"Into The Crucible"
Text: Malachi 3:1-7b
12-8-2024
In the name of Him who purifies our faith, dear friends in Christ. Back in high school I took an advanced science class. In our room was a lab with all kinds of neat equipment. You know, like Bunson burners, beakers, and a centrifuge. We also had various sizes of crucibles. And the only reason why I remembered the name of that item is because about the same time our English class was reading the book/play called “The Crucible.” The only thing I can recall is that it was about the Salem Witch Trials. Anyway, prior to these 2 experiences I had never heard of the word “crucible” let alone used one. So, in case you don’t know, a crucible is a ceramic or metal container where you put items that you want to heat up to extreme temperatures. Besides using it in a science lab for experiments, an occupation that uses a crucible is refiners of precious metals, like gold or silver. Ok, now you know what a crucible is. I bet you feel smarter already.
“Thanks Pastor, but what’s that got to do with our Scripture lessons?” Well, in the reading from Malachi it speaks of the Lord returning. And it says that when He does, He will purify them with a “refiner’s fire.” Obviously, this is referring to a spiritual purification of God’s people. We know who the “refiner” is = the Lord Jesus. And I certainly hope you put yourself in the category of His people. But our task is to identify the “crucible” and the refining fire He uses in order to purify us sinners.
In our quest to answer that, it’s helpful to know the context of this passage of Scripture. Malachi was the last prophet of the Old Testament and God inspired him to write this prophetic message for Israel. Over the centuries prior to this, Israel engaged in all kinds of stuff that violated God’s will and commands. He warned them to stop it, but they didn’t listen. The Lord then allowed invading armies to come in and carry away many of them as captives. During that time, God spoke to His people through prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and others to let them know where they had messed up and how to correct it. The prophets also spoke words of hope and comfort. Thankfully God’s people repented. And by His gracious hand, He made it possible for them to return home to the land of Israel. Sadly, though, some of them picked up right where they had left off, doing the things that had offended God in the first place. So, He gave them one last prophetic message through Malachi and then went silent. I like to refer to this as God putting His children in the “time-out” chair. As if to say, “I’m not going to talk to you for a while. You sit and think about what you did wrong and what I’ve been telling you.” And so, there were no messages from God for 400 years.
The good news is that in this final message God not only corrected His children but He also gave them powerful words of hope to ponder. They didn’t know it, but the time was drawing near when God would send the Savior. And their souls needed to be purified in preparation for Him. Not a purification process that they would perform through rituals and ceremonies. But rather, God Himself would purify and prepare them. The Lord was even gracious enough to give them some clear signals that the Savior was about to arrive. Through Malachi, God says that an obvious sign will be the “messenger” He would send “to prepare the way.” Now this may sound vague. But a little later in chapter 4:5 God gets more specific and says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.”
Trust me when I tell you that this promise didn’t slip by the Jews unnoticed. When John the Baptist showed up on the scene, he excited the curiosity of the people. In John chapter 1 they came and asked if he was the Christ. “Nope” he replied. Well then, are you Elijah? “Nope.” Are you The Prophet? “Nope.” You see, these Jews thought that Elijah or one of the famous Old Testament prophets would be resurrected to announce the arrival of the Messiah. John could have easily skyrocketed to stardom if he had said yes. Instead, he refused to play along with their misconceptions. Later though, Jesus clears things up and says, “If you are willing to accept it, he {John} is the Elijah who was to come.” The angel Gabriel had told John’s father that his son would possess the “spirit and power of Elijah.” So, John the Baptist was clearly the “messenger” that Malachi had promised would come to prepare the way for the Lord.
John was used by God to prepare His people for the Messiah by purifying their hearts and minds. In our text, God said that He would purify them like a “refiner and purifier of silver.” The imagery being used there is the smelting process for a precious metal like silver. You don’t just go and dig pure silver ingots out of the ground. No, miners dig for the ore, which is a mixture of different elements. Then they put it into a crucible and heat it up to the melting point. The heat separates the precious metal from the alloy. The silver is then poured off and heated again so that the impurities, called the dross, can be skimmed off. By the way, this takes intense heat. Silver melts at 1764 degrees Fahrenheit. Believe it or not, heating it up and removing all the gunk makes it stronger. The end product is a precious metal that has been highly valued for thousands of years.
Do you remember from our Gospel reading what John the Baptist’s message was? He called people to repent so their sins could be forgiven. Confession and Absolution are God’s smelting process for the soul. Sin is the impurity that God wants to remove from us. He wants to refine us so that we will be pure and holy. Then, and only then, will we be prepared to receive the Savior. Let’s face it though. Repentance is no fun. The sins we cling to are ingrained in us much like the impurities in the ore from which silver comes. That precious metal must be subjected to extreme heat to get rid of those impurities. In similar fashion, God puts us in His crucible and turns up the heat through the preaching and teaching of His holy law. And quite frankly, that’s not comfortable because God uses some pretty intense heat to accomplish this purification in us.
As a Pastor, God uses me as His messenger for that very purpose. Quite often in my sermons and in private conversations I have to say things that you don’t like to hear. When I confront specific sins or warn you about a false doctrine that’s floating around, sometimes I can almost see the steam rising from some of you. But as uncomfortable or hot under the collar it may make you, it’s actually a good thing. Because it’s a sign that God, through His corrective law, is refining you and making you pure. He “turns up the heat” on your faith so that all the impurities of sin can be removed. And He does this out of love for you. He does it, as St. Paul says, so that you can “be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ…”
Now you’ve got a decision to make. You can jump out of God’s crucible by saying “I’m not going to listen to that!” But that’s the same as jumping out of the proverbial frying pan and into the fire. It only makes matters worse for you spiritually. You may demand that God turn down the heat by saying things like, “Back off, Pastor. Keep your nose out of my business. You may consider this a sin but I don’t, so leave me alone!” That is a dangerous attitude to take. Unless we subject ourselves to the sin-consuming fire of God’s Word, we remain in an impure, sinful condition.
But don’t you realize that you’ve been exposed to the Lord’s refining heat this morning already? If you sincerely confessed your sins at the beginning of the service, you in essence were climbing into God’s crucible. In those words of Confession, you were asking God to purify your heart. And in response, God spoke through me to assure you that all the impurities of your sins have been removed and forgiven for Jesus’ sake. The best part is that Confession and Absolution isn’t just for Sunday mornings. We can confess our sins to God every day and be refined by His purifying forgiveness. In fact, the way that verse 3 is structured in the Hebrew, it describes God’s work of refining and purifying as going on continually throughout a believer’s life. That’s necessary because of the constant battle we have with sin in our lives.
Also, as you listen to God’s corrective Word in the sermon, God is working to refine your faith. That’s why in a little while we’ll sing “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Here again, we’re asking God to turn up the heat and separate the dross of sin from us so that we can stand pure and blameless in His sight. God wants you to be assured that the sins you’ve confronted and confessed are all forgiven. You see, that’s how His Law and Gospel work. Unless God’s Law has refined and purified you, then you’re not ready to receive the Gospel, that is, the good news of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. But once the Law has done its work, then God freely pours into us the abundance of His grace through the Gospel.
Jesus is came to earth to fulfill all the promises that God made to His people in days past. He came to show God’s extreme love for His children here on earth by sending the Christ to live and die on our behalf so that we could be forgiven of all our sins. Malachi asks in verse 2, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” The answer is: Only those whom God has refined and purified of all their sins. That’s how God prepared His people 2,000 years ago for the arrival of the Savior, Jesus Christ. And that’s still how God prepares our hearts to receive Him today. As God removes our sins, He purifies our faith so that we can properly worship the Christ Child. That’s how He “prepare{s} the way of the Lord” within our hearts. May God continue to refine our faith so that all we say and do may be “offerings in righteousness” which are acceptable to Him. To Him be the glory now and forever. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!