A serious issue persisted in the days of Jeremiah: The people were walking according to their own ways, not the ways of the Lord. They were stubborn idolaters, child-sacrificers, a people called by the name of God but filled with the works of Satan. Yet another serious issue persisted in the days of Jeremiah: The prophets prophesied lies in response to the people’s sin. These false men of God spoke “visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:16).
Those visions were dipped in flattery. They tickled ears and massaged flesh, forecasting sunshine when a tornado formed over the heads of the wicked. Jeremiah saves a pew for us to hear their preaching:
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 23:17)
The people despised God’s word and followed their own hearts, but the seeming men of God met them with blessing. After all, these were sons of Abraham, God’s people. The Almighty wouldn’t really tear Israel down by the hands of Babylon — would he?
Positivity Prophets
That was then. But it is also today. Evils persist in our day. Lawlessness increases; love grows cold. It was foretold to Timothy that in the last days, people would be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, disobedient to parents, unholy, unappeasable. Babies are slaughtered in the womb; celebrities dress like prostitutes; perversion parades through the streets; God’s name is used as a piñata; we as a society have forgotten how to blush. Even many who claim religion are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:4–5). So it is.
But the other issue persists as well. In pulpits across America and beyond, some men know only how to say, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. They speak lies and half-truths. They heal the wound of religious people lightly, blessing those actively ignoring God’s word and following their own hearts. These are men who rarely mention sin. And never warn of hell. They preach as if all within earshot are already safe and sound in the kingdom. Do we who know better preach better? The market for this kind of teaching was foretold long ago:
The time is coming [and is now here] when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3–4)
To combat their buttery pulpitry, Timothy is told to do a rather risky thing: “Preach the word.”
That sounds exciting, we may think. But Paul continues: “Reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. . . . As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:2, 5). The preacher is to deal honestly with sinners (inside and outside of the church), telling them of sin, testing their convictions, offering God’s one way of escape, and risking their indignation. Courage is required. The preacher is called to care for people’s eternities, preparing them to die and stand before Christ.
Timothy, in the line of persecuted Jeremiah, will proclaim truths that will make some of his believing and unbelieving hearers angry, uneasy, frustrated — maybe even threatening. He is told to stir up his gifts by a father in the faith who is sitting in prison, ready to die for declaring the whole counsel of God. Paul calls him to faithfully preach and thus “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3).
He is to be ready to take his place next to men of old like Jeremiah, who was struck, plotted against, chained, thrown into a mud pit, and despised. While not pursuing opposition, Timothy is to expect opposition — especially from outright enemies of the church, but even from some claiming Christ’s name. As should we. Consider some entries from Jeremiah’s prayer journal:
“I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me” (Jeremiah 20:7).
“I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! ‘Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ say all my close friends, watching for my fall” (Jeremiah 20:10).
“Cursed be the day on which I was born! . . . Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:14, 18).
Jeremiah tried to walk away from his ministry, to keep silent, but God’s word became fire within him, impossible to contain (Jeremiah 20:9). Granted, Jeremiah faced hardships most of us do not face in our cities and towns. But ministers in the church at large do know such hardness, danger, and opposition — and we who are spared from such persecutions ought to stay ready to drink from the same cup. I know I have prayed too quickly for the gifting of the prophets while forgetting their suffering. We want to be used mightily for his name — praise God — not imagining that such could include enduring mighty abuse for that name.
The Sermon-Editor
A vital test, of course, will be our public teaching.
True men of God throughout the Old and the New Testaments were often opposed and persecuted. Why? Because they dealt faithfully with God’s word and with men’s souls — “Speak . . . all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word” (Jeremiah 26:2). They didn’t just rehearse all the immediately comforting parts; they spoke the hard parts too. They not only exulted, counseled, and encouraged but warned, rebuked, and confronted. They didn’t heal wounds in society or small group lightly. They would not let people within their hearing live sedately only to awake to judgment.
Do we who live with far fewer threats still choose the safer route? One that won’t stir up controversy? Avoids causing offense, though it require sacrificing truth? Keeps Christianity polite and positive and light at all costs?
It can happen subtly. Like Pavlov’s dogs, we can slowly get conditioned to salivate at affirmation. When we do, we become increasingly vulnerable to pride and dejection. The line thins between glorifying Christ and using Christ to gain personal glory. Paul reminds us that a man who assumes the sacred office of watchman, shepherd, pastor, teacher cannot be a man-pleaser. “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).
Self grows unchecked; the love of approval and the fear of man soon pulls up a desk next to ours and begins to edit our sermons. We know how easy ministry can become if we just indulge the quiet habit of cutting out a few lines that could get us in trouble, or adding a few to flatter and earn applause.
Courage Now, Glory Later
So, pastor, preacher, teacher, here is the question: What is the last sermon you preached that took Spirit-supplied courage? Christian man, what is the last conversation, small group, or family devotion that required a word from God that you knew beforehand could cost you? Who is tempted to dislike you because of Christ’s words? Who has bad-mouthed you, slandered you, gossiped about you, despised you because of your allegiance to the Bible and not abridgement?
Christ promised his early ministers, “‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours” (John 15:20). “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets [of Jeremiah’s day]” (Luke 6:26). And conversely, “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 [like Jeremiah] who were before you” (Matthew 5:11–12).
Brothers, we watch over our King’s bride, the church for which he spilled his own blood. We deal with immortal souls. Have we begun to dream that our calling is the mere nine-to-five, an earthly career, a profession for the bookish?
“An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?” (Jeremiah 5:30–31). That end did fall upon Jerusalem. A reckoning left many dismayed beyond words. Another end is coming. What will we all do when the heavens open? Let us resolve now to pay whatever price true love costs to preach his word in our generation.
Desiring God