The Lord of the Messenger (Malachi 2:1-9)

Introduction

Last week, we discussed with Malachi 1-17 the sin of the priests. They allowed careless worship into their lives, which represented a faithless heart. That warning and responsibility carries over through the New Covenant into the church because the church is a kingdom of priests (1 Pet 2:9). Today, we transition to a specific way in which the priests in Malachi’s day betrayed the covenant. They rejected the word of God. In the New Covenant era, God has given that responsibility to pastors in the church.

Explain the Passage

God commands His priests to repent (2:1). It looks like God has already been cursing the priests so He promises more curses if they don’t repent (2:2). He still giving them a chance to repent, but He’s also getting ready to throw punishment their way (“send” means “throw”). He specifically promises to curse their blessing (2:2). He will curse their offspring, which probably refers to both their physical children and their monetary wealth (2:3).

He also promises to spread excrement on their faces. God tasked the priests to be the germaphobes of Israel. They were to burn all the refuse from their sacrifices outside the temple. God is telling them that He wants them away from His presence like we want our septic tanks away from us. God is willing to punish the priests this harshly because He made a covenant with them (2:4).‌

The covenant mentioned here is the covenant given to Phineas in Numbers 25:11-13 because He had zeal for God’s name. But another example is found earlier in Exodus 32:26-29. After Israel made the golden calf, Moses entered the camp and commanded anyone who serves the Lord to follow Moses. And the tribe of Levi followed Moses, which meant they served God. Because God made a covenant with the tribe of Levi, the tribe honored God (Mal 2:5). Part of the job of the tribe was to teach God’s word to the rest of the people (2:6-7). Now, the Levites in Malachi’s day have broken the covenant; they no longer teach God’s word (2:8). Not only that, they turn from the word themselves (2:8). So, God has caused the respect that the priests once enjoyed to be taken away. They are now despised and disrespected by Israel (2:9).

The Lord of Preaching

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16

Preaching is where God’s man explains to God’s people what God’s word says in the authority of God’s Holy Spirit. You should be able to listen to a sermon and say after the service, we heard the Word of God. Preaching by definition can’t be replaced with devotional time (you’re not with God’s people) or A.I. (no ordained minister) or a spontaneous conversation (no word of God). God wants His word to have authority over His people. So, He gave the church pastors to oversee this practice. Even though God rules and reigns over devotional material and good conversations—He really uses those in our lives. God has still given preaching to the church as their main source of instruction. Why? Because God wants you submitting to Him in the context of a local church doing the same thing. Preaching has authority because God and His word have authority.‌

What should you expect from preaching? You should expect to hear God’s opinion on things. You should feel encouraged for trusting and obeying Him. You should feel convicted for sinning against Him. You should regularly learn more of what God’s will is. You should quite regularly look back on your life and say, “wow! I wish I would have known that was a sin back then.”

Why hasn’t preaching worked for you in the past? God made His covenants sticky so His blessings would stick (velcro. rough hooks and soft loops). When God’s covenant people lived by faith, they were blessed. In the older covenant or in the newer covenant (it doesn’t matter)—God blessed His people. Every time God’s people didn’t experience the blessing promised is because people stopped interacting with a sticky covenant.

Today, I think one reason we are seeing a generation who was raised in church fall away from the faith is because we didn’t want to be sticky. God blessed previous generations of Christians with big churches and powerful testimonies. Our generation has believed that the blessing is the point. We believe that power and numbers are what matter. So, we turn the church into a spiritual event planner to attract more people. We promise them blessing, but because we focus on the blessing instead of the God who blesses, we don’t get blessing. We have a generation of people who grew up in church, youth group, and VBS but were rarely preached the word of God. So, its not that preaching hasn’t worked in the past. It’s that there wasn’t much preaching at all.

Problems with Modern Preaching

Sentimental. Good preachers should use illustrations and stories. Jesus was a master story-teller. The problem with many story heavy preaching, isn’t the stories and jokes, its simply that they lead away from the word instead of toward the word. We hear a preacher spend 30 minutes telling you stories about his family, his week, his opinion of things. We leave the service saying, “he’s so humble. He’s so transparent.” The man talked about whatever he wanted for half an hour and we call him humble. But if a man opens up the bible and says what the bible says and offends people in the church, we say the man is proud. The man who humbles himself to inly repeat God’s opinions we say he’s arrogant. But the man who talks about himself we call humble.

Soul-centered. When you listen to biblical preaching, the most important thing you should hear is God’s opinion of things. But usually, in sermons, the most important thing talked about is “you.” We like sermons that speak to you right where you are. Right? Usually gives invitations and altar calls after the sermon. Trains church to doubt their salvation instead of live like a saved person. Some versions of this move outside of giving an altar call every week, but still focus mainly on inward attitudes (which isn’t wrong) while ignoring anything physical like Christian men need to be able to protect their families.

Secular Knock-off. Some preachers think their job is to Christianize every super-hero movie or social trend. I saw where one mega church redesigned their entire building to look like a Star Wars theme park. Instead of hearing God’s opinion of things you come to hear a man’s opinion of Luke Skywalker.

Caveat before I move on to the last point: you may think I’m saying any personal story or reference to a secular movie is bad. Nope. All these things are like candy, they’re easy to consume and quickly cause cavities. The main thrust of preaching shouldn’t be candy, it should be protein-rich food. But a good supper should also taste good. Good preaching involves stories, and a care for the congregation, but it shouldn’t ONLY be stories or secular knock-offs.

Spineless. Most preachers who don’t fail at the first three will fail at this one. They don’t preach where the people are or where the sins are. They ignore certain teachings like preaching against women’s sins or they ignore the sins people struggle while hiding behind sins that people don’t struggle with (e.g., preaching against racism during 2020-2021 while ignoring the fact that people haven’t attended church in months).

A preacher can preach a powerful sermon against transgenderism, but everyone may already agree. What about if in that same church, half the 20-year-olds are sleeping around with one another?

What’s Your Job with Preaching?

Despise what God despises. Despise hearing what you want to hear.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4:3–4

 Imagine having your tastebuds so acquired to good home-cooking that fast food makes you sick. Our hunger for God’s word should be the same.

Say Yes Lord!

To the degree the preacher is preaching God’s word, you are responsible for obeying it. You don’t get off the hook if he likes a different football team than you or he doesn’t crack enough jokes. You should come every Sunday ready to obey. ‌

Conclusion

We pray for revival in our land. Do you not realize that God offers revival for you every week? Every week, God speaks to you from His word. God’s word has the power of creating and re-creating. The question isn’t if there will be change, the question is if you will be changed.