb, you formed me and called me for this job. And it's not just prophets that get this assurance. In Galatians chapter 1, Paul quotes it here. If you want to look there with me and is led to the church in Galatia, Galatians, Ephesians,

12:00 Philippians, Colossians, Galatians chapter 1. Paul is saying to the Galatians about himself, for I would have you know brothers. That the gospel that was preached to me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. But I received it through the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God widely

12:37 and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers, verse 15. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.

13:07 But I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. You see that Paul is saying when he was called to this crazy life change, he understood it, but when he who had set me apart before I was born and who had called me by his grace. Paul has this notion that God knew him before he was born and then set him apart for a job before he arrived in the womb yet.

13:41 I think that assurance would be really comforting in a hard spot to somehow know that the thing that you're in the middle of is the thing for which God destined you from the beginning. Sounds great.

14:13 Anybody in their destiny from the beginning know it for sure. Maybe this, I was thinking about this, I was trying to think about this idea, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, Isaiah and the suffering servant, Saul turned to Paul on the Damascus road. These kind of like deep roots of people called to work on behalf of God in the world.

14:47 Maybe it's Jeremiah and the Messiah and Saul who get this deep assurance that they are in their destiny, that their God knew them in the womb. There's one text that made me go, let's think, let's decide here. It's in Romans, I know I got you moving around a lot today, but this idea of the work of God before we were born really had me thinking.

15:19 So Romans 8, I'm looking at verse 30. Let's see where we start. There's two, you know, Romans, you can't pick out anything. So it's one logical syllogism after another, but if you trust me that we can make sense

15:52 of it, Romans 8 starting at verse 26, likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and he searches our hearts and knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints. You can see Paul is like building that we have this different relationship with God as humanity that we after Pentecost, that we have this direct relationship to God where

16:25 the spirit is at work inside of us and we can begin when we are confused or under trouble or duress when we find ourselves in places of anxiety, when we need comfort. And this like message from, for Jeremiah that he might know clearly from God that while he was yet in the womb did God for him, the suffering servant who's going up against

16:55 the opposition of the world would need to know that while he was in the womb did God call him to this and Saul turned to Paul who will go from persecuting the church to building it, be run out of town and stone, would need the assurance that he's deep within the destiny of the God who knew him in the womb. And Paul is then writing to the church in Rome saying, you will find yourself in places and times where you are confused, where you are hard pressed, where anxiety might creep

17:30 up, where fears and doubts might emerge, where you're having trouble navigating your way through the world. And he says in this moment, the spirit comes and intercedes on your behalf. You may not even be able to put words to your concern, but the spirit himself can put words to your concern for you. This is the case that he's making in Romans 8. And so we pick it up at verse 27 and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the

18:00 spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things worked together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. You see, he's stacking up comfort. One of the core principles of this like Lutheran theology that I was taught in is a phrase that says all glory to God, all comfort to the sinner. That the purpose of developing a way of thinking about the God of creation in life, the God

18:34 of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Christ in the church, the purpose for developing a system for the way to think about God, one purpose is to give all glory and credit to God that we would know who God is and that God gets all the credit. And for us left here on earth, we would get all comfort, all assurance, all forgiveness, all confidence in the kindness of God disposed towards us. Paul is stacking up here your confidence that all things work together for the good of those

19:10 who love God. And then he goes on here verse 28 and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Verse 29. For those who are predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined he also called

19:45 and those whom he called he also justified and those he justified he also glorified. I didn't intend for us to end up at this passage of Romans when I started thinking about Jeremiah. It's kind of a famous and a little bit controversial like the idea Paul says here, those God for new he also predestined those he predestined he also justified those he justified he also

20:17 glorified. And it's kind of like it can become a dividing line in the church. One of the key things to remember when we're looking at this passage specifically is that Paul is not writing a compendium of doctrines. Paul is neither writing a guidebook for your life, right? What we have here is Paul writing a letter to a group of followers of Jesus in Rome dealing

20:48 with particular challenges and difficulties. They're just coming out. We think this was delivered around 57 A.D. It's just after a period of time where the emperor for about 20 years had kicked all the Jews out of Rome. So they had started gathering Jews and Gentiles as followers of Jesus and then all of a sudden all of the Jewish Christians are kicked out of Rome for about two decades. There's a weird sort of thing in the air then where they continue to meet and have to learn

21:18 the customs without the Jewish believers there among them. And just as they're figuring that out now the Jewish folks are coming back there's a new emperor. They begin to wonder what is how do we engage in commerce? What does this emperor have in our life? And into the context of uncertainty and confusion, hardship and anxiety, Paul writes a letter to people gathered in small places and homes and suggests something about the

21:51 character of God. That the God of creation in life, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Christ and the church works in the world through people. And those people who are interested in God working through them can take confidence in the fact that he has never not known them. That there was never a period in which they were too evil.

22:23 There was never a time in their life when they were too corrupt. There was never a moment when they were so selfish or self-absorbed or so racked by depression or grief or so enamored with addiction and escape. Paul wants the Christians in Rome to know that they have never not been known by the God, but he has always known them.

22:58 This message is true for you as well. God has always known you. And but for his knowledge of you. I mean, there was a time in the world before you existed.

23:30 There was never a time before God existed in the world, but there were years without you here. And at the right time and place, though he knew it would not be perfect or easy, the God of creation in life, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Christ and the

24:02 Church called you forth. Don't know why. So my answer when I don't know why, he must have wanted to. The God of the universe must prefer a world with you in it while you are yet in the womb. God doesn't need prophets like he did with Jeremiah anymore.

24:46 I mean, Jeremiah was a kind of like capital P prophet. Write down the words, put them in Scripture, preserve them for all generations. The character, the nature, the perspective, the action of God can be determined and understood from the words of Jeremiah. There are not prophets like that anymore. God does speak through people, but not in that way.

25:23 I wonder if the notion of God forming you on purpose, not by accident, could still be helpful though. I wonder if there are challenges or callings in your life for which the assurance that God has set you on this mission would be helpful.

26:00 One more word from Paul. I'm in Romans. I'm going to the right to Ephesians chapter 2. I mean, I hadn't, it's been a minute since I read the first two chapters of Ephesians with any kind of attention. It's beautiful. I almost used chapter 1 here as our call to worship. I'm just going to read a section of what you're looking for Ephesians chapter 2.

26:30 I'm going to read a section of Ephesians chapter 1 just for fun, Claudia. Ephesians chapter 1 starting at verse 3. Beloved, not beloved, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his

27:03 will, to the praise of the glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him, we have redemption through his blood for the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will. The point is for this section. That's beautiful. But did you hear it used predestined? Remember the context. Paul is writing letters back to people who are gathered together to hear the word of God,

27:41 who have assembled and are organizing their life according to the principle of God. This is not Paul staying on the corner in the marketplace and announcing to everyone if you are predestined to come and gather with us. This is Paul writing back to people trying to sort out in what way they might be called in life, that things have gotten hard to follow the way of Jesus, that the world is asking them to behave differently than Jesus is asking them to behave, that there are challenges

28:13 that they don't feel equipped for. And to those people, Paul writes back and says, take heart. We can know looking back on your life that God has called you through everything to this moment today, so that the notion of predestination is for you and I, trying to work out faith to take heart that God has never abandoned us. In fact, from the beginning, he has been with us to bring us to this moment now.

28:48 And so what do we do with it? This is the last Ephesians chapter 2, looking at verse, let's see where we should start. Verse 4, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive

29:19 together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Verse 8, 4, by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

29:52 Do you have a calling? Are you the type of person God might work in the world through? Do you have a future? Is it secure? I mean, yes. Paul says why? Because God gave it to you. Matter of fact, he says earlier, while you were dead in your sins, there was a time before you were here and you could not will yourself into existence.

30:23 Everything outside of you brought you forth. And Paul says, the God of the universe did it on purpose, not by accident, and secures a future not because of your choices, but because he wants to and he gives it as a free gift. So then, this is good. Paul is good at this. What how should we respond then? So what? You've been called into the world by the unbounded infinite creator God, the same God

30:55 that imagines lights and separates heavens and earth that spans, separates oceans and skies, land and sea, knit you together on purpose. Why? Because he wanted to secure a future that could never be taken away. Why? Because he loves you. How might you respond then? So what? I live here and I live. Paul says, look at four by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of work so that no one can boast.

31:29 Verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God brought you into the world, preserves a future for you that cannot be taken away. In order that you might do some stuff, some good stuff in the world. In order that you might do some stuff, some good stuff in the world and it can be tricky

32:04 to discern because we like to complicate things and be right. It's actually not hard. You're calling. Love, Lord, you got with all your heart, soul, mind, strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Yeah, how might you love your neighbor up to you, boy? But take the call seriously. That's what I'm saying. You've been gifted life now and forever, totally secure by the grace of God that none of you

32:42 may boast. What a gift. Don't waste it. Do something with it. Love your neighbor well with creativity and perseverance, with uniqueness. Serve your neighbor well. Provide for your neighbor. Repair what's broken on behalf of your neighbor. I think it's the sort of thing we were made for.

33:18 When I was in high school, 16, my parents may be good at job. I didn't want to work. But I would have liked to car. My granddad at the time had about 20 Studebakers, all different kinds of Studebakers and maybe six that were decent, right? 14 that were in various different states of disrepair.

33:51 One of the ones that was decent was this 1959 Silverhawk. I don't know if you've ever seen it. Very cool. Real long, big front fenders. He had it painted all white and had these fins in the back that he had painted red. Big huge bench seat in the front and back. Had what we call three on the tree. It had only a three gears, gearbox, all up on the handle.

34:22 It's all mechanical. Brought me down this 59 Silverhawk on a trailer. In everybody that had a 59 Silverhawk by the late 90s, Studebaker had this, what they call the straight six, six cylinder engine all in a line. Very rudimentary engine, simple. All the spark plugs sticking straight up and had this huge engine compartment.

34:53 So everybody would take out this old Studebaker and put in a big Chevy 350 because it was a big car. Then you could actually really drive it. In the engine had trouble and Dad and I were like, grandpa, you've got to let us put a Chevy 350 in it. He said, no, man, that's not what it was designed for. He's like, we got to keep this Silverhawk running for what it was made to do.

35:25 Put that straight six in it. Keep it running exactly how it was designed. Don't turn it into something else. You put a Chevy 350 in it, then you'll have problems with the transmission. You fix the transmission. You'll have problems with the wheel. Just keep it for what it is. What it was designed to be. That's how it works. Look, you were made by God on purpose, not by accident. Why? For good works in the world. The good works that look like loving your neighbor like yourself. You'll like your life better.

35:55 It will be more adventurous, more creative, more purposeful. It will carry deeper significance. It will mean more to you in hindsight. You'll have more to look forward to, looking forward and more to be appreciative of, looking back. You were made for that kind of life. Don't waste it. I've beat the horse enough. You got it? Let's pray that we could be people who live up to what we were made for. Hey, Lord, thank you for the gift of your son.

36:26 Teach us how to put it to work. To take up the good works for which we were made. To live as we were designed. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.