It Is A Dangerous Business Opening A Bible
Text: Jeremiah 26:1-15 and Luke 11:14-28
In the
name of Jesus: Amen.
It is
a dangerous business opening a Bible, for when a Bible is preached, read, and
heard, some will receive it with joy, and others will be offended. And once offended, these individuals will
attempt to close the Bible by silencing the person who opened it in the first
place. But if they are unsuccessful in
closing the Bible, well… they will then go to work on attacking the person who
opened the Bible.
But
why the resistance to an open Bible? It is because the Bible is light, and
people love darkness more than light. In
other words, the Bible is light because Jesus is light. Keep in mind that Jesus
is not only at the center of the Bible but is also the author. And so, when the Bible is preached, read,
sung, spoken, and illustrated, it is light streaming into a world of darkness.
But as already mentioned, when the light confronts darkness, people run for the
shelter of darkness. Like a scurrying
cockroach, the sinful nature won’t come near the light of the Bible. The sinful nature is addicted to evil, hates
the light, and is addicted to living in denial and illusions.
This
is what we clearly see in our reading from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah, a prophet to the kingdom of Judah, stood in the court of the Lord’s
house and spoke the Word. The light of
God’s Word collided with hard hearts resulting in the religious leaders seizing
Jeremiah and saying, “You shall die!” The
religious leaders were going to muzzle Jeremiah through death because they did
not want God’s Word preached into their darkness. For them, it was better to have a dead
Jeremiah and a closed Bible than a preaching Jeremiah and convicted ears.
Contrary
to what you and I might think, this happens frequently today. In America, it is not uncommon to come across
churches where parishioners are fighting against their pastor by pressuring him
to close the Bible. Without realizing
it, these parishioners are trying to protect their sinful nature from God’s
Word. In fact, it is not uncommon for
churches to run a pastor out of town for daring to open the Bible. After the pastor has been run out of town,
the church hires a new pastor to close the Bible and tickle ears. Yes, I am not kidding you, pastors are often
hired to protect parishioner from God in His Word.
And
pastors? Well, we feel the pressure to close the Bible as well and tell silly
stories or teach silly myths that tickle the congregation’s ears. Pastors always feel the temptation to keep
their church at ease, so that they are liked by their parishioners. Pastors know that an open Bible is not only
unpopular in our society, but it will also confront the sinful nature of
Christians in the church resulting in the pastor's popularity going down.
Dear
friends, know this today, your sinful nature loves the dark. Your sinful nature
loves spiritual junk food. Your sinful nature loves catchy opinions, silly stories,
empty self-improvement formulas, and pious principles rooted in
self-determination. As long as the Bible
remains closed, your sinful nature is content.
And
for me, as your pastor, my weekly temptation is to close the Bible so that I
might preach in a way to be liked by you and not suffer the consequence of your
sinful nature lashing out at me for God’s Word.
To the
point, a church that pressures their pastor to close the Bible, and a pastor
who does not have the courage to open the Bible, results in a church and pastor
that not only permit darkness but a church and pastor that are against
Christ. If we are not with Christ, we
are against Him.
Lord
have mercy on you and me too. God help
us both. God forgive us both.
In our
reading from the Gospel of Luke, it is quite evident that the religious leaders
were unable to successfully close the Bible. In other words, throughout the
Gospels, we hear that Jesus had such a large following of people that the
religious leaders were unable to shut him up.
So, as a result, they played one of the oldest tricks in the book; they
went personal.
You
see, personal attacks ignore the topic at hand, and instead attack the
character and motives of the person delivering the message. These personal
attacks do not address the issue at hand, but they go around and attack the
character of the person. And once the
person’s character is destroyed? Well, everything
else that the person says can be written off as null and void.
Concerning
Jesus, He had just got done casting out a demon from a mute man. The exorcism was not only a profound miracle
but clearly showed Jesus’ power over darkness. In chess terms, Jesus’ exorcism
was a checkmate over darkness. His exorcism was like a mic-drop. But the
religious leaders could not top the exorcism of Jesus. And so, instead of dealing with the exorcism
of Jesus, they went around to Jesus’s character and accused Him of using the
power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons.
Do you
see how sly this technique is? Instead
of engaging the message and works of Jesus, they pulled back and went around to
take a cheap-shot on the character and power of Jesus. In other words, they didn’t deny Jesus’ power
in exercising the demon from the mute man but attributed Jesus’ power to
darkness. Their goal was to ruin Jesus’
character, which would dismiss everything else from that point forward as a
work of darkness.
Dear
friends, how tempting it is for us to shut the Word of God when we attack the
character of the person who opened the Bible.
We all
know what this looks like and sounds like.
For example, a new preacher from the seminary begins a call in an old
established church. For the first 3 to 4
months, things go quite well. However,
the pastor’s latest sermon hit a little too close to home for some of the
members. Later that week at the local café, several of the members began to
discuss the sermon. They expressed their
uneasiness and then one of the members said, “You know he is awfully young to be a pastor.” And another member nodded their head and
said, “I think you are right, he probably
hasn’t learned the ways of the church quite yet. So green!” Now, what has just happened is that the young
pastor faithfully opened the Bible and preached it; however, the members pushed
back against the Word by discrediting the pastor’s character of being too
young. This kind of talk is not only slanderous, but it pulls the rug out from
underneath the pastor, allowing the members to disregard Word of God from that
point forward.
But
should we all blindly just accept whatever comes forth from a pulpit? By no
means! As a church, we are called to
follow in the footsteps of the Berean Church.
We follow by enthusiastically receiving from preachers but with
discernment. As a church, we should always be examining the Scriptures every
day to see if what the preacher says is true.
And
so, dear friends, we must always guard ourselves against dismissing what a
pastor preaches and teaches based upon the pastor’s age, looks, and heritage. This is not only breaking the eighth
commandment, but it is also cutting ourselves off from the light of the Gospel,
which leaves us in the darkness of sin. And pastors who let churches and people
look down upon them because of their age, looks, and heritage, are not remaining
steadfast in the preaching of Christ-crucified.
The pastor should give no attention to personal attacks but should stay
focused on the Word. To loosely paraphrase
Martin Luther,
“God once spoke through the
mouth of a donkey; therefore, no preacher should be discredited based on how
simple he may be. On the other hand, God
permitted the highest angel to fall from heaven; therefore, no preacher should
be trusted based on how wise, holy, or great he may seem to be. You should rather give a hearing to what is
said, not the appearance.”
Baptized
Saints, you are people redeemed from darkness to light so that you may be
people of the Word. When you were in
darkness, the Bible was a closed book to you.
But not now! The Lord purchased
and won you from darkness, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious
blood and His innocent suffering and death.
And now, as Christians, you are given ears to hear from an open
Bible. So, hear! And hear often! Discern the content of the Word that is
taught to you. Hear, read, mark, learn, and
inwardly digest God’s Word. Embrace and
ever hold fast to the Word that is open to you.
Hear God’s Word unto your repentance.
Hear God’s Word for the strengthening of your faith.
You
are forgiven for the times you attempted to close the Bible. You are forgiven
for the times where you tried to silence God’s Word. And I am forgiven as well for the times that
I chose to be well-liked rather than faithful to the Word of God.
It is
indeed a dangerous business to open the Word of God - dangerous for the devil
and especially for our sinful old Adam, for the Word is the power of God unto
our salvation. It is the dynamite of God
that not only reveals our sin but reveals and delivers Christ to us for the
forgiveness of our sins.
In the
name of Jesus. Amen.
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