Podcasts about either jesus

Either Jesus is raised from the dead or it is an idle tale.

Either Jesus is Lord of all or He's not Lord at all. Pastor Nichole shares her Easter message and examines how we unlock resurrection faith. What needs to die in your life so that it can be resurrected to reveal God's glory?

 Audio recordingSermon manuscript;I'd like to begin today by setting the scene for our Gospel reading. It is from Luke chapter 4, so this is towards the beginning of the story of Jesus. Not long before our reading Jesus was anointed with water and the Holy Spirit when he was baptized. Then he went out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. With our reading today he has come back to Galilee and Nazareth, which is his hometown. Thus our reading today is a report of what was happening early on. People were just beginning to hear and know about Jesus. This was because of what Jesus himself was saying and doing. However, Jesus is not always believed in and accepted. At the end of our reading, the people of Nazareth wanted to throw him off a cliff. In the sermon today I'd like to look more closely at Jesus's sermon, which was based on a section of Isaiah. We will see how Jesus's sermon was applicable to the people at Jesus's time as well as being applicable to ourselves. Then I'd like to consider how and why Jesus was rejected. This, also, I think you will see, is applicable to us. So, let's take up the main point of Jesus's sermon. Here is a portion of what he read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” When Jesus was finished reading he said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus was saying that this prophecy was about him. Let's look more closely at this prophecy. It says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” We know that the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism. It says, “Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” This is a good, general statement about what Jesus does. The word “anointed” is the meaning of the word “Christ.” Jesus is the anointed one. The reason why he has been anointed is “to proclaim good news to the poor.” “Good news” is the meaning of the word “Gospel.” Thus we have a couple short statements that well describe Jesus: He is the anointed one, the Christ. He proclaims the Gospel, good news, to the poor. Good news is always welcome to the poor. Poverty is a major hindrance to the enjoyment of life. It prevents people from doing what they would otherwise like to do. People might not be able to buy what they want because they are poor. People might be able to go to the doctor because they are poor. If it gets really bad, people might not be able to buy food. Poverty is the lack of power to do what you want. Throughout the Gospels you can read about how Jesus helped people who didn't have the resources to help themselves. People came to him who were in the grips of evil spirits. The evil spirits made them miserable, but they lacked the power to get them out. People came to Jesus who were sick with various diseases. If any of you have had diseases that don't go away, you know how tiring and frustrating that can be. Helplessness in the face of a disease that is stronger than you can be very frightening. It might mean the death of you. Jesus helped people like that. Let me pause for a moment to point out that Jesus continues to have good news for the poor. This has not stopped, nor has it been lessened from the reports of Jesus's miracles that we hear about in the Gospels. A lot of people assume that since miracles like that aren't very common, Jesus must no longer be at work, or that his work is strictly spiritual and therefore somewhat unreal. The truth is that Jesus's work after the resurrection is stronger and more profound than anything he did before. The works Jesus does and will do are greater. Let me give you a few examples. Jesus forgives sins. Maybe you have grown cold to that idea, but maybe I can refresh it for you by a simple question: What are you able to do to make up for the evil you have done? There's nothing. You are powerless. You are poor. The good news that is proclaimed to the poor is that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Or how about those diseases? How about that progressive onset of death that we call getting old? How about death itself? What can you do in the face of these things? Our options are severely limited, even with all our medical advances. The good news is that by his death Jesus defeated the power of death, and by his resurrection he opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Let me give you one more healing that I am especially looking forward to. What can be done with our evil minds and souls? What can be done with our anger? What can be done with our dirty minds, our coveting, meanness, sadness, apathy, coldness towards life, and a host of other evils? We are bombarded with commercials for various drugs, some of which might help somewhat, but they can't ever get to the core. The resurrection means healing not only for our bodies, but also our minds and souls. Believing in Jesus is trusting him to do things that otherwise seem impossible. So, to get back to our text: After he finished reading from Isaiah Jesus said, “I'm the fulfillment of what you heard. I preach good news to the poor. I set people free from unbreakable chains.” And, as it turns out, the people were quite receptive. “How interesting!” they said. “He speaks so well! Maybe I'll sign up for his newsletter. It's especially surprising since one of our own. He's Joseph's son, is he not?” This is the point at which everything changed in the story. The change is so abrupt that it's easy to miss. Everything was going fine, the people were enjoying Jesus, but then Jesus said some more stuff and they were no longer pleased. They started to push and shove him towards the brow of a cliff. What happened? It's Jesus's fault really. Jesus turned on them. After they started talking about him as the mere son of Joseph, Jesus knew that they would eventually be dissatisfied with him, and he told them so. Others—foreigners—would believe in him, but they would be left out in the cold. He brought up a couple Old Testament examples with the prophets Elijah and Elisha through whom God did miracles to foreigners, but not to his own people. This was what upset his hearers in his hometown. If he would have just left them be with their lukewarm admiration, they wouldn't have had such a violent reaction—at least not at that point. Jesus got pushy, and they didn't like that. This is not uncommon. There are several examples in the Bible where people responded to the Gospel by saying, “How interesting. I would not be opposed to hearing more about that in the future.” However, the message that Jesus preaches is not just a pleasant way to pass the time or to be part of a community. Jesus's message is “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” Another way of saying the same thing is: “Change your ways, change your mind, believe the good news that Jesus preaches to the powerless poor.” That is an all or nothing proposition. Either you will change your mind or you won't. Either Jesus will have all of you, or you will reject him. Jesus speaks this way in other places as well. It always make us nervous, because we are afraid to commit completely and totally. So, for example, Jesus says: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” That is being “all in” on Jesus. It is difficult and scary, but it makes sense if you think about it. Jesus is the difference between total bliss and freedom on the one hand or total sadness and imprisonment on the other. Either Jesus sets you from all your enemies—even those that you thought were impossible to overcome. Or you are still stuck—powerless and impoverished—in the face of things much mightier than you. It makes sense that this must be an all or nothing kind of thing. Jesus is not like an insurance policy that you stick in the filing cabinet until you have to use it. Jesus is Christ the king who is at work with the Gospel and sacraments. He is converting one soul at a time by the power of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of his kingdom is to destroy all the evil works of the devil. You don't fight wars with insurance policies. Wars involve total commitment. The people at Nazareth refused to be completely serious about Jesus. They thought he was interesting. They thought he was a good speaker. They would have told you that they were on his side! But they quit being on his side when he told them that their lukewarm approval wouldn't cut it. Eventually their lukewarm approval would turn to criticism, because then it is only a matter of time before Jesus says or does something that doesn't meet their complete approval. It is easy to apply this to ourselves. We are not unlike those Nazarenes! None of us, including myself, are comfortable “losing our lives” as Jesus puts it. None of us are as eager as we should be to take up our cross and follow him. It is much easier to believe that merely being a fan of Jesus is good enough. And, if you think about it, how convenient! We can feel good about being a fan without having to live as a soldier of the cross, denying ourselves. But this fakery only makes sense if there is no real war going on. There is a war. Jesus is our king. He is fighting against the devil and all evil, including the evil that is found in us, his Christians. The nature of the situation requires us always to repent and believe the Gospel. Repent and go “all in” with Jesus. You will not be disappointed!

 Audio recordingSermon manuscript:Our Gospel reading today gives us a description of what John the Baptist preached. John preached repentance, which means, “Change your ways,” or “Change your mind.” John told people that God's wrath, God's anger and punishment of sinners, was coming. That's why they should change their ways. If they have not been good, they will be judged accordingly. “The axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Some who heard John were persuaded. They repented. They wanted help for how to change their ways. John taught them what is in the Bible: “If you have two tunics, then give to him who has none.” Some people, who were pretty nasty and rough, wanted to their ways. Tax collectors, who were more like the mafia than our modern day IRS, wanted to know what they should do. John said: “Don't collect more than what you are authorized to do.” Same thing with some soldiers. “Don't extort money by threats and false accusations. Be content with your wages.” At the end of our reading John the Baptist talked about Jesus. Jesus would be like John, only greater. John baptized with water. Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John warned about the coming judgment. Jesus will do the judgment. The winnowing fork is in his hand. He will thresh out the grain. The wheat will be gathered into the barn, but the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire. This was John's preaching. Luke speaks of it as being “good news.” At the end of the reading Luke says, “So with many other exhortations John preached good news to the people.” Does what John preached sound like “good news” to you? It might not. It is easy to be troubled by what John says. He says that God is wrathful and that he punishes. People will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Jesus is characterized along the same lines. The winnowing fork is in his hand. He will separate the wheat from the chaff. The chaff will burn. Is all this wrath and all this fire really necessary? Isn't there a more civilized way? Questions like these are unavoidable for modern day Christians. Most Christians refuse to speak as plainly as John the Baptist, because it seems like a very poor strategy. It can be scary for people to hear about God being spoken of like that. What's more to the point is that it can sound unreasonable to talk about God like that. It doesn't sound right that God, who is described as being loving, should punish anybody. Hell is described as a place of torment with an unquenchable fire. How can God be like that? It is much easier to imagine a god (whom many people believe to be the true one) that doesn't have wrath, who won't torture or torment. Having a god like that sounds like a much better deal. A god that basically says, “Live however you want,” sounds nice. He sounds like he would be easy to get along with. And if God isn't someone I can get along with, then why bother? I can live just as well without him. Hearing rhetoric like this is quite common. Many people assume that it is because we have become more sophisticated in our modern times. We've discovered things, supposedly, that discredit the God of the Bible, making him much less believable. However, it is easy to show you that this is not modern or sophisticated. It is the way human beings have been since the beginning, which you can see in the Bible itself. We'll briefly consider the story of Adam and Eve. You will see the very same impulses in them that we have in the twenty-first century. This story should be familiar to you. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they did, they would surely die. But along came the serpent who introduced doubt. Why should they be forbidden to eat just from this tree? That's kind of random and arbitrary. If they were God, they probably wouldn't make a law like that. They'd let people eat from whatever tree they wanted. Then the serpent explained that God wouldn't punish them as he had said he would. They'd be fine. In fact, they'd be greatly improved! They'd be like God, knowing good and evil. So, having been convinced, Eve ate, and Adam ate too. What comes after this is what I'd like you especially to think about: that time between their eating and before God came. Adam and Eve knew that something had changed. They were ashamed of their nakedness. But what had to be foremost in their minds was the hope that the serpent had been right. The serpent had said that no wrath and no punishment would come. If the serpent was right, then they could go on living like they had. Notice what was “good news” for Adam and Eve during this time. It is the same “good news” that modern people believe in—but not just modern people, all unrepentant people of all times have this hope. They hoped that the God who had threatened to punish them for their sins didn't exist. That God was completely intolerable to them. Maybe they could get on board with the idea of some other god that would be altogether different from this wrathful, punishing God, but they couldn't tolerate a God who might intervene. But their hopes were dashed. God showed up. God did care. God would punish. Adam and Eve showed the great sophistication of the human race, including modern humans, by acting the same way we all do when we have gotten caught. They acted like three-year-olds. They hid in the bushes. They stammered excuses. They tried to pass the buck. They did not care about anything except saving their own skin. God—amazingly—did not give Adam and Eve what they deserved. He didn't kill them that day, although he did pronounce curses against them. God's anger was especially directed against the serpent, the devil. God spoke of the great violence that would happen between the serpent and his Son. The serpent would injure his Son's heel, but the Christ would crush the serpent's head. Already with this first telling of the story of Jesus, there is wrath and punishment for sin. The serpent's head would be crushed, ground into the dirt. God doesn't just say, “Oh well, never mind.” The Law of God is not annulled as though it were unimportant. As Jesus says, “Not one jot, not one tittle of the Law will pass away until everything is fulfilled.” Everything was fulfilled when the wrath of God for sin was poured out on his beloved Son. The wrath was so severe that Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As Paul says about Jesus, “He who knew no sin, became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Is this violent retribution good news? It depends on whose side you're on. If you don't want to change your ways or change your mind, if you don't want to believe that God cares about what you do, if you want to just be left alone to live how you see fit, then this is not good news. “Good news” for you would be that God will ignore you and leave you to your own thoughts and actions. Then you can go on being your own god, so to speak, making up for yourself what is good and what is evil. The rules for wat is good and evil are quite simple. What is good is whatever is good for me. What is evil is whatever you don't like. There is no reference to what is just or right. The refrain that is sung in every possible key is: “My will be done.” The alternative is to say to God, “Thy will be done!” That is a scary prayer if you think about it! Adam and Eve couldn't bring themselves to pray that prayer as they heard God's footsteps in the garden. God's will being done was the last thing they wanted. So it can be for us too! Maybe we have lots of tunics and we don't want to give any of them away. Maybe we've been making our livelihood by cheating and fraud. Maybe we've created the life for ourselves that has no reference to God, his commandments, his promises, or the cross that Jesus gives to all of his disciples. That can be a pleasant life, and we might not want to change. “Thy will be done!” turns our lives over to God. It is a prayer of repentance. It is a prayer for change. My life is clay. You, God, are the potter. Make of me the vessel that you see fit to make! This is the intensity of faith. We can't foresee exactly what God will do. We can only believe that it will be good. Believing that it will be good is the only way we can make any sense of the wrath that is to be revealed when Christ comes again in glory. None of us want to be burned as chaff. None of us want those we love to be cut down and thrown into the fire. But we are obviously dealing with righteousness, justice, and goodness that is far above us. Probably no amount of skilled argumentation will ever make us perfectly comfortable with John's preaching, but maybe that's in the nature of repentance and faith. Despite whatever misgivings we might have, the preaching is actually remarkably clear. We are presented with two fundamentally different alternatives. Either we can repent and believe in Jesus, or we can hope that things will stay the same. Either you must cast in your lot with Jesus, or you must cast in your lot with the serpent who said that no wrath or punishment will come. They cannot both be true. Either Jesus is the king who will set things right or what the serpent was basically correct: “You surely will not be punished. When you die, that will be it.” Hopefully you have heard enough about Jesus to know that you are much better off changing your ways, and casting your lot with Jesus, than remaining as you are and hoping God isn't who has said he is.

 Audio recordingSermon manuscript:When we think about being blessed or being happy we usually think about wealth, abundance, security, contentment, and so on. Happiness goes together with strength, ability, and freedom. If we have the wherewithal and if we have the opportunity, then we can do what we want. If we should be constrained with our resources or freedom, then we might not be able to do what we want. We most easily and naturally believe that blessedness or happiness comes from being able to do whatever we want. We usually associate not being able to do whatever we want with sadness. Did you notice how Jesus's teaching was strange along these lines? What we usually associate with sadness, Jesus declares as blessedness or happiness. Let's look at a few of the things Jesus said. He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Is being poor ever good? It's always better to be rich. Even if Jesus is not talking about money, doesn't it sound better to be rich in spirit? Someone being rich in spirit sounds a lot more interesting than someone being poor in spirit. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn.” If someone is mourning, then things haven't gone their way. Someone has died whom they would prefer were still alive. Something has gone wrong that they wish wouldn't have happened. “Blessed are the meek.” The meek are humbled. They can't be impressed with their own importance. We enjoy the feeling of being impressed with ourselves. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” If I had to choose between being hungry and thirsty for righteousness and being full of righteousness, I would much rather be full of righteousness. Then I could feel good about myself. From these examples, you can see how Jesus teaches strange things. If we would turn Jesus's statements into their opposites, then they would make much more sense: Blessed are the rich. Blessed are those who are having a great time. Blessed are powerful. If the world would have its own set of beatitudes, or blessings, they would sound like this: “Blessed are the rich, because they can buy whatever they want.” “Blessed are those who are having a great time, because they are making the most of this life.” “Blessed are the powerful, because nobody is pushing them around.” Don't these worldly beatitudes make more sense? We more easily and naturally live our lives when we don't have to rely on God. If we can see to things ourselves, then God doesn't matter as much. What does matter is having the necessary resources and freedom. You better make sure you've got enough of that. And what must be feared above all else is lack and loss. Lack and loss are surefire recipes for misery and sadness. That's one way of thinking, and it's pretty persuasive. It's what comes most easily and naturally. But one of the ways that Jesus is spoken of in the Gospels is that he has come to “proclaim good news to the poor.” The poor don't have anything. The good news is that they are going to get stuff. Where there was lack and loss there will be abundance and life. Jesus will bring this about. Or, at least, that's the claim. Is there a way that I can prove it? No, I'm sorry, I can't. The promises of abundance and life in Jesus can be only either believed or disbelieved. Either Jesus is God and Lord and he will bring about what he has promised, or he is wrong. The poor aren't blessed. Those who mourn aren't blessed. The powerless aren't blessed. Either the rules of life that are laid down by Jesus are how things are, or how things are is governed by the rules that we much more easily and naturally believe. Either a person will put his or her trust in Jesus or a person will put his or her trust in those worldly recipes for happiness. Today as we observe All Saints' Day we must consider this faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is how a person is a saint, which means a “holy one.” Only those who become holy are in heaven. Saints receive their holiness through faith in Jesus. They believe that he will keep the promises that he has made—promises like you find in the beatitudes. All of the beatitudes, or blessings, that Jesus spoke of contain promises. They are really glorious promises, if you will challenge yourself to think about what they mean and believe that they can actually come to pass. He says, “Yours is the kingdom of heaven.” God's kingdom in heaven can't be described. The Scriptures say that it is beyond us, no matter how hard we try. Jesus says, “God will comfort you.” How good do you think God is at comforting someone? You perhaps remember the comfort that comes from being in the arms of your dad or your mom or your husband or your wife. God will comfort those who mourn. Jesus says, “You will inherit the earth.” World history is full of vain and ambitious men and women who have strained every fiber of their being to attain mastery over the earth. Jesus says you will inherit it.  “You will be filled with righteousness.” Instead of temptations being victorious over you, you will be victorious over temptations. Jesus says, “You will receive mercy.” We hear about God's mercy all the time, but now we only know his mercy by faith. What will it be like to have our empty sack filled up with the undeserved good things of God? Jesus says, “You will see God.” The Scriptures emphatically state that no one has seen God. “No one can see God and live,” it says over and over again. What will it be like to see God? Jesus says, “You will be called sons of God.” This is not a slight or an insult to you female saints. Jesus is the only Son of God. By being called “sons of God” Jesus is saying that you will be like him. These are good promises. But then Jesus makes a different kind of promise. He promises us that we will be persecuted. He says that we will be reviled. That means that people will say that you are a fanatic. You are impractical. You are a fool about money. You are a fool to love your enemy. They will pronounce curses upon you that you will be poor and miserable and abused because you don't follow the rules of this old world. That is what you will get for following Jesus. It can be scary to be reviled and persecuted and to have all kinds of evil spoken against you. And this will not be done just by strangers. Elsewhere Jesus says that this will come from our nearest and dearest. Households will be divided. Families will be divided. This last promise is so bad, that we might think that we should just leave off with all this. It's not nice. It's disturbing. It's divisive. Religion is supposed to be peaceful and serene. Except it's not. Jesus said, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Jesus is on the warpath as king against the devil and against all his falseness. Whenever Jesus drove out demons, they convulsed their victims and cried out and put up a mighty fuss. They didn't want to lose control of their victims, and so it is with all the false rules and false gods that possess people today. They don't want to lose their grip. They want to hold us captive. They don't want us to believe in this who has come who proclaims good news to the poor. But these false rules and false gods are bad. They don't keep their promises. They couldn't, even if they wanted to, because their power is limited. They only pretend to be almighty. No matter how rich you are, no matter how powerful you are, no matter how many memories you make, no matter how good of a life you believe that you can make for yourself, none of these things can forgive your sins. None of these things can defeat death. None of these things can fill you with God's love. None of these things can prepare you for seeing God. Only Jesus can do these things. Believe in him! Are you poor? Will you become poor? Are you poor in spirit—kind of dumpy and something of a nobody? Believe in Jesus! He has good news for you even though you lack so much: “Yours is the kingdom of heaven.” Are you mourning? Are things not going your way? Did you imagine that your life would be altogether different? “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Thus and so you can do with all these statements of Jesus. There are promises in there for those who will believe. Faith, therefore, makes all the difference. John says in his epistle: “This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” The saints who have gone before us all have this one thing in common: They believed in Jesus. You believe in him too. Believe, and then just wait and see how all the promises he has made will come true. Jesus keeps his promises.

October 22, 2024 Today's Reading: Hebrews 4:1-13, 14-16Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 21:1-23; Deuteronomy 22:1-24:9; Matthew 16:1-12Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. As with Israel of old, the promises God makes with us seem too good to be true. When we die, we will not die but live forever. When we face His judgment, God will find no sin at all to accuse or condemn us. Does God even know us? When God calls out to “strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience (Hebrews 4:11),” He is calling us to ignore every other voice but the one calling us back to our Baptism into Christ. For God knows how many our sins are, how overwhelming our guilt is, how insurmountable the odds of us doing anything to help ourselves in His judgment. Either Jesus saves us all the way, or we will not be saved.In his commentary on Galatians, Luther writes, “I remember how Doctor Staupitz used to say to me: ‘I have promised God a thousand times that I would become a better man, but I never kept my promise. From now on I am not going to make any more vows. Experience has taught me that I cannot keep them. Unless God is merciful to me for Christ's sake and grants unto me a blessed departure, I shall not be able to stand before Him.'”  Luther goes on to point out how this was “a God-pleasing despair. For no true believer trusts in his own righteousness, but says with David, ‘If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?'” (Ps. 130:3).What we need from the throne of grace is not more time or energy. For poor, miserable sinners who ever offend God and justly deserve His temporal and eternal punishment, what we need, what truly helps us, is the grace from above that says, “I love you. I forgive you. I got this. And true to My Jesus, true to My Word, I save you.”But that is the promise God makes with Jesus on the cross for you, with Jesus in your Baptism for you, with Jesus on your pastor's lips for you, and with Jesus at His Supper for you. Yes, your rest, too, has been won. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The world seeks to be praised And honored by the mighty Yet never once reflects That they are frail and flighty. But what I truly prize Above all things is He, My Jesus, He alone. What is the world to me! (LSB 730:2)-Rev. Bradley Drew, pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Metairie, LA.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.In Embracing Your Lutheran Identity, Author Gene Edward Veith Jr. will guide readers through that heritage, starting with the Early Church and moving through the Reformation to Lutheranism today. Readers will learn about key people in the history of Lutheranism, from two teenagers who were the first martyrs of the Reformation, through the Saxon immigrants who left everything behind so they could practice Lutheranism freely, to the Lutherans who have stood strong for the faith in our own day.

PODCAST Confirmation of last PODCAST PROPHECY-- THE CAPTIVITY https://youtu.be/SF2kXBzUqCM?si=d2yRScx0cemdLobd ——- Bible Code confirms Rabbi Mendel Kessin words Matityahu Glazerson JUDGEMENT OF AMERICA https://youtu.be/kI4CDbG_ToQ?si=rHlqGGoOc6l0Mj_x ——- ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬-‭18‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬ “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” ——- Exodus‬ ‭31‬:‭14‬-‭17‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬ “Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” Psalm‬ ‭37‬:‭32‬-‭34‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬ “The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” Revelation‬ ‭7‬:‭17‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬ “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” ——- The visions concerning the end times came before America started her decline. There are two I want you to listen to the first David Wilkerson vision of America, and a lady who turned her videos over to someone to post after she left the country for her safety because of what was showed her. David seen something he did not quite understand because nothing like it ever occurred in America a free country where the people were protected from tactics used by tyrannical governments. Slander and stalking of Christians who had a calling on their lives. The antichrist biggest worry is true Christian and their wisdom discernment and knowledge. It could destroy his plans THERE IS NO SECRET RAPTURE https://youtu.be/mLG6a-2l2Gk?si=zUyJHnkBoXrRHzbo ——- BREAKING NEWS: Multiple terrorist attacks in USA expected | AUG 2 2024 https://youtu.be/t7IOtSImZoU?si=BGuidUfE1aWIrAro ——- Do I have to keep ALL the commandments if I am a CHRISTIAN? https://youtu.be/RFZzE07eTfs?si=P_nC7B_B7d5XPf3k ——- Mike From COT A New Season Dawns 6:2:24 https://youtu.be/CrA5DH5-lvE?si=liA_Gg6tG3GNOxbf ——- David Wilkerson Prophecy - The Vision God Gave About America https://youtu.be/1_QgIuP9kQw?si=QlBX05Mxx5sklXEk ——- This is video number 4 out of 12 or so! Very important so people can see through the deception taking place in America 4 Change HD https://youtu.be/RVhatRIyjAo?si=bQab2c8dD1snIV-w ——- James‬ ‭4‬:‭4‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬ “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” ——- The church's have been deceived! By translations of the Bible. Removing of books from the Bible! And by modern scribes and Pharisees. As Christian's no longer check to verify what they are told or read. They just accept what they are told or read is actually true. Either Jesus is a liar, or the devil misled you about (The) Great Tribul... https://youtu.be/XAwJzAJNFGM?si=4MdnQEzIkqFHtm3d ——- ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭45‬-‭48‬ ‭GNV‬‬ “That ye may be the children of your father that is in heauen: for he maketh his sunne to arise on the euill, and the good, and sendeth raine on the iust, and vniust. For if ye loue them, which loue you, what rewarde shall you haue? Doe not the Publicanes euen the same? And if ye be friendly to your brethren onely, what singular thing doe ye? doe not euen the Publicanes likewise? Ye shall therefore be perfit, as your Father which is in heauen, is perfite.” ——- Do I have to keep ALL the commandments if I am a CHRISTIAN? https://youtu.be/RFZzE07eTfs?si=_WfcsR2meUlX8GQk ——- Jeremiah‬ ‭6‬:‭10‬-‭23‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬ ——- ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭24‬:‭22‬-‭26‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬ “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.” ——- Amos‬ ‭8‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬ “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” ——- RED ALERT - EMERGENCY WARNING FOR ALL AMERICANS https://youtu.be/nYhoKRDPJ74?si=wOmoJYXTW-w-6DSB ——- The Church Exodus: Move of God, or Great Falling Away? https://youtu.be/K8IHnestwdw?si=hl5b6tv-2R7MZ4Cc ——- Warning Dreams: Persecution Coming & Church In Shallow Waters https://youtu.be/GQhfcjsT-qo?si=VtI6UvzCvK6h0baX ——- Is This the Final Sign? | Exploring the Mark of the Beast https://youtu.be/j9tfwq6V7pc?si=s2Sm92frblBOLoc4 ——- God Did NOT Allow This Creature To ENTER The Ark. - 3 Biggest Mysteries ... https://youtu.be/E1Kmur1JO1I?si=cM17Nbh4GHK4FheW ——-

Jesus continues His sermon by teaching us how we should fast. He then warns against the dangers of desiring material possessions. Either Jesus is master or our things are.

Jesus continues His sermon by teaching us how we should fast. He then warns against the dangers of desiring material possessions. Either Jesus is master or our things are.

Jesus continues His sermon by teaching us how we should fast. He then warns against the dangers of desiring material possessions. Either Jesus is master or our things are.

Either JESUS was in TRUTH the MESSIAH or he was not. That is NOT a hard thing to understand (that is IF you truly DESIRE to understand it.) There is an OVERWHELMING amount of BIBLICAL PROOF regarding the person of JESUS CHRIST within the SCRIPTURES. Prophecy, after prophecy, after prophecy, shows us that those SAME prophecies were totally FULFILLED in JESUS CHRIST. How important is all of this stuff? Well, it IS the difference between salvation and damnation, and the difference between Heaven and Hell! That's how important this stuff is!

From 1 Corinthians 15:12-34. This passage helps us see that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has real consequences for us and for the world. Either Jesus died and rose again, defeating death, and validating all He said, or He died, is dead, and is a liar. There is no neutral ground on which to stand.

"Trust in the Lord." Pr 3:5 NIVWhen you honestly evaluate your worries, you will find you are doing these: (1) Forgetting that God is your friend. The psalmist said,"The Lord is a friend to those who fear him"(Ps 25:14 NLT). Friendship with God is built by sharing your life's experiences with Him-every activity, every conversation, every problem, and every thought. When you don't, you end up unaware of His presence, oblivious to His voice, resistant to His correction, and out of sync with His timing.And when you live that way, there is one inevitable result-worry! (2) Taking on things you shouldn't. Peter Marshall prayed:"Father...check our impulse to spread ourselves so thin that we're exposed to fear and doubt, to the weariness and impatience that makes our tempers wear thin; [that] robs us of peace of mind; that makes skies grey when they should be blue; that stifles a song along the corridor of our hearts." You lose your song when you add the unnecessary pressure of maintaining your exterior image, increasing your pace to keep up with the  Joneses, and trying to fix everybody or live up to their expectations. (3) Failing to understand the difference between the secular and the sacred. Either Jesus is Lord over every area of your life, or He is not Lord over any of it. We tell ourselves certain parts of our lives lie in the realm of God's concern, but not others. The Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight" (Pr3:5-6 NIV). To live any other way is to live a worried life!Support the showChanging Lives | Building Strong Family | Impacting Our Community For Jesus Christ!

Gethsemane is the greatest display of the perfect humanity of Jesus in the Bible, it also offers opportunities to ponder the excellencies and perfection of his character. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - One sacred day, God spoke to Moses from the flames of the burning bush. "Take off your shoes, for the ground on which you are standing is holy ground." What does this mean? Since God is everywhere, all at once, holy ground means that God was about to be uniquely revealed, revealed in an extraordinary way, and Moses's knowledge of God was going to be greatly increased by this encounter. "Draw near to listen. Draw near to fall on the ground in fear and wonder in worship and adoration." If that's true at the burning bush, then how much more true is it when we come to Gethsemane? Gethsemane is the greatest display of the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ in the Bible. It contains almost incomprehensible mysteries, but also tremendous opportunities to ponder the excellencies of Christ, His glories, the perfection of His character, His courage, His obedience, His trust in His father, His willingness to suffer for us, His love for us, His reversal of the disobedience of Adam, also His frailty and His weakness, His mortality, His emotions. All of this is on display. We will spend eternity in heaven, I believe, pondering these themes and others that flow through this account. This morning, we're going to spend just a little while on them. My desire, my goals with this sermon is first and foremost to exalt Jesus Christ our Savior, based on the words of this account, that we may worship Him with all of our hearts for what He did for us at the cross. Secondly, that we would understand more accurately the humanity of Jesus, His emotions, His submission, His mortality and frailty, His temptations, and yet His sinlessness. Thirdly, that we would understand the power of prayer in facing temptations, in strengthening us to do the will of our Father. Fourthly, to motivate us to trust in Christ's finished work on the cross, more than ever before. Fifthly, to help us understand the proper use of our own will, that we would learn to imitate Jesus Christ every day in saying, "Not my will, but yours be done," no matter what the cost. And sixth, to feel intensely personally, if you are a Christian, to feel intensely personally Christ's love for you. For you. In Galatians 2:20, Paul gives us permission to do this, to say, "Christ loved me and died for me. He gave Himself for me." It is right for us as Christians to say both Christ loved me and gave Himself for me, and Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, that multitude greater than anyone could count, from every tribe, language, people, and nation.[Revelation 7]. But in Galatians 2:20, “Jesus loved me and He drank my cup for me.” Here we're going to walk through all of these themes, and I don't know what the Holy Spirit's going to do in your heart as we walk through, probably a little different than He'll do in mine. But if those things will be achieved in you, then I will have preached for the glory of God in Christ. Let's walk first through the facts of Gethsemane. I. The Facts of Gethsemane All His life, Jesus lived under the shadow of the cross. B.B. Warfield, the great Presbyterian theologian, said the prospect of His suffering was a perpetual Gethsemane to Him. He said, in Luke 12:50, "I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed” or straitened, like in a straitjacket, "I am until it is completed." There is clear evidence in the Gospel. This is very important for us to understand. Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him. In Mark 9:31, Jesus said, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days, He will rise." There's no doubt about this at all. He said it again and again. As Jesus comes to Gethsemane on that faithful night, the time had come for Him to face the cross straight on, and make a final decision about what He was going to do. The Lord's supper is over. They have finished the Passover meal. They have sung a hymn. They've crossed the Kidron Valley into the garden of Gethsemane. Verse 32, "They went to a place called Gethsemane." What is Gethsemane? It was a private garden on the Mount of Olives, probably walled off, owned by some rich friend of Jesus, who allowed Jesus and His disciples to frequent the place. It was outside of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley from the city, away from the maddening crowd of millions of pilgrims that had come from all over the settled world for the Passover feast. The word Gethsemane itself means “oil press”, probably included a physical press for making olive oil from the harvest of olives on the mount, and the crushing of those olives produced a reddish, viscous, precious fluid, olive oil, to flow into containers for sale or for use. But this also could stand somewhat of a spiritual metaphor for the crushing pressure, spiritual pressure, that Jesus would experience there, so intense that by the end of the time there, His blood was flowing like sweat, like great drops of blood dropping from His face. Why did Jesus go to Gethsemane? It was a place, a regular place of retirement and prayer, a refuge for Him and His disciples. It was commonly used by Jesus and His disciples. Therefore Judas, who had left by then to betray Him that very night, would know exactly where Jesus was going that night. It was His habit to go there. He made it His habit, because in part He wanted to make it easy for Judas to find Him that night and betray Him. This is evidence, clear evidence of His willingness to lay down His life for us. He was never a victim trapped by external circumstances He didn't foresee or couldn't control. It's not the case. John 10:18, Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely of my own accord." It's vital to understand that. Jesus comes to Gethsemane for all those reasons, and He gives a command to His disciples, and He separates away from them. Look at verse 32-33, "Jesus said to His disciples, 'Sit here while I pray.' Then He took Peter, James, and John along with Him.” Luke tells us that Jesus separated from His disciples by a distance of a stone's throw, maybe 100, 150 feet, but He also took His closest disciples with Him. They were His best friends in the world, His closest friends, and He wanted to be with them at that point, Peter, James, and John. These are the same three, of course, that had viewed Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. It's amazing that these three saw Him at His most glorious, His most radiantly glorious in the days of His incarnation on Earth, and also would see Him at His most humbled and abased here in the garden of Gethsemane, eyewitnesses of both. He went there, Jesus did, He separated Himself so that He could pray. Jesus' understanding of prayer is infinitely greater than ours, clearly greater than Peter, James, and John's that night. Jesus knew it was only by prayer that He would be able to get through the cross, so He went there to pray. We see the awesome and the overpowering emotional distress that comes upon Jesus. First of all, it's stated in the accounts. Verse 33, “He began to be deeply distressed and troubled.” In Matthew 26:37, “He began to be sorrowful and troubled.” It's not only stated in the accounts, but Jesus says it about Himself. Look at verse 34, "'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,' He said to them." "Jesus knew it was only by prayer that He would be able to get through the cross, so He went there to pray." These overpowering emotions, there are two words, we're going to save one of the words for later, but He says He's “sorrowful”. The root word has to do with grief, sadness of an overwhelming nature, usually associated with death. Then “troubles”. It refers to a distracted or anxious state of mind or soul, like someone consumed with anxiety about an impending event. His statement says, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow," as though He's surrounded by it. He's walled in by grief. There's no escape from it except by His own death, right there in the garden. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death," He says. I don't think this was just a phrase or a metaphor. I think it was literally true. I think He was literally close to dying in the garden of Gethsemane. So the Father has to dispatch an angel to strengthen Him. Luke 22:43, "An angel from Heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him." What an amazing moment that was. Aa amazing picture of His frailty, the frailty of the Son of God in His humanity. This angel that was dispatched from Heaven, was created by Jesus, and yet at that moment, Jesus is so much weaker than the angel. It says in Luke's account, Luke 22:44, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." This is literally true. We look at that, it's not just an analogy, but it's drops of blood. I would think then that what happened was His blood pressure spiked there in the garden of Gethsemane, the internal pressure so great that it seemed like the capillaries just under the skin burst, they couldn't handle the pressure, and the blood came out of the pores. I mean, not a little, a lot, and it's flowing down His face and dripping to the ground there in the garden of Gethsemane, great drops of blood. It seems quite likely that, had Jesus not been physically strengthened at that moment, He might've died right there in the garden. Then Jesus prays. Look at verse 35-36, "Going a little farther, He fell to the ground, and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. "Abba Father,” He said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will." His physical position, He's on His face, He's prostrate, totally weak, helpless, submissive to God, as low as He can be. As Joseph Hart put in a 1759 hymn, "Come you sinners, poor and needy. View Him groveling in the garden, low your maker prostrate lies." And then the request is, “If it's possible, Abba Father," He said, "Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me." For any parent of a child, this prayer must be the most heartrending you can possibly imagine. “Abba" means “daddy”. He's reduced to speaking like a little child. I can scarcely imagine what this must have done to His heavenly Father, who's the most perfect, compassionate being there could ever be, whose heart goes out to those that suffer, but especially His Son, whom He loved with a perfect love, with a love so complete that we can't even imagine how great that love would be. How much would Jesus's prayer rip the heart of a loving heavenly Father? "Daddy, you can do anything. If it's possible, take this cup from me." What loving father wouldn't do everything he could to alleviate the suffering, this kind of suffering from a child? But Jesus is also probing the limits of the sovereignty of God within the scope of His plan, “If it's possible.” Later, that same evening in Matthew's account, when Peter draws his sword to rescue Him from the cross, He tells him to put his sword away, and says, "How then would the Scripture be fulfilled that says it must happen in this way?" No, it isn't possible. Once it is written, once it is written, and God has made His commitment and signed it in the blood of millions of sacrificial animals, over centuries of history, and specific careful promises laid out in the prophets, there was no other way. What is this cup? How do we understand the cup? In Scripture, the cup in prophetic language frequently represents the judgments of God, the righteous judgments of God on a sinner or on sinful people or sinful nations. It's a regular pattern, the word “cup”. The most potent example of this word cup is in Revelation 14, "God's wrath and judgment poured out on the damned." Revelation 14:10-11, "He too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest, day or night." That's the cup. That's your cup and my cup set before Jesus there in Gethsemane. It's Hell. It's the wrath of God poured out on sinners. Jesus is staring into the cup of the wrath of God, and understandably in His humanity, shrinking back in horror. The wrath of God is terrifying, God is a consuming fire. The wrath of God is His omnipotence focused like a white-hot laser beam on the destruction of His enemies. Jesus is shrinking back from that, from drinking the cup of God's wrath in our place. We could also imagine He's shrinking back from being our sin bearer. We don't understand the purity of the person of Christ. We're just so used to sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 said, "God made Him, Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." It's like having tons of raw sewage poured on a perfectly pure being, spiritual sewage. In the atonement, then Jesus, the only perfectly holy man that has ever lived, would become sin for us. He would bear the defiling sins of all of His people from every generation of history, all the filth and corruption, all the lust and murder, all the covetousness and greed, all of that poured onto Jesus as our substitute. Then we see the submission of Jesus. Verse 36, "Yet not what I will, but what you will." This is the centerpiece of this magnificent moment. This is the center of it. "Not what I will, but what you will." This is the greatest act of submission and courage in the history of the human race. More on this in a moment. Then we have the admonishment of the sleeping disciples, verse 37-38, "He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. 'Simon,' He said to Peter, 'are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.'" Matthew tells us Jesus said this to all three of them, but Mark focuses specifically on Peter. By contrast with Jesus, we have the weakness and the unbelief, really, of the disciples exposed here. Jesus specifically warns them of falling into temptation, not merely being tempted, but being ensnared and overcome by it. That's what it means to fall into temptation. He tells them that the remedy is to watch and pray. He also marvels at their weakness that they're not able to watch and pray with Him for even one hour. Peter in particular should have been getting ready for the most intense spiritual struggle of his life, but instead he's giving in to the weakness of the flesh. That famous expression, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” That was Peter. Amazing also, isn't it, the shepherd heart of Jesus, to break off His intense prayer to His father, which He knew better than any of us, how much He needed, breaks that off to go back and check on His disciples, make sure they're praying, make sure they're getting ready for what they're about to face, to reason with them, to pray, and watch and pray. Then in verse 39, we have Jesus' second prayer, "Once more, He went away and prayed the same thing." Matthew gives a little more detail. "My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." It's an evolution of the conversation that He's having with His father on this issue of the cup. Then He goes back, and we have the disciples' second failure, verse 40, "When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to Him." Luke tells us in Luke 22:45, "When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow." Then we have Jesus' final prayer. It's assumed in Mark and openly stated in Matthew 26:44, "So He left them and went away once more, and prayed the third time, saying the same thing." Finally the end of the account, verses 41-43, "Returning the third time, He said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough. The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer.' Just as He was speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priest, the teacher of the law, and the elders." Jesus has effectively faced His final temptation there in the garden and conquered it, and now He rises from His moment of greatest weakness, and goes forth mightily to conquer sin and death with unflinching courage. II. The Mysteries of Gethesemane Those are the facts of Gethsemane. Now let's talk about the mysteries of Gethsemane. A. W. Tozer said, "If you've never faced mystery in your study of God, I doubt whether you've ever heard a single word from God at all." We will not plumb the depths of Gethsemane here. The issue has to do with Jesus' incarnation, the theological mystery of the incarnation. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is perhaps the most profound mystery in the Bible. How can Jesus be both fully God and fully man? Many over the centuries have questioned this, and sought to deny one or the other. Dualistic philosophies and theologies like the Gnostics early on, and the Docetists, deny the humanity of Christ, saying He only seemed to be human. Gethsemane is a powerful antidote to this heresy. Jesus' humanity is on full display here, especially in His weakness, His frailty, His wavering, His fear, shrinking back, and to some mysterious degree, His limited knowledge. The fact that Jesus in His incarnation can learn things. We’ll get to more of that in a moment. Jesus's emotional life is real and full and perfect. He fully displays the reality of His title, Man of Sorrows. How then can Christ be both omnipotent deity and this weak humanity? How do we understand and explain His stunning fear of death? Lots of people face death more courageously, overtly courageously than this. It's not that rare a story. Soldiers that are willing just to die, so that others may live. That actually is not all that rare. Socrates famously took the cup of hemlock, knowing it was his own death in that cup, unflinchingly drank it to the bottom and died. But Jesus seems different, just a quantum level difference. Martin Luther said, "No man ever feared death like this man." How can we understand this? How can the infinite creator of all things visible and invisible need help from an angel? How can He need strengthening? How can He shrink back like this from death? So, clearly the answers to all these questions is a mystery, but it shows clearly the humanity of Christ. We get to verse 33, and here I want to show you something that, unless you have the KJV, you won't see. The King James Version is the only version that translates the Greek word in the simplest way, the most direct way. "Now, when Christ entered Gethsemane, He knew exactly what was going to happen to Him factually." Factually. He knew He would most certainly die on the cross as a ransom for sinners. But apparently, it seems, there was a dimension of knowing that was withheld from Him by His father until this moment. Why do I say that? There's a shocking word in the KJV translation of verse 33, which accurately translates. It's not a mistranslation, it’s a good translation. "And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy." Sore amazed. The word “amazed” stops us in our tracks. The word “sore” just means extremely, like overwhelmed with amazement. So in some mysterious way, Jesus was amazed at Gethsemane. The same word is used of a crowd reaction to Jesus's ministry, or to the apostles healing of the lame beggar in Acts 3. It is frequently translated in those places, “astonished.” It implies some sense of wonder or surprise. Something is hitting Jesus here that He didn't see coming, and hence He is sore amazed. How does that apply to Jesus at Gethsemane? I believe that when Jesus began to pray, the Father revealed to Him in an immeasurably more vivid way, to His soul, to His mind and His soul, what it would actually be like to drink the cup of His wrath on the cross as our substitute. Drinking the cup of God's wrath poured full strength on Him. The revelation occurred within Jesus's mind and soul, and knocked Him to the ground. This kind of showing or display language was essential to Jesus' role and His daily ministry, actually. In John 5:20, Jesus said, "The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, to your amazement, He will show Him even greater things than these." More in general in the Scripture, this is a regular pattern, that the prophets were shown spiritual visions and realities in the spiritual realm. They had visions and dimensions like Ezekiel, of wheels within wheels and all that. This is prophetic vision. This is common, actually. But Jesus says He openly got His marching orders from the Father daily. He doesn't say any word except what the Father has told Him to say. He doesn't do anything except what the Father is doing. The Father shows the Son what He's doing. What did He show Him in Gethsemane? He showed Him the cup. "Father, what are we doing next?" "Well, today I'm going to kill you. Kill you for the sins of the world. That's what we're doing next, and this is what it'll be like." It's akin to the difference between seeing an old black and white photo of the Grand Canyon and seeing like an IMAX movie or a virtual reality helicopter tour through the ravine itself. It's just a whole different level of impression made to the mind. As Christ began to pray, God turned up the intensity in Christ's mind of what it would actually be like to drink the cup of His wrath, to absorb the lightning of His indignation, to go through Hell in our place as our substitute, and it knocked Him to the ground, it increased His blood pressure so it spiked, He starts bleeding out of His pores. Why did He do it? Why did the Father do this? I think He did it, I believe, to give Christ the ability to make a more informed choice of whether He would do it or not, whether He would go through with their plan. He refrained from doing it earlier, because look what happened to Him. I mean, the human body can only stand so much strain. It would've been too great for Him to bear. I think, in effect, some infinitely mysterious conversation went on between the Father and the Son. The Father shows the Son the cup, and then the Father says, "Son, this is what the cup of my wrath will be like for you to drink." Jesus answered, "Father, is it possible for me to save my people without drinking that terrifying cup?" The Father. "Son, no. There is no other way. Will you do it anyway?" And now comes what I've called the most heroic moment in human history. "If it is not possible to save my people any other way than drinking that cup, may your will be done." If you ever don't feel loved by God, think about that moment. Think about that. That's your cup He drank, mine too. At that moment, Christ put His own will completely under the will of the Father. At that moment, as I said, He overturned the wretched choice made by the first Adam, that he had made in the Garden of Eden. All the wretched choices that the sons and daughters of Adam have made since by their willful sinning, that's yours and mine, all the bad choices we have made, He overturned all of that. Here, Christ showed the proper use of human will, and that is to do the will of God. So, bow your head and worship all generations of Christians. This is the most perfect act of obedience ever. We also have the mystery of Jesus' prayer. Is His will somehow different than the Father's? Are they at cross-purposes? Some have wondered if the wrestling Jesus displayed in Gethsemane, "If it is possible, take this cup from me," was indicative that His will was somehow against the cross, as though He's battling within Himself, as though He and the Father disagreed about this. In general, we just as Christians have to treat Gethsemane like holy ground, and limit your speculation, and don't go too far. Jesus has said plainly in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one." No doubt about that. He wasn't against the Father's will. He loved the Father's will. Isaiah 53:10 says, "It was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. And though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days. The will of the Lord will prosper in His hand." It's so beautiful. It's like the Father wrote a magnificent concerto, and Jesus the soloist played it to perfection. He made it beautiful. The will of the Lord prospers. No, they're not at cross-purposes, not at all. It just shows that the cost to Jesus, and indeed to the Father, was infinitely high, and the Father was willing to pay it. He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up to this for us all. III. The Glories of Gethsemane Finally, the glories of Gethsemane. We've said, the free will of Jesus, properly on display. Jesus went to the cross of His own free will. He was not coerced, He was not forced. Therefore, for those that talk often about free will, this is free will. This is what free will looks like. He had no sin nature holding Him back, no corruption. He was free, and He used it perfectly to do the will of God. That's what it's for. That's what free will is for, to do the will of God. Because the Father has a will, too. Our will is patterned after the fact that the Father has a will. Jesus taught us that the best use of human will is to find its joy and its delight and its fruitfulness in the will of God. He taught us that. From this moment in time on, Jesus will only be able to escape the cross by a direct application of His supernatural power, His wonder-working power, to get out of it. Physical forces will come on Him at the end of this account and seize Him, and the only way He'll be able to get out of it is by using His power. And He could do it, but He was not going to do it. This is His last moment of freedom, and He gave it up willingly. Therefore, we need to understand the significance of this choice theologically, Romans 3:26. Some have blasphemously, I don't even want to say these words, but blasphemously called the idea of substitutionary atonement Heavenly child abuse, as the Father's crushing His son in some way. Rather, in Gethsemane we have God the Father revealing to the Son as much as He possibly could do, what it would be like to drink the cup, and asking Jesus to make a choice, and He did. Therefore, it was of His own free will that He did it. "Not my will, but yours be done." This removes any charge of injustice against the Father concerning substitutionary atonement. Romans 3:25, "God put Jesus forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." Propitiation is the one who removes the wrath of God by drinking the cup. Romans 3:26, "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." It is a perfect display of justice, not injustice. Why? Because in part of this transaction that we've been describing here. The willingness of Jesus to do it removes any charge of injustice. We see also the obedience of Jesus versus the disobedience of Adam. I've mentioned it, but the clear parallel is set up in Romans 5:19, "Just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous." That's staggering. You know what that means? By Jesus's obedience, He makes you righteous, if you're a Christian. What that means is He makes you obedient, positionally obedient. You are seen by God in Christ at the moment of your conversion to be as obedient as Jesus. How about that? That is our imputed righteousness. It's staggering. This is the righteousness given to you as a gift. God sees you as obedient as Jesus was there in Gethsemane, as a gift. What is that act of obedience? It's His willingness to die on the cross. Philippians 2:8, "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Then Hebrews 5:8-9, "Although He was a son, He learned obedience." What a staggering phrase that is. "He learned obedience from what He suffered, and once made perfect or qualified, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him." Wow. Adam used his free will to rebel against God, and we all died in that. The second Adam, Jesus, uses His free will to make a right choice, and we all live and are seen righteous in that. That's our salvation. "Adam used his free will to rebel against God, and we all died in that. The second Adam, Jesus, uses His free will to make a right choice, and we all live and are seen righteous in that. That's our salvation." Finally, we see the perfect love of Jesus, first for God, and then for His people. In Gethsemane, we see Jesus loving God and us sinners more than He loved Himself. It was the revulsion of the thing that caused Him to shrink back, but it was love, first and foremost love for God, and secondly love for us, that caused Him to deny Himself, first vertically, John 14:31, "The world must learn that I love the Father, and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me to do." Think about that. "The world must know and learn that I love my Father, and they'll know that when they see me go to the cross." Secondly, love for us. John 15:13-14, "Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends." We see that courage of Jesus, that love that drives out fear. Many people have willingly laid down their lives to save others. It occasionally happens, very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. So, the Congressional Medal of Honor is given to people that were willing to lay down their lives in the battlefield. It happens. But nothing ever in history has been like this incredible moment of courage. IV. Applications of Gethsemane Come to Christ. Trust in Jesus. There is a cup of wrath, of righteous, just wrath, poured out from God on sinners. Either Jesus will drink that cup in your place, or you'll drink it for all eternity. Those are the choices. There's no other option. You can be in denial that there is such a cup, but there is a cup of God's wrath against sin. Jesus is offering in the gospel to drink yours for you. Trust in Him, repent of sin, turn away from wickedness, and turn to Christ in faith, and let Him save you. If you're already a Christian, worship Christ for what He did for you. Thank Him for what He did for you. I don't know how you're made up. I cry basically at one thing, for the most part. It's always the same. It's Christ's love for me as a sinner. It just melts me. I melt every time, and this melts me. This text probably melts me more than any other text. I almost can't talk about it in everyday life without choking up. I never stop thinking about this, my savior drinking my cup. I want to take and sharpen this and apply it on the matter of Christian contentment. When I was studying Christian contentment, I wrote one statement that people who have read the book that I wrote said is the most convicting in the whole book, and that is this: "Has Christ crucified and resurrected done enough for you to be happy today? Or does He have to be a little more?" Let's take it in the language of Gethsemane. Is it enough for Jesus to drink your cup and that's it, so you don't have to drink it and you'll spend the eternity in Heaven? Or does He have to do some more beyond that? I'm not minimizing the things you would pray for. For the healing of somebody that you love and you want to see them heal. I'm not minimizing that. I'm just asking you to put it in perspective, Him drinking your cup for you is the greatest act of love and gift that could ever be. Keep in mind, Romans 8 said He did not spare His own son. God's not holding anything back because He's stingy. He has given the greatest thing He could ever give, His beloved, His perfect son, shattered on the cross. It should be enough, it should be enough for you to be happy. What about obedience? What about free will? This is how you should use your free will the rest of your lives. What do you say? Just choose to say to God, no matter how difficult it is, "Not my will but yours be done." Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this infinitely deep text. We'll never be able to finish it, to plumb the depths of it, to understand it. I pray that you would take its lessons and burn them into our hearts. Help us to be overwhelmed with thankfulness, with gratitude. Help us to be overwhelmed with love for Jesus. Help us to want to imitate Him and to use our wills the way He used His. Help us to understand that, oh Lord. And God, I pray that no-one that's here today would leave this place still under the wrath of God, but they would just simply transfer that, the sin and the wrath, onto Jesus by faith, by simple faith, and trust in Him that they would know the full and perfect forgiveness of God. In Jesus' name, Amen.

This is one of the MOST important AUDIOS that I have ever made. Either JESUS was the CHRIST (MESSIAH) or HE was NOT. The Scriptures clearly show us that the Old Testament prophecies were FULFILLED in NONE other than the person of Jesus Christ.

Title: “Faithful, No Matter the Cost” Part 2 Text: Acts 5:33-42 FCF: We struggle remaining faithful when it may cost us much to obey. Prop: Because God sovereignly determines the fate of His church and honors those who suffer for Him, we must remain faithful. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts chapter 5. In a moment we will read starting from verse 33. I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible. The text will start on 1235 in the pew bible. Last week we saw God's sovereign hand proving once again that He is able to deliver His church from any fate and equip them for what He has commanded them to do. Nevertheless, it is still the church's responsibly to obey and remain faithful no matter what the cost may be to them. It is difficult to know when you'll have a two-part sermon and when you won't. This week's sermon will serve as a continuation and expansion on all we discussed last week. We kind of left everything at a cliff hanger in the narrative. Peter has just responded to the three charges of the High Priest. His response was both to show that all three charges are invalid and also to present the gospel to the Sanhedrin as a whole. But we don't know yet, or at least those who haven't read ahead don't know yet what the outcome of Peter's defense will be. Today, we'll see what happens. Please stand with me both out of reverence for and to focus on the reading of God's Word. Transition: [Slide 2] Have you ever learned something much later in life than you should have? It is kind of embarrassing right? What is more embarrassing is when you have spent a good deal of energy and time defending something that turns out to be exactly the wrong thing. I very recently learned about the zipper method for a closed lane. I was always the guy getting irritated by the jerks speeding down the closed lane only to cut in front of everyone else. Then… I learned that the exact opposite was true. If you use both lanes up to the point that the lane is closed… and take turns entering the one open lane… it actually cuts traffic by as much as 40%. WOAH! And Whoops! This is just one example of many where we assume something works one way and it turns out to work the exact opposite. Today we'll see that in the Kingdom of God – things work much different than the kingdom of this world. And many times, like the zipper method, something we think is bad or terrible… is actually a great honor. Let's look and find out what it is. I.) God sovereignly oversees the fate of His church, so we must remain faithful. (33-39) a. [Slide 3] 33 – When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. i. Coming out of last week's sermon and hearing Peter give his rebuttal to their accusations, we might be a little perplexed by the Sanhedrin's reaction. ii. Peter, very clearly and concisely refuted their charges against the apostles and laid out why they were teaching in the name of Jesus. iii. In short, they were teaching in the name of Jesus because He is the next and final name of Judaism. iv. Like Moses, or Jacob, or Isaac, or Abraham before… now Jesus is the next and final funnel point of all of Judaism. All of Israel's history and indeed all of mankind's history funnels to the name of Jesus. v. To the extent that the only thing that matters any more is what you do with the name of Jesus. vi. God has raised Him, exalted Him, He is now the prince, the Savior and offers repentance and forgiveness to Israel. vii. But how could such an answer illicit such anger from the Sanhedrin? Shouldn't they have been overjoyed to hear that their Messiah had come? viii. The fact that they were enraged to the point of desiring to kill the apostles should remind us of their madness concerning Jesus at his 3 illegal Jewish trials. In reminding us of how they treated Jesus, it should also clue us in to what was going on in their minds. ix. The one thing that could have potentially stirred them to such rage that they desired the death of the apostles – was blasphemy. x. There is no question that what Peter said was either true or blasphemous. There really is no middle ground either. xi. Either Jesus was raised, elevated, and given authority and power, like the Son of Man prophesy from Daniel… xii. Or they are committing blasphemy. xiii. As mild and non-confrontational of a gospel presentation as Peter's was – it was not the messenger that was so enraging to them… it was the message. b. [Slide 4] 34 – But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered the men to be taken outside for a little while. i. So, the natural question that arises here is, who is this guy Gamaliel? ii. Gamaliel is mentioned only twice in the scriptures. He is mentioned here and also in Acts 22. 1. From Acts 22, we find Paul defending himself before the Jerusalem mob and identifying himself as a Jew who was thoroughly taught by Gamaliel in the law of Moses. 2. From extra biblical sources we understand that Gamaliel was the leader of a particular school of Old Testament interpretation within the Pharisee party. The school was called Hillel. The other school that opposed Hillel was the Shammai. iii. Other than that, we only have what is mentioned here. iv. We know that Gamaliel was a teacher of the law and was well respected by all the people. v. Perhaps even the Sadducees respected this man for his gifted teachings. vi. Him standing up in the Sanhedrin and ordering the apostles to leave the chamber for a time indicates that he was on the Sanhedrin council and held a good deal of influence, even though he was a member of the minority party. c. [Slide 5] 35 – He said to them, “Men of Israel, be careful about what you are about to do to these men. i. We see Gamaliel speak boldly to this council. ii. He warns them that they need to be careful about their actions going forward. iii. Why must they be careful? iv. A large part of the reason that they are where they are now is because they killed Jesus. This obviously didn't solve the problem of Jesus claiming to be who He was. v. Indeed, the church has ballooned to somewhere around 10,000 people in a matter of weeks. vi. Killing Jesus didn't help. In fact, the argument could be made… that it actually hurt. vii. Although Gamaliel does not cite this reason, where he goes next implies this historical event. viii. Gamaliel will take them to the recent history of other people who claimed to be important, gifted, or people sent from God. d. [Slide 6] 36 – Some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed and came to nothing. i. Josephus records for us a man named Theudas who convinced a great number of people to go to the Jordan river where he promised to divide it and allow them to walk safely to the other side. ii. There are some irregularities with the chronology of Josephus' and Luke's accounts regarding both this example and the next. I don't have time to deal with it this morning but the next time we gather on a Wednesday night for bible study, we can get into it if you want. iii. Assuming Josephus and Luke are talking about the same person, Josephus describes this man as a charlatan. iv. And that is exactly Gamaliel's point. v. This man was killed, his followers scattered, and we haven't seen anything of him since. vi. Comparing this to Jesus of Nazareth… there is an obvious disconnect. The followers of Jesus grew rapidly in number after his death instead of dispersing. Perhaps this is indication that Gamaliel looked kindly on the Christians. But more likely, this is an ironic point that Gamaliel doesn't see but Luke does. vii. Gamaliel submits another point of evidence. e. [Slide 7] 37 – After this man, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and attracted a following. He also perished, and all his followers were scattered. i. Gamaliel raises another example of another man who during the time of the census raised an insurrection. ii. From this we understand that the Sanhedrin were concerned with both religious purity and insurrection. The examples of Gamaliel prove as much. iii. Theudas rose up as a religious false teacher. iv. But this man named Judas from Galilee raised an insurrection. He was ultimately killed. His followers were scattered. v. And although Gamaliel doesn't say it – the implication is clear. vi. We have heard nothing from them since. vii. So now Gamaliel seeks to apply his 2 examples and the hidden third example in Jesus of Nazareth and his followers. f. [Slide 8] 38 – So, in the present case, I tell you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail; i. Gamaliel recognizes that the plans of men to lead others religiously astray or to overthrow power or influence, are ultimately doomed to failure. ii. Gamaliel recognizes and affirms the sovereignty of God in this. Mere men cannot undo what God has willed. iii. He makes the case here to let the apostles alone. To wait and see. To allow time to sort it out. iv. If they indeed are in doctrinal error and are leading an insurrection – and they are doing this in their own power and wisdom – they will be overthrown. v. And the implication is that God will providentially see to it that this happens. g. [Slide 9] 39 – but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God.” i. But if not… ii. If God is at work here in this movement. If God is the one doing this – then the Sanhedrin will be powerless to stop it. iii. And worse… iv. If it is of God, they may actually find themselves opposing the will of God. v. The irony of course is that they have been opposing God this whole time. vi. Nevertheless, because of Gamaliel's argument… h. [Slide 10] They were persuaded by him. i. They were convinced. ii. Now what were they convinced of, that remains to be seen. We'll get to that in our next point. iii. But his advice is convincing. iv. They did nothing to stop Judas and Theudas… and yet in each example it came to nothing. v. Therefore, rather than killing the apostles and risking the fallout that could come of it – it seems much easier to simply let it run its course and hope it dies out. vi. The interesting thing here is that the Sadducean party as a whole would reject the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God. So, either Gamaliel's particular packaging of his advice escaped their theological notice, or, more likely, the Sadducean party saw the wisdom of following the minority party's position. vii. It would be wise to unite against the apostles rather than divide. And it would be wise to not further alienate the people from them by rejecting both the apostles and the Pharisees. Remember the Pharisees were the people's party. viii. In fact, historically – the Sadducees often yielded to the minority party in the Sanhedrin council. There was no danger of them losing power except in the event of a people's revolt and the Romans replacing them with new leaders. ix. Their persuasion then has less to do with the strength of Gamaliel's logic and more to do with the fear of losing power. i. [Slide 11] Summary of the Point: Although it may seem like the themes Luke is giving to Theophilus are on repeat, we see once again the absolute sovereignty of God over the fate of His church. The apostles obey the Lord in spite of the cost. Because they obeyed it appeared certain that they would lose their lives. But in the providence of God, through the delicate workings of political intrigue, God saw to it that theology and politics collide to provide safe passage for His apostles. We see a parting of the red sea here. These two parties controlling the fate of the apostles divide to allow them to pass through. God sovereignly oversees the protection and provision of His church to accomplish His commands. Transition: [Slide 12 (blank)] So with God's sovereign hand, it looks like the apostles are going to get away Scot free again! Or… maybe not. Let's look. II.) God honors His church when He allows them to suffer for His name, so we must remain faithful. (40-42) a. [Slide 13] 40 – After they called in the apostles and had them flogged, they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them. i. Here we see the extent to which Gamaliel's counsel was received. ii. They were not convinced that the apostles may be correct. iii. They were not convinced to do nothing. iv. They were not convinced that their doctrine may be in error. v. They were not convinced that Jesus was any different than Theudas or Judas of Galilee. vi. They were merely convinced that they did not need to take the risk of killing these men and incurring upon themselves the people's rage and the Roman's displeasure. vii. They were convinced that the situation was not so dire as to need to throw away their own reputations or future power. viii. Gamaliel's advice simply convinced them that this was not a hill they needed to die on. ix. Remember the three charges they brought against the Apostles? 1. They disobeyed a direct command of the ruling party of Jerusalem 2. They filled Jerusalem with dangerous and blasphemous teaching 3. They were purposefully trying to get the people to lose respect for and distrust their leadership. x. Their response shows us that they did not budge on any of these charges. 1. They beat the apostles because they judged them guilty of disobeying a righteous order from the ruling body of the Jews in Jerusalem. a. This was not a tame punishment. b. They were permitted by the law to whip an individual 40 times. 40 was a number that was significant to the Jews. It signified the completion of punishment. It signified the end of exile. c. Since the law set the maximum of 40 whips – the Jews would often whip 40 minus one. The idea behind this is perhaps the one doing the whipping should lose count and accidentally whip the person 41 times. To be safe they whipped one less than the maximum. d. Such a whipping would have been extremely painful and most likely would have produced deep welts and even scars. Marks they would bear on their bodies for many days and possibly years. e. It was also a public event. All of Jerusalem would be able to see them being whipped like criminals. This would be a very shameful experience for the apostles. 2. They commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus because they judged them guilty of spreading dangerous teaching. Teaching that was in error. 3. The third charge the high priest issued was that they intended to rouse the people against them as murderers. We may be convinced that the Council releasing the apostles is an acquittal of that charge. But I would suggest to you that it is the opposite of that. a. They released them to secure their own reputation and influence among the people of Jerusalem. To keep them in prison or kill them would surely damage their honor among the people. For it would both go against the Pharisee position and the people who greatly favored the apostles. b. Releasing them is a calculated risk based on the logic of Gamaliel. That if the apostles are in error, as the council is sure they are, then they will eventually die out. c. In other words, releasing them is the only option they have to maintain their current influence over and respect they have from the people. xi. Christians on a cursory reading of Gamaliel's advice wonder if he was a believer or sympathetic to the Nazarean sect (which is what the Jews called Christians). But I hope I have made it clear enough that there is no reason to believe Gamaliel was a believer based on what he said here. xii. He is not defending the Apostles. He is defending the status quo. He is defending the reputation and authority of the Sanhedrin. He recognizes that they risk much here if they come down with too harsh a ruling. xiii. And I hope we see the hard hearts of the Sanhedrin. Peter gives what I see as a passionate and loving call of the gospel to them. Peter defends the actions of the apostles against all three of the charges brought against them. He does so without aggression. xiv. But the Sanhedrin still find them guilty on all counts. xv. The Sanhedrin are no longer ignorant murderers of their own Messiah my friends. They are knowingly hard-hearted deniers. They neither see their need to repent nor their need for forgiveness. xvi. They do not need a Prince or a Savior. They still would confess as they did on that day several weeks before… There is no King but Caesar. xvii. This is why the next time a member of the church is brought to trial before them… the tone of that gospel presentation is much more aggressive and condemning. We'll get there in chapter 7. b. [Slide 14] 41 – Then they went out form the presence of the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the Name. i. Let's deal with the back half of this verse first. ii. They were treated shamefully. They were disrespected. They were dishonored. iii. These statements in our culture ring somewhat hollow. We live in a guilt/innocence culture not an honor/shame culture. iv. To translate what happened here, the apostles went in knowing they had the truth, knowing they did nothing wrong, knowing they were completely right, and knowing that the Sanhedrin was ultimately selfishly motivated. v. But the outcome to this was that they were pronounced guilty and publicly punished as criminals. vi. That hits a little harder for us in the west. In essence it is saying the same thing but for eastern minds. To be publicly shamed by the Sanhedrin for their belief, is to discredit their belief and present them as undesirables. vii. And to be publicly humiliated for the sake of the Name. The CSB capitalizes this because it is obvious to whom this refers. viii. This is Jesus. The Messiah. The Prince. The Savior. They have received shame because of associating with and preaching in His name. ix. Now back to the beginning of the verse. x. They leave the Sanhedrin… rejoicing. Why? xi. They were counted worthy to share in the sufferings of Christ. xii. To be counted worthy is to be honored. Do you see how the economy of the Kingdom of God works? They received honor by being dishonored for the name of Christ. xiii. Doesn't that seem backward? And yet… there it is. c. [Slide 15] 42 – Every day in the temple, and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. i. And there you have it. ii. The apostles did not break stride iii. They continued in the temple, in homes, every single day teaching believers and proclaiming the good news to unbelieving Jews. iv. And what is that good news? v. That Jesus is the Anointed one of God. He is the Son of Man. He is the Prince. The Savior. The Prophet greater than Moses. The Priest who did not need His own sacrifice. The Eternal King promised to David's line. vi. He is the funnel of all Judaism. All must believe in Him to be saved. vii. As the ark was the funnel to save all humanity so Jesus is the funnel to save all the Jews. As all men outside the ark died, so all Jews outside of Christ are no longer God's people. viii. That is why this is a message of hope… there is no further need for sacrifice. No further need for Military might. No further need for new revelation. ix. It… as Jesus said… is finished. d. [Slide 16] Summary of the Point: As a piggyback off of the previous point, to carry us a further step. It is absolutely true that God has sovereign rights to protect His church, but when he doesn't and He allows His own to suffer… it is a gift of blessing and honor to His church. We don't naturally see it that way do we? The apostles rejoiced. And not because they were looking at what could have happened to them and were thankful it didn't happen. No! Luke tells us plainly why they rejoiced. They rejoiced because they were counted worthy, they were honored, they were favored… to suffer dishonor for the sake of the Name of Jesus. When God allows His church to suffer for His name, it is an honor to them. Conclusion: So CBC, let's do the work to narrow down these two points into one doctrinal takeaway this morning. What have we learned and how shall we live? Doctrinal Takeaway: [Slide 17] Combining together the fact that God exercises sovereign control over all that comes upon His church with the idea that when God allows His church to suffer for His name it is an honor, we come away with the truth that as God's people, there is absolutely no reason for us to fear what men may do to us. Not only can they not harm us if God does not allow them, but if they are able to harm us for His name's sake – then it is a gift of honor and blessing from God to us in that we share in the sufferings of Christ. What does that mean? It means that we are without excuse for obeying the Lord and remaining faithful to Him… no matter the cost. But let us improve on this doctrinal takeaway. Let us make plain what it is we must take from this passage to think and live rightly before our God in this world. 1.) [Slide 18] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must believe that it is an honor from a sovereign God to be counted worthy to suffer for His name. a. Wow this is not what we naturally believe. b. This is, in fact, the crux of the whole book of Job. c. It was GOD'S idea for Satan to go after Job. It was God's hand that removed protection from Job. It was God that allowed up to the point of death, everything else to be taken from him. d. Why? e. Because God saw him as His servant, and there was none like him on the face of the earth. He was a righteous man. f. Job had his own lessons to learn, and some humbling to undergo, by in the end – he was more than vindicated. He was honored above and beyond what he was when he began. He wondered if it was better for him to not have been born. Yet in the end he fared better than he had been before. g. Every single apostle suffered for the name of Christ. Almost every single prophet suffered for God. h. And we, as Kingdom citizens, we look at them with great respect and great honor. For they gave all for the cause of Christ. i. God who is sovereignly in control of all things could have prevented their suffering. But He counted them… worthy. j. Worthy to suffer for his name. k. We must change our perspective my friends. l. For all the people who consider it a great blessing to be financially provided for, or to have many children, or to have a large family – my friends… on that list of blessings… does suffering for the name of Jesus appear? m. Most of us, I'd dare say, would put suffering for Jesus in a different category. Certainly, we would not see it as a blessing. n. Perhaps someday soon… some of us will suffer for His name. It is time that we confess and believe that it is an honor from God to suffer for the name of His Son. 2.) [Slide 19] Refutation: “What lies must we cast down” or “What do we naturally believe, or have been taught to believe, that this passage shows is false?” We must deny that God never desires His church to suffer. a. There is a teaching prevalent in some charismatic circles. b. It takes on several forms but generally speaking it encourages the hearers to believe that it is always Gods will to heal them, give them abundant wealth, and vibrant prosperity. c. They are not only taught to pursue this, but assured that if they are faithful to God – He WILL give them these things. d. Their leaders are typically very wealthy and prosperous – although they are not always healthy. e. My friends this text absolutely decimates such teaching. f. Indeed, the bible as a whole decimates this teaching. g. God's most faithful people have suffered all manner of abuses throughout the course of human history. h. Many of the Old Testament prophets were tortured and killed. All 12 disciples were treated very poorly and most of them martyred. i. Jesus, the Son of God, in whom the Father said, “this is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased!” was crushed for our iniquities. If it was the Father's will to crush His beloved Son… we must never assume that God could not will something similar for us. j. Even today the church suffers great persecution in many places around the world. k. It is simply untenable to believe that God always wants His church to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. l. Instead, Jesus said, you will have trouble. Instead, entire books are written in the New Testament on how to endure suffering. m. Instead, here, it is an honor to suffer for the name of Christ. n. My friends, it is not always God's will for you to be healthy, wealthy, or prosperous. But it might be God's will for you to suffer for His name. And if that is God's will for you… then you are honored above those who never suffer for Him. For you were counted worthy to share in the sufferings of Christ. 3.) [Slide 20] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must remain faithful to obey all that God has commanded in spite of what it may cost us. a. Since the worst men can do to us is grant us honor for suffering for His name… and since God ultimately decides what happens to us… b. We must remain faithful to the Lord. c. We don't have any excuse. And we have nothing to lose. d. There is nothing God asks of us that costs too much. Nothing to which the price is too steep to obey. e. This short application brings us quickly to what we must stop doing… 4.) [Slide 21] De-Exhortation: “What actions should we stop doing” or “What behaviors do we naturally practice that this passage tells us to stop doing?” We must not fear what men may do to us. a. We are in good hands. The strong and mighty hands of our loving Lord. b. He will not allow us to fall unless He considers us worthy to fall. He will not allow us to die unless He has appointed that time for us. c. This doesn't give us license to throw away our lives… but it does give us confidence that God will uphold us as we face uncertainty in obedience to His commands. d. What can men do to us? Shall they take away all we hold dear? It was never truly ours in the first place. Shall they remove our health, our wealth, our prosperity – all have been gifts from God that He has every right to remove from us. e. Shall they take our very lives? The sting of death is gone. f. For us to live is for Christ and to die is to our gain. g. We are honored in suffering for Him. h. Fear has no place when we believe these things my friends. i. We can boldly do as God has commanded. For He has us. j. And that leads us to comfort. 5.) [Slide 22] Comfort: “What comfort can we find here?” or “What peace does the Lord promise us in light of this passage of scripture?” All things happen as God has willed them to happen. a. Our God never sleeps b. Our God never slumbers c. Our God always watches d. Our God always holds us e. Our God's will cannot be thwarted f. Our God's timing cannot be changed g. Our God's ways are perfect h. Our God's plan is still plan A. i. My friends… when all that happens is in the will of God. We can take great comfort in and even rejoice in all that happens to us. Thanking Him for all the good… and rejoicing in all the suffering. j. He has made this very day and all that is in it. And even if today we die… Today is a good day. k. We need not fear… instead, we must be content and at peace. l. God is good always. And always, God is good. [Slide 23] Let me close with a Puritan Prayer. Let's pray My God You have helped us to see that whatever good be in honor and rejoicing, how good is He who gives them and can withdraw them; That blessedness does not lie so much in receiving good from and in you, but in holding forth your glory and virtue; That it is an amazing thing to see in a creature your Deity speaking, acting, filling, shining through it; That nothing is good but you, that we are near good when we are near you, that to be like you is a glorious thing; This is our magnet, our attraction. You are all our good in times of peace, our only support in days of trouble, our one sufficiency when life shall end. Help us to see how good your will is in all, and even when it crosses ours teach us to be pleased with it. Grant us to feel you in fire and food and every providence and to see that your many gifts and creatures are but your hands and fingers taking hold of us. You, bottomless fountain of all good, we give ourselves to you out of love - for all we have or own is yours; our goods, family, church, self, to do with as you will, to honor yourself by us and by all that is ours. If it be consistent with your eternal counsels, the purpose of your grace, and the great ends of your glory, then bestow upon us the blessings of your comforts; But if not, let us resign ourselves to your wiser determinations. In Jesus name we pray… Amen. [Slide 24 (end)] For the last several weeks we have been shown in the book of Acts that God is actively providing, empowering, enabling, protecting, provisioning, growing, spreading, and guiding His church. Though it may be His will that we will suffer for His name, we have the promise that He will never leave us and that suffering for His name is an honor to us. Today, we celebrate the Lord's Supper. A feast designed to communicate all of this to us. That in the bread the Lord Jesus comes to us as the curtain torn to give us unlimited access to the very throne room of God. That we can come boldly to His throne to receive mercy and find grace for help in a time of need. In the cup we find our washing deluge of the blood of Christ. The crimson ink that signed the New Covenant into effect. The will and testament initiated upon His death to bring us intimate peace and love with God. In the Lord's Supper we find that our Lord has never left us. That He is still with us. We find Him there and we eat of the atonement which His body and blood purchased for us. We are sustained by His promises to safely transport those who believe to eternal life. In the Lord's Supper, by faith, we eat and drink the truth of the book of Acts. That God is with us still. Though Christ ascended… He has not left us. Though He is at the Father's right hand, He is our mediator there. He is our advocate. Though He is physically there for us, we may eat of Him spiritually here and live on Him. As the Israelites lived on bread from heaven… we too are sustained by bread that is from heaven. As the Israelites' thirst was quenched by water that flowed from a rock, so too we are satisfied and sustained by the blood that flowed from The Rock of our salvation. At this time the praise team will come up and close out the service with the song Communion. After the song is finished… the praise team will play it again. That will be your cue to make your way upstairs for the Lord's Supper celebration. If you are a believer, who is not actively holding on to a sin that you will not forsake, who sees the Lord's Supper as a means He uses to strengthen and sustain us… then I invite you to join us. If you are missing any of those, I'd encourage you to not partake today. If you are not partaking and not attending, I'd encourage you to leave quietly and not distract any who are approaching the table this morning. So go ahead and stand with us as we sing.

How do we love one another?   This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. John 15:12 NASB   Can we really love someone we don't know? We can love a certain place or a certain kind of food. The Greeks had at least 4 words that are often translated with the word "love" in the English. This is the grandest of those words, and it means unconditional love. It means we actively choose to do what's best for the other person. It doesn't have as much to do with affection, or emotion as much as it is an active choice. We do what's best for them.   Jesus makes a point that this is a command. We don't have to guess. And he gives it to them on the last night he is a free man with his closest friends. Judas isn't around. We must perform this "others-first" love. But how?   He will repeat this command in 5 verses. In between, we have some conditional phrases that help us understand what he meant. The first is, "just as I have loved you."   So, how did Jesus love these guys. He spent a great amount of time with them. He taught them. He's going to die for them. Jesus has the greatest others-first love for us. He is the standard. Here he commands us to pass that standard along "just as" he has loved those disciples and all the disciples after them. He chose them. He invested in them. He gave his life for them. In Romans 12, Paul challenges us to be a living sacrifice. We don't have to give up our lives, we give our time and energy away.   Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to love someone extra today. If we increase just a bit every week for the rest of our lives, we still won't get close to where Jesus is, but we will experience his joy, purpose and presence filling our lives. Ask God to expand your love for the people you interact with today. It's harder to love people you're not around. The people that you interact with are the first people we get to love. What ideas come to mind? Make a note and do them. Don't let anything stop you.   Then, do it again tomorrow. Love "just" as Christ loved us. Build the habit. Either Jesus is King and we do what he says, or he's not.    

Look To The Lord Ps. 27:1 #Nightlight #RTTBROS The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" Psalm 27:1. This powerful verse reminds us that with God on our side, we have no need to fear. When we walk with Him daily, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, He illuminates our path, showing us which way to go (Psalm 119:105). Even in life's darkest valleys, we can trust Him to lead us, one step at a time. Though fears and doubts may arise, we can remember that God has provided salvation through His Son. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). When we believe in Jesus, trusting Him as Lord of our lives, we receive the gift of eternal life with God. Knowing our future is secure, we do not need to be afraid. On this life's journey, storms will come, but Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33). He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), so we can boldly proclaim, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Hebrews 13:6). Though enemies surround us, God is our refuge and strength (Psalm 46:1). Under the shadow of His wings we find shelter from every adversity (Psalm 91:1-2). Fear and anxiety frequently overwhelm us in life's uncertainties. But as Adrian Rogers exhorted, “Either Jesus is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all!” When Jesus is truly Lord of our lives, we do not need to fear. He lights our path and provides salvation from every fear. Be sure to Like, Share, Follow and subscribe it helps get the word out. https://linktr.ee/rttbros

Are we truly seeking God's Kingdom first, or are we trying to make God fit into our own desires and expectations? Join us online and be sure to sign up for Encounter on Wednesday nights launching September 13th! ? IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). OPENING ILLUSTRATION: All right, let's get down to brass tacks - who is the most annoying customer/client you've ever dealt with? You know, the one who is CONSTANTLY changing the specs of their design, or is constantly complaining about the level of service. The customer who is never happy or never satisfied. I was in a store the other day and there was this woman and her husband who had purchased a product, used the product several times, and then wanted to return it and exchange it for a different one. The type of product it was was the kind of thing that once you use it, it's used. It was the most uncomfortable 15 minutes of my life listening to this couple harass this young worker trying to get her to return the item. I literally almost stepped in and was like, “Can I help y'all?” What do you do when “the customer is always right” isn't right? Now I know it depends on your industry and what your business is. Most of you probably know that taking a loss in your business is worth keeping most customers. But there are industries and arenas of life where this idea of “the customer is always right” actually sets a person up for failure. Imagine a teacher operating under those standards… ILLUSTRATION: When I was in bible college, I had this afternoon class with a handful of students. When the professor showed up I said, “This college pays you, right?” He said, “Yes” I said, “and they get their funds to pay you from the tuition we pay, right?” He said, “Yes,” I said, “and whoever pays your salary is your boss, so let us do you a favor and give you the day off - you've earned it…” He laughed and said, “No”. Ha, because the customer is not always right. One of the core dangers that is created inside of Americans from “the customer is always right” and other phrases we live by is that we all too easily begin to see our worlds from an egocentric point of view. b We can too easily view ourselves as the center of the universe. b And that is eternally dangerous… I want to walk us into a story of Encountering God that so elegantly cuts through the malarkey and helps us see ourselves in the proper context… Check it out… SET UP: What we are about to enter into is from the time of the pharaohs. The Israelites have followed Moses out into the desert and now they are about to move into the promised land. This is the in-between them taking those first few steps into Canaan and the life they had lived wandering in the desert for 40 years. Joshua has just finished taking all the young men and circumcising them. They are on the cusp of a massive change in their history. Jericho is their next stop - and it's a serious challenge. Joshua has not faced anything like this before. He is going to have to figure out how to take this city. This is the encounter we get in this moment… Joshua 5:13-15 13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” ILLUSTRATION: When I was in college, some buddies and I got lost and ended up on an army base - there was this huge line of cars we were in, and there were military guys with German shepherds. We tried to flip around and go the other direction and this military guy with a machine gun started yelling at us to get back in line… Ha, talk about being scared. Joshua, is out, probably scoping out Jericho and he sees a military man with a sword drawn. This is the sign of someone ready for battle. Joshua isn't some wimpy college kid he asks this guy if he's for Joshua and the Israelites or if he's for his enemies. The implications are, “If you're for me, then I won't have to hurt you, but if you are for my enemies, we're gonna fight” b Joshua never considered that there could be a third option… Check it out… 14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” This soldier is not for Joshua, he's not for Joshua's enemies. He's for Yahweh, God. Man, we need to set up a tent and camp here for a minute. Listen church, I'm convinced that what more of us need is an encounter with God that reminds us we are supposed to be on His team, He's not on ours. So much of our music in modern worship is about how much God is for you and loves you - it's not untrue, but it misses something when it doesn't paint the whole picture. Your job is to be after God. Listen to this parable Jesus told about Luke 17:7-10 (The Message Version) “Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat'? Wouldn't you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I've finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper'? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what's expected of him? It's the same with you. When you've done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.'” Can I ask you a question? Does that rub you the wrong way? b The idea that at the end of the day, you and I are just servants of the King… Joshua gets this… Look at how Joshua responds to this angel… Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord[a] have for his servant?” 15 The commander of the Lord's army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. The moment Joshua realizes he's having an encounter with God, he falls on his face. Do you understand that when you came to Jesus, you came to a King? You came to the God of the universe. He was the one who thought up the color blue and the idea of water being able to take on 3 forms. He is the one who can overthrow nations and raise up servants to be kings. He is the God of the universe. ILLUSTRATION: Years ago I worked in a church where the worship time was less than stellar. The music was so bad I'd literally bear through it week after week just trying to get through it. I'd sit there in my head thinking how terrible it was. How I wished it was better and I wished it was more like I wanted it. One morning I was sitting there waiting to get to preach and thinking how much I hated it when the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “It's not for you…” Ugh… I needed to be slapped in the face like that… Let me ask you a question… What's the aim of your life? Do you want to just be comfortable? Do you want to make more money? Do you just want your relationships to be chaos-free? Do you want things your way? Jesus said “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” b You can't fake seeking first God's Kingdom - God can't be tricked. Either Jesus is King or you are. Which is it? CLOSING ILLUSTRATION: One of my favorite jobs growing up that I had was tossing pizzas at Dominos. I worked on making the pizzas and learned how to toss the dough. I love it still to this day, but can I tell you something? You can tell someone how to toss dough, but it's so much easier to show them. We want you to come to Encounter on Wednesday nights because we want you to Encounter God through community - I think lots of us want Jesus to be King in our lives, but we don't really know what that means or how that looks. Listen, Christianity is an on-the-job training kind of thing. You learn it by doing it with other people who are a little further along than you. You learn to toss that dough by watching others and learning from them. Grabbing ahold of some of the passion they have and the way they ask questions. You come as a servant and learn from the King and His other servants…

John 8:48 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" 49 Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 "And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. 51 ¶ "Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death." 52 Then the Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.' 53 "Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom do You make Yourself out to be?" 54 Jesus answered, "If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. 55 "Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, 'I do not know Him,' I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." 57 Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" 58 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." 59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.(NKJV)  This is the section of Scripture right after Jesus tells them if the Son sets you free you shall be free indeed.  They say they never have been in bondage, they are Abraham's descendants and then Jesus tells them the truth about who they really are, so they start accusing Him of all kind of things.  They accuse Him of being demon possessed, that He is a half breed Samaritan and finally say He is an illegitimate child.  But Jesus has the last word as usual and tells them if they keep His word they shall never see death, nor taste it.  He says He honors His Father, but they dishonor Him. They finally hear Him say that Abraham rejoiced to see His day and they are incredulous and say you are not even 50 years old how could you see Abraham.  Then Jesus lets them have it by saying He is the great I AM, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Self Existent One, the one who has always existed and will always exist. Then they try to kill Him again, but as usual they fail since His time had not yet come.  John 8:48 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Samaritans were a mixed race with a religion the Jews considered apostate (cf. comments on 4:4). To call Jesus a Samaritan was to use a term of abuse, referring to a heretic or one with a faulty worship. Their charge that Jesus was demon-possessed (cf. 7:20; 8:52; 10:20) suggested they thought He was mad, unclean, and evil. How ironic that after He said their father was the devil (8:44), they said He was demon-possessed![1] 49 Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. When accused, Jesus did not seek to justify Himself Jesus says, in effect, I don't need to defend myself, because God the Father seeks my glory. In other words, if you dishonor me, instead of glorifying me, you set yourself against God. If you oppose me, you oppose the one who is committed to honor me.  50 "And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. But all through this whole book, the message has been: The Son of God did not come for judgment but for salvation. He did not come to condemn, but to save. John 3:17: "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." So Jesus finishes his response to their indictments like this (verse 51): "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." In other words, you have gotten to the point where you are blaspheming me, calling me a half-breed and demonized. And you are in great danger of God's judgment, but I hold out to you once more the gift of salvation. If you will keep my word, you will never see death.  51 "Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death." (cf. comments on 1:51(Similar expressions are “hear” His Word [5:24] and “hold” to His teaching [8:31].) It means to observe, pay attention to, or to fulfill. John 11:25–26. He says to Martha at Lazarus' grave: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." Though he die, he never dies. Yes, We Die—And, No, We Don't Yes, we die: "Though he die, yet shall he live." No, we don't die: "Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." Lazarus' body lay dead in the grave. But Lazarus was not dead. His body was dead. But he was not dead. He had not died. John 5:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." When we were born again, we received the gift of life. Spiritual life (John 3:6–8). When we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive (Ephesians 2:4–5). This new life is eternal life. In this new spiritual life, we are able to fellowship with God, know God, experience God, speak with God, hear from God through his word, sense the love of God shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5). This is the work of the Holy Spirit Our Bodies Die, But We Do Not Our bodies die. They lie—looking like they are sleeping, which is why the New Testament sometimes calls death falling asleep—they lie in the grave until the last trumpet. "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). But when our bodies die, we do not die. We have passed from death to life. Eternal life. Unbroken, unending life.  52 Then the Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.'  53 "Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom do You make Yourself out to be?" Joh 4:12 "Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" Either Jesus is a blasphemer or he is God.  54 Jesus answered, "If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.  55 "Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, 'I do not know Him,' I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word.  56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."  57 Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"  58 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." There it is—the clearest, most forthright claim in this Gospel that Jesus is Yahweh, the God of Israel, the great "I am" of Exodus 3:14 and the prophets. If he only wanted to claim pre-existence, he could have said, "Before Abraham was, I was." But he means to say more than mere pre-existence. He says, "Before Abraham was, I am." Exodus 3:14: "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."'" Hebrews 2:14–15 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise hpartook of the same things, that ithrough death he might jdestroy kthe one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who lthrough fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Hebrews says that the fear of death produces a pervasive, lifelong bondage—even when we don't realize it, fear is haunting our choices, making us cautious, wary, restrained, confined, narrow, tight, robbing us of risk and adventure and dreams for the sake of Christ and his kingdom and the cause of love in the world. Without our even knowing it, fear of death is a slave master binding us with invisible ropes, confining us to small, safe, innocuous, self-centered ways of life. Jesus Sets Us Free Becker has no solution for this bondage, but Jesus does. "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." Or as he says in John 8:32, "You will know the truth [about death], and the truth will set you free." The world desperately needs the courage and the Christ of fearless Christians who know they will never taste death. Be one.  59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. Leviticus 24:16 Joh 5:23 "that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.  Joh 5:41 "I do not receive honor from men.  Joh 5:44 "How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?  Joh 8:49 Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.  Joh 8:54 Jesus answered, "If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.  Joh 12:26 "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. Jn 5:41 | I do not receive glory from people.  Jn 7:20 | The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”  Heb 11:13 | These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  Ex 3:14 | God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.' ”  Jn 7:28 | So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.       Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?              John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.               “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32             Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.              hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don't go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F             The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions  

God protects His promise, and as children of His promise, God fiercely protects us. This past Sunday we heard from Pastor Aaron Bennett as he continued in our series, Resilient: Following Jesus in a World That's Falling Apart. We unpacked chapter 2 of 2 Peter and learned just how deadly bad ideas can be. God will do whatever it takes to protect His promises, and because of the assurance of His rescue, we can be resilient with hopeful expectation. The Hidden Danger of Bad Ideas. God fiercely protects His promise. Bad ideas about little things can be disappointing. Bad ideas about big things can be deadly. Who influences you? If you want a great life, you have to be honest about the threats you're facing. Either Jesus starts changing you, or you will start trying to change Jesus. Jesus doesn't ignore sin. Jesus died to forgive sin. Jesus calls us to a new life, free from sin. The Gospel is God's great promise. God saves His most ferocious anger for those who twist His promises so they can profit off of bad ideas. “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” 2 Peter 2:19 1. In a world full of lies, teach yourself to crave God's truth. 2. Walk in the truth and expose the lies. 3. Find practical ways to enjoy the freedom of knowing Jesus.

Summary for 06-11-2023 –  Jesus and Our Abundant LifeIn this week's gathering, we take a fresh look at the abundant life Jesus referenced in John 10:10b. According to the New International Version of the Scriptures. Jesus came to give us life in the full. This assertion by Jesus is not intended to be after we die, rather it is a now moment. Either Jesus accomplished this, or he lied. If this is a now reality, then we can experience it now and participate in it. If you would like to join us live in person or via zoom, please feel free to email us at livinggracegr@outlook.com. The worship set for this week can be found at:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTY7sXE66tKRBLr7BSUmaHMBciWCQ5gpN

I don't know where I first got the thought— “we seem more confident in the enemy's ability to deceive us— and to steal, kill, and destroy— than we are about Jesus' ability to heal and mend and restore all things.” I guarantee the concept isn't original to me, but maybe you can relate. Maybe you've even— like me— found yourself on the WRONG side of that belief structure at some point.

Have you ever seen the bumper stickers that read 'CoExist,' and then usually followed by a row of major religious emblems? Coexistence is one thing. All religions being the way to GOD in their own way is quite another.Do you know what Jesus had to say about the way to GOD? By the statement He made concerning this issue, He excluded His claim to divinity and His teachings from consideration as just another way to find GOD.This episode examines the claims of Christianity and those of several other major religions.Something to consider: Either Jesus told the truth about Himself, or He is a fraud.Show notes at HopesHarbor.net

Today is a day of amazing grace because He is risen! But how do we know for sure? Either Jesus died, is still dead and life is empty, or the tomb is empty and life doesn't need to be. Pastor Dave shares the reasons why we can have assurance that life is worth the living BECAUSE He lives.

There really is no middle ground. Either Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, or He wasn't. If He was, how is it that the Jewish people by and large didn't recognize him when He came 2000 years ago?  Our text in Isaiah 53 tells us that almost no one believed what He had to say.  Jesus came as the Messiah, but Israel wanted nothing to do with Him. We know that for a time Jesus had a powerful and growing ministry, especially in Galilee. Thousands flocked to hear Him speak and watch Him heal the sick. Yet, in the end they concluded that Jesus simply could not be the Messiah.  In this week's PathLight we are reminded that you can be wrong about many things and still go to heaven, but you can't be wrong about Jesus. That's the reality of unbelief then and now. Dr. T. D. Worthington reminds us that Jesus died for sinners. Are you a sinner? Then come near to the cross of Jesus. Look upon the Saviour. See His arms outstretched in love for you. Look, and believe, and receive the free gift of eternal life.  To those who receive Him He gives the right to become the children of God.  What will you do with Jesus?

A crossroad is the intersection of two roads. But it can also refer to a time in life where you need to make an important decision. Which way will you go? You can only choose one way. Today’s passage begins with another miracle. Jesus drove out a demon that had rendered a man mute, but Luke recounts this miracle with very few details. Instead, he gives considerable attention to the public discussion that followed as the debate surrounding Jesus’ identity continued to build. People had three different opinions. Some in the crowd were amazed. Another group argued that His power was from Satan. Still others were reserving judgment until they had seen more miracles. Once again, Jesus knew their opinions even though they did not voice them. He addressed them directly, using simple logic to refute the claim of His connection to Satan. If Satan’s goal was destruction and Jesus was restoring health, how could they be aligned? They had completely different aims. Jesus also offered His commissioned Jewish followers—who were also driving out demons—as witnesses to the source of His authority. Then, Jesus made this bold declaration: “If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you” (v. 20). There were only two possibilities. No middle ground. Either Jesus was performing miracles by Satan’s power, or He was ushering in the kingdom of God. Essentially, He was calling people to a crossroad decision. Jesus finished with another parable in which Satan was the strong man who could initially guard his home, until Jesus—the stronger one— attacked and dismantled his defense. Jesus’ miracles demonstrated—not a dependence on Satan—but a superior power over him. Finally, Jesus gave an ultimatum. “Whoever is not with me is against me” (v. 23). It was time to choose. >> What was your “crossroad moment” with Jesus? Pray for anyone you know who is at that point right now—that they would choose Him.

Universalism John writes in John 1v1-5, talking about Jesus "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." Jesus talking about Himself John 14:2, 6: "Trust in God; trust also in me. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 17:1-2 "O God, Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him." Most modern societies, particularly in the West, are pluralistic with many cultures evident within any city and country. With the advent of pluralism, comes the widely held belief that all religions, creeds, beliefs and non-beliefs are equal, which all ultimately lead to God and that after death, every person will enter heaven and have everlasting life with God.  That is universalism, and sadly, some Christian churches hold this belief.  However, that is contradictory to what Jesus said in the bible passages I read earlier.  That is not to say that each religion does not have an element of truth within it.  But only one religion is ultimate and absolute truth and that is Christianity. As Christians in the twenty first century we are often informed that Christianity is wrong, and that Jesus Christ can't possibly be the only way to God, even if a God or Gods exist. Just a scant look at each religion throws up the incompatibility between them. For instance the great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam all profess that there is only one God.  Contrast this against the religion of Hinduism, which has millions of God, or Buddhism where there may well be no God at all! So Universalism could really be just a form of functional religious atheism. If we were all going to be with God anyway, why would God bother having a plan of salvation as revealed in the Bible? If Universalism is true, why bother with morals or ethics now during this life as each religion has differing codes of morality and behaviour.  Now as soon as a Universalist says that morality is what defines the human (as some do), we can then say well which God, and therefore religion, decides what morality as different religions have different rules of morality!!  Taking it even further we could say why would God bother interacting with His creation at all, if humanity is going to be spending eternity with Him anyway! Why would there even be a thing called death at all, if universalism is true! So why is Universalism wrong? Lets have a look very briefly together, how superior Christianity is to Universalism. Universalism Denies Salvation by Grace Universalists inevitably proclaim that it is due to God's nature of love and mercy that everyone will have everlasting life with God. Surely a merciful God will allow all to live with Him, regardless of the path they took in this early life!   However the Bible states that while God is a God of love and mercy, He is also a God of justice and the sins of people need to be dealt with.  That is where God's grace comes in. How does God promise salvation to those reaching out for it? Through His unfailing love, kindness and tender mercy, which is enacted through Grace!  Salvation can be attained by no other means, but only through the combination of God's mercy and grace - God's twin actions working in unison.  Grace is easily defined as: God's Riches At Christ's Expense.  So what about Jesus Christ? Universalism Denies Jesus' uniqueness being human & divine That Jesus was a man is not really disputed.  But why did Jesus need to fully human? Firstly, so Jesus death could appease God's anger with us. Secondly so that Jesus can empathize and pray for us.  Thirdly, Jesus exhibited true and perfect humanity.  Fourthly, due to his perfect humanity, Jesus is to be our example to follow.  Fifthly, true human nature is good.  Lastly, while God is both above and beyond, He is not so far removed from us, that He cannot interact with his creation. But he was more than human, He was also fully God - He was fully divine!  God's salvation plan for humans involved triumphant victory over sin, death and the grave.  However no person could be found that was eligible or capable to do this.  Because of this, God stepped into human history, so that this victory could be achieved.  This God-man would be fully human, so as to live every feature of humanity, including suffering and death.  This God-man would also need to remain fully God, so as to defeat sin, death and the grave.  Jesus, being sinless, was this God-man, consisting as he did of two complete natures, the God nature and the human nature. That Jesus is both human and divine is what makes Christianity truly unique amongst the world's religions.  It is why Jesus' claims to be the only way to God are true and make sense.  It is why universalism is shown to be a fallacy. Universalism is wrong because it makes Jesus Christ out to be either a liar or a lunatic or worse - both. Universalism Denies Jesus' cross As all paths under universalism lead to God, why would God have to send Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of the world?  Surely, if all paths lead ultimately to God, then there would be no need for Jesus to suffer the agony of the cross.  On the cross, Jesus died so that all sins - past, present and future sins - can be forgiven.  Salvation is to be found only through God's grace and mercy exhibited by God the Son on the cross.  Moreover, it is only to those who acknowledge Him as Saviour in this earthly life that He will acknowledge before God the Father. Universalism Denies Jesus' resurrection The resurrection of Jesus Christ provided the central theme for the sermons and teaching in the early church (Acts 1:22; Acts 4:33, Acts 17:18). But what significance is there in Jesus' resurrection? The resurrection proved and vindicated all Jesus' teaching and claims as the suffering Servant and attested to his being fully God and the last Judge of all mankind (Isaiah 53:10-12; Acts 2:36; Acts 3:13-15; Romans 1:4). The resurrection declared God's approval of Jesus' obedient service and the fulfilment of all the Old Testament promises, resulting in forgiveness of sins and salvation being only found in and through Jesus Christ, Jesus' resurrection is a sign of the bodily resurrection for all believers in him, giving a new attitude to death and transforming hopes (1 Corinthians 15:12-58, Romans 8:10, 2 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Peter 1:3 & 21) As the resurrected King, Jesus now intercedes for us and has perfected the redemption of all those who choose to follow him (Romans 5:10; Hebrews 6:20, 1 Peter 1:21). Universalism Denies Jesus' authority Jesus has authority (Matthew 28:18) over all things, all people, all circumstances and happenings. has authority over all spiritual beings, whether angels or demons. Jesus has authority over all nations, governments and rulers. Jesus has authority over all earthly and spiritual authorities. Jesus has the authority. Over all religions, leaders and people - Jesus has the authority and supremacy. This means regardless of what ever the Christian Disciple faces, Jesus is in control. Therefore, as Christian Disciples, we can obey him without fear of retribution from those who would seek to harm us. We have been given a free will, but as his Disciples, we should choose to exercise our free will to obey him and live a life worthy of him. As we grow to rely and depend on Jesus' authority, we continually gain wisdom, guidance, and power.  Because of His authority, Jesus has authority and supremacy over all things - created, non-created, religious and non- religious. Either Jesus was who he said he was - God - or he was a liar and a lunatic not to be trusted.  Universalism and Christianity are non-compatible - the Jesus of the Bible and therefore Christianity, is uniquely superior to all other religions and beliefs encompassed in Universalism. For more to think about please do read John 14:1-6. Ask yourself the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together. Q1.  How does my life of worship to Christ denounce Universalism? Q2.  How does the call for me to be a witness for Jesus affect views of Universalism? Q3.  How have I witnessed universalism in my community or country? Click or Tap here to save/download this as a MP3 file

Either Jesus is the Messiah, or He's not. Are there any conveniences you hold that keep you from believing? Guest speaker Nate Opfer urges you to decide for yourself:  If Jesus is God, follow Him!Download the Transcript of Today's PodcastRediscover the Evidence and Implications of the FaithYou may believe, but can you share what you believe and why? Back to the Bible exists to help you be grounded in the truth through your daily walk with Jesus AND to help you share that truth with others! That's why Pastor Nat Crawford has written Is Christianity for Me? Rediscovering the Evidence and Implications of the Faith.To Thank You For Your Gift...We're looking forward to sending you a copy Nat's new book as a thank you for your financial support. The time is short. Jesus is coming back soon, and there are no do-overs. Is Christianity for you? We pray the answer is yes! Help us share the truth with others!Request your copy today with your donation of any amount.

'Either Jesus would come back or Tom would be healed'This week's episode is a rather lovely and profound conversation between myself, Hannah and Bruce Macauley (who happens to be her Dad), that is rich in both personal and philosophical wisdom.Bruce's faith has changed a lot since the days he believed that Jesus would either return or heal his sons severe autism. It's a journey involving hanging out with homeless people at a caravan park, listening to Richard Rohr sermons on CDs, reading 13th century monks and mystics and eventually heading over to the living school in Albuquerque to learn from father Richard in the flesh.It was also pretty special to explore some of that journey with reflections from a father and daughter, who have both experienced significant faith change, though in different life stages and circumstances. Both Hannah's parents Bruce and Kerry are incredibly Christlike and beautiful humans. The kind that help me to see the sacred in the very ordinary moments and the very difficult ones.I'm so grateful for this sharing of some of their story, and I'm sure you will be also. 

Fallen is Babylon Revelation 18 by William Klock Sometimes gospel—good news—isn't what we expect.  The gospel is a multifaceted message, but the church in every age has a tendency to focus on one part of it, while deemphasising or even ignoring others.  John wrote his letter to the churches of Asia in part to get them straight on this kind of problem.  We do the same thing in our ways.  We modern, western Christians have a tendency to emphasise the personal aspects of the gospel over the corporate.  We tend to view the gospel as a primarily spiritual thing.  And we emphasise those parts of the gospel that are most likely to make people feel good, while down-playing or ignoring what might make them feel bad.  Some aspects of the gospel just confuse us—so we sort of pretend they aren't there.  Such is our passage today, which continues—and more-or-less—concludes John's vision of God's judgement on Rome. So what do we do with judgement in the Bible?  I don't think we have a problem with judgement itself—maybe we don't, but some do.  I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the Canadian prayer book, which butchered the Psalter, because its revisers back in the 1950s concluded that the imprecatory psalms have no place in Christian worship.  But it's not just the Psalmist who pleads with the Lord for the judgement of the wicked and then praises their fall.  From the Israelites joyfully singing about the victory of God over Egypt while they watched the dead bodies of Pharoah's army float on the waters to Isaiah singing “Fallen is Babylon and shattered are her gods!” to Mary's song in which she praises the Lord for throwing down the mighty from their seats, Brothers and Sisters, God's people have always and still ought to plead for his judgement on the wicked then praise his victories.  We plead for deliverance and we pray for an end to evil and for his justice to prevail.  When he answers our prayers, we shouldn't be squeamish about singing joyfully in praise that he has defeated his enemies.  But for some reason we are.  I know Friday's Supreme Court ruling in the States isn't much consolation for Canadians.  I'm not inclined to get overly enthusiastic about what it means for the US.  It's a return to Federalism on the issue of abortion and it remains to be seen what the States will do in light of it.  But it's a victory, it's a big one, it's and answer to fifty years of prayer, even if only in part.  And Christians ought to rejoice and to praise God.  But if you've done that on social media in the last few days, there's a good chance you got rebuked for it by other Christians.  Why?  Because we're squeamish about judgement and about praising God when he defeats his enemies.  But the Lord defeating his enemies and the enemies of his people is good news, it's gospel.  Back in Revelation 14 John wrote about the angel who came declaring gospel—good news—and that the good news was a proclamation of judgement and a summons to repentance: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water” (14:7).  It's an echo of the gospel St. Paul proclaimed to the men of Athens: “Turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them” (Acts 14:15).  Or, as we sing from Psalm 96 in Morning Prayer, “For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth; and with righteousness to judge the world, and the peoples with his truth.”  So our passage today, Revelation 18, is timely.  Let's look at verses 1-3. After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.  And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!          She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit,          a haunt for every unclean bird,          a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk          the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,          and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”   The great prostitute John saw in Chapter 17, the woman deceptively clothed in fine garments and expensive jewelry, whose chalice of wine contained only filth and abominations—who invited the nations to join her in her fun—fun which consisted of rank idolatry, the murder of the Lord Jesus, and the persecution of his people—the great prostitute has fallen. And John's imagery, borrowed from the Old Testament prophets, gives us another lesson—some important insight into how biblical prophecy works and how we ought to read it.  I've spent quite a bit of time explaining that when John wrote of “Babylon”, he was writing about Rome.  But not everyone reads the text that way.  Others will tell you that “Babylon” was Jerusalem.  And there are others who will tell you that “Babylon” is Rome, but not historical Rome, but some Rome of the future—maybe the Roman Church or some future European empire.  I don't know if it's still a popular theory, but back in the 70s and 80s, a lot of people saw here the European Union—especially when it had only ten nations—ten horns and all of that.  Now, if we just read the text and if we read it with the big biblical narrative in mind, it's really obvious—inescapable, I think—that John was speaking of Rome in his own day.  The problem for a lot of folks is that they don't know how to read biblical prophecy and if John was talking about historic Rome, then it all looks like a failed prophecy.  Rome didn't cease to exist.  It wasn't demolished to leave a barren wasteland as the angel's song describes.  Some interpreters then turn to Jerusalem.  That is, more or less, what did happen to Jerusalem—although not in a.d. 70.  John describes the fall of Jerusalem in terms of the events that were soon to unfold, and yet things settled down quickly after the war with Rome and Jewish life returned to a kind of normal in Jerusalem, albeit with the temple gone.  It wouldn't be until after the Bar Kokhba Revolt, a little over fifty years later, that Jerusalem really would be wiped out and the Jewish people scattered.  That right there gives us a hint at how we ought to be reading things.  But, similarly, since these things didn't literally happen to Rome, others respond by pushing it all into the far future.  They try to save John's prophecy, but in doing that they undermine the clear teaching of Jesus and the apostles that judgement was soon to come.  It helps if we look at how John uses the Old Testament prophets.  Here he draws from the passage from Isaiah 21 that I read earlier: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods          he has shattered to the ground.”   Babylon, in the Old Testament, embodied opposition to the Lord.  It all went back to the Tower of Babel and only got worse from there.  And Babylon wasn't satisfied to keep her idolatrous harlotries to herself.  For centuries she afflicted Israel, eventually conquering Jerusalem and taking God's people into exile.  One of the keys for understanding Revelation is to remember that the prophets—like Isaiah—had warned Israel that her conquest by pagan armies was judgement for her own adulteries.  This the historical pattern given meaning by the prophets: Israel, the Lord's bride, is rebellious and plays the harlot with foreign gods.  The Lord is patient, but she continues to be unfaithful.  So the Lord judges Israel by allowing her to be defeated by her pagan neighbours—in this case Babylon.  Judgement brings Israel to repentance—at least for a while—and the Lord vindicates her by then judging the pagan nations that had oppressed her.  That's the pattern we see in Revelation.  First the Lord uses pagan Rome to bring judgement on rebellious Jerusalem.  Through it he spares and vindicates his people.  Then he comes in judgement on Rome herself.  This is why John uses Babylon as an image of Rome.  Isaiah writes that Babylon would be a haunt of jackals and hyenas—and demons, too, in the Greek OT (Isaiah 34:13-14). Jeremiah writes: Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD'S hand,          making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine;          therefore the nations went mad.  (Jeremiah 51:7) And the prophet Nahum wrote: And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,          graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings,          and peoples with her charms.  (Nahum 3:4) John also draws on Ezekiel's oracle against the city of Tyre: When your wares came from the seas,          you satisfied many peoples; with your abundant wealth and merchandise          you enriched the kings of the earth.  (Ezekiel 27:33)   So, like Babylon (and like Tyre), Rome will fall because of her idolatry, because of her wickedness, and because she has spilled the blood of Jesus and the saints.  But did Babylon fall?  If we take Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets literally, we have the same problem we have with John.  John writes later, in verse 21, that Babylon (Rome) will “be thrown down with violence and will be found no more”—which certainly didn't happen literally.  Rome has had its problems, it would even be defeated and the city sacked by enemies, but there's a reason it's called the “Eternal City”.  And despite Jeremiah writing that Babylon would be “a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert”, “her walls…thrown down”, “overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah, no one will live there”, it was many centuries before the city of Babylon eventually declined.  Babylon was defeated, as the prophets said it would be, by the Medes, but they didn't destroy the city.  They diverted the river and sneaked into the city while its people were having a holiday.  The Medes and the Persians made Babylon their capital and it flourished for centuries.  What this shows us is that prophetic language of judgement isn't necessarily literal.  It's dramatic and over-the-top.  It often speaks of judgement in terms of de-creation: the sun ceasing to shine, stars falling from the sky, the ground itself falling apart and opening up to swallow armies and cities.  The key point of the Old Testament prophets and of John in Revelation, is that the oppressors and persecutors of the Lord's people will face his wrathful and righteous judgement in repayment for their deeds.  Nebuchadnezzar was defeated and his kingdom destroyed, leading to the restoration of Israel in Judea, even though Babylon remained under different management.  Similarly, Rome will be defeated in such a way that the Christians martyrs would be vindicated and the way paved for the triumph of the gospel over this once pagan empire.  The gods of Rome will be shattered and Caesar's claims of divinity will be exposed in the light of the gospel, which proclaims Jesus as the true son of God.  Caesar will be defeated and Jesus will reign—and the world would see the birth of “Christendom” as we called it for centuries.  Why does is it work this way?  Because even though God did not create man to govern man, but to live under his kingship, he has ordained earthly kings and governments to curb the chaos of the fall.  As St. Paul writes, governing authorities are established by God to reward those who do good and to be a terror to those who do evil.  But when that gets reversed, particularly when those authorities persecute God's people, he will bring his justice and take them down.  Nebuchadnezzar was taken down and the Medes took his place and Cyrus return the Israelites to Judea.  Good rules—or less bad ones, at any rate, will replace the wicked.  And just so with Nero and his ilk. At this point a second angel joins the first.  Look at verses 4-8. Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people,          lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven,          and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,          and repay her double for her deeds;          mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,          so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says,          ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow,          and mourning I shall never see.' For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,          death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire;          for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”   In light of the coming judgement, the angel warns Jesus' people to get out—not necessarily literally, but not to have anything to do with the wickedness and the idolatry of the pagans.  This echoes the warnings to the churches at the beginning of Revelation.  The great prostitute is, again, deceptively attractive.  Her wine looks appealing and everyone else is drunk on it.  Rome and all the nations submitted to her have the appearance of wealth and security.  In contrast, those little groups of Christians were facing opposition—and it was soon to get worse—and all because they proclaimed Jesus as Lord instead of Caesar.  They were the ones willing to openly say that the emperor had no clothes—or that the harlot's chalice was full of filth—but that's not what anyone wanted to hear.  Compromise was so enticing and so easy.  A pinch of incense offered to Caesar, a meal in the temple of Aphrodite—never mind the orgy going on—and everyone would accept you.  But Israel had tried that, offering sacrifices to the Lord in his temple, but also erecting altars to Baal and Asherah.  It never works.  You cannot serve two masters.  Either Jesus is Lord or he isn't.  And Babylon is a graphic testament to what happens to those who worship false gods—and soon Rome will be, too.  So, “Come out of her my people, lest you take part in her sins,” calls the angel. Her sins are heaped high.  In other words, her judgment is overdue and coming soon.  She will be paid back.  In fact, she'll be paid back double for her deeds.  The angel echoes Jeremiah's prophecy against Babylon: Repay her according to her deeds; do to her according to all that she has done. For she has proudly defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. (Jeremiah 50:29) Now, the long middle section of the chapter shows us the response of the nations as they stand watching Rome's fall.  They were once drunk on the prostitute's wine, but the Lord's judgement sobers them up quickly—as the one in whom they had invested everything now falls.  Look at verse 9 and following:   And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.    John echoes Ezekiel's prophecy of Babylon's fall: The merchants among the peoples hiss at you;          you have come to a dreadful end          and shall be no more forever.'” (Ezekiel 27:36)   One of the thing that stands out here is that this isn't the end of the world.  This is a judgment that happens in history as the nations watch.  Continuing… They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city,          you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”   And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.   Slavery is what made the ancient world turn, and especially Rome and it was the sanctifying influence of the gospel that eventually brought it to an end, as with so many other things: human sacrifice, gladiatorial games, and abortion and infanticide.  Jesus spoke about being salt and light and that's just what those first Christians were and by the gospel they taught the pagans mercy and the value of life.  But in the meantime, the nations mourn.  The prostitute and her chalice are gone.  The party is over.  And the angel's imagery draws very closely on Ezekiel's prophecy of Tyre's destruction: At the sound of the cry of your pilots          the countryside shakes, and down from their ships          come all who handle the oar. The mariners and all the pilots of the sea          stand on the land and shout aloud over you          and cry out bitterly. They cast dust on their heads          and wallow in ashes;  (Ezekiel 27:28-30) This is key, because the reason Ezekiel says that Tyre was judged was because it's king had boasted: “I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods” (Ezekiel 28:1).  Now it's Caesar's turn to be brought low for his blasphemies.  In the meantime the nations continue to mourn:   “The fruit for which your soul longed          has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors          are lost to you,          never to be found again!”   The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, “Alas, alas, for the great city          that was clothed in fine linen,                          in purple and scarlet,          adorned with gold,                          with jewels, and with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?”   And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city          where all who had ships at sea          grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste. Rejoice over her, O heaven,          and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!” (Revelation 18:9-20) The suitors of the harlot mourn, but notice that the angels calls out to God's people: “Rejoice!”  Specifically, “Rejoice over her—over fallen Rome—because God has judged her.”  And not just that, notice the angel makes the point, “God has given judgement for you against her!”  This is the vindication of the saints.  God has judged the wicked on behalf of all those saints in those little churches in Asia Minor and across the empire—the saints who were mocked, maligned, and even martyred, the saints who watched as their brothers and sisters died in the arena or were crucified and lit on fire to light Nero's garden parties.  For you God has judged the harlot.  Brothers and Sisters, the Lord hears the cries of his people.  He heard the Hebrews crying out from their bondage in Egypt.  He heard the Israelites crying out from their captivity in Babylon.  He heard his Church crying out from their persecution by Rome.  And for the Lord to hear is always for the Lord to answer.  And the natural response is for the song of praise sung by the redeemed to be even louder than the lament of those wailing over their judgement.  In Proverbs we read the truth that “when justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous” even as it is “terror to evildoers”.  Brothers and Sisters, rejoice and praise God for his triumph, even as the wicked wail and lament. Finally, now, verses 21-24.  The joyful song of the saints is contrasted with the deathly silence of the judged city. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,          and will be found no more; and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters,          will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft          will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill          will be heard in you no more, and the light of a lamp          will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride          will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,          and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,          and of all who have been slain on earth.” (Revelation 18:21-24) Jeremiah wrote: When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.'”   The description of the musicians being silenced is straight from Ezekiel's oracle against Tyre: And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more.  (Ezekiel 26:13) The bit about Rome deceiving the nations by her sorcery calls back to Nahum's denouncement of Nineveh: And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,          graceful and of deadly [sorceries], who betrays nations with her whorings,          and peoples with her [sorceries].  (Nahum 3:4) I don't think anyone amongst John's readers would have struggled to rejoice at these words of judgement, but the angel does drive home the point one more time in verse 20.  He reminds us that in her was the blood of the prophets and saints.  He even goes a step further, saying that the bloodguilt of all who have been slain lies with her.  Rome wasn't guilty of every murder that ever happened, but remember that behind the prostitute and behind the beast lies the dragon, the Satan.  Rome was the current embodiment, the height of human wickedness, all fed by the lies of the devil.  The devil and all the world's wickedness rose up to its full height at the cross when Jesus was put to death.  Evil, concentrated all in one place, did its worst and was dealt a death blow by God.  And, once again in Rome and with the persecution of Jesus' people it rose up again, and yet again God would strike it down.  That's the promise here.  Remember John's three themes: tribulation, perseverance, and kingdom.  The saints are not walking anywhere that Jesus has not gone before them and the Lord will vindicate them just as he vindicated Jesus.  They would know mourning, but judgement was coming.  It was a sure thing.  And not too far in the future they would have reason to rejoice as the millstone that was Caesar and Rome was cast into the sea to make way for the gospel of Jesus the Messiah. Brothers and Sisters, there's a word here for us, too.  We will know new Romes and Babylons before the Lord returns.  We will know opposition and maybe even persecution, tribulation, and martyrdom.  Persevere.  Know that Jesus is Lord.  Do not be enticed by the harlot and her chalice.  Pray for her downfall, for her downfall, as it always has been, will open the way for our proclamation of the gospel.  When that day comes—and it always does—praise the Lord for his righteousness and his faithfulness, and go forth with the good news.  For Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again. Let's pray: O Lord God, the unfailing helper and governor of those whom you bring up in your steadfast fear and love: Keep us, we pray, under the protection of your good providence and give us a continual reverence and love for your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

God is both just and justifier. No sin will go unpunished. Either Jesus will pay for it, or we will.

Either Jesus is God or he is an impostor. What does the Bible say about this? The deity of Christ is a crucial part of what we believe as christians. Can you defend this truth from scriptures? Today's episode goes in-depth to talk about and shows scriptures from both the Old and New Testament that reveals this truth. If you don't believe Jesus is God, you should also Press PLAY too.

This week, Pastor Aaron looks at the identity of Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus boldly declares himself as "I am" multiple times throughout the Bible. In doing so, he's not just talking about the kinds of characteristics he has. But, Jesus is making a bold claim about his own identity as God in the flesh. These bold statements cause alarm for the Jewish people. Either Jesus is a blasphemer or he actually is who he says he is. We believe that Jesus is who he says he is. So, what does that mean for us? Watch this.

This is the hangup for many people. Maybe people will say, “Jesus, a good moral teacher. Great guy. Loved people. Served them well. Very compassionate. Good moral teacher.” And the connection is either never made, or never expressed – that He must’ve been a pathological liar too. This is what must be believed if someone cannot come to grips with His claiming to be God. CS Lewis rightly ascertained, “Either Jesus is the Son of God; or a madman or worse. But His being just a great teacher? He’s not left that open to us.”

This week's message begins with a word from Pastor Jenny about the shifting that God is calling us into. Then Pastor Ben delivers a powerful message about Jesus as the cornerstone. Either Jesus is the chief cornerstone of our lives and we align ourselves to Him or He is rejected. To learn more about The Collective Church in Portland, OR, and Vancouver, WA, visit us online at thecollectivechurch.com.

It doesn't matter what's going on in your life right now, the good, the bad or the ugly, one day soon, Jesus is coming back. And when that happens, the dead will be raised first, and those who are alive and believe in Jesus will be taken up in glory. Now that … that's something to look forward to. The Dead Will Rise in Christ It's an interesting question, isn't it? What's going to happen to you when your time on this earth is done and dusted? That will happen in one of two ways. Either Jesus will return – at which point everything on this earth will be over. Or – and perhaps you consider this option to be more likely – your body is going to give up the ghost when you breathe your last breath and your heart stops beating. And it's that latter option that we're going to talk about right now. We're in the middle of a series of messages that I've called Merchants of Hope. Hope is such an important thing. Without hope, today's not worth living – and tomorrow … well who cares? So many people – can I say, even people who believe in Jesus – are living without hope. And that's crazy. Because our lives – whether we believe in Jesus or not – don't end with a beep. There's life after death – either in the presence of Jesus for all eternity – hallelujah – or apart from Him, in a place of eternal punishment and anguish and regret – that place with Satan and his demons that we call … hell. Hmm. So … where are you going to go after your beeeeep? Well, I believe … in fact I know … that last heart beat is not the end. It's just the beginning of where you're going to spend the rest of your eternity. And there are two parts to that eternity for anyone who believes in Jesus. The part between when you die and when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead, and the part after Jesus' return. Let's talk about the first part first. If you believe in Jesus, here's what  will happen to you. Immediately upon your death, you will go to be in the presence of Jesus, in conscious blessedness – having escaped your punishment because you have put your faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus – in the fact that He paid for your sins on that cross. Just like the criminal who hung next to Jesus on that fateful day. Have a listen to what happened to him Luke 23:39–42: One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!' But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.' So … exactly when would this man be in paradise with Jesus? Today. The Apostle Paul knew it too, that straight after his death, he would be in the presence of Jesus. Philippians 1:21–23: For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. What happens to him when he departs this life? He is going to be with Christ. So if you and I die before Jesus returns, and if we believe in Jesus, we go immediately to be with Him, in His Presence. Just sit there now for a minute and look at all your present circumstances – all your pressures and worries – through the lens of that truth. See that hope, that certain hope – is meant to make a huge difference in your life. Paul the Apostle wrote that letter to the Philippians while he was in a Roman dungeon on death row. Have a read of it some time. It's full of hope and rejoicing – because it's written by a man who sees his present bleak circumstances through the lens of his certain hope in Christ. And at some point, Jesus will return and we will all – those who believe in Jesus and those who don't – stand before Jesus in judgement. We've already talked about that. And when that happens, those who believe in Jesus who have died, will rise in Him. Have a listen – 1 Thess 4:13–16: But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Now we're going to talk about what happens after that next week on the program. I'd love to go there right now because it's awesome, we just don't have time, so you and I are just going to have to wait. Just picture this glorious day. The dead in Christ will rise first. I was in a hospital a few months ago, visiting a friend who has since died of cancer. Hospitals have always seemed to be impersonal, sterile places. He was in a room of three other men who were also dying. The smell of death is a powerful thing, in this sanitised, brightly lit place with linoleum floors polished so much that it squeaks when you walk on them. There's something stark and confronting about death. It's inevitable. It's not pleasant. And yet at the other end of that, is this triumphant, jubilant day when all those who have died in Christ will rise again with Him. Hallelujah. That's the hope. That's why you and I and anyone else who believes in Jesus can look at our present day circumstances through the same lens as the Apostle Paul on death row. That's why Paul wrote: When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.' ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Hallelujah!' I know there are some people listening today who have lost a loved one … and you miss them terribly. Perhaps your wife or your husband. Well the good news is that if they believe in Jesus, one day you will see them again – because they will be raised in Christ. Or perhaps you're getting pretty close to the end of your life, through old age or sickness – and you're staring death down the barrel and that's a scary thing for you. Wherever you and I are on our journey through life and towards death, the important thing to know, the thing that Jesus wants you to know – not just in your head but in your heart is this. Death is not the end, it's just the beginning. It's the beginning – for anyone who believes in Jesus – of an eternity praising Him and worshipping Him and celebrating with Him. It's the beginning of an eternity without fear or tears or sickness or pain or illness. It's the beginning of an eternity, that compared to our fleeting lives on this earth, is so awesome, so forever that you just can't compare the two. That's why Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote this to his friends in Rome – Chapter 8 verse 18: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. Friend, the eternity that lies ahead for you is as glorious as it is certain. That's what Jesus wants you to know today. That's the hope, the certain hope that He wants to fill your heart with … today. The Living Will be Taken Up So you get up tomorrow, it's a day like any other day – or so you think – but completely unbeknown to you – it's not just any day. It's the day that God decides to send Jesus back to this earth. The thing that Christians call … the second coming. Jesus Himself described what it would be like. Not some guy on television claiming to be Jesus. But a huge, cataclysmic event that none of us – not you or me or anyone else – will possibly be able to miss: Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven' with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matthew 24:29–31) I'm imagining – that's going to be kind of hard to miss isn't it. You're getting ready to go to work, you're brushing your teeth, thinking about what the day holds. If you're anything like me, you're mind is already running through your to–do list and then … this. Friend, that's what it's going to be like. Your mundane, every day reality, totally interrupted, totally disturbed, totally come to an end – together with the day that all the other 7 billion-plus people on planet earth had planned – it's going to be over. Because Jesus has just returned. The 24-hour news cycle is over. The newsreader on TV – nothing left to read. Can you imagine? Are you ready? Because it can happen at any moment. 1 Thess 5:1–5: Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you, yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, ‘There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So here's the question, if you believe in Jesus and you are still alive on that day when Jesus returns? What's it going to be like? And more importantly, what's going to happen to you on that day? That's worth knowing I think. Well, the Bible has the answers. In fact, Jesus has the answers: Then he said to the disciples, ‘The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there! ' or ‘Look here!' Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them —it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.' Then they asked him, ‘Where, Lord?' He said to them, ‘Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.' (Luke 17:22–37) It's pretty dramatic. Do you see the picture that Jesus paints – it's a business as usual day. Everybody is going about their normal business and then … one will be taken up and the other left. Whoo! The Apostle Paul describes it this way: Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:51–53) Friend, are you ready for that? In your heart of hearts are you looking forward to the day when the Lord returns? There are two things that I'm sick of. I'm sick of these doomsday people who keep predicting the day on which Jesus will return. I think to myself – What are they nuts?! Jesus made the point, you're not meant to know when … just be ready. But at the other end of the scale I'm so desperately concerned about people who believe in Jesus and yet don't seem to believe in the imminent return of Christ. We behave as though this life is going to last forever. We behave as though the rest of eternity is a million years away. Friends, it's a lot closer than you think. In the context of eternity, it's just around the corner. It could be this very day, this very hour that Jesus returns. That's the certain hope that you and I have if we believe in Jesus. That's the future that lies ahead. Jesus could come back – today, tomorrow, next week. I don't know whether you're enjoying your life so much that you're completely immersed in it – or whether you're having such a rotten time that you're drowning in your misery – or whether you're somewhere in between. Wherever you are, whatever's going on in your world, if you believe in Jesus, you have a certain hope that Jesus is coming back for you soon. And that … that's meant to make a difference. Just as I sit here chatting with you, I'm about to head off on a couple of weeks' leave. I love doing what I do – but it's hard work and I need a break. So with my wife, I'm heading off for 12 days – away from emails and writing and recording radio programs, and managing a global team and all that stuff that I love – just to take a break and have a rest. I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to that these past weeks, how much I'm looking forward to it now. The sun, the ocean, the rest, the time with my wife. Awesome. But here's what I've been thinking about – if Jesus returned the day before I head off on my holiday, would I feel robbed … or rewarded? Would I want to say to Jesus – Look Lord – I've got a 12 day holiday planned, can you please come back at the end of it. In fact Lord as I look at my diary, hmmm, busy that day, meeting, speaking engagement – I'm thinking next month would be a much better time. Does that work for you? Let's get it into our diaries and it's a date. Do you se my point? So many of us are so caught up in the things of the world, in our day to day reality that our hearts aren't filled with the hope of Jesus' imminent return. And I have to tell you – that is such a tragedy. Listen to what Paul says Colossians 3:2: Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Come on. Set your gaze, your vision on the things that are above, on the certain hope you have. Because Jesus is coming – ready or not. A Chance to Repent I've said a few times in this series that without hope for the future, our lives cease to have value and meaning and purpose. People who take their own lives do so, because they've completely lost hope. But look at the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Have you given your life to Jesus yet? Would you like to? Well, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't give you the opportunity to do just that. So if you want to step into the hope that you can have through what Jesus did for you on the cross, then why don't you pray this prayer with me in your heart. Pray it to God: Lord God as you've shared this amazing picture of what is to come with me today through your Word, and I can't put this off any longer. I've been running from you and running but it hasn't been working and today Lord is the day that I've come to my senses. Today I want to say sorry for all the things that I've done wrong and turn my life over into your hands. Please forgive me through the price that Jesus paid for me on the Cross and give me a new life. Put your Holy Spirit in me to give me the power to live my life for you. Lead me wherever you will. Call me to whatever you would call me to. And give me the courage to take up my Cross and follow you, in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have just prayed that prayer with me then you are forgiven, you have a new life in Christ, all the old things have passed away, the slate is wiped clean – and all things are new. And you have just stepped into the certain hope of resurrection after death and a life eternal in the very Presence of God. Welcome to the rest of eternity with Jesus. Let me encourage you to find a Bible believing Church and become part of a dynamic, vital faith community to worship and serve God and to grow in your relationship with Him. Because none of us can walk this walk with Jesus on our own. Sure the moment that we accept Jesus Christ into our lives, He pours His Holy Spirit into us. But He also means for us to learn and to be encouraged and held accountable by other members of his family. I can be a bit of a loner sometimes, and I have to tell you sometimes the people at church can drive me a bit batty. And so the easiest thing in the world would be for me not to belong to a church. But over the last almost 20 years, what I've learned is that the transformation of my life has happened in the community, as I've been part of God's family. That's why being part of His church is so incredibly important. Giving your life to Jesus isn't a one-time thing, that you do for a few weeks and then forget, any more than permanently losing weight is about a 3 week crash diet. Giving your life to Jesus is about living the rest of your life for Him. Jesus promised that that wouldn't be an easy thing to do. He promised us that the path would be narrow and hard. He promised us that we would be persecuted. He promised us that taking up our cross and following Him would be a tough gig. So – here's the thing. If you have just given your life to Jesus, get together with some fellow believers and let them help you on the journey. In fact, if you've just given your life to Jesus – I've recorded a series of 10 messages called So Now What? and probably the best thing that you can do right now is have a listen to them, because they're all about the thing that you need to do and to put in place to lay some solid foundations early, in your relationship with Jesus. You can get a hold of those messages online, in the Jesus section of our website – at christianityworks.com. I really encourage you to get along and have a listen – establish a prayer life, get into God's Word and read the Bible every day. Become part of a vibrant Bible-believing church. Because I want to see you in eternity. I want to hear you say to me – "Hey Berni, remember that day you shared that message on the radio? It changed my life. I'm here now because God used that message in my life." I want those promises of eternity to be for you!

Would Jesus really be ashamed of me?  Hey, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me for the Follower of One Podcast. We've been talking about this passage in Mark 8:34-37, the last couple of days. And today I want to pick up with verse 38 and wrap it up.  "For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." That's Mark 8:38 from the New American Standard Bible. And I switched between that and the English Standard Version. But in this particular passage, ashamed is a keyword.  We don't think about shame much in our world, or we talk about it as being something that's wrong, that we don't want to do almost every translation. I looked at, use the word ashamed here both when we were ashamed of Jesus and when He is ashamed of us. He's only ashamed of people who don't trust Him. And so our trust in Him, and our willingness to not be embarrassed or not be ashamed about our confidence in Him, is what he's talking about here. And I actually believe this goes all the way back to where Peter originally said, "Hey, Jesus, don't be talking like that." Peter tried to correct Jesus at the beginning of this passage. We didn't really talk about that part of this passage, because we wanted to study Jesus and his situation here and about the need to be a follower. I believe  Jesus is reminding us that we follow Him. He's being direct. And he's making a point. We only have two options. Either Jesus is Lord of the universe, or he's not. He's this crazy person or he's badly mistaken. And therefore, if he's Lord of the universe, we have to believe what he says, even if it's hard, even if it's difficult. We have this choice of following Jesus today. Let's choose to follow him. Let's choose to do what he says. Let's choose to trust him with our lives. We give our physical life away a little bit at a time by choosing to do the things that Jesus guides us to do either through his word or through his church or through other Christian friends, which are also his church. Jesus can direct us and we can follow Him and do what he says. And when we do, we do not risk Him being ashamed of us. We will be his child.  And we will get to be with him. I'm looking forward to that day. I look forward to being with Jesus on a daily basis today as I live my life. And also when I'm no longer in this life and I'm in the next. And I want to challenge us today to remember that Jesus is Lord. He is the almighty ruler of the universe, and that should change our behavior. As followers of his, we should let him change our behavior on a daily basis. Let's look for ways to do that today. Sometimes it will look like taking up a cross. Sometimes it will look like following Jesus. And sometimes it may look like just doing the next right thing because that's what he challenges us to do.  Let's join Jesus today in His work in our world and watch Him make a difference in our lives and in the lives of the people around us.   Thank you for being a marketplace minister. And thank you for making a difference with your faith in the workplace, your faith, and the way you live matters. You're a leader because of the way you live. And we'll talk about that in the next episode to our commitment to following Jesus still makes us a leader. Thanks very much.

John 10:16-21 ESV 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” 19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” 16 Mayroon akong ibang mga tupa na wala sa kulungang ito. Kailangan ko rin silang dalhin dito at kanilang papakinggan ang aking tinig. Kaya't magkakaroon ng isang kawan na may isang pastol. 17 Dahil dito'y minamahal ako ng Ama, sapagkat ibinibigay ko ang aking buhay, upang ito'y kunin kong muli. 18 Walang nag-aalis nito sa akin, kundi kusa kong ibinibigay. May kapangyarihan akong ibigay ito, at may kapangyarihan akong kunin itong muli. Tinanggap ko ang utos na ito mula sa aking Ama.” 19 At muling nagkaroon ng pagkakabaha-bahagi sa mga Judio dahil sa mga salitang ito. 20 At marami sa kanila ang nagsasabi, “Mayroon siyang demonyo, at siya'y nauulol, bakit ninyo siya pinapakinggan?” 21 Sinasabi naman ng iba, “Hindi ito ang mga salita ng isang may demonyo. Kaya ba ng demonyo na magbukas ng mga mata ng bulag?” I HAVE OTHER SHEEP The present “fold," as Jesus means it here, is the nation of Israel. There are sheep, however, that belongs to Christ and yet are not of that group. Jesus made a reference to the Gentiles—the non-Jewish nations—having been made part of the flock of God. Later, Paul wrote, “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”[Eph 3:6] This body is the church. For many Jews, this claim of Jesus was a major stumbling block to belief, even within the Jewish Christian community after Jesus rose from the dead. (see Acts 11:1–18) These particular group of Gentiles will come to faith in Jesus.(Gal 3:27–28) For Jesus is claiming to be the sole legitimate means of salvation for mankind was not acceptable to them(John 10:1–13), specially the indication that He will bring "other sheep," meaning Gentiles, into this intimate relationship with God (John 10:14–16). These had been tough for His critics to digest. Jesus continues to explain His role as "the Good Shepherd," which includes His determination to die for the sake of His sheep. This sacrificial love is a reason why He has special favor with God the Father (see John 10:17; Phil 2:9). In some sense, those who heard Him might have thought that His statement was just an assumption. That is Jesus was "willing" to die, not that He "would die" actually. The subject of Christ's death was something Jesus' closest followers often struggled to accept (see Mark 8:31–33). What Jesus said was so outlandish that it implied two other possibilities. That is, the audience seemed torn between two opinions. Either Jesus was being demon possessed, a reference to insanity or being legitimately verified as God's Messiah. (John 10:19–21). ----------------------- Visit and FOLLOW Gospel Light Filipino on YouTube and Facebook

2021-11-21-0830 Pastor Loran Livingston is the speaker this morning, November 21, 2021 in the 8:30 AM service. Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-24; Ephesians 4; Hebrews 2 Notes: -What do you offer God for eternal life? -Either Jesus pays your bill now and you receive it by faith, or you will pay your own bill eternally. -Jesus's innocent blood was shed and fell to the ground. -The spiritual blood of Jesus is crying out for mercy. -God hears His voice from Jesus asking for grace and mercy for His children. -Jesus paid the full price for your sin. -Do not make excuses. -Satan is defeated

2021-11-21-1030 Pastor Loran Livingston is the speaker this morning, November 21, 2021 in the 10:30 AM service. Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-24; Ephesians 4; Hebrews 2 Notes: -What do you offer God for eternal life? -Either Jesus pays your bill now and you receive it by faith, or you will pay your own bill eternally. -Jesus's innocent blood was shed and fell to the ground. -The spiritual blood of Jesus is crying out for mercy. -God hears His voice from Jesus asking for grace and mercy for His children. -Jesus paid the full price for your sin. -Do not make excuses. -Satan is defeated

Slideshow for this message is available Introduction Two weeks ago we looked at the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus. This is one of the few miracles in the Bible that is recorded where God intentionally contrives to make the miracle itself more dramatic. You will recall that Jesus had fled to Perea and he gets word that Lazarus was sick. And Jesus says, "This is not a sickness that leads to death." And that runner presumably carries that message back to Mary and Martha. Your brother, even though he looks terribly ill has a sickness that does not lead to death. Then we have the strange words. Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus; therefore, he stayed in the place where he was two additional days. And sometime during those intervening days Lazarus dies. And for Mary and Martha, this death represents an incredible faith crisis. They have built their entire lives upon the understanding that whatever Jesus says is true. The WORDS of Jesus are the WORDS of God and therefore can always be counted on. Jesus said very clearly, “This is not a sickness that leads to death.” And yet here I am staring at a dead body. All five senses confirm that Lazarus is dead. I see the drooping face indicating that the link between the brain and the involuntary muscles of the face are no longer activated. I see the change in skin color from rosy red to gray which indicates that the blood has stopped circulating. I feel his cold body. I feel the stiffening of his body as rigamortis sets in. I smell his bowels. I smell the beginning phases of decomposition. I cannot hear a single noise that indicates life. No breath. No heart. Just silence. Not the slightest movement. You have this horrific collision of realities. Which is more real? Which is more true? Either the words of Jesus are true - that this is not a sickness that leads to death. Or The information reported by my senses is true - Lazarus is dead? Both cannot be true. One of these trusted anchors in my life has betrayed me. Either it's my eyes or its Jesus. Given these two options which would you choose? How often do our eyes, ears, nose, touch betray us? Those have come to be pretty trusted companions. They rarely fail us. They rarely report incorrectly. On the other hand, how frequently do people let us down. How often have you leaned heavily on a person only to have them disappoint? What's the more likely explanation of what I'm experiencing? And this produces a crisis of faith. A crisis of faith is defined as a person moving from a place of belief and faith to a place of doubt. If this Word of Jesus isn't true, then what else is also not true? But everything resolves when Jesus commands the stone to be rolled away and speaks, “Lazarus, come forth!” and the decomposition process reverses itself and out hops Lazarus wrapped in cloths. Mary, Martha, what's the lesson? BELIEVE! Believe Jesus no matter what your eyes tell you. Believe Jesus no matter how confusing your interpretation of events are. Jesus can be trusted. - Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. Believe it. - All of Jesus' Words are yes and amen. Believe it. The Lesson is clear: Whatever Jesus says: Believe it. It almost makes you want to break out in spontaneous round of applause. The Response. This miracle is one of 8 signs that John gives us. We are told that the reason we are given these 8 signs is so that by observing them you will believe. But here's what's interesting: one of the central features of each of these signs is how it created unbelief in those who witnessed them. Last week we ended on a comma. John 11 In other words, some, instead of believing, ran to the Pharisees and ratted him out. They knew the Pharisees wouldn't like what just went down and they wanted to be the first to be congratulated in delivering the news. Now how can it be that some believed, but others went and betrayed him to the Pharisees? How can it be that some fall on their faces and worship and others pick up pitch forks? How can you have such violently different reactions to an indisputable demonstration of a divinity? This is all perfectly explainable if you understand one key thing: To illustrate this interpretive key, let me give you an analogy from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the rings. In you've read the novel, Gollum is this creature who has owned this powerful ring for thousands of years and he has been utterly destroyed by it. It is all he cares about it. He talks to it. He calls it his precious. He strokes it in the dark. His single goal in life is to protect it so that nothing can threaten it and nothing can ever take it from him. And his love of the ring creates all these paradoxes. For example, Even though the ring gives him power, his obsession with it causes him to become weak. The more he stares at its beauty the more ugly he becomes. - The more he believes that possessing it will give him freedom, the more it enslaves him. - He's totally, utterly, completely destroyed by his 'savior.' Now you wouldn't immediately know this by looking at him. Gollum appears to be a pretty innocent little creature, you might even say playful and cute until his ring is taken away. And then all of the sudden this hideous dark shadow emerges from within. The fangs come out. The blood-thirsty eyes narrow. And he's willing to destroy anything that threatens his precious. The Bible calls this sort of thing an idol. God is supposed to be in that ultimate place and if you put something else there, both God and it will destroy you. Here's the one key thing that unlocks the whole passage: The Pharisees had an idol. The Pharisees were guarding their precious. Everything is fine as long as they have what they want but then Jesus comes along. And Jesus always threatens idols. Jesus' mere existence threatens anything we dare to call precious. Jesus sees that idol and stares us down and says, that thing is killing you. It's sucking away your joy. He says, "Here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to take the place of that inferior god but in order to do so, I have to break the neck of that thing that is sucking the life out of you. And what we will discover in this passage is a SEVERE warning. Don't be threatened by Jesus' attack on your idols. Confess your sin before its too late. Confess your idolatry before you are destroyed.If we refuse to heed that warning there are two things that will happen and one thing that will not happen. Here are the two things that will happen. You will destroy others and you will destroy yourself. And here's the one thing that will not happen. You will not destroy God's plan. So that's our outline for today. Let's look at each of these points in turn. Now let's jump back to the narrative to the point where the Pharisees and Sadducees first hear the news of Lazarus' resurrection. You could imagine the Pharisees and Sadducees sitting around large tables with their Torah scrolls sprawled out debating some nuanced, esoteric point. *And in comes this messenger panting, his hand on the door frame steadying himself as he catches his breath, “Guys, you are not going to believe this but you know Jesus, the troublemaker?* He just raised a guy named Lazarus from the dead. And get this: Lazarus was four days dead and was in the tomb. He rolled away the stone and said Lazarus come forth and out comes the hopping body. I saw it with my own eyes. I smelled it. You guys need to do something. Word is spreading like wildfire.” The irony here is so thick. Imagine you were a scout for the Chicago Bulls. “This man is the best basketball player we've ever seen. He performs many miraculous moves.” What's the obvious next step? Recruit him. That's what a scout does. He looks for talent. The Pharisees are religious scouts looking for Messiah. This man performs many indisputable signs. What are we to do? Believe. But instead they say. Ah, we've found the precious. We've discovered the idol. Instead of belief we see fangs and claws. Why, because their place and their nation are being threatened. There's the idol. Now it all makes sense. The source code has been cracked. It's interesting how this is worded because there is a meaning and then there is a meaning behind the meaning. John is a master at the double meaning: “The Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” So on the surface, there's one meaning. It was the job of the local prefect, in this case Pilate, to keep the peace. If the Jews are making trouble, Rome will descend with merciless force and eliminate the trouble. Jesus' miracle working (whether he intends it or not) is going to arouse the attention of Rome. So on the surface this is a political statement, “The Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.” The Romans will come and take away our place (the temple) and our nation (the people)." But a layer beneath is the more sinister meaning. We claim to care about the people but what we really care about is our power over the people. If Rome comes sweeping in, they will take away our place (meaning our political/religious position of power) and our nation (the people our position allows us to control). They love the control they exercise over the massess. They love the adulation of the crowds and respect. They love the lucrative salary that attends that position. They love their precious This is one of the key signs of idolatry, where we hide behind the respectable to protect that which is not respectable. So for example, A man who idolizes his image on Social media will say, “I'm just catching up on the news.” A person who idolizes money will say, “Just making some wise investments for my kids future.” A person who idolizes leisure will say, “Just taking some time off to be with the family.” The Pharisees idolize their position of power but hide beneath, "We need to eliminate Jesus because the Romans will come and destroy God's temple and God's people. Power and control is the idol. Jesus threatens that idol. Solution: destroy Jesus. That's our first point. “Guarding your precious will destroy others.” They are willing to destroy Messiah in order to keep their precious. Presiding over the Sanhedrin was Caiaphas. Now again, the double meaning is so masterful. Let's start with Caiphas' meaning. One man needs to die for the people. In other words, "Either Jesus dies and we save Judea from the wrath of Rome or the whole nation dies." This is a purely POLITICAL STATEMENT. You have to understand that in recent years, they have experienced legitimate wrath from Rome. Let me give you just one case in point. Remember in the Christmas story, Joseph flees to Egypt because Herod was trying to kill baby Jesus. Well it says that when he heard that Herod had died he came home but then he heard that Archeleaus had been installed in his place he feared, and being warned in a dream he went to Nazareth. Why was Joseph afraid of Archelaus? You know what's behind that? Archeleus, in a demonstration of force, had killed 3000 animated Jewish demonstrators and in so doing cancelled passover. They are legitimately fearful of Rome. And Jesus is legitimately causing a stir making this a very real possibility. If that's the case, let me ask you a question, "Why didn't the Pharisees and Sadducees destroy Jesus a long time ago?" For chapters and chapters they have expressed their abject hatred of him. If they hate him and he's a political liability why not lynch him? They have wanted him dead since chapter 8. Why are they dragging their feet? Answer the crowds love him. The crowds adore Jesus and the religious leaders know that if they destroy Jesus, that will massively destroy their credibility. So you see Ciaphas is solving the dilemma. The question on the floor is this: If we kill Jesus, the crowds will hate us. If we let Jesus live, then Rome will hate us. Which is worse? Ciaphas breaks in, "You guys are idiots. This is a no brainer. If the crowds hate us, we suffer a PR setback. If Rome hates us we are all dead. There is a clear winner here: Kill Jesus. Of course we are not going to be popular, but let's rip the band-aid off and get this over with. “it is better for you that one man should die for the people, than the whole nation should perish.” Caiaphas spoke in defense of his idol. If we are to keep our place, our power, our position, Jesus needs to die. That's what Ciaphas meant. Destroy Jesus to save our power - save our precious. But that's not what God meant. Ciaphas assumed that by destroying Jesus that would spell the end of the Jesus threat. FAR FROM IT! This is our second point. Let's see what God meant by the phrase, “it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish” Ciaphas inadvertently uttered truth quite different from the message he intended. Had Ciaphas known what he had uttered he would have involuntarily shuddered. Ciaphas, an unbeliever who hates Jesus, utters the first and most profound theological treatise concerning the atonement. It's staggering how God conscripts the mouth of an unbeliever for his purposes. Here everyone is working their hardest to carry out the high priest's plans against Messiah. The last verse of John 11 says they resolved to put Jesus on the cross. In other words the decision has now been made; it remains only to carry it out, as efficiently as is compatible with political expediency. So into the think tank they go. Let concoct a plan, think it through to make sure it is air tight. Jesus is threatening us. All we need to do is eliminate him and we have won. So they wring their hands in a dimly lit room writing out decrees and declarations beneath the flickering candlelight. The smell of wax is heavy in the room as they press their signets into edicts and send runners here and there. We need to arrange these spies. We need to start greasing the wheels of Rome. Let's get a gift up to Pilate to start bribing him and warming him up. All these plans. They review their work and smile. Airtight. Jesus will end up crucified. Every escape blocked. Every door is closed. Every door that is, except the door to heaven. Listen to Psalm 2 describe God's perspective when men try to conspire against him. Psalm 2 What is this saying? God will do what he wants. And if you are not on his side, you will lose. Everyone is working completely of their own volition to try to destroy Messiah and they are actually carrying out the plan of God! God is laughing. Oh do you see it church? God cannot be stopped. You submit to God or be run over by him. Ciaphas tries to abuse God and God just laughes and uses him. And in so doing Ciaphas enters the long list of people who are used by God despite their best efforts. Jonah from last week, Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, Balaam. Oh how foolish we are? To think that we can use our minds to outwit the maker of minds? To think we can use our legs to run from the maker of legs? To think we can use our lips and lungs to speak words that would threaten the maker of lips and lungs? I know of unbelivers who have led people to Christ. Corrupt pastors preach the Word of God. They are like Balaam's ass, unthinking creatures uttering mysteries they know nothing about. It's such a rebuke to a rebel but such an encouragement to saint. Because you want to what else is true if God is sovereign? If you are a parent and you are screwing things up like crazy, guess what. God overrides that screw-up. If you are leading a ministry and you are thinking, man I am so inadequate. True. You say one thing and God does another. What's the principle? God's message is not bound to the performance of his pathetic messengers. God's message transcends the messengers. The power is in the WORD. The power is in this book which contains power unto salvation. You cannot stop God's plan. Your rebellion will only be used to further it. Your obedience will only be used to further it. Three warnings about what happens if we guard our precious. It will destroy others. It will not destroy God's plan. Here's perhaps the most frightening of all, it will destroy you. Do you hear that? Their entire goal in life is to murder Messiah. Let that land and cause you to shudder. Think about it: they had personally witnessed a man born blind healed in chapter 9. Now they hear of the public raising of a man four days dead. What does all this point to? What does the most elementry logic in the world conclude based off this indisputable evidence? Here's their conclusion: he must be from the devil. Kill him. All to guard their precious. What I want you to notice here is how stupid since makes you. Do you see the blinders? Do you see the lenses that they are looking through that create utter distortion? Think about it. They wanted to destroy Jesus but what they didn't realize was that it would utterly destroy them. Ciaphas assumed that by destroying Jesus it would spell the end of the Jesus threat. But in point of fact, it would be that act ‘destroying' Jesus that would elevate Jesus to the right hand of the throne of God and would utterly destroy his soul. Here we have a little Gollum, a sick creatures possessed by his idol. These religious men are literally hell-bent on destroying Jesus. It's so scary. How did they get there? Think about it. These guys were kids who grew up in Sunday School classes. They went to the Cole Valley's and Ambroses of the 1st century. They never missed a Sunday service. They went to all the Thirst Winter Camps. They went to the best Biola's and Talbots and Master's Seminaries of the 1st Century. They got hired on as pastors in respecible churches. And they are trying to murder Jesus. How does this happen? We have totally wasted our time here today if you can't answer that question. How does this sort of thing happen where you can walk around and talk Christianeze and fit into Christian circles and even be leading Christian ministries and be a conspirator in the murder of Jesus? Here's the answer: unconfessed sin. Harboring and coddeling unconfessed sin will blind you to the point where you will destroy your family, destroy the church, destroy your community, your friends so that you can have your precious. Having idols in your life will absolutely destroy you. How does something become an idol? Let me say this. In a very subtle, very inconspicuous, very innocent sort of way. It creeps in slowly, concealed in the ordinary. It slips in clothed in camouflage. And then suddenly, surprisingly you are in tremendous danger. A few years ago, we were waterskiing on cascade lake and a storm rolled in and lighting was just pounding the mountains around us. And the lighting was getting closer and the thunder louder. And my arms started tingling a bit and I looked at my wife and the two other girls on the boat and all of their hair was standing straight up. The static in the air was literally just crackling all around us. And so what did we do? We started laughing. It was so funny looking. It felt funny. It was entertaining. I went home and googled the phenomena and saw multiple articles that were entitled "Selfies taken seconds before being struck by lighting." We had no business being there. That's the DANGER ZONE. We were in a spot where we were literally flirting with life and death. And I think it appropriate to allow this passage to scare us in an that sort of way. Caiaphas, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, none of them thought they were being rebellious. They had logical reasons for the steps they were taking. They religious reasons. They could back up their moves from Torah. They felt fortified in every way and somehow they crucified Messiah. How does that happen? Nobody thinks they have an idol. Oh sure, I'm not perfect, but who is. But when you can't admit it, your in the most dangerous place of all. The longer that sin goes unconfessed the greater the grip that sin has on your life. What are you hiding? Sin of jealousy? Sin of pornography? Substance abuse? Are you bitter and unable to forgive someone who has hurt you? Are you angry and refuse to soften? Are you too prideful to admit you are wrong? Are your finances a total disaster because of your mismangement and your too embarased to admit it? So often we feel we can harbor and hide our sin and play the Christian game too. And when we do that successfully for a while we feel like we are getting away with something. But we are not. When you read the OT you see God acting in what seems like such severe ways. God opens up the ground and swallows a bunch of people for complaining. You were to stone people for what seem to us like minor offenses. Why? And the accusation rises: God is a monster. No. God is merciful. Because that sin is serious. That sin unaddressed will turn into an idol and destroy your soul. And God wants us to be freaked out. Every one of us can look at the pastor who committed adultery, or the poster child that walked away from the faith or the elder that was caught up in a pornagraphic addiction and wonder how did they get there? I would never go down that path. But if there is sin in your life and you are not dealing with it, if there is an idol you are unwilling to abandon, the lesson to be learned from today's text is simply this: you are on your way there. The one who falls into sin doesn't fall very far. If you are coddling your precious (which means if you have unconfessed sin in your life), you are in that DANGER ZONE. You might be having a great time. You might be having the time of your life. But your flirting with Spiritual death. I've watched several people in this church torch themselves in this way. How can you tell if I am in the danger zone. How can I tell if I have an idol? Ask yourself two questions. Will I sin to get it? And will I sin if I don't get it? If the answer is yes to either of those questions, congratulations, you have yourself an idol. Nobody pictures themselves as a Caiphas. Caiphas didn't grow up in Sunday school vowing to one day kill Messiah. But sin makes you blind. Sin make you stupid. At some point, sin left unconfessed long enough turns you into a Ciaphas. Of course, everyone wants to ask the question: how long does it take for a normal sin to turn into a soul destroying idol? There's no answer to that question. Have you ever heard of the fallacy of the beard? The fallacy of the beard says if one hair doesn't make a beard and neither does 2,3,4,5 then there is no such thing as a beard. We all know at some point it becomes a beard. And there is some point at which sin will plunge people into a spiral from which they cannot recover but that point is unknowable. Sin will bring you to the place where you make decisions that look to everyone around you like bottomless foolishness. But you are blinded. Sin becomes more and more thoroughly enslaving until one day you find yourself throwing off all restraints and surrendering all that's important to you so you can have your precious. That's what has happened in this passage. So what do you do? Here's the admonition: there is no moral faculty that God has given more important that you than your conscience. The Bible teaches that it is the standard by which you will be judged. Your conscience is like a fire alarm. When you start sinning, that thing goes off. God gave every one of us the gift of a spiritual fire alarm. Paul describes false teachers in 1 Tim 4:2 as those who have consciences that are seered. The greek word is cauterizomi from which we get our word cauterized and the picture is of a man in battle who gets his wound cauterized. What happens when you touch a cauterized part of your body? You can no longer feel. So to cauterize your conscience is to render your conscience unable to feel. There is only one way to do that. Sin against it. We've got a little alarm panel in our building that notifies us of a malfunctioning sensor. And every since we bought this building, it's been throwing false alarms. Originally it was super, super loud and so we couldn't listen to that all day long so we put a layer of tape over it. That helped a ton. If one layer, helps why not two. And now there's this giant wad of tape and you can barely hear it. I'm half tempted to go in their and snip the speaker wire. Every time you sin against your conscience you are putting a piece of tape over that warning signal and it's getting quieter and quieter and at some point, a point you don't know, that speaker wire is going to get snipped. You won't even recognize it as sin any longer. You will have no moral faculties left to warn you that you have become a Caiaphas. But here's the good news. If you sense that his applies to you, there's still time left. At any time you can repent. Don't leave here today and put another piece of tape over the alarm. It may be the last one. Don't sear your conscience further. Nourish it back to help through confession. I hope the elders and life group leaders and trusted counselors and all the pastors here get flooded with emails this week that say, “I've been harboring this sin and it's time to do business with God. Would you help me.” Yes! Yes, we will. You will be in good company. Welcome to the community of sinners. The feast of grace is only available to those who confess. So confess and feast. How do I confess? Use Psalm 51 as a template. Why? Because Psalm 51 is David pulling out of a spiritual death spiral. 1000's before him never did. But in God's grace, David confesses and was restored. Psalm 51 Let's do business with God this week. For David, that confession was hell. But it resulted in the epitaph, a man after God's own heart. Don't you want that?

“And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.” 1 Kings 18:21We cannot be indecisive in these perilous times in which we are living. Either Jesus is Lord or Jesus is not Lord at all! It is very uncomfortable to be a fence-sitter, especially if it is a barbed-wire fence. In these perilous times, we cannot afford to be wishy-washy! People are running to and fro, not knowing which way to run or what to believe. Jesus says:“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” Matthew 12:30Once a person makes a decision, there is a tremendous peace that comes upon him. Jesus says:“My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”John 14:27That is why the prophet Elijah had such authority from God - He was a decisive man. The world stands aside for a man or woman who knows where they are going. Do not allow the devil to push you around with his lies. Stand up to him today - He is a liar and a coward. Draw a line in the sand and say: “This far devil and no further.”I want to read something that stirred me, it was written by President Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt... He said:“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”Today, you and I need to make a decision - Are we going to believe the promises of God or are we going to run to and fro after every kind of man's opinion. Once a person makes a decision there is tremendous peace that comes upon them. I would say to you, let's stand up and say: “We are with the Lord!”Have a wonderful day and God bless you!

Lazarus is sick and dying...and Jesus waits to bring healing? Either Jesus knows something we don't or He just doesn't care. Do you trust Him? cameron@jonesvillebaptist.com

Those who posted a guard around the dead guy were right about one thing:  Resurrection is a big deal.  Either it is true, or it is not.  They help us here by posting a guard.  They assure us that the disciples did NOT steal any dead body.  They actually give credence to the fact that Jesus really does rise. They were, as all Roman guards do, "guarding with their life."Not that the disciples were much to worry about.  100% of them fled from Jesus.  Peter came back only to deny him 3x because a young girl spoke to him.  John does come back within hearing distance of the cross.  Otherwise, they are scattered, betraying, denying, disorganized, and in hiding.  (The women are the heroes! Spoiler! Come back tomorrow!)So yes, resurrection is serious business.  Either Jesus is who He says He is or not.  He either rises or not.  Like He says to Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life.." or He is not.  This is the greatest thriller of all time.  Let's see what happens.  Stay tuned. Either He will rise, or you can cancel your subscription to this podcast that you got on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or at www.bewithme.us. I will meet you at the tomb (with the women) tomorrow.

The Resurrection is a line in the sand. Either Jesus was raised from the dead, or our faith is in vain. Readings/Lecturas Readings in English (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110820.cfm) Lecturas en Español (http://www.usccb.org/bible/lecturas/110820.cfm) Social Media/Redes Sociales Homily Prep on Twitter (https://mobile.twitter.com/HomilyPrep) David on Twitter (https://mobile.twitter.com/dlugo_sj) Jonathan on Twitter (https://mobile.twitter.com/jharmonsj) David's Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8jvpPGNv9O50QyRWV7ntIg)

Here's a true and sure statement that you can rest your future and your life on, Christ came into the world to save sinners. And among those, I am the worst.    Can you imagine Paul saying that? Would you say it? Does your life back it up. Do you spend your time trying to prove that you're the worst of sinners, or do you focus on the fact that Jesus came into this world to save us? Think for a moment about What Christ laid aside. In Philippians 2 we get some prompting. He laid aside his rights and his power as God and came to be a common human, even a baby to a poor family. Consider the sacrifice he made for a minute just to enter our world.    Then, he put up with us for over 30 years. He let his parents and the Jewish leaders teach him. He submitted to them even to the authorities, the very people who put him to death. His entire effort was either a terrible tragedy or an exquisite plan.   What does your life say about the life of Jesus? Does your life say that you believe it was a divine plan, brilliantly conceived and executed? Or does your life say you think it was a terrible tragedy? I can't have simply been an accident. Either Jesus is who he claimed to be, and this is all part of a magnificent plan, or his life and death was a tremendous failure, and the saddest story of all time.    If we believe in the divine plan, let's live accordingly. Check out the Marketplace Mission Trip. This is our 2-week boot-camp to practice living like we know Jesus' life and death was part of a divine plan. Let's remember we're just as bad a sinner as the worst of them, but then we can live in the freedom and responsibility purchased for us by the Son of God. Check out MarketplaceMissionTrip.com to learn more and sign up.  

Does the Bible assure us of the certainty our of salvation or can we lose it? Deductive reasoning should let us know that if we believe John 3:16, then we know we possess eternal life now! If salvation could be lost then it is not eternal. Either Jesus told us the truth or He lied. We know that Jesus cannot lie, so we can take comfort in the reality that our salvation rests in the Lord. Corresponding Blog Article: http://gospelofrepentance.blogspot.com/2013/09/can-man-become-god.html Original Recording June 14th, 2017 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thegospelofrepentance/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thegospelofrepentance/support

HIDDEN TREASURE This is the story about us being vessels that contain a treasure within. And no matter how fragile that vessel is, or how formidable are the pressures upon that vessel, the inner treasure is of greater power than the outward pressure. There is a Scripture that talks about that Treasure, which is the life of Jesus within us, being made evident in our lives, no matter what is going on in our circumstances. 2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard- pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. Many people are asking the question in this time of Covid-19 distress and affliction; How we are going to come out the other end? Well How are we? Our future material circumstances remain uncertain, and restrictions upon our freedom of movement and interaction are being gradually eased, our health and hygiene guidelines stay constant, but a massive question is how are we going to come out the other end emotionally, and that depends massively on how we are going to come out the other end spiritually. Paul speaks in that Scripture about having experiences of being hard pressed or under pressure, feeling perplexed or trapped, feeling threatened and being hard hit. Some or all of that is what many people can readily say they have experiencing now to some degree.The negative outcomes Paul could have ended up with after all this were his being crushed, being in despair, feeling forsaken, or even being destroyed. These are natural human responses to those kinds of pressures that have seemed to hit everybody on the planet all at once at the moment in one way or another. They are all a matter of degree, and people can get stuck in a cycle of negative emotional reaction, which is now happening. When Paul (Saul) was a zealous Jew persecuting Christians he used to let these negative reactions define him and make him angry and fire him up into aggressive or defensive action. The Bible tells us how he went into peoples’ houses and dragged them into prison and even had them killed… Those reactions would make him look for someone or something to blame so he could fight back at that and feel self-empowered in some way. That is because those emotional reactions have an energy – a negative energy, that comes from a negative spiritual energy. But the converted Paul found a distinctive inner spiritual energy in all of the pressure he describes and experienced the ‘excellence of the power of God ’within him. The word for ‘excellence’ in the Greek in this verse is ‘hyperbole’ which is the word we use colloquially to mean exaggerated or overstated. The Greek word means ‘to be thrown out beyond the normal range’. In other words Paul experienced a power that was out in another orbit. It operated above the normal energy of willpower or mere emotional determination. He found the power of the indwelling life of God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This spiritual energy that Paul found within became the treasure of Paul’s heart. In the bible this is called the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 13:44 … The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Paul knew the treasure was there – he learned how to access it. He had learned to sell off some things in order to acquire the better thing. God had changed him. He said he had suffered the loss of all things to gain Jesus, to be found in him, to be found in his field and to find his treasure in that field.How do we do this? It is the difference between living in the mindset of the Kingdom or living in the mindset of the world – living in the natural or living in the spiritual.I sell off all that extra emotional baggage and negative mindset, and buy the field where the treasure is. We don’t buy the treasure, we buy the field and the field yields the treasure. That field becomes our new heart, the new territory that we possess on the inside. It is the Kingdom of God within us. It contains within it all the goodness of God that we can receive through faith. Paul tells us that we can be filled with all the fullness of God – that is extraordinary but true. That is firstly all spiritual blessings that we have through Jesus, the love and the peace and the joy and it is also the beautiful promise of Jesus to us about not being anxious about material needs like the world is, but rather seeking first the kingdom of God within us and all those things will be added to us because our Father knows we have need of these things. All of that is that is the treasure. The economic forecasters are telling us how doubtful they are about economic recovery – and that is quite a rational statement – but God provides for those who truly trust him, who buy the right field, and sell off the anxiety and stress and possess their souls through faith and patience God gives us a new heart and new desires and we trade off the old heart and sell off the old territory and its negative emotional baggage that seeks to attach itself to us.Our spiritual journey is one of being aware of having a new heart. Every decision of faith in that new territory of the new heart grows the area of this new territory. The old territory or old heart gives way to the expanding territory of the new heart. Throughout the Old Testament God had been promising that he would give us a new heart that responds to his love and take away the old hard heart that goes its own way and continually misses the mark (Sin). That is the new Covenant since Jesus.But until we actually start trading this baggage off we can’t afford to buy the field as our old inner field still takes up all the space. Either Jesus is evident in us or the baggage of anxiety is. If we know the difference we can choose.The new territory contains the treasure of Faith and Hope and Love.The old territory we sell of contains anxiety and despair and resentment. I have heard many TV interviews with excellent commentary from many experts on the different aspects of the Covid-19 crisis. Some were walking encyclopedias of the economic options and others were talking medical dictionaries of the health crisis. When any of them were asked about how we were going to come out of this in their particular category; they would say ‘We dont know how this will work out – it’s unknown.There is another group of experts whose specialty is understanding and comparing the merits and deficiencies of the different models of the countries and states and regions with different combinations of greater restrictions on either the economic or the health factors. When asked which model is the best combination, the answer is ‘We cannot say as yet – it’s unknown’. But each one of us can know how we are going to come out of this spiritually and emotionally.I personally think that this awareness is part of the Holy Spirit awakening in the earth in our day.Can you imagine the futility of us trying to make things change in our world and not first letting things change in ourselves first? That has never worked. In the final verse of that Scripture about all the pressures and the treasure in earthen vessels Paul was able to say; ‘so death works in us but life in you’He meant that ‘death working in him’ was the letting go of the emotional baggage and negative mindset. And he meant that for him, ‘life working in you’ was the faith and hope and love within him that also imparted that spiritual energy into the hearts and minds of those around him. That is what Paul called true spiritual ministry. God is there FOR YOU in the midst of the current crisis to give you faith and hope and love.God is there WITH YOU in this crisis to impart faith and hope and love. If all that we have as a mindset is the pain of the adversity of today, that starts to define us according to what we don’t have and what we are not, instead of the inner treasure that defines us by what we do have and the new person that we truly are in God. Whatever that mindset is becomes the spiritual energy that radiates out from us as who we are. We have to sell off that ‘don’t have and are not’ for what we actually ‘do have’ NOW – who we really are, now, and allow the ‘excellence of the power of God’, that real inner state of who we are be found in us, in that field, that new spiritual territory of our heart. It is a spiritual energy exchange. We can experience the peace and rest of that beautiful field ‘He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. The treasure within is our spirit joined to the Lord’s Spirit. It is realized as a conscious presence with Jesus, so that his life can be expressed through our life. It does not have to be a feeling - it is accepted as a fact, a spiritual reality of faith. The feelings follow faith, the witness of the Spirit of joy, a buoyancy that lifts us into another orbit around our centre, who is God. We now become God centred and not self centred. David was able to testify of this ever present presence in the Psalms. Psalm 139 - God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderfulI can't take it all in! Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there! If I flew on morning's wingsto the far western horizon, You'd find me in a minute— you're already there waiting!Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!"It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, they're all the same to you. What gets in the way of this treasure being taken hold of and realized in our lives is all the reactions going on in our minds and emotions, and their relentless and demanding claim on the inner territory of our heart, of our concept of who we are. Again I say - making us feel self-conscious instead of God conscious. Matthew 13:44 … The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Thank you Lord for helping us to acquire that field, thank you for drawing us into your orbit of the excellence of the power that lifts us up and overcomes the heavy weights of the negative emotions that would seek to oppress us. We come to you as your vessels today, and you fill us with your treasure.                          

When it comes to being a Christian there are some things that either you believe or you don't. Either God created the world or he didn't. Either Jesus is the son of God, who was born and lived in this world, crucified and resurrected...or he isn't and didn't. Either God is in charge and desires good things for his children...or he doesn't. During this time, we who claim belief should live lives that look like it. People should be able to see in us that we are different because of our faith.

1 Corinthians 15:1-20The Christian faith is not based primarily on the teachings of Jesus. It is not based on the miracles of Jesus. It is not based upon the compassion of Jesus. It is not even based on the death of Jesus. The Christian faith IS based on all of those things culminating in His resurrection. The theological issue of the resurrection of Christ is no minor issue! Either JESUS is alive or Christianity is a lie! WHICH ONE IS IT?

Proverbs in 365 Devotions For more go to braggingonjesus.com Proverbs 19:5 A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape. Yarn Spinner R Aylor Of course this text points us to the 9th commandment in Exodus 20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." One might think this is referring to our life on earth and that a liar will be punished in being brought before the magistrate and sentenced… Or maybe someone who lies on the witness stand? Is the verse referring to either of these situations? Maybe Solomon, when he heard of it… punished those who breathed out lies in his kingdom. But, I suppose in every society there are liars who never stand before a court for all their false witnesses. Even in a general sense every person I suppose breathes out deception to others. We lie with our body language and the inflections of our voice every day. We deceive at work and home and to our spouse. When we allow false impressions to continue… We become experts at leading people on without actually saying lying words… that is in addition to the lying words we actually do say. Still, in all this we are usually not thrown in jail or punished by those in authority. And yet there is a way we suffer because of all our lying. Like the boy who cried wolf wolf… liars, even those who lie in the way they carry themselves…. liars loose trust with others. Some liars lie about things in hopes to help others. We may at times when giving advice try to relate to someone we are counseling and say “I went through the same thing you went through”. We may tell another person we never experienced the same thing or else give a deviation of our story so we can build trust with that person. In the long run, lying breaks trust and relationships. You know… For someone who defends themselves with lies… I think it is easier to trust them in everyday things that are not related to their guarded sins than to trust someone who makes up stories to gain trust. Look, lying damages relationships of all involved… So I suppose in that sense, liars are punished here on earth. Lying is like drugs… it is hard to quit and it will lead you to being found out and will bring ruin to your life. Finally, it is no secret that God will judge liars along with all sin. I think this is the foundational truth of the text. Even if a liar escapes punishment on earth in this short life which is like a vapor compared to eternity… after they stand before God their Judge, with their sin they will reap a just payment. And the thing is… this is true for all of us… There are wages to be paid out to liars… all us sinners. And this will go one of two ways. Either we will trust God and accept that Jesus took the sentence for our sin and died on the Cross… And not only did he die physically but God turned his face away from his only Son in Spirit and fellowship as he bore our sin… From the Cross, Jesus, crying out in a loud voice quoted from Psalm 22 saying: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46 So Jesus took the payment for our sin… 2nd Corinthians 5:21 is another great verse that shows this truth: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Again, either we delight in Jesus who died and rose again… or we will be paid the wages of our own sin by separation from God and all things good forever. Either Jesus is judged for our sin or we will be. Romans 6:23 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Pray ​

IS JESUS THE MESSIAH?In our NINETEENTH EPISODE tensions rise over this question as we continue with “Life’s Meaning and Purpose: an in-depth study of the Gospel of John”Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel that He did not come to bring peace but a sword (Matt. 10:34), and that this sword would spur conflict amongst individuals, even members of the same household. So the tension that fills chapter 7 of John’s Gospel should not surprise us, for at the center of this tension is the unavoidable Messiah question, “Who do we say Jesus is?” It’s a question that is unavoidable because Jesus is the one who confronts us with it. Once confronted, a decision then has to be made, there is no middle ground. Either Jesus is the Messiah, or He is not. This is the dilemma we find in our lesson this week as people wrestle with the Messiah question, inciting greater hostility from the religious leaders toward Jesus.

Faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the hinge upon which everything turns. Faith in the resurrection is an all or nothing proposition… Either Jesus has risen from the dead and we are saved or he has not and we remain in our sins. Orthodox Christianity teaches that Christ is risen From the dead end by his death has trampled down death and to those in the tombs He is bestowing life!

We have 2 options. Either Jesus didn’t rise from the dead and the Christian faith is a sham, or he did rise from the dead and it changes everything. Where do you stand on the resurrection? Can we genuinely believe that someone rose from the dead? This talk is the last part of our series 'Mark Pt2' from Sunday 21st April 2019.

We have 2 options. Either Jesus didn’t rise from the dead and the Christian faith is a sham, or he did rise from the dead and it changes everything. Where do you stand on the resurrection? Can we genuinely believe that someone rose from the dead? This talk is the last part of our series 'Mark Pt2' from Sunday 21st April 2019.

We have 2 options. Either Jesus didn’t rise from the dead and the Christian faith is a sham, or he did rise from the dead and it changes everything. Where do you stand on the resurrection? Can we genuinely believe that someone rose from the dead? This talk is the last part of our series 'Mark Pt2' from Sunday 21st April 2019.

Easter and Christmas are the two largest Christian holidays. Everyone can get behind Christmas, because it is just a birthday. Easter forces the Christian issue a lot more. Either Jesus didn’t rise from the dead and all our faith is in vain, and Jesus is evil, or Jesus did rise from the dead and it changes EVERYTHING! 4/21/19

Pastor Joseph Wamack of the Savannah First Seventh-day Adventist Church presents The Past. The Pretend. The Profound. The Empty Tomb is the most audacious, outrageous, unbelievable aspect of the Christ story. How could a man-crucified and buried, rise from the dead? Either Jesus was a lunatic, liar, or the Lord. The Resurrection settles that question. This is an encore program from the Savannah First Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more sermons and radio programs, visit our podcast which can be found on our webpage at www.wyawradio.org. Sermons are broadcast live every Saturday starting at about 11:15 AM on 93.5 FM in Pooler, Savannah, Georgia. For more information on the church or to join us for service every Saturday, please visit the church website at www.savannahfirstsda.org. For more information on our radio programs, visit WYAW’s website at www.wyawradio.org. WYAW is a listener supported radio station serving the Pooler, Savannah communities. We are WYAW, Where You Are Welcome, 93.5 FM. Thank you for listening and God bless!

"Where are the facts?", demand skeptics and Bible antagonists as we stake our claims that Adam and Noah were real men. Either Jesus, the prophets, Peter, and Paul are serious liars OR ... Bible references: Matthew 19: 4-5, 24: 37-39; Luke 3: 23-38; Romans 5: 12-12; 1 Peter 3: 20, 2 Peter 2: 5 (there are many more) www.desperatemen.org

Either Jesus is a liar or we've complicated things. In this message, Billy discusses letting go of the illusion of control and trusting in Jesus.

All it takes is a little education and research to know that Jesus really did exist in history and that he was killed by means of crucifixion. But the more important question is….why does this matter to me? How does the death and supposed resurrection of a man over 2,000 years ago impact my life right here and right now?This Easter, Pastor Sean shows how the resurrection of Jesus isn’t a matter of religion or philosophy, it’s a matter of history. Either Jesus really did come back from the dead or He did not. And if He did come back from the dead, how do we choose to respond and how does this impact our lives today.

When we discuss the relationship of our faith to the real world, how often do we still refer to our “secular” jobs or our “secular” activities? We say that Jesus is Lord of all, but we continue to talk (and think) in ways which demonstrate a lingering suspicion that there are certain areas of life in which God is really not that interested or involved. Whether because of our own perspective or because of growing public pressure on believers to keep their faith “in its place”, we persist in living as though some parts of life are sacred and some are not. And to an ever increasing degree, our public life is seen to be some sort of spiritually neutral territory and the sacred is relegated to private spaces and specifically “religious” gatherings. In our conversation with returning guest Dan Clites, we explore a different perspective. One in which the redeeming power and lordship of Jesus Christ really does lay claim to all of life, abolishing the sacred/secular divide. The Kingdom of God doesn’t allow for multiple citizenships and competing allegiances. Either Jesus is Lord…or he’s not. In everything. The God of the bible simply refuses to politely stay in some religiously assigned socially or politically appropriate box. Everything everywhere belongs to Him. “It’s all sacred.”

Luke 19:1-10 Either Jesus is the worst financial advisor that every walked passed a sycamore tree, or when corrupt capitalists come into proximity with the love and mercy of Christ, your economics kind of go up a tree, or down it, however you like. We live in a corrupted society and we all have learned habits of survival that do not run consistent with the kingdom of God. Join us as we look the story of Zacchaeus and move closer to the generosity of God.

Luke 19:1-10 Either Jesus is the worst financial advisor that every walked passed a sycamore tree, or when corrupt capitalists come into proximity with the love and mercy of Christ, your economics kind of go up a tree, or down it, however you like. We live in a corrupted society and we all have learned habits of survival that do not run consistent with the kingdom of God. Join us as we look the story of Zacchaeus and move closer to the generosity of God.

The Resurrection of Christ is central to the Christian message, yet it can be hard for some people to believe. Usually when people die, they stay dead! If Christ rose from the dead, it confirms his claims. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or the disciples were lying (Hoax theory) or the story is legendary (Legend theory). In this message Greg looks at the reasons to believe in the resurrection of Christ from historical evidence, and he examines problems with Hoax and Legend theories.

The Resurrection of Christ is central to the Christian message, yet it can be hard for some people to believe. Usually when people die, they stay dead! If Christ rose from the dead, it confirms his claims. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or the disciples were lying (Hoax theory) or the story is legendary (Legend theory). In this message Greg looks at the reasons to believe in the resurrection of Christ from historical evidence, and he examines problems with Hoax and Legend theories. 

The Resurrection of Christ is central to the Christian message, yet it can be hard for some people to believe. Usually when people die, they stay dead! If Christ rose from the dead, it confirms his claims. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or the disciples were lying (Hoax theory) or the story is legendary (Legend theory). In this message Greg looks at the reasons to believe in the resurrection of Christ from historical evidence, and he examines problems with Hoax and Legend theories.

The Resurrection of Christ is central to the Christian message, yet it can be hard for some people to believe. Usually when people die, they stay dead! If Christ rose from the dead, it confirms his claims. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or the disciples were lying (Hoax theory) or the story is legendary (Legend theory). In this message Greg looks at the reasons to believe in the resurrection of Christ from historical evidence, and he examines problems with Hoax and Legend theories.

The Resurrection of Christ is central to the Christian message, yet it can be hard for some people to believe. Usually when people die, they stay dead! If Christ rose from the dead, it confirms his claims. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or the disciples were lying (Hoax theory) or the story is legendary (Legend theory). In this message Greg looks at the reasons to believe in the resurrection of Christ from historical evidence, and he examines problems with Hoax and Legend theories.

I want to start today by admitting to you that I really struggled with this passage of scripture this week. I read it over and over from different perspectives. I read a dozen commentaries and searched for sermons written by others. It is possible to pull some select verses from this passage and create many sermons – the unpardonable sin, out of the abundance of the heart, seeking for signs – but all of those seemed to me to take the passage out of its context. As we have studied the book of Matthew I have tried to be true to what I believe Matthew (and God) intended when it was originally written. I am going to do the same today. Up to this point Matthew has presented to his primarily Jewish audience the evidence for Jesus as King of Israel. We now come to the conflict. His audience is having to deal with what we looked at last week; a confrontation between the Pharisees view of the Torah and Jesus view. They can’t both be right. Either Jesus broke the law and was not of God or He kept the law and is showing them God’s truth. You can’t have it both ways. I believe what comes next is Matthews way of saying to a first century audience what Elijah said to his audience some 800 years earlier:

Either Jesus is on the throne of your life or He isn't. Don't straddle the issue any longer.

Dr. Fred Farouk, a former muslim from Iranian background, shares his testimony and answers the question; Do Muslim and Christians worship the same God?" He discusses how to present the gospel message without compromise. The Muslim has to make a decision. Either Jesus is God incarnate or only a prophet, and no in-between.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Summary of today's show: In his new book “Jacob's Ladder: Ten Steps to Truth,” Dr. Peter Kreeft sets forth a narrative with which most Americans can relate, talking to a young skeptic about truth, absolute truth, the meaning of life and where that ultimately leads: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Scot Landry talks with Dr. Kreeft, walking quickly through many steps on the ladder from the need for a passion for the truth to why love is the meaning of life and how that truth leads to acknowledging the existence of God and to acknowledging that we accept that either Jesus is God or he is a madman, with no alternative possibility. Listen to the show: Watch the show via live video streaming or a recording later: Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Dr. Peter Kreeft Links from today's show: Today's topics: Dr. Peter Kreeft's new book “Jacob's Ladder: Ten Steps to Truth” 1st segment: Scot Landry welcomed everyone to the show and introduced today's guest, Dr. Peter Kreeft, and his new book “Jacob's Ladder: Ten Steps to the Truth.” He's written more than 70 books. Dr. Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and continues to teach there. Scot noted that Dr. Kreeft has written a wide variety of books, including books on surfing, theology, philosophy. Scot said Jacob's Ladder is a book of philosophy written around a fictional narrative of two people from Nahant discussing the important questions of life. These questions are the ladder and going up the ladder gets more and more specific to higher and higher truths. Dr. Kreeft said the two characters are taken from his novel “An Ocean Full of Angels” which is situated in Nahant, one of his favorite places in the world. He said these characters have occurred in some of this other books as well. One of them is Mother Kirk, a large, benevolent, multi-racial women who is clever and has all the answers and represents Mother Church and the other is called Seeker. He said dialogue is the best way to learn philosophy as Plato discovered. Each of us talks to ourselves in our minds in dialogue. We can all identify in ourselves the believer and non-believer, optimist and pessimist and so on. Scot said the character of Libby is in her mid-20s, a college graduate who worked in social work, but recently left her job because she was disillusioned. He asked f Libby represents the kind of students he's met a Boston College. Dr. Kreeft said Libby is a sympathetic character. She's skeptical, but has reason to be skeptical. You need a skeptical character to keep things moving. The idea of ten logical steps isn't original. One question comes before another logically. Scot said he never thought another entry point for the pursuit of the truth was to ask whether someone has a passion in pursuit of truth. He said plenty of guys he knows can have instant recall of the minute stats of their favorite athletes and can spend hours on fantasy sports leagues. Yet it's rare to know someone who has a passion to know the most important things in life. Dr. Kreeft said he uses a long quote from Paschal who says if you don't have a passion in knowing what happens after death, then you aren't living, you're a wet noodle. You need passion to understand anything. Passion comes from the heart and that drives the head. The main reason people don't find the truth is because they don't have much passion for it. He said he finds that less brilliant students to find the truth because they care more than the brilliant ones. Scot said you don't have to be Christian to care about what happens after death. Dr. Kreeft said you have to overcome relativism to come to the understanding that there is an absolute truth. Dr. Kreeft said everyone wants to know life's ultimate meaning. Science and the scientific method gives you provable answers and we want to do that with the big questions, but you can't; not because the answers aren't there, but because the method doesn't work. Science starts with skepticism, but that doesn't work with everything. On the perception of the heart, it can know things that can't be proven, like the fact that love is better than hate. He said the meaning of life is an easy question to answer: It's love. But when asked to prove it, you can't do it very easily or well. So skeptics have to suppress that perception. Scot said the next part of the book shows that when you think deeply about, people can agree that love is the meaning of life, but not everyone would define love as willing the good of another person. Dr. Kreeft said that too we intuitively know. We know you can't run your life on feelings. Love has to be a work, it has to do something. It has to change people. If you know that, does it follow that God exists? Most people argue from the other direction. arguing for the existence of God and then saying God is love. Dr. Kreeft argues that love is the ultimate meaning and if that is so, how far up the ladder does it go? Does it go all the way up to God? Scot noted that the book shows that philosophy as a science, just different from other sciences. Dr. Kreeft said art and science are different in that art is something we create. We create our own truth in art. In science, we discover the truth. The ancient meaning of science isn't what moderns call it. Science is an ordered body of knowledge that seeks the truth by reason. He said it's a natural result of the success of the hard sciences in understanding and conquering nature and controlling time and space. Compared to the soft sciences, we say the latter must be weaker. But just because you don't come to agreement doesn't mean there isn't truth. Philosophy is the science of life. You don't want to get A's in all your subjects and flunk life. The final exam of life is how did we love and we don't want to flunk the exam. Dr. Kreeft said when we understand the true nature of love, we are much less comfortable with our lives because we realize that it's work, not just a feeling. Your fundamental attitude toward another human being if based on feelings is going to be unreliable and based on the whims of our feelings. It has to be based on something fundamental like a choice to value a person because they are fundamentally valuable. You use objects and you don't worship objects. You have to adore God and nothing else. You use objects and nothing else. You love and don't use people because they aren't God and aren't objects. Love says to another I love that you exist. The world is a beautiful place because you are in it. The world is a wonderful place because you are in it, which is a quote from an Elton John song. He asked how we come to the understanding that love is the purpose and meaning of our life. Dr. Kreeft said most things we know not from proof or philosophical experiment, but from experience. If we live a day without love, then everything falls apart. If you live a life of love for a day, you say you didn't know how happy you could be before. Prove that love is the meaning of life by living it. He said you'd rather be poor and in love in Detroit, rather than wealthy and alone in Hawaii. Scot said the book also looks into how we know good laws from bad laws. We need good laws that allow love to flourish. Some of the reasons for conflict because there are bad laws that hurt the exchange of love. Dr. Kreeft said laws and love go together. People usually think love and laws are opposites. Without principles, then love can't flourish. Laws are the skeleton of the body. Laws of human nature are always in favor of love, while manmade laws sometimes aren't. Natural laws aren't arbitrary. They're based on human nature. Scot said many people think of the Church as a system of rules and they think of rules as cold and inhuman. Dr. Kreeft said rules don't have to be cold. A skeleton is cold because it has no flesh around it. Scot said the Ten Commandments were written for love. You could read it by putting love in each one. “Love doesn't bear false witness. Love doesn't kill.” Dr. Kreeft said it's impressive that the religions of the world pretty much agree on morality. They differ on theology, but not on morality. 2nd segment: Scot said the second half of the book begins by asking the question How can we know how God exists. Dr. Kreeft said we can ask from the outside: “How did the universe begin? Is there a mind behind the intelligence of the universe?” Or from the inside, our own experience: “How can I love? Why am I bind to my conscience?” If you're open-minded, you can find the answers from the clues. But it's not guaranteed that you can find them. You have to seek them. Once you understand how authoritative love is, you want it to go up to the ultimate reality. you don't want love to die when the human race is dead and gone. God is a real presence in our lives. Not just like the moon, cold in the sky, but like the sun, which touches the earth and warms it. Libby says in the book that if I invite God in, I lose control and thus being scared of the unknown creeps in. How much does being scared of that prevent people from asking the key question because we're not able to take the leap. Dr. Kreeft said the ultimate sin is pride, which means playing God, always wanting to be in control. That's deadly. Handing over the reins to God takes trust and love. If you know God as true love, you want to trust him. Jesus is the definitive revelation of God. The Father isn't different from Jesus. There is no more to reveal. If you know Jesus you know the Father. Before that point in the book, Mother Kirk leads Libby through the ladder of religions and talks to her about Judaism. Scot noted that he never knew that religion means relationship. He said Judaism is a different relationship with God than any religion that came before. Dr. Kreeft said Judaism is different because it's historical. There is a universal search for God in the human heart, but in Judaism, God comes down in search of us. Most religion searches for God, like those airport paperbacks. Judaism on the other claims to be the one road down the mountain, unlike all the others that go up. You can learn good stuff on the roads up, but if God says this one road is the best way, you can't ignore that. And Jesus was a Jew. That's a historical fact. The character of Mother Kirk explains how Jesus came from that faith and how we can't get to Christ without understanding God's revelation. Dr. Kreeft said we can understand a lot why people resist converting to Christianity by looking at why people are anti-Semitic. The attitude toward the concrete, historical claim of the Jews is similar to the attitude toward the concrete, historical claim of Jesus. You can't relativize him. You can't just say Jesus is a good man. Either he is who he says he is or he's one of the biggest liars of all time. Either Jesus is who he says he is or he is not. Christians believe Jesus is God. If Jesus isn't God, he's a blaspheming insane liar who wants you to trust him and put your life in his hands.

Either Jesus really rose from the dead or the growth of the early church is the strangest event in human history | 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

The greatest thing you will ever wrestle with in your life is self. The “easiest” way to overcome it is to die to self and live to Christ. John 12:24-26 In order to live fully, we must die to self. If we die to self fully, God will honor us Either Jesus must be King of your life or self must be King. There is no between. When you sit down to pray, you need to shove all your concerns aside. Revelation 1:10 When you are fully and totally committed on God, you will hear him speak to you in a loud voice, like a trumpet blast We need to always be desperate for God in our live. Ecclesiastes 8:8 When you die, your body release the spirit. God sends no on away empty, except those who are filled with self. We hear from God when we have given up everything else.

Jesus is the most controversial human being that ever walked the planet. As a matter of fact, in many people's eyes He is outright offensive. So much so, that it was His claims and His teachings which inevitably led to His murder upon a Roman cross. Is He offensive to you? Peter tells us that we will land in one of two camps. Either Jesus will be a "rock of offense" for us that we will stumble over all the days of our life, or He will be our Cornerstone. For the Christian, Jesus is Cornerstone. He is what we build our life upon. Our family, friendships, jobs, leisure, money, schooling, goals, legacy and ultimately our eternity is to be built on the only One that can withstand the weight of it all. His name is Jesus.

Introduction Isn't it a marvelous, marvelous thing how it says in the scripture: Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. That's a beautiful thing, isn't it? All my life, I have wanted to fly. That's true. I have wanted to just be able to jump off the surface of the earth and go up to the clouds. It's a desire that I have, and I don't think I'm the only one that has this desire. It says in the book of Ecclesiastes - I bet you're wondering what's coming next - It says in the book of Ecclesiastes that God has put eternity in the hearts of men. But I think just from a common experience, I think he's also put flight in the hearts of men, too. We would love to be able to fly like the birds. I remember when I was in Acadia National Park looking at birds of prey just soaring on thermals and just riding higher and higher, and I thought, I would love to be one of them. Sitting on a cliff overlooking Echo Lake there in Maine, at that beautiful park. And I saw the same thing in the Grand Canyon. When I was a teenager, I had a dream, the most vivid dream of my life, literal dream, middle of the night. And I dreamt that I was standing on the parapet of an ancient castle, Bavarian kind of castle in the Alps. I just was standing on the wall, and then moved by some impulse, I just threw myself from the wall. And instead of falling, one of those falling dreams, I started to soar out over this beautiful Alpine lake. It was an unbelievable thrill. And I thought, “Wow, this is incredible.” I saw these sailboats sailing below me. I saw birds next to me and I was doing better than they were. I was having the time of my life. Until, suddenly, I woke up. And with bitter disappointment, I realized that had just been a dream, but I still remember the details of the dream. It was in the Alps somewhere, I was on a castle and I was flying over a lake. I remember it distinctly. Thinking, “Oh God, I would love to be able to do that. I would love to be able to just soar through the air.” Now, people, I think from ancient times past have had this desire. Ancient Greek mythology have Daedalus and Icarus who make wings out of wax and feathers, they didn't choose good engineering materials, dear friends. And they went up too high and they got too close to the sun god, and his heat melted the wax and they fell to their death. But, I didn't realize this, in around the year 1,000 AD or 1,010, somewhere in there, a Benedictine monk in England named Eilmer of Malmesbury made a glider and flew 250 feet in it, till he crashed. He didn't die. But that meant this has been a desire that human beings have had for a long time. Leonardo da Vinci invented all kinds of stuff, on paper only, never built it, flying machines, including one he called an aerial screw. It looked like a kind of propeller that would just kind of screw you up into the air. I don't think that was gonna work, but he had some helicopters and some other things that actually look pretty much like what we have today. Now, we all live in North Carolina, which has seized from the state of Ohio the claim “First in Flight.” I'm not a native of North Carolina. If any of you who are, wanna come and quibble with me, you do what you want. I see the license plates. I know what it says. Orville and Wilbur, two Ohio boys, brought their research from Dayton, Ohio, here to some sandy place where the winds were right, and they flew here. And the 20th century has seen a, has seen a tremendous development of flight, but you know something? That's not what I'm talking about. I have taken 11 different flights in the last three weeks, up and down, take-off and landing 11 times. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of taking my shoes off in public places, having people rummage through my private things. I'm grateful for the TSA agents that keep us all safe. I would like them to know I am not a terrorist, and I'm not going to hijack any airplane, but they don't know me, so I don't mind taking off my stuff and surrendering my beverages and my shaving cream that's a little bit too big and didn't fit in the bag. But the fact of the matter is, that's not the kind of flying I'm talking about. I would just like to just slip from the earth and fly through the clouds. That's what I would like. And you know, the amazing thing is, the Lord has in some mysterious way, promised that all of us in Christ are gonna get at least one such flight. Now, the closest thing I've seen recently, to any of this, is a crazy YouTube video of some base jumpers in a fjord in Norway. I don't know if you've seen these guys. They stand on a cliff and then they just jump, and they've got these tiny little parachutes behind them. They've got these web suits that look like flying squirrels. And they fly down, 120 miles an hour, near the cliffs, and they land safely, so beautifully. Isn't that wonderful? On their feet. Closest thing to flying you'll ever see. That's not flying, that's falling, dear friends. And they don't tell you that many of these base jumpers die for their sport. Now, I don't wanna die. I just wanna fly. When the space shuttle Challenger blew up, Ronald Reagan, president at the time, quoted this poem, “How they slipped the surly bonds of earth and touched the face of God.” Yes, but they died. I wanna slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of Christ and not die. I wanna meet the Lord in the air. And so do you, don't you? And that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about the doctrine of the rapture. The doctrine of the rapture is that Jesus Christ will return and he will dispatch angels and he will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. And we will meet the Lord in the air. And so we're looking at Matthew 24:31. I also want you to take time, while I'm speaking now, to put your finger or some bookmark in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, which teaches the same thing. And by looking at these two passages of scripture, I think we're going to get a good grounding in this doctrine of the rapture of the church. And as I do, I'm going to present a positive doctrinal assertion of what the Bible does, in fact, teach about the rapture, what it is, what it means, what's happening with it. But I also have to do some negative work too, and I have to do my best to defend you, I think, from doctrinal error. And I consider the so-called secret rapture, which is very popular in most evangelical circles to be an error. It's not a major error. It's not a killing, a soul-killing error, but it's an error nonetheless. I was speaking to Tom Geers before worship today, and I likened it to, remember those cartoons when you were growing up, and some character in the cartoon in the midst of some kind of frenzy, runs off a cliff. And he's doing just fine, he's floating in mid-air until suddenly, he stops and looks around. And he looks down in particular and realizes that there's nothing under his feet, and then he looks at us, and then he drops. Right. Well, I want you to have solid doctrine under your feet at all times. I want you to be able to trace everything you believe about the Christian faith to some passage of scripture rightly exegeted. I want us to rightly divide the word of truth. And so, I think it's important for us to have a right understanding of the rapture, and so I have to preach against a very popular view, and that is the so-called secret rapture. Popular Views of the “Secret Rapture” What do we mean by the secret rapture? First of all, in one sense, the Rapture isn't secret at all. Some of those that defend it hate the term “secret rapture” and say, “We're doing everything we can to make the rapture very public and open and honest,” but that's not what I'm talking about. It's secret to those that are left behind. That's the point. And they don't know what happened after it's over. And so, to some degree, the second coming of Christ, the first version of the second coming of Christ in that doctrinal scheme is a secret to those that are left behind. They don't know what happened, and they kinda have to figure out what happened. To them, it's a secret. Jesus not only comes as a thief in the night, but he leaves as a thief in the night with the church, steals her away, saves all of the redeemed, brings them out just before the seven-year tribulation. It's called the pre-trib rapture, and what I call the secret rapture, because it's a secret to those that are left behind. They don't understand it. They don't know what's happened, and I find this un-Biblical. I think that when Jesus returns and catches the church up in the clouds, everybody's gonna know it's the second coming of Christ. That's what I believe. Now, I think it's possible to disagree. I just wanna be sure that your methodology is right. I wanna be sure that you have, in fact, certain passages of scripture under your feet, and that you've understood them the best way possible. Left Behind: A Worldwide Phenomenon Now, the secret rapture scheme has been presented and popularized in a lot of different ways, most recently, of course, the Left Behind series. Without the secret rapture, you don't have the Left Behind, because it's a real short time. Those that are left behind go to judgment by Jesus as he returns, so there's not enough time for... What is it? 15 books that are written after they're all left behind. I do believe there are gonna be many people left behind, but they're gonna be left behind not for long, because Jesus is coming back in judgment, and destruction is gonna come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman. That's what it says. Judgment is coming. I do believe that there will be many left behind. Matthew 24 teaches that. We'll get to that later, but the fact of the matter is, in this scheme, there's a long delay in time for a whole development, a whole history, the seven-year tribulation. The book begins with a pilot, Rayford Steele, who's a 747 pilot, flying out, I guess, over the Atlantic, the middle of the night. Suddenly, he sees a woman in the story, Hattie Durham, and she's just shaking inconsolable, doesn't know what to do. People are missing from the plane, hard to do on a plane over the Atlantic, but there's lots of people missing, dozens of them, and their piles of clothing kind of fully arranged in the original position, and they're just there, and people have gone. And it turns out to be not just on that plane, but all over the world. This is the rapture. Christ has come back in that story and taken the church, and off they go. By the way, I want you to notice that in Matthew 24:31, it says he comes and gets the elect. It doesn't say he comes and gets all the believers. I believe elect equals believers at that point. All of the elect have come to faith by then. I believe that, okay. But at this point, it's all that all of those that are ready, those that have come to faith, and he comes and the Lord comes and gets them. And so, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, they claim that while their series is fiction, they say it's based on absolute biblical facts, all of theology and good exegesis. That's the thing I'm questioning today. I don't think so. They have added some vivid details, which, I would like to know where the solid theology is for like the necklace around the lady's neck that's left, that the indentation in the pillow, that kind of thing. There are all kinds of vivid details that really capture the imagination, but where are the verses? How do we know the necklaces are gonna be left behind? And the clothing, too. These are just surmisings. For me, I just want eschatology to be based on scripture, and to not speculate, but instead just see what the scripture says. And so, we're gonna look at Matthew 24:31, and 40 and 41. We're gonna look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. Secret rapture is the definition that Christ returns not once, but twice. First time as a thief in the night to catch as many true believers that are ready at that point in the middle of life, leaving unbelievers to wonder where they went. And I'm gonna say in this message that, that was the doctrinal innovation that came in in the 19th century. It was unheard of before then, for the most part, and instead, the doctrine of the Rapture is taught and we're gonna see that today. The Rapture Described Let's look at what it says. Look at verses 29-31 in Matthew 24. “Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the Earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Well, first, let's deal with this word “rapture.” It's in the sermon title. I tell you, it's not found anywhere in the English Bible. It doesn't mean that it's not a biblical truth, that, that word isn't found in the Bible. We know that the word “trinity” is not found in the Bible, but we think it's a helpful term to help us understand the doctrine of the trinity, etcetera. The word “rapture” comes, I think, from the passage in 1 Thessalonians 4, like I told you to look there, just keep your finger in these two passages, we're going back and forth. But if you look at 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, it says, “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” Now, look at verse 17. “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up”- Caught up - “together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will be with the Lord forever.” That's the Rapture, caught up. The word “rapture” is really just an English version of a Latin word. The Latin word from which we get the word “raptor” also, kind of birds that come like eagles or vultures, that snatch up their prey or grab them up, or a falcon, something like that. And so, the idea in the Greek is of being caught up or snatched up in some way. The Greek word here is passive, so something happens to you. It's nothing you do. You don't go get yourself raptured. You have to be raptured, something has to happen to you. 1 Thessalonians 4 doesn't say how, but that those who are left will be caught up together with them. And so, there's something sudden, I think, something passive that happens. Matthew 24:31 Gives The Agents of the Rapture: Angels Back in Matthew 24:31, go back, we're going back and forth. But if you look at verse 31, it says how it's going to happen. Gives you the agents of the rapture, and they are angels. Now, the Bible says repeatedly in the second coming of Christ, there will be angels. Not a few angels, lots of angels, myriad angels, mighty angels, a mighty warrior host returning with Jesus. Matthew 16:27 says, “The Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.” And then in the next chapter, in Matthew 25:31, next from where we're at, it says, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats.” Mark 8:38 says this, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his Father's glory with his angels.” I mean, it's again and again, it's not one or two, it's many. Even Enoch, seventh from Adam, foresaw this angelic host returning with Jesus. Jude 14 says, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men,” false teachers, “Behold, the Lord is coming,” listen, “with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones.” I mean, that's the seventh man from Adam, and God showed him the second coming of Christ. The Lord planned this before the foundation of the world, how it was gonna be, and he was gonna come with angels. Daniel 7 implies that there are 100 million angels and the angelic host is going to come. And so, Revelation 19 makes it plain that Christ is returning at the head of an immense army of angels. Revelation 19:11 says, “I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true.” And verse 14, “the armies of heaven were following him riding on white horses dressed in fine linen, white and clean." The Dispatch of Christ: Rescue My People And so, Jesus returns verse 30, in verse 31, he sends out his angels, he dispatches them. Verse 31, “He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.” Christ is coming for the sake of his elect to rescue them in every way from this sin-cursed planet. Now, the word “elect” means chosen ones. It's a biblical doctrine that God knows his elect. He knows his chosen ones, he knew them by name before the foundation of the world, chosen in Christ, before the creation of the world. The word elect is mentioned three times in this chapter, Matthew 24:22. “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” Matthew 24:22. And then again in 24:24. It says, “False Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect - if that were possible. See, I've told you ahead of time.” And now here in this verse, verse 31. Now, who are the elect? Well, they are the ones that God chose in Christ to be Christians. Ephesians 1:4 and 5 says, “He chose us in him,” that is, in Christ, “before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” Chosen in him. These are love gifts from the Father to the Son, the elector, and not one of them can be lost. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Rest in that. Rest in God's sovereign election. He knows you by name, he has called you my name, you are his sheep, and he will not lose you. And so it says in John 6:37-39, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” Notice how Jesus says in John 6, “I have come down from heaven.” He's talking about his first coming, his first advent coming down from heaven to go to the cross and the empty tomb, all of that. But he's gonna come down from him, and the second time also for the elect, that he shall lose none of them but raise them up at the last day. Isn't that a beautiful thing? And so, he sends out his angels and he's going to come and get you. Nobody's gonna get missed, there's no one that should be coming that will be left behind, no one falls through the cracks, he is perfect in what he's doing, the angels know you, and they're going to come and get you, and they're going to grab you, so be ready friends, be ready. I remember we were at a birthday party at the fire station for one of my sons, and the fireman came in in all of his scary garb, he had this rubber mask on and this breathing thing. Like that. And he's saying, “Now, don't be afraid, don't be afraid when I come in and get you, and rescue you because I'm here to help you. Okay?” Don't be afraid dear friends, when the angels break into your daily life, when the angel comes and gets you, he's here to help you, he's here to rescue you from this sin-cursed world. And so, not one of the elect is going to be missing. The Angelic Mission: “Elect from Every Nation” And notice the extent of it. They're going to go all over the world. All over the world. The angels are gonna break into the middle of life, “As it was in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man, because in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage.” We'll talk about that next. Not today. But the angel's gonna be breaking in and they're gonna go all over the world, “He will send his angels and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Now, remember earlier in Matthew 24 and verse 14, it says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The gospel, dear friends, is going to be effective all over the world, there are going to be elect from every nation, and the angels have to go to every nation on earth and get them. Oh, what a beautiful and glorious gathering that will be, as the gospel had its way, and the gospel was triumphant and victorious, and missionaries spent their lives to go get those elect. Paul says, “I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” The gospel was effective dear friends, and the angels have to go, and they're happy to go all over the world to get them. The geographic scope, and notice that standing next to one of these elect people will do you no good if you're not one of them. Proximity to a believer will not help you at that point if you're not a believer. And so look again in verse 40-41, it says, “Two men will be in the field. One will be taken, the other left.” Verse 41, “Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken and the other left.” Friends, it will be too late at that point to repent and believe, the door will have closed, there's no chance at that point for faith. The sign of the Son of Man is already shining in the sky, there's no chance for faith, the day is over. Those that are left behind there, they don't get a second chance during the tribulation, they're done, they're finished, it's over. Dear friends, don't be left behind then. He's coming to get the elect. Now, you may say, how can I know whether I'm elect? It's very simple. This morning, you have already heard and you will hear again the gospel of Jesus Christ, you'll hear how Jesus came to earth and how he shed his blood on the cross for sinners like you and me, and how you are a sinner, and you violated the laws of God, and you're not ready to stand before God in judgment. The wrath will come on you, it's eternal wrath, not temporary, and you're in great danger if you're not in Christ, and all you need to do is flee to Christ, is trust in him. Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. The Bible teaches us the only ones that respond to that are the elect. You wanna know if you're elect, respond to that. Come to faith in Christ. You're to make your calling and election sure, you believed years ago? Okay, let your heart resonate with what I'm saying now and say, “That's my gospel, that's the message that saves me a sinner.” That's how you know you're elect, by response to the gospel of Jesus Christ, trust in him, call on the name of the Lord. I freely admit that the rapture is not one of the central doctrines of the Bible, I freely admit. But this one is, the gospel of Jesus Christ is, and if you will repent and believe in him, you will be saved. And part of that is he's gonna send an angel to come get you. So believe in him. Meeting the Lord in the Air All over the world, the gospel is going to spread, and he's gonna send out angels, and what are they going to do? They're gonna gather the elect and they're going to meet the Lord in the air. The Lord is returning to the earth, he has a purpose. He's coming from heaven to earth to rescue his church and to destroy the antichrist and Satan and all of his works. And establish a righteous kingdom that will be eternal, and so the rapture enables us to meet him in the air. He comes back with the clouds, surrounded by the awesome turbulence of the clouds, they're always mentioned. We will defy gravity in the grip of an angel and fly up to meet the Lord. The Timing of the Rapture At the Second Coming of Christ Now, when will that happen? Now, that's an interesting question, isn't it? And here I want to just cling to the passage that was read, that Jack Evans read so beautifully for us. I think it gives us a very clear timetable. So look down in Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the distress of those days.” Now, the word “distress” is translated in another version, “tribulation.” Okay, let's just stick that one in there because I think it's helpful. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” Talked about that last time. Verse 30, “At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the Earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” That is the second coming. Preached about that last time and the time before that. Tribulation. Second coming. What's verse 31? What would you call verse 31? “And he will send out his angels, and they will gather the elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.” That is the rapture friends. Tribulation, second coming, rapture. And Second Coming, rapture, same time. That's it. I think that's a good order, don't you? Friends, let's just stick to the scripture, let's just go with the order that you find in the Bible, tribulation, second coming, and the rapture. I think that's it. But if you need some more help, go over to 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Thessalonians 4 gives us the same teaching. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, “According to the Lord's own word, we tell you, we who are still alive, who are left 'til the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up” - Rapture - “With them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” This is the second coming of Christ. The word “coming” at the coming of the Lord is “parousia” in 1 Thessalonians, the Greek term for the second coming. Verse 16, in 1 Thessalonians 4 speaks plainly of the second coming, “The Lord himself will come down from heaven.” That sounds like the second coming to me. What do you think? “The Lord himself will come down from heaven.” If I were to say “What doctrine does that describe?” You would say, “Second coming.” At the Same Time as a Loud Command... the Voice of the Archangel...the Trumpet Call of God “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.” What is the loud command? I think he's commanding the archangels to go. The archangels then are commanding other lesser angels to go and, like an army, that's the way it is, Jesus is the commander of a great army and everything is orderly, and there's discipline and structure, just like the centurion saw in Matthew chapter 8. There's just order and he gives an order, and then it just goes down and the voice of the archangel, and then they come and gather us. “Bring forth my elect,” says Jesus, and they go. At the Same Time as the Resurrection of the Dead in Christ And what is this trumpet call of God? Well, it's also mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the great resurrection chapter, which according to 1 Thessalonians 4, that's when this is happening, at the second coming, at the rapture is the resurrection. I don't deny that there's difficulties when we read Revelation 20, it's hard to put all this together. You know what it seems with eschatology? It's like a puzzle and you put it in all these pieces and they fit so neatly except this one piece, and whatever scheme you have, there's always at least one piece that just doesn't seem to fit. What I do with that is, I don't take out scissors and trim off that offending tab, and fill in the other part that just doesn't seem to... I just say, look, I don't know how to put all this together. I'll do the best I can. In particular, millennium, how that fits together, difficult for me to say. But 1 Thessalonians 4, I don't think it's that difficult when it comes to the resurrection. The dead in Christ rise. We also meet them. 1 Corinthians 15 then says, “in a flash, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, we will be changed.” And there's your resurrection body, we have resurrection bodies that we're still alive, the dead in Christ get theirs as well, and so we will be with the Lord for how long? Forever, forever. And so there it is. The Secret Rapture Rejected The Secret Rapture Messes with the “Coming of the Lord” So I think we need to reject the concept of the secret rapture, secret rapture, basically says it's going to be a secret. It's going to be here in the inner rooms, or there out in the desert, and Jesus said, don't do that. As lightning that comes from the east is visible in the west, everybody will know what's going on. Everybody. The Secret Rapture Is a New Teaching Secret rapture as I said, is a new teaching, I will not bore you with details, but it came in in the early 1800s was popularized by a Scottish pastor named Irving, Edward Irving, and he got it from a 15-year-old girl that had a vision of basically two second comings. J.N. Darby, who really started dispensationalism, I think, influenced C.I. Scofield. Scofield put it in a reference Bible that was printed a million strong up to 1930, and it just spread everywhere, the idea of the two-second comings and the secret rapture popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible. Then 1970, Hal Lindsey put it in The Late Great Planet Earth. 1972, there was a movie made called A Thief in the Night that popularized it, and now we have the Left Behind series, and so it's with us. And all I want you to do is just be noble Berean, that takes it and says, “Is it so? Is it so?” The Secret Rapture Is a New Teaching I think that the secret rapture is driven by the desire to escape the tribulation. Look, who would want to go through the tribulation? Read the book of Revelation, find out just how horrible it is, but it all comes down to one verse, I think in particular, in Revelation 3:10, the Lord says, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.” So they take that one verse, which is to one of the seven churches, and they extend it out to all true believers, and all true believers will miss the final seven-year tribulation period. First of all, the translation itself is questionable, could be, “I will keep you in the hour of trial that's gonna come on the whole earth.” And isn't that God's usual way? Not so much to whisk us out, but to preserve us, protect us so that we make it through, and doesn't that actually fit Matthew 24 a little bit better? Matthew 24:22 says, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive but for the sake of” - who? “the elect, those days will be shortened.” Why? Because they're going through it, because they're suffering through it. Frankly, even the Left Behind people, they tell you some of God's elect you do go through it, they don't talk much about election, I notice. But some of God's people, they call them tribulation saints. They go through the tribulation, they go through it. They weren't ready when Jesus came. And so therefore, in my opinion, I think they're being spanked, punished by God, so they have to go through the tribulation. None of this makes much sense to me, and whether it makes sense or not, I don't find it in the Bible. To put the whole thing down on one verse, I think is inappropriate. Instead, isn't it God's usual way to preserve and protect his church in the midst of great suffering and trial? And that's what I think he does. Frankly, in Revelation 16:12-15, it seems that the elect actually are going through the tribulation. It says, “The sixth angel poured out his bowl in the great river, Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East. Behold, I come like a thief!” Listen to this, “Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed,” Notice the thief statement, he says, “I'm coming, therefore, blessed are those who are ready and are…” And that's right in the middle of all the bowls and the seals of Revelation. So I think actually, biblically, it's more likely that God's people will have to endure a time of great suffering before the end. But Jesus comes back to rescue us from it. Amen. Isn't that beautiful? He's coming back to get his bride and get her out of trouble, because those days had been cut short. Someone Will Do a U-Turn... Christ or Us Frankly friends, when it comes to the second coming, someone is going to do a U-turn, it's either gonna be us or Jesus. Jesus comes from heaven down to the earth, or toward the earth, right? The rapture means we're gonna meet the Lord where? In the clouds, but neither Jesus nor us is staying in the clouds, that's not our final home. Somebody is doing a U-turn. Do you not to see it? Either Jesus gets the church and goes back up to heaven for seven more years, or we meet the Lord and we do a U-turn and escort him back to the Earth. And frankly, the Greek word for “meet” in 1 Thessalonians is that precise term of a delegation sent out from a city to meet a coming king or dignitary, and escort him back into the city. And I think that's precisely what is happening at the rapture, we go up, we meet the Lord, and we come down to do some damage, friends. Although frankly, if you read Revelation 19, we don't need to do much damage, all the damage is done by Jesus, 'cause you got the sword coming out of his mouth, and he can slay anyone he wants any time, because he is the Sovereign God. And when he says to the antichrist, “Be dead.” That's it, because he slays them with the breath of his mouth. But we're gonna be there as witnesses, Amen. And we're gonna be with the hosts of heaven, and we're gonna meet the Lord in the air and we'll be with him forever. But What about the “Thief in the Night” Passages? Now, what about the thief in the night passages? Not yet. Later we'll come to them. But basically, if I can say simply, it's this. It comes like a thief in the night to those who don't read the Bible and are not ready. Jesus doesn't want us to be like that and so he's told us plainly what's gonna happen, and he's saying that they will not surprise you like a thief in the night, you will be ready. And part of the rest of Matthew 24 is to get you ready, so that you're ready for the second coming of Christ and live every moment for the second coming of Christ. The Significance of the Rapture It Demonstrates Christ’s Power So what is the significance of the rapture? Well, it demonstrates Christ's power, we see his power in the clouds of the sky with great glory, specifically his power over the antichrist and overall force of evil, we will see that. His power also to raise the dead, because the dead in Christ will be raised at that point and Jesus's power over death will be open and obvious. Amen. At the rapture, we will see his power, we will be in resurrection bodies. It Demonstrates Christ’s Love for His Church It demonstrates also Christ's love for the church. He said on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He takes it personally when his elect are beat up on earth and he's coming back to rescue them. Conversely, he takes it very personally when his elect are well-treated on earth in his name. And he rewards people, sheep and the goats, you'll see it, but he rewards people based on how his people are treated. And so He is coming back because he loves the church. It is a Reward for Faithful and Courageous Service It's also, the rapture is, a reward for faithful and courageous service. Revelation 7:13-17, “One of the elders asked ‘These in white robes - who are they and where do they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘Well, these are they that have come out of the great tribulation. They've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb, and therefore, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them, and never again will they hunger, and never again will they thirst, and the sun will not beat on them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their Shepherd, and he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’” And it says at the end of Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me.” Rapture is part of his reward. Catch you up in the clouds to meet the Lord, It Enables Us to Accompany Christ to the Earth And the rapture enables us to be with the Lord as he comes down. I wanna be with him, don't you? Don't you wanna see him, don't you wanna see him in his hour of glory, in his hour of triumph? To be there as an eyewitness? You didn't get to be there as an eyewitness with the first generation, those were the apostles, that wasn't us, but we get to be eyewitnesses of his second coming glory. We get to glorify him. It Signifies the End of the Old Order of Things It signals also the end of the old order of things. The resurrection is the end. The old order of things will have passed away. It Begins Our Face to Face Fellowship with Christ and Our Perfect Unity with Each Other It begins also our face-to-face fellowship with Christ that will last forever, and our perfect unity with each other. We're not going to precede those that have fallen asleep, we're gonna be together, the dead in Christ, the living in Christ together, we'll be together from every tribe, and language, and people and nation, and we will be one. It Fulfills the Lifelong Yearning of Many to Fly And finally, it fulfills my lifetime yearning to fly, so at least I'm happy about that. If any of you else would just be honest and say, “I actually always wish I could fly too.” Then don't feel you're yearning to go. If you couldn't care less, it doesn't matter, you're going if you're a Christian, so he's going to come and get you and you will fly as well, at least just one time. Application Come to Christ Now! So what application can we take from this? Well, first, come to Christ now, this could be your last chance to hear the gospel. I'm not trying to be melodramatic, but you don't know when you're going to die, you don't know how many more minutes you have on earth, come to Christ now, look to the blood of Christ, trust in him, don't put it off, not because the rapture might happen tonight, but because your death might happen tonight. Be ready at every moment. Delight in the Power of Christ to Protect His Church and Relish the Togetherness of the Church And delight in the power of Christ in protecting his church. Relish the togetherness of the unity of the church, so we're gonna be together forever. Yearn for that. Think Carefully About the Secret Rapture...and Reject It Think carefully about the secret rapture. If I haven't persuaded you, then go back and look at the passages on rapture and see if you can place it. See if you can find a place where Jesus comes secretly, gets the church, and disappears for seven years. And if you can support it and believe it, show me the passage, and I'd like to learn as well. Be Strengthened by the Coming Triumph of Christ And one final thing from a hymn we sang earlier for all the saints, it's powerful while we're seeing it just hit me how important this is, you know why we need to teach on the second coming of Christ? You know why this is important? Well, listen to this verse, and for all the saints, “And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song, and hearts are brave again and arms are strong. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.” If you're feeling weak in your battle with sin today, hear the distant victory song today and say, someday you're going to triumph over all sin. So be strong today against temptation. And if you're weary of evangelizing and the whole missionary endeavor, let the distant victory song steal in your ear and get brave again in sharing the gospel. Let your arms be strong one more time. Close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Matthew 21:23-27. The main subject of the sermon is the authority of Christ demonstrated in His encounter with the disrespectful Pharisees. - Sermon Transcript - Introduction So we come today, in Matthew 21, to the question of Jesus' authority. And we have to begin by asking: what is authority? It is, I think, the power to influence or to command thoughts or opinion or behavior, it's the right to rule or the right or privilege to act in a certain way. These words all tend toward the understanding of the word authority. And I remember eight years ago I had the privilege of attending an inaugural to the President of the United States. I got a ticket from a friend, to stand there at the mall there in Washington and watch the president get inaugurated. Now, if I had been a dignitary from a foreign country, I would have had a better view. I would have been able to be up on the steps of the capital. If I had been a representative, I would have had an even better view. And a senator, even better than that. If I had been a Supreme Court justice, I would have been able to sit right there just a few rows back, unless of course I was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in which I would be front and center and get to stand up at a certain point and pick up a Bible and face the president-elect. And yet I wasn't any of those things, I was a peon, and my ticket enabled me to go into a cordoned area and stand on muddy ground in the drizzle and look 300 yards away at the only live view I've ever had of a president. That's what my ticket got me. And there were people there checking tickets and checking credentials and passes and all that. And you were not getting further than your credentials allowed that day. It was impossible. I think we bump into the issue of authority every single day. We may not even realize it. You walk into the bank, and there's some bulletproof glass and there's a little spring loaded swing gate there and some people can go behind there, the tellers and the bank employees, and you can't. And you know it, and you don't have the right to go back there. You just understand that. Parents have the right to discipline their children. They have the right to train them in godliness, to correct them when they're wrong. Others don't have that same right. We don't have the right to step in and interfere. We can give advice, we can pray, but we don't have that right. It's not given us by God. A little over 10 years ago, this congregation voted me as a senior pastor, and gave me the right and the privilege of preaching here week after week. And it's a great privilege, and I consider it a great responsibility. That's something this congregation had the right to bestow on me. However, if I were to go to another Baptist church in this city next week and just at a certain time in the service just get up and presumed to preach, I would not have that right, it wouldn't be my responsibility, I wouldn't be my right. I haven't been given that credential to do that. Recently, I served as a juror in a court trial right nearby here in Durham. And I was chosen to be a juror, and for a short period of time, for two days, I had the right to walk into a certain place in the courtroom and sit in a certain seat. And when the trial was over, the judge very graciously dismissed the jury and that right evaporated at that moment. If I had been there the next day and tried to walk in there, the bailiff would have arrested me probably, if I had persisted. I didn't have the right to be there. So, we bump into this every single day. Because I say two things to you about Jesus and authority: (...) He lived a whole life in perfect submission to God-ordained authority. And secondly, no one in history has had as much authority as Jesus Christ. Now, in our passage today, Jesus' enemies come to him to question him about his rights, what right he had to do the things he had been doing. And what's amazing as I consider it as a Christian, stepping back, taking in the full biblical instruction about who Jesus is, who he was, it's astonishing to me the unbelief that led them to come and do this and to treat him as they did. Because I say two things to you about Jesus and authority: No man in all of human history has so completely lived his life in submission to authority so perfectly as did Jesus. He lived a whole life in perfect submission to God-ordained authority. And secondly, no one in history has had as much authority as Jesus Christ. And so these two themes will be in our minds as we look at this text today, and as we consider the authority of Jesus. The Authority of Jesus Questioned The Jews Confront Jesus So what we have here, the chief priests and the elders of the people come up to Jesus. They are the leaders of the Jewish nation. They also happen to be Jesus' most determined opposition. They are constantly challenging him, constantly opposing him, laying traps for him, Debating with him, scheming behind his back. Ultimately plotting to take his life. Well, here they try the frontal assault method. And this time the topic is authority. Look at verse 23, “Jesus entered the temple courts and while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked. ‘And who gave you this authority?’” Now, certainly I think they have in mind here Jesus' recent and, to them, shocking actions. The riding on the donkey, the triumphal entry, coming in with kingly accords coming to him: “Hosanna to the Son of David.” The cleansing of the temple in which Jesus overturns tables and benches and sets doves free, and he's doing all of these things and saying amazing things like, “Get these out of here. How dare you turn My Father's house into a marketplace, a den of thieves?” His acceptance of worship by the children. That's what we talked about last time. And just the fact that he would presume to stand up there in the temple area and teach. All of these things were very offensive and very shocking to these Jewish leaders, and so immediately the chief priests and the elders had one question in mind, the question of authority. By what authority are you doing these things, these shocking things? Now, the Jews were people under authority, and they sought to respect authority. Now here the chief priests and the elders assumed, I think, that they were operating from a position of strength as they came and attacked Jesus. In their way of thinking, all actions should be done under authority, done by the will of someone who has the right to grant a privilege. No one acted as a free agent. There must be some superior human rule that gives someone the freedom to act in these kinds of ways. And as they believed, they were the religious authorities in Jerusalem, the authorities of the Jews. There was no higher religion authority than them. So if Jesus claimed to be acting under human authority, they would be able to pull the rug right out from under him, and say, “We never gave you that authority. You have no right to do this.” By the way, even the Romans acknowledge this. Josephus tells us that when Pontius Pilate came to his rulership as governor there, he made some serious blunders and greatly underestimated the religious zeal of the Jewish people and got into great difficulties. To the point where it seems, I think, that Caesar commanded him to back off on religious issues, and so signs were put up around the temple area meant for Romans, saying that if any Roman soldier even, or a Gentile at all, would go into the area that they were not permitted go in, they would suffer the penalty of death. The Romans upheld Jewish authority over religious things. And so in effect, Jesus having cleansed the temple without their permission, teaching in the temple area, they wanna say, “Show us your credentials. What right do you have to do this?” Now, I think the Jewish leaders felt they had Jesus either way. Either Jesus would say, he would have to acknowledge he had no human authority to do this, no right to do it, in which case he would be discredited in front of the crowd. Or he would be, as they have supposed he would, claiming to be acting under God's direct authority, in which case they would have him on blasphemy. This is exactly how they killed him. Either way, they figured they had him. Jesus seemed to them, I think, like a loose cannon, somewhat like an anarchist operating under his own whims and overturning not just tables but authority itself. And their unbelief clouded their minds from seeing the truth, that no one in history has ever submitted as perfectly to authority as Jesus did, and that no one in history has ever had as much authority as Jesus does. What is Authority? So, as we come to this question of authority, we've already had a definition from the dictionary. What does the New Testament teach us about authority? Well, Romans 13:1 says that all authority comes from God. Ultimately it comes from God. Romans 13:1, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God,” says Paul. And so this sets up, very much, a hierarchical view of the universe. God is the ruler of all. God Almighty, sitting above these ever-ascending spheres of influence and power. God sitting on his throne. He, the King of Kings, he, the Lord of Lords, ruling over all things. And everything below him exists to serve his pleasure and to do his will. That's the Almighty God, but the scripture reveals that God in his wisdom and for his pleasure, ordained that created beings would be given measures of authority under him. They would be rulers under him, so that the title King of Kings means something. There are kings under the ultimate King, there are lords under the ultimate Lord. And they're given dominions, they're given spheres of influence. And so, God created for example, spiritual beings, angels. And they're called powers and principalities and rulers and all that, and they're given spheres of influence. Some of them, of course, rebelled and went wicked. And that's a topic for another time. But he did create, therefore, archangels or ruler angels, who are given authority over other angels. God also created human beings with the same pattern in mind. Human beings were established to rule over physical creation on earth. And so it says in Genesis 1, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move over the ground.’” And so we were established physically over the earth, to rule over it. And in the pattern of things, and more explained, I think, by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2, by creating Adam alone for a time, and then Eve later to be a helper suitable for him, he created an order within the family. And so, the husband's the head of the wife because the wife was created next. And so there is an order within, let's say, families. So that Joshua can say in Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” He has the right to say that. He is the father, he's the head of the house. He has the right to say, “We are not going to be Buddhists here.” And so I’ve said before, to my children and to others, we do not practice religious freedom at the Davis home, okay, we're going to be Christians here. We're gonna pray in the name of Jesus, we're gonna go to church and not temple or shrine, etcetera. We're going to be Christians. And I have the right to say that, it's an authority given me by God. And so on down. There are governmental leaders and all that, and all of them have their spheres and it is godly and right for us to submit to that established structure. Now in this matter, authority over spiritual issues, the chief priests, the elders, the scribes and the Pharisees, were in fact the spiritual leaders of the nation. And ordinarily in every other sense, they would have the right to rule. And interestingly, in Matthew 23, Jesus upholds it. In Matthew 23:2-3 Jesus says, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do for they don't practice what they preach.” The issue there is they have the right to speak truth from the law of Moses and tell you what to do. But don't follow their example, because they're not obeying under authority themselves. But he established his authority. He upholds the authority of his enemies, not their personal practice, but their authority. He upholds all authorities, all genuine authorities, because he created them. And he proved this by being submissive to his own parents. When he was growing up in their household, it says in Luke chapter 2 that Jesus was submissive to his parents' authority. Even though he was their Creator. And he proved this throughout his entire life, by his submission to the law of Moses. And right to the end of his life by not resisting those who were seeking to kill him, and who, in fact, in the end did kill him. He went like a sheep to the slaughter. He went meekly and submissively. But Jesus especially submitted to the authority of God the Father at every moment of his life, by never sinning. And so I say, no one has ever shown as much submission to authority as Jesus had. More on that in a moment. What is the Authority of Jesus? But at the same time Jesus wielded authority more than anyone that has ever lived. What is the authority of Jesus? Well, we see throughout his ministry remarkable displays of authority. Let's start with His teaching. Jesus was there in the temple area teaching. But whenever Jesus taught, the initial reaction of people who heard him said, “No one ever taught like this man.” It's funny because these same enemies, finally they had decided the time had come to arrest Jesus. And so they sent the temple police to go arrest him. You remember this story. And the temple police go and they don't see a good moment, and so they just stand and listen to Jesus teaching for a moment. Bad mistake, at least in terms of their mission. Because they're listening and they're just overwhelmed by his teaching. They're in awe. I think they were gonna become Christians, I think it's what's gonna happen. And so, they go back to the ones who sent them and they say, “Where is Jesus”" And they said with, it seems, stars in their eyes, “No man ever taught like this man.” And so Jesus, in his teaching, it was always authority, a sense of the authority of God, in his words. Now the Jewish leaders did not value creativity and innovation in teaching. That's not what they loved, they didn't embrace it. “Teach us something new.” No, not at all. When you were a young man being trained by the rabbis, you were taught to learn what the other fathers and forefathers said, and said, “Rabbi so-and-so, in commenting on this passage and quoting Rabbi such-and-such, said this and that.” And the more you could do that, the more trained you were. But along comes Jesus, never having studied in their schools, and he says things like this: “You have heard that it was said ‘you shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment,’ but I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” “You have heard that it was said ‘you shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart.” You have heard that it was said, but I say to you. Doesn't it beg the question, “Who are you? Who are you to say these things?” And so at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the crowd's reaction in Matthew captures it. In Matthew 7:28-29, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, because he taught them as one who authority and not as their teachers of the law.” But He did many other things to display his authority in his actions, his miracles. He had authority over demons; he would give a command and the demon would obey. He had authority over sickness; he would rebuke a fever and the fever would leave. He had authority over fish. Though I never heard him give a command to a fish, it's kind of implied when they all swim into Peter's net. And so Jesus could just command fish without a word and they would obey him. He had authority over the winds and the waves, he did command them verbally, “Peace, be still,” and immediately they obeyed him. “What kind of man is this?” they asked, “Even the winds and the waves obey him.” And he had authority over life and death. He had the authority to stand in front of Lazarus' tomb after four days, and command him to come out, and life came into him and he came out. And so in his actions, we see that. The way that he dispensed with the traditions of the elders that weren't biblical. The hand washings and all of that, just didn't worry about it, wasn't concerned with what they thought. The way that he would heal consistently on the Sabbath. His actions were actions of authority, but how much more, then, his words. He claimed authority. Not just that he taught with authority, he claimed authority. For example, you remember the story when they brought the man who was paralyzed and they couldn't get to him so they dug a hole in the roof and lowered it down in front of Jesus. And Jesus, seeing their faith, says in front of them all, says to this man, “Your sins are forgiven.” And they say in their hearts, “This man is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Which is easier: To say, ‘Your sins are forgiven' or say, ‘Rise and walk’?” No problem to say them, the question is, is there any power behind it, any authority? “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the man, “‘Rise and walk.’” Just pause for a moment there. Sinner, any sinners here today? I claim to be a sinner. That is your great hope: That Jesus, the Son of God, has the authority to tell you that your sins are forgiven you. And they are. Oh, how sweet is that? It's the center of the gospel promise: Jesus' authority to forgive sins. But he claims other authority as well. He says, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. I get to interpret Sabbath laws and you're wrong and I'm right, and I can heal people on the Sabbath.” He has the authority, he says, to judge the world. In John chapter 5, it says, “The Father judges no one, but He's entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father who sent Him.” He has the authority to raise the dead. Again, John chapter 5, “Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son of Man has authority to give life to the dead.” And he has the authority over his own life and death. He said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I received from My Father,” He said. So he has the authority to resurrect himself. He has the authority to give eternal life to whoever he chooses to give it to. And to reveal the Father to whomever he chooses to reveal the Father to. He has this kind of authority, John 17:2, “You granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.” This is the kind of authority that Jesus has. And so Jesus makes this incredible statement to Pontius Pilate. You remember how at one point He gets silent before Pilate? Doesn't say anything. Pilate is getting very frustrated. He's afraid, he's frustrated and finally he lashes out at Jesus verbally. He says, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don't you realize I have the authority to crucify you and I have the authority to set you free?” Remember what Jesus said, “You would have no authority over me if it were not given you from above.” What kind of statement is that? It's astonishing, Jesus' claims to authority. And so what is the authority of Jesus? Well, at the end of this gospel he tells us, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," Jesus says. Ephesians 1 puts it this way, “God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Jesus is infinitely above every other name that can be named, and every other authority there is. That is the authority of Jesus. Jesus is infinitely above every other name that can be named, and every other authority there is. That is the authority of Jesus. So, let me ask you a question. Did Jesus have the authority to cleanse the temple? Oh my friends, yes, he did, He had every right and privilege to cleanse that temple. What is the Authority of Jesus? Well, what's the second question they asked? Who gave you this authority? Now, that's a fascinating question. You already have enough. And with the scriptures I quoted to answer. God the Father gave that authority to Jesus. And Jesus did nothing apart from that. Everything Jesus did, all the wielding of his own authority, he did in submission to the authority of God the Father. Again, the great commission, “then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.’” I have infinite authority and it's been given to me. So therefore, the one who gives it is above the one who receives it. Over and over Jesus links his authority to God the Father. Matthew 11:27, “All things have been committed to me by My Father.” John 5:26-27, “As the Father has life in Himself even so he has granted to the Son to have life in himself," stop there. In other words, I wouldn't be alive in a body, if the Father hadn't given me authority to do it, I wouldn't have been incarnated, I wouldn't have come to the earth if God the Father hadn't commanded it. And as we mentioned about the resurrection, I have the authority to lay down my life and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I received from My Father. And so Jesus as a matter of fact, does nothing apart from submission to the authority of God, the Father. John 5:19, “Jesus gave them this answer, ‘I tell you the truth, the Son could do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does.’” And then, in John 14:31, “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what the Father has commanded me.” John 14:31. The world must learn that because we are rebels, dear friends. We do very little with a conscious awareness of submission to authority, and we ought to do everything with a conscious awareness of submission to authority, we ought to do everything that way. You wanna know what my application is, it is to do everything you do with a sense of submission to God's authority through Jesus Christ. That's the application. I'm gonna unfold it a little bit, but that's it. Jesus did nothing apart from that. So as he entered Jerusalem on a donkey, He had the authority from God to do it. And as he cleansed the temple, he had the authority from God to do it, and as he stood up to teach the way of God, he had the authority from God to do it, he had the authority to do all of the things he was doing. This is the answer to their question. So by what authority do you do all these things? By my own authority. And who gave you that authority? God the Father did. So that's their question. Do they get a simple answer from Jesus? No they do not. Jesus was infinitely tricky for them. Now, for us, I think the more you go on, he becomes simpler and simpler. Pure God. I'm not saying that that's simple. And I'm just saying he is who he claims to be, but for them, they're never sure what they're gonna get from Jesus. They thought they had him. You never have Jesus. Not in that sense. You can't pin him in a corner, and now he's frantic, wondering what to do. You can't debate with Jesus and win the debate. You can't play chess with God and win. And so they're coming in intellectually and they've got it all figured out, they're gonna pin him just like they're gonna do later with taxation, they're gonna try to pin Jesus, you don't pin him. He is the greatest intellect that ever lived. Jesus’ Counter-Question Jesus’ Brilliant Conditional Question And so he brilliantly asks them a conditional question. He said, “I also have a question to ask you. And if you answer me,” interesting statement there. “If you answer Me, then I will tell you by what authority I'm doing these things.” Notice how he already anticipates that they're not even gonna answer him. You can't get ahead of Jesus, he knows exactly what's going to happen. The Origin of John the Baptist’s Authority So He sets this condition. And the question is, the origin of John the Baptist's authority. Look at verse 25, John's baptism. Where did it come from? Was it from heaven or from men? Now, in a debate there's something called the red herring. Alright, you throw it in as a distraction. Alright, you don't know what to do, so you do something over here and they're like, “What do we ask? I don't know, it's over, he's gone.” This is no red herring friends. This is right to the kernel of the nut. He goes right to the core of the matter here to ask this question, he's just doing it in a different way than they expected. This question about John's authority really comes down to this: Does God have the right to raise up a spokesman, apart from the existing human structures that have become corrupt, and prophetically speak to those corrupt structures? Did he have the right to do that? The answer is, yes he does, He has the right to do that. So who is John the Baptist? Well, he is an enigmatic, shocking, divisive prophetic figure. He appears in the foreboding spirit of Elijah, dwelling in the desert wearing camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and eating locusts and wild honey. And like Elijah, he is therefore utterly devoid of love for earthly pleasures. It's not why he's alive. And like Elijah, he is utterly fearless. A preacher of truth, no matter what. He's not afraid of kings, he's not afraid of Pharisees and Sadducees, he will say the truth, no matter what, to anyone. Even if it costs him his life, which it did. And like Elijah, his words are fiery and strong and true filled and prophetic. What of the baptism of John? Well, it's a specific aspect of his ministry, but it really kind of summarized his whole approach. It was new. It was something they'd never seen before. Baptism isn't commanded or even exemplified in the Old Testament. Scholars tell us it arose somewhat in the inter-testamental period, between Old Testament and New Testament, as a way to get Gentile converts that are starting to come in through the diaspora. The Jews are scattered all around and some people start to wanna become Jewish. And so they washed them in water, in addition to circumcising the men. A sense of saying, “Put off the old filth of your Gentile way of life and come into Judaism.” But now here's John and what's he doing? He's baptizing Jews. Shocking, and in fact saying, “You're all Gentiles to God. God can raise up out of these stones, children for Abraham. Don't boast about that.” It's unheard of. And so immediately, these same elders and rulers of the people, are thinking the same question about John that they would later about Jesus. “Who gave you this authority to do this?” John 1 gives the conversation on this very point. Verse 19 and following it says, “Now, this was John's testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent emissaries, priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely. ‘I am not the Christ.’ And they asked him, ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not. ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Finally they said, ‘Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’ Now, some of the Pharisees who have been sent questioned him, ‘Why then do you baptize if you're not the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?’ ‘I baptize with water,’ John replied. ‘But after me, comes one more powerful than I, who you do not know. The thongs of his sandals, I am not worthy to untie.’” And so that was the conversation that had happened years before, a handful of years before, as they confronted John concerning the authority of his baptism. The Trap of Jesus’ Question Now, look at the trap of Jesus' question. His enemies tell us very well what the trap was. They pull off into a little unholy huddle, they get off to the side. They say, “Boy, we're in trouble now. This is unexpected. God doing unexpected things in our lives. This is something different.” “If we say from heaven, then he will ask, ‘Then why didn't you believe him?’ And if we say ‘From men,’ now we're afraid of the crowd for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So that's the problem. Jesus’ Enemies: Unbelieving, Dishonest, Cowards Unbelief So Jesus' enemies at this particular moment, in this exchange, are revealed as unbelieving, dishonest, cowards. First of all, they're unbelieving, they did not believe John the Baptist, they didn't. Believe what? Well, what he taught. Three things in particular, number one, that he was a prophet, sent from God. That he was as Isaiah said, “The voice of one calling in the desert.” Sent by God, that he was a prophet, sent by God. They didn't believe that. They didn't believe what one of their own, a priest named Zechariah, John's father, had said about him. “And you my son will go on in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” They didn't believe what that priest said about John, that he was sent from God, as a prophet. Secondly, and perhaps most poignantly, they did not believe that they were a brood of vipers who needed to flee the wrath to come. They didn't believe that. When John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not say to yourselves “We have Abraham as our father.” I tell you out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” They didn't believe that applied to them. It wasn't them and so they were brutally offended by that. They didn't think they needed to repent for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. They didn't think they needed repentance at all. I tell you, even John the Baptist knew he needed to repent, when he saw Jesus he said, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” Every sinner needs to repent. They didn't think they qualified as a sinner and so they were really offended by this. And thirdly, they didn't believe that the one who came after was, in fact, the Lamb of God whose death would take away the sins of the world, or as John clearly testified in John 1, “The Son of God, on whom the Spirit descended and remained.” They didn't believe his testimony about Jesus. So they were unbelieving. Cowardice Secondly, they were cowardly, they were cowardly, as they pull off to the side and discuss it. Look, when you're asked a question, answer it. Where is the courage? These were not men of high principle, they were not men who said, “I'm gonna speak the truth and we'll let the chips fall where they may. I think that John was demon-possessed and I think that you're from Beelzebub.” If that's what you think, say it. But instead, they're having a little discussion, a little political conversation. “Well, if we do this and that'll happen and... “ Look, that's the trickiness of being a liar and a coward. And so, they're not willing to just say what they thought. Now, they were afraid of the crowd. They held the mob, as they called them, in contempt. In John 7, they said, “Have any of the rulers believed in him? But this mob that knows nothing of the law, there's a curse on them,” that's their attitude toward the crowd, but yet they were afraid of them. They were afraid that they would riot and that they would lose their position. And so, in Matthew 26:4-5, “they plotted to arrest Jesus, in some sly way ... ‘But not during the feast, ... or there may be a riot among the people.” So they're afraid of the people, they're cowards. Dishonesty And thirdly, they're dishonest. What was the answer they gave? “We don't know.” Okay, that's not what they thought, if you asked them what they thought, they'd say, “We think that John's baptism was from men, actually we think it was from the devil. And we think that you're from the devil,” they should have just been honest. But instead they were dishonest. Jesus’ Authority: Silence And so what did Jesus do? Well, he kept his promise. He said, “If you answer me, then I will tell you by what authority I'm doing this. If you don't, I'm not gonna say anything to you.” He gives them silence. He said, “Neither then will I tell you about what authority I am doing these things.” So, in the encounter between the two, who do you think has the real authority? Isn't it obvious? They come with a question, they're gonna orchestrate the whole thing. He takes control and it goes entirely his way. He's a King. he's a ruler, and he's not gonna be dominated. The Prideful Logic of Unbelief Before we get to application, I wanna lay out what I think is the pride for logic of unbelief. This is how it goes, the prideful logic of unbelief. These rulers and elders of the people started with this supposition, “I am righteous, and God is therefore pleased with my life. I have no need of repentance.” They start there. “Anyone then, who tells me I need to repent is from the devil, or wrong. John tells me I need to repent, he's of the devil, he's wrong, Jesus tells me I need to repent or I'm going to hell, he's of the devil, he's wrong.” I believe, in every unbeliever who hears the gospel they basically run through the same logic themselves, they don't need a savior, they don't need to repent. And so they don't come to Christ. Application So what application can we take from this passage? Well, I think we need to know our culture. They accepted authority, they just didn't believe Jesus had any authority. We question authority itself. We question authority itself. We have been sold a lie that we can somehow live our lives free from any authority except our own. That we can live completely free from all authorities. So when Joshua says in Joshua 24, “Choose for yourself, whom you will serve.” He meant this deity or that deity. Alright? "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He assumed we're gonna serve somebody. We are gonna serve some master, we're gonna submit to some authority, we're gonna, he assumed that. We have thrown off that concept and we are trying to live our lives free from any authority. And so we question authority. We have been told that we don't need to serve anyone. And you know what happens if you're given a choice between serving Jesus, and not serving anyone? Do not be deceived in thinking you will not serve anyone. You will be serving Satan, you'll be serving evil. There are no options, we were created to serve, and so therefore we must choose whom we will serve. Can I commend Jesus to you, as a King then? Can I say serve him because his yoke is easy and His burden is light, and his laws are righteous, and everything he commands is good and upright and holy, no matter how difficult to obey. Can I commend to the authority of Jesus, the Son of God? The Bible says that someday he will obviously be sitting on a throne and reigning over all things. And he will judge, as I've already mentioned, over Judgment Day, and all nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And everyone who gladly by faith, submitted to his authority on Earth, he will say to them, “Come into the kingdom prepared for you. The one you've been getting ready for, you're excited about a kingdom, it's ready now, come in and submit to that kingly authority, for the rest of your happy existence for eternity.” But those that thought to throw off all authority, that thought that they would rule their own lives, their lot is eternal condemnation in hell. So therefore, I just urge you, now, come under the authority of the King, come into the kingdom, enter that kingdom through the narrow gate. Submit humbly to his rule. Confess your sins, recognize that Jesus is in fact who John said He was, the Lamb of God, whose death atones for the sins of the world, that you give your life to him, and you will receive forgiveness of sins. If you've already done that, I praise God for you. I praise God that you've already come under the authority of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. But I still wanna challenge you on that very issue. I think we know enough in this church to not separate Jesus as Savior, and Jesus as Lord, that whole thing. “I accepted Jesus, my Savior. And then seven years later, I accepted him as my Lord.” Did you know that Jesus isn't schizophrenic or bipolar? Were you aware of that? That he actually is both Savior and Lord, all the time. And as I was talking in the Bible study on Romans, I asked this simple question, “What is Jesus a savior you from? Is he not a savior from rebellion? Isn't he a savior from sin?” And so, if you've been saved from sin that means you're now humbly submissive to God the King. That's the salvation he offers. Alright, you accept that. Jesus is going to get more and more invasive as you grow in your Christian life, more and more to you initially intrusive. So that you're gonna kind of act like the same ruler saying, “by what authority are you asking me how I spend my money? By what authority are you asking how I spend my time or what I do with my recreation? By what authority are you getting involved in my thought life? By what authority are you telling me that my marriage needs to improve?” Now, you would say now, “I would take it a lot better if it would come from Jesus coming down from heaven, shiny and glowing, and I would do it then, but if it's just a pastor or a Christian friend, it's harder to take.” Oh, friends, listen to what God is saying through the Word, let's challenge one another, grow in grace and godliness, let's realize there is an authority to the Word of God, and that God means to get in our business. And to command us to obey. And I say something to high school graduates. Just be aware of the fact that God has the right to tell you what to do with your life. He has the right to command you in a vocation, that's what it is, a calling from God. Seek a vocation from Jesus Christ. Say, “Lord, You are not irrelevant. You are relevant to my choice of a major. You are relevant to what I do in college.” Submit your life fully to him. All of us, we need to live every moment as bondslaves of Jesus Christ and recognize that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and it leads to glory in the end. Close with me in prayer.

Either Jesus is deluded, a liar or it's true. So how does he prove his claims? Please listen to this podcast from the Who is Jesus? message Series Based on the Book of John in the Bible.