God instructs Jeremiah to speak words of consolation to fallen Judah. And not just speak them, but write them down. Words for them and for us! Jeremiah spent four decades warning of judgment and exile. Now, when hope seems lost, he opens a new chapter – the Book of Consolation. In the midst of the longest, and most sorrowful book in the Bible, we find bright promises of God’s grace. Jeremiah 30-33 is often called the ‘Book of Consolation.’ Listen as we examine Jeremiah 30 and consider how God calls us and consoles us with grace in the midst of judgement.
Tag Archives: Jeremiah
09/27/2020 | “Conflict Management” | Jeremiah 28:1-17
God instructed Jeremiah to warn Judah, if they would submit to His discipline at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, they would live. But nothing provokes conflict in the church like a sermon on submission. Jeremiah is opposed by a false prophet and called a liar. Everything he said was contradicted. And the yoke was wrenched from his neck and broken.
Jeremiah often complains and confronts, so his response here is remarkable. With gracious, prayerful wisdom the prophet rebuts the false teacher and disarms his false gospel. Jeremiah’s life is quite literally an open book. We often see his anger, but here we may observe a godly example of how to handle conflict within the church. An example worthy of imitation. Listen to “Conflict Management” as we examine Jeremiah 28 and consider how to respond to conflict within the church.
09/20/2020 | “Under the Yoke” | Jeremiah 27
How will we respond to the Lord’s discipline? When afflictions come. When frowning providences are the only providence we know. When we encounter many trials of various kinds? Will we be like the God’s enemies in Psalm 2 who say, “Let us burst [His] bonds apart and cast away [His] cords from us.” Or like God’s sons, who will “take [His] yoke upon us, and learn from [Him].”
The Lord chastised Judah in Jeremiah’s day. But the people were not content to submit to the God’s discipline. They plotted rebellion. And Jeremiah warned them with a powerful illustration. If they submit to discipline they will live. But if they rebel, they will experience the just punishment of God. What about you? How will you respond when God lays a heavy hand upon you? When he brings discipline because of sin? Will you submit? Will you put your neck under the yoke? Listen to “Under the Yoke” as we examine Jeremiah 27 and consider what it means to submit to the Lord’s discipline.
09/13/2020 | “Worst Case Scenario” | Jeremiah 26
We love to proclaim and sing about being the salt of the earth and a city set on a hill, but Jesus speaks of this as a faithful response to persecution. Today’s cancel-culture wants to silence the gospel and the truth of God. How are we to respond? Are we to soften our message? Conform it to the differing expectations of culture? Reassess our calling or the sphere in which we execute it? These are all questions Jeremiah faced. In Jeremiah 26, the prophet preached one of his earliest and most memorable sermons. Jeremiah was probably optimistic as he preached. But the moment the sermon ended the cancel-culture attacked. “You shall die” was the response of the religious establishment. “Jeremiah, conform or be cut off.” How would Jeremiah respond? How will we respond? Listen to “Worst Case Scenario” as we examine Jeremiah 26 and consider the Jeremiah’s response to the cancel-culture of his day.
Worst Case Scenario
I have a diverse library. Every “ology” can be found – theology, technology, sociology, anthropology, and mythology, just to name a few. Widely varied genres and perspectives live on my shelves. My catalog runs the gamut from ancient to contemporary, orthodoxy to heresy, and the profound to the absurd. Seriousness and satire have a home in my world of ideas – a cosmos framed both on shelves and in clouds.
In the outer reaches of this cosmos is a book entitled, The Worst-Case Scenario Handbook. Supplied to me by a bookstore-owning friend, who usually plied me with theology, this little quod absurdium purports to give strategies for life’s worst-case scenarios. For example, when aliens invade, it is imperative to construct a headpiece of tin-foil. As is well known, aliens are telepathic. Only a tin-foil headpiece can foil their telepathy. The only alternative is simply to stop thinking. Just don’t think about anything. Clear your mind. This is the only foolproof way to avoid alien domination.
Perhaps this explains why critical thinking seems to have disappeared. Maybe our culture is preparing for an alien invasion. We have clearly stopped thinking – at least any thoughts other than the mantras du jour fed to us by (anti)social media. Critical thinking, and its expressive corollaries, free speech and robust dialogue are now anathema. Dialogue has been replaced with cancel culture – a group-think which refuses to admit any narrative other than that clearly delineated by a viral hashtag. Meanwhile everyone and everything at odds from the approved narrative is declared “dead to us.” While I am not sure that Central, Central Intelligence or Big Brother and his Ministry of Truth are behind the cancel-culture, it is certainly enforced through social media.
But cancel-culture is not new. Media campaigns and boycotts are as old as the Fall of Mankind. Public shame and commerce have long been powerful tools for policy change, for better and for worse. What is new is the amazing speed with which shame and commerce is effected through social media. The uneditable and unanswerable animosity unleashed by social media cancels without appeal. The “brakes” of time – and therefore reflection — were never installed. Time to reflect, to think carefully, to analyze motive, context and deeper intent is missing. There is no time for thoughtful action, only violent and immediate reaction. As social critic, Neil Peart, noted, “conform or be cast out.” These are the options – the only options.
Cancel-culture strikes at the core of the Christian’s identity. Christians are animated by the gospel. Thought, speech and actions are to be transformed by the renewing of minds not conformed to the pattern of the world. Thus, christians are fundamentally at odds with the ethos of cancel-culture. Truth is not socially determined, but authoritatively revealed. And that authority is not Twitter. On the continuum of “conform or be cast out,” Christians will always be castaways. The received and revealed gospel is the compelling means of grace for our lives and our world. Our compulsion, our commission is to share it, preach it, declare it and defend it. Yet, the gospel’s presupposition of a brokenness no state or hashtag can fix is obnoxious to the cancel-culture. In its opposition to Christianity, cancel-culture reduces Peart’s “conform or be cast out” to only one option – “conform,” willingly or unwillingly.
And so, Christians find themselves is a familiar place – the place of persecution. This is nothing new. As Jesus unfolds the ethics and expectations of a life animated by grace, he concludes with are remarkable statement.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:10-16
We love to proclaim and sing about being the salt of the earth and a city set on a hill, but notice how Jesus connects these to a faithful response to persecution. The cancel-culture wants to silence the gospel and the truth of God. How are we to respond? Are we to soften our message? Conform it to the differing expectations of culture? Reassess our calling or the sphere in which we execute it? These are all questions Jeremiah faced. The “Temple Sermon” was one of his earliest and most memorable sermons. Jeremiah was probably optimistic as he preached. But the moment the sermon ended the cancel-culture attacked. “You shall die” was the response of the religious establishment. “Jeremiah, conform or be cut off.”
When God called Jeremiah, he warned him that this would be the case.
But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.
Jeremiah 1:17-19
How would Jeremiah respond? How will we respond? As Paul wrote to a young Timothy, “indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12) It is only a matter of time before you face the ultimatum, “conform or be cast out.” What will be the response to this worst-case scenario?
Join us this Lord’s Day, September 13, as we examine Jeremiah 26 and consider the Jeremiah’s response to the cancel-culture of his day. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP
09/06/2020 | “Choose Wisely” | Jeremiah 25:15-38
Jeremiah was told to take the cup of the wine of the wrath of God and to make all the nations drink of it. Its effects are terrible. And no one can refuse. But there is another cup. For those who choose wisely — who trust in Christ, not in themselves, who acknowledge God’s righteous judgment of sin, yet plead for His mercy upon sinners, there is the cup of blessing. What cup will you choose? The cup of the fury of God’s wrath? Or the cup of Christ? Listen to “Choose Wisely” as we examine Jeremiah 25:15-38 and consider the choice God gives us between grace and judgement.
08/30/2020 | “Taking Responsibility” | Jeremiah 25:1-14
To practice adulting, you don’t actually have to be an adult. You only have to play-act at responsibility long enough to make the post. When “adulting” becomes mundane or challenging, we can step out of the hashtag. Adulting gives us the perfect cover for evading hard things. Avoiding responsibility it is at the core of mankind’s fallen, sinful nature. We love to take cover in immaturity and irresponsibility, but faith calls us to grow, mature and to take responsibility. The scriptural remedy for sinful failure is confession and repentance, not excuse making. Christians take responsibility for sin, even if we have a good excuse. Jeremiah called to the men of his day and us to repent. When God declares our sin, it is not enough to merely ‘adult.’ No, it is time to take responsibility through confession, repentance, and faith. Listen to “Taking Responsibility” as we examine Jeremiah 25:1-14 and consider the call to take responsibility through confession and repentance.
08/23/2020 | “The Horrible Doctrine” | Jeremiah 24
In our human pride, the doctrines of election and reprobation are indeed “horrible doctrines.” Yet as we carefully consider what the Bible says about the total depravity of our fallen condition, these “horrible doctrines” soon become “doctrines of grace.” Were God to base His decision to save on anything in us, we would be hopelessly doomed. The early American pastor, Jonathan Edwards, once declared, “we contribute nothing to our salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” And Jesus taught that “unless a man is born again [from above] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Those horrible doctrines, which at first fill us with indignation and accusation toward a Holy, Sovereign God, become gracious doctrines when the Holy Spirit enables us to see the depth of our sin. Listen as we consider the comfort and power of God’s calling and election from Jeremiah 24.
08/16/2020 | “Spotting the Fake” | Jeremiah 23:9-40
How well can we spot the fake? Can we discern a false teacher from a faithful one? Have we loved truth or falsehood? Are we wary of those who attempt to “heal our wounds lightly, saying ‘Peace, peace’ when there is no peace.” Listen as we examine Jeremiah 23:9-40 and consider the prophet’s guidance regarding the sources, symptoms and solutions to the problem of false teaching.
Spotting the Fake
Fake news is not new. It was not invented by Russian hackers or media moguls during the 2016 Presidential campaign. Fake news has been around since man first listened to the “Father of Lies” in the Garden. News reporting is always saddled with some level of intentional or unintentional, benevolent or malevolent bias. That news media has always been funded by advertising should make this obvious. Persuasion is at the heart of most of our words, but unhinged from moral restraint, persuasion quickly descends into exaggeration, mis-construal and flat-out lying.
Fake news is not new. What is new is that no one seems to care if their news is fake. Fake news is no longer ‘news worthy.’ The mantra of post-modernity, “true for you, but not for me” has given way to a lack of concern for truth, so long as the story is moving. The cardinal value for today’s man is emotional resonance not intellectual verity. Does it grip me? Does it grab me? Does it move me? These are the questions that have replaced, “Is it true?” Neil Postman’s prophetic book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, rightly predicted a society in which “truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”
But man was not created to live in society where truth is drowned in irrelevance. Truth exists – absolute truth, truth that is revealed and not discovered. Without this truth there can be no beauty, joy, peace, redemption, mercy, forgiveness, justice or love – only “how I feel.” Without this truth there is never any “us,” only a “me.” Truth matters. But can we spot what is true and what is false?
Back in my school days, my classmates clamored for quizzes that were True/False. The logic was simple. It gives us a 50/50 chance. But who wants to get 50% on a test? I despised True/False quizzes. Give me an essay question any day rather than statements that, if properly or improperly qualified, had so many caveats that truth or falsity was murky. None of us are as good with True/False questions as we like to believe. We do a poor job at spotting the fake. Game shows, icebreakers, and fashion counterfeiters have abundantly proven this point.
Gullibility and a love for the sensational makes us easy prey for deceptive news. We scroll over a shocking headline on social media and, without any credibility filtration, share it copiously. Only later realizing that our integrity has just taken a very public nosedive. In an article from the Freedom Forum Institute, Samantha Smith offers a quick guide to spotting fake news. She warns us to check out sources, resist click-bait, look carefully at an article’s URL, compare the story with reputable news sources, beware of sloppy writing and the absence of quotes, and use media literacy sites such as snopes.com or factcheck.org. Nothing she says amounts to rocket science, but the simplicity of her analysis shows how easily we can be duped. But if we are so easily deceived regarding things that can be seen and verified, what about eternal and spiritual truths?
Jeremiah expressed himself most in lamentation. Reading Jeremiah is exhausting. The weeping prophet laments the coming judgement of God, the idolatry of the people, the oppression of the powerful, and even the wasting of the land because of the sin of the people. But Jeremiah’s greatest lament was for the deception of the people through the false prophets and lying priests, even though he knows the people love it that way. In Jeremiah 21-23, the prophet offers a scathing rebuke to the kings of Judah for their unfaithfulness, then in Jeremiah 23:9, the prophet brings the hammer of God’s word down on the false prophets. And in his rebuke, he offers his beloved people a warning.
Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’
Jeremiah 23:16-17
Jeremiah pleads with the people to discern the false prophets, reject their message, and turn back to the Lord. But this warning is for us, as well. We live in a world brimming with false teachers who ‘despise the word of the Lord’ and say ‘it shall be well with you’ to those who stubbornly follow their own heart.’ Their teaching is a ‘dark and slippery’ path that leads to death. How well can we spot the fake? Can we discern a false teacher from a faithful one? Have we loved truth or falsehood? Are we wary of those who attempt to “heal our wounds lightly, saying ‘Peace, peace’ when there is no peace.”
Join us this week as we examine Jeremiah 23:9-40 and consider the prophet’s guidance regarding the sources, symptoms and solutions to the problem of false teaching. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP
Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church 