Jeremiah 37

Enmity to the Gospel

Do you know what the hardest part of being a Christian for me is?

The hardest part of becoming a Christian, for many people anyway who become Christians later in life- the hardest part of becoming a Christian is acknowledging their sin and repenting of it- accepting the knowledge that they are in rebellion against God and need the forgiveness that Jesus offers and the healing that the Holy Spirit brings, in order to be reconciled to God the Father. That is usually the hardest part of BECOMING a Christian.

But the hardest part of BEING a Christian for me is the willingness to speak to others about their sin and THEIR need for repentance and to be hated for it. That is, I think, the hardest part of being a Christian, to be unpopular, even hated at times, while trying to reflect the love of God. I struggle with this, hard. I want to be liked. Actually, I want to be loved. I would settle for liked. But I often find following Jesus means being willing to be disliked. And, sometimes, even hated. Are you willing to make such sacrifices?

The Bible is full of warnings and encouragement about this.

1 Peter 4:12–19 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”

What is part of doing good? Accepting that you will be insulted and reviled. Jesus tells us directly in John’s Gospel that you will be hated because you follow Him but not to be anxious about it because they hated Him first. And we are following in the book of Acts the various ministries of Peter and Stephen and Barnabas and Phillip and above all Paul…and yes in places where Christ is recognized and worshiped they find fellowship and the blessing of the love of others, but wherever He is rejected they find hatred so intense that it frequently spills over into abuse and even murder. Jesus does not come into this world bringing peace but division. And the Word of God does not bring unity in this world but is a sword that divides people into 2 camps, one that brings life everlasting, and one that leads to destruction.

Sometimes the Church may find some agreement in this world, or think it has found some friendship or common cause. This is akin to the Israelites who saw the Chaldeans leave the siege of Jerusalem and they said to themselves, they shall go away and not bother us anymore. The world is going to leave us alone! They will leave the Church in peace. But no, Jeremiah says you don’t understand, even if you were, by some miracle, able to defeat every soldier of their army, still they would succeed in defeating you and destroying Jerusalem and burning the Temple to the ground. The world is not going to become your friend.

Not only is the world not going to embrace the church but it is God’s will that the ungodly and the wicked and the evil of this world will eventually win the day in the world.

Revelation 13:4: "People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, 'Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?'"

Revelation 13:8: "All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life..."

To use a common phrase from our time, to be reviled by the world, to be hated or sneered at or mocked is not a bug, but a feature of being the Church in this world. And it has always been so. A strong and healthy and vibrant and humble church will almost certainly be treated with disdain in its time and place and culture. Not all the time, not everyone, but for certain sometimes and by some people, at a minimum.

Having said that, it is important to point out that an unhealthy and heretical or idolatrous church can also receive a lot of disdain and hatred in the world for reasons that are, in fact, legitimate. It is not as if a Church cannot be reviled for being abusive or cold hearted or enamored with wealth, and so forth.

But sometimes I honestly think that we engage in too many mea culpas and perhaps are too quick to apologize for the Church in a way that betrays Jesus. The Church is not perfect, to be sure. But imagine the world without the Church, without the Gospel believing and God worshiping people of the world. How dark would this world be without the Church?

As dark as Jerusalem had become, how much darker would it have been without Jeremiah there calling them to repentance? Without Ezekiel offering visions of hope and Daniel showing the Babylonians what a good God looks like?

And here is the question the world asks us Christians. Are you on our side or not? And the answer that we must invariably give is, do you know the Lord, or not? There is no other side that matters.

Jeremiah does have a few friends in Jerusalem and they appear at key moments to save Jeremiah, but generally the city and its leaders are opposed to him and see him, the prophet of God, who has pleaded with God on their behalf, him they see as the enemy. Because the message that Jeremiah is bringing to his people is not a nice fluffy comfortable message about God’s love for them and how He just loves them so much that nothing bad will happen to them. No, the message is that the Lord is bringing His judgment upon them because of their idolatry, their evil actions, and their general indifference to their God.

It is not a message that people wanted to hear 2,500 years ago and it’s not a message they want to hear now, unless they are desperate.

I have lost a lot of friends the last 20 years, not calling people to repentance even, but just being unwilling to bless their choices that are clearly unbiblical, unholy, and damaging to them and the people around them. I don’t say that with pride or self-righteousness, only sadness because not one of those people did I desire to cease being friends with. I did not harangue them or sneer at them or mock them nor do I think even today that I am above them in any kind of way. My own life has sin in it and I have not earned heaven through being holy but I have been gifted it through the sinless life of Jesus Christ, like everyone else who calls Him Lord. If I wanted my friend group to be composed of sinless people it would be vanishingly small.

Yet it has been made clear to me that among some folks I am considered to be an individual who is judgmental or hateful.

I consider our sexuality to be a gift from God that is meant to be expressed between one man and one woman, til death do they part, and we call that marriage. I do not consider anything else to be marriage. That makes me unsafe.

I do not think the church should be political, by which I mean the Church should not be choosing political sides. That does not mean we cannot call out sin when politics veers into a spiritual lane or when politicians act like gods themselves, but these moments come and go and they are never to be the focus of the church. The church is concerned with growing and deepening the Kingdom of God, the saving of lost souls through, with and for Jesus Christ. That is what the Church is for. And that work is, by far, no comparison, by far the most important work in the world. We are not to be distracted by the nations ranting and raging, we are not to borrow their rage and make it our own. We fight a war against sin, against pride, against unholiness, and the only time we notch a victory is when someone gives their life to Christ or draws closer to Him. That is what I believe, that is what the Bible teaches, but because I have refused to be political, I am, again, unsafe. I am not on ‘their’ side, whichever side it is they might be wanting me on.

These are the main 2 ways that I have lost friends and been sneered at in my life. I do not share this for pity, for I neither need nor deserve pity. Nor do I share this to inspire sympathy, or, worse still, to foster in my listeners the idea that criticizing or critiquing the pastor is forbidden here at Cornerstone.

No I only share this to say that if you cleave to the Lord and share the Gospel that it will at times come at a personal cost. That is a promise of Jesus. I know many of you have similar stories to my own. And I know that you, like me, have no regrets. I count everything as loss compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ.

Pastors make mistakes, and sometimes I need correction, and what is more I do not think it is godly when pastors, or any leaders, become so sensitive or insecure that they cannot hear criticism, even if it’s criticism they may not agree with. It’s not right that Samuel had to invent a story to trick David into hearing God’s judgment on his sin- Samuel should have just been able to say directly to David- you have sinned and you need to repent of that sin. No, I hope that my time as a pastor is marked by an ability to hear critique and pushback. But that is different than shutting me out and ghosting me especially if you have been a friend of mine, that hurts, but I recognize that this is not surprising, it is not unexpected, and it is not in the end a rejection of me or my friendship, but a rejection of God’s judgment and, subsequently, a rejection of His forgiveness, because you cannot be forgiven by God if you do not acknowledge and accept His judgment. This is why the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because to accept the judgment of our God who is holy and perfectly loving is to fear the Lord.

Jeremiah 37:17–21 “King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, that you have put me in prison? Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land’? Now hear, please, O my lord the king: let my humble plea come before you and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, lest I die there.” So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard. And a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.”