We Have a Message to Proclaim!

2nd Sunday in Lent, 2/28/10
Jeremiah 26:8-15


We Have a Message to Proclaim!
I. We can expect opposition.
II. We can expect the Lord’s blessings.


What do you do with the messages you receive? Well, if you’re like me, that depends on several factors. I receive quite a few written and electronic messages that I don’t acknowledge at all. Like you, I know that they’re junk mail or email spam and they aren’t worth the time to read them. Those messages get trashed right away.

But if I receive a message from you or someone else who is close to me, I always read it. Our relationship with each other is important. If you take the time to send me a message, I will take the time to read it.

Other messages either require or suggest that we do something with them. A message from your spouse or children left for you on the kitchen counter might remind you to take care of something for them that day. A message from your doctor might be his way of telling you that more tests are needed.

And then there are those messages that we’re compelled to share with others. If you’ve enjoyed a particular email message, you’re likely to forward it to others. If a loved one tells you about an important event in their life, you’re likely to share that with other loved ones.

In short, the sender of the message and the content of the message determine largely what we do with it.

If you received a message from God, what would you do with it? I hope you’d do the same thing that Jeremiah did. When he received a message from God, even though that message contained some very difficult information, he shared it.

Our God has given us that same message. That means we have a message to proclaim. Let’s see what that message is about and what our God wants to accomplish through it.

Part I.

When giving and receiving a message, why is it that some people will settle for lies in some cases but not in others?

Let me give you an example. The nagging pain you’ve been ignoring for months has gotten to the point that you can no longer ignore it. So you go to your doctor and he schedules some tests for you. You go through the tests and then meet with your doctor for him to tell you what your health problem is. If the test results state that something is seriously wrong, do you want your doctor to lie about it? Would you even settle for his attempts to sugar-coat the report? Of course not. You want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The moment you suspect he might not be telling you the truth, you’ll think seriously about getting a different doctor.

But why, then, would people settle for lies about God? In fact, why is it that they don’t want to hear the truth from God? Why don’t they want to hear the truth about the punishment for their sins? Why don’t they want to hear the amazing good news that God punished his Son for their sins? It doesn’t make any sense, but they choose to believe Satan’s lies rather than God’s truth.

That’s nothing new. It was happening in the days of Jeremiah as well. Jeremiah had a very difficult ministry. One of the reasons for that is that he and his fellow Jews lived during a time in history when a world power shift was occurring. And that shift wasn’t complete and clean overnight; it took years and there were times when the shift reversed momentarily. For centuries the big world power had been Egypt to the south. But recently the Assyrians to the north had gained power and had even defeated the northern ten tribes of the Jews. That left the Jews in Judah wondering which nation they should align themselves with in order to survive.

You see, the Jews wanted to maintain their independence. They wanted to continue enjoying self-rule as any nation would. The problem? For decades they had been living independent of their God as well. And the patience of the Lord God had run out. In spite of the fact that he had allowed them to suffer misfortunes with which he intended to bring them to repentance and back to him, they continued on their evil path without him.

So God sent one more prophet to them—Jeremiah. Jeremiah announced God’s message of destruction. Through Jeremiah the Lord told them to repent or face doom. He would allow an enemy nation to destroy their capital city of Jerusalem, and burn their homes and property. Many of them would die and the ones who were left would be exiled. In other words, life as they knew it would cease to exist.

But the people wouldn’t listen to Jeremiah. Instead, they listened to the false prophets who proclaimed that all was well. But simply rejecting his message wasn’t enough for them. Our text says, “The priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, ‘You must die!’” The very ones who should have known better—the priests and the prophets—lead the way in not only killing the message, but also attempting to kill the messenger.

Jeremiah proclaimed God’s message and faced violent opposition. We have a message to proclaim. We can expect opposition.

Basically Jeremiah faced a society that was tolerant of every form of evil—violence, injustice, oppression of the poor and needy, greed, government corruption, and gross immorality. Sounds awfully modern, doesn’t it? Our government doesn’t always reflect the law of God and why should it? The church doesn’t either. What decades ago were obvious sins for people to avoid are now not only tolerated but celebrated as alternative lifestyles, and not just in society but in the church as well. And the family and our society suffer. We have a message to proclaim. The first part of that message is death and destruction—not of a city or our country, but of the soul in hell. That’s not an easy message. We can expect opposition. But the best way to present that message is not to look down our noses at the sinners out there and paint ourselves as the holy ones. The best way is to let them know that we apply that same law to ourselves. We listen to the same difficult message because sin is serious. It brings God’s wrath and eternal condemnation. As difficult as that message is, we must proclaim it because without it there’s no need for a Savior. But when you proclaim it, expect opposition.

Part II.

We live in a results-oriented world. If we’re working hard but not getting results, we quickly change or abandon the program. Wouldn’t it be nice to get guaranteed results? Not so long ago you were guaranteed a 6% return on some of your investments. Not anymore.

But your God always promises a return when we proclaim his message. Through his prophet Isaiah the Lord declared, “As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish…so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Is. 55:10-11). God’s word has power. Every time we share that word it has the power to convert unbelieving hearts. But if the sinner rejects that word, our God is still glorified. He is the gracious God who shared that word with that sinner, but that sinner rejected his love and grace.

It’s clear from the life of Jeremiah that he trusted the almighty Lord and his powerful message. And he did that in two ways. First, he declared to the hostile crowd, “As for me, do whatever you think is good and right. Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves.” Jeremiah had the spiritual courage to proclaim his difficult message and let the rest in the Lord’s hands, including his life. How could he do that? Because he knew his eternal future was certain. Death—either at the hands of his enemies or naturally in his sleep—would bring him life in heaven. So he boldly proclaimed that message and let the chips fall where they may.

But he also trusted the Lord to bring about the results the Lord desired. Jeremiah had no idea how the people and God’s priests and prophets would react to his message. Would they listen and repent or would they reject the message and abuse the messenger? Only God knew, but he didn’t tell Jeremiah ahead of time. He simply asked him to trust the Lord and his message to bring about the results.

And that’s exactly what happened in this case. In the verse after our text we read, “Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and prophets, ‘This man should not be sentenced to death! He has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.’” How ironic that the people should be declaring to the priests and prophets what the Lord wanted them to do! God’s word has amazing power. It can turn situations upside down in an instant. It can bring about heartfelt repentance and work saving faith through just a simple proclamation of God’s saving truths. We have a message to proclaim. We can expect the Lord’s blessings.

If you had the cure for cancer, would you keep it to yourself? If you had a health care plan that would benefit every citizen of our country and was absolutely free of charge, would you say nothing? If you had a national employment program that would guarantee a job to all who were seeking one, would you keep that plan buried? Of course not. To do so would be morally wrong. So don’t keep God’s message to yourself. Share God’s truths as you have the opportunity with your children and friends. Let them know about the Savior whom you trust, by God’s grace, for your forgiveness and eternal life. That forgiveness costs you and every sinner nothing but it cost Jesus his life, a life he was willing to give for the sins of the world. We’ll celebrate that Savior’s death and resurrection in about a month. Invite someone to celebrate those events in our Savior’s life with you. And then trust God for the results. He always gets results.

We have a message to proclaim. Let’s proclaim it boldly. Amen.

Jesus Succeeded Where we Fail!

1st Sunday in Lent, 2/21/10
Luke 4:1-13


Jesus Succeeded Where We Fail!
I. He perfectly trusted his Father’s providence.
II. He perfectly trusted his Father’s will.
III. He perfectly trusted his Father’s faithfulness.


The other day I saw the title of an article that caught my attention. It read, “Why some succeed where others fail.” The article began by stating what we often experience in life—that success comes when we take an opportunity and work hard. Sounds pretty simple, right?

But this author didn’t agree. First he asked, “What do you mean by success?” He followed that one with, “What do you mean by opportunity?” And his third question was, “What do you mean by work?” That was as far as I read. I couldn’t tell if the author was trying to get me to lower my standards of what I considered to be work, opportunity and success and thus feel better about myself, or to be more lenient when dealing with what I consider to be the failures of others. Maybe when the muddy waters of personal opinion clear a little, I’ll pick the article up again and try to read it to its conclusion.

Reading that small portion of that article did make me appreciate once again that you and I don’t have to go through the muddy process of redefinition when it comes to our relationship with our God. He has set the standard, and it’s extremely high. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). Success in our relationship with God as God defines success means perfectly resisting all of Satan’s temptations.

So, how’s that going for you? Have you spent a day, even an hour, successfully resisting temptation? Honestly? None of us do.

But that’s where our Savior comes in. We often mention how Jesus served us as our Savior by dying for us on Calvary’s cross. And that’s true. But he was also serving as our Savior for the rest of his life on this earth by winning the daily victory over Satan’s temptations.

We see him at that work in Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus. And one of the many comforting truths that this account shares with us is that Jesus succeeded where we fail. By faith in him, his victory becomes our victory. May his victory empower us as we daily battle with Satan’s temptations.

Part I.

Jesus wasn’t exaggerating when he referred to Satan as the father of lies. He was the first to lie and he’s the foremost expert at it. One of the things that make his lies so believable is that they sound harmless at first and, when we consider them briefly, they actually sound beneficial. Doing things his way sounds like the way to go.

The first temptation that Luke lists seems rather harmless. Satan tells Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” It sounds like no big deal. They’re just stones that belong to no one else. And he’s asking Jesus to turn them into bread— something useful, not harmful.

In fact, food was one of the things Jesus needed most at that very moment. Luke informs us that Jesus was in the desert for 40 days being tempted by the devil and he ate nothing during that time. It’s almost an understatement when Luke adds, “And at the end [of the 40 days] he was hungry.” No kidding. We might even say that this was no temptation from Satan; it was common sense for him to feed himself.

But such an idea fails to see that during those 40 days Jesus was being sustained by his heavenly Father. It was the Father’s will that Jesus face this assault from Satan at the beginning of his ministry. Likewise it was the Father’s plan to sustain Jesus physically throughout this ordeal even though Jesus ate nothing. A miracle was involved here—not a miracle that filled Jesus’ hunger pains, but a miracle that sustained him at the level his Father deemed best.

If Jesus had turned those stones into bread without the approval of his heavenly Father would have violated his trust in his Father’s providence. His Father was allowing him to experience now what he would need to do throughout his work as our Savior—that his Father would sustain him in any and every situation. Jesus knew that bread was not really what kept him alive; it was the providence of his heavenly Father.

And thus Jesus declared, “Man does not live on bread alone.” He succeeded where we fail. He trusted his Father’s providence.

At first it might be difficult for us to identify with this temptation. After all, even if we were hungry, we can’t turn stones into bread or pancakes or cupcakes or anything else. But remember that eating bread at this point was not the real issue. The real issue was trusting in his Father’s providence or failing to trust that providence. Now that’s something we can identify with. Luke tells us that Jesus was hungry, but we don’t hear that he complained. Luke tells us that Jesus was hungry, but we don’t hear that he was worried about where his next meal would come from or when. Failure to trust the Father’s providence results in discontent and worry, and we know discontent and worry. Hardly a day passes that we aren’t bothered by discontent. We believe Satan’s lie that if we just had that one more thing, we’d be truly happy. And worry is our second nature. If we can’t see right away how the Lord is going to work things out for us, then we feel we have a right to worry. But not Jesus. He succeeded where we fail. He defeated Satan on every front, including this one perfectly to trust his Father’s providence. In doing so, he defeated Satan for us.

Part II.

If the first temptation didn’t seem like much of a temptation, it’s likely you felt the same about the second. The devil takes Jesus to a high place and in an instant shows him all the kingdoms of the world and tells him, “I’ll give it all to you if you’ll bow down and worship me.” In fact, he makes the claim that it’s all been given to him and it’s his to do with as he pleases. Even our children know the truth that God owns all things, not Satan. Jesus knew this truth as well. So why was this any kind of temptation for Jesus?

First, what Satan was really offering Jesus was power and dominion, the right to rule over all things for all time. We rightly say that Jesus now possesses that. He now rules over all things.

But the point is how he attained that position. You’ll recall that the Father gave him the rule over all things after he suffered and died and rose again. By virtue of the fact that Jesus had conquered sin and death and hell by his life, death and resurrection, Jesus rightly claimed the rule and authority over all things.

What Satan was offering Jesus here was a shortcut of sorts. Satan knew where Jesus was headed—to death on Calvary’s cross. And he tried with all his might to prevent him from going there, knowing that his death would end Satan’s claim on every sinful soul. So he offered Jesus all the glory with none of the pain. Just bow down and worship me, Jesus, and I’ll gladly give it all to you. But Jesus knew that eternal rule wasn’t Satan’s to give and bowing to him would not bring him eternal glory, but eternal shame.

Jesus succeeded where we fail. He trusted his Father’s will.

In spite of how Jesus defeated this attack of Satan, Satan still uses it on us. Daily he entices us to bow to him and his will and he’ll give us what we want. Do things his way, not God’s way, and we can have it all. But sin never brings happiness, only frustration, guilt and shame. We’re just too weak to realize it. But not our Victor, Jesus! He saw through every lie of Satan and defeated every temptation for us. And then he obeyed his Father’s will and went to the cross for us, knowing that his death would bring eternal glory to us and to him. Jesus succeeded where we fail. Thank God that he perfectly trusted his Father’s will!

Part III.

In the third temptation before us, you have to give Satan credit for his ingenuity, but he was still no match for our Savior, the Son of God.

In this third temptation he tries to make the word of God say something that it doesn’t say. He takes a passage from Scripture and quotes it to Jesus and then creates a situation which seems to apply. He tells Jesus to throw himself down from the temple because God has promised that he will send his angels to protect us so that we will not strike our feet against a stone.

In effect, Satan was saying, “Here’s God’s promise to you, especially you, since you are God’s Son. Let’s see if your Father will do what he promises to do.” In other
words, is God faithful or not?

Jesus saw through the temptation in an instant. Just because God has made a promise to protect us doesn’t mean we can place ourselves in harm’s way. For instance, God doesn’t promise to keep us safe if we throw ourselves in front of a speeding freight train. He doesn’t promise to protect us if we drive our vehicles excessively fast for the road conditions. To do so would be to test God, not trust him. And with one punch Jesus knocked Satan to the ground one final time.

Did you notice something about the way Jesus dealt with every temptation? He quoted Scripture. He used God’s word as the sword of the Spirit, his weapon against Satan’s attacks. The minute Satan attacked with his temptation Jesus countered with the appropriate verse from God’s word. And Satan was no match. He had to back down when faced with the power of God’s word.

You and I have that same word of God. That same sword of the Spirit is in our hearts and minds to use against Satan’s assaults on our faith. Yes, it’s true that Jesus succeeded where we fail, but it’s also true that Jesus gives us his power to succeed as well when tempted by Satan. So, confront Satan and his temptations, and with the power of Christ overcome them! Amen.