“You must go to everyone I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

Yun was just sixteen years old, living in China, when he heard that there was a book that told how one could get to heaven. An old man told him that he had seen the book with his own eyes. Yun was captivated by the possibility. He felt he had to see such a book for himself. Sadly the old man told him it was far away, over thirty-five miles away, too far to walk in rural China and Yun had no bicycle.

Despite the distance and the dangers Yun just had to see this book, called The Bible. He went and the words of this book changed him and his life. It is worth noting that Isaiah the prophet declared that Word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. (Is 55.11) In Yun’s case it was sent to create faith, faith that changed the course of his life.

Despite the hardships, Yun was able to get a Bible of his own, which he poured over; he studied and studied it. Jesus once said about a man who found a great and wondrous pearl: He sold everything he had to obtain that pearl. (Matthew 13.44) How often are we no different from Yun, treasuring so many things over the words of an eternal God ? How many times do we take the Word of God for granted, words Yun made such a perilous journey to hear?

Yun joined a group of Christians and together they began to go village to village telling about Jesus, the cross, the empty tomb, and salvation. We’d like to think it all went well for him and his fellow believers but it didn’t. What they were doing was illegal and they were often stopped, harassed, and beaten by the police.

Yun came up with a way around the problem. He had read in 1st Samuel 21 where David once pretended to be crazy to escape from his enemies. When the police would come Yun would do the same thing- making a spectacle of himself until the police, thinking he was crazy, would leave, and he would then continue teaching the precious Word of God.

Yun didn’t always fool the police; he would serve terms in prison for his teaching. Despite the torture he considered it worth the sacrifice. Prison, after all, was but another mission field. (this story is from the book Jesus Freaks)

We ought to thank God for those who set aside other things and translated the Word of God into Chinese and other languages - for by and through that Word the Holy Spirit works to create real faith, a faith that brings with it real enlightenment, forgiveness, and salvation.

We hear stories like these and some of us are inspired, others are unmoved, and others are filled with fear at the prospect of suffering even ridicule for telling others about the Word of God. Some of us are fearful that if we were called to tell others about Jesus we’d falter or not know what to say or how to answer even the simplest of objections or questions. We are in good company. In our lesson today we heard that Jeremiah balked too when the opportunity to tell others the Words of God, when the commission to speak on behalf of God was given to him. “Ah, Sovereign Lord,… I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” Translation: there are others much more qualified with credentials and training, with stature and eloquence. Pick them not me. Besides, these people you send me are too stubborn and hard of hearing when it comes to Your word.

To these objections the Lord says to Jeremiah and the Jeremiah in all of us: 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.

Just as Jeremiah was set apart, known of, even before he was born, we, too, have been appointed and set apart. Look to our baptism. God made provisions for us long ago that we would be washed clean of our sin, brought into His family, and equipped by the Holy Spirit to study, learn, and know His Word. We, too, have been called and commissioned to go and speak His Word to an often stubborn people. Jesus says in the last chapter of Matthew: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing…. (and) teaching them. (28.19)

Our text continues: 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 appointed you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build, and to plant. The words that he spoke were not his words but the Words of God. These words had power and authority. It is these same Words that Jesus spoke that the people marveled at and were moved by.

Well, we also are to speak the Word of God, and we don’t have to wait for a revelation from God, the times for that have passed. We are to tell the stories of Jesus: of the stable- God joining Himself to our humanity and dwelling with us; to share the wonder of His miracles- truly He did again and again what only God could do that we would know who He was, and to teach His parables- the profound wisdom of God over and against the our earthly thinking. We are to proclaim the cross- Jesus dying in our stead, earning for us full forgiveness for all our sins- even our sins of indifference to His Word, our hesitation, doubt, and rebellion at proclaiming it, and all the rest of our self-centered idolatrous sins. Because of the cross we have forgiveness!

We are to make known the power of the empty tomb- He was dead and yet rose again, again that we would know He has the power to truly forgive and grant eternal life. We are to teach of His ascension into heaven and that He is coming again very soon. We are to study and share the wisdom of God found recorded on the pages of the Bible.

By the working of the Holy Spirit who dwells richly within us we are drawn to do this and more; we can be inspired to do this by the knowledge given us that despite our sinful pasts and sinfulness even now we are forgiven and we are still His forgiven children; Just as Jeremiah did not do these things of his own accord we too are lifted up to do these things and more, to endure incredible hardships because of whose we are- we are Christians who bear on them the seal of Him who died and rose again. We can do this and more because of the faithful witnesses who have gone and even now go before us. Jim Elliot, a modern day missionary who was martyred said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” - he is no fool who gives up even his earthly life to gain what he cannot lose, eternal life.

Mosih, a young Moslem man living in Pakistan argued with Christian students. He couldn’t understand their opinion. Eventually they humbly offered to help him learn more about the Jesus written of so differently in their Bibles. He had many questions which they answered sometimes again and again.

Mosih took his questions to Muslim clerics who “told him not to be deceived by those Christians.” He pressed them for answers to questions they could not or would not answer to his satisfaction. Eventually, he compared the texts of the Koran and the Bible and slowly was brought to the realization that the Koran did not tell the whole story about Jesus. In his heart he realized that Jesus was the truth and any sincere student of the truth must follow it. And follow it he did, even though he would be disowned by his family and under the real threat of death, he was driven into hiding far from home. Still he is glad, happy in Christ and now helps to tell other Muslims about his Jesus, the one, he found written about in the Bible. (from the book Jesus Freaks) St. Paul once wrote to Timothy, Truly, the Scriptures can make you wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. (2 Tim 3.15)

All around us are people who need, like us, to hear the wonderful and life-changing message of salvation, a message boldly recorded in the pages of the Bible. I pray that God who creates in us the desire to study this message, share this message and support others who travel to far and/or difficult places to share this message. May we give thanks to those who are gifted to share and/or translate the message in other languages so peoples of every language, tribe, nation, and race may hear the Good News.