Series C – Pentecost Sunday – Sunday, May 15, 2016 | 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 |
| 0:28 | the holy Gospel According to Saint John chapter 14 verses 23-31 |
| 0:34 | Jesus answered him if anyone loves me he will keep my word my father will love |
| 0:40 | him and we will come to him and make our home with him whoever does not love me does not keep my words and the word that |
| 0:46 | you hear is not mine but the fathers who sent me these things I have spoken to you while |
| 0:52 | I am still with you the helper the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and |
| 0:59 | bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you peace I leave with you my peace I give to you not as the world |
| 1:06 | gives do I give to you but and let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be |
| 1:12 | afraid you heard me say to you I am going away and I will come to you if you love me you would have rejoiced because |
| 1:18 | I’m going to the father for the father is greater than I and now I have told you before it takes place so that when |
| 1:24 | it does take place that you may believe I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming he has |
| 1:31 | no claim on me but I do as the father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the father rise let us |
| 1:39 | go from here in the name of Jesus all right so here’s our primary text |
| 1:44 | from our gospel text today John 14 26. but the helper the Holy Spirit whom the |
| 1:52 | father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring |
| 1:58 | to your remembrance all that I have said to you |
| 2:04 | notice the emphasis you you’re you now today is Pentecost Sunday and if I had a |
| 2:09 | dollar for every time I’ve heard that we lutherans have a defective underdeveloped understanding of the Holy Spirit Well then I’d be a very wealthy |
| 2:16 | man but apparently they don’t pay up that’s I have to make my money somewhere else so the claims that are often made by |
| 2:22 | charismatics and Pentecostals are that we do not believe in the ongoing work of the holy spirit in the life of the |
| 2:28 | believer we’ve somehow put the kibosh on the spirit and because of that we lutherans are missing out on our |
| 2:34 | god-given right and ability to speak in tongues to operate in the signs and wonders hear the voice of God speaking |
| 2:40 | directly into our hearts by giving us prophecy dreams visions and words of knowledge |
| 2:45 | Etc yeah apparently you know we’re part of a dead religion I don’t know if you’ve heard that but that’s the claim so now I |
| 2:53 | touched on some of these claims last Pentecost Sunday when I preached on Acts chapter 2 please see the Kong’s Bingo |
| 2:59 | Lutheran Church website for further details now suffice it to say that we lutherans do not have an underdeveloped |
| 3:05 | or defective understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit instead we have a very measured careful Theology of the |
| 3:12 | work of the holy spirit that pays careful attention to what the Holy Spirit has revealed in scripture about |
| 3:18 | his works and activities and does not go beyond what is written in the Bible and |
| 3:24 | Our Gospel text today if we pay careful attention to what is said will give us |
| 3:29 | profound insight and comfort regarding the work of the spirit especially as it relates to the writings of the Apostles |
| 3:35 | so we will Begin by looking again at John 14 26 which is highly misunderstood |
| 3:41 | by charismatics we will then carefully work our way through our gospel text noting the context and what into whom is |
| 3:49 | Jesus making specific promises and then we’ll examine other passages of scripture that will shed light on these |
| 3:55 | details and finally we’ll ask the question so what what does its benefit me what does it mean to us you know the |
| 4:02 | show me thing it’s like you know what’s in it for me right again here John 14 26 the helper the |
| 4:08 | Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name Jesus says he will teach you all |
| 4:14 | things bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you now by way of a |
| 4:19 | little bit of foil Jennifer Leclair she is one of the editors of Charisma magazine and in her |
| 4:25 | article titled four things you can do if you can’t hear God’s voice describes how immediately after she was saved that she |
| 4:32 | began hearing the voice of God audibly apparently but there are apparently many many many Christians who are not hearing |
| 4:39 | directly from God like she is and so she wrote this article to help them unclog whatever is blocking God’s voice so that |
| 4:46 | they can hear directly from Heaven apparently not hearing God’s voices like a plumbing problem you know maybe you |
| 4:51 | got a hair stuck in the in your ear and I don’t know how this works so these These are four things that she says that |
| 4:57 | you can do so that you can hear directly God’s voice step number one is believe |
| 5:02 | that God wants to speak to you well I believe that |
| 5:08 | otherwise I wouldn’t have a Bible right but here’s what she says quote if you |
| 5:15 | don’t believe God wants to speak to you well it’s likely that you won’t hear his still Small Voice the key here is that |
| 5:21 | you are to expect him to speak David said oh Lord in the morning you will hear my voice in the morning you will |
| 5:26 | direct my prayer to you and I will watch expectantly the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and maybe speaking to you more |
| 5:33 | than you realize and then she quotes Our Gospel text but the counsel of the Holy Spirit whom |
| 5:40 | the father will send in my name will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you |
| 5:46 | huh interesting she’s not paying attention to who the you is in that text and we’ll get to |
| 5:52 | that by way of summary though here’s the other three things you need to do if |
| 5:57 | you’re not hearing God’s voice directly number two you need to position your heart to hear his still small voice |
| 6:04 | I have no idea what that means I mean which position do I need to put my heart in this position you know maybe |
| 6:11 | this one you know I I mean it’s kind of like the old days when we had televisions that had the antenna on them |
| 6:18 | you remember this right okay this was this was always a very fun thing when I wanted to watch my favorite cartoons |
| 6:23 | there was one channel where in order to get the reception the rabbit |
| 6:29 | ears had to be like this okay there was another Channel they had to be like this okay and then one of my |
| 6:36 | favorite cartoons it was on one of those channels that was like not so good all right there’s a lot of snow and so in |
| 6:43 | order to watch that you had to hold on to the rabbit ears and if you let go it |
| 6:48 | got snowy again very frustrating okay so step number two from Jennifer Leclair |
| 6:54 | about positioning your heart to hear a still Small Voice makes no sense to me how does one position your heart |
| 7:02 | I don’t know step three learn the fight art Fine Art of listening now my wife agrees that this is an |
| 7:09 | important step okay but in this context I’m not sure what this means either and |
| 7:14 | then step four is fellowship more with the Holy Spirit which again leaves me scratching my head how does one |
| 7:21 | fellowship with the Holy Spirit we have Fellowship time here at church after our service right we go over there we enjoy |
| 7:27 | the sweets the cakes the donuts and all the wonderful things and the coffee and even talking with each other is that |
| 7:32 | what we’re supposed to do have a donut and coffee with the Holy Spirit I don’t get it right so these are the four steps |
| 7:39 | that you can go through to unclog what’s clogged if you’re not hearing directly from God |
| 7:45 | note this fact that nowhere in the Bible are these four steps given |
| 7:52 | you can’t go to the book of second hesitations chapter 66 and read these |
| 7:58 | four steps the unclogging what’s clogged regarding hearing God’s voice and there’s a reason for that now |
| 8:04 | this kind of then begs the question what’s the problem here well the problem |
| 8:10 | is is that apparently God’s word isn’t enough we need other words and these |
| 8:17 | other words don’t make any sense now let me give you a metaphor that we will all understand immediately because of this |
| 8:22 | week all right we are now living in a world where the world has gone crazy and |
| 8:27 | I mean that absolutely crazy if somebody who is born a man |
| 8:33 | all right born male and it’s on their birth certificate boy okay these things |
| 8:40 | are not hard to figure out by the way you know I it always amazes me it’s like you know we always ask the question |
| 8:47 | right after a baby’s born was it a boy or a girl well it was a boy how’d you know |
| 8:53 | right if you’re not sure how do you discover these things come talk to me privately afterwards right |
| 8:58 | but apparently if you’re born a man you can now self-identify as a woman |
| 9:05 | and you can now use women’s facilities in your local Target store and all of us are going |
| 9:12 | oofta what is going wrong with the world right let’s see think of it this way here’s where the tension is the question has to |
| 9:19 | do with where do we go to find what is true or not true |
| 9:25 | right is truth objective or is it subjective |
| 9:31 | think about this the person who says it’s subjective says I reject what my |
| 9:37 | birth certificate says and what my body looks like in My DNA and I substitute what is Real |
| 9:45 | and True with something I feel in my heart right and it leads to all kinds of |
| 9:50 | absurdities but now we have the federal government saying you cannot without risking losing your job or being branded |
| 9:58 | a hater say to that person dude wake up come out of your dream land and |
| 10:04 | come back into reality that’s apparently hateful okay so people want to believe |
| 10:09 | what they want to believe and they don’t want to be told what they don’t want to be told by objective truth and reality |
| 10:16 | right well so I’ve decided this week that I now self-identify as a 21 year |
| 10:21 | old movie star that’s right and I have six pack abs |
| 10:27 | expect the paparazzi to show up any minute okay right now those of you who are interested in |
| 10:34 | showing me a photograph of myself I don’t want to see it I know that this is true about me |
| 10:39 | because I feel it and I felt a feeling so therefore it’s true right |
| 10:47 | yeah now you’re laughing though but understand this this is deadly serious people play the same game when |
| 10:54 | it comes to God’s word rather than listening to what God has |
| 11:00 | said in his written word they feel that they have a better word a better one than what’s written in |
| 11:07 | scripture and it’s all because I felt it or maybe I had goosebumps when it |
| 11:12 | happened or maybe the person who told me was really charismatic and had a great |
| 11:18 | delivery and he made me laugh these are no ways of determining truth when it comes to God |
| 11:24 | in fact this is a form of idolatry rejecting the objective word of God and |
| 11:30 | substituting it with our own words and the reality is is that we are all guilty of this |
| 11:36 | every single one of us so let’s come back to our text we’ll do a little bit of textual work here pay |
| 11:42 | attention to some things using basic reading comprehension skills right so |
| 11:47 | we’ll go back to a Gospel of John chapter 14 and you’ll notice that our pericope begins with verse 23 and here’s |
| 11:54 | what it says it begins with these words Jesus answered him answer who |
| 12:01 | what was the question Jesus was answering I always love it when the the people who put the lectionary together |
| 12:07 | do stuff like this it’s like you’re going to start with a text that says Jesus answered him and you’re not going |
| 12:12 | to tell me the question need to talk to that committee anyway |
| 12:19 | so who was Jesus talking to what was the question I’m glad you asked let’s look back at verse 22. here’s what |
| 12:26 | it says Judas not Iscariot and we all went okay not that one okay the other |
| 12:33 | Judas the other Judas asked Jesus Lord how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world oh |
| 12:40 | now there’s your question notice that judas’s question assumes that Jesus |
| 12:45 | isn’t going to manifest himself to everybody remember last week’s sermon I hope you do |
| 12:51 | but then again you don’t have to what’s the point of preaching if you’re not going to remember I know you guys can take a quiz on it and y’all Ace it but |
| 12:57 | anyway here’s what I said in last week’s sermon in his Jesus’s High Priestly prayer Jesus prayed I do not ask for |
| 13:04 | these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word whose word the apostles word right notice that |
| 13:12 | judas’s question assumes and understands that Jesus is not going to manifest himself to everybody but only to his |
| 13:19 | apostles and this makes sense because Jesus said in John 13 20 amen amen I say to you |
| 13:25 | whoever receives the one I send receives me whoever receives me receives the one |
| 13:30 | who sent me who did Jesus send his apostles Matthew Mark Luke John well |
| 13:36 | actually Mark is not him but you know Peter and James and John those guys right |
| 13:42 | and then of course Jesus says of the ones he sent in Luke 10 16 the one who hears you not me but them here’s me the |
| 13:50 | one who rejects you rejects me the one who rejects me rejects the one who sent me so you kind of get the idea here right |
| 13:57 | so Judas not Iscariot said to him Lord how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the |
| 14:03 | world Jesus is answering this question now here’s his answer ready if anyone loves me he will keep my word |
| 14:13 | and my father will love him we will come to him make our home with him whoever does not love me does not keep my words |
| 14:21 | and the word that you hurt here is not mine but the fathers who sent me well that kind of begs a question |
| 14:28 | where do we go to get Jesus’s words do we climb a mountain assume the Lotus |
| 14:34 | position and listen to the voice of God on the Wind while swaying like this is |
| 14:39 | that where we go to find Jesus’s words or maybe it’s inside a feeling that you |
| 14:45 | had no it’s not that either right I know of only one place you can go to find |
| 14:50 | Jesus’s words only one it’s to the writings of the ones he sent |
| 14:55 | and he said of them when the somebody hears you they hear me now another quick |
| 15:02 | thing some translations may have this translation if anyone loves me he will |
| 15:08 | obey my word bad translation the Greek word there is TE REO I know |
| 15:15 | that you all love it you know learning Greek words put this one in your vocabulary list but it’s important that |
| 15:20 | you understand where this word comes from it’s a military term it means to guard keep when Jesus was dead and his body |
| 15:27 | was in the Tomb the guard the Roman soldiers were owing the tomb they were |
| 15:33 | guarding it gives it a little bit of a different picture right obedience is part of it but it’s not really the the main idea |
| 15:40 | the idea is to hold to preserve to keep it sacred |
| 15:45 | so the one who loves you anyone who loves me will keep my word a little bit |
| 15:51 | of an another note here conditional Clauses are a little bit tricky in Greek Jesus is not saying you are saved by |
| 15:58 | keeping my word oh we’ve found the one thing we’ve got to do in order to be saved we just have |
| 16:04 | to keep and guard Jesus’s words no this kind of conditional sentence works like |
| 16:10 | this in front of my house you know in front of my house there’s a street and when I’m on the third floor in the |
| 16:15 | pirate fun land that that is my office right looking down on the street I know this if the pavement is wet |
| 16:23 | it’s raining I know this might sound profound but notice that it was a conditional |
| 16:28 | statements if the pavement is wet it’s raining I’m not saying that my pavement being wet causes it to rain I’m saying that |
| 16:36 | because my pavement is is wet that it is raining same idea here if you truly are one who |
| 16:43 | loves Christ you do keep his words because you’ve been raised from Death To Life |
| 16:50 | it’s a sign that you are a Christian not the thing that makes you one that’s the point so Jesus then goes on these things |
| 16:57 | I have spoken to you while I am still with you and now here’s our kind of focused verse but the helper the Holy |
| 17:02 | Spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I |
| 17:09 | have said to you who is the you in the your and the you in the sentence is it you is it me |
| 17:19 | no it’s Jesus’s disciples It Ain’t Us |
| 17:25 | it’s the ones Jesus is talking to Jesus is literally promising his disciples a |
| 17:31 | special miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit and this gift is the ability to |
| 17:37 | miraculously remember the things that Jesus said did and taught and that’s |
| 17:43 | important because I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about people human memory has a way |
| 17:49 | of kind of well wearing out and the older I get |
| 17:54 | the less I remember what it was like to be skinny and 18 and young and right |
| 18:00 | I have a memory of these things okay and so it’s important that Jesus here is |
| 18:06 | promising the gift of Total Recall terrible movie by the way I didn’t |
| 18:13 | really like that one but that’s the idea the ability |
| 18:18 | through the Holy Spirit to remember the things that Jesus said and this then is |
| 18:23 | dealing with what we call the doctrine of inspiration of scripture that’s what |
| 18:28 | this text is about and that’s what Jesus is promising now Peter writing in his epistle II Peter chapter 1 verses 16 |
| 18:35 | through 21 he says this he says for we did not follow cleverly devised myths we |
| 18:41 | remain known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ you know there are some who would like to make |
| 18:46 | Jesus kind of like the 2000 year old Middle Eastern equivalent of Zeus right he’s not he’s not a myth |
| 18:54 | he says we did not follow cleverly devised myths but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received |
| 19:02 | honor and Glory from God the Father the voice was born to him by the Majestic Glory this is a reference to the |
| 19:08 | mountain of transfiguration this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased we ourselves we heard this very voice |
| 19:14 | born from heaven for we were with him on the Holy Mountain now watch the turn here okay that’s |
| 19:21 | quite the experience hearing the voice of the father seeing Jesus transfigured |
| 19:27 | brilliant white there’s Moses and Elijah right you’d think well that’s the thing that |
| 19:33 | clinches this watch what Peter says and we we have the prophetic word more |
| 19:40 | fully confirmed more fully confirmed than the voice of the father yeah to which you will do |
| 19:45 | well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day Dawns and The Morning Star rises in your |
| 19:51 | hearts what’s he referring to what’s more sure than that voice of the father that he’s heard what is this bright |
| 19:58 | light shining in a dark place answer he continues knowing this first of all no |
| 20:04 | prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation |
| 20:11 | for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as |
| 20:16 | they were carried Along by the Holy Spirit |
| 20:21 | wow that’s right the Holy Spirit carried Jesus’s disciples as well as the |
| 20:29 | prophets of old and just as Jesus Promised the spirit miraculously brought |
| 20:34 | back to Peter’s and all of his disciples remembrance all that he did and taught and this |
| 20:40 | makes it so that we know now that the New Testament is not merely the writings |
| 20:45 | of fallible men truly they were fallible it is also the Holy Spirit inspired words of God and therefore |
| 20:53 | it is inerrant it’s inspired whereas the book of Hebrews says the word of God is |
| 20:59 | living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of Soul and Spirit joints of Morrow |
| 21:06 | Discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart oh I trust you if you try to master |
| 21:11 | God’s word which is a good thing to try to do it will Master you |
| 21:17 | because it’s not like any other book out there these words have the Holy Spirit attached to him |
| 21:25 | it’s a living book or as Paul writes in second Timothy 3 14-17 but as for you continue in what |
| 21:32 | you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you |
| 21:37 | have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ |
| 21:44 | Jesus all scripture notice it says all scripture all scripture yeah that writing stuff yeah |
| 21:50 | those books those letters all scripture is that means breathed out by God the Holy |
| 21:58 | Spirit breathing out his word and it’s profitable for teaching |
| 22:06 | for reproof oh they can’t do that nowadays for correction you know I can’t do that either |
| 22:12 | for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for |
| 22:17 | every good work there is no good work that God would call you to do in loving |
| 22:24 | and serving your neighbor and in belief regarding what is true and rejecting of what is false that you |
| 22:30 | will not be equipped by God’s written word to do |
| 22:35 | yeah well that being the case huh |
| 22:42 | to keep in guard Jesus’s words is to keep and guard the scripture and to |
| 22:47 | reject all other words claiming to be coming from God |
| 22:52 | now this then begs the question why did Jesus promise this special work of the |
| 23:00 | spirit to his disciples why well the thesis sentence of the Gospel of John is found in John 20 verses 30-31 |
| 23:08 | and here’s what John writes now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in |
| 23:14 | this book but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the |
| 23:21 | son of God and that by believing you might have life in his name |
| 23:29 | you see God caused these books to be written so that you can be saved |
| 23:34 | so that you can have eternal life so that your sins can be forgiven this is why Jesus then continuing continuing |
| 23:41 | with our gospel text said this peace I leave with you my peace I give to you |
| 23:46 | not as the world gives do I give it to you peace |
| 23:51 | peace out of nowhere Jesus starts talking Shalom peace |
| 23:57 | that’s what this is all about that’s what this book is really teaching us now some of you here |
| 24:03 | if I were to put you on the spot and say from memory tell me what Ephesians 2 8 9 |
| 24:08 | and 10 says some of you be able to do it you’d say well um all right well I’m on the spot but |
| 24:13 | here you go um for by Grace you have been saved through faith this is not your own doing it is the gift of God |
| 24:20 | it’s not the result of work so that no one may boast for we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for |
| 24:26 | good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them we know this text it’s a very familiar Passage |
| 24:33 | but many of us are unaware of the great talk of peace |
| 24:39 | that immediately precedes these verses or comes after them here’s what Paul says |
| 24:45 | Ephesians 2 11. therefore because of this because you are saved by |
| 24:50 | grace remember that at one time you Gentiles In the Flesh call the uncircumcision by what is called the |
| 24:57 | circumcision which is made by the flesh by hands remember that at one time you were separated from Christ |
| 25:04 | that’s all of us at one time you were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and You Were Strangers to the |
| 25:11 | covenants of Promise having no hope without God in the world |
| 25:17 | and that’s the condition of every one of us we’re all born dead and trespasses and sins |
| 25:23 | each and every one of us and notice what Paul says without hope without God |
| 25:32 | but now Paul says now in Christ Jesus you who were once |
| 25:39 | far off you have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace Jesus is our |
| 25:49 | shalom he has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of |
| 25:55 | hostility by abolishing the law of Commandments expressed in ordinances so that he might create in himself one new |
| 26:02 | man in place of the two so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in |
| 26:08 | one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility yeah that’s right |
| 26:14 | not only were we alienated from God we were hostile to him in fact that hostility still lives in us |
| 26:21 | even if we’re Christians you see none of us are born with the ability to say hey when it comes to God |
| 26:27 | I’m Switzerland yeah I’m claiming neutrality here you guys you Muslims and you Christians and |
| 26:33 | you Catholics and you listens you go fight it out I’m gonna go have some iced tea |
| 26:39 | none of us are neutral according to scripture we are all born |
| 26:44 | dead and Trust passes and sins and hostile to God |
| 26:50 | hostile none of you are innocent not one in fact you really want to get technical |
| 26:56 | here we’ve all heard the story about the Great Rebellion that Lucifer waged against God in heaven right a third of |
| 27:03 | the Angels fell for the devil’s deceptions and sided with the devil against God and how’d that go for them |
| 27:10 | didn’t go well at all they were cast out of heaven sent to Earth Jesus even describes how |
| 27:18 | Satan fell kind of like a meteor from the sky great big crash |
| 27:24 | you sit there and go yeah that’s right yeah Gotti kicked the devil out |
| 27:29 | yeah here’s the problem you were born in the Dominion of the devil as demons |
| 27:36 | you were born hostile to God you’re not one of the good guys |
| 27:42 | you actually are siding with the Bad Guys by Nature you were born this way |
| 27:48 | and you know what you deserve for that the second death an eternity in the Lake of Fire and hell |
| 27:55 | with the devil and his angels which is why by the way Humanity on the day of judgment those |
| 28:01 | who persist in sin and unbelief end up in the same place with the devil and his demons ends up because they’ve sided |
| 28:07 | with him and that’s you and that’s me and every time we say God I have a |
| 28:15 | better word than your words you tell me not to do this ah I have a |
| 28:22 | better word than that right you tell me not to believe that or to believe this ah I have a better word |
| 28:29 | than that you’re engaging in hostility to God |
| 28:37 | and these are the very things that Christ came to forgive us for this is why he bled and died and this is why the |
| 28:43 | gospel is so amazing because in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for our sins for he |
| 28:50 | Jesus is our peace he came and he preached peace to you who were far off |
| 28:55 | and peace to those who were near for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the father |
| 29:01 | and because of what Christ has done Paul says you’re no longer strangers you’re no longer aliens |
| 29:08 | you no longer enemy combatants your fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God built on |
| 29:14 | the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets Christ Jesus himself being the |
| 29:20 | Cornerstone in whom the whole structure is being joined together and grows into a holy Temple and the Lord in him you also are |
| 29:28 | being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit |
| 29:34 | so we were all born dead and trespasses and sins and at war with God but God in Christ has done the |
| 29:41 | unthinkable he’s unilaterally made peace with us even while we were still Sinners and |
| 29:47 | hostile to God in other words by these actions God definitively proves he |
| 29:53 | doesn’t actually want to send you to hell which is what we all deserve |
| 29:59 | instead Jesus was pierced for our transgressions Jesus was crushed for our iniquities and |
| 30:06 | upon him was the punishment that brought us peace peace with God and this is not this is |
| 30:13 | the kind of peace that transcends all human understandings this is the peace the Shalom that first reconciles us to |
| 30:20 | God and then by the working of the holy spirit in our lives through the word begins to reconcile us |
| 30:27 | to each other where there was once only hatred hostility and death |
| 30:35 | there is now love Joy peace patience |
| 30:41 | kindness gentleness self-control |
| 30:46 | and eternal life and that dear brothers and sisters is |
| 30:51 | what makes this truly good news we |
| 30:57 | are enemy combatants by Nature many of us are even war criminals in this great war against God |
| 31:05 | and now we are called through these holy spirit inspired words written by the |
| 31:10 | ones whom Christ has sent to lay down our weapons that’s what we’re called to do |
| 31:16 | the war is over show up bring your arms |
| 31:22 | right lay down our weapons confess our guilt before God |
| 31:28 | but in so doing we do not get what we deserve instead we hear that we are |
| 31:33 | pardoned given amnesty and told by God himself that we can go in peace |
| 31:39 | oh it’s an and it’s better than that oh would you like to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom you get that too oh you |
| 31:46 | want to you get to be adopted into God’s family as well who does this right |
| 31:51 | so these words of Pardon and peace are so precious now to us who have been forgiven that we cannot help but keep |
| 32:00 | and guard these precious words right because they are the very words of |
| 32:05 | eternal life to lose these words due to neglect or to lose these words by the twistings and |
| 32:11 | connivings of the devil and his deceptions to lose these words by foolishly thinking that we have better |
| 32:17 | words because we felt something inside of our hearts is to actually end up forfeiting life |
| 32:23 | and peace itself this is why we keep and guard them |
| 32:29 | because these are the words of eternal life and these amazing and comforting words from Jesus that the Holy Spirit brought |
| 32:36 | back to the remembrance of his apostles they were written for you |
| 32:41 | they were written so that you may Believe In Christ and have life and peace with God through |
| 32:47 | him the war is over Christ is one lay down your arms |
| 32:54 | better yet why don’t you instead beat your swords into plowshares |
| 33:00 | because you’re forgiven you’re pardoned |
| 33:05 | and God through Christ has declared peace to you |
| 33:12 | in the name of Jesus amen |
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