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Sunday school from May 10th, 2020
Let's pray, and then we'll get into our study for today. Heavenly Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, we come before you in humble awe. You are the one true God, there is none other like you. Come, we pray, bless our hearts and our minds as we study your word.
Send your Holy Spirit into our lives so that we may grow in love and grace, that we may go forth into all the world proclaiming your gospel so that others may learn of your saving.
Grace.
Okay.
Amen.
Let's take a look at our—I'm going to open up my Bible first. Start here, so I have this ready, and I do see some questions have come up. Oh, happy Mother's Day to everybody, by the way, it is Mother's Day here in the United.
States.
Those of you outside of the United States, I don't know if you have the same Mother's Day, Father's Day thing here that we do here in the States. I know you guys have Mother's Day and Father's Day, but sometimes the days are different.
Okay, so Jack Rollins is in Oklahoma. Elizabeth Beasley, Elizabeth Beasley says Isaiah 60. I don't know if that's a question or a statement, but let's take a look at Isaiah 60 and see what it is talking about.
Arise, shine, your light has come, the glory of Yahweh has risen upon you. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, thick darkness in the peoples, but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you.
Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Great text.
And so you'll note the nations then will come to Christ, and all the nations coming to Christ are being grafted into holy Israel, those who have the same faith. Lift up your eyes all around, see they all gather together, they come to you, your sons shall come from afar.
Yeah, even from Canada, that's where the Canadians are from, by the way. And daughters shall be carried on the hip, and they shall see and be radiant, your heart shall thrill and exult because of the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you, a multitude of camels shall come over you.
Now, a little bit of a note here, I think I should say this in this regard, I have heard terrible sermons, especially by T .D. Jakes on this multitude of camels bit, he, for no joke, he actually preached a sermon, I think it was titled Your Camels Are Coming, and he takes this text about the Messiah, and he's saying that this multitude of camels that has all this wealth of the nations is coming to you, so send him a thousand dollar seed offering so your camels will arrive.
It's just an egregious thing that he's done here, but this is talking about the multitude and the wealth of the nations coming to Christ. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah, all those from Sheba shall come, they shall bring gold and frankincense, they shall bring good news, the praises of Yahweh, all the flocks of Kadar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you, they shall come up with acceptance on my altar and I will beautify my beautiful house.
Who are these that fly like a cloud, like the doves to their windows, for the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first. You'll notice that some of the nations listed here in Isaiah 60 are not known for their faithfulness and their belief and trust in Yahweh.
Like far from it, so you could see how this works, it's a beautiful theme of how the nations all streamed in to see the Holy One. Coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of Yahweh your God and for the Holy One of Israel because he has made you beautiful.
Now that's a great gospel, the description here. Christ, because of his mercy and his forgiveness, has washed away our sin and he has made us, made the nations beautiful, washed in the blood of the Lamb.
What a beautiful picture of the gospel. Foreigners shall build up your walls, their kings shall minister to you. For in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. Oh yeah, so Elizabeth, I want to thank you for pointing this out, it wasn't a question I guess, but man, this is a beautiful text, it just flows beautifully from the gospel themes that we heard today.
Your gates shall be opened continually, day and night they shall not be shut. You can see this also in the cross reference in the book of Revelation chapter 21. Your gates shall be opened continually, day and night they shall not be shut, that the people may bring to you the wealth of the nations with their kings led in procession.
For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you shall perish, those nations shall be utterly laid waste. This is true. The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet, and they shall call you the city of Yahweh, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
All right. So yeah, I won't keep reading, but man, that is a great text. Very good.
All right.
Let me see if there were questions in here, because I did see, Carlos and MJ, we can't stay for the study. Oh, I'm sorry, they weren't able to stay. Yeah, my birthday's tomorrow. Thanks, MJ. The sands of time keep falling through that hourglass that is my life, and the sand is getting smaller and smaller on the top.
Question regarding a victim in that specific hymn actually propped up in the NAR recovery.
Group yesterday.
Let's see.
So, McDonald family, was it in the last hymn that we were talking about? Let me see if that was it. Hang on a second here. All right. See, I don't... You know, you'll have to clarify whether or not it was the last hymn or not.
In a Water Gate.
No, that wasn't it.
Hmm.
So, McDonald family, I need to know which of the hymn regarding... Question regarding victim in the specific hymn today actually popped up in the NAR recovery.
Group.
At the Lamb's High Feast we sing.
Got it.
So, let me get there real quick. Theological question popping up regarding the hymn. At the Lamb's High Feast we sing.
Praise we him whose love divine. Christ the victim, Christ the priest.
So, second stanza at the bottom here. So, second stanza reads, praise we him whose love divine gives his sacred blood for wine, gives his body for the feast, Christ the victim, Christ the priest. Now, so, I don't know what the specific question is.
Let me check to see if there was a specific question that came up later, but the people, so I think a person took issue with the word victim, believing it to mean, it implies that he was also unwilling.
Not sure I tried to help bring clarity, but I'm not a theologian.
So, here's the idea. It's very easy for us to read our understanding of words, and you'll note that we human beings don't like studying dictionaries and learning the fuller meanings of words. And I would note that both my mother and my wife, my mother with me, my wife with my children, assigned dictionary punishments.
And so, every time I pull out a dictionary, it's like, you know, I'm having a PTSD moment that's taking me back to being a victim of abuse of myself. You know, being forced, my mom would sit there and say, oh, you want to talk back to me?
Fine, you're not going to spend your afternoon playing with your friends, being outdoor, enjoying baseball or swimming or anything like that. You're going to sit down and for the next two hours, you're going to copy out pages of the dictionary.
And it's like, oh.
So, here's the idea. When we're talking about Christ being a victim, it is not in the sense that Christ was walking down the street and somebody wearing a face mask because of the pandemic comes up to Jesus and holds a gun up to him and says, give me all your money or else.
Okay, that's not talking about the victim. That's not talking about the type of victim here. It's talking about Christ himself being the sacrifice for our sins. And the themes for this are really in the book of Hebrews.
In the book of Hebrews, I believe, regard, and let's see here, I want to make sure, let's see, I want to make sure I got this in, so 9, yes, all right. All right, yeah, here it is, Hebrews 9, 11. When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, this is talking about the tabernacle, not the one made with hands, that is not of this creation.
So you'll know, if you remember back in your Torah, when God himself gave Moses the directions to build the tabernacle, this ugly thing out in the middle of the wilderness, we learn that in the book of Hebrews that the tabernacle that he built was a copy, a copy of the real.
One.
So there is a heavenly tabernacle, and here it's talking about how Christ entered into that tabernacle, the perfect tent, of which the earthly tabernacle was a copy, and he brought into that tent and poured onto the real mercy seat, not the blood of goats or calves, but so watch how this works then.
He entered once for all, the one-time event, once for all into the holy places. So he's entering then as our high priest, and he's bringing with him blood for our atonement. Not by the means of blood and goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify, that is, make holy, for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ through the eternal Son offer himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
So the idea here is this, Christ is the victim, and by victim we're talking about he is the sacrifice for our sins, and he laid down his life willingly. So victim in that sense is in a different understanding, and it doesn't contradict.
So oftentimes we talk about victimhood or victim mentality. That is a limited definition of the concept of victim, and therefore is insufficient. You have to take a broader look at some of the bigger definitions of victim in this sense, and so Christ, our Passover lamb, has been slain.
On the day of atonement, Christ is our atoning sacrifice. That's the idea here. So we don't eschew the word victim, what we instead do is say, now I understand how you would think that, that it seems contrary, that Christ is somehow a victim, but the definition you're working with is a limited one.
Look at the expanded definition of victim. And then you bring in Hebrews 9 to help bring the idea. So then you'll see then in our hymn, verse 2, "...praise we him whose love divine, gives his sacred blood for wine, gives his body for the feast, Christ the victim, Christ the priest, alleluia.".
So you see, ah, okay, so this is a very expansive look at this concept, and one that is more in tune with the fuller revelation of Scripture in that sense.
Okay?
All right, looking at the next question, K. Goodwin, question, "...I was taught that no human being has the authority to forgive sins, but in the service you said you were authorized to do so.". By the way, I'm a Baptist, from a Baptist background.
This is a great question, by the way. Yeah, we Lutherans, we practice the historic practice of what's called giving in absolution, and here's where the, this is where this comes from. We're going to take a look at the Gospel of John, chapter 20, John chapter 20, and so this is related to what's called the Office of the Keys, and this is in this regard.
So what we do here is we look at the Gospel of John, chapter 20, and I'll go into John 20, verse 19 as our context, but the verse we want to get to is verse 23, and then we're going to pay very careful attention to the Greek verbs and how they relate.
So here's what it says, "...on the evening of that day," this is the day of the resurrection, the first day of the week, the door is being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, "...Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad that they saw the Lord, and Jesus said to them, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.
And when he said this, he breathed on them, and he said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.". Now watch the language here, and we're going to clean up even the ESV because the ESV doesn't quite get the sense of the verbs here, but close.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. So when Jesus talks about, says to Peter, I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
That's a cross-reference to this, and so the binding and loosing then, this is called the office of the keys, and if you think that pastors have some special authority, you know, this is, we need to pay attention to the use here.
So if you forgive, all right, and so here's our first word in Greek, and I've got it highlighted on the left-hand side of the screen. Our Greek verb here is aphiomi, and here's kind of the important bit to start off with.
Second person plural. So the person asking the question has an Alabama EDU email address, and so this is important. So this would be y 'all. If y 'all, if all y 'all forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.
So you're going to note, this is a plural group here. And so the idea then is the Church has always understood that Christ has given the authority to the Church, not to Peter, to the Church to forgive the sins of the penitent.
Now if you're sitting there going, now wait a second, human beings have the authority to forgive sins? This is where the next bit of this is going to help out a lot. So note what he says here. So if, you know, if you forgive the sins, tas hamatias of tenon, of anyone, all right?
And this is where we've got to pay attention to the next part of this verb. And here's where it gets really hard to kind of pull this into the English. So we know that this is an all y 'all, if you forgive, you know, if you may forgive, so this is a subjunctive, the sins of any, and then here's our next verb.
They are, and this is weird, they are forgiven them. Let me pull this, how do I want to pull this off? So let me do it this way. The way the verbs work, let me pull this up in the NASB because this is a little closer.
Apologize for that. Receive the Holy Spirit, if you forgive the sins of any, so here we got a subjunctive, they are, and then this is a perfect, sorry, perfect passive, perfect passive verb, which is weird.
Okay, so let me explain what a perfect passive is here. Afe 'ontai. So perfect means it's in the past tense. Passive means you ain't the one doing it. So if you forgive the sins of any, let me give you a rough wooden translation then, they are already, they have been, because it's past tense, they have already been forgiven.
So this is where it gets, again, it's just, it's kind of hard to work this into English, and so the NASB does a better job, I'll explain. So if you look at verse 23 in the NASB, if you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them.
Okay, so coming back here to our verb, afe 'ontai. So this is third person, plural, perfect, passive. So the idea then is that Christ is giving authority to the church to forgive sins, because you know, if y 'all forgive the sins of any, and then Jesus says, they have already been forgiven them.
So I always like to put it this way, is that the church historically understands that the church has the authority to forgive sins, and that authority has been given by Christ. There's no doubt about it, this is the text that says it.
So because the way the verbs work then, I as a pastor ultimately am not the one giving the forgiveness. Because it's in the past tense, and it's passive, will have already been, or have already been forgiven, then the way of looking at it is this way.
The church has authority to forgive sins, pastors are exercising that authority publicly for a congregation. That's kind of the idea here. Christians have this authority as well, and so when somebody confesses their sins and they're a penitent, the appropriate thing to say as a pastor is to say, I forgive you all of your sins, and you're doing this in the stead and by the command of Christ, and if you pay attention to the verbs, then here's how it would work.
So at the beginning of the service, let me go to Divine Service Setting 2, Divine Service Setting 2, here we go, and closing this up, okay, and then you'll note, I'm going to point this out, in the Lutheran Service Book, you'll note how much of the liturgy has biblical text with it, and so if you're wondering where different things come from, you'll note that the absolution that is given here in the right-hand column, it's referencing the text that I just quoted to you.
So watch how this works, then. So we confess together, Most Merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and.
Unclean.
This is your confession and my confession. And we confess that we have sinned against God, in all various ways, by the way, in thought, in word, in deed, by what we've done, and by what we've left undone.
And you'll note, we've not loved God with our whole heart, this is true, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves, this is true, we justly deserve your present and eternal punishment, most certainly true, and then we pray for mercy.
For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name. So then, invoking the office of the keys as explained and given by Christ, the authority given by Christ, then the pastor publicly says, Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his Son to die for you, and indeed he has.
And for his sake, Christ's sake, watch, he has forgiven, for his sake, he forgives you all of your sins. Again, this is true, okay? So then, as a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by his authority, not my own, I therefore forgive you all of your sins in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
But here's how this works, if you were to put it on a timeline. Before I say these words, I forgive you all of your sins, because remember what Jesus says, the sins you forgive will have already been forgiven.
So put it on a timeline. You confess your sins. What happens next, you can't hear, or I can't hear, it happens in heaven, I guess. Christ says, I forgive you. So now I echo what Jesus said, and the reason why it's an echo is because of the verb, will have already been forgiven.
So you confess your sins, Jesus says, I forgive you, so the pastor says, by the authority of Christ, I forgive you, and when I do that, because of the verbs coming back here, so affionti, again, this is a past tense verb in the passive, which basically means, again, it's already happened, I'm not the one doing it, Christ is the one doing it, and so they will have already been, by Jesus, forgiven.
So I say, I forgive you, and then what you're able to do, because of John 20 here, is to say, what my pastor said, that I am forgiven, that is not his forgiveness, it is Christ's. It's Jesus' forgiveness.
So the idea here is that it's, in a sense, I have the authority to speak the absolution by Christ, and so when I say, I forgive you all of your sins, because of the verb, it's him doing it, not me, and I'm just a stand-in for Jesus, all right?
And this is a powerful thing, all right? Because if you've been to churches where it's heavy on the law and, let's just say, lacking in the gospel, what ends up happening is, is that over and again, your preparation for church is, you need to prepare yourself by cleaning up your act, you need to make yourself holy, you need to just start working the list, you need to stop drinking, smoking, chewing, watching movies that are above a particular, you've got to clean up, clean up, clean up, clean up, clean up, clean up, and then you'll note then that this is a big difference then in how the historic, notice I'm not saying Lutheran, I'm saying the historic Christian liturgy works, is that, you know, is compared to what has happened today in much of kind of confusing, the confusing of law and gospel church services.
In other church services, the service begins oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes with an extended period of worship.
Why?
It begins with an extended period of worship because the church service begins with what's called a sacrifice of praise. So I'm there to offer a sacrifice of praise, and if God accepts your sacrifice of praise, He's going to give you goosebumps.
All right, it seems kind of crass to talk this way, but that's a lot of the mentality that happens today. And it's all about me, me, me, it's everything begins with me, I've got to show God, I've got to prove to God, I've got to clean up my act.
No, okay? So Lutherans call the historic liturgy, we call it the divine service. And this isn't exactly an accurate way to look at it, but it's a good way to look at it, is that when we talk about it being the divine service, we understand this, that Christ is present there to serve us.
And our responses then to what He has done and is doing is to respond in praise and to respond in thanksgiving. So you'll note then, a Lutheran service begins with an invocation in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The reason why is because what Christ says in Matthew 18, where two or more are gathered in my name, and you can gather anywhere. You can gather in a tomb, you can gather in catacombs, you can gather in a church building, you can gather in a recreation center, you can gather on Zoom.
Where two or more are gathered in my name, I am present. So it begins, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And then we recognize then that Christ is now present among us. Now, He's always present, but this is now a presence for the forgiveness of our sins, Him caring for His sheep, and He's here to do several things.
He's here to bind up our wounds, to forgive us, to comfort us, to feed us with His Word. And when we gather in a way where we're able to have the Lord's Supper, also continue to feed us with His body and His blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins.
So then the appropriate thing is now that we are in the presence of Christ, the appropriate thing for us to do is to recognize we're not worthy to be in the presence of Christ.
Well, you've just spent the last week sinning, all right? And I remember when I first became a pastor, somebody kind of took offense at the fact that we were confessing our sins every week. And one lady said to me, kind of in an upset tone, she says, how long are you going to keep telling us that we're sinners?
And I said, as soon as you stop sinning every week, I'll stop saying you're a sinner. Okay, as soon as you stop, I'll stop saying that. So the idea then is we recognize there's so many ways in which we fall short.
So then we begin then by confessing our sins. But where there is a confession of sins, what is needed? What is needed is an absolution so that you're not in doubt regarding whether or not you're.
Forgiven, okay?
Because I'm going to tell you how things work, because I'm a sinner just like all y 'all. This is why I wear black, by the way, it's to remind you all that this pastor guy, he's sketchy, okay? So here's how this works, is that, all right, I know this, I've lived enough life to know this, there are some times in your life when you and Jesus are close, and you just, everything seems to be clicking.
And then there are times in your life where you have been plunged deep into temptation, and the devil is getting the upper hand, and you are sinning to a point where you're sitting there going, there's no way that Christ is going to forgive me, there's just no way.
I'm too far gone, I'm too sick, I'm too sinful. And so what ends up happening is, without an absolution, what ends up happening, if somebody were just to say, I declare to you that Christ has bled and died for the sins of the world, yeah, that's great.
Because what ends up happening is you sit there and go, yeah, well, Jesus knows how awful I've been this week or this month or this year or whatever, and there's no way He's going to forgive me, all right?
And so you have these nagging doubts that Christ has actually bled and died for your sins, and as a result of it, you are languishing because of the impact of your own sin, the devil in your own flesh has gotten the upper hand on you, and your faith is wobbly, all.
Right?
To instead here, I forgive you all of your sins. Over and again, somebody who's struggling with sin, if they were to come to me and say, you know, Pastor, I'm struggling with this, that, or the other thing, or whatever, and I'm beginning to question whether or not I'm saved.
My immediate question to them is, were you there on Sunday? What do you mean? I was there. Did you hear the words that were spoken? I forgive you all of your sins. Well, yeah. Did I exclude you when I said that?
No.
If you're forgiven, are you a Christian or not?
Oh.
Well, I guess if I'm forgiven, I guess I'm, I guess that makes me a Christian. So what do I need to do? Believe? You see, forgiveness comes from outside of us, not from inside. Christ proclaims His mercy and forgiveness in your ears, not in your heart.
And so there are different ways in which God, the Holy Spirit, then through these words of Christ and this authority, then comforts us and assures us. And there have been times in my life, then, where having attended the divine service, having heard the words of the absolution, and then you'll note then in the Lord's Supper, when we're able to have the Lord's Supper, there are important words that are spoken, and the important words are spoken.
You think about the verba, you know, what Christ's words say. He says, the way the verba works, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and He gave it to the disciples, and He said, take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you.
In the same way, also, He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.
This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. So with the absolution, then, and the Lord's Supper, you have these outside words that are spoken to you, and with the Lord's Supper, you are receiving, then, bread, wine, body, and blood of Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins, and the pastoral practice then in the Lutheran Church during the Lord's Supper is that as each person is receiving the elements, the pastor says these words, take, eat, this is the body of Christ, given unto death, for the forgiveness of your sins.
And then you come by with the wine and take, drink, this is the true blood of Christ, shed for you for the forgiveness, and I'll put the emphasis, for your sins. So what happens is, is when the devil comes along and sits there and goes, hey, Rosebroad, man, you are just a lousy Christian.
Dude, I mean, you really think that you're going to, you're saved? Come on. And the way the devil always operates, you know, when the devil's tempting you, the devil says things to you like, come on, it's not that big of a sin, it's not that big a deal, you deserve it, nobody's going to see anyway, come on, you know, it's really not, it's just a little sin, it's not even a mortal sin, it's just a venial, it's a tiny little sin, you know, no big deal.
And so you sit there and go, yeah, you know, I deserve that, yeah. And so you give into the temptations of the devil, and no sooner do you sin, the devil goes, you're a sinner, you're going to hell, you don't deserve to be a Christian, you sit here, ah, okay, he changes his tune on you, all right?
And the thing is, is that we sit there and go, man, I just, I can't believe that I am so wicked. Yeah, join the club, all right? So the absolution comes from outside of us, and it's from Christ, by his authority.
I forgive you all of your sins. Take eat, this is the body of Christ, broken for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Take drink, this is the blood of Christ, shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.
And what does this call for, then? Trying harder, being gooder? No, this calls for faith. Do you believe what Jesus said or not? And so you'll note then, so we begin by you being unworthy, confessing your unworthiness, confessing your sin.
So now, if you come to the Church and the first thing you're doing is confessing your sin, now you can't use your sin as an excuse to not come to Church. Well, I don't know why I would show up to Church, because if I show up, you know, then God's going to send lightning and burn the building down.
No, he's not. The first thing we're going to do is we're going to deal with you. All right, you're coming in dirty? Christ is going to clean you up. And he's given me the authority, he's given the Church the authority to forgive sins.
And this is the Church's authority, not the pastor's. And any time somebody speaks in absolution to a penitent, it is because of the verbs, it is Christ doing the forgiving, the person giving the absolution is just echoing the words of Jesus so that they know that they are forgiven.
Christ wants you to know that he's forgiven. So John 20 is your thing. And then you're going to note that what do we do in response to these things that Christ has done then in the service? We sing, glory to God in the highest, we respond in praise and thanksgiving.
God forgives us, we say thank you. Christ gives us his word, we say praise you. Okay, so you'll note then that in the divine service, number one, there is no audience. Christ is present, the pastor has a role, the congregation has a role, we're all together, no audience.
This is not a performance. This is why I don't have to wear skinny jeans, and y 'all should be really happy that I don't wear those, because I'm not trying to impress you with a performance. Bruce, thanks for your vote of confidence there, man, I saw that.
Even Sheldon knows me and skinny jeans. If I were to even try to put them on, you would have to call the paramedics and get the jaws of life to get them off of me, okay? It's not going to happen. Okay, so hopefully that answers your question, but man, great question, this is awesome.
So Brian says, what about the folks who say 1 and 2 Thessalonians teaches Christ's second coming took place during their time? Okay, so Brian, we talked about this group of people last week. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
It just doesn't make any sense, this particular eschatological view. If Christ has already returned a second time, well then, you missed it. And that song from back when I was a kid, you know, life was filled with guns and wars and everyone got trampled on the floor, wish we'd all been ready.
But you've been left behind, man. The Preterists, they're just wrong. Listen, when Jesus returns, he returns with the shout of the archangel, okay, and the trumpet of God, and the world comes to an end.
We're still here, so Jesus having already returned a second time, this doesn't make any sense, okay? Let me give you an example from a group that we would all recognize as off in this regard, and let me come back to my ESV real quick here, and I want to go back to Matthew 24, Matthew 24, so the Olivet Discourse.
All right, so let's just take a look at some of the details here regarding the second coming of Christ. Now, concerning that day or hour, Jesus says, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.
Now, the flood of Noah, was that a regional thing or a global thing? Jesus says it's global, so I'm going to go with his opinion, and anybody who says it's regional, my question for them is, why do you contradict Jesus on this, right?
Okay, so the whole world destroyed by a flood, the end, okay? This is talking about the end that is coming, all right? So the way to look at it is that the flood of Noah, the global flood that it was, is a type and shadow of the end of the world coming, all right?
And so they were marrying, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so it will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken, the one will be left, and you're going to note here, we'll just pay attention to the trumpet, so this is not the rapture, this is Christ's return, and then the separating of the wheat and the chaff, or the sheep and the goats, the angels are doing the separating.
Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, one left, therefore stay awake. You don't know on what day the Lord is coming, but know that if the master of the house had known what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
Therefore, you must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you don't expect him. Well, if, you know, this has no application today if he's already come. So who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master will find doing, so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all of his possessions, but if that wicked servant says, my master's delayed, begins to beat his fellow servants, eats and drinks with drunkards, and the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, at an hour he does not know, he will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, in that day there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So you'll note then that what follows next, and this is the important bit if you want to deal with a preterist, is that the Olivet Discourse does not end at the end of chapter 24. It continues into Matthew chapter 25, and here the Olivet Discourse now turns to a few.
Parables.
So here we have the parable of the ten virgins, and it ends with...and so the foolish virgins head off into town to buy oil because they didn't bring oil, and this is, you know, symbolically pointing to faith, dying without faith.
Notice everybody's raised from the dead, some have faith, some don't, the ones who have oil can't share with those who don't, so they've run off into town to buy oil. And while they were going, the bridegroom came, those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, the door was shut.
Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he said, truly I don't know you, watch therefore, for you know neither the day or the hour. Now if you don't think this is eschatological, then it continues to grow.
Here we got the parable of the talents, but now comes the most thinly veiled parable of all, the parable of the sheep and the goats. And so note, again, it's in the context of what? It is in the context of the Olivet Discourse, the end of the world, His coming, when the Son of Man comes in His glory, all right?
And just ask yourself, has this happened already? The answer is no. All the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations. He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on His right, the goats on His left. So then the King will say to those on His right, come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
I was hungry, you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked, you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer Him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, feed you, thirsty or give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger, welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison? Then the King will answer them. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it.
To me.
So then He will say to those on His left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
I was a stranger, you did not welcome me. Naked, you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. And then they will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?
Then He will answer them. Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you didn't do it.
And these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. So you'll note that concurrent with Christ's return is the resurrection of the dead. And I would point you to that important part of the liturgy, then, that we confess every single divine service, and let me go backwards from Divine Service Setting 3, and you'll see what I mean.
Let me get past the communion portion of the liturgy and go to this kind of important part, the Nicene Creed. Now, a few weeks ago we noted that the Nicene Creed is a highly polished, grammatically polished version of what was called the Rule of Faith, and so this was hammered together.
So the contents of this predate the Council of Nicaea by a long time. We see one of the earliest written versions of this in the writings of the Christian apologist Irenaeus, who is a second century Christian apologist, that his version of this is not as polished as this, but the same themes there arise.
So I believe in the Holy—okay, so note then, regarding Christ, he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, his kingdom will have no end. He will come again. Note the future tense verb.
He hasn't already come. The Church all the way back in the fourth century, and even before this, was saying Jesus will return. He hasn't returned already. So the Preterist eschatology, which is really new, I mean, really, really, really, really, really new, like, what, late 90s new?
You know, just saying, it doesn't jive with the future tense understanding that the Church has always had regarding the return of Christ. And then, let's see, and then we'll note that the Apostles' Creed, from then, you know, so Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
He hasn't done that yet. The resurrection of the dead hasn't happened, you know, so we confess the resurrection of the body which is coming. So the Preterist view is just wackerdoodle, and I would even argue that 2 Thessalonians in fact argues against the Preterist view.
2 Thessalonians 2, you know, it just seems to me like it was written for the Preterists. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together with him, have we? Have we been gathered together with him yet?
Has he come yet? He says, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect of, the day of the Lord has already.
Come.
Isn't the whole point of Preterism to say, well, all this has already happened? No, it hasn't! Okay, it hasn't. For that day will not come unless the apostasy, that's the apostasia, the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, which is the Church, by the way, not a temple in Jerusalem, proclaiming himself to be God.
So I would argue that the Preterists, they have, how did Ricky used to say it to Lucy? You have some splainin' to do, okay? It's an untenable exegetical position, it is not a proper way, and for them to sit there and say, well, Christ already returned on the clouds of judgment when he took down the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, so all of this has already happened.
No, and oh, by the way, no. You know, this is, it's just exegetically untenable, and I would even say ridiculous.
Yeah, so Brian, my apologies that you've been having to deal with Preterists, because what they do is they take the fact that Jesus prophesied the destruction of the temple in Matthew 24, and they say, therefore, all of this stuff has been fulfilled.
No, it hasn't. So the idea here is that, and I mentioned this last week, that in biblical prophecy there is a way in which this unique feature happens. Oftentimes biblical prophecies are what we call proleptic, which means there is a portion of the prophecy that is fulfilled in the immediate term, and then there's a longer fulfillment in the background.
And so what we often do is we look at, for instance, and this is the way Lutherans and the Church historically has looked at the Olivet Discourse, is they say that the Olivet Discourse is a proleptic prophecy, and here's the phrase, with remainder.
There are parts of Matthew 24 that have been fulfilled, and parts that have not.
All right?
So if, I'm trying to think if I, let's see here. Now I'm not going to do this. I will do this later. I was going to give another example, but I think I've beaten this horse to death. I think you get the idea.
Okay, so Diane's question is about the word believe. Is that in the original language? The question is about the word believe. Is that the original language? Diane, I need to know which text you're referring to.
I've been saying the word believe like 50 ways from Thursday this morning, and I need to know what specific reference you were referring to there. So let me see if that's answered here. Hang on a second here.
See if it's actually, it just appears later down. Diane says the Gospel text. Okay, Gospel text, all right. All right, uno momento, por favor. All right, so going back to our Gospel text, which is John 14.
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe. Pestuo. Yeah, believe. Have trust in me. Believe also in me. My Father's house have many rooms, have four or not. So I go to prepare a place for you. Prepare, you know, where I'm going.
So yeah, believe is, it's the Greek word, it's a verb, a pestuo. So yeah, so believe, believe. Trust, believe in me. Not once, twice. Believe in me also. Is that what you were referring to, is my question then for Diane regarding the word believe?
The answer is yes, it is in the Greek quite noticeably. Okay, let's come back here then. Happy Mother's Day. Brady, at the Lamb's High Feast we got that part, copying the dictionary is a hellish.
Punishment.
Yes, indeed it is. I've been through that hell many times. Okay, let's see here. Internet is especially terrible for people with ADHD.
If we can gather in the presence and this is a national emergency, why does that not allow us to have communion? Bruce, oh boy. Talk to me privately. You're opening up a can of worms there, and we'll talk later.
It's the best way I can fit it. Yeah, so hopefully Don and Duane took note of your question, which I think is a legitimate one, but that's a different story altogether. All right, yeah, we'll have this question.
I even have a document to share with you, by the way, which I would love to get your.
Feedback on.
Anyway, Brady says, for someone coming from a Roman Catholic background, when is private confession and absolution necessary? Okay, so Brady, the way I would put it is that saying when is it necessary is probably a poorly worded question.
I would say this. You have the freedom to avail yourself of private absolution as often as you would like and as often as you need. And so the idea here is that personally, I have availed myself of private absolution on many occasions.
Generally, I have availed myself of private absolution, and notice I didn't say confession, I said private absolution. The emphasis is on the absolution. During those times when I feel like my faith needs something outside of myself so that I can turn off the self-talk that says that the corporate absolution didn't apply to me, that's when I have availed myself of it.
So when my faith is wobbly and the devil's whispering in my ear, I know you heard that the pastor said he forgave you but it didn't apply to you, so just don't even think that,.
Roseboro.
So I have availed myself personally during times when my faith has been challenged and tested in that way, so that I basically took away the ability for my internal self-talk to say that I was excluded from the absolution.
But you are free to avail yourself as often as you like when it comes to private absolution. Weekly, monthly, whenever you want. So that's the idea. But I always recommend it as a tool for those who are struggling, and so if anyone ever were to come to me saying, you know, Pastor, I just feel like the devil's got in the upper hand, I can't, I'm really struggling right now, then oftentimes I will offer them private absolution, or if anyone confesses a sin to me, even if they didn't come to me for the purpose of private absolution, I will say to them, you've just confessed a sin, do you want an absolution for it?
And so I'm always offering that as an option for people.
David, this is quite simple, this took a heavy load off my shoulders. All of us, Dave, amen to that. So Elizabeth says, basically as sinners we have a tendency to think narcissistically. We either are not deserving of forgiveness, I'm glad you think that saying I'm not deserving of forgiveness is like a sign of narcissism.
That's a good, you know, because isn't it funny how we always make it about ourselves and we are always special. My sin is so bad, it's so special, Jesus can't forgive it. Get out of town, you are so full of yourself.
That's a good way of looking at it, yeah, narcissism. Either we're not deserving, okay, so that is why we need the gospel preached consistently, washing the living water of the word, amen. Okay, Bruce, deal honestly with one another, it says.
Yeah, there's a... Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, just saying. It's a life and death situation if I were to put those things on, I'm just saying. All right, yeah, because there's nothing skinny about any part of my legs, so...
Okay, okay, great comment. Okay, Preterist, I think, is actually dominious at heart. Funny that you would say that, Elizabeth, funny that you would say that, because generally with a Preterist eschatology, you're going to have post-millennialism following close behind.
Post-millennialism is that things are going to get better and better and better, and then Jesus is going to say, well done, you finally did it, and now I'm here to be king. So with post-millennialism, then, you get dominionism as the strategy for accomplishing.
That.
And if you know your dominionist history, then you'll note that the NAR got its ideas regarding dominionism from the post-millennial Preterists.
Just saying.
That's just a historical fact. Okay, okay, so, do you believe heretics populate the worst part of hell? I do know this, Philip, and that is that there are different degrees of suffering in hell. I do know that for a fact.
But not being privy to how Christ will execute judgment and who will be deserving of the worst, apart from Judas, I don't know how the rest of that points out. So, for instance, will Hitler and Kenneth Copeland be in the same ring of hell?
Hell doesn't have rings, I'm saying that. I don't know. I honestly don't know. Or is it going to be worse for Kenneth Copeland than it will be for Hitler?
I have no idea.
So this is one of those things where I am, because I don't have a biblical text to work with, I got no way to answer it. I just know that the Bible does make it clear that there are some who suffers, whose punishment in hell is worse than others.
And so we know that for a fact. Jack, the answer to your question is no. My theses right now are being worked into a document that will be used for debate within the ministerium of the AALC at a later time.
There's a proper way to—there's a proper time and place to have this conversation, but not in the court of public opinion. And that's one of my problems with what has happened, is that this battle is being fought on Twitter and Facebook, and it needs to be actually hammered out face-to-face with pastors, with open Bibles and a copy of the Confessions.
So I do not think it is appropriate to wage this particular debate in the court of public opinion.
So Bruce, only the undeserving can ever get forgiveness, otherwise it's just wages. That's right. I don't deserve forgiveness at all. If somehow I deserve forgiveness, good night. You know, now we're getting into the Court of Merits, now we're into Roman Catholicism and stuff like that.
So can we get a confession without—can we get an absolution without confessing our sins? Barbara, the answer to your question, and I'm going to say this, is technically yes. And here's the reason why, is that when we confess our sins, we are confessing those sins that we are aware of.
But here's the problem, is that there are clear biblical texts that make it unambiguously crystal clear that none of us recognizes the full magnitude of our sins. And so think of it this way, is so when I sin against my wife, and I do, or when she sins against me, and she does, okay, what ends up happening is I've broken particular commandments, but at the heart of that are other commandments, and so when I have sinned against my wife and I've grieved her, I haven't kept my word or something like this, there's an underlying issue, and that has nothing to do with my relationship with her.
It has to do with my own sinful heart and condition, and the inherent idolatry that exists within me. And so when I say to God, I say, you know, Christ, I've been a terrible husband. Christ is sitting there going, yep, you have, and it's always way deeper than that.
So every time you confess your sins, what you're confessing is the tip of the iceberg, and there are clear texts that bear this out. And underneath the surface of that is the bigger bulk of it. But Christ has forgiven us of all of our sins, the ones we are aware of, and the ones we are unaware of.
If it were necessary for you to confess your sins, every one of them, in order to receive an absolution, none of us would ever be able to do it. Human frailty, human weakness, the blindness that goes along with being a sinner.
You know, let's just say that along with sin comes a profound lack of self-awareness, okay? Everybody else is sitting there going, dude, do you not see how awful you're being? And you sit there and go, what?
What? What's wrong with me, huh? You sit there and go, you idiot, you moron! So the answer is graciously, no! You do not have to confess your sins in order to receive an absolution. The purpose of the absolution is to give you something, you know, your faith, something to anchor onto so that you can sit there and go, wait a second, you say I'm not forgiving Satan?
You say I'm not forgiving sinful nature? Yeah, go away, get lost. So you get the idea. So no, you do not have, you constantly get an absolution, even for sins you haven't confessed, because Christ is bled and died for all of them, all right?
Elizabeth says, my sinful nature wakes up in the morning before I do. Elizabeth, oh that's really good, that's actually really good. The scriptures talk about that, by the way, how in our unrighteousness and our sin, we sit in our beds before we wake up in the morning, devising sins in our hearts.
Yeah, I've done that. Yeah, all right. So there we are, folks. We are at the end of another church service as well as Bible study, and so no idea what the weeks are ahead. I do know that in the state of Minnesota, we're supposed to hear this week as to whether or not we'll be able to gather again after the 18th, so next Sunday is the 17th.
So technically, technically, we're not supposed to gather next Sunday, but I'm getting to the point of, for real, of really considering civil disobedience at this point. Because going into this, we were told two weeks, and it's now, what are we up to, week nine?
Almost ten? So I'm getting to the point of seriously considering risking being arrested, and rightly.
So.
If they want to arrest me, they can, but I think it's time for the Church to come back together for the purpose of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. But we'll talk later.
Peace to you, brothers and sisters, we will see you next time. And happy Mother's Day to y 'all, and thank you for the birthday greetings. Yes, tomorrow I turn 52. So, all right.
Peace.
