The Need for Another Great Reformation

As many of you know, I enjoy history. We know that we also can learn a great deal from the past.

For example, in church history, we recall the Great Reformation that swept Europe some five centuries ago. A small segment of individuals became fed up with a system that was religious, but had no relationship with God. The Bible was forbidden to be in the hands of the laity. Then some individuals came to a point of reading and studying God’s message as recorded in the Bible and repented, turning to the Lord Jesus as their Savior. In turn, they began to proclaim the message to others, plus working to get the Bible into the hands of all the people.

Let’s go a little further back in time to the period of the New Testament. We read throughout the Gospels and the book of Acts about an incredible history of reformation. When people were confronted with their sin and their need for a Savior, namely, Jesus Christ, reformation occurred as thousands were saved.

Going back even farther into the Old Testament, we read about five reformation kings who ruled the nation of Judah. One has to believe that it was because of these five godly kings and their reformations, that Judah was spared for as long as it was. Remembering also, that the Northern Kingdom, Israel, did not have a single godly king. As a result, they found themselves defeated and taken into captivity 130 years earlier than Judah.

Now, I want to bring us a little closer to home. England and the United States experienced a reformation or revival in the 1800’s. History shows that when people recognized their sinfulness, confessed and repented before the Lord and turned to Jesus Christ for salvation, entire communities were turned upside down in positive change.

I believe, and I might assume the majority of those listening feel the same way, that our nation and our churches need to experience another great reformation.

We need to experience another great reformation.

Chapter 26, in Jeremiah, deals with a situation that occurred earlier in Jeremiah’s ministry. In fact, a cross reference to this chapter would be chapter 7. Don’t get confused about the timeline, because you will remember that Jeremiah is not written in chronological order.

A Needed Message - 26.1-6

Jeremiah 26:1–6 (NASB95)

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah who have come to worship in the Lord’s house all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do not omit a word! ‘Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.’ “And you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, “If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, to listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you again and again, but you have not listened; then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse to all the nations of the earth.” ’ ”

Before any reformation can take place, there must be a felt need to reform. The word, reformation, according to Webster, deals with “improvement, betterment, correction, rehabilitation.”

It seems pretty obvious that Judah certainly had a large number of things which needed correction. Their relationship with God had become only lip service. They went through all the motions, but their heart was on the world around them. Their minds were focused on self-satisfaction and pleasure. God was not a part of their picture. It may have started off innocently enough, but apathy turned into disobedience, leading into defiance and rebellion. Remember how James describes this downward spiral: James 1:14–15 “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”

So God had Jeremiah go to the courtyard of the Lord’s house and proclaim to the people all that God had told him to say. Why did God have Jeremiah do this? So that the people might hopefully listen and be ashamed of how far down they had gone. Hopefully, this would result in the people choosing to repent and turn from their evil ways.

Jeremiah also had the hard task of telling the people of Judah the “or else” part of God’s message. In other words, if they continued living in opposition to God, they would be destroyed.

We certainly would agree that this message was definitely needed. However, how would the people actually receive this message from God through Jeremiah? We know that most people don’t appreciate hearing that they are living in a wrong, sinful manner. People who consider themselves religious certainly despise being told that they are serving Satan since they are so busy pretending to be serving God, even if it’s only in appearance.

Responses Surrounding the Message - 26.7-15

Jeremiah 26:7–15 (NASB95)

The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You must die! “Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and sat in the entrance of the New Gate of the Lord’s house. Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, “A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing.” Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. “Now therefore amend your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will change His mind about the misfortune which He has pronounced against you. “But as for me, behold, I am in your hands; do with me as is good and right in your sight. “Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city and on its inhabitants; for truly the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”

Jeremiah spoke exactly what God had told him to say. He didn’t adjust the message to try and be politically correct or to please his listeners.

When people choose to live in disobedience to God’s Word, you can usually be assured that the majority of them will fight against making any change. The normal response is that they will even begin to attack the messenger as if he/she is the enemy. They will sometime suggest that they themselves are the ones actually speaking for God.

In this situation with Jeremiah, it seemed to be no different. The so-called spiritual leaders, as well as those who heard his message began demanding his death. But notice what their anger focuses on in Jeremiah 26:11 “Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, “A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing.”” There does not seem to be any thought given that Jeremiah’s prophecy against the city was because of their own sinful behavior. They were unwilling to deal with their own sin issue. They instead turned their focus away from themselves, to Jerusalem; the city where God’s temple was located.

As I said earlier, this seems to be the typical response to any message which tells people to repent and turn back to God. People will instead refuse to deal with the real problem; that issue of repenting of their sin and looking toward the restoration of the relationship between themselves and the Lord, which also affects us and other people. It is always so much easier to find a scapegoat.

Notice Jeremiah’s reaction to how they responded to his message. He puts the monkey back on their back. It might be simpler to paraphrase Jeremiah by stating that this message was God’s message, not his.

Jeremiah didn’t just stop with that information. He repeated what the Lord had said so many times before this. What message was that? There was a way out of their mess. What was that way out? Jeremiah 26:13 ““Now therefore amend your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will change His mind about the misfortune which He has pronounced against you.”

Church, I believe this is one of the main keys for reformation or revival, even for our time. There must be a heartfelt, genuine repentance. And if it is genuine, there will be a change in how we think and how we live. Our desire will be changed to wanting to obey the Lord. Our ways and our actions will be reformed. We will no longer walk in the pattern of darkness. Even though that may have been how we lived in the past, because of Jesus Christ, we can have a brand new start, as the people of Judah could have had if they would have followed God’s counsel as given through Jeremiah.

Contrast in Responses to God’s Message - 26.16-24

In this section of verses, it appears that the Spirit of God had gotten ahold of a few individuals who now confronted the religious leaders with some interesting information. We see that those who were considered spiritually uninformed, were actually confronting the spiritual elite with some food for thought.

They remembered what had taken place when one of the revival kings, of whom I mentioned earlier, actually listened to the prophet Micah when the same sort of prophecy was given. That godly king was Hezekiah. He actually repented and sought to serve the Lord, thus keeping God’s judgment away for the time being. Those individuals who actually remembered history, put things together and realized that if they didn’t clean their spiritual houses soon, and if they took part in killing Jeremiah, they would be bringing disaster upon themselves.

These same people also remembered another prophet who prophesied these same things, which resulted in the ungodly, evil king Jehoiakim to put to death that prophet. Sadly, that prophet, Uriah, had also gone against God’s counsel and fled to Egypt, attempting to save his own neck. In sharp contrast was Jeremiah, who said exactly what God wanted him to say and was willing to be killed if that’s what was necessary.

So what we see here is an individual that most people wouldn’t know much about, who stepped up to be counted for Jeremiah. His name was Ahikam. Ahikam was one who had held an important position in Jehoiakim’s rule, plus he was also one of Josiah’s officials. By the way, Josiah was another of those reformation kings.

But that’s not all. Ahikam’s son’s name was Gedaliah. You’re possibly thinking that this little genealogy tour is kind of weird. Except I have to tell you that Gedaliah was appointed governor of Judah after Jerusalem was destroyed. It seems to me that God honored him because his father honored God.

Conclusion

I am sure that most of you, if not all of you, would agree that We need to experience another great reformation; a spiritual awakening; a grassroots revival.

However, it must begin in our own hearts and homes. We need to listen carefully to the message in God’s Word. We may not always be comfortable hearing what God has to say, but it’s always what we need to hear.

We also need to be careful in our response to the message. We cannot afford to become calloused and hardened toward the messenger if the message is God’s message. We dare not try to change the focus towards a side issue, while avoiding the real problem.

Instead, we need to respond like the godly, reformation kings, and many of those who were choosing to follow God. As individuals and as churches, we need to recognize the sins which we have participated in or promoted or condoned. We need to repent and turn back toward God. We need to seek after Him with our whole being, so that we, in the power of God’s Spirit, will find our ways and actions being reformed, and will choose to obey Him in all things.