Problem with Authority
Expositing Jeremiah • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsThe life of Jeremiah is one which experienced good times under a good king, trials under bad kings, exile, and finally visions of redemption for God's people. His life and his writing show us a lot about the nature of God and his faithfulness to covenant. In this third message, look at Jeremiah's statements to the political and religious authorities in his day. We see their reaction and God's final promise of restoration. This challenges us to ask ourselves: in what do we place our trust? Something of this world, or the one who knows the plans He has for us?
Notes
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NOTE: For this sermon, we are borrowing from the general structure of Jeremiah presented in the “Evangelical Commentary on the Bible”.
Chapters 2-10: Sermons Warning of Disaster
Chapters 11-20: Stories about Wrestling with People and with God
Chapters 21-29: Challenging Kings and Prophets
Chapters 30-33: Book of Comfort
Chapters 34-39: Case Studies in the Failure of Leadership
Chapters 40-45: After the Catastrophe
Chapters 46-51: Oracles about the Nations
Chapter 51: Fall of Jerusalem
What a Leader Should Be
What a Leader Should Be
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found myself saying, “Maybe I really DO have a problem with authority...”.
EXAMPLE: I served on the Board of Zoning Appeals; never liked the idea of government (or people manipulating the government) into telling people what they could do with their own land.
I discovered my feelings on BZA were less about politics and more about a general disdain for authority.
WITH THAT SAID… the general idea of “dictatorships are great as long as you have a good dictator” applies. I LOVE a GOOD leader.
God communicated clearly what makes a ‘good leader’
5 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration— “when I will raise up a Righteous Branch for David. He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is the name he will be called: The Lord Is Our Righteousness.
Justice and Unrighteousness ->
Justice is fair dealings
Righteousness is integrity
MESSIANIC CONNECTION —> “Branch” often invokes royal lineage
Here is used to describe the “ideal king”… Jesus.
One of few Messianic connections in Jeremiah.
Bad Leaders
Bad Leaders
Chapters 21-23 really focus on civil authorities and the failings of unrighteous kings.
1 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” This is the Lord’s declaration. 2 “Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend my people: You have scattered my flock, banished them, and have not attended to them. I am about to attend to you because of your evil acts”—this is the Lord’s declaration. 3 “I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have banished them, and I will return them to their grazing land. They will become fruitful and numerous. 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them. They will no longer be afraid or discouraged, nor will any be missing.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
POINT 1 —> Leaders have an obligation to their flock.
Even Paul spoke about the role of a “master”
1 Masters, deal with your slaves justly and fairly, since you know that you too have a Master in heaven.
This makes other comments about our submission make a bit more sense...
1 Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. 2 So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.
God, creating all things to work together perfectly, has roles for those who lead and those who follow. It’s important to remember that our “problem with authority” is driven by our fallen world and the effects of sin in our lives and the lives of those in power.
As Christians we live in both these paradigms in different parts of our life… sometimes we are leaders and other times we are followers. Whatever season we find ourselves in, are we living scripturally for God’s design?
POINT 2 —> Jeremiah communicates that God will rip the “flock” away and give to other shepherds
Implies that political leadership has failed; but the civic structure was never the “point”
CRUCIAL POINT: This is not about God’s desire for a government… it’s God’s desire for His children who are known by His covenant!!!
Read what Jeremiah says about good and bad leaders in Jeremiah 23:1-6 and consider how God talks to the leaders of His chosen people.
1) In an age when the civil state was combined with “God’s children” and His covenant, why would righteous government so important?
2) What is the fundamental difference between the role government played in Judah and Israel vs the government today when it comes to our relationship with God?
3) In vs 4, God reveals His faithfulness to the PEOPLE OF COVENANT. What does this tell us about those who would stand in the way of God’s plans?
Bad Preachers
Bad Preachers
Starting in mid-chapter 23, we shift to religious leaders.
9 Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, because of the Lord, because of his holy words. 10 For the land is full of adulterers; the land mourns because of the curse, and the grazing lands in the wilderness have dried up. Their way of life has become evil, and their power is not rightly used 11 because both prophet and priest are ungodly, even in my house I have found their evil. This is the Lord’s declaration.
One interesting act of disobedience we should note today...
17 They keep on saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord has spoken: You will have peace.’ They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ”
Relevant to Today
Telling people what the want to hear.
Giving “feel good” promises instead of truth.
God gives a warning
21 I did not send out these prophets, yet they ran. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. 22 If they had really stood in my council, they would have enabled my people to hear my words and would have turned them from their evil ways and their evil deeds.
If someone tells you convincing, encouraging things but they position themselves squarely between you and what God has to say… RUN!!!
Read Jeremiah’s warnings on bad religious figures in Jeremiah 23:9-11, 17, 21-22. He warns against religious individuals who are “people pleasers” rather than truthful.
1) How do you see God prioritizing truth over popularity in these verses?
2) What do pastors do today to often appeal to popular themes rather than truth?
3) What danger can we fall into by willingly consuming the partial truth, or false truth, of “popularity seeking pastors”?
Shooting the Messenger
Shooting the Messenger
Throughout chapters 24 and 25, Jeremiah prophecies of the things to come due to Judah’s rebellion. Rather than repenting or learning a lesson, everyone attacks the messenger!
7 The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the temple of the Lord. 8 When he finished the address the Lord had commanded him to deliver to all the people, immediately the priests, the prophets, and all the people took hold of him, yelling, “You must surely die! 9 How dare you prophesy in the name of the Lord, ‘This temple will become like Shiloh and this city will become an uninhabited ruin’!” Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah at the Lord’s temple.
Anger directed at truth-speaker
Anger at Truth —> Anger at Speaker of Truth
Similar Themes to Politics: People stop being “people” and starting becoming their ideas
This brings to mind the words of Christ when commissioning His disciples...
22 You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. For truly I tell you, you will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24 A disciple is not above his teacher, or a slave above his master. 25 It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master. If they called the head of the house ‘Beelzebul,’ how much more the members of his household!
Not Above Our Master —> Christ was ridiculed and rejected, do we deserve better?
Jeremiah was blamed for the consequences of the people’s actions… They were distraught by the EFFECTS OF THEIR SIN, but they couldn’t defeat the sin so they sought to defeat the MESSENGER OF TRUTH AGAINST SIN.
The world acts very similar today, blaming the church, pastors, and Christianity in general for a pain that they feel generally. They blame us for their unsettled spirit because they are seeking to bring contentment upon themselves through their own power.
They do not know joy through salvation in the cross, so their only recourse is anger at those who appear to have found what they have not.
Led Into Captivity
Led Into Captivity
From here, we see Jeremiah released, his prophecies against Judah, and a false prophecy given by Hananiah that promised peace and prosperity.
This section conclude with an address to those who end up in Babylonian captivity towards the end of Jeremiah’s life… just has he had prophesied.
A message of hope...
10 For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.”
Message of hope directed at the people.
Promises a “future full of hope” (more modern version of vs 11’s ‘a future and a hope’).
Promise focuses on faithfulness to covenant… NOT MATERIAL WEALTH!!!!
This is NOT PROSPERITY GOSPEL
God is faithful and true; His desire is for hope which was eventually revealed through the fulfillment of covenant… Jesus Christ
The message of hope points us towards something bigger than a worldly good… it points to Christ.
Through Christ, we have our fulfillment of hope. While Chapters 21-28 focused on disobedience, judgment, and great trials, Chapter 29 sees that what may appear as “trial” at a macro level is really God redeeming us in our lives for a more eternal purpose.
Big Take-Aways
Big Take-Aways
Upon what do you base your hope? Political leaders? Life coaches and other who want to offer pathways to fulfillment?
God offers us hope; sometimes that hope comes through a stripping away of distractions that compete for our attention and devotion.
We can’t control what leaders and governing powers do. They are composed of flawed sinners just as we are.
For that reason, we must live our lives in a way that we remember who is truly planning for our fulfillment.
“God knows the plans he has for you. Plans of wellbeing, not for disaster, and to give you hope. Is that the hope you’re living for? I promise you… nothing else can compete.”
