What Does Kingdom-Greatness Look Like?

18th Sunday after Pentecost, 9/27/15
Jeremiah 11:18-20


What Does Kingdom-Greatness Look Like?
I. It remains faithful to the Lord alone.
II. It places confidence in the Lord alone.


It’s one of those words that is difficult to define and yet we use it all the time. I just used it once. By one estimation, it accounts for 4% of all the words we use. I just used it again. But try defining it. The word to which I’m referring? “The.” Not only do we use it all the time, it’s such a simple word, just three letters. But try defining it. Think about it for a few seconds.

I checked the dictionary on my shelf, and the definition of the word “the” took more space on the page than any other word. Clearly it’s not an easy word to define.

“Greatness” is another word that is difficult to define. It’s highly subjective. What’s great in the eyes of one is not so much in the eyes of another. I’m sure people will debate greatness in music, art, literature, sports, science, business, politics and a host of other topics until the Lord returns. And that’s OK. Because at the end of the day, what does greatness in those fields really matter?

But before us today is a greatness that matters deeply. It’s hugely important because it involves your eternal life. It’s greatness in the kingdom of God. How would you define greatness in God’s kingdom? What does it take to become great in God’s kingdom? Even though I just stated that it’s hugely important, do you agree? Would you be content not achieving greatness in God’s kingdom? If you are concerned about achieving greatness in the kingdom of God, and I hope you are, who sets the standard?

Since we’ve gathered here this morning to worship the God who has saved us, the obvious answer is that our God sets the standard. By God’s standard, his Old Testament prophet Jeremiah was great in God’s kingdom. That’s an amazing truth, because Jeremiah had very little in the way of results that would lead the people of his day to say the same about him. His ministry, from a human standpoint, was a failure.

But did you see his greatness in the words of our sermon text from Jeremiah 11? Maybe not. So let’s ask ourselves what kingdom-greatness looks like. May the Holy Spirit reveal it to us through this portion of his word.

I.

The scandal at VA hospitals is more than a year old. By now you would think the issues are all known and are being addressed, but you’d be wrong. I read an article last week which reported that employees who blow the whistle are still paying the price. Supposedly the system is in place for them to do the right thing by reporting abuses and misconduct, but it’s not working. And that’s a shame.

Has that ever happened to you? I’m sure it has. You were confronted with something that wasn’t right. Perhaps it was a violation of a code of conduct. Maybe it was even unlawful. And this time, you just couldn’t say nothing. You had to tell someone. So you did. You reported it. You did the right thing, but you paid the price. Maybe a relationship ended. The people around you no longer considered you a part of the team. People now went out of their way to make your life difficult. Sound familiar?

Welcome to Jeremiah’s world about 600 BC. God had called Jeremiah to be one of his prophets. And the job description had only one requirement: speak God’s word faithfully to God’s people. That sounds fairly simple, doesn’t it? Simply repeat to the people whatever message the Lord gave him. And the fact that he was speaking God’s word to God’s people, his fellow Jews, would indicate that he should be able to expect a fairly receptive crowd of listeners.

But that wasn’t the case. Not at all. You see, by today’s standards, his message wasn’t very “politically correct.” He called on his fellow Jews to repent of their sins. He blasted them for their idolatry. He warned them that the Babylonians were going to be successful in their efforts to destroy Jerusalem. Worst of all, their beloved Temple would be pillaged and burned. And they only had themselves to blame for it.

That’s the message from the Lord which Jeremiah shared with the people. He did the right thing. He faithfully proclaimed God’s word.

But he paid for it. The opening words of our text state, “The Lord revealed their plot to me.” What was their plot and who was making it?

Let’s take the second question first. The people plotting against him were the most unlikely to do so. They were the men of his hometown; men who were familiar with him; possibly men he considered to be his friends. How terrible! But it gets worse. Some of these men were his own relatives. Imagine that! Jeremiah is simply discharging his duties as a prophet of the Lord and the people closest to him plot against him.

So what were they plotting? That’s a little easier to answer. Jeremiah states it this way, “I had been led like a gentle lamb to the slaughter.” A sentence later he quotes his plotters as stating they want to cut him off. They’re plotting his murder.

And they would have succeeded had the Lord not intervened. The all-knowing and all-seeing God was aware of all the details of their plan and he reveled them to Jeremiah. That’s one of the things the Lord does for those who are faithful to him. That faithfulness under extreme duress is a mark of greatness in the kingdom of God.

What does kingdom-greatness look like? It remains faithful to the Lord alone.

Our Lord Jesus once described discipleship as taking up our cross and following him, the cross being any suffering we endure on account of our relationship with him. That’s was Jeremiah’s calling. It’s also yours. We don’t her Jeremiah telling the Lord that his cross was too much to bear. We don’t hear that he tried to make his message to the people more attractive. Instead, he remained faithful to the Lord alone.

How’s your approach to the cross the Lord asks you to bear? Do you chafe under the realization that you’re doing the right thing but paying for it anyway? Are you disappointed that payback from the Lord seems slow in coming, if at all? Are you equating greatness in God’s kingdom with glory in the here and now? If so, you’ve got it all wrong. Greatness in God’s kingdom looks like being faithful to the Lord even when it looks like we’re getting the raw end of the deal. Greatness in God’s kingdom realizes we already have received from our God what we could never earn or buy on our own—forgiveness of sins and life eternal. Greatness in God’s kingdom focuses on the blessings of God’s kingdom which Jesus won for us by his life, death and resurrection, not on the blessings of this world. It does that, even when we pay the price for doing so.

What does kingdom-greatness look like? It remains faithful to the Lord alone.

Part II.

I’m sure you have experience dealing with a control-freak, both personally and professionally. Control freaks can’t let a single detail fall out of their control. Their great fear is that, if they do allow someone else to address a detail, it won’t be done correctly and they’ll pay the price.

As dire as Jeremiah’s situation had become, you don’t hear a single word coming from the position of a control freak. Jeremiah doesn’t appear to spend a single moment wondering what he’s going to do now. Instead, he reminds his faithful Lord, “To you I have committed my cause.” In effect, he’s telling the Lord, “It’s not up to me; it’s all up to you, Lord.” His confidence was completely in his Lord.

But we also hear him state, “O Lord Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them.” His words almost sound hateful and spiteful, rather than loving and caring as a faithful prophet’s words should.

These aren’t words of vengeance, but words of confidence. Jeremiah places everything into the Lord’s hands. He is confident that the Lord will judge righteously. That means he will allow the vengeance to be the Lord’s as the Lord himself declares in his word. He’ll let the Lord determine how and when to deal with those who are plotting the murder of the Lord’s faithful prophet. These are words of confidence. They’re words of greatness.

He’s also confident that the Lord will do the right thing for himself. The Lord did protect his faithful prophet this time. Jeremiah went on to serve the Lord faithfully for several more decades. But the day finally came when the Lord allowed Jeremiah’s enemies to capture him and forcibly take him to Egypt. Legend has it that he died there, away from his homeland and his people. That might sound tragic to us, but in the Lord’s way of looking at things, it was the right thing to do at that time; he called Jeremiah home to heaven, a prophet who had placed his confidence in the Lord alone.

What does kingdom-greatness look like? It places confidence in the Lord alone.

How’s your grip on the reigns of your life? Is it so tight your knuckles are white and your hands are cramped? Do you play tug-of-war with God, alternately demanding control and then reluctantly giving it back to him? Or, is your grip much like Jeremiah’s, which was no grip at all, you just let the reigns go and let God? Please don’t misunderstand. Jeremiah was not sinless. More than once he lamented his plight in life. And in that regard he represents all of us. We have moments of weakness of faith and moments of strength of faith. And when we realize where we have failed our God, greatness in God’s kingdom is found in what we do with them. Will we still excuse and defend our sins? Or, will we confess them and flee to Christ for our forgiveness? When, by the working of the Holy Spirit, our confidence is in Christ, then no matter what our outward situation is, we have attained greatness in God’s kingdom. When our confidence is not in what we do, but in what Jesus has already done—his death on the cross for our sins and his glorious resurrection from the dead—then we have attained greatness in the kingdom of God.

What does kingdom-greatness look like? It places confidence in the Lord alone. May the Holy Spirit fill you with such confidence in Christ! Amen.