How Long O Lord Before You Avenge Our Blood?

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern,

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Mark chapter 6 verses 14 through 29. King Herod heard of it for Jesus's name had become known.

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Some said, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

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Others said, he is Elijah. Others said, he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said,

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John whom I beheaded has been raised. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother

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Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.

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And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death, but she could not. For Herod feared

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John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed and yet he heard him gladly.

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But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.

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For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests and the king said to the girl, ask me for whatever you wish and I will give it to you.

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And he vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I will give you up to a half of my kingdom. And she went out and said to her mother, for what should

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I ask? And she said, the head of John the Baptist. And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying,

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I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her and immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring

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John's head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother.

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When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. This is the gospel of the

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Lord. In the name of Jesus. Consider the words of the opening sentences of the epistle to Galatians.

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Paul writes, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.

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Brothers and sisters, the age we live in is wicked. The age we live in is evil beyond belief and sadly, but truly, each and every one of us has participated in this evil.

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All of us being born dead in trespasses and sins under the dominion of darkness have given in to the temptations of the world, the devil, our own sinful flesh, and we have participated in this terribly.

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However, our story here from the gospel of Mark is one of a particular kind of evil.

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The story itself literally sounds like it could have been written for the television show,

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The Game of Thrones. It's really kind of that salacious. A guy who's thinking only about himself is really exceedingly vain, has power, is an adulterer, has literally taken his brother's wife, and then his brother's wife is holding a grudge against a real true man of God who has called her to repentance and called him to repentance.

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And then there's a little incident that involves some dirty dancing and then somebody's head ends up on a platter.

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Again, this is Game of Thrones kind of stuff. But all that being said, it's important for us as Christians, now

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I'm speaking to us as Christians, that we must recognize that this present age is evil beyond all belief.

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And if you've noticed the themes of the scripture text for the last few weeks, it was always, and again, preaching and teaching against this temptation to compromise.

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The past few weeks we've heard about the temptation to compromise the message. We've heard about the temptation to compromise by not speaking the message.

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Today we're going to talk about the, well, temptation to compromise by not doing what we are called to do as Christians when faced with martyrdom.

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Yeah, that's a real thing. And I would remind you, brothers and sisters, martyrdom is not something of the past.

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Over the last 20 years more Christians have been martyred around the world for their Christian faith than all the previous centuries since Pentecost combined.

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And I don't know if you've noticed, the world is getting really, really crazy. We must always remember that as Christians we've got one foot in this world and the other foot in the kingdom of God and that we are ambassadors called to deliver a message.

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And delivering that message will require us to, at times, give the ultimate witness.

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And the question is, how does one go about doing such a thing? We're going to explore that a little bit today with a little bit of biblical study.

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But I want you to consider the opening portion of our gospel text. It says this, King Herod heard of Jesus because Jesus's name had become known.

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By this time Jesus's fame is really kind of on the rise. Everybody knows he's a miracle worker.

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He heals the sick. He gives sight to the blind. He cleanses lepers. Jesus's powers are well known and everyone's asking the question, who is this fellow?

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Well, some said he's John the Baptist who's been raised from the dead. Interesting. That's why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

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Others said he's Elijah. Others says he's one of the prophets of old. But listen to Herod. Herod heard of, he said,

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John whom I beheaded has been raised. This sounds like a man who is absolutely fearful of Jesus, like Jesus has become a nightmare for him.

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Have you ever considered, why is it that scary movies are so powerful?

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What is it that that's the common theme of every scary movie? Whether it's a story about a murder on a rampage or some ghostly apparition who is on a rampage.

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Over and again, scary stories are scary because of our inherent fear of death.

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And so, Herod here is basically saying, it's John the Baptist raised from the dead.

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He's absolutely terrified of Jesus, because he thinks Jesus is some kind of an apparition come from the grave in order to condemn him for his sin.

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Now, this fear that he has is actually quite intentional on the part of God.

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And I'm going to tease out a theme that's a darker theme in Scripture. So in order to do that, we need to take a look first at the book of Hebrews.

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I want to show you a few things. Hebrews chapter 11, the great hall of faith passage. In this passage, we hear of all of these heroes of the

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Old Testament who did these amazing exploits. These amazing exploits like, starting at verse 29, by faith, the people crossed the

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Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, they were drowned.

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By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

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By faith, Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

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And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell you of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who, through faith, conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection, and so far the list just sounds amazing, like Christianity is some kind of great adventure.

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You become a Christian and you're the next Indiana Jones. Your life is gonna be like one of, well, you're in super danger, and you, just at the last second, are able to escape, even with your hat, and dust the dust off of you, and go on and save the day.

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I mean, isn't that what it sounds like? Faith is all about being a Christian. It's all about this great adventure. But consider now the turn in the text.

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Some, by faith, were tortured. Some, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.

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Others suffered mocking, and flogging, and even chains, and imprisonment.

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They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword.

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That's how John the Baptist perished. He was killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated.

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John the Baptist, if you remember his wardrobe, was camel's hair, and a leather belt, not exactly known for its great comfort.

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But not only that, think of John the Baptist. This is a fellow who had such an eternal perspective, and who was the forerunner of Christ, who was obsessed with preparing the way of the

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Lord, and calling people to repentance, that he forgo, he forwent, every single one of the creature comforts that this world has to offer, including decent food.

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That weird diet of locusts and wild honey, still not sashaying up to that one.

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That one and I are never going to get along. But consider this, all of this he did by faith.

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Faith in whom? Christ. Faith for what? The forgiveness of sins, and a right standing with God.

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So much so that his entire life was focused, and never in Scripture do you even remotely get the hint that John the

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Baptist cut off any of the hard edges of his message, or that he somehow compromised.

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I find it fascinating that Herod liked to hear about John the

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Baptist, liked to hear the Word of God from him. He recognized that he was a holy man, but John John called him to repent of his adultery, and Herod didn't repent.

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He loved his adulterous wife Herodias more than God. And we must understand this, and that is, is that God, when the gospel is preached to you, has no obligation to have it preached to you a second time.

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Today is the day of salvation. We are all called to repent today. You may not have tomorrow.

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And we're gonna find out here, as we look at some of the cross -references, that by John not compromising, and being willing to lay down his life, and go to prison, that that is part of God's will for us to do should it become necessary, because God wants us, in suffering that way, to serve as a sign to those who refuse to believe.

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I know it's kind of strange, but I'll prove it from Scripture. So, we learn then about all these people who, by faith, not by their own fortitude, by faith, suffered martyrdom.

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These are people who were mistreated, whom the world was not worthy. They were wandering in deserts, and mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth.

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All of these, though commended through their faith, they did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

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Now, consider that. Next text I would like to show you. Revelation chapter 6.

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Revelation chapter 6, verses 9 through 11. Very fascinating text here.

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We read, in Revelation, that it says, when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the

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Word of God, and for the witness that they had borne. They cried out, with a loud voice,

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O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

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It's an interesting scene that we get from heaven. John the Baptist is among that group. He was martyred for his faith, martyred for the message that he was delivered, martyred for the

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Word of God, and he is crying out to the Lord in heaven, how long,

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O Lord, before my blood is avenged? Then they were each given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

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Sounds to me like Jesus is leading us like lambs to the slaughter. He was himself led like a lamb to the slaughter.

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And you're gonna note, then, that in Scripture there is a theme, and that is the theme of avenging.

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God avenges the blood of his martyrs. Now, it's a little tough for us to swallow that pill, but this is most certainly true.

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Next cross -reference, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. I'm gonna start in verse 3. Paul writes, in 2

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Thessalonians 1, We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

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Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

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Paul is writing to a church who is experiencing persecution for their faith, experience affliction, experience mocking, and some even martyrdom, and he commends them because in their faith in Christ, they are steadfast, not compromising.

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And here's the next verse. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.

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And there it is. John the Baptist didn't even say a single word in his defense, never compromised the message, was willing to even go to prison rather than recant his words, calling

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Herod and Herodias to repentance for their adultery, and his death then, by his unwaveringness and steadfastness then, is evidence of God's judgment against Herod.

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You can go ahead and take my life, Herod. You can cut my head off, put it on a platter. But know this, the words that I've spoken to you calling you to repent are true.

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And if you don't want to hear God's Word, you don't want to repent, because hearing

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God's Word is not a matter of being entertained or intrigued. God's Word calls us all to repentance.

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And if you don't want to repent, you want to cast God's Word aside and throw it behind you, and even cut off my head so that you don't have to hear it anymore, then know this,

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Herod. God doesn't have to speak to you ever again. And He won't.

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And so when we read that Herod is terrified, this is

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John the Baptist come back from the dead. John has dispensed his duties as a believer in Christ to not compromise and even be willing to lay down his life.

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And his willingness to do that is a sign of God's judgment against Herod.

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And when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead,

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Jesus will avenge the blood of John the Baptist. The one who was made to suffer by Herod is the one who will experience relief.

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And the one who caused him to suffer will experience unending suffering.

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That's what 2nd Thessalonians continues to say. So this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.

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Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us.

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When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

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God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

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Lord, from the glory of His might, when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

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To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and you may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our

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Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him according to the grace of our

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God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah. Jesus is going to come back, and He's going to wreak vengeance on those who persisted in sin and unbelief, and inflicted persecution and suffering upon His saints.

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Knowing that, then, we now understand. God says, vengeance is mine, not yours.

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We have been given a task. And so, as a Christian, we recognize this. We are able to not compromise.

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We are able to stand firm. We are able to preach the truth in the face of persecution, even persecution that leads to our own personal death, because God wills us to do so, and by laying down our lives, our lives become a judgment against those who persecute

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Christ. Because remember what Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

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So our God will wreak vengeance on those who persist in suppressing the truth, persist on inflicting suffering on His saints.

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This should sober us up, but also give us hope. Martin Luther, in his sermon on that text from 2

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Thessalonians, said this, Christians should certainly expect this and comfort themselves in the confidence that God will not permit the wrongs of His people to continue unpunished and unavenged.

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Now, we've got to put the gospel in at this point, because we must always remember this. Every single sin that every human being has committed will be punished, will be avenged.

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Yours, mine, and the world's. That's important, and this is where the gospel comes into play, because each and every one of us, born on the side of the devil, we have persecuted

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God's children. We have suppressed the word. We have sinned against God, and here's the good news.

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All of our sins were laid on Christ, and God let loose

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His full fury on Him and His full vengeance on Him. Every single one of those sins was punished severely, and Christ took that punishment for you.

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He took God's vengeance for you. And so then we, knowing this, are sent out as emissaries to announce to the world that in Christ nobody has to be punished for their sins, because Christ has been punished for them.

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But if you don't want to consider yourself worthy of eternal life, you don't want to be forgiven, okay, then the only thing you can expect from God when

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Christ shows up is punishment and vengeance, especially for those who have persecuted

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His Christians. Luther continues, he says, we might think that he had forgotten. Were we to judge from the facts that godly

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Abel was shamefully murdered by his brother, God's prophets and martyrs,

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John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Paul, and others, they suffered death at the hands of bloodhounds like Herod, Nero, and other shameless, sanguinary tyrants of the sort.

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And this when God had, even in this life, given glorious testimony to their being His beloved children.

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So a judgment must be forthcoming, so that tyrants may suffer pains and punishments, and that the godly delivered from sufferings may have eternal rest and joy.

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Let all the world know, God does not forget even after death.

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And it's a strange thing to comfort ourselves with, but this we must believe by faith.

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Knowing this and believing God's Word by faith, we are then able to have the proper perspective, so that we do not compromise, so that we do not bend the knee, that we willingly lay down our lives, should it become necessary, knowing that God will avenge us while we preach the gospel, so that they don't have to be part of that vengeance.

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That's the idea. So this calls for an eternal perspective. Where does courage like this come from?

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It doesn't come from inside of here. You look inside of you for this kind of courage, you'll never find it, because inside is where the problem is.

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Out of our heart comes all kinds of sin, and muck, and fear. We all know that fear, personally.

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You look inside of yourself for the courage necessary to be willing to be a witness for Christ, even to the point of death.

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You will be on the ground crying and sucking your thumb in the fetal position. You can't find what's necessary inside of you.

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You can only find it outside of yourself. Remember, all of these people, according to Hebrews 11, were even willing to be tortured because they did it by faith.

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This requires us to believe. To believe the words of our epistle text.

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Listen to, again, our epistle text. Blessed be the God and the Father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, who has already, past tense, blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

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Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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Consider those words, and it's wonderful because it creates a wonderful bookend on one end of the bookshelf, even before time and space existed.

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Before the words can be said, Barashit bara Elohim, in the beginning,

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God created. Before that, before those foundations were laid, before the

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Ruach Elohim brooded over the waters of the Tohom. You were already chosen, and before there was a beginning.

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That's the first bookend. That we should be holy and blameless before him.

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In love, he predestined us, and notice the emphasis, love. Love, he predestined us for adoption.

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Important word. We are adopted into the family of God as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has already blessed us in the beloved.

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In him we have, and here's the best word ever, redemption. I'm kind of sad, but it's a misplaced sadness.

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We don't have a proper understanding of what slavery is, and this term redemption, we don't really properly understand it at all.

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Thankfully, God, in his mercy, has removed from our country the blight of slavery.

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But in removing that blight, we've lost track of a very important word, and that's the word redemption.

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Because it can only be understood in the context of slavery. I find it fascinating. We always sing those songs.

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I'm redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. That's great, brothers and sisters. What does that word redeem mean?

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I don't know. But it's got to be good. I'm redeemed by the blood of the

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Lamb. Here's what the word means. A redemption is a very specific transaction.

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There's the slave, in slavery, in shackles, and in chains, on the slave block, up for sale.

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And somebody says, I'm not only going to buy that slave, because to purchase that slave means they stay in slavery.

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I'm going to redeem that slave. A redemption is the price that is necessary to not just purchase the slave, but purchase the slave and set that slave free.

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And we already heard that each and every one of us, having been redeemed, purchased off the slave block, redeemed and set free, that we have been adopted by the one who redeemed us.

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We think about Abraham Lincoln. What a fascinating man, and what a great man. He's the guy who freed the slaves.

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He is the great emancipator. But how long after the Civil War, before Africans, former slaves, were back in bondage again?

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This time it wasn't called slavery. They just rigged the economic system in such a way that they remained in abject poverty.

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Lincoln may have freed the slaves, but he didn't give them a way to be free economically.

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So they remained in a type of economic slavery for a long time after the war.

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But Christ has redeemed us and adopted us. The text continues. So in love he predestined us for adoption.

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We in him we have redemption through his blood, which is the price for our redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, in which he lavished upon us.

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That's quite the word. Lavished. I don't even think I know what that looks like.

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In all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and on earth.

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And then here's the last part. In him we have obtained an inheritance. Chosen before the foundations of the world, redeemed by his blood at the cross, adopted into the family of God, and now written into the will.

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We have been promised an inheritance. You see, it goes from before the beginning of the world to the very end.

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Because when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, the will gets to be read and all of the pieces of the inheritance get to be doled out to the members of the family, you and I.

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So having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

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In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit. And we all have received the Holy Spirit in the waters of our baptism. And this Holy Spirit then is the guarantee of our inheritance.

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Absolutely sure and true, until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

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And there it is. By faith, John the Baptist, looking to the promised inheritance, knowing that he was chosen in Christ, the one who he was the forerunner for, who when he saw

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Jesus said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist, in faith, looking forward to the inheritance, even to the point of eschewing all of the creature comforts of this life, looked forward to the world to come, and by that faith in the trust and promises of the new world coming, he was able to preach

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Christ, call people to repentance, and ultimately lay down his life.

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There's no secret to it. Christians have been doing it now for centuries, for millennia, laying down their life.

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And the only way that's possible, the only way that's possible, is by faith, by believing the words of God, that there is a better world coming, a world without sin, and a world in which first order of business is that God will avenge the blood of his saints.

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So let us repent of our cowardness. Let us repent of our unwillingness to speak the truth.

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Let us repent of our unwillingness to suffer, and by faith keep an eternal perspective.

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Do not look to this world and its comforts. Do not let them distract you from what we are called to do as Christians.

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Preach the word. Tell people of Christ. And if necessary, lose your job, lose your life, lose your reputation.

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You can do it by faith, because there is a new world coming. In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue, Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue, Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744 We thank you for your support.

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