Podcasts about john hus

Send us a textArnie, Fred and Glenn continue their discussion of the apostacy or falling away from the New Testament pattern that occurred and, in this episode, continue to look at its history. We reviewed some of the departures we noted last week, in baptism and the Lord's Supper. Some began to worship men and women in the Catholic church, and we note that. Priests in the Catholic church also began hearing people confess their sins to them and we look at what this meant. We also discuss what was added to all the Bibles for a time. There were rules set up regulate what was eaten on certain days and, whether an individual ought to fast and even if priests and nuns could be married. We discuss these. Popes took upon themselves new titles and authorities that we note as well. All of these changes ended up causing a split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern, Greek Orthodox Church. We complete this episode by beginning to discuss some of the individuals, such as John Wycliff, John Hus, Martin Luther, who began to question the changes that were made which resulted in what is called the Protestant Reformation. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. A transcript of this Buzzsprout episode is provided for your convenience.

It's Wednesday, August 7th, A.D. 2024. This is The World View in 5 Minutes written by Jonathan Clark and heard at www.TheWorldView.com. Filling in for Adam McManus I'm Ean Leppin. Christians Targeted in Nigeria as Protests Rock the Country  Protests broke out in Nigeria last Thursday over a cost of living crisis, leaving dozens of people dead. Christians in the country have faced even more violence during the instability.  Islamic Fulani Extremists attacked multiple farms owned by Christians last week. The militants killed Christian farmers and destroyed crops.  One survivor told International Christian Concern, “Fulani wanted to kill me, but I thank God I was safe.”  Nigeria is ranked 6th on the Open Doors' World Watch List of nations where it is most difficult to be a Christian.  Nigerian Regional Church Body Leaves Compromised UMC A Nigerian bishop with the United Methodist Church (UMC) resigned last month over the denomination's support for sexually perverted lifestyles. Bishop John Wesley Yohanna led the Nigerian Episcopal Area. The entire regional body decided to leave the UMC and join the Global Methodist Movement, according to The Christian Post.  A letter from Yohanna said, “We want to make a statement that since the church has derailed from Biblical principle we cannot be in this church where … homosexuality can be celebrated.”  Psalm 1:1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”  Arrest Made In An Assassination Plot in US As reported by Fox News A Pakistani man with ties to the Iranian government sought to carry out a political assassination in the United States, a case that was investigated weeks before a gunman tried to kill former President Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally.  Asif Merchant, 46, traveled to New York City and worked with a hit man to carry out the assassinations in late August or early September, federal prosecutors said  the plot was intended to target high-ranking U.S. officials, potentially including Trump.  ABC News Senior Investigative Correspondent Aaron Katersky gives more details concerning the case so far. KATERSKY: “His name is Asif Merchant, and he entered the United States, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, in April.  And while he was here in the United States, he made phone calls, trying to hire hitmen to carry out his alleged scheme to assassinate government officials on U.S. soil.  The criminal complaint does not mention former president Donald Trump by name, but multiple sources, familiar with this case, say one of the intended targets was former president Trump.  The hitman that Asif Merchant contacted, ended up being confidential sources of the FBI, so there was never any real danger here, because it seems the Feds were onto this man from the start.  They followed him for several months, and arrested him July 12th, just before he was about to board a flight and leave the country.  The arrest, July 12th, you'll note, is one day before former president Trump's rally in Butler, PA, when there was an attempt on the former president's life.  Although, these two things are not believed to be connected.” Christian Tennis Star Wins Olympic Gold Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic won an Olympic gold medal in the men's singles final in Paris this week. Despite being one of the world's top tennis players, this is his first Olympic gold medal. With this victory, Djokovic accomplished what is known as the “Golden Slam.” That's when a tennis player has won each of the four Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open) as well as an Olympic Gold medal.  After receiving his medal, Djokovic pointed upward and said “God is great” in Serbian. Kamala Harris Picks Running Mate In the U.S., the Democratic National Committee officially picked Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday as their nominee for the presidential election.  And yesterday, she announced her running mate—Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The 60-year-old military veteran is known for pushing Democrat agendas in his state. Walz supports abortion up to birth, transgender surgeries, and socialism. He is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which supports sexually perverted lifestyles.  Georgia Town Pays $55k in Free Speech Case A city in Georgia reached a $55,000 settlement in a First Amendment case last month.  Authorities in the City of Alpharetta arrested Jeff Gray back in 2022 for holding a sign saying “God Bless the Homeless Vets” outside city hall. Gray challenged the city in court with the help of The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.  Thanks to the settlement, Alpharetta agreed to train officers on the First Amendment and to not punish people for peacefully demonstrating.  1 out of 10 Americans are Evangelical  A new study from Dr. George Barna documents the demise of Evangelicalism. The study defined Evangelicals as those who recognize their sinful life, rely on Jesus for salvation, and receive guidance from the Bible. Only 10% of U.S. adults are Evangelical. And only a third of those have a Biblical worldview.  Dr. Barna noted, “The data strongly suggests that evangelicals are more likely to be shaped by the culture around them than they are to influence or ‘evangelize' it.” Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” U.K. Christian Settlement Becomes World Heritage Site And finally, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation added a Christian settlement in Northern Ireland to its list of world heritage sites.  German-speaking Protestants established the Gracehill Moravian Church settlement in 1759.  It received world heritage status after the U.S. led an effort to recognize Moravian Church settlements. Other settlements include  Herrnhut in Germany and Bethlehem in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.  The Moravian Church draws its heritage from the 15th century Czech reformer John Hus. In the 1700s, the church saw a renewal under the patronage of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf who built the Herrnhut community. The community was known for sending pioneering Protestant missionaries throughout the world.  And that's The World View in 5 Minutes on this Wednesday, August 7th, in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldView.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. Filling in for Adam McManus I'm Ean Leppin. Seize the day for Jesus Christ. 

Pastor Colin Horne - Dec 17, 2023 SS

 Audio recordingSermon manuscript:The word “spiritual” brings to mind a lot of things. For me it brings to mind a lot of things that aren't good. What one person regards as spiritual, another person regards as a delusion. For some there seems to be no limits for what is acceptable when it comes to spirituality. Folks might talk about energies, crystals, disciplines, psychedelic drugs, and many other things. I don't understand these things, and they make me nervous. But this is not just some personal problem. This comes from my training as a Lutheran. The Lutheran Church has a very guarded attitude towards anybody who shows up and wants to start talking about spirits, energies, and stuff. There is a reason for this guarded attitude from our history. As you perhaps remember, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses against the Catholic church's sale of indulgences on October 31, 1517. Not long after this Luther was forced to conclude that it was possible for the pope to err and that church councils could err. The church was not infallible. What led Luther to that conclusion was not some rebellious, independent spirit within him. Luther wasn't like that; just the opposite actually. What led him to believe that the church could err was that popes and councils have contradicted one another. And, more importantly for Luther, they contradicted the Scriptures. The Scriptures became for Luther, and later the Lutheran church, the only infallible, pure source for what we believe and teach. This brought about a profound change in society. The way that things had been handled spiritually speaking up until the Reformation was that the Catholic church officials would decide what was right and what was wrong instead of individuals reading the Scriptures for themselves. Once the Catholic church had decided what was right or wrong they would go on to enforce those decisions, up to and including death. John Hus, for example, was a Bohemian reformer who lived about 100 years before Luther. Even though he was promised safe passage, he was burned at the stake at the Council of Constance in 1415. Luther, also, was convicted of heresy by the Catholic church and would have been put to death if he has fallen into the wrong hands. Obviously, then, folks didn't just mess around with spiritual teachings under the Catholic church. To do so was deadly serious. But perhaps you can anticipate what happened in Germany after the Reformation started to break the power of the Roman church officials. No longer was it the church officials who decided what was right and wrong. Everybody could decide for himself or herself what he or she wanted to believe. This was a bit like taking the lid off of a pressure cooker. Spiritual teachers started to come out of the woodwork. Some said they had visions. Some said they had the Holy Spirit. Some said that the end of the world had come. Some said your baptism didn't count; you needed to do it again. Some said you should live in communes. Some said not only the church officials needed to go, but all those in authority—the lords and princes needed to go too. Less than a decade after Luther posted the 95 theses it appeared that all hell had broken loose. And you can be sure that the Roman church officials were quite happy to blame all that on Luther. So, what was to be done? Should we get the stake back out again to start burning heretics? That is what the Roman church wanted to do. When it was politically feasible for them, that is what they did do. Should we embrace tolerance? Live and let live? That would be how our modern world would handle it. Luther had a different way of handling it. He and the Lutheran Church didn't always live up to what Luther said, but by and large they did, and what Luther said was right. Luther said that heresies need to be rooted out by the preaching of the Word from the Scriptures. Hard work must be done with the Scriptures to refute errors. Only by going more thoroughly into what the Scriptures say can errors be revealed for what they are so that people can be led away from them. And hard work should be done, because it is important that we not err in spiritual matters. This is where Luther's attitude, and, God-willing, our own church's attitude as well, is very different from the modern world's attitude. The modern world thinks that spiritual matters are outdated and have no real effect. Don't get too upset about whatever anybody might teach in that realm. None of that stuff really matters. What matters is STEM education, finance, making and saving money. This, of course, is a spiritual teaching all its own, but most people don't see it that way. What is spiritual to most people is that that kind of thing is like a hobby. Some people believe in crystals. Other people believe in Christ the crucified. For the modern mind this is all gobbledy-gook anyway, so who cares what anybody believes or teaches. What really matters instead of any spiritual nonsense is whatever is going on at the universities, or in Washington, or on Wall Street. If the Catholic church was what ruled over people's minds and souls at Luther's time, this modern mentality is what rules over the minds and souls of our own time. This does not mean, however, that anybody who is against the materialist, corporatist, unbelieving, pleasure and power seeking of our own times is somebody who should be trusted. This, too, is very similar to Reformation times. When the lid came off the pot and the spiritual teachers were coming out of the woodwork, you can be sure that these teachers were very anti-Catholic. They had to be! If they were under the Catholic church they would have been burned at the stake as heretics. But this doesn't mean that just because they were against the Catholic church that they were good spiritual guides. So it is also today. It appears that we are living in a time of upheaval. Some people are learning that life is more than food, more than clothing, more than mere scientific or economic advancement. These days there are lots of ways people can learn with the internet. We aren't all watching the same advertisements on the same three TV networks anymore. So what can a person do in the midst of so many different voices? What Luther advised still holds true. Not every spirit is the Holy Spirit. In fact, there is only one spirit who is the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit is always going to be leading us to Christ the crucified, as Paul says in our epistle reading today. Be very careful with visions or dreams. Visions and dreams can come from evil spirits. Be even more careful about people who brag not in the Lord, not in their weakness, but in themselves. It's not hard to say you have the Holy Spirit, and therefore are empowered to lead others to supposedly higher and better things. Don't take drugs, psychedelic or otherwise. Don't engage in spiritual exercises. Be very skeptical about energies, crystals, modern versions of clean and unclean foods, and so on. If you're bored, if you want to get busy with something, try getting busy with the Ten Commandments. There you have an inexhaustible guide for good works. Or turn to Jesus's words, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount. And learn about Jesus's saving work from Jesus's own words in John's Gospel, or from Romans, or from Galatians. Or you can go to the first two chief parts of our catechism, the Ten Commandment and the Creed, which summarize these things. This, I would argue, is very much akin to what Paul has been saying in our epistle readings these past few weeks. He tells these Corinthians—who, by the way, are very much like us, very much itching for power, for enlightenment, for excellence—Paul tells these Corinthians: “We preach Christ and him crucified.” Or, as he says in today's reading, “When I came among you I didn't come with high-powered, secret teachings. I came with the ABCs of Christ crucified for you. In fact, I didn't want to know anything else among you except these ABCs, that you are a sinner for whom Christ died to save.” And where can you learn that you are a sinner? You learn that from the Ten Commandments. And where do you learn that God is the justifier of sinners in Christ the crucified? You learn that from the Creed. A trait that seems to be common among false spiritual guides is that they are dissatisfied with these ABCs. The ABCs aren't good enough. That's baby stuff. They want to move on to secret teachings, secret political conspiracies. They like the book of Revelation. They often have peculiar notions about food. They hate the idea of just being common and run of the mill. They don't want to be just sinners who are saved by Christ the crucified. They want to be powerful and great, saving this current generation and the generations to come by their ever-so-important discoveries and abilities. I hope that you can see from the readings we've had from 1 Corinthians that Paul is not like that: “Who is Paul?” “Who is Apollos?” They are nothing—and worse than nothing—if they are not leading poor, miserable sinners to the forgiveness of sins in Christ the crucified. This is no extraordinary, secret teaching. It is common teaching. There are, in fact, no secret teachings in Christianity. Anybody and everybody can know absolutely everything that Christians believe and teach in the perfectly public Bible. This is why we must immediately be suspicious or perhaps even immediately flat-out reject any teachings that come from visions or drugs or so-called Holy Spirit filled people. Such things are not out in the open and common. Who can see the Holy Spirit in another person? Whatever is not out in the open and common—openly taught in the Scriptures—seems to contradict Paul's statement: “I had no intention of knowing anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Knowing your spiritual ABCs, never ceasing to learn them, never graduating from them, that is, repenting and believing, seems to me to be the main thrust of what Paul has been saying in these first two chapters of 1 Corinthians. Why is this so important? Because the devil's favorite activity is to dress up like an angel of light and start teaching religion. And he is one tricky shyster. As soon as you think you've avoided his errors on the left, you will find that he has already been at work with errors on the right. It is not grand and sophisticated campaigns that prove to be the devil's undoing, but, as Luther's hymn famously puts it: “One little word can fell him.” “Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us. We tremble not, we fear no ill. They shall not overpower us. This world's prince may still scowl fierce as he will. He can harm us none. He's judged; the deed is done. One little word can fell him.” Maybe that one little word is “Jesus crucified for me.” We modern people might not believe that the world is filled with devils, but even those who have a hard time believing in demons should be able to recognize that the world is filled to the brim with teachers. All these different teachers teach us different things about what is good, what is important, what is useful. They all want your allegiance for their program. Our times are exceedingly dangerous spiritually speaking. There are million ways to go wrong. There is only one way to be saved. It is as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in the one hope of your calling. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.” So when you are dealing with spiritual things, make sure you are only dealing with the one Holy Spirit, who makes known to us in the Scriptures the mind of God. What is in the mind of God? His saving will towards us in Christ Jesus. There are many other spirits and these other spirits will even and especially show up in the churches—including our own churches, seeking to lead people astray. Don't be led astray, but rather follow the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, who lays down his life for the sheep. Don't despise such simple teachings, but have the faith of a child. It is this faith, and this faith alone, which overcomes the world.

In this Sunday school lesson, Mark Twombly presents an overview of some key figures of the Pre-reformation and Reformation periods: John Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and William Tyndale. Though these men were not perfect, God used them in a powerful way to bring his saving gospel to the world. The post People of the Reformation appeared first on Calvary Community Church.

October 23: Saint John of Capistrano, Priest1386–1456Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: WhitePatron Saint of military chaplains and juristsA worldly man becomes a Franciscan and a great preacherToday's saint, like Saints Francis of Assisi, Maximilian Kolbe, Jerome Emiliani and many other male saints, was a prisoner of war. And just like all the others, imprisonment changed John of Capistrano forever. Being confined to the four walls of a prison made him realize how precious was the life that God had given him and how sad it was to waste it on frivolities. John had studied law before he was captured in battle and had even become the mayor of the major Italian city of Perugia. He was bright, energetic, and successful. Life was his oyster. John's mature decision to enter religious life was not, then, an escape hatch from real life or the last exit on a dead-end road. He had silver in his hands but dropped it to stretch for the gold. In a shocking display of humility after giving his life to Christ, John mounted a donkey backwards and rode through the streets of his town wearing only a list of his worst sins. People ridiculed him and pelted him with mud and dung. In this forlorn state, he presented himself at the door of a Franciscan monastery to seek admission. He was immediately accepted. After studies, he was ordained a priest in 1421.John's well of humility had no bottom, and his physical austerities never ceased. He continually mortified himself. He fasted, went barefoot, and slept little throughout his life. He was a protégé of the great Saint Bernardino of Siena, a fellow Franciscan. Like Bernardino, John became a renowned preacher and traveled throughout Central and Northern Europe drawing vast crowds. John lived poverty so totally that he, along with other reforming Franciscans of his generation, made it appear as if they were the measure for Christ's poverty, instead of Christ being the example and inspiration for Franciscan poverty. John's radical poverty and other reforming efforts were also the beginning of the divisions that would eventually cleave the body Franciscan into three distinct Orders.Already famous in his mid-sixties as a theologian, preacher, and inquisitor, John was appointed by the Pope to lead a team of Franciscan missionaries to Hungary and the Bohemian peoples of Central Europe. John Hus, a Bohemian priest, had been burned at the stake by the Church for heresy in 1415. This searing event had caused his followers, known as Hussites, to increasingly separate themselves from the Church. Hussite theology was a precursor to the Protestant movement that engulfed Northern Europe one hundred years after Hus' death. The Pope wanted John of Capistrano to either convert the Hussites or to subjugate them.John's mission to Hungary and Central Europe produced mixed results. He was an effective crusher of heretics, but his techniques did not always display the tact such a delicate mission required. After the shocking fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, John led a preaching crusade to unify a Christian response to the threat of impending Muslim expansion. At the age of seventy, Saint John personally led troops in a successful battle to defend Belgrade from the Turks, but he died soon afterward. Over two centuries after his death, John and his melodic last name of Capistrano were immortalized by his Franciscan brothers when they named a large mission in Southern California in his honor. The Mission of San Juan Capistrano, although ruined by earthquakes, is a much visited stop on the famous chain of missions that wind up and down the spine of California. This soldier-priest and tireless reformer and preacher was canonized in 1724.Saint John of Capistrano, we ask your intercession to embolden all preachers to present the truths of Catholicism in all their fullness and vigor, and to buttress that preaching by an impeccable life of virtue and apostolic activity. 

The story of John Hus is both one of tragedy and triumph. It is tragedy because had the church of his day listened to him instead of sending him to the stake, then the tragic split of the Reformation might have been unnecessary. It is a triumph because Hus, as a man of God and a preacher of the truth, stood firm on his principles. May we do the same!

A new MP3 sermon from TIME in the Word Ministries is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: John Hus Martyred July 6, 1415 Subtitle: Reformation Studies Speaker: Phillip M. Way Broadcaster: TIME in the Word Ministries Event: Midweek Service Date: 7/6/2022 Bible: Luke 18:38; Hebrews 11:35-40 Length: 34 min.

Aula ministrada na Escola Dominical da Igreja Presbiteriana de Vila Guarani no dia 28/02/2022

  In this week's study, I finish the study on the Church of Smyrna (myrrh). I begin with verse 10.Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison = Or, shall cause some of you to be cast into prison. He had just said that their persecutors were of the “synagogue of Satan.” He here represents Satan, or the devil - another name of the same being - as about to throw them into prison. This would be done undoubtedly by the hands of men. But still Satan was the prime mover, or the instigator in doing it. It was common to cast those who were persecuted into prison. It is not said on what pretence, or by what authority, this would be done; but, as John had been banished to Patmos from Ephesus, as tradition teaches us, it is probable that this persecution was raging in the nearby places, and there is no improbability in supposing that many might be thrown into prison.Yahweh even uses Satan sometimes to test believers.  Look to the story of Job for proof of that. Do Not Be Afraid, Yahweh Will Take Care Of You .Yahweh not only tells them not to be afraid but lets them know ahead of time that suffering is coming. We need not worry about tomorrow. It is all in Yahweh's hands if we have placed our faith in Him. We don't even need to worry about what we will do when persecution comes, when we are falsely accused, when we must stand up for our faith.  Yahweh will not allow us to perish eternally.  He may allow us to die, but not perish..  Those who stand firm to the end will be saved. Be Faithful To The Point Of Death We know that we must have faith to be born again but do we realize that we need to be faithful even to the point of death? We need to continue in the faith once for all delivered to the saints.  We have great examples of martyrs who stood up for the Faith in the past. The Bohemian reformer John Hus was a man who believed the Scriptures to be the infallible and supreme authority in all matters.  He died at the stake for that belief in Constance, Germany, on his forty-second birthday.  As he refused a final plea to renounce his faith, Hus's last words were "What I taught with my lips, I seal with my blood."  (Source Unknown) Our continued faith in the true gospel, the true Savior, is evidenced through our faith, even in persecution and death. Some would call this works. James calls it evidence of faith. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, as the song says. Verse 11: Again the Lord gives the promise that as a faithful Christian you can only die once. After that the second death cannot touch you. This was a great promise to this church, many of whose Christians did suffer physical death because of their faith in Christ.  The second death will not hurt them. My intention is to take this study to a deep level. Deeper than most of you are used to! I am asking no one to agree with me; however I do ask that you check every detail that I present out for yourself. Don't end up like those in Hosea 4:6 ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God (Elohim), I will also forget thy children.'But, be like those in 2Timothy 2:15 ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God (Yahweh), a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.'Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!Have any questions? Feel free to email me at utwoy@netzero.net

In this episode of The Bible Study, Steven Lawson teaches about the reformation in this show titled "The Road to the Reformation: Part II, John Hus."**Follow us on Social Media:Instagram: @drstevenjlawsonInstagram: @onepassionministriesTwitter: @DrStevenJLawsonTwitter: @1PassionWebsite: OnePassion.org

Like many Old Testament saints, the apostles and the New Testament Church fell under great persecution and yet grew and spread through out the world. When persecution was ceased by Constantine the church gain power over men and countries but became corrupted substituting doctrines of men over the scriptures. Martin Luther and others like John Hus, Charles Wycliffe, Erasmus, and their followers preached against this causing a change of Christian thinking and the age of Reformation.

A brief reflection on "To Avert from Men God's Wrath" by John Hus, adapted by Martin Luther. Download free at www.classichymns.org.

*****SCRIPTURES AND REFERENCES IN THIS EPISODE*****John 14 v21, 23-241 John 2 v1-42 John v9-101 Corinthians 16 v22John 14 v21John 8 v29John 14 v31Hebrews 5 v8-92 Corinthians 1 v5-7John 3 v35John 5 v20Romans 8 v32Romans 8 v6-7Ephesians 1 v3Ephesians 1 v19-20John 14 v21Matthew 27 v51-53Mark 16 v9Acts 10 v40Hebrews 9 v24Matthew 28 v20Hebrews 11 v6Matthew 13 v44-45 ****Links****DOC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDoctrineofChristSeriesDOC Email: thedoctrineofchristseries@gmail.comDOC Website: http://thedoctrineofchristseries.com*****Support This Channel*****Paypal: https://paypal.me/jimivision?locale.x=en_USMonthly Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JimivisionCash App: https://cash.app/$JimivisionVenmo: www.venmo.com/Jimmy-Cooper-17*****Links to Podcast Networks*****Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctrine-of-christ/id1499184324Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0mFiTMRND9DWJIL5Z02Yi8Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jimivision/the-doctrine-of-christ*****Youtube Playlist Links*****The Doctrine Of Christ Playlist Season 1https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWkFwuEy1YDPEmeCNKo_mz1S0Z_COcZxrThe Doctrine Of Christ Playlist Season 2https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWkFwuEy1YDNAXhB95qlyuNRTQoamCYSfThe Doctrine Of Christ Playlist Season 3https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWkFwuEy1YDMf0T2_Vt7g5CTJ4ie9A6Ab****Follow Jimivision****Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClUvYf3rZHvqQloMEoEFtlw?Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimivision/ ****Follow FOJC Radio****YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0RmdJ0nhShuDLp8Q41BlwgFollowers of Jesus Christ Web Site:http://www.fojcradio.com  or http://www.ritualabusefree.orgBrighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/overcomer

Episode 2 of Great moments in church history features John Hus. Dr. Dean Okeefe describes the impact of John Hus through the lense of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.  Not a discussion to be missed. Don't forget to hit subscribe and be part of the Ministry Exchange Podcast family.  

“How can you say to me, flee like a bird to your mountain” (Psalm 11:1 NIV). “I take refuge in the Lord,” was his reply. Yet, they continued to warn David, “But, they are preparing their bows, even now they are taking aim at your heart.” David’s reply is astounding. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” If the righteous leaders flee when the wicked are dangerously seeking to destroy them, on what foundation can the righteous build a future for the nation and a hope for their families? A great question; it is a critical question. It is a question that has been faced generation after generation. Some leaders have stood the test well while others have failed miserably. The leaders in Judah are a sad testimony of not standing for truth and failing to provide righteous leadership at an hour of moral landslide. “The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken. The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 22:25-31 NKJV). The fifteenth and sixteenth century A.D. was another crisis time. The foundations of the faith were being crushed through Aristotelian philosophy, distorted theology, greedy leadership, and moral bankruptcy. Into this foray came the clarion voices of John Hus, Savonarola, and the giant of the Reformation, Martin Luther. When being faced with the threats and condemnation of a Papal Bull at the Diet of Worms, Luther stood for truth and was bold to answer. Quoting from his own writings, he declared, “I am bound to the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. God help me. Amen.” (Martin Luther, Eric Metaxas, Viking, New York: 2017, p. 216). In the seventeenth century the Church of England was awash with distorted theology, bishops preaching politically correct sermons, and drunkenness. Again men of God rose to the occasion proclaiming truth as the Puritan movement sought to right the Church of England. Little known Gospel preacher, John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress at this critical hour. Read the rest

The Psalmist David was alarmed that he was being encouraged to flee impending danger. “How can you say to me, flee like a bird to your mountain” (Psalm 11:1 NIV). “I take refuge in the Lord,” was his reply. Yet, they continued to warn David, “But, they are preparing their bows, even now they are taking aim at your heart.” David’s reply is astounding. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” If the righteous leaders flee when the wicked are dangerously seeking to destroy them, on what foundation can the righteous build a future for the nation and a hope for their families? A great question; it is a critical question. It is a question that has been faced generation after generation. Some leaders have stood the test well while others have failed miserably. The leaders in Judah are a sad testimony of not standing for truth and failing to provide righteous leadership at an hour of moral landslide. “The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken. The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 22:25-31 NKJV). The fifteenth and sixteenth century A.D. was another crisis time. The foundations of the faith were being crushed through Aristotelian philosophy, distorted theology, greedy leadership, and  moral bankruptcy. Into this foray came the clarion voices of John Hus, Savonarola, and the giant of the Reformation, Martin Luther. When being faced with the threats and condemnation of a Papal Bull at the Diet of Worms, Luther stood for truth and was bold to answer. Quoting from his own writings, he declared, “I am bound to the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. God help me. Amen.” (Martin Luther, Eric Metaxas, Viking, New York: 2017, p. 216). In the seventeenth century the Church of England was awash with distorted theology, bishops preaching politically correct sermons, and drunkenness. Again men of God rose to the occasion proclaiming truth as the Puritan movement sought to right the Church of England. Little known Gospel preacher, John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress at this critical hour. The holiness movement and Pentecostal outpouring of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was birthed in the heart of men and women passionately seeking revival at a time when the church was growing cold spiritually. The pulpits of the land were teaching a dead theology. Higher criticism or historical criticism was denouncing the infallibility of the Word of God, mocking the virgin birth and distorting the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Into the labyrinth of spiritual distortion came a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that brought a fresh wind of spiritual life and birthed a mighty harvest of soul winning. Again, we have come to a time when people “will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:3 NKJV). They want teaching that satisfies their own desires. “[B]ecause they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV). We must have clarion voices that will lead us in these dangerous times. If not, the foundations will be destroyed and then what can the righteous do? How Should We Respond When the Foundations Are Destroyed? The Apostle Paul wrote to his spiritual son Timothy, “But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust” (1Timothy 1:8-11 NKJV). This same Gospel has been vouched safe in our hands for this generation. It is a Gospel that clearly delineates what is moral right and wrong. This Gospel presents without shadow the means of salvation provided by the Almighty and profoundly declares the consequences of rejecting His salvation. Not only is murder, kidnapping, lying and perjury among the list of unrighteousness behavior, so is fornication (pre-marital sex) and sodomy (homosexuality). Does it seem strange to you that what so clearly was part of the Gospel in the New Testament has now become blurry? Some in this generation have even outright rejected it. Can you feel the foundation shaking? Hooking up and living together is the new norm for “Christian” couples in their twenties and thirties. Divorced men and women in fifties and sixties are beginning to embrace the new moral standards as they reenter the dating scene. Strong voices in the Evangelical circles are calling for recognition of same sex marriage. Gender dysphoria is the new pop psychology being taught in Christian universities as if it were absolute truth. When a voice for the true Gospel is lifted into the cacophony moral goo they are denounced as legalistic, intolerant, and unloving. It is as if a twenty-first century higher criticism has risen denouncing the clear scriptural injunction for moral purity and holiness. You will hear some voices saying, “Homosexuality today is not the same as it was in the Old Testament and in the time of the Apostle Paul.” Other voices will call for grace, love, and understanding. One leading pastor being interviewed on a nationwide news panel was asked, “So it is not a sin your church to have an abortion?” His answer was not a clear statement of right and wrong but, “We would find out your story, where you are from. People have to live their own conviction. If I have to tell you. That is such a broad question. I am going higher.” Then he was asked, “It is not an open and shut case with you?” His answer? “Some people would say it is. I am trying to see people who Jesus is first. Hear their story first, before I start picking and choosing what is sin in their life.” Do you feel a troubling shaking in the foundation? We are seeing exactly what our Lord declared about the religious leaders of Judah. “[T]hey have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean…” Where are the spiritual leaders who will boldly, valiantly, and without compromise stand up before the politically correct, tolerance demanding public, who are “preparing their bows… taking aim at your heart” and declare “God says, ‘Be holy for I am holy’”? There is an absolute moral right and wrong. Scripture calls for a child of God to live “in righteousness and true holiness” because we have been born again put on the new nature. It is time to affirm again the foundations of the true faith, “once for all delivered to the saints.” If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider leaving us a review. This helps the Foundational podcast reach more listeners. Be sure to tell a friend about the Foundational blog and podcast, and share with them about the free Bible Reading Challenge journal they will receive when they subscribe to receive my newsletter! Learn how to engage in deep spiritual warfare for your city with The Freedom Series!   Discovering True Identity: A Believer's Position in Christ (Freedom Series) (Volume 1)Agape: Unveiling the Mask of Darkness, Setting the Captives Free (Freedom Series) (Volume 2)Charis: The Power of Grace (The Freedom Series) (Volume 3) More articles by me about the 21st Century Church

Moravians! In the 14th century, there emerged in England a grass-roots movement known as the Lollard movement, resulting from translations of the Bible into English at Oxford. John Wycliffe became associated with this and provided some leadership for it. This back to the Bible movement was picked up by John Hus in Bohemia, leading to […]

Teaching Outline: The Great Schism (1054) Filioque Authority Humbert vs. Michael The Crusades (1096-1291) Urban II Avignon Papacy (1309-1377) Unam Sanctum Papal Schism (1378-1417) Joan of Arc and The 100 Years War (1337-1453) Scholasticism (1100-1517) Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Monasticism - Benedictines (Formed 529) Franciscans (Formed 1209) Dominicans (Formed 1216) John Wyclif (1329-1384) John Hus (1369-1415) Saint Athanasius Church: https://www.saintathanasiusfc.com/ Further and Referenced Resources: Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley Church History Lectures by Ryan Reeves on YouTube The Davenant Institute The Calvinist International Minor Correction: Cathari thinking resurfaced in the 19th century

• Psalm 86 • Westminster Shorter Catechism Q29 • John Hus ( www.desiringgod.org ) • Prayer 18 Feb --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/al-washburn/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/al-washburn/support

In this episode, Gillespie and Riley jump back into another letter from John Hus. This week, they discuss Hus’ letter to the people of Prague, urging them not to give up hope in the midst of persecution. Our Text: John Hus, To the Same [To the People of Prague] (Without date: January (?) 1413) Show Notes:  Iron Sky Treebeard (Lord of the Rings) Close Talker (Seinfeld) — Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at BannedBooks@1517legacy.com. Please subscribe, rate, and review the show in Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/banned-books-podcast/id1370993639?mt=2. We’re proud to be part of 1517 Podcasts, a network of shows dedicated to delivering Christ-centered content through weekly, monthly, and seasonal audio platforms. Our podcasts cover a multitude of content, from Christian doctrine, apologetics, cultural engagement, and powerful preaching. Find out more at 1517. And as always, don't forget Gillespie's coffee for your caffeinated needs and especially the 1517 Reformation Roast  

In this episode, Gillespie and Riley dive into another letter from John Hus. This week, they take a critical look at Hus and discuss the influence of traditional Roman doctrine on Hus’ calls for reform. Our Text: John Hus, To the Faithful Bohemians (Without date: December 1412) Show Notes:  Mad Max Beyond Thunderdrome Penance A Christmas Story VeggieTales - Frozen Peas Hans J. Hillerbrand, The World of The Reformation  Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform Thomas Tentler, Sin and Confession on The Eve of The Reformation Heiko Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology — Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at BannedBooks@1517legacy.com. Please subscribe, rate, and review the show in Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/banned-books-podcast/id1370993639?mt=2. We’re proud to be part of 1517 Podcasts, a network of shows dedicated to delivering Christ-centered content through weekly, monthly, and seasonal audio platforms. Our podcasts cover a multitude of content, from Christian doctrine, apologetics, cultural engagement, and powerful preaching. Find out more at 1517. And as always, don't forget Gillespie's coffee for your caffeinated needs and especially the 1517 Reformation Roast

The Letters of Hus have long been recognised by the best judges as one of the world’s spiritual treasures. The discovery of Hus, if we may so express it, forms more than once a landmark in the spiritual development of Luther. ‘When I was a tyro at Erfurt,’ we read, ‘I found in the library of the convent a volume of The Sermons of John Hus. When I read the title I had a great curiosity to know what doctrines that heresiarch had propagated, since a volume like this in a public library had been saved from the fire. On reading I was overwhelmed with astonishment. I could not understand for what cause they had burnt so great a man, who explained the Scriptures with so much gravity and skill. But as the very name of Hus was held in so great abomination that I imagined the sky would fall and the sun be darkened if I made honourable mention of him, I shut the book and went away with no little indignation. This, however, was my comfort, that perhaps Hus had written these things before he fell into heresy. For as yet I knew not what was done at the Council of Constance’ (Mon. Hus. vol. i. Preface). Some years later, in February 1529, after pondering the matter over with Melancthon, Luther was driven to write to Spalatin: ‘I have hitherto taught [2] and held all the opinions of Hus without knowing it. With a like unconsciousness has Staupitz taught them. We are all of us Hussites without knowing it. I do not know what to think for amazement.’ In this letter Luther was probably referring to his reading of the controversial works of Hus, especially his De Ecclesia. Shortly afterwards, however, he came across a copy of the Letters. At once he perceived their value, not merely in their bearing on the expected Council convoked for Mantua, which subsequently met at Trent in 1542, but for the larger outlook of spiritual life. He took immediate steps for bringing them before the German public. In 1536 and 1537 no less than three different editions in Latin and three editions in German, each of them with a preface by Luther, issued from the presses of Wittenberg and Leipzig. The most important of these editions is that entitled Epistolæ Quædam Piissimæ et Eruditissimæ, printed at Wittenberg by John Lufft in 1537, an edition which now forms the sole extant source of many of the letters of Hus. In his preface to this volume Luther is not backward in his praises of the Letters. ‘Observe,’ he writes, ‘how firmly Hus clung in his writings and words to the doctrines of Christ; with what courage he struggled against the agonies of death; with what patience and humility he suffered every indignity, and with what greatness of soul he at last confronted a cruel death in defence of the truth; doing all these things alone before an imposing assembly of the great ones of the earth, like a lamb in the midst of lions and wolves. If such a man is to be regarded as a heretic, no person under the sun can be looked [3] on as a true Christian. By what fruits then shall we recognise the truth, if it is not manifest by those with which John Hus was so richly adorned?’ Luther is not alone in his judgment. The Letters of Hus, in the verdict of Bishop Creighton, “give us a touching picture of simple, earnest piety rooted on a deep consciousness of God’s abiding presence. These letters show us neither a fanatic nor a passionate party leader, but a man of childlike spirit, whose one desire was to discharge faithfully his pastoral duties, and to do all things as in the sight of God and not of man.”1 Other testimonies to the value of this series of letters could easily be adduced, but would add nothing to the decision of the great Reformer and the modern Historian. We may safely assert that in the years to come The Letters of Hus will form the only part of his voluminous writings that will be read even by students. For the works of Hus, as Loserth has shown, are for the most part mere copies of Wyclif, oftentimes whole sections of the great Englishman’s writings transferred bodily, without alteration or acknowledgment. The very titles are not original; their parade of learning, which deceived Luther, is completely borrowed, when not from Wyclif, from Gratian and other recognised mediæval handbooks. The Englishman Stokes was right when at Constance he bluntly asked: ‘Why do you glory in these writings, falsely labelling them your own, since after all they belong not to you but Wyclif, in whose steps you are following?’ To the same end was the taunt of his former friend, Andrew Brod: [4] ‘Was Wyclif crucified for us? were we baptised in his name?’ The case is otherwise with Hus’s Letters, eighty-two1 of which have escaped the ravages of Time. For if the controversial works of Hus have contributed little to the intellectual heritage of mankind, his Letters have enriched for ever our moral outlook. The preservation of these letters we owe for the most part to the care of Peter Mladenowic, the secretary of John of Chlum. They form a priceless memorial of one of the truest hearted of the sons of God. His later correspondence especially, his letters from exile and prison, show John Hus to be one of the chosen few who exalt humanity. Though undoubtedly the last letters are the most interesting, inasmuch as in them the personal note reaches its highest, yet in the whole series there is nothing that is unworthy, little that is tedious. Bishop Creighton is correct in his judgment: “Everything Hus writes is the result of his own soul’s experience, is penetrated with a deep moral earnestness, illuminated with a boldness and a self-forgetfulness that breathes the spirit of the cry, ‘Let God be true and every man a liar.’ ” In the belief that a wider acquaintance with The Letters of Hus will lead to a general endorsement of this verdict, we have translated into English these priceless human documents. Visit our sponsors: McFarland-Murray Chevrolet The Commercial Bank of Grayson

The Letters of Hus have long been recognised by the best judges as one of the world’s spiritual treasures. The discovery of Hus, if we may so express it, forms more than once a landmark in the spiritual development of Luther. ‘When I was a tyro at Erfurt,’ we read, ‘I found in the library of the convent a volume of The Sermons of John Hus. When I read the title I had a great curiosity to know what doctrines that heresiarch had propagated, since a volume like this in a public library had been saved from the fire. On reading I was overwhelmed with astonishment. I could not understand for what cause they had burnt so great a man, who explained the Scriptures with so much gravity and skill. But as the very name of Hus was held in so great abomination that I imagined the sky would fall and the sun be darkened if I made honourable mention of him, I shut the book and went away with no little indignation. This, however, was my comfort, that perhaps Hus had written these things before he fell into heresy. For as yet I knew not what was done at the Council of Constance’ (Mon. Hus. vol. i. Preface). Some years later, in February 1529, after pondering the matter over with Melancthon, Luther was driven to write to Spalatin: ‘I have hitherto taught [2] and held all the opinions of Hus without knowing it. With a like unconsciousness has Staupitz taught them. We are all of us Hussites without knowing it. I do not know what to think for amazement.’ In this letter Luther was probably referring to his reading of the controversial works of Hus, especially his De Ecclesia. Shortly afterwards, however, he came across a copy of the Letters. At once he perceived their value, not merely in their bearing on the expected Council convoked for Mantua, which subsequently met at Trent in 1542, but for the larger outlook of spiritual life. He took immediate steps for bringing them before the German public. In 1536 and 1537 no less than three different editions in Latin and three editions in German, each of them with a preface by Luther, issued from the presses of Wittenberg and Leipzig. The most important of these editions is that entitled Epistolæ Quædam Piissimæ et Eruditissimæ, printed at Wittenberg by John Lufft in 1537, an edition which now forms the sole extant source of many of the letters of Hus. In his preface to this volume Luther is not backward in his praises of the Letters. ‘Observe,’ he writes, ‘how firmly Hus clung in his writings and words to the doctrines of Christ; with what courage he struggled against the agonies of death; with what patience and humility he suffered every indignity, and with what greatness of soul he at last confronted a cruel death in defence of the truth; doing all these things alone before an imposing assembly of the great ones of the earth, like a lamb in the midst of lions and wolves. If such a man is to be regarded as a heretic, no person under the sun can be looked [3] on as a true Christian. By what fruits then shall we recognise the truth, if it is not manifest by those with which John Hus was so richly adorned?’ Luther is not alone in his judgment. The Letters of Hus, in the verdict of Bishop Creighton, “give us a touching picture of simple, earnest piety rooted on a deep consciousness of God’s abiding presence. These letters show us neither a fanatic nor a passionate party leader, but a man of childlike spirit, whose one desire was to discharge faithfully his pastoral duties, and to do all things as in the sight of God and no

Discover the common thread of God working through the lives of John Hus, Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, William Carey, and John & Charles Wesley. “Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.” (Hebrews 13:7)   […] The post All Saints Day (All Hallowed Eve) appeared first on Building Faith Families.

       Discover the common thread of God working through the lives of John Hus, Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, William Carey, and John & Charles Wesley. “Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come... The post Podcast 152: All Saints Day (All Hallowed Eve) appeared first on Building Faith Families.

       Discover the common thread of God working through the lives of John Hus, Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, William Carey, and John & Charles Wesley. “Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come... The post Podcast 152: All Saints Day (All Hallowed Eve) appeared first on Building Faith Families.

In this episode, you’ll get a brief introduction to the contributions of Martin Luther and John Calvin to the initiation and spread of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, including these events: 1505 Martin Luther becomes a monk 1517 Martin Luther nails 95 Theses on Wittenberg church door 1524-5 Peasants War 1536 John Calvin Read more about 117 Luther and Calvin (Five Hundred 2)[…]

In this episode, you’ll get a brief introduction to the contributions of Martin Luther and John Calvin to the initiation and spread of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, including these events: 1505 Martin Luther becomes a monk 1517 Martin Luther nails 95 Theses on Wittenberg church door 1524-5 Peasants War 1536 John Calvin Read more about 117 Luther and Calvin (Five Hundred 2)[…]

Introduction As I listened to Ben read our passage for today, I was struck by the challenge of preaching on it. Even as of this morning I was reading commentaries, wondering what I would do with the two witnesses. I worked on this sermon while I was in Bulgaria at an area group meeting; I was completely immersed in “two witnesses” all the time. The missionaries in Bulgaria were not thinking about the two witnesses and had no idea what I was talking about. I want to begin this sermon in an unusual way with three application-oriented illustrations, though you have not even heard the sermon yet. These are more general applications on why we should read the book of Revelation, and especially chapters like this which have difficult sections with have so many details that are hard to understand. The first illustration comes from the story of Rebekah when she was pregnant with twins. The twins were jostling inside her womb and she did not know what was happening to her. She inquired of the Lord, “Why is happening to me?” The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb…” [Genesis 25:22-23] He gave her a prophecy about her children, whom we know were Jacob and Esau. The first reason we should read the book of Revelation is that as we experience life, we will have trouble — anguish, persecution, affliction, trial, difficulty — and all the more as we are faithful as witnesses to Christ. The more faithful we are, the more trouble and persecution will come to us in this world. We know that. We can say, “What is happening to me?” not only in relation to ourselves but more so to our brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted or going through hard times. We go to the Lord and he gives us the explanation, which is far weightier and far longer lasting than we can possibly imagine. Reason number one to read about the two witnesses is to understand our own life. Second illustration: My father was from Miami, Florida and when I was a child, we went one time for Christmas down to Miami from Massachusetts, my home state. I forget how old I was, but I was little. We got packed up in the car and started rolling south. As we crossed the state line into Connecticut, I asked the famous question of that age child: “Are we almost there?.” That is an irritating question for a father who knows we are nowhere near almost there. I have no idea what my dad said to me. We made a similar trip to Daytona Beach for Spring Break when I was at MIT with Campus Crusade. I knew that we were almost there as the weather got warmer and warmer. Traveling from New England, from Massachusetts, you could tell as the trip unfolded where you were. My point is that we Christians believe in a linear view of history. We do not believe in karma and endless cycles. We believe there is a point A and a point B. In Revelation 22:13, Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” We are going somewhere, and the Lord has, in his wisdom, given us this incredible book to tell us details about where we are going, that we might know the things that must soon take place. That is what it says at the beginning of the book. We can know the future. You might wonder what this has to do with you for today or tomorrow. Perhaps nothing directly, although studying the book of Revelation tends to shape and color the way you see your everyday life. So it does have an impact on whatever your day holds tomorrow, whether you are a student, a stay-at-home mom, or a man with a certain job working with your hands or with your mind. Whatever you do tomorrow, the book of Revelation, as you immerse yourself, your mind and soul in it, will color the way you see things. You will see the world differently, realizing how temporary everything is as we move to a final Omega day. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end, has already figured that day out. He had it planned out before the foundation of the world, and he has chosen to give us some details about what it will look like. It is very powerful. The third illustration comes from a question I wrestle with a great deal, and that is, “Why is this book so complicated and difficult?” The image in my mind is of a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. I do not know that I have ever done a 1000 piece puzzle, but I have done some big ones. The way I approach jigsaw puzzles must frustrate my family — I set all the pieces out in a matrix and go through systematically like a machine. It is boring and awful. Most of you would likely look at the cover to see what the final picture looks like — there is a sky, a sea, one of those old mills, some trees. You would collect all the tree pieces together, all the river pieces together, all the stone pieces together, and fit the smaller elements together first. So today, we will try to gather together like pieces and start to fit them together. We are not going to cut off little nubs or fill in little empty spaces with speculation or imagination; we will try to make them fit like they should. So I am asking you this morning to work hard with me on this text. It will not be easy, but we will try to assemble some sub-pictures and then see how they fit together with other sub-pictures and the big picture. I could take the easy way out and look at only the big picture on the two witnesses, as you heard Ben read about. There will be two witnesses (or are now, depending on how you look at it) standing before the Lord of all the earth, proclaiming and prophesying in the power of God. They have a hard time; they are persecuted and put to death, but they rise and ascend to Heaven and glory. The big picture is this: We are called on to witness to Jesus Christ. The ministry of reconciliation has been given to us. We are still set in a hostile world. Satan, whom we will talk much about in the next number of weeks, will oppose us, will fight us, using government for that purpose, so the church will be witnessing to Christ in a hostile world. We will have a hard time but we will be faithful, and in the end our enemies will be judged by the wrath of God if they do not repent, while we ourselves will be in heaven. That is the big picture, and I do not know any evangelical that would not sign off on that big picture. Here is one additional illustration. We are flying at 35,000 feet. There is the sun — the bright round yellow ball; there is the blue sky; there are the white puffy things — clouds. Through the occasional break in the cloud, we see some green down there — earth. That is the big picture. But friends, are you interested in the details? Do they matter? Yes, they do. We will exegete these 14 verses to look at the details. I cannot agree with many conservative Calvinistic commentators that discuss the big picture and say, “This is a representation of the church in its suffering witness in the world and of the final judgment of the enemies of God.” I do not think the details line up with that big picture. It is literally about two individuals who at some point will stand on the Earth in Jerusalem, testify before the Antichrist, and die at his hand, but will rise after three and a half days to ascend to heaven. That will have a certain impact, specifically on the Jewish nation, that I will talk about today. Do your best to follow with me — if all I am covering is the big picture, then the sermon would be over and we would be going into applications now, such as “Be faithful witnesses, be praying, etc.” That would be easy to do, but I will not do that. The details say that there will some day be two individuals. I have already answered why you should care about them, though I will add to that application at the end. God’s Messengers Throughout Redemptive History Two Messengers who Speak the Words of God Before I walk through this, understand what we mean by the prophetic witness of the world, the fact that the ministry or message of reconciliation has been entrusted to us, the disciples of Jesus Christ. This is significant because salvation of lost people depends on this. This is what we heard from Jonathan’s baptism today, what we believe — we are surrounded by lost people everyday. Every one of those sinners is under the wrath of God right now. Those who are not Christians are presently under the wrath of God, which abides on them (John 3:36). The only answer is the gospel of Christ. [Romans 10:13-15] “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? [That’s the point.] And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” The key to our salvation is the ability to accept the word of God through human messengers. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul says to the Thessalonian believers, “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.” The Bible and sermons are not merely human words but a living active powerful word from God. It can change your heart and soul. What is a Prophet? What is a prophet? These two are prophets with power to prophesy. A prophet is an individual who stands up, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and says, “Thus says the Lord.” He says the words of the Lord directly. The office was instituted for the nation of Israel after they had come out of bondage in Egypt and through the Red Sea. They came to Mount Sinai where they received the Ten Commandments, the Law of God. As God descended on Mount Sinai in fire and cloud, shaking the ground beneath them, he spoke the Ten Commandments. The people were so terrified to hear the voice of God that they pleaded with Moses. “Please, would you go up the mountain and stand in the presence of God and hear His words and come down and tell us? We will listen to you.” God said, “What these people have said is good.” The prophet would stand in the presence of God. God said in Deuteronomy, “I will raise up a prophet like you, and he will speak to the people.” God actually raised up many prophets — Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel — who spoke the word of God. Israel Refused to Listen But consistently the Jewish people would not listen to them. Again and again the Jewish nation refused to heed the Word of God. Stephen charged Israel with this crime in Acts 7:51-52. He said to the Sanhedrin representing the whole Jewish nation, “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? And now you have betrayed and murdered [the Son of God].” That is the culmination of their rejection of the message, the word of God through the prophets: they killed Christ, together with the Gentile leader, Pontius Pilate. Throughout the Old Testament we have clear evidence of the Jewish nation refusing to listen to the prophets whom God sent. As the Northern Kingdom of Israel was about to be deported by the Assyrians, this summary statement happens in 2 Kings 17:13-15: “The LORD warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: "Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees... But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the LORD their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.” All the more, as Stephen pointed out, when the culmination of the prophetic ministry, Jesus, stood before them. They would not heed him but handed him over to the Gentiles to be killed. Two Witnesses Are the Final Prophetic Warning I believe these two witnesses are a portion of God’s final warning to the Jewish nation to turn and trust in Christ, and I believe that they will be effective. In the end, God will take hardness or blindness away from the Jewish nation, and they will turn and believe in Christ. That has to happen before he appears in the clouds. It has to happen by hearing the word preached. I think that these two witnesses will stand at a key final moment with a final opportunity to testify, and I think it will be effective. The Temple Measured: God’s Meticulous Control Let’s begin with Revelation 11:1-2, in which the temple is measured. We see God’s meticulous control here. “I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.’” John Involved in Action As often happens in the book of Revelation, John is drawn into the visionary, apocalyptic action. In Revelation 4, he is invited to go up through a doorway to heaven. In Revelation 5, he weeps and weeps because no one is found worthy to take the scroll from the right hand of God until Jesus appears and takes it. In Revelation 10 he is commanded to take the scroll which lay open in the hand of the mighty angel, and to eat it. He is likewise involved here, given work to do. He is given a reed like a measuring rod. The task here is of measuring and counting. The Greek word for reed implies a tubular long plant that would grow in marshy areas, sometimes used as a measuring stick. It could grow as long as 10 feet, very lightweight and stiff. He is told to measure the temple of God and the altar, and then he is told to count the worshipers there. In the vision of Ezekiel, in chapters 40-48, which I consider to be nine of the hardest chapters in the Bible to interpret, the prophet is present while an angel measures an idealized prophetic temple with a measuring stick. He also measures the walls, the courtyards, the land surrounding the temple, and the river of life flowing from that temple, which gets deeper and wider as it goes, and Ezekiel reports those measurements. Here in Revelation, we do not hear the results, only that John is told to measure. The “Temple of God” What is this temple that he is to measure? It is a very difficult question to answer. I believe that Revelation was the last book of the Bible to be written. Most scholars put it at the very end of the first century, around 80 or 90 AD. John was a very old man. By that time then, the Jewish temple would have been destroyed two decades prior by the Romans, so there is no earthly temple in John’s day. Those who hold to a literal view say that this temple is built by the Jews under the reign of the Antichrist. Some call it the tribulation temple, which will be built during the last seven years of human history and is where the Jews will renew the animal sacrificial system. Though I do believe that will happen, it is very important to realize that it is repugnant to God. I do not hold with dispensational theology that say there are two tracks, one for the Jews and one for the rest. When Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. God signified by doing so that the new and living way into the Holy of Holies is open through Jesus, and therefore, animal sacrifice was obsolete and aging and would soon pass away (Hebrews 8). The blood of bulls and goats has never taken away sin. It was symbolic. The need for symbolism is done now that Jesus has come. But someone at some point sewed that curtain back up. I guarantee Jewish hands did it. They re-established animal sacrifice for at least several decades after Jesus, through the 40s, 50s, 60s, on to 70 AD. Why? Because they did not believe in Jesus, that he was anything but a deceiver of the people, or that the animal sacrificial system was finished. They killed Stephen for saying so, and they would do the same to the Apostle Paul for saying that the animal sacrificial system had been fulfilled in Jesus. It is obsolete; we do not need it anymore. Hebrews 9:26 says, “…now [Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Once. For all. Done. The temple in Revelation 11 is called the Temple of God. That is significant. I do not think God wants his name attached to that physical temple in the Book of Revelation. This must be a heavenly sanctuary, the true temple in Heaven. This is the way the word “temple” is usually used in the book of Revelation. The tabernacle (the tent) and Solomon’s temple (a physical building that was built) both were built according to a heavenly pattern that was shown, first to Moses then to David, of how to build it. Those were earthly copies of a heavenly reality. The author to Hebrews says in 8:5, “They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.” The true temple is up in heaven. Revelation 11:19 says, “Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.” That is the heavenly temple. If this is a heavenly temple, what is the outer court, the Court of the Gentiles, that will be trampled by the gentiles for 42 months? I believe that is the earthly version, Jerusalem. I will talk more about that in a moment. Measuring = God’s Knowledge and Protection Measuring implies God’s careful knowledge and protection and his provision of scope and limitation. God is a God of details and mathematics. Some may argue that God is only artistic to the exclusion of precision mathematics, or vice versa. Both are true. There is so much beauty but also order and precision. Scripture says even the very hairs of your head are numbered. In this context, John is telling believers not to fear their persecutors. God knows the numbers of hairs on your head and will protect you. This also refers to election, that there is a specific number of people whom God will save; none will be lost. This is reassurance, not random, as though God does not know what is happening. God knows exactly by name all that he will save, all whom the Father gives to Jesus, who will com to Christ. There is also a sense of delimitation, of provision through boundaries which he has set that up for all of creation. Job 38:8-11 says, “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?” When you go to the seashore in North Carolina or Cape Cod or anywhere in the world, you see a thin boundary of sand and dune grass —that is not protecting you from flooding. It is the will of God by the word of God that puts a limit to things. Here in Revelation 11 is a sense of the limitation and protection of the people of God versus the satanic forces that will engulf the earth at that point. John says that the Court of the Gentiles has been given over to them to be trampled for 42 months, referring to the worst part of the reign of Antichrist. My Interpretation Here is my big picture interpretation. Revelation 11 has two parts. The measurement of the temple and the counting of the worshipers — part one. The work of the two witnesses in Jerusalem — part two. Many take a figurative approach, saying it is in general talking about the witness of Christians in the world and the persecution they endure, their final glory, and the final judgment of the enemies. All of those things are true, but I think that is insufficient to explain the details of this chapter. Therefore, I will take a literal interpretation here. The details, for example fire coming out of the mouths of the prophets or their ability to strike the earth with plagues, do not line up with general Christian witness over 20 centuries. Nothing like that has happened. Our desire usually is the conversion of our enemies, so we turn the other cheek, not consume them with fire. Therefore, I believe this is a final phase of witness in which God is openly displaying His wrath. Verse 14 is situated between the second and third woe, which lines it up with the seven trumpet judgments. I will talk more about that in a moment. Another key in interpretation, especially regarding Jerusalem and the temple, comes from 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, which is not apocalyptic, not prophetic visionary language, but rather an epistle written to a New Testament church by Paul. The Thessalonians were being told by false teachers that the end had already come and they had missed the day of the Lord, they'd missed it like a train like a ship that had sailed. The people were greatly discouraged, having missed the day of the Lord. No — it is not possible to miss the Day of the Lord, so Paul says this to the Thessalonians: “…that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed… the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” It is interesting phraseology. The phrase “God’s temple” is used differently than in Revelation 11. Antichrist will set himself up in, supposedly, “God’s temple”, proclaiming himself to be, supposedly, “God”. I put those in quotes because they are equally invalid. He is as much God as he is in God’s temple. It is significant and meaningful. The end will not come until that happens. The man of lawlessness is the Antichrist that is coming of 1 John 2:18. “… you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.” There are many dress rehearsals but one final Antichrist coming who is the focus of Revelation 13. This one specifically rises up and kills these two witnesses. Based on prophecy from Daniel and on Jesus’ statement here, at the end of the world a powerful ruler will rise up and make a covenant with the Jews for the rebuilding of the temple and the establishment of the animal sacrificial system. I am walking a middle ground between Reform commentators that do not talk about details of the future at all and dispensational types that talk about many details (allowing for a separate plan for the Jews), to say that this temple will be in no way pleasing to God, but it will be built at some future point. The tribulation temple is the place where the Jews will resume animal sacrifice, but halfway through the final seven year period, the Antichrist will break His covenant with them and put an end to animal sacrifice and set himself up as God within that temple. The true temple is in heaven where Christ went to present his own blood. It will culminate in the second coming of Christ, in which Jesus will destroy the Antichrist by the breath of His mouth. 2 Thessalonians 2:8, “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.” This is an epistle, telling you what will happen; it is not apocalyptic. The Two Messengers: God’s Powerful Warning Their Mission Now we focus on the two witnesses in verse 3: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” They are sent by Almighty God to prophesy, to speak forth his words. God is sending them to planet earth, which is hurting and reeling from being judged. They are situated between the second and third woe. As we saw in Revelation 8 and 9, the seven trumpets came from the seven seals. Six of the seven trumpets have been blown at this point in the account. The first trumpet was hail and fire mixed with blood, burning up a third of the earth and the trees and all the green grass. The second trumpet was a huge blazing mountain that fell into the sea, turning a third of the sea into blood and killing a third of all living creatures in the sea and destroying a third of the ships. The third trumpet was the blazing star named Wormwood, which fell on fresh water and poisoned a third of the water supply. The fourth trumpet was the sun, the moon, and the stars, darkened to a third of their usual illumination or intensity. The fifth trumpet was demons pouring up out of the abyss, the abode and place of punishment of demons, released to afflict and torment human beings for five months, like a plague of locusts but stinging like scorpions. The sixth trumpet resulted in a (likely) mixed demonic and human army spreading over the surface of the earth, which killed one-third of the population of the earth. These events have been absolutely staggering. But without someone interpreting them for the people, saying, “This is happening because of your sins”, they will not know to view it as a religious event. Thus, these two witnesses are a grace from God to unbelievers, who do not have the Bible, to explain what is happening. Their task will be difficult. They will tell suffering people who are in agony and torment that they are suffering because of their own sins, but the God who is sending these afflictions will welcome them back and forgive them if they will only turn to Christ. That is the message. You can imagine it will not be well-received. It will be a hard message to give. Not only that, I believe there is an additional wrinkle that fits into the overall eschatological scheme. The two witnesses will tell the Jews that the temple that is being rebuilt is worthless, and that they should turn from these vain things and from animal sacrifice and trust in Jesus. That will not be popular with the Jews. Needless to say, the Antichrist, the ultimate control freak, will not appreciate these two telling the truth about who he is and pleading with people to come to Christ. He will do what he can to assault them. When they are finished prophesying, the Antichrist, the beast from the abyss, will rise up and kill them. These two are sent out as a pair, patterned after Jesus sending out his disciples two by two. They reflect the general pattern in the Bible that every matter must be established by the testimony of at least two witnesses. They are also able at the human level to encourage one another. It is hard, day after day for 1260 days. In verse 3, God empowers them: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days.” This is like Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses.” The real power of the prophets will be in their words from their mouths. Jeremiah 23:29 says, “‘Is not my word like fire,’ declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” God’s word is powerful like a fire and a hammer. The two witnesses will have a powerful presence. They will be bold and unafraid and will stand firm though surrounded by rage and hostility. It reminds me of the ministry of Jeremiah, who was sent with a very unpopular message at the end of that phase of Judah’s history. In Jeremiah 15:20-21, God says to Jeremiah, “‘I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.’” How much more these two witnesses? God also gives them supernatural powers to do miracles, as we will see in just a moment. Their Location Where are they located? For me this is one of the easier parts, though not every commentator agrees. They will be ministering in the city of Jerusalem. Verse 8 says, “… where also their Lord was crucified.” Given that Jesus, who was their Lord, was crucified, there are only two options: it refers either to planet earth or the city of Jerusalem. Yes, he was crucified on earth, but it seems to be more specific. This refers to the city of Jerusalem. Why is it called Sodom? At that point it is a wicked immoral place. Why is it called Egypt? Again, the same thing. The Jews remember their bondage, their slavery in Egypt. As the Apostle Paul says, the physical Jerusalem is in bondage with her children. Thus, the location of the witnesses is a symbol of wickedness and bondage and where their Lord was crucified. Furthermore, the Antichrist will be there. Commentators say that it is not Jerusalem because of the term “great city”. They usually interpret that as Rome, the city of military power. The Antichrist definitely has a military-governmental power aspect, that's true, but he also has a religious aspect. He wants to be feared and obeyed, but also worshiped as God. That puts him, in the providence of God, in Jerusalem. Their Duration They will prophesy in the city of Jerusalem for a certain length of time. The time measured out for their ministry is 1260 days. That same span of time is given to us in four different ways: 1260 days; 42 months, with the standard solar month being 30 days; time, times and half a time, meaning three and a half years; and Daniel’s 70th week — he describes 70 “sevens” in which Jesus is cut off in the 69th “seven”, then one last “seven” at the end of time. The Hebrew translation of Daniel 9 uses the term “halfway”: “In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice…” Half of seven is three and a half. Elijah shut up the sky for three and a half years. We see this number again and again: time, times and half a time, in Daniel 12:7; the woman in Revelation 12 who gives birth to the male child flees into the desert to be protected for 1260 days. In Verse 2 of this chapter, the Gentiles “trample on the holy city for 42 months.” This is a consistent length of time. The only question is whether this length of time occurs in the first half or the second half of the seven year period. It makes sense that it is the first half. They prophesy in relative peace, while the temple is being built, while things are being established. Then the Antichrist clamps down on them and the horror starts in the second half. Their Clothing and Demeanor Verse 3 says they are “clothed in sackcloth.” Sackcloth is a sign of mourning and grieving over the seriousness of the sin of the nation, of the people. Elijah wore it continually as he prophesied to the people, as did Isaiah. Their demeanor is also serious, in keeping with their clothing. They will preach a message something like this: “Hear now, you inhabitants of the earth, listen to what we have to say. You are suffering as no generation has ever suffered in history. You are suffering ecological disasters, torment and death — a third of earth’s population has died. None of these things is accidental. They are sent as judgments from Almighty God, the God who created Heaven and earth, the sea and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, the sky and everything that flies through it. This God you have offended by your violation of his laws. You are idolaters, wicked and sinful." “But God, in his grace, is giving you an opportunity. You are not dead; you are alive and can hear what we say. He sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, under the wrath of God, to take away the penalty of sin. If you believe in him, trust in him, all your sins will be forgiven; you will not suffer the real torment, eternity in hell." “And you Jews, who are here for the building of the temple, do not think that God is pleased with this. This is an abomination of desolation. The temple itself is displeasing to God. God sent his son as the final sacrifice. The blood of bulls and goats will not save you. You do not need to turn to these vain empty things, or to go back to an obsolete law that has passed away. Come to Christ and trust in him. Do not trust in what this ruler is doing. He is deceiving you. Believe in Jesus.” Their Prophetic Heritage Verse 4 calls the witnesses “…the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.” The Lord of the earth is either God or the Antichrist. They stand before both, in a sense. They stand before God and truly serve him, but they also stand in front of this wicked man and boldly proclaim the truth. The image of the two olive trees and lampstands is from Zechariah 4. The message is a symbol of Israel’s ministry in the world to be a light, a golden lampstand, to the world, an oil flowing. The real message is this: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.” [Zechariah 4:6] Only by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God will any transformation and salvation happen. They stand there in the power of the Lord, and by the power of the Spirit they preach. Their Identity Who are they? John MacArthur has said that he would volunteer to be one of the two. The simple answer is the text does not tell us who they are. The way they are able to judge the earth and strike it with various plagues points to two key individuals: Moses, who is able to turn the water of the Nile into blood and strike the land of Egypt with plagues; and Elijah who calls down fire. In 2 Kings 1:9-10, wicked king Ahaziah sends a captain with 50 men to capture Elijah. The captain says, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!’ Elijah answered, ‘If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!’ Then fire fll from heaven and consumed the captain and his men. A second captain goes with the same demeanor and attitude, yielding the same result. The third captain sent by the king is a wiser man. I picture him on his knees saying, “Elijah, if you wouldn’t mind, please have respect for my life. I have a wife and kids. I want to eat dinner at my home tonight. Would you mind coming?” Elijah complies and gives the hard message to the king. Given the fire Elijah calls down from heaven, many people think the witnesses must be Moses and Elijah. Those two also appear with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. At this point it is all speculation; however, they will definitely be real individuals. Their Power Verses 5-6 say, “If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.” Again, this is not the character and nature of Christian witness for twenty centuries. Christians, such as John Hus and William Tyndale, are the ones who are burned at the stake, persecuted and killed, not the ones who bring the fire. In the book of Luke, James and John asked Jesus if they should call down fire when a Samaritan village would not let them enter. But Jesus rebuked them. In his Incarnation, the son of man did not come into the world to destroy lives but to save them. That is not the case with his Second Coming. At that time, he will come to judge and kill, as Revelation 19 makes clear. Prior to that, there is a clear display of God’s wrath as a final warning to the sinful human race. These two fit into that display. Their ministry is different than ours. We are like Stephen — as we are stoned and sink to our death, we say, “Lord, please do not hold this sin against them. Please let some of them come to Christ” — some like Saul of Tarsus. We want our persecutors to come to Christ. But at that time, those who physically attack these two (not simply those who mock or do not believe their message), fire comes out of their mouth to consume their attackers. Whether literally (which will be possible) or figuratively, (I do not think a literal sword comes out of Jesus’ mouth to slay his enemies), they have the power to do so either way. They also have the power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain. This is a grievous plague — after Wormwood has polluted a third of the water, now they are not getting rain. This is the final prophetic warning to the Jewish nation: “…so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’” [Romans 11:26-27] Their Death Verse 7 says, “Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.” We will meet the beast again in Revelation 13, where he is not called the “Beast from the Abyss" but the “Beast from the Sea”, though I think they are one and the same, the Antichrist. John already knows who the beast is but he gives us a foretaste here. The beast that we meet two chapters from now is the one that rises up, overpowers them and kills them. God is in the process of raising up monsters, mighty Leviathan sea creatures and dragons, Goliath figures, and then defeating them. The final monster that will rise up, humanly speaking, will be this Antichrist. His power will be evident in that he defeats these two witnesses, actually able to kill genuine people of God. But this is not the final word. He himself will be destroyed by the breath of Jesus’ mouth and by the splendor of his coming. How great will our joy be when Christ’s power is displayed at that time. This will be the fulfillment of the horn in Daniel 7:21 that “was waging war against the saints and defeating them.” It says “saints,” plural. He will wage war not only against these two, but against all the saints on earth at that point. That does not preclude a literal interpretation here. He will wage war on these two and defeat them, and they will die. Their Dishonor The witnesses will then be dishonored. Verses 8-10: “Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.” This wicked world, so filled with hatred for God and his people, will overflow with dishonor and disrespect by not letting these two be buried, and with joy such that they actually send each other gifts to celebrate their death. One commentator, who interpreted this text figuratively, said mockingly, “What, will the whole world watch by television?!” At the time that person, who is a good brother and scholar, wrote his commentary, television was the primary medium for news. Now we can livestream any event, any time for all to see on their phones. That is a big part of 21st century culture. It is not so hard now to imagine that the death of these two will be captured on livestream and that the whole world will be able to gaze on their bodies in some sense and celebrate. Their Resurrection After three and a half days, they rise again from the dead. Terror seizes those who see their resurrection. Verses 11-12 say, “But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.” Why are they resurrected? To vindicate their message. Jesus, it says in Romans 4:25, was raised to life for our justification. Resurrection is the vindication of Christ and everyone who believes in him. Their Impact Verse 13 says, “At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed [clear judgment on that part of the city]. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and [here is the point] the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.” Praise God. Some people will get the message. Who? Let’s start with the Jewish nation. Something must turn them. They are bitterly disappointed by the Antichrist, and the animal sacrifice will not happen now. Perhaps they are able to listen to the message that these two have been preaching now for 1260 days and will turn to Christ. Finally, Revelation 11:14 says, “The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.” Applications Come to Christ! First, I have preached the Gospel to you this morning. You will go outside, as we do every week, and everything will look normal, like it always does. You must decide if you believe the Word of God that says these things will happen. How will understanding the details of the two witnesses help you in your life tomorrow? I don't know, but if you are lost, I would urge that you flee to Christ. You do not know when the Antichrist and all these details will happen, but you also do not know when you're gonna die. This very day might be your last day on earth, so come to Christ, trust in him while there is still time. Witness! Second, for those who are already Christians, having crossed over from death to life, our job is to witness to those who have not crossed over yet. We show a striking lack of courage and boldness. Pray to the God who will give these folks incredible boldness to give you boldness this week to share the Gospel, to say something to somebody. Try asking someone at work or school if they have ever read the Book of Revelation. Have a conversation, talk about the Gospel. Apply the Illustrations Finally, understand my three illustrations: When we ask why something is happening, recognize that God is at work. The suffering we go through is part of God’s plan. When we ask where we are heading and if we are there yet, recognize that crossing the border into Connecticut is not the same as arriving in Miami. We have a long way to go, but in time, perhaps within our generation or our children’s, it will come. So parents, tell your children the details things to prepare them. And start to put the puzzle together. Reread this passage and all of this book. There is a blessing given to everyone who reads and understands the words of the Book of Revelation. Closing Prayer Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for the time we have had to go through these very complicated challenging verses. I thank you for the things that we have learned. I thank you for the celebration that we have had in worship. I thank You for Wes and his wife Annie being with us today. Thank you for the grace we see in their lives. Thank you for the baptism. And Lord, I pray that as we go from here, that you would please enable us, Lord, to be witnesses, enable us to be bold and courageous. We know that we will not be as bold and courageous as we could be, but Lord, give us more boldness than we have ever shown before. Help us to reach out to the perishing and to share the message of life. We thank you for these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Joshua 1:1-9 Watch Video Download Manuscript Download Handout Listen to MP3 → Click to view the Sermon Outline Genesis 6:14-18 - Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood…I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. Genesis 6:22 - Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. Hebrews 11:8-10 - By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 1 Samuel 17:45-47 - Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.” Matthew 14:28-29 - Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. Deuteronomy 31:1-8 - So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and the Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’ It is the Lord your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as the Lord has spoken. The Lord will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them. The Lord will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” 3 elements of courage necessary to make a difference for God I. Courageous Enough to Acknowledge Sin A. For Joshua Deuteronomy 9:4-5 - Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, “Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,” but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Joshua 7:6 - Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. Joshua 7:10-11 - So the Lord said to Joshua, “Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things.” Joshua 7:19-20 - Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did…” B. For Martin Luther (1483-1546) “St. Anne help me.  I will become a monk.” “The head of the monastery, the ‘prior,’ stood upon the steps of the altar while Luther prostrated himself before him. The prior asked, ‘What seekest thou?’ to which the young novice replied, ‘God’s grace and thy mercy.’ The prior then raised him up and asked if he was married, a bondsman or afflicted with secret disease, to which Luther replied, ‘NO.’ The prior then described to him the rigors of the life he now entered; the renunciation of self-will, the scant diet, rough clothing, vigils by night and labors by day, the mortification of the flesh, the reproach of poverty, the shame of begging and the distasteful existence of life lived in the cloister.  Was he ready to take upon himself these burdens? ‘Yes, with God’s help and in so far as human frailty allows,’ and he was admitted to a year of probation. As the choir sang, his head was ‘tonsured’ his clothes were exchanged for the habit of a monk and he bowed. Over him the prior prayed, ‘Hear, O Lord, our heartfelt pleas and deign to confer thy blessing on this thy servant, whom in thy holy name we have clad in the habit of a monk, that he may continue with thy help faithful in thy church and merit eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978), pp. 26-27 “At one point his exasperated superior, Father Staupitz exclaimed, ‘Brother Martin.  If you’re going to confess so much, why don’t you go do something worth confessing?  Kill your mother or father!  Commit adultery!  Quit coming in here with such flummery and fake sins!’ (Pasma, p. 9) C. For you and me 1. Beginning at salvation Matthew 5:3-4 - Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Romans 3:10 - …as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one…” Romans 3:20 -        …because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. 2. In the way we solve problems Matthew 7:3 - Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Romans 7:19 - For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 3. In the way we embrace suffering Romans 12:17-19 - Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 4. In the way we explain Christian growth Romans 15:14 - And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. II. Courageous Enough to Clarify Your Beliefs A. For Joshua Joshua 1:7-8 - Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. B. For Martin Luther Hebrews 10:11 - Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins… 1513-15 – Psalms 1515–16 – Romans 1516-17 – Galatians 1517-18 – Hebrews Psalm 22:1 - My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Psalm 85:10 - Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. “Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that ‘the just shall live by his faith.’  Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith.  Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.  The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the ‘justice of God’ had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.  This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven…If you have a true faith that Christ is your Saviour, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God’s heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love.” (Bainton, pp. 49-50) “I cry to thee in direst need.      O God, I beg thee hear me.  To my distress I pray give heed. O Father, draw thou near me. If thou shouldst wish to look upon the wrong and wickedness I’ve done, how could I stand before thee?  With thee is naught but untold grace ever more forgiving. We cannot stand before thy face, not by the best of living. No man boasting may draw near. All the living stand in fear Thy grace alone can save them. Therefore, in God I place my trust, my own claim denying. Believe in him alone I must, on his sole grace relying. He pledged to me his plighted word. My comfort is in what I heard.     There will I hold forever.” (Bainton, p. 271) C. For you and me 2 Timothy 4:1-4 - I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. III. Courageous Enough to Stand for Truth A. For Joshua Joshua 24:15 - If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. B. For Martin Luther “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason-for I can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves-I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen.” C. For you and me   Outlined Manuscript - Would you agree with me this am that often when God wishes to use a person in the accomplishment of His program large or small – one of the characteristics He supplies, and one of the characteristics He expects – is that of spiritual courage… - God is pleased when people step out in faith and take Him at His Word…attempting things that will only come to pass if the Lord is who He says He is… - for example, the Lord tells Noah in Genesis 6 – because the earth was filled with violence…and all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth…Genesis 6:14-18 - Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood…I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. - that would take faith…that would take courage…and the repeated phrase you see throughout that passage is this…Genesis 6:22 - Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. - you could say the same thing about Abraham -- Hebrews 11:8–10 - By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. - taking that step of obedience required spiritual courage… - we could say the same thing about David when he looked at that big giant Goliath…1 Samuel 17:45–47 - Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. “This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.” - would it be fair to say that young David possessed a fair amount of spiritual courage?... - And when you start to think about it – it’s amazing how often this issue comes up in Scripture…not just in the OT by the way – but the NT as well… - Remember when the disciples saw Jesus walking on water…What did Peter say?...Hey – I wanna do that…Matthew 14:28–29 - Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. - yes its true that he took his eyes off Jesus and he started to sink…but at least he had the courage to get out of the boat, huh?... - So the principle is clear -- often when God wishes to use a person in the accomplishment of His program large or small – one of the characteristics He supplies, and one of the characteristics He expects – is that of spiritual courage…God is pleased when people step out in faith and take Him at His Word… - now, there’s probably another place in the Bible that has already come to your mind…because this particular characteristic is specifically and repeated mentioned… - it’s when Moses is about to die…and Joshua has been chosen to lead the children into the promised land…and what is it that’s continually emphasized?... - Deuteronomy 31:1–8 - So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come and go, and the Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross this Jordan.’ “It is the Lord your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as the Lord has spoken. “The Lord will do to them just as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them. “The Lord will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. “The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” - see, what is Joshua going to need to be used of God to accomplish this next phase of the Lord’s sovereign plan?...no doubt about that one huh?...he’s going to need to be strong and courageous… - now, why am I raising this issue this am…it’s because that’s the way you could summarize one of the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation – Martin Luther – A Man of Courageous Faith. - with that in mind, please open your Bible chapter 1…page 161 of the front section of the Bible under the chair in front of you… - our church’s theme this year is – In Christ Alone…because…this is the 500 anniversary of the Protestant Reformation…a crucial time in church history whose emphases could be summarized around the five great solas of the reformation…that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone… - We started the year with a verse by verse exposition of the book of Colossians…now we’ve switched over to a study on The Messianic Psalms… - but we explained at the beginning of the year that we were going to have some pit stops along the way… - so if you’re brand new to all of this – these presentations are available on-line… - but we had one Sunday that was just a general introduction to this important time in church history… - then we did a historical presentation of two men you might call pre-reformers…John Wycliffe and John Hus… - honestly it’s difficult to narrow the character sketches down to just three Sundays this year because there are so many men and women from which to choose… - but there’s no question about this one – you couldn’t study the reformation without discussing the man we have before us today – the German monk Martin Luther…he truly was Martin Luther – A Man of Courageous Faith. - now our plan this morning is to compare his life to Joshua in the OT…because they were similar in several very important ways…and ultimately great examples for you and me today… - read Joshua 1:1-9 - so we’re talking about Martin Luther – A Man of Courageous Faith – and with the time we have remaining this am…let’s think about 3 elements of courage necessary to make a difference for God I. Courageous Enough to Acknowledge Sin A. For Joshua - the reason the Canaanites were being driven out of the promised land was because of their sinful idolatrous ways… - in other words, God was using His people as an instrument of judgment at this time in history… - we read about that in places like…Deuteronomy 9:4–5 - Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. - but in order for them to be used that way -- that required them to courageously address sin in their midst… - you may recall that not far into the book of Joshua, the children of Israel achieve a great military victory against the city of Jericho…and then they go up against a much smaller force at Ai and they’re defeated… - and you may remember what happens next… Joshua 7:6 - Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. - a few verses later -- Joshua 7:10–11 - So the Lord said to Joshua, “Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? “Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. - so the same Joshua who previously had courageously led the people into battle has to now courageously lead them in dealing with sin in their midst…and when it is determined that a man named Achan and his family have violated God’s Word regarding the plunder of Jericho…he says -- Joshua 7:19–20 - Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did… - that’s one of the elements necessary to make a difference for God…being courageous enough to acknowledge sin… - this is a key aspect of understanding the life of… B. For Martin Luther (1483-1546) - Luther’s father owned a small mining business and wanted his son become a lawyer because in his way of thinking that would be financially beneficial to the family and ultimately to he and his wife as Luther supported them in their old age… - that’s why it was so scandalous when Luther had a life-changing experience in 1505 when he was traveling by horseback during a thunderstorm and a bolt of lightning struck the ground next to him – throwing him off his horse… - so he reportedly screamed out – “St. Anne (the patron saint of miners) help me.  I will become a monk.” - and sure enough, to the shock and dismay of his friends and family and especially his father…he entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt.  - Historian Roland Bainton, in his book Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978), pp. 26-27 describes what happened… - The head of the monastery, the “prior,” stood upon the steps of the altar while Luther prostrated himself before him. The prior asked, “What seekest thou?” to which the young novice replied, “God’s grace and thy mercy.” The prior then raised him up and asked if he was married, a bondsman or afflicted with secret disease, to which Luther replied, “NO.” The prior then described to him the rigors of the life he now entered; the renunciation of self-will, the scant diet, rough clothing, vigils by night and labors by day, the mortification of the flesh, the reproach of poverty, the shame of begging and the distasteful existence of life lived in the cloister.  Was he ready to take upon himself these burdens? and the answer was, “Yes, with God’s help and in so far as human frailty allows,” and he was admitted to a year of probation. As the choir sang, his head was “tonsured” (shaved so that his identity as a monk was easily recognized), his clothes were exchanged for the habit of a monk and he bowed. Over him the prior prayed, “Hear, O Lord, our heartfelt pleas and deign to confer thy blessing on this thy servant, whom in thy holy name we have clad in the habit of a monk, that he may continue with thy help faithful in thy church and merit eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen” - what you see in that, as my friend Pastor Tim Pasma points out is – there’s no grace…no declaration of God’s full and complete forgiveness through Christ – or corresponding declaration of Christ’s righteousness being placed on his account and his salvation being fully secured by the merits of Christ and therefore a place in heaven and peace with God… - and so it began a road of agony and even hatred of God because of His holiness (His righteous stand…) - He began to go to his superior to confess his sins, sometimes taking as much as six hours a day in the confessional. - Only confessed sins could be forgiven so he would ransack his memory, probe his motives, think of every little sin he had committed. - After hours in the confessional he would leave and then return a few minutes later because he remembered some foible he had forgotten. - At one point his exasperated superior, Father Staupitz exclaimed, “Brother Martin.  If you’re going to confess so much, why don’t you go do something worth confessing?  Kill your mother or father!  Commit adultery!  Quit coming in here with such flummery and fake sins!” (Pasma, p. 9) - now, there are a lot of ways we could respond to that – but can we at least say this – at least he was willing to be honest about his sinful condition…it takes courage to admit that you fall short of God’s glory and standard of perfect righteousness even if you don’t know what to do to remedy the situation… - and I would suggest this is the first lesson that flows out of the life of both Joshua and Martin Luther…they were courageous enough to address sin… - how does that impact people like you and me?... C. For you and me 1. Beginning at salvation - in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the first two beatitudes are: - Matthew 5:3–4 - Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. - it’s impossible to come to Christ in repentance and faith apart from a profound sorrow over ones sin…especially in this culture, that takes courage… - that’s why Paul explained in Romans 3… - Romans 3:10 - as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; - Romans 3:20 -                because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. - friends – that is a double indictment – we are all guilty, and we cannot rid ourselves  that guilt by an effort to observe God’s law… - it takes courage to face the enormity of our sin… 2. In the way we solve problems - Matthew 7:3 - Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? - Romans 7:19 - For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. - acknowleding truths like that – especially in a time of conflict – takes courage 3. In the way we embrace suffering - we don’t believe that every problem is the direct result of an individual’s sin… - but nor do we believe that when we being sinned against or suffering as a result of living in a sin-cursed world – that we’re absolved from responsibility… - in other words – we’re not passive victims… - Romans 12:17–19 - Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 4. In the way we explain Christian growth - we’re not afraid to discuss our ongoing struggle with sin as we seek to become all that God desires…even in the way we help one another grow… - Romans 15:14 - And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. - we want to be the kind of people who talk openly and authentically about our failures… II. Courageous Enough to Clarify Your Beliefs - the Lord never intended for us to wallow in our sins…be honest, yes – but then dive into His Word for biblical answers… A. For Joshua - Joshua 1:7–8 - Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. - baseless courage is just bluster and bravado…the more you hope and pray to accomplish for the Lord, the more important it is that your foundation be sound and sure and deep and comprehensive and robust… - and thankfully, that’s what happened for Martin Luther… B. For Martin Luther - it would have been such a shame if he had just languished in the monastery…like the priests of Hebrews 10:11 - Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; - but this is where the story becomes delightful… - because Luther’s supervisor Father Staupitz sent him to Wittenberg to become Professor of Bible at the University of Wittenberg - you can start to get a feel for what happened if you look at Luther’s teaching schedule… - 1513-15 – Psalms - 1515–16 – Romans - 1516-17 – Galatians - 1517-18 – Hebrews - one Psalm that especially stood out to him was Psalm 22:1 - My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. - Luther said – that’s how I felt…alienated from God…but because of my sin and endless shortcomings… - but why would the Messiah…prophesied in this Messianic Psalm…experience that kind of alienation…because He would never sin?... - so the concept of the substitutionary atonement began to dawn in Luther’s heart… - perhaps God was not simply a God of righteousness, but also a God of…grace… - Think about a passage like Psalm 85:10 - Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. - Luther had been really strong on the truth and righteousness part – it’s how that is wedded with lovingkindness and peace in the Person and work of Christ that he was just beginning to understand… - and we could hit the timeout button for a minute and say – a number of people at our church have a similar story…several have communicated to me this year – that you understand exactly why this emphasis on the reformation is so important… - because you came out of a religious system where it seemed to be all about working harder and harder to try to satisfy God, and then constantly living in shame and guilt because you never measured up, and then having to go confess your sins through some human mediator…and it was absolutely exhausting… - back to Luther – the real breakthrough came when he began studying and lecturing on the book of Romans… - Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that “the just shall live by his faith.”  Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith.  Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.  The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.  This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven . . . . If you have a true faith that Christ is your Saviour, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God’s heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love (Bainton, pp. 49-50). - see, he finally understood that the righteousness of God is not simply a standard to be attained…but a positionally gift provided for Him fully and completely when He trusted Christ as Savior and Lord… - you may know that Martin Luther wrote many hymns…like A Mighty Fortress is Our God for example…but he also wrote ones that probably many of us have never heard…but often emphasizing grace… - I cry to thee in direst need.                 O God, I beg thee hear me. To my distress I pray give heed.                 O Father, draw thou near me. If thou shouldst wish to look upon The wrong and wickedness I’ve done,                 How could I stand before thee? With thee is naught but untold grace                 Evermore forgiving. We cannot stand before thy face,                 Not by the best of living. No man boasting may draw near. All the living stand in fear                 Thy grace alone can save them. Therefore, in God I place my trust,                 My own claim denying. Believe in him alone I must,                 On his sole grace relying. He pledged to me his plighted word. My comfort is in what I heard.                 There will I hold forever. (Bainton, p. 271). C. For you and me - this is why the study of God’s Word and sound theology is so crucial for followers of Jesus Christ… - and I recognize that the church growth experts are saying that you have to have entertainment in church…and you have to keep it moving…and we need to ditch the sermons, or if you have to have one – keep it 12 minutes or less or whatever… - we don’t believe that… 2 Timothy 4:1–4 - I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. - [could develop the importance of small group Bible studies, etc – and also thank the church family for their desire and willingness to listen to Scripture) III. Courageous Enough to Stand for Truth - the more convinced you are of the strength of your foundation…the more likely you are to courageously take a stand… A. For Joshua - Joshua 24:15 - If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. B. For Martin Luther - Luther was also a pastor…and the more he came to understand that salvation was by grace alone – the more outraged he became about the church’s approach to selling indulgences in order to free a person from purgatory… - the church taught that it custody of the Treasury of Merits…secured by the great saints who did more than enough to earn their way to heaven… - so that excess merit could be purchased by anyone deficient is righteousness…not just for yourself but for a loved one… - [develop – woman in our church whose mother purchased a chair for her husband for $500 so he had a place to sit in purgatory….] - and so Luther began lecturing about this – and then eventually nailed the 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Chapel challenging church leaders to debate these matters…in many ways, that act around October 31st, 1517 lit the fire that became the Protestant Reformation…because of the courageous, biblical stance of a transformed follower of Christ… - eventually Luther was tried for heresy and urged to recant his teaching…and after a day to consider he said… Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason-for I can believe neither pope nor councils alone, as it is clear that they have erred repeatedly and contradicted themselves-I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen. C. For you and me - I believe the Lord is greatly honored by men and women who look for opportunities big and small to take a gracious but clear stand for the good news of Jesus Christ… - like one of our high schoolers at a local public school who has an opportunity to give a persuasive speech in his High School speech class… - and has chosen to tell his classmates about why it’s logical and sound to believe the world was created by God… - sure he could keep his head down – and talk about something that would be safer and more politically correct… - that’s courageous faith… - or students and staff and faculty at Purdue and Ivy Tech…who look for opportunities o be a witness for Christ on the college campus [cf. recent conversation – not sure how much longer you’ll be able to be a Christian and work at a university…] - cf. upcoming youth ministries this summer…(update from Pastor Johnny)… - “June 1-10 we will be having our local serving trip. Things we will be doing these 10 days include a Habit for humanity house build, building picnic tables for the community park, and several other neighborhood landscaping and hard work projects in the north end. We will also be holding 6 VBS in strategic neighborhoods (Point West, Vinton, Upper Lincoln, Lower Lincoln, Hanna, and at the Lara Center.  - June 26 - July 11 we will be in Albania doing community ministry with Matt and Genci as well as running a week long camp for unbelievers (last year over 90% of the campers were unbelievers). - We will also be holding 8 different block parties in the key north end neighborhoods we are trying to reach with the church plant.

Welcome to The Shaun Tabatt Show! Today I speak with Roberts Liardon about his latest book in the God's General series, God's Generals: The Martyrs (Whitaker House, 2016). In this conversation, Roberts shares about the calling God placed on his life for sharing about His generals, how he chooses who to write about, and the future of this spectacular series. About the Book:  In his sixth God's Generals volume, Roberts Liardon chronicles some of the great martyrs for the faith—and some of the lesser-known ones. Their inspirational testimony, acts of courage, and even seasons of doubt both encourage and point awareness toward the persecuted church of the twenty-first century. The book includes profiles on... Apostle Paul and Stephen the Faithful (c. 100 AD) Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin Martyr, and Ignatius of Antioch (c. 100-175 AD) Perpetua, Blandina, and Irenaeus and Fabian (c. 175-350 AD) William Tyndale, John Wyclyffe, Patrick Hamilton, and John Hus (c. 1300-1530) Anne Askew, John Foxe, Hugh Latimer, and Thomas Cranmer (c. 1530-1560) Martyrs from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John and Betty Stam, and Jim Elliot (c. 1900-1950) Wang Zhiming, Gaspar Makil, and Archbishop Oscar Romero (c. 1950-1990) Martyrs from the twenty-first century, in regions such as the Philippines, Iraq, Libya, and Syria About the Author:  Roberts Liardon has preached in more than eighty countries with extensive ministry in Europe, Asia, and Africa. He founded Roberts Liardon Ministries, along with the multi-faceted outreaches of Embassy Christian Center, Embassy Ministerial Association, and Operation 500. His four-dozen-plus books have been translated into over fifty languages and circulated throughout the world. As founder of the Reformers and Revivalists Historical Museum, Roberts also fervently pursues research of our Christian heritage, which he has documented in God's Generals: Why They Succeeded and Why Some Failed, God's Generals: The Roaring Reformers, and God's Generals: The Healing Evangelists. His ministry is now based in Sarasota, Florida. Connect with Roberts: RobertsLiardon.com Facebook Twitter (@RobertsLiardon) For additional show notes, visit ShaunTabatt.com/145.  

Numbers 13:-14 Watch Video Listen to MP3 Download Handout Download Manuscript → Click to view the Sermon Outline 1 Corinthians 10:11 - Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Numbers 13:2 - …the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel… 3 characteristics of people God uses to lead the accomplishment of His plan I. Passionate Commitment to the Word of God A. In the twelve spies Deuteronomy 1:23-33 - The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.’ Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. ‘Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.” ’ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. B. In John Wycliffe (1330 – 1384) Leading pastor and professor in Oxford, England Taught that church leaders who live and rule unjustly are in breach under the terms under which God delegates authority. Suggested that “rather than looking to the pope of his emissaries, one just needed to study the Bible to learn all that was necessary for the Christian life.”  “Wycliffe’s greatest contribution to reform was to popularize the Bible.  In those days, for the most part only Latin translations were available, which was inaccessible to most people; they were kept in churches and read by the clergy, who were supposed to translate the text and teach people its contents.”  “Wycliffe believed that the Scripture was complete—it contained the whole of God’s revelation.  Thus canon law, church tradition, and even the papacy had to be judged by Scripture.” C. In John Hus (1369 – 1415) “Like Wycliffe, Hus argued that the Bible alone was the basis for spiritual authority—not the church, not councils, not traditions—and if the Bible is sufficient for spiritual guidance, it should be available to everyone.” D. In you and me II. Willingness to Stand Up and Stand Out A. On the twelve spies Numbers 14:1-3 - Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” Numbers 14:6 - Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes… B. John Wycliffe Condemned as a heretic by Pope Gregory XI with 18 bulls (papal decrees) Followers called “Lollards” (mumblers who talked non-sense) Followers cast out of Oxford because of their insistence that “all the church’s teaching and institutions should be tested rigorously against the record of God’s purposes in Scripture.” C. John Hus  “I have said that I would not, for a chapel full of gold, recede from the truth…I know that the truth stands and is mighty forever, and abides eternally, with whom there is no respect of persons.” III. Prepared to Pay Whatever Price is Necessary A. 12 spies Numbers 14:10 - But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. B. John Wycliffe Condemned to death Because he died of natural causes, the church decided at the Council of Constance thirty years later to exhume his bones and burn them. C. John Hus Burned at the stake by the church on July 6, 1415 Outlined Manuscript - thank the Lord for men like Joshua and Caleb, huh?...and please remember what Paul said…”these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come...”… - and what I’d like to suggest to you now is – God used John Wycliffe and John Hus over 2500 years later to be just like Joshua and Caleb… - so let’s talk about The Importance of Courageous Ministry Pioneers…and with the time we have remaining...please think with me about 3 characteristics of people God Uses to lead the accomplishment of His plan. I. Passionate Commitment to the Word of God - 40 years later, Moses retold this story to the descendants of the 10 spies and those who had not been adults when this sin was committed…along with Joshua and Caleb who were allowed to live to see this day because of their faithfulness… - and why was that…because Moses was preparing that generation to now enter the promised land and he didn’t want them to repeat the same sin of unbelief as their forefathers…so here’s what he said… A. In the twelve spies - Deuteronomy 1:23–33 - The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.’ Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.    ‘Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.” ’ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. - did you notice the keys that we underlined?... - they rebelled against the command of the Lord… - they did not trust the Lord their God… - they did not let His Word grip their heart the way it was intended to… - let’s advance the story 2500 plus years…now it’s the mid-14th century AD… - you could call the two men we’re talking about this morning – Wycliffe and Hus “pre-reformers”…they lived before Martin Luther…but in many ways set the stage for how God later used Luther… - and it revolved around this same issue… B. In John Wycliffe (1330 – 1384) - at several points this am, I’m going to quickly listing several historical facts – this comes from the five books I recommended at the beginning of the year, especially Erwin Lutzer’s book Rescuing the Gospel… Leading pastor and professor in Oxford, England Taught that church leaders who live and rule unjustly are in breach under the terms under which God delegates authority. Suggested that “rather than looking to the pope of his emissaries, one just needed to study the Bible to learn all that was necessary for the Christian life.” - it’s hard for us to understand the level of courage it took to take positions like this… - the clergy were viewed as having a special connection to God which is why they were the only ones who had copies of the Bible…they were the only ones who drank from the cup during the Lord’s Table…they were the ones who had the power to mystically transform the bread and the wine to the body and blood of Christ… - in others words, they held the key to your salvation…whether what they said and did was a violation of the Word of God or not… “Wycliffe’s greatest contribution to reform was to popularize the Bible.  In those days, for the most part only Latin translations were available, which was inaccessible to most people; they were kept in churches and read by the clergy, who were supposed to translate the text and teach people its contents.” - remember that all of this was before the invention of the printing press – yet he led people to make hand copies of the Bible in their own language…I mentioned several weeks ago that it took 10 months for a scribe to make one copy of the Bible…yet that’s exactly what they did… - Lutzer also made this observation… “Wycliffe believed that the Scripture was complete—it contained the whole of God’s revelation.  Thus canon law, church tradition, and even the papacy had to be judged by Scripture.” - and you and I might say – and that’s what we believe…it’s one thing for us to believe that today…but what about the courage of this ministry pioneer to risk everything because of his commitment to the Word of God… - that sounds an awful lot like what Caleb and Joshua would have done – our fidelity is to the commands of the Lord our God…we are going to trust what He has said…” - the same was true of… C. In John Hus (1369 – 1415) - what’s amazing about this part of the story is that Hus was from Bohemia…what is essentially modern day Czech Republic - the connection was that because of political alliances, Czech students were invited to study at Oxford, and they learned about the writings of Wycliffe and carried them back to their country… - so I’m skipping  lot for sake of time…but Hus began preaching about reformation of the church in Bohemia just like Wycliffe had in England…and it all came down to the Scriptures… - “Like Wycliffe, Hus argued that the Bible alone was the basis for spiritual authority—not the church, not councils, not traditions—and if the Bible is sufficient for spiritual guidance, it should be available to everyone.” - that’s what motivates Courageous Ministry Pioneers…a passionate commitment to the Word of God… D. In you and me. - can I ask you this – If the Lord wanted to use you to provide leadership in the accomplishment of some aspect of His plan in your family, your neighborhood, your workplace, our church, our community… - would your habits regarding the Word of God make it more or less likely that you would be prepared for the task?... - and what specific steps would need to be taken to make that more true in the days ahead?... - Last Sunday night we began our work on crafting our next 5 year ministry plan… - we kid about this from time to time – but the truth is, humanly speaking, many of us around here would say that careful, thoughtful, prayer-saturated strategic planning has been one of the keys, humanly speaking, to what the Lord has chosen to do through our church family… - if you study our current plan, and then compare it to the previous ones…what ties them together in many ways is exactly what we are seeing in Caleb and Joshua and in people like Wycliffe and Hus… - even in a culture that is moving further and further away from any respect for biblical truth – our church family has said – we want to find as many creative ways as we possibly can to proclaim Christ and His Word whatever the cost…whatever the sacrifice… - and I would encourage you to make it a matter of daily, regular prayer that in this new plan…we do not deviate from that commitment in any way, shape, or form… - yes, it will be harder than ever…we’re being told by church growth experts that such an emphasis is practically a death sentence in this culture… - or course that’s exactly what the ten spies said nearly 3500 years ago…and nobody even remembers their names… II. Willingness to Stand Up and Stand Out A. On the twelve spies - it’s not easy to be one of the two when you’re up against not just the other ten…but against the entire nation who are throwing a full-blown hissy fit… - remember what we read…Numbers 14:1–3 - Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” - that’s a lot of pressure to stand up to…but that’s what they did… - Numbers 14:6 - Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes… - that’s courageous ministry leadership right there… B. John Wycliffe Condemned as a heretic by Pope Gregory XI with 18 bulls (papal decrees). Followers called “Lollards” (mumblers who talked non-sense) Followers cast out of Oxford because of their insistence that “all the church’s teaching and institutions should be tested rigorously against the record of God’s purposes in Scripture.” - Wycliffe refused to cave in…and he led his followers to translate God’s Word into the language of the common man anyway…they stood up and they stood out – that’s what courageous ministry leaders do…the same was true of… C. John Hus - Hus was eventually charged as a heretic at the Council of Constance - he was then imprisoned with little water or food in an attempt to break him down so he would recant what he had taught… - Hus wrote – “I have said that I would not, for a chapel full of gold, recede from the truth…I know that the truth stands and is mighty forever, and abides eternally, with whom there is no respect of persons.” - on July 6th, 1415, they brought Hus into the cathedral and forced him to stand on a table…they put a tall paper crown on his head with three devils who were supposedly fighting for his soul…they wrote the words “Chief of the Heretics” on it in an attempt to make him recant his views on the centrality of the Word of God… - humanly speaking – we believe the kinds of things we believe fully and freely because of men and women like John Wycliffe and John Hus who were willing to pay whatever price was necessary to stand up and stand out… - can I ask you again – are you like that?... - if it means being different than the people at work…different than the people at school…different than your extended family or friends…are you willing to stand up and stand out in order to make a difference for God… - let me update you a bit on the development of our third campus…and maybe I should give the bottom line first – we’re going to be asking everyone at our 2 current campuses to consider whether the Lord might be directing you to become part of this new church plant in the north end… - but it’s really marvelous the way these options are setting up… - because for those who would like to worship and serve in a suburban setting with an emphasis on community ministry, and a Christian school, and community athletics, and special ministries to senior citizens and at-risk girls…then Faith East is the place for you… - if you feel called to campus ministry or service on the west side of town…there’s Faith West… - and if you think the Lord may be leading you into worship and ministry in more of an urban setting, we’re going to have Faith North at the Northend Community Center… - of course there’s also the option of worshipping at one place and then service across all three ministry platforms or even out at Bethany Farms… - we’ve decided that because it appears that we’re going to be able to break ground on the NCC this summer and open it in the summer of 2018, we’re going to wait until that point for the formal launch of the church plant down there…that gives us 16-18 months to finalize our organization and get all of our leadership teams and small groups in place… - if you think you might be interested in making that transition, would you please send  me, or the church office, or Joey Wright or Stefan Nitzschke an e-mail because we plan to get started on the back-room planning and organization right away… - but we all know this – regardless of the campus – we want to stand up and stand out for Christ and His Word… - last week I mentioned the book Moore Than a Bird by Liz Huntley… - Liz grew up in Clanton, Alabama in a very poor family and was the victim of terrible sexual abuse at the hands of extended family members… - but here’s a part of her story… There was a new church in our neighborhood that everyone was buzzing about as being a different kind of church. My Aunt Liz began to attend, and I noticed a difference in her. She seemed happier. She invited me to a service with her one Wednesday night...When the service began, the minister, Pastor Elijah Good, asked the congregation to take out their Bibles. I had never attended a church where you were asked to follow along with the sermon by looking at your own Bible. I did not even own a Bible. The minister then asked for those who did not have a Bible to raise their hands so that one could be provided to them. He said that it was very important to him for us to see the Word of God for ourselves as he taught. I eagerly raised my hand for a Bible. Reading the Bible and then comprehending what was being said reminded me of school and what I liked doing the most. I will never forget the sermon. It was about Joseph and how God used his life in spite of all of its tragic events. I sat and read along and thought, “If God can use Joseph’s life for a good purpose even though all of those bad things happened to him, maybe He can use my life.” What I thought were feelings of inspiration at the time were really feelings of conviction. When I walked into that church, I felt like a used rag doll. I was so depressed that I was on the verge of being suicidal. When I left that church, for the first time in my young life, I felt hope for my future. It was all that I could think about. I could not wait to get back to the church the following Wednesday night to see what Pastor Good would teach. The sermon that night came from the scripture Matthew 6:26 which reads: Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Pastor Good discussed how if God takes care of the birds and other things in nature, He will certainly take care of His children. He stressed that no matter what we are going through, we must be more than a bird and that God will see His children through any circumstance. As he kept saying, “you are more than a bird,” my faith grew. At the end of service, I went up and professed my sins, and God saved my soul. I thank God for His mercy. When I left the church that night, I no longer felt like a used rag doll. I knew that no matter what happened, I was more than a bird and that God would take care of me. From that night forward, I was at church every time I had the opportunity. For the first time in my life, someone taught me about life. Pastor Good and his wife were not just the leaders of our church, they became surrogate parents to me. They were examples of how to take care of a family and how to be contributing members of society. - aren’t you glad for an urban pastor like Pastor Elijah Goode?...whose ministry stood up and stood out because he faithfully taught the Word… - that’s what we intend to continue to do at FE, and continue to do at FW, and begin doing at Faith North… - and the question we’d like to ask you to begin considering is – at which location would you like to stand up…and stand out? III. Prepared to Pay Whatever Price is Necessary A. 12 spies - so where did Joshua and Caleb’s courage get them in the short term?... - Numbers 14:10 - But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. - how about… B. John Wycliffe Condemned to death Because he died of natural causes, the church decided at the Council of Constance thirty years later to exhume his bones and burn them. - then there’s… C. John Hus Burned at the stake by the church on July 6, 1415 - those are the kind of people who are theological forbearers… - and as we said earlier, we freely and joyfully believe doctrines like that men and women in the past have been willing to give their lives for if necessary… - because that’s what courageous ministry pioneers do…

6/10/16 Sunday 6:00pm ET/5:00pm CTRL/4:00pm MTN/3:00pm Pac Call in and listen and share comments at 1-347-934-0379 or online at: You can also listen via Six screens telenetwork at (712) 432-8710 When prompted dial 9925. Have a comment would like to talk with us press *1 to unmute yourself or by video suite at : http://www.sixscreensofthewatchtower.com/telenetwork/telenetwork-directions.php Former 3rd generation Jehovah's Witness Agustin "Gus" Astacio understands what it's like to come out of a cult and first enter into a Christian church. Every other Sunday he will give two of his half hour sermons he preaches at the church he pastors but made practical and relevant to the scrutinizing minds of former cultists considering Christianity. These sermon series was first given at First Baptist Church of Accokeek. These 2 Sermons are entitled: Seeing Christ In The Tabernacle -  Christ in You Colossians 1:25-27 and John Hus – A Life Lived For the Glory of God (Sola Deo Gloria) Revelation 1:5-7

IMPURITIES DULL OUR WITNESS What is in your heart? David asked the Lord to examine his heart. Psalm 26:2 says, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.” Zechariah 13:9 says, “...refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested...” The word refine refers to that melting process to remove impurities from precious metals. Our faith is refined through fiery trials. Job 23:10 says, “He knows the way that I take, and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” The Amplified says, “...I shall come forth as refined gold (pure and luminous).” Is your witness dull, tarnished, blocked, or does it express the character of Christ? Psalm 34:5 says that they looked to Him and were radiant. When He looks into the gold of your life, does He see His own reflection? We live in glass houses. Others are watching our lives unfold through our trials to see if what we say is lived. Is your messenger the same as your message? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego had their faith in God tested by fire. Their faith held, and the Lord revealed Himself to them in the midst of the fire. They were brought out of the fiery furnace and examined. Daniel 3:27 says, “...they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.” Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.” The Wycliff manuscripts were the kindling for John Hus’ burning at the stake in 1415. Nero lit his gardens with human torches. In 1956 five men were killed by the Aucas, yet it opened the door for the salvation of that tribe. In 2014 twenty-one Egyptian Christians were beheaded. What will happen today? We don’t know what the future holds for us, but we do know Who holds our future. It is all about faith. The early church was persecuted. In Acts 1:8 the words of Jesus are written. It says, “...and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the world.” As Stephen was being stoned to death he said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). Paul fulfilled the Lord’s word to Ananias, “For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). Here is a line from the old hymn ‘How Firm A Foundation’, “The flames shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.” God has a high purpose in our trials. Romans 5:3 Amplified says, “Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.” Our thanksgiving releases His joy gift within. John 15:11 Amplified says, “I have told you these things that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.” His joy gift remains. Yet, our complaining, bitterness, unforgiveness, refusing to release unresolved issues, etc., suppress that witness of joy. Isaiah 12:2-3 says, “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He also has become my salvation. Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” John 7:38 Amplified says, “He who believes in Me (who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me) as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow (continuously) springs and rivers of living water.” What flows continuously from your inner being? Matthew 12:34 says that out of the abundance of our heart our mouth speaks. Our thoughts control our brain, and our brain controls our body. Therefore our thoughts in our trials are the key to releasing that joy gift reflected to glorify Him. Trials refine our faith. The lies that the enemy has hidden through fiery darts are designed to undermine and overthrow our faith. The enemy-implanted questionings, doubt, fears, and unbelief must be silenced. The hidden unresolved issues that are buried in our unconscious will be exposed. As we embrace our trials, His deep work is accomplished. The hidden dross will rise and be skimmed off through His divinely orchestrated and impeccably timed trials. Our Rock-strength witness comes through the implanted Word of God. When we hide His Word in our hearts, it is the discerning key in our faith that will quench the fiery darts of the evil one. IMPURITY: IMPATIENCE We are partakers of God’s divine nature. Impatience is the antithesis of God’s nature of Patience and Longsuffering. Antithesis means an idea that is the direct opposite of another idea. Salvation redirects our disposition. Salvation by grace through faith empowers us to be Christ-like. He is the Transformer. That is why He invites us to put on His yoke so we can learn from Him. Matthew 11:29 says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” It is an opportunity to submit to Him and be led by the Spirit. Putting on His yoke is not a one time thing. It is constant submission. Impatience is a lie of the enemy. It is a fiery dart to pull us off course. When we are being led by the Spirit, there is no consideration for our flesh. That is what Romans 13:14 means. It says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.” We “put on the Lord” by entering into His nature. The moment we feel impatient, we do a divine exchange. We exchange pride for humility. We capture our thoughts of impatience by meditating on His nature of Patience and Longsuffering. In that moment of the exchange we stop the progression our flesh would have taken. We course correct. Impatience is an impurity that undermines our faith. James 1:4 Amplified says, “But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be (people) perfectly and fully developed (with no defects), lacking in nothing.” If we give ground over to impatience, we will stop the work He is doing to purify our faith. We will lack what He wants to provide. As we continue to submit to the Lord we learn His ways. A team of oxen is made up of a strong leader to train a younger ox. The Lord is our Leader. He will teach us how to partner with Him, thereby glorifying Him through our lives. In our moment of impatience, we have a choice. Do we want to give in to our flesh (pride), or do we want to grow to be more like Him in humility? Impatience is the dead-bolt of pride that blocks grace. Humility throws the door wide open to allow Grace to come in. We have no power to endure our trials without grace.

From the Series: Profiles in Church History

Out of the former Czechoslovakia came another of the early lights of the Reformation. Scholar John Hus was burned at the stake by the Catholic leaders for pointing the people of Prague back to the Bible and faith in Christ.

Granted from the King, Charles II of England: This morning we’re going to be looking at Philippians 1:27-30. And as you turn there, and as you begin to think about it, a double gift from the Lord, a double grant from the Lord, I did a little research on Carolina history. And the territory that we’re in right now, North Carolina, was once part of an immense land grant offered by King Charles II on March 24th 1663, to eight of his cousins and closest friends and advisers, who had helped him reclaim his throne after the Puritan era in England. I have my own mixed feelings about that, and kind of wish that era had continued. But at any rate, Charles II did get the throne back, and he wanted to say thank you to some friends that had helped him and some family members. And so he gave them Carolina which eventually became North and South Carolina. What an incredible grant, these eight men received. The grant reads like this, “All that territory or tract of ground situate, lying and being within our dominions of America, extending from the north end of the island called Luck island, which lieth in the southern Virginia seas, and within six and 30 degrees of the northern latitude, and to the west as far as the south seas and so southerly as far as the river St. Matthias which bordereth upon the coast of Florida. And within one and 30 degrees of northern latitude. And so west in a direct line as far as the south seas aforesaid, together with all and singular ports, harbors, bays, rivers, isles, inlets belonging to the country. Also all the soil, lands, fields, woods, mountains, foothills, fields, lakes, rivers, bays, everything within the boundary of these limits aforesaid. With the fishing of all sorts of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all other,” this is my favorite phrase, “royal fishes, in the seas.” He’s claiming all the sea, all the fish, Charles II is, and he’s giving it to these eight men. “All of the royal fishes in the sea, bays, islets, and rivers within the premises, and the fish therein. And more over all veins, mines, quarries, as well discovered, as not discovered, of gold, silver, gems, precious stones and all other whatsoever. Be it stones, medals, or any other thing whatsoever found or to be found in this territory, it’s all yours.” What a grant, what an incredible grant. Almost 100,000 square miles. Almost 500 miles of Atlantic shoreline and it’s yours. What will you do with it? Think about that. The first grant But the emperor of the universe, the King of glory has given to us in the text we’re looking at today, a two-fold grant. “It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him.” Now, most of my message is going to be on the second half of that, but let me say a word about the first half. It has been granted to you by the King of the universe, to believe in Jesus Christ. If you’re a Christian today, you are so because of a grant from the Emperor. The King has granted to you the privilege of believing in Jesus. And how much does this sweep away, like a mist, any sense of boasting or pride we may have in our own faith in Christ, as though that were the one contribution that we were making to our salvation? It has been granted to you by the King to believe in Jesus. And part of that grant is not only initial movements of faith, but a sustaining faith throughout your whole life. Your faith will be nourished, it will be sustained through every trial you will face, until at last, you need it no more, for you will see Him face to face. Oh, what a grant! What a gift from the King! And it’s because of that grant we stand on good ground today as Christians. The second grant I could really preach the whole sermon on that, but we’re going to move on to the second half, because actually both of these grants are somewhat surprising to us. The first half is surprising, because we don’t think we need a grant to believe. We think this is something we do. It’s our work. Actually, it’s a grant from God. But the second is surprising in that we don’t think of suffering for his name as a grant, as something that is of his grace, a gift, but it is. It is a great gift from Jesus Christ. It is a great gift to be able to suffer for him. A great gift. Church history is made dazzling by the behavior of its heroes against all odds. Against great persecution, against great difficulties, to take the Gospel from that upper room in Jerusalem to literally at this point, the ends of the earth with great success, but at great cost. In Colossians 1:24, the apostle Paul, speaking to a people he did not know personally, says, “Now, I rejoice in what was suffered for you. And I fill up in my body what is still lacking concerning the afflictions of Jesus Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.” Now, this is a striking statement. First of all he says, “I’m very glad about what was suffered to get you the Gospel.” And he’s not talking here about Christ’s sufferings in this first part, but those that brought the gospel to the Colossians had to pay a price to do it. And he says, “I rejoice, and I’m also paying a price, because I’m filling up in my body what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions.” Now, don’t misunderstand, there’s nothing lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions concerning our atonement. Jesus, when He died, said, “It is finished.” It is perfected, it’s complete, there’s nothing that needs to be added. But whereas the atonement is perfect and complete, the application of the atonement is not, and it’s going to take great suffering to apply it to the ends of the earth. It’s going to take people like you and me who are willing to pay a price of suffering to do it. Every drop brings God glory And so, Paul says, “I rejoice in that suffering. I rejoice in every drop of martyrs’ blood. I rejoice in every tear that they shed out of grief for the cost of the Gospel. I rejoice in it and I rejoice in all of the sweat of labor that it’s taken to establish the church of Jesus Christ for 20 centuries. I rejoice in it because it glorifies God in a mighty way. ” When John Hus was being burned at the stake and he said, “I now seal with my blood, what I taught with my lips,” now that’s glory for Christ. It is glory for Christ when Polycarp stands and says, “Eighty-six years I’ve served Him and He’s never done me wrong. How can I deny Him, who has loved me and given His life for me?” And sealed his life for his testimony with his blood as well, it’s glory. It’s glory when Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries were willing to pay the price of martyrdom to bring the Auca Indians to faith in Christ, and when Graham Staines in 1999, the Australian missionary, who was burned alive with his two young sons by a mob of fanatical Hindus, his faith and his example shone far brighter than the flames that took his life. And Paul would say, “I rejoice in all of it…because it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him.” Now, what is the context of this statement? Well, in Philippians 1 Paul has been talking about his own chains for Christ, and he’s been letting them know, “I want you to be encouraged, I want you to be strengthened concerning my chains because they have really served to advance the Gospel. The brothers are bolder, more courageous to share, and there’s been good fruit already. We’ve already seen some conversions among the Praetorian guard- members of Caesar’s own household coming to faith in Christ.” He’s doing all of this, this autobiographical rumination in chapter one for their benefit. And why? Because he says in 1:30, “You are going through the same struggle you saw I had and now hear that I still have.” They’re going through it too. They are being persecuted for the faith, and so he wants to sustain them. He’s not ruminating on his own sufferings so that they can have a pity party for him, not at all. He’s trying to sustain and strengthen them. He’s trying to give them what they need to get through their struggle, because it’s been granted to them too. We’re going through the same struggle. And so he’s been ruminating. And as we saw last week, he’s dealing with the issue of, is it better to live or die? And not in any morbid suicidal sense as we discussed last week, but rather he is very attracted to life and very attracted to death. He’s attracted to death, because it is better by far and it’s glorious to be with Christ. And for me personally, Paul would say, much better to leave and to be with Christ, but he’s very attracted to life. And why? For their benefit. So that through his being with them again, he can help them in some way in their faith and help them to grow in full fruition. I. Living a Life Worthy of the Gospel But now in verse 27, he says, “Whatever happens, I want you to conduct your lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” I want you also to be for His glory. I want you to live for His glory and I want you to be like me and like others, a drink offering poured out for the glory of Jesus Christ. He wants them to live a life worthy of the Gospel so that Christ would be exalted. In verse 27, the NIV gives us this, “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” And that’s his goal here. And that’s going to be the organizing theme of the message today, to conduct yourself or to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel. And he’s going to explain what that is. The word is interesting in the Greek, it really means to carry yourself like a citizen, behave like a citizen, like a good citizen. Now, I really think he choose this word on purpose, because the Philippians were very proud of their status as a colony of Rome, so that all of their citizens, the citizens of the city of Philippi, were also by definition, Roman citizens as well, and not every city in the Roman empire had that advantage. This was a special gift from the Roman emperor. And so they were proud and they thought of themselves as Roman citizens. Paul himself was a Roman citizen. And there were certain rights and privileges thereunto appertaining. There were good things that came when you are a Roman citizen and they were proud of it. Paul picks a word that says, “Act like a citizen.” But of what city are you a citizen? He says in Philippians 3:20, “Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” So carry yourself like a citizen of the city in which you truly belong. You belong to heaven, so carry yourself that way. Live, conduct yourself like a citizen of heaven. That’s what he’s saying. You’re not dependent on me Now, at the beginning of our section here in verse 27 it says, “Whatever happens,” that’s the NIV translation there, “Whatever happens, either way, whether I live or whether I die. Whether I live and I’m able to come see you again and keep helping you or not, it could be that my last sermon to you face to face has been preached. My last time of council with you is finished face to face. It may be that you will never see me again. It may be that it’s the last time that I’ll ever be able to give you a hug or put an arm around you or to weep with those who weep. It may be done, it may be finished, I don’t know. It’s up to the providence of God, but whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” I want to speak specifically to those of you that feel a sense of loss. Perhaps you’re bereaved and you wonder, “How will I go on without this individual?” Or perhaps there’s somebody in your family that has a grave illness, or perhaps you just live in anxiety that one of your children or your mom or your dad may be taken from you. A Christian should never say, “I can’t live without this person, so and so.” Never. We can live without any of the people in our lives and God may actually choose that we do so. And that is great suffering and in no way am I minimizing it. But your life, if you’re a Christian, your life is hidden with Christ in God. “When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:4. And so there is no person on whom you are totally dependent for your earthly life, no one. You are dependent on God and on Christ. Now that doesn’t mean we don’t love and it sure doesn’t mean we don’t mourn and grieve, we do. But I was talking to my kids about this recently, I think specifically Nathaniel, I was talking about my death and I don’t know the day of my death. And I said, “I want you to understand that God has chosen for a time to give you many good things of His grace through me as though I were a pipe or a conduit, but he has the freedom any time he wants to close that pipe down. And if he decides to, he will be every bit as loving to you and you will get what you need for life and godliness some other way than me.” And so Paul says, “You’re not dependent on me, you’re not. You’re dependent on Christ. Now, it would be good if I could come back and minister with you again, but whatever happens, you conduct your lives or yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. ” Now, what does that mean? Well, he gives us four aspects of a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ: Standing firm in the struggle; United in one spirit; Contending for the faith of the Gospel; Courageously facing persecution. II. Standing Firm Let’s look at each one, first one. First aspect of a life worthy of the Gospel is standing firm. The image is that we are in a great and immense struggle in which Christians must take the battlefield and stand firm. In verse 27 he says, “I will know that you stand firm in one spirit.” We are called to stand in the day of testing. We’re called to take a stand on the battlefield like those heroes in the Old Testament that are listed, this man or that, that took their stand in a field and struck down all these Philistines until his hand froze to the sword, this kind of thing. You’re called to stand firm in the day of testing, in the day of battle. He’s going to say it again in Philippians 4:1, “Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord dear friends.” I really believe from this point until the end of chapter three, he’s telling us how we should stand firm, what approach should we take. The Gospel advance, is not a peaceful Sunday drive on a beautiful fall afternoon to look at the foliage. I love to do that and I would like to just talk about that. I just love the low humidity, the crystal clear blue skies, you know those fair weather clouds, the breeze, the vivid colors, shall I keep going? It is just beautiful. I love this time of the year, but the advance of the Gospel is not a Sunday afternoon drive on fall day. It’s much more like World War I, No Man’s Land battlefield, and we’ve got to stand or else the Huns are going to run over France. It is a rigorous grim struggle to stand firm in the midst of all the beauty that I just mentioned. It is a battle, and we have to take our stand in the struggle, we’ve got to stand firm. We’ve got to stand firm in personal faith, it says in Colossians 1, that we should be established and firm, not moved from the hope of the Gospel. Colossians 1:21 and following, We have to stand firm, in Hebrews 10 in a great struggle, it says there, “Remember those earlier days after you received the light when you stood your ground in a great struggle in the face of suffering.” You lost your property. You stood side by side with men who were arrested. You stood your ground in a great struggle. And then more than anything, every day we need to stand our ground spiritually, don’t we? Because we have spiritual opposition in the heavenly realms. Martin Luther Paul says in Ephesians 6:13, “Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand then,” he says it three times. It’s so clear that we are called to put on our armor and to take a stand, stand firm in spiritual warfare. Recently we saw the movie of the life of Martin Luther, and it was just very stirring to me, that climactic moment when they asked him, “Will you or will you not renounce your works?” His life was hanging in the balance just as John Hus had a hundred years before that. And he said, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant a thing, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe, here I stand. I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen.” Now, the historians tell us it’s not clear whether he actually said, “Here I stand,” He said it. He said, “Here I stand.” The devil takes all the good things away, alright? The historians that were writing and sympathetic to the Protestant Reformation said he said it. That’s good enough for me. But he said, “Here I stand.” And so the first aspect of living a life worthy of the Gospel is to take a stand on the battlefield. Here I stand. To take a stand. III. United in Spirit The second aspect of living a life worthy of the Gospel is being united in spirit. Now I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this because it really is the theme of the epistle from this point until the end of verse 18 of chapter two. From 1:27-2:18 it’s all about what unity means. The whole section about Jesus coming down from heaven- he being in very nature God, yet not considering equality with God something to be grasped. That whole section is to get them to be united and serve one another like Jesus did. And so, this whole section is about being united in the faith. Therefore I think in general, the big picture of what’s going on here, is that he is trying to help the Philippians who are in the time of persecution, to realize that they’ve got to have a certain disposition to those outside the church who are attacking them, and a certain disposition to those within the church who are their brothers and sisters, who are causing them distress. To those that are outside the churches, we’re going to say in a moment, they need to be bold and courageous and not afraid in any way, standing firm for the Lord. But within the church, they need to be united one in the spirit, not pursuing their own selfish gain, no selfish ambition, in love serving one another. That’s the disposition to those within. And so, the second aspect of a life worthy of the Gospel is united in spirit. There must be unity in the local church. As we were just talking at the men’s retreat, we had a great time on a Friday evening and then Saturday, a wonderful time. But what I said to them applies to the church as well. If it doesn’t work at home, why export it abroad? And why would the world want a Gospel from a church that doesn’t know how to get along? We preach a Lord of love and of reconciliation, and we don’t seem to get along? I think we ought to have the boldness to invite non-Christians to our church conferences. What do you think? See how we love one another. Could we do it? Why should those evenings be any different than any other time? Praise God, they’re much better than they used to be. And I think that the unity is an essential element to the advance of the Gospel through a local church, it is essential. Now, the Philippian church had divisions and factions. And I’m not going to talk much about them today because we’ll have other opportunities. But they had problems, they had divisions. There was not unity. And so, Paul calls them to total unity. Look in verse 27 and following, it says, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ, then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit.” You see that? He wants to know that they are standing as one man for the faith of the Gospel. There’s a complete concentration of will. Pulling for one goal When I was a college student, we had a sports day. And I was in a fraternity and we loved to take part in this sports day. And there was that competitive side that’s part of being a man, I guess. And we just enjoyed competing against the others and doing our best, and I was involved in a tug of war. Now, I had never really taken part in a tug of war before. A little bit with my sisters but this was a different thing entirely. Different thing entirely. We were gripping this big thick rope and when the whistle blew, we pulled on that rope with every fiber and sinew of our physical and non-physical being. And we pulled and it didn’t move. You know what I’m saying? And our legs were straining, our lower back, the thighs, everything, pulling. And then at last we felt the slight little give, maybe just an inch. And that encouraged us to re-double our efforts. And everyone of us pulling for one goal, to accomplish one purpose, and that’s to see that team in the mud. That’s what we wanted. It was one goal, and we’re totally focused to see the other team in the mud. And we accomplished that goal. But after we got done, there was a two minute limit and I thought, we must have been way over it. It must have been 10 minutes. Why didn’t they blow the whistle? It was 46 seconds. Longest physical 46 seconds of my life. But that is a picture of the kind of concentration, all of my efforts focused on gripping that rope and pulling it in one direction. And I think that is what he is talking about here. Total unity for the glory of Christ in the advance of His kingdom. Nothing else matters. And so, there’s a concentration there. IV. Contending for the Gospel Offensively The third aspect is contending for the Gospel. Contending for the Gospel. The Greek word here is “sunathleó”, from which we get the word “athletic or athlete”. So these athletic images are coming really right up off the text. There’s a contest going on here and we are going to contend for the Gospel. So we picture the intense struggle of a Greek Olympic wrestler. Again, struggling with every fiber of his body against a skilled and strong foe. And so also we, struggling against Satan, struggling against our own fleshly lust and desires, struggling against a world that hates the Gospel, we are struggling, we are contending for the Gospel. Now, part of that contest, that contending, is the effort it takes to advance the Gospel as I said at the beginning. To overcome rivers and streams and the wild beasts of Ephesus namely, fanatical opposition to the Gospel. To be willing to advance the Gospel is a great contest of faith. So there’s a positive advance side to it. Defensively But there’s also a defensive side to the Gospel as well. We must defend the Gospel against attacks. Look at verse seven of chapter one here, Philippians 1:7 says, “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart. For whether I’m in chains or,” and look what he says, “defending and confirming the Gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.” What it means is that part of Paul’s job as an apostle was to defend the Gospel against the attacks that were coming at it. And they were arguments, is what they were. There was reasoning, it was a battle of the mind. There were concepts, there were false doctrines, there were false religions and ideologies. There were idolatries and other things coming at the gospel minister. And he had to stand firm and defend the message of the Gospel, to retain its purity and its truth. Jude 3 says, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you listen, contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” The faith. There is a body of doctrines that we call Christianity, and it must be defended in every generation. The devil will try to attack the doctrinal base of Christianity. Why? Because that’s the Gospel we preach. It is doctrine, and so we must ‘agonize’, is the word in Jude 3, agonize over the defense of the Gospel. J. Gresham Machen We must stand firm. Just as J. Gresham Machen did in the Presbyterian denomination, the beginning of the early 20th century when liberalism was taking over Princeton Seminary. And he stood firm and said, “This is evil. It is wrong.” He wrote a classic called Christianity and Liberalism. They are two different things. And he stood in the gap and defended courageously, wrote article after article, received slanderous accusations against him, just as it had happened so many, many centuries before with Athanasius on the incarnation of our Lord, standing firm and defending the doctrine of Christianity. So there was a positive side. The aggressive and courageous advance of the Gospel, there’s a defensive side protecting it against all of these attacks. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. We wage war with weapons not of the world but of spiritual weapons, and we demolish arguments. We blow them up! I said to the men yesterday, “It’s like we’re going out on a World War II mission at night with black stocking caps on our face and we’re blowing up false doctrine. We’re blowing it up! We’re blowing up false ideas because they destroy families. They destroy churches.” So there’s a sense of contending for the Gospel. V. Courage in the Face of Persecution And fourth, there is courage in the face of persecution, the fourth aspect of living a life worthy of the Gospel, courage in the face of persecution. It says in verse 28 and 29, “Without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you,” this, namely your courage, your supernatural courage, will be “a sign to them that they will be destroyed and that you will be saved and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, since you are going to the same struggle, you saw I had, now hear that I still have.” Courage, I would say, supernatural courage in the face of persecution, is a great sign of the Gospel, and that’s what he’s calling them to. Now, some suffering is granted to every Christian. It’s just the way it is. If you don’t suffer with Christ, you will not reign with him. And so there is some suffering that’s granted to all of us. The internal suffering of putting sin to death through the lust of the flesh, putting it to death, it is suffering, Hebrews 2:18. It is suffering to say no to your flesh. And if you don’t suffer that battle, you’re not a Christian, Romans 8 says so. Some suffering is granted to all the faithful But there’s also the suffering of persecution externally as the Gospel advances. And so 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” So, there is some suffering granted to every true Christian. But there is a unique amount of suffering granted to some special Christians. Not all of us in this room are called to martyrdom, as far as I know. But some Christians are called to martyrdom. Not every Christian is called to be physically beaten for the faith, but some are called to that. And I think that Paul is speaking this way. Philippians, it’s been granted to you in a special way to enter into my public, potentially humiliating, suffering for the Gospel. It seems like you’re going through the same thing. And the apostles, after they had been beaten for preaching the Gospel in Acts 5, they left the Sanhedrin rejoicing, Acts 5:41, “rejoicing that they have been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.” Isn’t that something? That God had chosen them to go through that. They rejoiced, because not everybody gets that privilege. And in effect, Jesus said “No one lights a lamp and hides it under a bowl. Instead he puts it up on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” Those kind of witnesses, they are beacons of light to the glory of Christ. But they are only so, if they carry themselves in the middle of that suffering with great courage. If by the power of the spirit, they say things like Polycarp, “Eighty-six years, I’ve served Him and He’s never done me wrong.” What a great line! Only the Holy Spirit can give you that at that moment. That’s why Jesus said, “Don’t write your own material ahead of time, the Father will give it to you at that point.” That’s my own rendition of Matthew 10. But you can’t write a line like that, that’s something the Holy Spirit gives you with great boldness at that moment. And so, he says, “I want you to be eerily confident when you die, supernaturally confident, so that they begin to reflect as you are going up in flames you’re being ripped to shreds by lions in the Colosseum, what is different about these people? Could it be that we really are the ones under the wrath of God?” Polycarp said right before he died. He said, “You threaten a fire that burns for a little while and then goes out. But there’s another fire you seem to know nothing about that burns forever and ever. But why hesitate to go ahead?” And that’s Polycarp. And what Paul is saying here is that that kind of supernatural confidence and courage is a great sign that God is with us and God is not with the persecutor. And it will cause the persecutor to become reflective, perhaps even fearful and perhaps even come to faith in Christ. Courage in the face of suffering. So, we’ve seen four aspects of living a life worthy of the Gospel. First, standing firm, second, united in one spirit of which we’ll say more God willing in the next few opportunities, third, contending for the faith and fourth, courageously facing suffering. VI. Application: Have You No Scar? Now, my application is to ask you to reflect on your own life. No advance of the Gospel, either in the internal journey of holiness, or the external journey of worldwide evangelization and mission work, no advance in the Gospel is possible without suffering, it’s impossible. Satan doesn’t give up any territory without a fight. And so, there is no advance possible without some suffering. The question is, have you suffered for Christ? Are you suffering for Him? One of my favorite parts of Pilgrim’s Progress which I shared with the men yesterday is from the second half and Christiana is making her way also to the Celestial City, and we meet a man named Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, and Bunyan in his genius, you know where everybody stands by what name he gives them. Alright. And this is Valiant-for-Truth. He is a warrior for Christ. And he has fought many battles for the Lord, and the time has come for him to die. And this is how Bunyan writes about his death: “After this, it was noised about that Mr. Valiant-for-Truth was taken with a summons, and he had this for a token that the summons was true, ‘That his pitcher was broken at the fountain,’ Ecclesiastes 12:6. When he understood it, he called for his friends and told them of it, and then said he, ‘I am going to my Father’s; and though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I’ve had to arrive at where I am. My sword, I give to him who shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him who can get it.’ But ‘my marks and my scars I carry with me to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles, who will now be my Rewarder.’” That moves me. I want to be valiant for truth. I want my children to be valiant for truth. I want you, Christian brother or sister, to be valiant for truth, to stand firm. Amy Carmichael, a missionary in India, wrote a poem and I’ve got it in your bulletin there: Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot or side or hand? I hear thee sung as mighty in the land. I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star. Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound? Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent, leaned me against a tree to die, and rent by ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned. Hast thou no wound? No wound? No scar? Yet as the Master, shall the servant be, and pierced are the feet that follow Me. But thine are whole. Can he have followed far who has no wound or scar? -Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)

This is part three of “The Long Road to Reform.”In our last episode we looked at The Conciliar Movement that formed to end the Great Papal Schism and so many hoped would be a permanent fixture for reform in the Church. As well-intentioned as the movement was, it ended up resurrecting the Schism instead of solving it. In its long battle with the Papacy, Conciliarism eventually lost.We turn now to look at a reformer from Bohemia named John Hus; or more properly Jan Hus. One of my personal, all-time favorite church leaders.Bohemia was an important part of the Holy Roman Empire; a sovereign state with its capital at Prague. Today, it roughly corresponds with the Czech Republic. It had a long history as a place of vibrant Christianity, especially monasticism. In 1383, Bohemia and England were linked by the marriage of Anne of Bohemia and the English King Richard II. With this union, students of both countries went back and forth between the colleges of Prague and Oxford where the pre-reformer John Wycliffe.The revolt Wycliffe started at Oxford, expanded when he was booted and met with greater success in Bohemia than England because unlike England, it was joined to a strong national party led by a man named Jan Hus.Hus came from peasant parents in the southern Bohemian town of Husinetz. He studied theology at the University of Prague, earning a Master of Arts before teaching there and diving into the cause of religious reform.While a student, Hus was introduced to the early philosophy of Wycliffe, but it was only after his appointment as the pastor at Bethlehem Chapel that was exposed to Wycliffe's more radical views on religious reform. He immediately adopted Wycliffe's views that the church was an invisible company of the elect, with Jesus as its head rather than a Pope.Bethlehem Chapel was located near the University of Prague, giving Hus an open door to circulate Wycliffe's writings. As his ideas took hold, paintings began to appear on the walls of the church contrasting the behavior of the popes and Christ. In one, the pope rode a horse while Jesus walked barefoot. Another showed Jesus washing the disciples' feet as the pope's were kissed.Bethlehem Chapel had been founded in 1391 to encourage the national faith of Bohemia, so Hus's strong sermons in Bohemian stirred up popular support for reform. And wouldn't you know it? Where do you think the first protests came from--That's right: Students rioted both for and against the ideas of Wycliffe being promoted by Hus and his supporters.The Archbishop of Prague realized the threat Hus's activities had for the upper echelons of Church Hierarchy and complained to the pope. The Pope responded, “Root out the heresy.” So the Archbishop excommunicated Hus. Bad move; for right away the Archbishop realized how little local support he had. When Hus realized he held the backing of the people, he ramped up his criticisms and attacked the pope's sale of indulgences to support of his war against Naples. That was too much for the Bohemian King Wenceslas. Hus might have the support of the common people, but his condemnation of the sale of indulgences impacted a political issue the king didn't want messed with. Negotiations between the Pope and king saw Prague being placed under a papal interdict; a political and religious slap on the wrist that had an immediate impact on people across the board. When under an interdict, people remained members of the church, but the sacraments were suspended. All of this happened because of Hus, so he left Prague to live in exile in southern Bohemia. It was during this time Hus wrote his most notable work, titled On the Church.The Council of Constance we recently looked at was fast approaching. This was the council set to solve the problem of the Great Papal Schism. At the urging of the Emperor Sigismund, Hus agreed to appear. He hoped to present his views on the nature of the Church to the members of the Council. He ended up instead a victim of the Inquisition.The rule of the Inquisition was simple. If enough witnesses testified to the guilt of the accused, he had to confess and renounce his error or he'd be executed by being burned, because, well – being good churchmen, they couldn't shed blood. If the accused confessed, the sentence was life in prison, which in most cases was hardly better than being burnt at the stake. Hus's case was handled in a manner typical for the Inquisition of that time. Greedy Inquisitors often went after someone simply because they lusted for their property. So people were accused of some grievous crime and there were usually enough witnesses-for-hire around who'd say whatever the Inquisitors paid them to. In Hus's case, the Inquisitors weren't after his wealth; the Church simply wanted him gone, so he was accused and found guilty of heresies he'd never taught.Now, Hus said he'd alter his views—IF they could be shown to be contrary to Scripture. But he refused to recant the heresies he'd been falsely accused of. It was a matter of principle; to recant of them, he'd have to admit he taught them. He hadn't. How could he recant something he'd never taught? But the Inquisitors were adamant: Hus must recant.In words similar to what Martin Luther would say some time later while on Trial at Worms, Hus said, “I have said that I would not, for a chapel full of gold, recede from the truth. . . . I know that the truth stands and is mighty forever, and abides eternally, with whom there is no respect of persons.”It's clear in the letters Hus wrote at this time his main anxiety was that “liars would say I've slipped back from the truth I preached.” This trial of Hus is one of those special stand-out moments in church history. His fidelity and refusal to swerve from Truth, even to save his life was duplicated many times over by thousands of the un-named, but it was Hus who forged the template.For 8 months he lay in prison in Constance. His letters during his last month rank among the great in Christian literature.“O most holy Christ,” he prayed, “draw me, weak as I am, after Yourself, for if You do not draw us we cannot follow You. Strengthen my spirit, that it may be willing. If the flesh is weak, let Your grace precede us; come between and follow, for without You we cannot go for Your sake to cruel death. Give me a fearless heart, a right faith, a firm hope, a perfect love, that for Your sake I may lay down my life with patience and joy. Amen.”On July 6th, 1415 Jan Hus was led out of his cell and began the walk to the place where he was to be burned. On the way he passed thru a churchyard and saw a bonfire of his books. He laughed, and told those looking on not to believe the lies being passed around about him. On arriving at the stake in a spot called The Devil's Place, Hus knelt and prayed. Following protocol, the official in charge of the execution asked him for the final time if he'd recant and save his life. Hus replied, “God is my witness that the evidence against me is false. I have never thought nor preached except with the one intention of winning men, if possible, from their sins. In the truth of the gospel I have written, taught, and preached; today I will gladly die.”The Inquisitors thought Hus's condemnation and execution would put the kibosh on the calls for Reform. They thought burning Hus was a kind of back-fire that would put out the forest-fire lit by Wycliffe's criticisms. They couldn't have been more wrong. The Bohemian rebellion grew and developed into both a moderate and a militant wing. The moderates were called Utraquists, a Latin term meaning “both” since their protest called for freedom to receive both the bread and the cup in Communion.The militants were called Taborites after the city in Bohemia that served as their headquarters. This was an apocalyptic group that called for radical reform.Facing armed resistance from the Bohemian King at the urging of the Pope, the various groups of Hus's followers, loosely called Hussites, agreed to what's called The Four Articles. Under the Articles, while the various groups might differ on this or that, they were far more united with each other in facing the King. The Four Articles were, à1) The Word of God was regarded as the chief authority and was to be taught freely throughout the kingdom.2) Per the Ultraquists, Communion would be given by BOTH bread and cup.3) All agreed that clergy should give up their wealth and live in apostolic poverty.4) Simony and any other public sin was to be punished.When King Wenceslas died in 1419, his successor was Sigismund, the guy who'd failed Hus at Constance. The Hussites demanded he agree to the Four Articles and grant them freedom of worship. Sigismund refused and petitioned the Pope to proclaim a Crusade against them. The Pope agreed and Sigismund marched on Prague where he and his army was crushed by the Hussites.Their leader was Jan Zizka who turned the many peasant carts into a kind of war chariot. In a follow up battle, the remnant of Sigismund's army was wiped out. Then, a year later, an army of a hundred thousand crusaders fled yet again before Zizka's carts. A 3rd Crusade, a year after that, in 1422, dissolved before it even met them.Under different leaders, the Bohemians crushed 2 later Crusades called against them, one in 1427 and the other in 31. The Council of Basel extended an olive branch to the Hussites, but they, fearing the same treatment Hus had met at Constance, refused. So yet ANOTHER Crusade was called against them. This was also put down. Good Grief! When are these people going to learn?Actually, this defeat convinced the Catholics negotiation with the Hussites was necessary. As a result of that negotiation, the church in Bohemia rejoined the rest of Western Christendom, but was allowed to retain Ultraquist communion as well as a modified form of the Four Articles.While most of the nobility accepted this arrangement and honored Sigismund as King, many of the commoners left the Church, and formed the Unitas Fratrum—or “Union of Brethren.” Their numbers grew in Bohemia and nearby Moravia.They'll become closely aligned with the Reformation later.What the lives of Wycliffe and Hus make clear is that if the Church of Rome was going to be reformed from within, it had ample opportunity in the 14th and early 15th Cs. By the end of the 15th , those who hoped to bring reform by councils were themselves frustrated and by their opponents, repudiated. The treatment of Wycliffe and Hus by church authorities made clear to all the reform-minded how they were going to be dealt with. It was now clear:  Reform of the papal church from within was impossible. A time of “judgment” had come.In our next episode, we'll take a look at an Italian Reformer from a bit later in the 15th C; Savonarola.