God's Cure for the Wounded Disciple

Jeremiah 15:10-21

We’ve been learning over the last 2 months of the beauty and blessing of the church.

We’ve seen the ways in which Christ is magnified in our various gatherings.

We’ve seen the commission given to the church to serve Christ by making disciples who are centered on the gospel.

This all sounds great. And it is! To neglect the community of believers is to the detriment of our own souls and those around us. There is eternal joy to be found in community that is rooted in Christ. And maybe over the last few weeks you’ve been stirred toward greater commitment to Jesus and His mission. I believe He does have wonderful plans to use our church in the advancement of His kingdom.

But what about when you’re wounded?

Something I see and hear often is the reluctance to commit to God’s people because of the wounds we have received at the hands of other believers. I’m not just talking about those who are professing to be believers but are not true Christians. Actual believers who hurt us. This is a very real thing and I would be remiss to pretend like this doesn’t exist. Being in a family comes with its fair share of conflict and wounds.

Wasn’t it the great american philosopher and thinker, Mike Tyson who said those famous words, “Everyone’s got a plan until you get punched in the mouth.”

Today, I want to draw your attention to a wounded disciple. Actually, more than just a learner of God’s truth, He was a preacher of God’s truth- He was called by God to go to the southern kingdom of Judah and be a prophet who calls them to repentance. Jeremiah was called by God, set apart from his mother’s womb. It was a beautiful yet difficult calling because along with the calling came the promise that everyone he preaches to will not listen and will not change.

Israel is in a horrible spot. Up to this point, Jeremiah’s own people and the covenant people of God have rebelled against God by worshiping false gods. This has led God to promise destruction upon God’s people. Though God has been gracious and granted them their promised land, like Adam and Eve in the garden, Israel’s unfaithfulness will lead to them being kicked out of their paradise/promised land. Things have gotten so bad that Before this chapter God has already told Jeremiah to stop praying for them because they have reached a point of no return. At which point Jeremiah pleads once more to relent from His promised judgment, but to no avail.

This leads to much hurt for Jeremiah. He’s burdened. He’s despairing. He’s despondent. He is hurt by his own people. And this reaches a head for Jeremiah in this chapter as we see him pouring out his heart to God with much self-pity and disillusionment. Reading through this book can be depressing at the beginning but there is much hope throughout. Because although Jeremiah is a prophet of God, often called “the weeping prophet” his story is meant to point us to THE greatest Prophet who would come to Israel, weep for them, be wounded, and yet be the only One that can accomplish the mission of renewing the heart. We’ll see this again soon.

The point for us this morning that I believe we’ll see in our text, is Though following Christ comes with temporal wounds and hardship, our savior sustains us with eternal hope.

Main points: 3 Observations.

1.The Wounded Prophet vv. 10-14

(Read vs 10) We need to see the state that he’s presently in.

First, we see that he curses the day of his birth.

He actually pronounces woe on his mother for giving birth to him because of his horrible painful life.

Can you imagine your child going through a hard time in life that’s not connected to you whatsoever and he gets angry at you? And why? for the sole reason that you have given birth to him. “What did I do?!” you gave birth to me, THAT’S what you did!

He calls him self a man of strife and contention.

He truly has done nothing wrong.

Second, we see that he is cursed by all

literally, he is cursed by the whole land of Judah. His own people are ridiculing him, cursing him, hating him for the message he is preaching to them.

Later on in the book they will actually take Jeremiah and through him in a deep pit because of their fierce anger.

2.The Complaint of a Wounded Prophet vv. 15-18

3.The Restoration of a Wounded Prophet vv. 19-21