Sermon Notes — Medina Community Church

Key Passage · ESV

Micah 3:1–3 Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?— you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones, who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron. Micah 3:4–7 Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil. Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry ‘Peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision… they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Micah 3:9–12 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, ‘Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.’ Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

My Notebook

Part One

Ruled by Appetite

Micah 3:1–7

Four weeks ago God confronted idolatry. Then He exposed the schemers. Last week Israel answered with three words: do not preach.

Chapter 3 shows what it looks like when they get what they want. Twice we are told the same thing: He will not answer.

This time the focus is the leaders. Rulers, prophets, priests, everyone whose job was to stand between God and the people.

Micah opens with a basic question: Is it not for you to know ¹? That was the one thing a ruler existed to do.

The most disturbing picture in the book: rulers meant to feed the flock were feeding on the flock.

The people cried to these rulers for justice and got nothing. Now the rulers cry to God and get nothing. The ² they gave is the silence they receive.

The prophets carry the same disease in different clothes. Feed the prophet and God is pleased with you. Stop feeding him and God is suddenly furious.

Their message depended entirely on their own ³. Israel wanted a preacher of wine and strong drink (2:11), and here he is, for a meal.

When anything but God fills you, you can no longer ⁴ Him.

Reflect · If you hold any position of trust, as a parent, a boss, an elder, or a friend someone leans on, are you feeding the people in your sphere or feeding on them?

Part Two

Filled With the Spirit

Micah 3:8

But as for me. Among rulers filled with plunder and prophets filled with bribes, one man from a farming town names what fills him.

Power, the Spirit of the LORD, justice and might, given so he could declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

He was filled to say the thing nobody in power wanted said. This is what a Spirit-filled man looks like in a corrupt age.

The prophets for hire were dictated by a meal. Micah was dictated by God. He was not bought and paid for. He was ⁵.

Who is like our God? Every office could be bought, and God reaches past all of it and fills one ordinary man to speak the truth anyway.

Reflect · Every one of us is being filled by something. Approval, comfort, security, something else. What is filling you, and how is it already shaping what you say and what you can hear?

Part Three

Presumption and the Plowed Field

Micah 3:9–12

Micah gathers rulers, priests, and prophets into one indictment. The city they were proudest of was built with the blood of the people.

Judgment for a ⁶, teaching for a price, prophecy for money. Every sacred office in the city was priced out and sold.

And still they lean on the LORD: Is not the LORD in the midst of us? Children of Abraham, living in Zion, with the temple right here. Surely not us.

The same ⁷ John the Baptist confronted centuries later (Matthew 3:9). Ancestry treated like a guarantee. God has never worked that way.

Consistent church attendance is not a guarantee. Grandma’s faith is not your guarantee. Jesus is.

Judgment falls on the one place they were certain it never could. Zion shall be ⁸ as a field, the temple mount itself turned to rubble.

They devoured the people like meat. Now their city becomes a field to be plowed, a complete turnover.

Generations later the elders in Jeremiah 26 quoted this verse word for word, and remembered Hezekiah.

Hezekiah heard the same hard word, feared the LORD, sought His favor, and the LORD relented.

The question that faced them faces us: what will you do when God’s Word confronts you?

Conclusion

What fills you?

The rulers were filled with the people they devoured, and the prophets with what they were fed. A whole city leaned on the promise of God’s presence while putting everything God cared about up for sale. In the middle of it, one man filled with the Spirit was still speaking, still unbought.

Christ was filled with the Spirit without measure. He did not devour, but gave Himself to be devoured, and He feeds His people with His own word, body, and blood. He is the ruler, prophet, and priest that every leader in this chapter failed to be, and because He emptied Himself for us, we who have fed on all the wrong things can be filled with that same Spirit and finally hear God clearly.

“The Spirit of God fills with power those who trust in Him.”

My Response · One thing I am taking from this message

Prayer

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