LutheranLectionary.org

1 Year Lectionary – Pentecost Sunday – Sunday, May 19, 2024 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:24	The holy Gospel According to St John the 14th
0:31	[Music]
0:38	chapter Jesus answered him if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my
0:44	father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him whoever does not love me does not keep my words
0:51	and the word that you hear is not mine but the fathers who sent me these things I have spoken to you while I am still
0:57	with you but the helper the holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name he
1:02	will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you peace I leave with you my peace I
1:09	give to you not as the world gives do I give to you let not your hearts be
1:14	troubled neither let them be afraid you heard me say to you I am going away and
1:19	I will come to you if you love me you would have rejoiced because I am going to the father for the father is greater
1:25	than I and now I have told you before it takes place so that when it does take
1:30	place you may believe I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming he has no claim on me
1:38	but I do as the father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the father rise let us go from here this
1:46	is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus Amen here again the words of the
1:51	second stanza of the hymn we just sang Come Holy Light guide Divine note we’re
1:57	we’re actually talking about the Holy Spirit cause the word of God of Life To
2:02	Shine teach us to know our hearts a right and call him father with delight
2:08	from every error keep us free let none but Christ Our Master be that we in
2:14	Living Faith abide in him our Lord with all our might confide Allelujah
2:19	Allelujah so you’ll note that over the past few sermons I’ve been debunking if
2:25	you would kind of deifying U people’s understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit there’s a lot of
2:32	really bad ideas out there about what the Holy Spirit has come to do but we as
2:37	we’ve sober mindedly worked our way through these biblical texts we can see that as Christ said in last week’s
2:43	gospel the holy spirit is truly our Helper and he helps us and he Bears
2:50	witness to Christ he glorifies Christ and then earlier in the Easter season we
2:55	noted that the work of the holy spirit is to convict us of our sin and our unbelief all of these are very vital
3:01	important parts of the Christian faith and today for Pentecost we’re not going
3:06	to focus on Acts chapter 2 instead we’re going to focus on our gospel text and the words of Christ if anyone loves me
3:14	he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him now we English
3:22	speakers especially also because we as Sinners also have this thing called the opino legus that kind of works upon us
3:29	we if when when we hear the word of God we have a um default bias to hear the
3:35	law it’s a fascinating thing it’s yeah you ever had a car where the the alignment was off and and it kind of
3:41	pulled to one side or another each and every one of us after the fall into sin when it comes to hearing God’s word we
3:47	have this thing that happens and that is is that we oftentimes steer towards the law if you take the hands off the wheels
3:54	of your Doctrine and your theology you’ll end up in the curb of self-righteousness by the way it takes
3:59	two hands to get you all the way into the other ditch the ditch of antinomianism but that’s a whole other story so you’re going to note here
4:06	Christ says if you love me you will keep my word we hear the word keep and we go well that means obey no it don’t it do
4:14	not mean that in fact the Greek word Tero here is a word that means to guard
4:19	to hold it sacred to kind you know kind of keep it as the in the front of your eye and you’ll know this then keeps
4:27	Christians from in engaging in rank hypoc hypocrisy because you’ll note the world accuses Christians of hypocrisy
4:33	all the time you Christians you constantly are telling the world they can’t do this they can’t do
4:39	that but then you guys turn right around and you do the same thing that you say that God condemns you Hypocrites right
4:47	and you’ll note that if the word here was obey we truly would be Hypocrites
4:54	but the word is keep and so we sit there and go yep Christians they acknowledge
4:59	that God’s law is Holy and that it forbids us from doing things and yes people who are Christians actually break
5:06	these Commandments and they do some really stupid boneheaded things Yep this is exactly what happens but that doesn’t
5:13	make us Hypocrites because we’re not saying that you’re saved by keeping the
5:18	law if we said that we would be lying to you and we would be hypocritical and I would note all the self-righteous who
5:24	think that they’re saving themselves by the law they are indeed Hypocrites they practice but they do not they lay heavy
5:30	burdens on people and they are not saved so those people would be Hypocrites but
5:35	Christ here says if you love me you will keep you will guard my words you will hold it sacred you’ll gladly hear and
5:42	learn it God’s word will be in your ears it’ll be in front of your eyes it’ll be the thing you’re thinking on you’ll
5:48	desire to learn it Greater and more and deeper with better precision and
5:54	understanding these are signs that you already love Christ right and those
5:59	those who claim that they are Christians and hate God’s word Jesus says whoever
6:05	does not love me does not keep or guard my words in our adult catechism class
6:10	this week one of them we played a video of an ELCA past who In a Pulpit wearing
6:16	a stole went on a rant and an absolute tear and what was she attacking the word
6:23	of God can’t trust it don’t need to follow it most of it you can just ignore
6:28	and that apostle Paul to him and and oh she just went on and on and on and I’m
6:35	sitting there going this is a perfect example of what Christ is saying she doesn’t keep God’s words or Christ’s
6:42	words she doesn’t hold them sacred she attacks them but of course from after
6:47	burning the whole book down she pulls out the little bits and pieces that she wants to keep right CU love is all that
6:54	really matters is the way they talk but Christ tells us definitively whoever does not love me does not keep does not
7:01	hold sacred does not guard my words the words that you hear from me Christ says
7:07	are not mine but they are the father’s who sent me and then he says this these
7:12	things I have spoken to you while I am still with you note the context but the helper there it is again the holy spirit
7:19	is the helper when the helper the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and
7:25	bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you important words so you’ll know the Holy Spirit one of the
7:32	primary things that the Holy Spirit was sent to do was to remind the Apostles of
7:38	all the things that Jesus said and did and if that’s the case then we can have
7:44	confidence that what we are reading in the gospels and in the book of Acts and in the Epistles regarding the works and
7:50	the teachings of Christ are accurate and true and not only that but Christ says
7:56	that his words were not even his own he were those were the words given to him by the father note start starting to get
8:02	some trinitarian theology in here so we can have confidence that what we have in
8:07	the Holy Sacred Scriptures is the actual word of God and it’s inherent it’s
8:12	infallible it’s authoritative and we need to be about the business of hearing it of understanding
8:20	it and so I thought I would follow the same pattern that I used last week did a
8:26	little bit of excursus into the book of Acts one of the things I like about the oneye lectionary is it gives me the
8:32	ability to start to pull in other other text and kind of Flesh the ideas out using greater pieces of scripture it’s
8:38	fascinating how they all hinge together but uh we’ll take a look back at the book of Acts in Acts chapter 2 we read
8:45	after Peter gave his great sermon on the day of Pentecost which by the way was
8:50	the real miracle that sermon that led to the conversion of how many thousands of
8:55	people that were baptized that day so all of these newly baptized Christians
9:01	the text says in Acts 2:42 they devoted themselves to the apostles
9:07	teaching H and what were the apostles teaching well we find it in the
9:13	gospels so they were devoting themselves to The Words of Christ the doctrines of
9:19	Jesus the words that Jesus had been given by the father you start to see how the circle closes and they were so they
9:27	devoted themselves to the apostles teaching the Fellowship the breaking of bread and the prayers and then fast
9:33	forwarding into the text I thought this would be a fun place to go we’re going to drop ourselves into Acts chapter 13
9:40	and we’re going to listen in as the Apostle Paul is sharing the gospel with
9:45	a group of Jews in a in a synagogue in a place called Antioch in
9:51	pidia and I want you to focus in on where the holy spirit is working and I’m
9:56	going to note something here I’m going to point this out to all of Pentecostal friends that in this text all the people
10:04	who come to Faith in Jesus Christ not a single one of them saw a single Miracle
10:09	not in Antioch paidia there was nobody who had their legs lengthened nobody is speaking in tongues Paul did not raise
10:18	anybody from the dead in Antioch paidia there were no lepers cleansed and there were no paralytics
10:25	healed just kind of think this out for a second so is the holy Holy Spirit working at all this sounds like well one of those
10:33	dead Lutheran Churches I speak tongue and
10:38	cheek acts 13: 13 it says now Paul and his companions they set sail from pathos
10:45	they came to perga and pamilia and you’ll note the Holy Spirit had set aside Paul and Barnabas for the purpose
10:50	of going and evangelizing and this is a first missionary journey John that’s John Mark left them and returned to
10:57	Jerusalem but they went on from per and came to Antioch and pidia and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue
11:04	and they sat down and note what it says next after the reading from the law and
11:09	the prophets ah now we’re going to see clearly in passages in this in the book
11:16	of Acts that when the word of God is
11:22	preached God the holy spirit is active in fact if you were to kind of think of
11:28	it this way when you look look at the account of Steven the very first martyr of Christianity as he is on trial and
11:36	asked the question regarding the false charges brought against him are these things so the chief priest asked Steven
11:44	Steven didn’t answer the question by the way he just went on a Biblical tiate a wonderful lecture giving an overall
11:51	summary of what summary of the scriptures and it’s beautifully done it
11:56	goes on and on and on you can see the guys you know there in the council going what’s the point he’s trying to make and
12:02	the point comes like in the last chapter the last paragraph where basically Stephen says you just like your fathers
12:09	have resisted the work of the Holy Spirit and you’re doing so even now and you’re even guilty of murdering Jesus
12:14	right and you sit there and go wait a second Stephen just said in that text
12:20	that the Patriarchs of old you know not the Patriarchs but the the descendants
12:25	of the Patriarchs the the people who were the forbears of the chief priest and people putting on in triy that they
12:31	always resist the Holy Spirit wasn’t the Holy Spirit sent at
12:37	Pentecost the answer is yes well where was the Holy Spirit working before he
12:43	indwelled Believers in the word the word is living and active and sharper than a
12:49	double-edged sword why is it living and active because every word of scripture
12:55	is God breathed the spirit has breathed on the scriptures and so wherever the
13:02	scriptures are preached God the holy spirit is active active convicting people of sin
13:08	condemning them and assuring people of forgiveness that God offers in Christ
13:13	you’ll you’ll know this is important stuff so we’re not we’re not looking for the goofy we’re not looking for the spooky we’re looking for the thing that
13:20	Christ said the spirit would do right and so listen then on the Sabbath they went into the synagogue they sat down
13:27	and after the reading from the law on the prophets which which means the Holy Spirit was there through the preaching of the word the rulers of the synagogue
13:33	sent a message to them saying Brothers if you have any word of encouragement for the people say it so
13:40	Paul stood up and motioned with his hands now I do not know what the motion was that he did I don’t know if he went
13:47	y MCA I don’t know if he did that or something else right but he motioned
13:52	with his hands we’re not told what the motion is and then he says this men of Israel and you who fear God listen the
13:59	God of this People Israel chose our fathers made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt and with
14:05	uplifted arm he led them out of it and for about 40 years he put up with them in the wilderness and after destroying
14:11	Seven Nations in the land of Canaan he gave them their land as an inheritance all this took about 450 years after that
14:18	he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet what is Paul doing right now
14:24	well this is like the cliffnotes version of the Old Testament and it’s highly sus syc and super paraphrased and by the way
14:31	if you if you don’t know what cliffnotes was or were I don’t even know if they still make them cliffnotes were the
14:36	things that made it possible for you to cheat on book reports back in the 1980s I’m just saying okay you had the choice
14:42	of reading a five to 600 page to that was boring as all get out or you can
14:48	read the cliff notes and you know all about what the story was and then you can make an informed decision about what to say on your book report and pray pray
14:55	pray that the teacher didn’t figure out that you didn’t read the book
15:01	just sorry I’m doing therapy right now for myself I may or may not have ever done something like
15:07	that all that being said Paul here is giving a summary a cliffnotes look at
15:13	the Old Testament and reminding them of their history now among them we’re going
15:18	to learn that among those in the synagogue that day in Antioch pidia were also people who were converts to Judaism
15:26	they were converting they were devout in their belief in Yahweh but hadn’t quite
15:32	yet been circumcised the that’s a whole group of Gentiles and so this is a packed house if you would so Paul
15:38	continues all of this took about 450 years after that he gave them judges until Samuel a prophet and then they
15:44	asked for a king and God gave them Saul the son of Kish a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years and when he had
15:51	removed him he raised up David to be their king of whom he testified I have found in David the son of Jesse a man
15:58	after my own heart who will do all of my will of this man’s Offspring God has
16:04	brought to Israel a savior Jesus as he promised before his coming John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to
16:12	all the people of Israel and as John was finishing his course he said what do you suppose that I am I am not he no but
16:19	behold after me one is coming the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie and brothers the sons of the
16:26	family of Abraham and those among you who fear God to us has been sent the message of this
16:33	salvation for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize him nor understand the
16:41	utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath they fulfilled them by condemning him now let’s slow down
16:49	and walk back through verse 27 Paul here is invoking the people
16:54	directly responsible for murdering Christ now again I would reiterate were all responsible for the murder of Christ
17:02	but note the problem he presents here he says for those who live in Jerusalem and
17:07	the their rulers because they did not recognize him nor understand the
17:13	utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath they fulfilled them by condemning him this gets out a
17:20	problem that exists to this day do you know that some people they attend church just because they feel like it’s an
17:27	important thing to do but they don’t care a wit about what’s really said that’s true and that existed all
17:35	the way back at the time of Christ there were people who were attending the synagogue and they would go Saturday
17:41	after Saturday to the synagogue and they would hear the word and well like a BB
17:47	ricocheting off of a brick wall none of it ever sunk in and oddly enough Paul here is saying
17:55	that that phenomena had taken place among the rulers R the religious
18:00	rulers of Christ’s time think it out it makes a lot of sense when you start to put it together
18:07	those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets had they applied themselves to
18:14	the scriptures to rightly understand them they would have go oh Jesus is the
18:20	Messiah and they would have been on board and you’ll note that some did you think of Nicodemus Lord we know that you
18:26	have come from God cuz nobody can do these great works that you were doing unless God had sent him Nicodemus knew
18:32	it and so there was some Jews who figured it out but those who figured it out I would note probably the common
18:38	theme there is is that those ones knew their Bible but I would note then in our day
18:44	just because somebody is a religious leader high and mighty in their office within the visible Church doesn’t
18:50	necessarily guarantee that they are somebody who has devoted themselves to a proper understanding of the word and
18:56	this is not only impacting leaders but also lay people some lay people you know why they come to church because it’s a
19:02	social function they look forward to the donuts after church and the coffee and the conversation and being part of the
19:09	community other people come because they want to network with people so they can get their next client for their
19:17	business right and some people come because if they don’t come people in
19:23	their family will give them a hard time and it’s just the path of Leaf’s resistance to go to church
19:29	do they want to be there no what are they doing during the sermon working on their grocery list checking social media
19:36	checking out falling asleep all these kinds of things right and you’ll note this is a great danger that each and
19:43	every one of us are tempted by do I really need to go to church those Folks
19:48	at kongsvinger they don’t even sing on key at times right did I say that out loud sorry you
19:55	know but you get the idea what do I really need to it’s it’s just so boring
20:00	and all that Pastor ever does is drone on and on and on and on and on and on about the
20:07	Bible note you are in grave danger if this is your mindset the scripture is
20:13	clear you shall remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy what does this mean ha Luther says that we should fear and
20:21	love God so we do not despise preaching in his word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn
20:27	it and when we do not do these things you’ll note we are in grave grave danger
20:33	just going through the motions and ignoring the word is exactly
20:39	what led to the crucifixion of Christ that’s what Paul is saying again hear
20:44	the words those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize him nor understand the
20:50	utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath they fulfilled them by condemning
20:57	him ouch and though they found in him no guilt
21:02	worthy of death which shows you there’s something really wrong don’t we condemn guilty people to
21:11	death not innocent people right though they found no guilt in him worthy of death they asked pilate
21:17	to have him executed and when they had carried out all that was written of him they took him down from the tree and
21:23	laid him in a tomb but God raised him from the dead and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with
21:29	him From Galilee to Jerusalem who are now his witnesses to the people and we
21:34	bring you the good news that what God promised to the father this he has fulfilled to their children by raising
21:42	Jesus as also it is written in the second Psalm you are my son today I have begotten you and as for the fact that he
21:48	raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption he has spoken in this way I will give you the holy and
21:53	sure blessing of David therefore he says in another Psalm you will not let your
21:59	Holy One see corruption for David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation he fell asleep and was
22:05	laid with his fathers and saw corruption but he whom God raised up did not see
22:11	corruption now you’ll note I’ll make the point again just to kind of twist the
22:17	knife this sounds just like a boring Lutheran service nobody’s speaking in tongues there are no signs and wonders
22:25	and all Paul is doing is droning on about Jesus connecting him all the way
22:30	to the people of the Old Testament right is the holy spirit not present here in
22:36	Antioch pidia has the Holy Spirit just flown over have we gone into dead letter ISM
22:44	here of course not Christ makes it clear in Our Gospel
22:49	text if you love me you will keep you will guard my words and note how Paul has not only guarded The Words of Christ
22:56	held them sacred you’ll not he refences John the Baptist it’s clear from this
23:01	this reference and others in this that the Apostle Paul has made himself very
23:07	familiar with the gospel accounts of the Apostles he’s talking about John the
23:13	Baptist he’ll be talking about some other things here that make it clear that he’s steeped in the teaching of the
23:19	apostles who were before him and he knows full well the story of Christ and all of its connections and so here he
23:26	then is weaving into this sermon Old Testament text to this Jewish audience to let them know that what the
23:32	scriptures said would happen has happened what God has promis through our fathers has taken place and we’re here
23:39	to Proclaim good news to you and what is the good news a here’s
23:45	the kicker so let it be known to you therefore brothers that through this man
23:50	Jesus forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and by him everyone who believes
23:56	is freed from everything from which you could could not be freed by the law of Moses that is good news and you’re going
24:02	to note here this is one of the fascinating things about scripture because it is living and active here
24:08	Paul preaching in Antioch pdia says words that fly off the page and come
24:13	straight into our ears and we then recognize we are hearing the same
24:19	promises proclaimed to us so let it be known to you you Norwegians and others
24:25	here at Kong of iner Lutheran Church in Oslo minesa don’t you know that to you
24:30	Brothers through this man Jesus Christ the Forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to y’all and by him every one of you who
24:39	believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses and that everyone and
24:46	everything shows not only the universality of Christ’s death on the cross but the universality of the fact
24:53	that every one of your sins have been atoned for often times we as Sinners we sit there and think you know when I look
25:00	back across just all the wicked terrible things that I’ve done there’s some things that I just sit there and scratch
25:06	my head and wonder can Jesus forgive me of that the answer is absolutely because
25:13	that’s part of the everything right from your most
25:18	despicable sin that you are most ashamed of to all the sins that you just dismiss
25:24	is not a big deal I want you to think about that for a second how many of us
25:29	have had conversations with people where somebody has said you know I feel really guilty cuz I did this thing or that thing and somebody chimes at me goes
25:36	well it’s not a big deal everybody does that sorry I’m going foral regian here
25:43	right OA no you cannot think of your small transgressions as
25:51	small the and I kid you not the lightest of your commandment breaking is capable
25:58	of sending any of us to hell we must see sin for what it is so Paul here preaches
26:05	to us now and assures us that in Christ there is forgiveness of everything that
26:10	we have done not just some of it but the whole kitten and Kaboodle it’s been a while since I’ve used that phrase but
26:17	man the whole lot of it it’s all forgiven by Christ and this is all good news and I think CFW Walter might take
26:25	an issue with the Apostle Paul here because Paul doesn’t end on the gospel
26:30	he ends on the law but listen to what he does cuz you you’ll every one of us I’ve pointed this out before every one of us
26:36	knows that in evangelicalism what should happen next is the Apostle Paul tells the keyboardist to start playing just as
26:42	I am without a plea and you know humming that you know kind of strumming that softly in the background and he says I
26:47	want everybody here to close their eyes and bow their head and anyone who wants to ask Jesus into their heart you go
26:53	ahead and you raise your hand right now right and so people are raising their hands and Paul says I see that hand I
26:58	see that hand I this is not how this works okay and the reason why it doesn’t
27:03	work is because he’s not asking anybody to ask Jesus into his heart Paul knows
27:08	full well in Romans chapter 1 he says the gospel is the power of God unto
27:16	salvation for all who believe you’ll note that when you read Romans 1 verse
27:22	18 the gospel is the power of God into salvation it uses the word that all the
27:29	charismatics and Pentecostals like to point to it uses the word dunamis okay and if you’ve ever spent
27:36	anytime in the Pentecostal churches everyone’s blabbering on about dunamus they’ll say do you know what dunamis means oh we got the word Dynamite from
27:43	it okay listen dunamis does not mean to blow things up I’m sorry that’s just not how this works you know and and your
27:50	your linguistic understandings are terrible stop talking like this but then they’ll say what we need here in
27:56	churches we need dunamus power we need damous power of the Holy Spirit through a r of word right they’ll talk like this
28:03	okay Jeff is you know just you know what I’m talking about right but here’s the thing
28:11	Paul says in Romans 1 the gospel the good news of Christ and him crucified
28:18	for our sins is the dunamis the power of God unto
28:23	salvation so is there dunamis power here in Antioch cyia you beta you bet your bippy there
28:32	is how do I know cuz he’s preaching the gospel and the gospel is the dunamis
28:38	power of God into salvation the holy spirit is present but Paul here doesn’t leave on that note watch what he does
28:43	next we have to have words with the Apostle Paul and go what were you thinking he then says to those at the at
28:48	the synagogue beware therefore lest what is said in the prophets should come about a reference again to the word of
28:55	God look you scoffers be astounded in perish from I’m doing a work in your days a work you will not believe even if
29:02	one tells it to you zing okay there’s the sermon is the holy
29:10	spirit working or not well let’s keep reading so as they went out the people
29:15	begged that these things might be told to them on the next Sabbath please come back next Saturday tell us more right
29:23	that’s a good response right and after the meeting of the synagogue broke up
29:28	many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas who as they
29:34	spoke with them they urged them to continue in the grace of God so far so
29:41	good but the story then continues so the next Sabbath almost the whole city
29:46	gathered to hear the word of the Lord what did they gather to hear the word of the Lord right the holy spirit is living
29:54	and active and the word of God is living and active as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit everyone’s gathered to
30:00	hear the word of the Lord but when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict
30:08	what was spoken by the Apostle Paul and they were reviling him now the irony
30:13	here is thick let me explain it to you okay aren’t Jews supposed to be familiar
30:19	with the Ten Commandments I would think that they they are they talk about Torah and being
30:25	Torah observant hasn’t somebody told them as they were hearing the scriptures
30:30	Saturday after Saturday that being jealous and coveting is evil and wicked
30:36	and a Breaking of two of The Ten Commandments H you know and by the way jealousy and
30:44	envy they’re kind of they go closeand these are horrible feelings Absolut have you ever experienced it it is just like
30:51	acid on your soul the first time I legitimately felt that feeling of
30:57	jealousy was when my younger brother on his birthday which is in January and
31:02	mine’s in May my younger brother on his birthday got a gii Joe with a Kung Fu grip and an evil coneval motorcycle that
31:09	can jump the Grand Canyon okay and I okay the whole world had come to an
31:17	end because he had the exact toys that I wanted thankfully my parents did not give him a Millennium Falcon that would
31:24	have been just I would have murdered him okay just saying but you get the idea
31:30	here so you you when you see that kid with the stink eye going on at a birthday party because he’s so jealous
31:37	about what the kid whose birthdays is that that’s what I felt and you all probably know what I’m talking about
31:43	right but what does the scripture say you shall not
31:51	covet you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife you shall not covet your
31:56	neighbor’s house you you should not cover your neighbor’s man servant or maid servant or his gii Joe with a Kung
32:04	Fu Grip or an evil coneval motorcycle that can jump the Grand Canyon you shall
32:09	not covet these things coveting takes place in the heart so you’re going to note here these people who are hearing
32:15	the word of God some of them are inattentive to it and as a result of it
32:21	when sin Rises up they don’t sit there and go oh I need to repent
32:28	Watch What Happens next so they began to contradict Paul
32:35	they began to revile Him scripture in the Old Testament forbids the reviling of Elders and Paul and Barnabas they
32:42	spoke out boldly saying well it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first but since you thrust it
32:50	aside and you’ve judged yourselves Unworthy of eternal life behold we’re going to turn to the
32:56	Gentiles who you you’ll know that Paul doesn’t sit there and go oh oh we’re
33:01	sorry we’re we’re going to see if we can make this a little bit more Seeker sensitive for you and things like this right Noe he basically says listen the
33:09	word of God has come to you and indeed what Paul is saying is correct he’s an apostle of Jesus Christ he speaks with
33:15	the authority of Jesus and it was the word of God that he preached to them in its fullness both law and gospel and
33:22	since they have thrust aside the word of God can we say that they love Jesus or
33:28	not they don’t and should they have recognized
33:33	that what was spoken was true yes they should have they had no excuse they were hearing the word of God every Sabbath so
33:41	Paul says we’re going to turn to the Gentiles he says for as the Lord has commanded us saying I have made you a
33:47	light for the Gentiles so that you may bring Salvation to the ends of the Earth and when the Gentiles heard this they
33:53	began rejoicing woohoo and they were glorifying listen to what the text says they were glorifying the word of the
34:01	Lord doesn’t say they were glorifying the Holy Spirit they were glorifying the word of
34:07	the Lord and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed and the word of the Lord then was spreading throughout
34:13	the whole region but the Jews incited The Devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city and they
34:20	stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their
34:26	District but Paul demonstrating that he knows full well the teachings of Christ
34:31	he shook off the dust from its feet against them and went on to Iconium where did he learn to do that by
34:38	the way from the teachings of Christ Christ said to do such things so who in this
34:45	text loves the Lord who in this text hates the Lord who is holding God’s word
34:54	who is rejecting it you can start to see where the fault line is and in this
35:00	context I would also bring up the folks in Berea because I think this is a good example Paul had the same treatment that
35:06	he received in Antioch pidia as the treatment that he received in thessalonica the people in the the Jews
35:11	in thessalonica really wanted to murder Paul and he had to slink Away by night in fact it says this in Acts 17:10 the
35:19	brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas Away by night to Berea and when they arrived they went into the Jewish
35:25	synagogue and now these Jews were more noble than those in thessalonica they received the word with
35:32	all eagerness Examining the Scriptures Daily to see if these things were so but
35:37	listen to what follows next many of them therefore
35:43	believed think this out with me the synagogue and Berea scripture commends
35:48	them as having a more noble character what made their character more noble they wanted to make sure they were
35:55	not deceived they were seeking a right understanding of God’s word and when the Apostle Paul came to them they heard
36:02	everything that he had to say with eagerness and they said now you need to wait Paul we’re going to put you in
36:09	timeout and we are going to open up the texts of scripture and we’re going to
36:15	test to see if what you’re saying is true and if it’s not hit the
36:20	road right could you imagine some Churches today if people would just have this attitude well Kenneth cop
36:28	you know um we we find your your your word of the Lord to be interesting and
36:34	your claim to having power over covid-19 to be well something we’ve never heard before but what we’re going to do is
36:41	we’re going to take your message Ken copelan and Benny Hinn and and Digger Hernandez and and Vlad savchuk and
36:48	Isaiah saladar we’re going to take your words and we’re going to test them according to scripture could you imagine
36:55	how many fewer false teachers it would be in the church if people just did
37:02	this and you’re going to note Paul didn’t sit there and get mad at them and go I’m the Apostle Paul touch not God’s
37:10	anointed right he didn’t do anything of the sort what did he do he he let them
37:17	test because he knew that once they dug into the biblical texts to fact check
37:24	the good news that he was preaching that they would see it written all over the prophets and therefore the text says as
37:32	a result of this many of them believed so brothers and sisters this
37:40	Pentecost it may have sounded like I’ve not really preached about the holy spirit because you’ll know none of you
37:46	are speaking in tongues we’re not going to be opening up the mic for prophecy afterwards right and and this might just
37:54	seem like another one of those dead Lutheran confessional Services where the holy spirit said nope I’m out of
38:02	here but is the holy spirit working here today or
38:08	not how do you know because the word was preached
38:14	Christ was proclaimed his death on the cross placard it as the solution to all of
38:20	your sins in fact I cannot think of a better way of ending a Pentecost sermon
38:26	than with the word words of Joel The Prophet Joel in the mouth of the Apostle
38:32	Peter Peter on that great day of Pentecost the great miracle that took place was the sermon that he preached
38:38	that led through through the Holy Spirit to then convert thousands on that day in
38:45	this kicker as part of his sermon he Pro he quotes the prophet Joel and says that
38:52	I will show wonders in the heavens above Yahweh says signs on the earth below
38:57	blood and fire and Vapor of smoke the sun shall be turned to Darkness and the
39:02	moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes the great and magnificent
39:08	day little bit of a note everybody hearing the Apostle Peter
39:14	on that Pentecost Sunday would have remembered that just
39:20	50 days prior there was three hours of darkness in the middle of the day
39:27	Josh and I we traveled all the way to Indiana to go see the the eclipse you know how long it lasted like 4 and A2
39:35	minutes and it was amazing I mean absolutely like if you’ve never seen a total eclipse it’s worth seeing but it
39:43	lasted 4 and a half minutes how long did the darkness last
39:49	while Christ was on the cross on that Good Friday 3
39:54	hours 3 hours is long enough for everybody have anxiety thinking that it’s the end of the world 3 hours of
40:03	darkness is something that people would be remembering just 50 days later oh yeah I’m so glad that stopped I hope
40:09	that never happens again we thought for sure we were doomed but you’ll note that in the scriptures
40:16	the Sun going dark and the moon showing like blood is a sign of God’s
40:21	judgment it’s one of the big judgments of the last day it’s done in Darkness
40:27	it’s done with the sun no longer shining the Stars disappearing all of that being said Christ’s death on the cross those
40:34	three hours that there were Darkness was a sign of judgment but not your judgment but Christ being judged in your place
40:42	the whole sins of the world being judged and punished in Christ for you is it any
40:49	Wonder then that Joel can then continues and it shall come to pass and it has
40:55	just as he prophesied it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name
41:00	of the Lord shall be saved and that includes you yes even you
41:10	so brothers and sisters I am so thankful for the gift of the Holy
41:15	Spirit and the word of God that he enlightens that he gives light to and
41:24	that he uses his own power to conin VCT us of our sins and to assure us that in
41:30	Jesus there is forgiveness for all of our sins Oh indeed Come Holy Spirit God and Lord in the name of Jesus
41:38	[Music] Amen

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