What Do You Expect, Christian?

5th Sunday after Pentecost, 7/9/17
Jeremiah 20:7-13


What Do You Expect, Christian?
I. Expect opposition to God’s truth.
II. Expect a burning desire to proclaim God’s truth.
III. Expect the Lord to be faithful.


Expectations. We have them every day of our lives. You wake up in the morning and you immediately have expectations for the rest of the day. This is what you expect will happen at work. You have this project to begin, that project to complete, and you have two appointments and you’re hoping both go well for you. Expectations.

You have expectations at home. Even though your mind is still a little foggy from sleep and the morning’s first cup of coffee awaits you, you already have a list of things you want to accomplish for your family and yourself. At the end of the day, you’ll feel good about yourself if you get the majority of them accomplished. Expectations.

School isn’t in session now, but do you realize your summer vacation is half over already? Some area schools will begin classes in a little more than four weeks. As you think about the coming school year, you have expectations. You expect to do well in the classes you take. You expect to participate in one or more extracurricular activities and you expect to experience personal fulfillment, fun, and the opportunity to deepen your relationships with other participants and forge new friendships with others. Expectations.

You have them regarding your Christian life as well. You came here this morning expecting to worship your Lord in a way that is comfortably familiar to you. Is that expectation being met? You expected the hymns to be edifying and singing them to be an opportunity to enjoy God’s gift of music and to glorify him with your musical abilities. Is that expectation being met? You expected to hear a sermon that holds your interest and enriches your faith and Christian life. Is that expectation being met? Time will tell.

But what do you expect your Christian life will be once you depart those doors? What will happen when your Christian rubber hits the worldly road? What can you expect when you try to live your life out there to the glory of your Savior, Jesus Christ?

Being realistic, we know that won’t always be easy. In fact, at times, it will be brutally difficult. As much as we know that right here and now, it always seems to surprise and demoralize us when we experience it out there. Is that your experience? Then you share it with God’s prophet Jeremiah. His words before us this morning are filled with painful surprise about how difficult it was for him to carry out his duties as God’s prophet. Shouldn’t it be easier?

But really, what do you expect? That’s a good question for us to ask this morning. What do you expect, Christian? May our study of God’s word this morning not only provide us with a dose of spiritual reality but also with the strength from the Holy Spirit to live up to our high calling as God’s people in this dark and evil world.

Part I.

What do you recall about Jeremiah’s ministry? Maybe not much. Allow me to help you with that briefly. Jeremiah’s ministry spanned the reigns of the last six kings of Judah, roughly 625 to 586 BC. These years were among some of the worst for God’s people, spiritually speaking. They had abandoned the Lord and were worshipping the gods of the heathen people around them. And although God had sent his prophets to preach to them and to lead them back to him, his efforts were largely fruitless. His patience was now at an end. He would no longer be ignored and mocked. He sent Jeremiah to them to plead with them to repent because divine judgment was coming.

So, do you suppose the people thanked Jeremiah for informing them that physical and spiritual destruction was right around the corner? Do you suppose they honored him for warning that, unless they repented, they faced eternal punishment? Of course not!

Instead, the leaders of the people mounted fierce opposition to Jeremiah and his message. Listen to Jeremiah’s description of it. “O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. ” Did you catch his opening words? He blamed God for what he was facing as a prophet at the hands of God’s people. It’s as if he expected God to wave his almighty hand over the land and cause all of the Jews to listen attentively to his preaching and to give the Lord the appropriate repentance and abundant fruits of repentance. But that wasn’t happening. In fact, the people were persecuting Jeremiah. They repeatedly threatened him with death. One of the kings of Judah even took the scroll of the words Jeremiah had written and carved it up with his pocket knife and fed the pieces into the firepot at his feet, keeping him warm. Can you imagine that?!

Part II.

But what did Jeremiah expect? The Jews of his day were indulging their sinful natures in idolatry, immorality, greed, materialism and oppression of the poor and needy. So, what did Jeremiah expect? That they would listen to God’s truth? He should have expected fierce opposition to God’s truth.

So, when people don’t heed your repeated advice, when you see trouble ahead for the people you’re advising but they refuse to listen, what do you do? At some point you proclaim either in their hearing or to yourself, “Fine! Have it your way! But you can never say I didn’t warn you.” And then you sit in silence and watch.

Jeremiah tried that. He imagined he could watch and wait for God’s judgment to descend on them like a fierce thunderstorm. But he didn’t take into account one thing: he was a child of God. He was one of God’s people. As such, like his Lord and Savior, he loved even those who persecuted him. He loved them so much that the thought of their eternal punishment pained him deeply. Listen to his words. “But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” He expected he would be able to watch as God punished his people, but he was wrong. In spite of the fact that he risked further danger to himself—even his life itself—if he opened his mouth, that was precisely what he was compelled to do.

You know that feeling, don’t you? I’m sure those of you who are parents do. You’ve made it very clear how you feel about what your child is doing and seems intent on continue doing. By now you’re so filled with anger that you’re consumed by the situation. You’re so hurt by now that you tell yourself you won’t speak another word to him or her, but that only works for a while. It isn’t long before your parental love overcomes your anger and you speak out once again. You can’t help yourself.

Neither could Jeremiah. His opponents threw him into a muddy cistern and left him to die. They placed him into stocks in the center of Jerusalem. They repeatedly plotted to murder him. They murdered the Babylonian governor and forced Jeremiah to flee with them to Egypt. Bottom line: he had no life for himself. He spent his life serving God’s people. And so he couldn’t remain silent. Even when the people fiercely opposed God’s truth he felt compelled to continue sharing it with them.

Part III.

So, where’s the retribution in all this? Where’s the comfort for concerned Christians? How do wrongs get righted, and how does Jeremiah get the recognition he deserves? Do I hear that word again? Expectations?

Jeremiah nailed it. Listen to him, “But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.” After all his fruitless preaching, after all his unmet expectations, after watching and seeing nothing, after the rejection and persecution, Jeremiah ended up right where he should have been all along—trusting in his faithful God who would take care of all things at just the right time and in just the right way. This situation wasn’t about Jeremiah. It was about God and his people. When divine judgment descended upon his people, not one of them would be able to say, “You didn’t warn us.” Jeremiah spent his life warning them. And where Jeremiah’s ministry bore fruit and the people repented, God used the impending invasion to call many of them home to heaven. For those who died in stubborn unbelief and rejection of the Lord, punishment resulted. Justice was served. The Lord is good. He is faithful to every one of his promises.

People of God, that’s what you can expect! In a world gone terribly wrong, where evil abounds and injustice seems to prevail, where people openly and flagrantly oppose our God and his loving ways, where powerful people work to suppress the truth of our God, and we can expect little good to occur, you can always expect your God to be faithful.

It’s really fairly simple. In a world of daily craziness, God wants you to acknowledge your sinfulness. He wants you to remember and confess your doubts and fears, your worries and anxieties, your selfishness and pride, your lust and materialism. And then he wants you to know that he does what he promises to do: to be the God of faithful love and forgiveness. And now all is well between you and the holy God. The world may still be ranting and raving, evil and wickedness may still abound, but you are safe in the divine arms of your faithful God. The sacrifice of Jesus and his glorious resurrection are the epitome of his faithfulness to you. Don’t just hope for that faithfulness. Expect it. Your God always must remain faithful to you. Now there’s something you can expect. Amen.