After The Fall Of Jerusalem

AFTER THE FALL OF JERUSALEM

Tonight (Wednesday, 9/4, 7:00 pm), gather with your Calvary Chapel family in the Holy Grounds Cafe or on our website (www.calvaryinv.com), Facebook, and YouTube (Calvary Inverness) as we continue in the book of Jeremiah (40-45).

Jeremiah faithfully prophesied to the Southern Kingdom, Judah, for forty-plus years. Each day, he would awake, listen to God, and go and stand before the King, the princes, the priests, and the people to give them the Word of the Lord.

Each sermon warned of God's judgment on those who refused to obey and of God's reward for those who obeyed. This was the pattern of ministry that Jeremiah carried out. No matter how much he was mocked, ridiculed, or threatened with prison or loss of life, he proclaimed God's judgment and love.

Now that Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians, he was given a choice to go with the captives who had survived the 30-plus-month siege or remain behind with the poorest of the people.

Jeremiah chose to stay and minister to the people. Jewish tradition states that he even allowed himself to be put in shackles with the other prisoners to identify with his fellow countrymen.

One would think that since the siege was over and the threat of death had been removed, Jeremiah's prophetic ministry would be easier. The people would have seen the consequences of disobedience and readily accepted God's Word as the way to live.

However, the people did not listen to God or His prophet. Instead, they lived, even though they verbally acknowledged God, as though He did not exist. To make matters worse, they would ask Jeremiah to pray for them so that they may know God's will, and when they were answered, they either ignored or attacked Jeremiah for being, in their minds, a false prophet.

Jeremiah could have easily given up. And who would blame him? The people remained obstinate. He was verbally accosted, physically beaten, kidnapped, and threatened with death.

But Jeremiah's love for God and his people would not allow him to abandon them. He remained faithful to God and continued his ministry.

And when the day came for him to die, he closed his eyes on earth and awakened in heaven to a raucous celebration of those who had gone before him, hearing the words from the throne of God: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt 25:21).

Please pray that this journey through the Word of God will be received by open hearts that long to grow in Jesus' grace and Knowledge. Moreover, He would do deep and abiding work in and through us for a world in desperate need of a Savior.

In His Strong Love,

Pastor