Angel Evangelism (Part 2)

Tax Day, New Book Release, and Upcoming Conference

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth, and it is in real time, September 15th, Friday, 2023. Have your taxes done? I have to do my taxes four times a year. It has to be postmarked today.

I put the check out in the mail, and I render to Caesar what is Caesar. You can write me, mike, at nocompromiseradio .com. By the time you hear this, Discovering Colossians will be out on Amazon, S. Lewis Johnson.

It's a great commentary. I mean, easy to use, relevant because he's so scriptural. Even though written in 61, 62, I didn't do a whole lot to it. But it is, I think it's actually, in terms of data and information, I think it's better than Romans.

Because Romans, I had to take a lot of his sermons and make it into a chapter type of thing. And here it's, he wrote it all in the same kind of manner. Anyway, that is S. Lewis Johnson, one of my favorite Bible teachers.

And it is Discovering Colossians, adapted by Mike Ebenroth. You can order it on Amazon. If you want 10 or more, email me. I can get you an author's discount. Technically, you know, bulk discount. And I'm excited about it.

I'm excited to head down to Omaha for the Pactum Conference. 2023 Pactum Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, October 6th and 7th. And that'll be a lot of fun to hang out with Pat and see his family. And then my sister also there is near Omaha and see her family as well.

That'll be a lot of fun. My grandson Amos is growing up. I think he's like 10 months old and he's, I don't know, my guess, 21 pounds or something. He's big. He's a big boy. I call him Bubba sometimes.

Amos, my little Amos. And so grandpa's always in a little box and that box is called an iPhone. All right, we'll see how far I can get here in the show. There's something going on in the church. I didn't know it was happening.

And now all these people are showing up for some game night or something, a game time. I'm like, I just need like a quiet place just to do my work. Oh, I have in front of me here before we get into the show.

I have cliff notes on the New Testament. Cliff notes on the New Testament. Study aid. Remember the cliff notes? And of course, our teachers, they read cliff notes and they pick stuff that wasn't in the cliff notes.

So we were forced to read. And so let's see. I'm turning to the book of Luke. It's on page 63. And I'm wondering, I mean, this is a liberal deal. I'm wondering, do they get much right? Let's just start reading for fun.

Cliff notes, no compromise, radio ministry. The gospel of Luke and the book of Acts are closely related. Both were written by the same author and for the same purpose. Both were addressed to a Christian named Theophilus.

And they were designed for the purpose of presenting to him a complete and well-authenticated narrative of the early history of the Christian movement. Hey, that's pretty good so far. In the introductory paragraph of the gospel, Luke tells us that many lives of Jesus have been written on the basis of reports given by eyewitnesses of the events that were recorded.

He does not find these narratives satisfactory in all respects. And so he has set himself to the task of examining the records and writing a new account that will establish for all interested parties the certainty of things about which the Christians have been instructed.

I have to say, dear readers, I mean, as much as I want to say stuff about the message or other things, that is really good. You cannot understand Luke unless you get Luke 1, 4 down. And it says in the ESV, Luke 1, 4, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

And that's what Luke chapters 1, verse 5, all the way to the end of chapter 24 is focusing on. Let's see what the message says. So you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you have been taught.

There you have it. I'm wrong on two counts. The message is good on Luke 1, 4, and cliff notes are good on Luke 1, 4. The paragraph is especially informing, the cliff notes go on to say, to students of the New Testament, for it describes the way in which two narratives attributed to Luke came to be written.

It informs us that other accounts of the life of Jesus had been written. And while Luke was free to draw on them for information, he was able to evaluate the materials he wanted to use and to supplement them in whatever manner would seem to him be most appropriate.

In writing his gospel, he did something more than piece together bits of information, which he had gathered from different sources. His own contribution, including selection and organization of these materials, along with whatever interpretation was necessary to make a complete and unified narrative.

Okay, I might disagree with something, you know, not quite exactly the way I would say it with that interpretation deal. But so far, so good. All this talk that Abendroth has about the liberal version of the message and the liberal version of cliff notes on the New Testament.

Matter of fact, cliff notes are from Lincoln, Nebraska, by the way, stinking Lincoln. But now all of a sudden we see their true colors. Don't be thinking about some Cindy Lauper song. Just keep your eyes focused.

Here we go. And then I'll, if you're going to turn off the show now because you don't want me to read all the cliff notes, this is it. This is the last part. We can be, I'll be the judge of that. Oh, man.

And how long have you been on that medication? I've been to so many doctors lately, like, okay, what medicine do you want? You have to write them down when you get older. But there's only one. I'm only on one medicine right now.

I was going to joke about which one, but it would have been at other people's expenses, expense, and that would not be very nice. Would it not? We can be quite certain that Luke made use of at least three different sources.

These include the gospel of Mark. Okay. I can let that one go. The Q source or the saints of Jesus. And the third one, which is usually designated as L. Q, we don't even know where Q is. Show me Q and I'll bow to you.

But Q is made up. L is made up. I mean, this is like alphabet soup. This is like LGBTQ. This is like Q and L. How did Luke have his source? It couldn't be the Holy Spirit. It couldn't be the Holy Spirit through Luke and his diligent research.

It has to be through LGBTQL. Well, today we're going to do a show on Christian nationalism. By the way, most of the time, it's not always true, but most of the time I only do shows on things that I know about.

I don't talk about them. I don't know if I'm an expert in everything I talk about, but I try to have some clue, right? That's why I talk about law, gospel, assurance, monergistic sanctification, Christ-centered preaching, et cetera.

That's what I normally try to do, so I won't be talking about Christian nationalism very soon. But maybe I'll have to do a show on it sometime in all honesty. It's out there. I know everybody out there wants to know my view, of course.

Oh, they certainly do. They want to know, well, what does Mike Aventra think about that half and froth? So, there we have it. Cliff Notes. Remember last time I talked a little bit about angel evangelism?

The Fear of the Shepherds Before the Glory of God

I want to ask you this question today. When God shows up, what's the response? When the glory of God shows up, what do you do? Well, it's interesting because remember you've got the angels, and they're going to go say something to the shepherds.

And the shepherds, it's night. They're watching their flock. They're protecting. They're guarding their flock. They're observing their flock. And it says, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with what?

What do you think they were filled with? Awe? Okay, that'd be good. No doubt. They were filled with jealousy. They wanted the glory. They were filled with the same glory. No. They were filled with rage.

That's a common saying, isn't it? Filled with rage. They were filled with laughter. What do you think they were filled with? You know the answer? Of course you know the answer, because you listen to No Compromise Radio.

They were filled with fear. They're filled with fear. Now, let's think about this for a second. Zechariah, he is visited by Gabriel, and he's frightened. But he wasn't afraid. It was just the angel. Mary, she gets visited by Gabriel.

She was afraid. But something extra is happening here. The angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. No glory cloud. No brilliance, luminescence, glory, kavod.

The glory cloud wasn't there with Zechariah, and he was still afraid. It wasn't there with Mary, and she was still afraid. And here, the shepherds. Okay, it's nighttime, and now there's this bright light, and now it says that they were filled with fear.

Actually, they had mega fear. As we say in New England, they had mega fear. The glory of the Lord, cloud, bright, burning. God himself is presence. This visible manifestation of the glory of God. I mean, it's amazing.

This glory that appeared to Abraham when he was in Ur. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, Acts chapter 7 talks about. Aaron, remember, it says as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation, Exodus 16, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

Now, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on top of the mountain in the side of the people of Israel, Exodus 24. What's the response to the glory cloud? Fear. I mean, this is the glory of the Lord that fills the temple in Exodus chapter 40.

This is the glory cloud that Ezekiel sees depart. This is the glory that hasn't shown up for 500 years. I mean, you can do your math. When was the last time Israel saw any visible representation of the glory of God and his presence?

When you think of the glory of God, you should think about holiness and bright and heaviness and weightiness. You should also think about presence. They've been waiting. I mean, in the old days, the glory cloud would lead Israel, and they'd follow.

The glory cloud was behind them to protect them. Now, what are we going to do? The glory cloud shows up where? You think it would show up in the temple? You think it would show up in the Holy of Holies?

You think it would show up to priests? You think it would show up to Caesar Augustus? You think it would show up to Pharisees? The visible and manifest divine presence of God shows up to the angels. Why?

That's a good question. Okay. Mary, no glory cloud. Zechariah, no glory cloud. Yes, angels, but no glory that goes along with it. The glory of the Lord shone around them. Not the glory of the angel. I mean, the angel's glorious enough.

Don't get me wrong. But the angel sent from God, we've got the glory cloud. Well, why? There has to be reasons to all this. I mean, Luke's trying to write with reasons, right? 1 -4. He's writing W-R-I-T-E-R-I-G-H-T.

Right, right. What's it called when the words sound the same, but they're different? Homonyms. Oh, homonyms. I knew that. Michael Beck. Let's see last show. Here's what Calvin said. For it would have been of little avail to be told by an angel what is related by Luke, if God had not testified by some outward sign that what they heard proceeded from him.

The angel appeared not in an ordinary form or without majesty, but surrounded by the brightness of heavenly glory to affect powerfully the minds of the shepherds. Here we go. That they might receive the discourse which was addressed to them as coming from the mouth of God himself.

Yes, there's a messenger, an angel, but this is from God himself. And they were frightened. They feared a great fear. They, oh, phobos, megas. Okay, put yourself in their shoes. You're watching the flocks.

Maybe you're looking up in the sky. You're checking around a little bush is rustling. Maybe it's a wolf or something or a bear or a lion and you're checking things out or you're talking to one of your other shepherds or, you know, maybe they're all like in a little pen.

You're just guarding them. You got to stay up all night and, you know, one sleeps in the gate because he's the gate. And all of a sudden out of nowhere, I mean, suddenly, dramatically, swiftly, there's an angel at the glory cloud.

I think you'd be afraid when you're in the presence of God. You're afraid. I mean, let's just think about making people afraid. Now, two things that pop into my mind. When I was a janitor at Grace Community Church, I worked until midnight or so, whatever it was, 4 p .m. to midnight, that shift.

And we would try to scare other, I mean, Grace Church isn't in the best part of town. We'd try to scare them. And so we would have walkie-talkies and we'd say, can you go up to the third floor J building and clean out such and such and get that trash can and blah, blah, blah.

Well, we would be up there. They'd open up the closet and we'd be in that closet that we told them to go to. And we would jump out. The other one that happened when we were there that I thought was really funny, it was a little earlier in the night and there were other ministries going on.

And somebody, I don't know if I got in it or somebody else got in it, got in one of the trash cans that was on these rollers. And then I think it was Russell Honig came over and he was going to put some trash in one of the trash cans.

And then I jumped out with my arms up and he fell down and screamed or screamed and fell down. Don't know which one. And then we got kind of chasing because there was a ministry going on. I think it was the Spanish ministry, Espanol ministry, speaking in Spanish ministry.

By the way, we loved to clean up after that ministry was over. So they had Bible study in Spanish and you can imagine a lot of Spanish speaking people in Southern California. And we loved to clean up after them.

Why? Because they were particularly clean. No, they were no cleaner or no dirtier than the other Bible studies. The old, you know, senior citizen Bible study or the youth Bible study or whatever. But they would always say, oh, the extra food that we brought, you custodians can have that.

And so I'm telling you, they're homemade tamales. Can you imagine? I mean, I live in New England. It is hard to find good Mexican food here. It's pretty processed. I found one little place here is Taquerito 2 or something.

I had some tacos yesterday. They're as good as you get here in New England. And just, you know, just basic double tortilla, whatever meat you want, whether it's al pastor or carnitas or whatever you want, trying to think all the other names for burrata, burrata.

And then just with some cilantro onion deal on top and some good, you know, dark brown salsa. Anyway, homemade tamales. Come on. If I could figure out a way to have them shipped out here without costing an arm and a leg, might want to do it.

I also worked in a haunted house before I was a Christian. I was a Lutheran then. And we put on makeup and, you know, I'd usually go to some NPR kind of deal and you'd get there and you didn't get paid or anything, but it was fun just to scare people.

Well, the main thing, being scared in your entire life is when you know you're sinful and you're in the presence of a holy God, right? That's the response of a sinner when it comes to being in the presence of God who, when we think about God, you should be thinking about supernatural things.

Remember Isaiah and he sees the seraphim, the Lord sitting on the throne, right? And the seraphim are covering their face and their feet and they're flying and they're saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory and the house is filled with smoke and the thresholds are shaking. And what does he do? Isaiah 6, 5, woe is me for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

That's the response. Or when Jesus is in the boat and they realize that this Jesus in the boat is the eternal son of God. And Simon Peter fell down at Jesus' knees in Luke 5, 8 and says, depart from me for I am a sinful man.

Well, what do you think the angels say? It's good that you're afraid. I think it's probably good that they're afraid. I don't think that's a wrong response. But is that the only response they should have?

Well, there's going to be more of a response because there's something else the angels are going to say. Well, they haven't said anything yet, but now they say something. Or he says something, excuse me.

The angels, more angels show up later. Edit that out of the tape. It's too late. And the angel said to them, fear not for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.

The Angel’s Message of Good News and Great Joy

Okay. The angel talks, most likely Gabriel. And he says, behold. Okay. Spurgeon said, whenever you see this word hung out in scripture, it's like an ancient signboard signifying that there are rich wares within.

Okay. You've got my attention. The divine highlighter. Here we go. I'm rubbing my hands together. Can't you hear it? I mean, this is going to be really exciting. We want to pay attention to what's happening.

Right? We say to ourselves, this is important. They say, fear not. Remember they feared with mega fear. And now they're supposed to not fear. It's right to be struck with awe. It's right to give God glory to his name.

Psalm 29. But of course, God, he's more than holy. He's compassionate and he's good. He shows compassion to be technical and he is good. And remember, just like with Isaiah, after Isaiah says, woe is me.

The seraphim comes, touches his mouth and his sin has been atoned for. There's consolation after, is my point. After Jesus, here's Peter say, I'm a sinful man, depart from me. He says, what? Do not be afraid.

From now on, you'll be catching men. The angel is not there to bring God's condemnation, to bring God's judgment, to talk about God's righteous requirements of the law. He's there going to give good news.

Good news. The reason to stop fearing. I bring you good news of great joy. I evangelize to you a great joy. I pronounce, I announce the gospel of good news with great joy to you. A gospel, great joy to you.

There's good news and good news should not elicit fear. It should elicit joy. That's the purpose. Joy. Good news. I, I, I, I'm evangelizing you. I'm evangelizing. It's to proclaim Angelo and good, you Angelo, good news.

This is language of how lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, your God reigns.

That's exactly what's happening. Ryle said we would, should not wonder at these words. Spiritual darkness, which had covered the earth for 4 ,000 years was about to be rolled away. The way to pardon and peace with God was about to be thrown open to all mankind.

The head of Satan was about to be bruised. Liberty was about to be proclaimed to the captives and recovery to the sight of the blind. Amen. Here is good news. And the good news is not law. The good news is not what you have to do.

It's a proclamation that talks about the Lord Jesus and who he is and what he's done. What God in Christ has done on behalf of sinners. In this particular case, he's just born. Jesus is what he will do.

This is the gospel that gives and forgives and declares and promises. It offers, it doesn't demand. It says in second Helvetic confession, the gospel is indeed opposed to the law. For law works wrath and announces a curse, whereas gospel preaches grace and blessing.

Heidelberg Disputation. The law says do this and it's never done. Grace says believe this and everything is already done. This is great joy. There was mega fear. Now there's mega joy. Can you imagine the Father loves sinners.

The Son loves sinners. The Spirit loves sinners. I love Romans 14, 17. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies.

With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Amen. Aren't you glad for that? Aren't you glad I'm glad? Well, I think that's probably it for the show today. I have more to say, but you can probably listen to my sermon as I preach this.

My name is Mike Avendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. If you think about it, you can pray for my health. I'd appreciate that. I'm going to live to be a grandpa that can do all kinds of stuff with my grandchildren, but not take them on roller coasters.

Mike Avendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.