Who Is Willing To Speak Up?
GNLCC 7/13/03 Jeremiah 38:1-9 2 Timothy 4:14-18
Have you ever had the experience in which something was going on that was not right, or something was happening that you disagreed with but you just left it alone and walked away? Only to later be bothered by your thoughts, thinking, I should have said something and spoke up for what was right or for the truth. Or maybe have you been in a situation in which you were being attacked by others, and people that you thought would speak up and say something on your behalf just remained silent trying to avoid eye contact with you.
Imagine being the Apostle Paul for just a moment. Here is a man that has risked his life time and time again to get the gospel to people who have never heard about Jesus Christ. People are continually telling him how much they love and appreciate him and what he is doing. They know that without all the sacrifices Paul had personally made to reach them, they may have never come to faith in Christ.
Then comes that day when Paul is arrested for preaching the gospel. The charge is that Paul is preaching a message that there is a leader greater king than Caesar who is worthy to be praised. In an empire in which Caesar is seen as practically a god, this was serious business. This could be seen as treason, and anybody preaching such a message or helping someone preach such a message could be put to death.
Paul is put into a dank, dark dungeon. He probably thanks God for the brothers and sisters in Christ that he can count on for their love and support at his trial. He wonders who will say what about him and about his love for Christ when his life or a long imprisonment may be on the line.
When the trial starts, Paul is shocked at what goes in the courtroom. He writes as we saw in 2 Timothy 4:16, “at my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.” Do you know how encouraging just one person speaking up would have been to Paul? No Paul stood alone. Where are the people who could have said, this man is telling the truth because Jesus changed my life.
The silence and the absence of witnesses are not due to a desire to betray Paul, but rather a fear of what might happen to them if they sided with the truth. How many of us have been there, where we know if we say something or get involved there’s going to be a price to pay, and we’re not willing to pay that kind of a price.
Larry Burkett, whom God used to help probably millions of Christians and others get their finances in order, died on the 4th of July. In an interview he had given in the 90’s, he said he made a promise to the Lord. The promise was, “Lord, I will do whatever you want me to do as long as you make it clear.” Are we willing to take that kind of a risk in surrendering our lives over to Christ? Lord I’ll do whatever you want me to do, as long as you make it clear.
In our Old Testament reading we find the prophet Jeremiah. God makes it clear to Jeremiah, that even before he was born, God had chosen Jeremiah to be somebody who would speak up for the truth. At first, Jeremiah thinks he’s too young to be used by God, but God assures him letting him know that Jeremiah will be a prophet to the nations.
This sounds like a great job. In today’s setting, Jeremiah would be an internationally known speaker talking to the likes of President Bush of the US, President Chiraq of France, President Putkin of Russia, and Prime Minister Sharon of Israel. CNN would be coming to Jeremiah to get the inside scoop of what was going to happen before it happened.
There is a downside to the job. The people that Jeremiah will be speaking to have made the decision, it is alright to worship God, so long as it does not keep them from creating other gods and doing whatever they wanted to do. It is not that unlike what we have today in our society. People were heavy into astrology and worshiping the stars.
They were in the middle of a sexual revolution in which adultery was not only running wild, it was encouraged and had found its way into the lives of the prophets and priests. Some men to get around the rules of adultery, would divorce their wives, marry someone else, divorce the second wife, and then remarry the first one.
The rich were getting greedier and greedier as they sucked everything they possibly could get out of the poor. The people created their own truth as to what was right and what was wrong. The Word of God was thrown out the window of their lives.
God calls Jeremiah to tell the people, “He’s sick of tired of all this sin, this mess, this drama, and the like. Not only that he is sending the Babylonian army from the north to destroy the city.” Most of the people never even heard of the Babylonians. They laughed at Jeremiah and made fun of him. No sooner than he finished prophesying, other prophets would get up and proclaim, “the Lord will never allow the Babylonians to come to the city. For God Himself is the protector of His people whom he loves.”
Last week, the choir sang, “if you can use anything Lord, you can use me.” How many of you know, that’s a dangerous song to sing. God is more than willing to use Jeremiah, but God leaves out some critical facts. Jeremiah begins preaching under a good king by the name of Josiah. Josiah did his best to get the people to turn back to God. But for twenty years, the only message Jeremiah preaches is repentance and change your ways for the Babylonians are coming with God’s judgment.
Do you know how foolish he must have looked? For twenty years, the prophets who preach what the people want to hear, having been saying, “God is not going to send the Babylonians.” Jeremiah has been saying God is. Who do you think has the most credibility with the people.
The people made fun of Jeremiah as he walked the streets. Here comes mister terror, terror, terror, look out the Babylonians are coming.” Jeremiah did not like the ridicule anymore than we do when people laugh at us because of our faith. The more Jeremiah preached, the worse the judgment that God was going to do to the city came out of his mouth. The city will be destroyed. The people will be slaughtered. The people who are left will go into captivity for 70 years.
Then the good king Josiah died, and his successor King Jehoiakim has no desire whatsoever to serve God. He also does not like the preaching of Jeremiah. He tells him to stop prophesying. Jeremiah has to decide whether we was going to be willing to speak up now that he had to face more than just people making fun of him. He may have to face the anger of the king.
Under Jehoiakim, Pashur the chief officer in the temple got sick and tired of all this bad news from Jeremiah. Pashur had Jeremiah beaten and thrown into prison. But locking him up could not keep what he said from happening. The Babylonians did come, and they took King Jehoiakim and a number of the rulers away as captives and demanded that ransom money be paid regularly.
The Babylonians took much of the wealth out of the city with them. The Babylonians made Zedekiah the new king. Jeremiah was preaching for twenty years before he saw what God had said would happen. Do you see why we can’t always think all we have to do is walk into a situation and bingo it changes for God.
When Zedekiah becomes king, he decides to break the agreement to send money and taxes to Babylon. The people are still doing all the things they were doing before the Babylonians came. Jeremiah starts preaching again, and before he knows it, he’s telling the people, the Babylonians are going to come back and this time completely wipe out the city. Those who survive will be slaves for 70 years in Babylon.
The other prophets prophesy, the Babylonians will not be back, and as a matter of fact in two years, Babylon will cease as a nation and we will get back everything they took from us. Just because people are telling you things you want to hear, does not mean it is the truth. God’s word is God’s word and it does not change.
Jeremiah gets so frustrated with God, he says, “that’s it God. Every time I open my mouth, nothing but bad news come out. Why can’t I have something good to share with the people.” Jeremiah wanted somebody to like him at least some of the time.
Jeremiah decides, “I will not speak up any longer for the Lord.” But then he said, “Lord why are you treating me like this. The more I try to keep my mouth shut, the more I feel this pressure building up inside of me. It’s like a fire shut up in my bones. I have to let it out. “ God said, go tell those prophets they are speaking lies in my name and that I will deal with them myself.”
Sure enough, the Babylonian comes back and surrounds the city. King Zedekiah sends secretly for Jeremiah and asks, “what’s the chances of the Lord giving us a miracle to defeat the Babylonians.” Jeremiah says, there is not a chance in the world. If you surrender yourself to the Babylonians, your lives and the lives of the soldiers will be spared. If you do not you and your sons will be killed by the Babylonians.”
King Zedekiah knew that he had not been serving God, and he preferred the message of those around him who were saying, the Babylonians will not enter this city. Jeremiah pointed out, “why are you willing to listen to the same people who said the Babylonians would never come back to this city.”
Now the king speak up and save his life and the lives of many others but he does not want to pay the price of going against the political and religious leaders around him. So he chooses to believe a lie that there is another way of escape. We see this kind of thing happening on a spiritual level around us.
Jesus has said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.” These words of Jesus rip apart our modern day insistence that every religion is okay and that you will get to God by any of them so long as you are sincere. How many of us will betray the cause of Christ by remaining silent when we hear this claim being made over and over again.
Jeremiah takes his message to the streets. He says, “Listen people, the only way you can escape the destruction that is coming on this city, is to go over to the enemy, the Babylonians, and turn yourself in. I don’t care what you might hear, the only way for you to survive is to give up before the fighting begins otherwise you will die either by the sword, the famine or the plagues that will enter the city.”
Some of the kings powerful officials get together and go to King Zedekiah and demand that Jeremiah ought to be put to death. They said he is discouraging the soldiers and the people left in the city. The king is not willing to speak up for Jeremiah, and he told the men, “I can’t do anything to oppose you, Jeremiah is in your hands.”
They go out and grab Jeremiah and put him in a cistern. They put some ropes around him and lowered him into this well that no longer had any water in it. It has nothing but mud at the bottom. Here sits a servant of God, in this dark stinking mud, with who knows how many insects and bugs there are down there with him. The mud is going up his legs. If he sits down it will cover his waist. There will be no way to lie down and go to sleep. I doubt if this is what Jeremiah had envision when God told him, I have called you to be a prophet to the nations.
So many people think, when you walk with the Lord, everything automatically goes along well in your life. Our walk with the Lord is not about how well everything is going in our lives, but rather about how well are walking with the Lord in the things that enter our lives.
Jeremiah’s crime is that when God made it plain to him what he was to do, he did it. He had been willing to speak up for the Lord. It’s amazing how we all want to be used by God, but we want to reserve the right to object to certain parts of God’s plan for us. At what point do we have the right to complain about how God is using our lives.
The Scriptures tell us to think about Jesus and what he did for us. Jesus was separated from God the Father, so that we would not have to be. Jesus went into the fires of hell, so that we would not have to go. Jesus paid for all the wrong that I have done so that we would not have to pay. It’s only when we see things from eternity’s perspective that we can begin to understand what God is doing.
I can imagine as they lower Jeremiah into the pit, Jeremiah is preparing to either die of starvation or of some disease he might get from a bite from whatever else is down there with him. He has no friends who could speak up on his behalf. Like Paul, he could say, no one spoke up on my behalf before they threw me into this pit.
But we should never forget, we do not know who God has placed in the right place to make a difference on our behalf. I do not know how he got there but there is a black man, a Cushite from Africa, who was an official in the royal palace. This black ma is named Ebed-Melech. He is a man of integrity and obviously one who loved the Lord.
Now when he hears about Jeremiah being put in the cistern, he knows that he is putting his life on the line if he tries to get involved to get Jeremiah out. But this African is willing to speak up, when everybody else kept their mouths closed. He goes and tells King Zedekiah, “These men have acted wickedly in what they did to Jeremiah. They have thrown him into the pit where he will surely starve to death.”
Now because Ebed-Melech was willing to speak up, he gave the king enough courage to stand up to the other leaders. This brother didn’t care who they were. He called them wicked men because their actions were wicked. Now before, the King had told those wicked men, “I can do nothing to oppose you.” But now that Ebed Melech was willing to speak up,. The king spoke up and said, take 30 men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out before he dies. You need to speak up in order to give somebody courage to speak and do the right thing.
Ebed-melch went and found some old rags and let them down with ropes to where Jeremiah was. Jeremiah’s skin was already becoming raw under the arm pits. Ebed-melech told Jeremiah to put the clothes around him under his arms so that they could pull him up out of the cistern. As the men pulled Jeremiah one way, the black mud tried to pull him back the other way. They finally got him to the top and held him in the courtyard. He looked an absolute mess and smelled even worse. But he still is willing speak up for the Lord. He was held as a prisoner in the courtyard until the Bablyonians entered the city.
But Jeremiah kept on speaking up for the Lord. God looked with favor on Ebed-melech for his willingness to speak up. He told Jeremiah, say to Ebed-melech, I am about to bring disaster on this city and you will see it before your eyes, but I will rescue you on that day and you will not be handed over to those you fear. I will save you and you will escape with your life, because you trust in me.
If Ebed-melech had not been willing to risk paying the price of speaking up, he would have been slaughtered by the Babylonians when they captured the city. But God intervened on his behalf. Friends what position has God placed us in which we need to speak up, but we continue to be silent.
Are we afraid of losing a friendship, a job, a position? Are we afraid of ridicule and rejection? Ultimately whether or not we speak up, will be dependent on just how much we trust God to handle our lives after we are faithful to him. Jeremiah’s life lets us know, it’s not going to be easy, but Jesus assures us, but it will be worth it.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
GNLCC 7/13/03 Jeremiah 38:1-9 2 Timothy 4:14-18
A. The Experience Of Seeing Something Wrong
1. The Nagging Reminder, You Should Have Said
2. Sometimes Others Will Not Speak Up
3. The Apostle Paul & His Prison Experience
4. No Witnesses, Not Testimony, All Alone
5. Silence Not Intended To Hurt—Just Price Too High
B. Larry Burkett—Christian From Money Matters
1. Went Home To Be With The Lord
2. Promise Made
3. I Will Do Whatever You Want Me To Do As Long
As You Make It Clear
4. Will You Accept This Kind Of Risk
C. The Call Of Jeremiah
1. Chosen By God In The Womb
2. Called To Be A Prophet To The Nations
3. Today An International Speaker To Presidents
4. CNN Would Be Interested
D. Downside To The Job
1. Worship God As Well As Others
2. Astrology & Stars Rule The Day
3. The Sexual Revolution In Judah
4. Rules To Legally Commit Adultery
5. The Rich Get Richer The Poor Oppressed
E. The Message To Be Preached
1. God Is Sick And Tired Of It All
2. Babylonians From The North
3. God’s Judgment On The Way
4. King Josiah Offers Help—20 Year Message
5. Prophets—God Loves Us Too Much For Judgment
6. Issue Of Credibility
F. A Prophet Being Ridiculed & Jailed
1. Here Comes Mr. Terror, Terror, Terror
2. More Preaching—More Bad News
3. City Will Be Destroyed –70 Years Exiled
4. New King Jehoiakim—Does Not Want To Hear It
5. Pashur Beats Jeremiah & Locks Him Up
6. Babylonians Come & Take King Jehoiakim
7. Much Of The Wealth Goes To Babylon
G. Babylonians Appoint Zedekiah To Be The New King
1. People Continue Doing The Same Things
2. Jeremiah Starts Preaching The Babylonians
Will Return
3. False Prophets—They Won’t Be Back & We Will
Get What We Lost In Just Two Years
4. Jeremiah Is Frustrated With God
5. Wants A New Message To Share Or Else
6. No Longer Willing To Speak But New Problem
7. Fire Shut Up In My Bones
8. Call The Liars, Liars For Me
H. The Babylonians Return To The City
1. King Zedekiah—What Are My Chances
2. Jeremiah—Surrender & You Will Live
3. A King Who Will Not Risk Alienating Power
4. Choosing To Believe A Lie
6. Is Jesus Who He Claimed To Be
7. Jeremiah Takes His Message To The Street
8. Surrender & Live Or Remain And Die
I. The Political Establishment Gets Upset
1. The Leaders Want Revenge On Jeremiah
2. King Zedekiah Backs Down For Fear
3. A King That Will Not Speak Up
4. Jeremiah Is Seized And Arrested
5. Lowered Into A Cistern—Pit Of Mud
6. Insects, Bugs, Smells & A Lot More
7. Not The Job Of Prophet To The Nations
J. God Never Promised—Follow Me & It All Goes Well
1. Not How Well It’s Going, But How Well Are We
Walking
2. The Crime—I Did What God Told Me To Do
3. God’s Plan Is A Package Deal
4. Remember What Jesus Did For Us
5. Jeremiah Must Have Thought All Hope Was Lost
6. Is There Anybody Left To Speak Up
7. Never Underestimate God.
H. God Has An African Named Ebed-Melech
1. Ebed-Melech –Willing To Speak Up
2. Went To King Zedekiah & Told It Like It Was
3. A King Gets Courage To Do The Right Thing
4. An African Comes To Jeremiah’s Rescue
5. Jeremiah Continues To Speak For The Lord
6. Ebed-Melech Gets A Promise From The Lord
7. It Pays To Trust In The Lord
8. Let God Use You Right Where You Are
9. It Will Be Worth It
