Jeremiah 26:12-15 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the
people; "The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city
all the things you have heard.  Now reform your ways and your actions and
obey the Lord your God.  Then the Lord will relent and not bring the
disaster he has pronounced against you.  As for me, I am in your hands;
do with me whatever you think is good and right.  Be assured, however,
that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood
on yourselves and this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the
Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."

Have you heard the report?  They have found the bones and remains of
Jesus and his family!  At least that's what we are being told.  There's
going to be a whole show on TV to help all of us see and understand the
reality of what's been found.
Of course, there are the things they haven't told you.  They haven't told
you that in fact these ossuaries and graves have been known since 1980.
I doubt if they will tell you that these ossuaries are connected to the
James ossuary proclaimed a couple of years ago and proven to be a fake.
They probably won't tell you that the dating they have is actually off.
You will probably hear that these date from the Herodian period of
Israel.  The website I visited made a big deal of this and gave the dates
as 1b.c. to 1 a.d.  The actual dates for the Herodian period, Herod the
Great that is: 37 to 4 b.c.  They will tout the "dna testing" done.  But
all that did was prove that none of the people in that tomb were related.
 Of course, they are not even sure that the bones in any given box, if
there were any, are from one person even.
Doesn't it strike you as interesting that here we have once again an
attack on the very heart and core of Christianity.  I say once again
because I clearly remember that last Lent / Easter season it was the
Gospel of James promoted and used to slam our faith.  Actually as I think
about it, I think things like this have been happening for the last
several years during this period of time, it's just that they are getting
bolder and bolder.
What would I say of all of this?  I am not moved.  I do not believe that
they have found the remains of Jesus the Son of God because I believe
that Jesus the Son of God rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.  I
do not believe that Jesus had a wife and child or any other such thing.
These are simply the modern world's way of attacking our faith,
belittling the truth of God and yes, persecuting, understand what I am
saying, persecuting those who continue to believe as fools and idiots not
worthy of listening too.  And although we are considered a "violent and
hate filled religion" I wonder why you don't see such reports like this
about Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism and the like?
But do you think all of this new to the faith?  The truth of the matter
is that God's truth and God's people have been persecuted and condemned
for centuries.  It is something that happened to God's prophets of the
Old Testament.  Something that happened to God's Son Jesus while he was
here on earth being our Savior and even something that has happened to
New Testament believers almost from the get go.
Let's look at this text before us and see what it is that we can expect
from the world and even the Church.  Our theme will be: ATTENTION GOD'S
PEOPLE.  1st. You will be attacked and hated.  2nd. You have nothing to
fear.
The history before us is that of Jeremiah, God's prophet of many years to
the people of Jerusalem and Judah.  Jeremiah served under the last kings
of Judah.  His ministry began under Josiah the last believing King of
Judah and ended shortly after seeing Babylon destroy Jerusalem and carry
into captivity the Jews.  You can well imagine that Jeremiah had a
colorful and very interesting life.
To begin, Jeremiah's ministry actually started under King Josiah the last
believing king of Judah.  That means that Jeremiah had the favor of the
king and was considered by the people of Judah to be a servant and
prophet of God Almighty.  However, he wasn't considered a prophet because
of the King's favor, but rather had shown himself a prophet of God
because what Jeremiah said and foretold always came true!  That was the
mark of the prophet.  And what is most interesting in all of this is that
although Jeremiah was later rejected please note that his Book and record
was accepted by the Jewish people and included in their Bible.  I am
always amazed by that.  Jeremiah's book is anything but complimentary to
the Jewish people and yet Jeremiah's book they consider to be God's Word!
 Even after they killed Jeremiah for being a false prophet they still
recognized that Jeremiah was a prophet of God.  How interesting!
What was Jeremiah's fault?  He preached and taught exactly what God told
him too!  God wanted his people to repent of their godlessness.  If they
did not, God simply stated that he would then have Jerusalem destroyed
and Judah carried into captivity.  The people didn't like what was said.
The people didn't want to hear that they were sinners who had turned away
from the true worship to a worship of idols and falsehoods.  So they
persecuted Jeremiah.  They threatened him, imprisoned him, more than once
tried to kill him and eventually did kill him.  I like Jeremiah's
attitude in all of this.  Did you catch that in our text?  Jeremiah says,
"As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and
right.  Be assured, however, that if you put me to death you will bring
the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those
who live in it, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all
these words in your hearing."  Jeremiah while afraid, didn't back away
from God's truth.  His attitude is really one of "I would rather die than
deny or abandon the truth of God."
Jump to the New Testament.  Do you see someone who is exactly in the
position of Jeremiah?  His name is Jesus.  But Jesus was a bit different.
 For three years of his life Jesus went around doing miracles and things
such as had never been seen in Israel before and on a scale that had
never even been imagined.  Jesus by his life and through his miracles
showed that he was exactly what God had promised his Son and the Savior
of the world would be.  Yet do we see Jesus lauded and welcomed as the
miracle he was?  No.  We see Jesus spied on, lied about, put to all sorts
of trick questions and eventually rejected.  Then we see Jesus arrested,
ridiculed, completely hated and killed.  Do note that when they tried
Jesus they had to pay false witnesses to testify because they had nothing
else.  When the false witnesses didn't work the High Priest puts Jesus
under oath and asks him, "Are you the Son of God?"  The "yes" of Jesus is
what they condemn him on.  They didn't weigh the facts, didn't consider
the evidence or anything like that.  They had already made up their minds
because of their hatred of Jesus.  So Jesus was killed.
You see, they hated Jesus because he brought the truth of God.  He said
in essence, "You are sinners and you need to repent.  You are not
basically good and wonderful people but people who fall far short of the
perfection of God.  But God loves you.  God has sent me to be your
atoning sacrifice just as your religion has proclaimed.  God has sent me
to die for you, to rise from the dead and to grant to the world
forgiveness and eternal life.  Just believe in me.  Believe in me on the
evidence of the miracles and because of the truth of God's Word that I
fulfill."  That's what they killed him for.  They killed him because his
message was about the need for God's forgiveness.  They didn't want to be
forgiven.  They didn't want to be sinners.  They didn't want the truth of
God and God's love forever.
The disciples were treated the same.  Christians throughout the world
over have been treated the same.  God's Word has been maligned and
rejected in the same way.  It is still going on for the very same
reasons.  The world doesn't want to hear about its need for repentance
and forgiveness.  The world doesn't want a God who does it all for them.
So they reject, ridicule and persecute what is of and from God.
Those are the facts.  That is the truth of the way it is.  Unfortunately
the real hard truth is that most of the attacks come from the church
itself.  In Jeremiah's day it was the priesthood and leaders of the
church who rejected and killed him.  In Jesus' day it was the priesthood
and leaders of the church who rejected and killed him.  In History the
greatest threat to the church has always come from within the church, so
many so-called Christian scholars who don't believe in the Bible or Jesus
or even heaven and hell.  But hey, it's a good living, this Christian
stuff.  And since they are usually the majority people tend to believe
their lies and false faith.  Those are the facts of this world.
Please don't panic.  Please take the attitude of Jeremiah. "As for me, I
am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right.  Be
assured, however, that if you put me to death you will bring the guilt of
innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in
it, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in
your hearing."  Trust in God and his Word.  Trust that God knows what's
going on and that God has his purpose and will being fulfilled no matter
what.  Please don't panic.  Please have faith.
Jeremiah had faith.  He was killed for that faith and in that death was
given eternal life.  Such is true of so many of God's prophets and
people.
Jesus didn't panic.  Of course, Jesus knew exactly what was going on.  It
scared him (please think about him in Gethsemane praying and understand
his human side didn't want to go to suffer and die so horribly)!  But
Jesus knew what would be.  He knew he would rise from the dead.  He knew
he could and would win the victory for us.  He knew that God's plan was
being carried out for the good of the souls of the world.  For our good.
For our salvation.
The world will still hate and attack Jesus and those that are his.  Don't
panic.  God is with us.  It may seem that the world is winning (like when
Jesus was dying on the cross) but they are not.  God promises us the
victory.  We are promised forgiveness and eternal life.  We are promised
that one day all things will be made right and that God's forever kingdom
of truth will be a reality.  Let the world do what it will.  Let us stand
upon God's truth and trust in God that he will always deliver our souls
to himself.  That's what our faith is about.  Total, complete, unabashed
trust in God and his redemptive work for us.  Keep the faith.  Amen.