Walk Through Esther Part 2

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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August 24, 2022

Walk Through Esther Part 3

00:00: Let's pray and we will get started Lord Jesus again as we open up your word We ask then through your
00:06: Holy Spirit that we might rightly believe Confess and do according to what you have revealed there all to the glory of your holy name.
00:12: We ask in Jesus name. Amen So, all right So when we get hit that we do have a question
00:19: The question is if Ananias and it isn't an if he did Ananias called Saul Brother Saul before he baptized him.
00:28: Does that mean that he was saved before he got there? The answer technically is going to be no
00:33: Paul always points back to his salvation as being in the waters of baptism and so in other accounts that we can actually get the conversion story of Saul three different times and And so you have in one of the accounts
00:46: Ananias saying to Saul rise and be baptized Washing away your sins and so the idea then is is that this kind of goes to one of the kind of big rules if you would of How the how discipleship works?
01:03: we have been tasked with the job of making disciples not angels and Christ himself you'll note that he sends
01:12: Ananias for the purpose of him receiving his sight and him being baptized and In him receiving if you would kind of a tacit, but very overt
01:26: Absolution from the Lord by the mouth of Ananias and the assurance of his salvation then in having his sins washed away in the receiving of the
01:34: Holy Spirit and you'll note that he that the other detail of This text and I'll do this here because I'm gonna kind of work this out
01:42: I'm gonna duplicate this tab and I am gonna go to Acts chapter 9 and there's a there's a super easy way to kind of see this in and I'll explain here
01:54: Acts 9. Oh, I'm in 7. I hate it when I do that All right. Here we go.
02:04: So the men who are traveling with him. They were speechless. He saw nothing So now there was a disciple at Damascus This is
02:10: Acts 9 verse 10 and the Lord said to him in a vision Ananias. He said here I am I got to keep pointing out notice.
02:17: He hasn't even been to a prophetic activation school And the Lord said to him rise go to the street called straight and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus Named Saul.
02:26: He has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come and lay his hands on him Then he might regain his sight and Ananias answered
02:32: Lord I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your Saints at Jerusalem and he is here
02:38: He has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name, but Lord said him go he's a chosen instrument mind to carry my name before the
02:45: Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel and I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name
02:51: So Ananias departed and at the house laying his hands on him brother Saul the Lord Jesus appeared to you on the road which he came and sent me that you may regain your sight and Be filled with the
03:02: Holy Spirit, which is a reference end to his baptism So up to this point the Apostle Paul does not have the
03:09: Holy Spirit which is indicative of not conversion But that he is not yet converted.
03:14: He's not yet regenerated. So, you know, that's that's kind of your key So, where does the Apostle Paul receive the
03:21: Holy Spirit same place we all do in the waters of baptism All right that coming back to Acts chapter 2 you have
03:28: Peter preaching that great sermon at on the day of Pentecost and Everyone's cut to the heart and they say brothers
03:34: What shall we do and he says repent and be baptized passive voice For the forgiveness of sins or you can say into the forgiveness of sins kind of interesting how the
03:42: Greek worth works works there But into or for the forgiveness of sins and you will receive the
03:48: Holy Spirit for the gift is for you And for your children and it's not big tall children
03:55: It's the little ones and all who are far off and all whom the Lord God calls to himself And so we
04:01: Christians then recognize normatively that Christians receive the
04:07: Holy Spirit in the waters of baptism baptism is not man's work It is
04:12: God's work And so Saul of Tarsus has yet to receive the Holy Spirit and in another account that later in the book of Acts He's having his sins washed away
04:22: And this is where we can definitively say that he received the Holy Spirit and you'll note that the Apostle Paul's Biblical, you know his
04:30: Doctrine on baptism is the same concept. It is the working of God not the working of man.
04:36: So great question, by the way Carmen asked are we recording? Yeah, I think think
04:41: Josh hit the record button. So yes, so thankfully When Josh is here,
04:47: I don't have to remember to hit the record button He said awkwardly and everyone looked at him like yeah, that's great
04:55: Okay All right, so where we are today is we are in the book of Esther chapter 3 and Where we noted that you cannot understand
05:10: Esther. What's the question? Oh No, Bruce Burns is here Abort Oh The thief on the cross was not baptized.
05:23: Can you explain how some may not need baptism? Okay. All right. So here we go This is the standard question, by the way, that comes up.
05:31: The thief on the cross was not baptized. This is true I would also know Abraham wasn't baptized King David wasn't baptized
05:38: Isaac Jacob Joseph they weren't baptized And so here's the issue the thief on the cross
05:45: I like to think of him as kind of like the last of the last of the Old Testament Saints Because he is suffering for his sins
05:54: While while Christ is bleeding for his sins so the blood of the new covenant is being shed while they're having that conversation and so we'll note that people of the
06:06: Old Testament were not required to be baptized and Now that we are in the
06:11: New Testament, it is normative for Christians to be baptized It doesn't mean that you're not saved if you are not it is not the it is not the inability to be baptized
06:21: That would be a problem would be the rejecting of it. Oh Bruce Temptation beyond what you can bear
06:34: Okay, all right So to justify that would we go to Jesus's statement in the
06:39: Sermon on the Mount that the law would not pass away Until everything has been Exact so everything was fulfilled
06:54: Yep, and so that's the issue. Yeah. Yeah, so Bruce has given us a good cross -reference that to heaven and earth will not pass away
07:02: That the the things have required of the law would not until all things have been fulfilled
07:08: Christ doesn't fulfill the Mosaic Covenant as he rightly points out until maybe an hour half or two hours later after this thief on the cross
07:17: Can you know basically ask one of the best the best theological statements of the right person at the right time
07:23: Lord? Remember me he knows that when God remembers you that's a good thing when
07:29: God remembers your sins That's a bad thing. And so we'll note that the thief on the cross truly is saved but he's also one of the lot he's kind of like the closing out guy of the
07:41: Jews under the Mosaic Covenant because the Mosaic Covenant has not yet properly been fulfilled because Christ is fulfilling it on the cross
07:47: But all that being said that we will note that you know David wasn't baptized and so moving forward then the idea when we confess what scripture says regarding baptism
07:58: We Lutherans make a very interesting distinction. We say that baptism is necessary, but we do not say that it's absolutely necessary So there are people who believe in trust in Christ with the preaching of the gospel and have not been baptized
08:12: What should they do? They should be baptized God wills for them to be baptized And like I said, it's not the lack of baptism that we have to worry about.
08:20: It's the it's the despising of it So the person is well, I don't need to be baptized. I don't need that.
08:25: Well, Jesus says you do So now we got a problem because you're confessing Christ while at the same time
08:33: Opposing his expressed will that's a different subject altogether. All right, great questions
08:39: Baptisms by TD Jake's do not count. Yes. They that's right. Then there's a reason why so Okay, so I'm glad this topic gets brought up, okay,
08:50: I did not foresee this happening but here's the idea alright, so Here at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, if if you transfer from a different church
09:01: Let's just say that you've decided that you've you've transferred to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church from 3rd
09:07: Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama All right, and and so you you've done this.
09:13: All right, and I'm gonna ask the question. Were you baptized? Yes, I was baptized by pastor.
09:18: So -and -so at 3rd Avenue Baptist Church He baptized me in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit Baptists are
09:24: Trinitarian Okay, so do they need to be baptized again? No Okay, because it doesn't matter who the person is the human being that baptizes
09:34: Christ is the one to baptize So then they say well, I was baptized by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church Okay, and I know for a fact because Rick and I've talked he baptizes in the name of the
09:45: Father the Son and the Holy Spirit That's a valid baptism you are baptized by elder
09:52: Elder Johnson from the Mormon Church Okay, that don't count Okay, and the reason why that don't count is because the
10:01: Jesus they believe in ain't Jesus the father They believe in ain't the father and they are not really truly
10:06: Trinitarian. They are polytheists, all right, the the core doctrine of Mormonism is the law of eternal progression the which states as Man is
10:17: God once was as God is man can become and so their claim is that the
10:25: God that we are supposedly created by through sexual relations with His spirit wives near a strange star named
10:34: Kolob that our God Elohim He was once a man who became a god by obedience to his
10:40: God and His God was once a man who became a god by being obedient to his God so Yeah So all of that being said we do not recognize
10:50: Baptism in the Mormon Church as being a Christian baptism. That's something different same with Jehovah's Witnesses and TD Jake's He's a modalist.
10:59: Okay modalism Patrick is not Is not is not true Sorry, Bruce Yeah, all right
11:08: Modalism is the belief that there is one God one person and that God likes to engage in cosplay
11:15: You know and sometimes he dresses up as the father. Sometimes he dresses up as the son Sometimes he likes to fly around like a like a dove
11:23: And that ain't that ain't the God of the Bible. That's a different deity altogether.
11:29: TD Jake's is a heretic He's not a Christian brother He is somebody who denies the doctrine of the
11:35: Trinity and any Baptisms done in his church are not Trinitarian baptisms Anyway, he doesn't baptize in the name of the
11:42: Father Son and Holy Spirit as Christ is commanded He baptizes in the name of Jesus only
11:47: All right, so that that puts that outside All right All right.
11:53: Hang on a second here Okay, oh that's terrible, all right, so A question came in as it relates to Ananias and Sapphira Okay, by the way, and the
12:14: Ananias of Acts chapter 9 is not the same guy All right So this is this is
12:19: Ananias with a different last name if you would in the book of Acts you have the account of Ananias and Sapphira and Here's the issue is is that abusive churches and bad pastors who are who are basically teaching that you must tithe 10 % off the gross of your income or your money is gonna be cursed
12:40: God is gonna send the destroyer and he's gonna destroy you. And how do we know this Ananias and Sapphira?
12:46: Well, I got bad news for those pastors that the issue with Ananias and Sapphira had nothing whatsoever
12:53: To do with them tithing. Let me let me explain Ananias and Sapphira are they in Acts?
13:02: They might be in not hang on a second here All right All right, hang on a second,
13:11: I'm just gonna do a Sapphira search Sapphira Hang on a second here and it's she's not in the gospel.
13:21: She's in Acts There we go, ah
13:31: Here we go. Acts 5. All right, Acts 5. So watch this. Here's the details So at the end of Acts chapter 4 we get our immediate context here
13:40: Let's explain what's going on All right in Acts chapter 4 the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul
13:48: No one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own
13:53: But they had everything in common and with great power The Apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the
14:01: Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all There was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of the lands or houses sold them and brought them
14:11: Proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the Apostles feet. It was distributed to each as they had needs.
14:17: So here's what's going on Legitimately at this time there were wealthy people in the congregation who sold off houses and property and they gave 100 % of the proceeds to the church 100 % so, you know, they had a 300 acre farm out here in Oslo They sold the farm and put every last penny of the proceeds at the at the
14:47: Apostles feet No, Oh Bruce Oh Bruce Bruce asked if you sell your farm, is that a seed offering?
14:58: No See, yeah leave the pastor jokes to the pastor
15:09: Yeah Yeah, okay So you can see what's going on here and that is is that day
15:15: There were people who were selling property and giving all the proceeds Joseph was also called by the
15:21: Apostles Barnabas which means son of encouragement a Levite a native of Cyprus sold a field that belonged to him and Brought the money and laid it to at the
15:29: Apostles feet. So we get to Ananias and Sapphira Here's what's going on Ananias with his wife
15:34: Sapphira sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge He kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid at the
15:44: Apostles feet Why is this a problem because they're putting on the pretense that they were giving 100 % of the proceeds
15:51: Okay Lying is a sin and yes virtue signaling is a form of that So this is basically they're they're telegraphing to everybody how virtuous they are, but it's all a pretense.
16:03: They are Lying. Okay, if they had laid it at the Apostles feet and said we're gonna give 30 % of the proceeds
16:10: We're gonna keep 70 for ourselves Would there have been a problem? None, none whatsoever.
16:16: So this has nothing to do with tithing Oh, and by the way, does God require you to sell everything and give all the proceeds to pastor
16:23: Rose, bro? No, okay, if pastor Rose, bro ever tit says that take him out in the cemetery shoot him and bury the body quickly, okay
16:35: You're doing the world a favor, okay, and then ask the next guy for forgiveness, okay
16:47: All right, so so this is what the issue is So Peter said to Ananias and that by the way, this is another tech
16:53: This is a great text, by the way, it proving the not only personhood of the Holy Spirit But the deity of the Holy Spirit so Peter said to Ananias Why has
17:02: Satan so filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
17:10: By the way, they're they're like the Jehovah's Witnesses They teach that the Holy Spirit is like electricity or like like a gravity.
17:17: It's an impersonal force Can you lie to gravity? Right, okay, can you lie to electricity?
17:31: Yeah, you'll you'll note that electricity and gravity don't have a tendency to have a mind
17:36: They just are things put in place by God, but here Ananias flat -out lied to the
17:43: Holy Spirit and you kept back for yourself part of the proceeds in the land While it remained unsold did it not remain your own and after it was sold was it not at your disposal
17:53: Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but you've lied to God All right, so you'll note
18:01: Peter equates God the Holy Spirit as a God. He's he's part of The the triune deity he's
18:07: God and he's he can be lied to and then this gets worse and Ananias He heard these words. He fell down and breathed his last
18:13: I'm telling you if this happened today there'd be paperwork and great fear came upon all who heard of it and the young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him and After an interval of about three hours his wife came in not knowing what had happened and Peter said to her tell me what you've
18:29: Whether you sold the land for so much and he's and she said yes for so much But he said to her how is it that you've agreed together to test the
18:37: Spirit of the Lord? Behold the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out
18:43: Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last and when the young men came they found her dead and they carried out
18:49: Buried her beside her husband so you can see this has nothing to do with tithing So any any pastor who threatens a parishioner and says unless you start tithing and you make you give
18:59: God what belongs to him? You know you you you risk dying like Ananias and Sapphira. That person is a deceiver a money -grubber run
19:07: Okay, there is one command as it relates to the New Testament and that's not the tithing command that one command is do not muzzle
19:15: The ox while he's treading out the grain God wills that pastors make their living from the gospel That's it and you give as much as you want or as little as you want
19:24: That's between you and God God likes a cheerful giver and he doesn't require Christians to give out of compulsion
19:30: In fact, if you come to church and you are in financial need guess what don't give a cent
19:37: Let your need be known and it's the job of the church to help you. So Bruce Okay, so Bruce Burns has rightly noted that this may be used as a text to say that being slain in the spirit could be a bad thing
20:10: Yeah here so notice that Ananias and Sapphira were both slain by the spirit and there was
20:17: There was a burial afterwards. So, okay All right.
20:22: Very good Okay, so hopefully that answers question Rachel So a church in Bismarck said your baptism doesn't count if you were baptized in Jesus's name now, by the way
20:33: So if you were baptized in Jesus's name that is a oneness Pentecostal Formula, and it's it's only used by by heretics
20:42: So if somebody came here and said I was baptized in the name of Jesus By Bishop so -and -so at the oneness
20:50: Apostolic New Life Church in Bismarck Then we basically say it's we're gonna we're gonna get you baptized because you're not you just got wet that first time
21:00: All right, so it's you'll know Christ commands in And I'll show you the text on this by the way
21:08: Not only do we see this in I want to come here in Matthew 28 we get
21:14: Christ's explicit commands regarding how The baptism is to take place in the singular name of the
21:21: Father Son in the Holy Spirit But I'll show you the text that the oneness Pentecostals go to and twist and how when you put it back into its context
21:30: And you understand what it means to do something in somebody's name You get the idea. So here's what it says
21:35: Matthew 28 Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me
21:41: Go therefore and go by the way is not the imperative The imperative is to make disciples as you are going make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name
21:51: Singular of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them deserve all that I have commanded you now
21:58: There is a text that Oneness Pentecostals twist in order to say well baptism has to be done in the name of Jesus And I think it's in Acts 19 and I'll show you when you put this back into its
22:11: Yeah, when you consider all the details, it doesn't work So it happened that while Paulus was at Corinth Paul passed through the inland country came to Ephesus there
22:20: He found some disciples and he said to them. Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe now? No, they're already disciples
22:26: They haven't properly been baptized though. It's so Paul asked him. Did you receive the
22:31: Holy Spirit and they said no We have not even heard that there is a
22:36: Holy Spirit Okay, and immediately Paul goes to the logical place
22:41: Wait, you've never heard of the Holy Spirit then he said into what then were you baptized?
22:47: What's the assumption? You can't be baptized unless you hear the words
22:53: Holy Spirit because you're baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
22:58: Holy Spirit and They and so they and so he said, all right So they said we haven't even heard of the
23:04: Holy Spirit. He said what into what then were you baptized? They said into John's baptism and Paul said John baptized with the baptism of repentance
23:11: Telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him. That is Jesus So I'm hearing this they were baptized in the name of the
23:19: Lord Jesus now in this context here They're still being baptized in the name of the Father Son and the
23:25: Holy Spirit in the name of the Lord Jesus is basically shorthand for saying according to the way Christ commanded them to be baptized all right, and we know that this is the case because Paul knows that they should have heard that there is a
23:38: Holy Spirit when they were baptized. Does that make sense? Okay, so great questions, by the way
23:44: All right, so if you were baptized if somebody baptized you I baptize you in the name of Jesus no, no, no,
23:52: Jesus said baptized in the name of the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit and This is what this means.
23:58: So if that if that's you Send us an email and we might have to make a road trip
24:04: So and you know make sure that that you that you're properly baptized, right? Yeah, and actually baptized in Jesus name was their argument no so Rachel You'll note that this is the text that they argue and it's acts 19
24:17: This is the only time this appears and you can tell when you pay attention to the details That the
24:22: Holy Spirit has to be invoked during baptism That's the point and to baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus is to baptize according the way he's commanded
24:29: So, all right, very good. Yes, sir Good question, okay, so When you look at the rules of the
24:58: Mosaic Covenant as to people who are clean or unclean Anybody who is a corpse is automatically unclean.
25:05: So So the the status of death for a leper does not change their unclean status
25:13: So so you can tend to properly tend to the body of a leper.
25:19: That's that's totally Okay, you just have to treat them You have to you have to go through all the steps necessary to become clean again that you would because you're in the presence of a corpse
25:29: So does that make sense? Okay, so burial in and this is going to be more along the line of custom so Jewish burials during the time that Herod was reworking the temple
25:49: So that long period of time 46 47 years While they were working on the temple a an interesting burial practice that existed only at that time
26:00: Was in vogue back then and what here's the reason why what they were doing is is that you got the stone quarry up and running?
26:07: And they're making stones for Herod's temple, but the stones that are being rejected They've decided they figured out a way to make money off them
26:15: They kind of scoop them out and they would make turn them into ossuaries ossuaries are a bone box
26:22: So and these were stones the same stones from the same quarry that were being used in the temple itself
26:28: And then the practice became at that time You put a person's body in a tomb and on a slab
26:35: So in each of these tombs, you're gonna have a slab for a body and you're gonna have different grottoes
26:40: That will house the ossuaries and so what you do is you put the body in the tomb in on the slab you close the
26:49: Roll the stone over it and don't go back for a year Okay, especially don't go back in the first few weeks
26:56: Because bad smell all right and then the idea after one year the only thing left are the bones and the ossuaries that they made at that time were just large enough that you can take two adult femurs and And you'll kind of cross them and then you know put the skull in there and put the rest of the bones and that's where They would be buried
27:17: The final bury was in the ossuary now Jewish custom for kind of time in memorial
27:23: They have no problem with burying people in the ground but the general Jewish custom along those lines is if you're gonna bury somebody in the in the ground and this goes all the way back even to when
27:35: You know, you know like the Old Testament, but even more forward you'd have an interesting thing
27:40: Jews generally reject the idea of embalming bodies And so what happens is when a
27:47: Jew is buried they will either cut holes in the Drill holes into the coffin or or they'll bury somebody straight into the dirt with the understanding that their bodies then go back to the dust they want to facilitate that and You dust you are the dust you shall return and and so as part of the burial practice
28:08: They think that there's something wrong with preventing The natural decomposition of the human body so it doesn't go back to being dust.
28:16: So does that make sense? Yep, and that's common practice to this day.
28:22: So, you know, you you know Jewish Jewish cemeteries All right, you know, they you know
28:29: A lot of people are buried in those and they've fully decomposed in like a year or two They don't they don't do anything to stop the decomposition.
28:37: So all right Can I've explained verse 6 so when
28:42: Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking in Tongues and prophesying sure.
28:47: So Jeff Kinney, so here's here's the next bit of it And this is an interesting thing in the book of Acts.
28:54: You're gonna note that when somebody receives the Holy Spirit in a Non -normative fashion usually
29:02: God is telegraphing something. Okay, and so I'm gonna give a cross -reference to this first And that is is that I'm going to go to Acts chapter 11
29:15: Because you can see how this works out in Acts chapter 11 You have Peter being called on the carpet because gasp he went into the house of Gentiles Okay.
29:27: Now did Jesus die for Jews only? No Okay, did he say did he say make disciples of all nations?
29:35: Yes Okay, but you're gonna note that when we get to Acts chapter 10 Christianity has made it to Jews It's also made it to Samaritans but Gentiles totally
29:50: X'd out God the Holy Spirit Intervenes the Apostle Peter ends up in the house of a
29:55: Roman Centurion by the name of Cornelius who lives in a really nice zip code back in the day Caesarea Meritema is a really nice place to be stationed as a soldier and he shows up at his house and What happens is is that while he's telling them the gospel preaching about Christ God the
30:14: Holy Spirit fills these Gentiles Even before they are baptized
30:20: All right, which is not normal the normal way Christians receive the Holy Spirit is in the waters of baptism
30:26: So something is going on here and you can see this so the Apostles and the brothers who were throughout
30:32: Judea They heard the Gentiles also received the Word of God So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcision party and that's not a party you want to go to they criticized him saying you went to uncircumcised men and You ate with them you think okay
30:52: So Peter began and explaining it to them I was in the city of Joppa praying in a trance.
31:00: I saw a vision Something like a great sheet descending being let down from heaven by its four corners and it came down to me
31:07: Looking at it closely. I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air
31:13: I heard a voice saying to me rise Peter kill and eat I said by no means Lord for nothing common or unclean as ever into my mouth
31:20: But the voice answered a second time from heaven what God has made clean do not call common So this happened three times and all was drawn up again into heaven and behold at that very moment three men arrived at the house
31:32: In which we were Sent to me from Caesarea and the Spirit told me to go with them making no distinction.
31:40: Watch this. This is this is a big theological statement here Making no
31:46: Distinction. Well God the Holy Spirit told me to go with them He didn't make any distinction between Gentiles and Jews and that's kind of the big theological point here
31:56: So these six brothers also accompanied me and we entered the man's house and he told us how he had seen the angel
32:03: Stand in his house and say send to Joppa and bring Simon who was called Peter He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved you and all your household as I began to speak the
32:15: Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. That's the thing.
32:21: That's not normative So here you have Gentiles Unbaptized receiving the
32:26: Holy Spirit praising God speaking in tongues These are other languages and Peter sitting there going.
32:33: Oh, whoa So I remember the word of the Lord how he said John baptized with water
32:38: But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit if God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us
32:45: When we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?
32:51: So you'll note by God the Holy Spirit Jumping the baptismal gun here.
32:58: It is a clear sign to them that Gentiles are in they're not out don't exclude them anymore they received the
33:08: Holy Spirit the same way the Apostles did which is immediately without means and that signals
33:16: Well Gentiles are now part of the church. You better get used to it. They're gonna want bacon during fellowship time
33:23: Yeah, yes Yeah Only the
33:34: Jew. All right So every time in the New Testament the speaking in tongues occurs it occurs in the presence of a
33:42: Jewish congregation Yes, because only the Jews believe knew only Jews and proselytes right knew that Languages are a punishment from God see babble.
33:53: Yeah Language Don't forget the prophecy of Isaiah with that people would speak in spring state strange languages as a
34:03: Testimony against their unbelief. Yes. Yes Yeah But in acts so in here this is the
34:20: Sign to Peter and his audience. Yeah all Jews in Acts 19. They have the
34:28: Judaic public repentance Yeah washing which is a confession of your uncleanness before God So you're washing so that you know as a symbol that you have to be clean again, right?
34:38: That is a Judaic public apology and confession under the Old Testament, which means there's a congregation of Jews there
34:45: Yep, or they wouldn't have heard of John's baptism. Yep. And so every time the people start, you know, you know speaking in tongues
34:53: It's a sign to the Jews that these people have the authority and backing and power of God.
34:59: Yep, you know and And so once once the message had spread throughout the diaspora of Judaism There's no really no longer theologically a need for tongues to keep going.
35:10: Correct go figure. It's about them Yep, and I'm gonna note here so, you know, you're talking about tongues and That whenever tongues occurs in the book of Acts You always have this this thing where there are
35:24: Jews that are present who know the Isaiah prophecy understand that the tongues that languages the confusion of language was was a punishment of God and the undoing of that should properly be understood as a
35:37: Sign of God's grace and mercy in the undoing and part of a punishment now
35:42: I'm gonna point this out because I'm still answering the question Can I explain Acts chapter 19 verse 6 and I'm doing this with the cross references because you can see the pattern
35:52: Philip went to the town of the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ so in Acts chapter 8 and we have
36:00: Philip going and proclaiming the Christ and the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip and when they heard
36:08: Him they saw the signs that he did now a little bit of a note The word Samaritan and the and the region of Samaria has some huge theological baggage
36:20: Throughout Jesus's earthly ministry. We see that Jews didn't even consider Samaritans like human beings
36:27: They treated them like they were dogs. They spoke about them as dogs and we know that what what the
36:35: Samaritans were were basically they were partly genetically Jewish and also you know
36:42: Syrian and you know and Damascus and things like this because with the fall of the
36:47: Northern Kingdom The region of Samaria got taken over by pagans and they were They had a false religious system that they had set up that goes all the way back to Rehoboam at the time of the son of Solomon and And the establishing of the
37:02: Northern Kingdom and so Jews and Samaritans didn't get along So this is gonna be another one of those groups where?
37:10: When the gospel hits the Samaritans, they're gonna be people sitting there going Can Samaritans be
37:16: Christians? Can they can submit can a Samaritan actually believe in Jesus now, I understand we had that woman at the well, but I mean
37:23: See the whole lot of them. Come on. So you'll note same pattern then follows here
37:29: So Philip went down to the city of Samaria proclaimed Christ the crowds with him and one accord paid attention
37:35: When they heard him and they saw the signs that he did unclean spirits crying came out with a loud voice came out of many
37:41: Who had who had them and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed So there was much joy in the city, but there was a man named
37:48: Simon now. Hang on a second here I'm gonna I'll read this out, but this isn't the part I want to see So there was a man named
37:54: Simon who had a previously practiced Magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria saying that he himself was somebody great like every seeker driven vision casting leader and they all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying this man is the
38:09: Power of God that is called great and they paid attention to him because for a long time He had amazed them with his magic
38:15: But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ They were baptized both men and women even
38:22: Simon himself believed and after being baptized He continued with Philip and seeing signs and great miracles performed
38:28: He was amazed now when the Apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God They sent to them
38:35: Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit For he had not yet fallen on any of them
38:42: So you're gonna note here Revival has broken out in Samaria, but the
38:48: Apostles are not part of it So we have this Philip, you know Who's basically a deacon and he's preached the gospel people are repenting signs and wonders are taking place
38:58: And even Simon the sorcerer they've all been baptized, but have any of them received the Holy Spirit No So they
39:06: Philip goes back and says they all believe in Jesus. Do they have the Holy Spirit? No, he didn't show up So guess what?
39:16: Now we get two Apostles Peter and John they came down and prayed that they might receive the
39:22: Holy Spirit. We had not yet fallen Before they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and they laid their hands on them and they received the
39:30: Holy Spirit now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the Apostles hands He offered them money.
39:36: So you kind of see the the gist of what's going on here The Holy Spirit arriving then is the sign that these people are in they're not out
39:45: That's how this is working Samaritans when that fence is broken down the Holy Spirit does something different to basically say
39:53: Samaritans are in Gentiles Well, the Spirit does something different not normative because that Gentiles are in but what about this last group then?
40:01: Acts 19 I like to think of acts 19 is that that final group that we all kind of worry about That is a little more consistent with our teaching today.
40:12: What about somebody who believes in Jesus who hasn't been baptized yet? Are they in are they out
40:19: They're in they're already disciples and they are baptized the baptism of John the
40:26: Baptist not a Christian baptism and then They're receiving the
40:31: Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands rather than normatively in the waters of baptism again
40:36: It just breaks down all those barriers and shows all of these people are in and you'll note that there's no
40:42: Consistency in how the Holy Spirit doesn't how the Holy Spirit appears in these other forms that are normative
40:50: There's a little bit of variety among them But the consistent thing that we look for then is the promise of God again coming back to the
40:58: Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 2 hang on a second here acts 2
41:06: Sounds like it's sleeting outside. I Don't like the sound of ice hitting the windows.
41:12: It's gonna make for a dicey a dicey trip back. All right Sorry, we're having a weather event here.
41:18: All right, so here Right, so we come back then to what
41:25: Peter says now when they heard this they were cut to the heart Peter Set said Peter to the rest of the
41:31: Apostles brothers what shall we do Peter said repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the
41:41: Holy Spirit the promises for you and For your Tecnon your children small ones and for all who are far off everyone whom the
41:50: Lord God calls to him self So the idea is again baptism is
41:55: God's work. Not my work It is for the receiving of the Holy Spirit is for the forgiveness of sins the washing away of your sins
42:01: Is you are baptized and you are buried with Christ you were raised with Christ Colossians 2 says your heart is circumcised by the hand of Christ.
42:09: That's the idea and then when you get these non normative behaviors by the by the
42:15: Holy Spirit Pay attention the Holy Spirit saying something and basically talking and saying that groups in they're not out
42:22: So hopefully that answers the question Holy smokes. We didn't get to Esther yet.
42:30: I Blame you Bruce for no particular reason Okay, let's do this
42:42: We're gonna still can we're gonna do a little bit of work with Esther, but I want before we get to Esther I want to come to Revelation chapter 12.
42:53: Okay. Now we we noted last week that in the book of Esther This is a story written about exiles
43:01: Now, I really truly believe the more I'm working with Esther I really believe Mordecai is probably the author of this book and the big difference between Mordecai and Daniel both books are written during exile and they both have very similar themes about how
43:17: Believers in the one true God are constantly living on this knife edge right and they have to cry out to God and pray to God and God has to deliver them and Save their how do they say it took us?
43:29: Yeah to save their you know Save their rear ends a lot. Okay, and and that's kind of the big theme and that God is faithful in doing that But the difference between Daniel and Mordecai Mordecai is not a prophet
43:43: Daniel is all right and so Mordecai is He's a more akin to us in that sense.
43:51: I'm not a prophet and y 'all ain't prophets All right Elizabeth says, how do you know
43:58: I'm not a prophet? I just put in words in your mouth
44:05: Yeah Yeah, she says, you know, she's not so the I and Stephen Elliot for sure no way but the idea that is is that Esther is a great book of like what it's like to live as a believer in God when you're not a prophet
44:19: Daniel is a little bit on the different side, but of the four guys
44:25: You know Daniel Shadrach Meshach and bed and ago only Daniel's a prophet among the group of them
44:31: But all that being said I would remind you of this big theme that we see in the book of Revelation in Revelation chapter 12 a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the
44:41: Sun With the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of the 12 of 12 stars This is not the
44:46: Virgin Mary, by the way That's not who this is referring to in this particular vision of this woman
44:54: This technically when you can see when you see how the theme was work out. This is really legitimately
45:01: Pointing to if you would the Bride of Christ of the Old Testament or you can talk about the
45:06: Church of the Old Testament Which is a weird talk Sorry, which is a weird way to talk that the
45:11: Church of the Old Testament the believers of the Old Testament Sorry, I I touched the microphone.
45:17: Yeah, I Created a loud noise and scared everybody, okay
45:25: It happens All right so she was pregnant crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth another sign appeared in heaven behold a
45:36: Great red dragon with seven heads ten horns on his heads
45:41: Seven diadems his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven Cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth
45:51: So that she bore her child. He might devour it He gave she gave birth to a male child one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron
46:00: But her child was caught up to God and to his throne and the woman fled into the wilderness Where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for twelve hundred and sixty days
46:11: So here's the theme So no This is it is a misapplication because the woman has fled into the wilderness and she's still being protected by God Still being nourished by God.
46:21: This is this is the church. This is the believers The Bride of Christ so now war rose in heaven
46:28: Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon the dragon his angels fought back He was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven and the great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent
46:38: Who is called the devil and Satan notice how the word serpent and dragon are interchangeable in this text?
46:45: You know, I always kind of point this out so when when I'm teaching my catechism class to the youth, you know when we get to that account in the
46:52: Garden of Eden and And you have a talking snake with legs okay a talking serpent with legs
47:01: What are those called? Dragons, okay, you know so, you know,
47:06: I show them photos from you know The movie stills from the movie how to train your dragon and they all see it.
47:12: Ah, that's it. That's what it is Okay, dragon and serpent. They are interchangeable.
47:18: All right, although I gotta say this This has absolutely nothing to do with this. So I I've Lately been doing this weird thing.
47:28: I've been watching tick -tock if I'm like bored or have insomnia So I'm flipping through tick -tock, right? Okay, and they are the stupidest channels on tick -tock
47:36: You just watch this thing you're going humanity has like no hope at all Okay, this is the harbinger of the end of the world but there was a fellow who was you know, who was doing a little comparative work and He was saying did you notice how everybody makes fun about how short the arms of a t -rex are?
47:54: All right And because you know you watch the movie, you know, you know, you know Pixar's the
48:00: Toy Story and you know poor Rex and I can't reach any my tiny little arm my tiny little arms
48:05: So the guy was doing some skeletal Comparative work and he said I used to think this was the stupidest thing ever.
48:12: But then I compared the The skeleton of a t -rex to an ostrich and an ostrich has the same exact skeletal formation
48:22: With the small little arms Okay, but those are for the that's the base for the wings and he go and he said wouldn't it be terrifying of t -rex?
48:31: They didn't have small arms. They had wings that would mean they're dragons, you know And all of a sudden you sit there and go, you know that actually
48:40: You know that has explanatory power It really really does. So just noting that you know, because of all the of all the dinosaurs
48:50: I I would not want to meet The t -rex is like there
48:57: Hold on That's the one thing
49:10: I hate about this stupid camera is is that it zooms in sometimes And in order to zoom out,
49:15: I have to say I'm a loser, you know, I have to make the L the L shape. Okay All right, all that being said coming back here.
49:24: All right, so War arose in heaven Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon the dragon his angels fought back.
49:31: He was defeated There was no longer any place for them in heaven The great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent is called the devil and Satan the deceiver of the whole world
49:40: He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down to with him and then
49:45: I heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power of the kingdom of our God and the Authority of his
49:50: Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren Brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before God They have conquered him by the blood of the
49:59: Lamb and the word and by the word of their testimony for they loved not their Lives even unto death therefore rejoice
50:05: Oh heavens and you who dwell in them but woe to you on the earth and the sea for the devil has come down to you in great wrath and He knows that his time is short and when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth
50:17: He pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child That'll give you nightmares a ten -headed dragon on earth coming after the church
50:30: It sounds about normal, right? Okay Has anything really changed though?
50:36: Okay, so the idea then the picture that we get of the exiles in the book of Esther who are always living on this knife edge
50:45: It's the same thing same kind of concept and we as Christians we are currently in the wilderness of this earth heading towards the promised land the new heavens the new earth and And so and we are being pursued the entire time by the devil
51:04: How do we survive such an ordeal with such a terrifying foe? We don't we?
51:09: Yeah, we pray and we die. Okay, that's that's kind of how this works
51:14: So coming back then to the book of Esther Esther chapter 3
51:20: We'll get a little bit of work in this is gonna now start to set the stage for What we'll get to in two weeks from today the the
51:30: Well full -on attempt to eradicate everybody who is Jewish so after these things
51:36: King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite the son of Hamadatha and Advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him.
51:46: So Haman this is this is our this is our evil guy And he he's going to be the one that's going to come up with this plot.
51:54: And this guy is Just full of himself all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman For the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai he did not bow down or pay homage
52:12: Worshippers of the one true God do not worship princes and kings and officials and stuff like this so Mordecai stubbornly and obstinately basically says
52:23: Kind of like Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. I'm not gonna bow to your idol except for your your your own idol
52:30: He won't do it. He's not gonna exalt men in Improper ways and Haman ain't so happy about this.
52:40: All right So so all the king's servants who were at the king's gate They bowed down paid homage to Haman But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage and the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai Why do you transgress the king's command and when they spoke to him day after day?
52:58: He would not listen to them They told Haman in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand
53:04: For he had told them that he was a Jew and when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him
53:11: Haman was filled with fury He disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone yeah, so as they had made known to him the
53:21: The people of Mordecai Haman sought to destroy all the Jews the people of Mordecai throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus so Rather than just bearing a grudge against Mordecai and plotting to take his life
53:35: Haman decides to go all Adolf Hitler. We're gonna kill all the Jews and You'll note the these
53:44: Jews in exile They are the ones For the most part I mean vast majority of them the reason why they're there is because they believed the promises of God through the
53:54: Prophet Jeremiah That everybody who turned themselves in in Nebuchadnezzar would live rather than die
53:59: And they were marched off into exile as God promised and they are alive These are people of faith and so you'll note
54:07: Mordecai is not bowing down on religious grounds he's refusing to pay homage because however people paid homage to kings and princes of Babylon it was beyond what a
54:19: Jew a Bible believing Jew could do It fell into the realm of idolatry and so it was contrary to the commands of God and contrary to his conscience which is bound by the
54:31: Commands of God and now Haman has decided I'm going to kill every one of the
54:36: Jews for this offense Love your neighbor as yourself, you know so I'm I'm gonna go with murdering an entire people group.
54:48: That's probably gonna be outside of loving your neighbor as yourself right So in the first month, which is the month of Nisan in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus They cast per that is they cast lots before Haman day after day
55:06: They cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar now Implication here is what why are why are they casting lots?
55:15: So the the implication is is that? Haman is into astrology into fortune -telling into things of this nature
55:23: So they're casting the per the perine for the purpose of he's looking at them
55:29: Basically kind of asking this question Is it the right time or the spirits or the gods or the forces of whatever with me?
55:37: Is this the time to to execute my plot against the Jews and that that's the implication.
55:44: All right he's doing this for the purpose of Ascertaining from the spirit realm whether or not he it's a good time to go forward with his with his attack
55:53: So then Haman said to King Ahasuerus There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples and all the provinces of your kingdom
56:02: Their laws are different from those of every other people and they do not keep the king's laws
56:07: So that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them if it pleased the king
56:13: Let it be decreed that they be destroyed and I will pay 10 ,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business that they may put it into the king's treasuries 10 ,000 talents
56:26: That's a lot of silver and the implication is is that what Haman is saying is is that let me execute my plan?
56:33: Where's he gonna get the 10 ,000 talents of silver? He's gonna plunder it from the dead Jews That's the idea and When I read something like this, man, one of the things that comes to my mind is a picture from the
56:47: Holocaust Have you ever seen? the gold teeth stacks of Jews who were murdered by the
56:57: Nazis had their golden teeth taken out and then those Collected up and there's just photographs of these mounds of human gold teeth
57:05: Which uh -huh? hair and uh and Shoes.
57:10: Yeah. Yeah This is this has that same ick to it.
57:16: I'll get you 10 ,000 talents of silver From the dead bodies of the
57:21: Jews that we're gonna slaughter, right? That's the implication So the king took his signet ring from his hand gave it to Haman the agagite
57:29: The son of Hamadatha the enemy of the Jews and the king said to Haman the money is given to you the people also to do with them as It seems good to you.
57:39: So King Ahasuerus basically gives him the sing signet ring and he's able to kind of carte blanche decide what he's gonna do and And that's the implication
57:50: So the king scribes then were summoned on the 13th day of the first month and an edict According to all that Haman command was written to the king satraps and the governors over all the provinces and of the officials of all
58:03: The people to every province in its own script and every people in its own language It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus Sealed with the king's signet ring letters were sent by the couriers to all the king's provinces with instructions to destroy
58:17: To kill and to annihilate all Jews young and old women and children in one day the 13th day of the 12th month which is the month of Adar and to plunder their goods a
58:30: Copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the people's to be ready for that Day, the couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king and the decree was issued in Susa the citadel and the king
58:45: And and the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion
58:51: An official decree kill them all Every one of them.
58:57: All right, and that's our setup and we'll pick the story up in two weeks But are there any questions left? Yes So, okay, it's not a bookkeeping error it's kind of more along the lines of this
59:24: Haman has promised ten thousand talents. That's the profit from the from the ordeal
59:31: However, you got to pay soldiers and people to do this work, right? So what the king is forwarded is like the initial expenses necessary to to fund the operation, but the the ten thousand talents will then be
59:46: Whatever is left over after those after the expenses and the ten thousand talents will be the their profit in this endeavor
59:55: Yeah Yeah, that's right and and here's the other bit and you're gonna see this in two weeks and that is is that Once this goes out because it's been signed with the signet ring
01:00:06: Even though aha swears himself didn't punch it with the signet ring because it was done with the signet ring he does not have the ability to undo what
01:00:16: Haman's plot and So that that plot must go forward.
01:00:22: There's no way to revoke This so come hell or high water on this day chosen
01:00:29: There are gonna be people who are gonna be gunning for Jews on that day. Yeah Okay, so off subject
01:00:40: Pastor Bryce watched Lord of the Rings and loved it. The Christian allegories are subtle, but definitely there
01:00:46: They don't seem bold as CS Lewis's I would say that the
01:00:51: Lord of the Rings the the Christian allegory in it is Quite overt but the problem is is that some of the some of the the allegorical figures are spread across several characters?
01:01:02: It's a more complicated far more bigger moving pieces. So for instance
01:01:08: Gandalf Gandalf the gray becomes Gandalf the white after his death and his resurrection
01:01:13: But the other clear Christ figure in the story is Aragorn the son of Arathorn So the the idea then is is that and by the way
01:01:22: Aragorn becomes king after an army of the dead helps him win The battle I thought that was fascinating.
01:01:27: But um, but you know, you when you put the allegories together you'll note that the Christ figure is kind of split between between Aragorn and and And the
01:01:40: Gandalf it did so there that I'll just say Tolkien writes in Much more subtlety, but at the same time way more complexity
01:01:50: And and as a result of it, I think his allegory has a lot more depth to it at times So you get the idea?
01:01:56: All right, peace to brothers and sisters. I've got a log off because I've got a head off to radium So Lord willing we'll see you next time