Jeremiah 1:4-10 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Before I formed
you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I
appointed you as a prophet to the nations."  "Ah, Sovereign Lord," I
said, " I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."  But the Lord
said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.'  You must go to everyone I
send you to and say whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord.  Then the Lord
reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have
put my words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations and
kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and
to plant."

 Jeremiah was a prophet of God.  If there is any section of God's Word
that helps us to grasp just what the job of the prophet was, it is this
section.  Did you catch the line that said, "Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you and will rescue you?"  To be a prophet took courage.
Jeremiah wasn't the only prophet who struggled with being God's
spokesman.  It seems that every prophet of God, the true prophets of God
struggled, struggled because people didn't want to hear the Word of the
Lord.
 There's the problem!  People don't want to hear the truth of God.
That's not my personal assessment, that's what God's Word clearly
reveals.  As you look at the history of God's saving activity in the
world that's what sticks out.  As you look at the declarations of God
himself, that's the truth that sticks out.
 Take for instance the words of Matthew 7:13-14.  Jesus said, Enter
through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that
leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate
and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  The
path of salvation is narrow and few find it because Jesus is the path and
few want to hear his truth and wisdom.  The path of salvation is
believing completely that you are going to go to heaven because of Jesus
and his gift of eternal life.  You don't earn it or deserve it.  For that
matter you and I are in such a state naturally that without faith in
Jesus all we face is eternal death and damnation.  By nature we are
enemies of God and it is only God, working through his Holy Spirit, that
can change us.  He changes us by calling us to faith in Jesus.  And that
faith comes from hearing the Word, not just any word, but the Word of God
as God gave it in the Bible.
 That was the job of the prophets and later on of the Apostles and
evangelists.  Their job was to record for us the Word of God.  It wasn't
what they did on their own, it was what the Holy Spirit lead them to
write.  And what they wrote and passed down to us is, in every jot and
tittle, the inspired and inerrant Word of God.  And though we have this
truth in plain language mankind still does not want to hear it.
 That was the problem that Jeremiah had.  That was the problem that faced
Jesus.  So let's look at what this text reveals about prophets.  Our
theme will be: APPOINTED TO SPEAK.  1st. To speak God's Word.  2nd. To
speak for God's purpose.
 As we look at this text what we learn is how Jeremiah was chosen, more
than that, was formed, sent and prepared even in the womb to be a
servant, a "prophet" of God.  A few things of note here.  First, to be a
prophet did not mean that you were a foreteller of the future.  It is
true, that on occasion the prophets were allowed to see and speak of
things in the future, but in almost every instance those things were
related to and all about God's future plans for our souls.  In truth,
foretelling the future was a minor part, a very minor part of what a
prophet did.  First and foremost, a prophet was a spokesman, someone who
spoke on behalf of and represented another.  For those men called of God
to serve in this role, they were prophets of God.  Men who were called to
speak God's Word, to reveal God's will and God's saving activity.
 Jeremiah was such a man.  Please note what I briefly mentioned before.
Jeremiah wasn't just picked at random for this job.  God reveals that
Jeremiah was born and actually formed for this very purpose.  Our text
said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I
set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."  Jeremiah,
it is revealed, was chosen as a prophet of God even before he came into
being.  God knew what he needed in a prophet, knew what this man would
have to be and endure, and God reveals that he formed and shaped Jeremiah
just for this task.  One pastor said of this verse: "An artist seeks a
suitable piece of marble which he can shape into that object his mind has
conceived.  God does not need to seek his material, He creates it to suit
His purpose.  He was determined to have a prophet unto the nations, and
with that in mind, He formed and shaped Jeremiah's body and soul.  While
not changing the manner in which sinful parents beget sinful children, He
gave to this child the character, the temperament, the gifts and talents
which would qualify him for his high and important office."  Isn't that
an awesome thing to grasp and realize?
 Recognize the same is true of Jesus but in a slightly different way.  I
point this out to you because Jeremiah does indeed serve as a "type" of
Christ, a picture of what we will find in the Savior.  As God set apart
and appointed Jeremiah for his task of prophet so the Lord also did with
Jesus.  He shaped and formed Jesus in the womb to be able to meet and
handle the tasks and assignments that would be his as the Savior of the
world.  The only difference was that Jesus was the Son of God sent for
this important office.
 What did Jeremiah and Jesus do?  Look at what verse 9-10 say, "Then the
Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now, I
have put my words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations
and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build
and to plant."  What these words tell us is that Jeremiah was prepared,
set apart and appointed to preach the Word of God that God directly gave
him.  It was not an easy task.  Jeremiah was persecuted, mocked, put in
prison several times, deported, dragged to Egypt, completely rejected and
as tradition holds, Jeremiah was eventually sawn in half by his own
people.  Yet Jeremiah faithfully proclaimed the Word of God.  It brought
him trouble and turmoil but he still faithfully told the people the truth
of God.
 We see that same thing in Jesus' life.  Oh, it's true that at first the
people rallied around Jesus but that was because of the miracles.  As
soon as they realized what Jesus was teaching they turned.  A prime
example of this truth is in our Gospel reading.  There was the account of
Jesus and his preaching in Nazareth.  He used the prophet Isaiah to point
out that He was the fulfillment of God's Word.  For that matter, the
people would have clearly understood that Jesus was proclaiming himself
the Messiah sent from God.  They took him out to kill him!  It was only
because of his miraculous powers that Jesus' life was spared.  Imagine
that, wanting to kill a guy because he speaks of sin and how God was
going to deliver from sin!  This was the first taste of how the people
were going to treat Jesus.  Eventually they would kill Jesus.  They would
take this guy who did nothing but good, who showed them the truth, who
told them that's what they would do and they proved him right.  Thank
goodness that God took that foolishness on their part and made it work
for the eternal salvation of the world.  All of this because of the
preaching of the Word, that preaching that revealed God's plan of
salvation!
 There is one other thing I would like to point out about this text and
what it reveals.  Please note that verse 10 is the description of the
impact of the Word that the prophet would speak.  It said, "See, today I
appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy
and overthrow, to build and to plant."  The Word still does those things.
 In Jeremiah's day his message was on the judgment of God upon the people
of Israel for their abandonment of God and his Word.  God told them point
blank he was going to destroy the nation and then, after an exile of 70
years, would bring them back to rebuild the nation.  God told them also
that the only reason he was going to do rebuild them was because of his
promises that from them would come the Messiah, the Savior of the world.
It happened just as Jeremiah said.  But get this, it was because it
happened that way that Jeremiah was so persecuted and eventually
murdered.  The people refused to believe the truth even when the truth
came true.
 For Jesus this same cycle is repeated.  It was not just a physical
destruction that Jesus would eventually usher in but with Jesus it was
also a spiritual battle, spiritual kingdoms that were taken on.  Let me
explain.
 The preaching of Jesus was indeed to serve the purpose of "uproot and
tear down, destroy and overthrow."  The people of his day needed to learn
the truth of sin and the problems it brings.  But like the people of
today, no one wanted to hear this truth.  They wanted to believe that
they were basically good and upright people, a people who when given a
chance and pointed the right way could please God and do all that God
required.  In truth people believe that they are pleasing God, meeting
all His requirements, and being a light to the world because they are
such good people.  Jesus' preaching ripped all that apart.
 Jesus taught the law in all its fury and terror.  He pointed out man's
failures and man's desperate need of God's love and forgiveness.  People
didn't like that.  Like those in Nazareth they just determined that Jesus
was some sort of hypocrite and total fool.  They rejected the message of
sin and thus they rejected Jesus.
 Don't we understand that our very selves need to be uprooted, torn down,
destroyed and overthrown?  We cannot stand on our own.  We cannot please
God or earn his favors.  This human flaw of thinking that we can rise to
God's level or that we are as good or even better than God asks of us
needs to be destroyed.  That's what the law does.  It exposes sin and
prepares for God's love.
 God's love is revealed in the Gospel.  It is revealed in Jesus dying for
us, in Jesus paying the full price for our sin and in Jesus tearing down
and destroying Satan's very kingdom.  Without Jesus and his victory we
are lost.  Jesus rebuilds us.  Jesus plants us anew and causes us to live
in the hope of eternal life.  It is only in Jesus that we have that most
precious of all gifts: forgiveness!  We are forgiven our sins and granted
eternal life in Jesus.  Jesus is the cause and hope of our life.  Note
that this gospel means nothing to the person who doesn't grasp the horror
of sin.  They don't grasp the atoning nature of Jesus' death, nor the
victorious proclamation of Jesus' resurrection.  They don't see the new
life, the reborn life that is ours in Jesus.  Yet that is the whole
purpose of Jesus.  Jesus come to destroy sin and restore God's kingdom of
eternal love by grace through faith.
 Let us thank the Lord for his prophets, for faithful men like Jeremiah
who spoke the truth despite the difficulty it brought them.  Let us
especially thank the Lord for his Son Jesus, the true and last prophet of
God who came not only to speak God's truth but to carry out God's plan
for our salvation.  Jesus took our sins upon himself.  Jesus offers us
eternal life and salvation by grace through faith.  Jesus came to show
that every prophet's message is a message that pointed to him as the
heart of everything God.
 May Jesus and His Word be our heart.  Amen.