When We Define Love

Let's pray, Lord Jesus Christ with us, abide, for round us falls the eventide. Let your word, that saving light, shine forth undimmed into the night. In these last days of great distress, grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness, that we keep pure till life is spent.

Your holy word and your sacrament, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, there was a question that came in during the inter-service period, the fellowship time, and the question was, see if you guys can wonder, what's an Ebenezer?

No, no, he's not a Scrooge. He's named Ebenezer Scrooge, which finally enough, is a kind of an ironic name. Eben, stone, right, and then Ezer, help. Ebenezer is a stone of help. It's a pile of rocks. It's kind of, you said it the way Charlie Brown does when he's trick-or-treating.

Yeah, I got a candy bar. I got bubble gum. I got a rock. I always loved it when Charlie Brown would go ahead. So first, Samuel 7 is where we're going to take a look at where the phrase Ebenezer comes from, and so this is during the time of Samuel the prophet, and he is a guy like John the Baptist.

John the Baptist has one foot in the Old Testament, one foot in the New Testament. John the Baptist is the last of the Old Testament prophets, and he is the first of the evangelists, and Samuel is the last of the judges and the first of the prophets, and after him will come kings and prophets.

Kind of an interesting thing, how that works out, but here we have this account. The men of Kiriath-Jerim, they came and took up the Ark of Yahweh and brought it to the house of Amminadab on the hill, and they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the Ark of Yahweh.

From the day that the Ark was lodged at Kiriath-Jerim, a long time passed, some 20 years, and all the house of Israel lamented after Yahweh, and Samuel said to the house of Israel, if you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreth from among you and direct your heart to Yahweh, serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreth, and they served Yahweh only. That's a good thing, by the way. Get rid of your idols, stop limping between two opinions. If Yahweh is God, serve, worship,.

And obey him. If Baal is God, serve him. Yeah? A bunch of rainbows?

A bunch of rainbows? Yeah, no, so when we talk about reconciliation, we'll do a little bit of a side note. Okay, so you're talking about a misuse of the concept of reconciliation, and let me explain how—all right, all right, I can explain it.

Thankfully, I speak apostate. Okay, so let's pretend for a second. We'll use—Marilyn, I'm going to use you as an example. All right, let's say that I have done something that has upset her, offended her.

You know, maybe she heard that I said, Marilyn's a fool. Maybe I said that, right? And it got back to her, and you know what? It's true. I said that. Marilyn, I said you're a fool, right? Now, who's sinned against whom?

I have sinned against you, all right? And when we talk about reconciliation, the person who sinned has the responsibility, according to Matthew 5, to go to the person whom they have offended and hurt and sinned against.

It's not her job to come to me to say, Rose, bro, I heard you called me a fool. Now, if she does that, now what she's launched is church discipline. When the person who's been sinned against comes to the person who's committed the sin, that's called church discipline.

So she comes to me and says, Rose, bro, I've heard that you called me a fool. Well, I did. What are you going to do about it? I'm not going to change. I think you are, right? Well, in a situation like that, church discipline requires her to go, okay, fine.

She leaves, and she comes back, and now she's got two others with her. Rose, bro, you said that Marilyn's a fool. You've sinned against her. Go pound sand. Get out of my house. Leave me alone. I stand by what I say.

I only speak the truth, all right? But I've sinned against her because we have a clear text that says that. Now, if I persist in my sin, and now they bring others, they get the church involved, and if I won't even listen to the church, you're out, okay?

But here's the thing. Reconciliation. Now, if I were to say, you know what, Marilyn, I was wrong. It was sinful for me to call you a fool. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. You see, I recognize, you know, I'm coming to church.

I mean, I'm receiving the forgiveness of sins from God, and, you know, I'm receiving the gift of Christ's body and blood at the altar, and I've sinned against her, and I know she has ought with me. Well, in a situation like that, it's my job to go to her and say, I'm sorry.

That's the reconciliation, okay? So that's biblical reconciliation. So, you know, one is church discipline. The other is reconciliation, and here's the thing. In the midst of church discipline, there can be reconciliation, and in fact, that's the goal of church discipline, is for the person to say, you're right, I'm sorry, I'm wrong, forgive me, I repent.

That's the goal. Now, when it comes to this church that you talked about that had reconciliation Sunday, and they were flying rainbow flags and things like that, here's the assumption. The assumption is, on the part of the liberals, that the Christian church has sinned against those who are same-sex attracted, and so reconciliation, the way they're doing it, they think it's reconciliation because they believe that those who are same-sex attracted or homosexuals or whatever have been sinned against by the church, by the church saying that's sinful, and so what they're doing is they're saying, they're coming, please forgive us.

We were wrong in saying that that's sin. Is that reconciliation? No. Yeah, because here's the.

Thing. In a situation like that, who's... Well, no, she's... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Right.

What they're trying to basically do is say that we were wrong in saying that's a sin. I mean, this would, let me give you an analogy that I think pretty much everybody would understand. I... You sound really logical here, and I'm going to say you've got the high ground even biblically here, but we sinners rebel against what God has written and what He has said in Scripture.

So if we were to say, all right, all of you people who have been convicted of larceny, all right, we're sorry that we called you sinners. We're sorry that we said that larceny is a sin. We repent. It's not a sin.

It's a vocational lifestyle. Everybody has a right to make a living, and so we were wrong in saying that it's sinful. Does that make any sense? That's stupid. All right. It's just dumb, but the thing is that what's going on there, the person making a statement is no longer confident that the Word of God is condemning sin.

And instead, over and again you see in liberal churches, they change the order of a couple of words from Scripture. Scripture says God is love. This is most certainly true, but what they do is they flip it to where love is God, and then it's a vaguely ambiguous definition of love.

And so when we define love, we have to define it in its most quintessential and poignant definition. If you want to know what love looks like and how to define it, love looks like Christ suffering, bleeding, and dying for your sins.

When you say that's what love looks like and we're going to define it in those terms, then what happens is then you have a right understanding. There truly is sin. There are real consequences to sin, and that God's desire is to forgive and pardon, and that Christ has already bled and died for their sins, and God seeks reconciliation with those who have made themselves his enemies.

That's what love is. So when you say to somebody who is an impenitent sinner, and I don't care what the sin is, we the church were wrong to say that you were sinners. We want to be reconciled with you.

We want to give you a big hug, and we're going to give you some unicorns and rainbows to go along with it. That's not love. It's not biblical love. That's basically saying we were wrong in believing the word of God.

We no longer believe it anymore, and so we want to be reconciled to you and end the hostility between you and God. But what they've done is created an idol. They've created a false God, and they've created a false definition of love, and they're not calling sinners to repentance and the forgiveness of sin and saying that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish.

That sentence in and of itself tells us that those who persist in sin and unbelief, they will perish, and we are all part of that group if God had not intervened and given us faith, forgiven us of our sins, and if Christ hadn't done what he did, God took the initiative.

So does that answer the question? All right. All right. Coming back to 1 Samuel 7, we are still exploring the concept of an Ebenezer. I always like to get the context of the story. So if you remember in the earlier chapters then, in the earlier chapters of 1 Samuel, the Israelites went out to fight a battle.

God decided that he was going to be judging the high priest and his sons because they were engaging in rank sin, abusing people, bringing their sacrifices to the tabernacle, and also sleeping with the gals who were helping out at the tabernacle.

I would say that is bad. That is not a good thing. And God judged them. And the Ark of the Covenant was taken captive by the Philistines, and now it has been returned, and so this is what is going on here.

And so it has been in somebody's house for 20 years. So Samuel said, put away your Baals, put away your Asheroth, repent of your idolatry, basically. And then Samuel said, gather all of Israel at Mizpah.

You guys, Mizpah, that is a name that sounds familiar. I will pray to Yahweh for you. So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water, poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, we have sinned against Yahweh.

This is good stuff. This is a story of repentance. We have sinned against Yahweh. And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah. Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel.

So they are thinking, everyone is up in one place, we can kill them all in one big fell swoop, right? And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines, and the people of Israel said to Samuel, do not cease to cry out to Yahweh, our God for us, so that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.

And so Samuel took a nursing lamb, offered it up as a whole burnt offering to Yahweh, and Samuel cried out to Yahweh for Israel, and Yahweh answered him. Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to attack Israel, but Yahweh thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines, threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.

And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah, pursued the Philistines, and struck them as far as Beth-char. And then Samuel took a stone, set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer.

This is the stone of help. And he said, till now Yahweh has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the day of Samuel.

The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron to Gath. Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.

So now you know what an Ebenezer is. It's the stone of help.

Sir? To tie together in terms of what they're off the church, this is the beginning of this. Okay, good context to kind of tie it all together.

Which verse? All right. So here's an example then, kind of Bruce thinks that we can tie everything together here. So Yahweh came and stood calling as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. So Samuel's still a little boy, and fascinating bit is that he's sleeping in the Holy of Holies, which is nuts when you think about it.

Okay, and God has not killed this kid. So Jesus himself shows up to talk to Samuel, and Samuel said, speak your servant hears. Then Yahweh said to Samuel, behold I'm about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.

On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end, and I declared to him that I'm about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.

So there we have it. Okay, and again, Eli, the high priest, his sons are abusing people who are bringing their sacrifices, and basically taking portions that do not belong to them at a time when they should not be having them in the first place, because they don't like eating boiled meat.

They want the tastier, more savory meat, and then they are also, like I said, sleeping with the girls who are helping out at the tabernacle. They're not married to these women, and so they're fornical buddhulating, and Eli, the high priest, knows about it, and is doing nothing.

Doing nothing. He has the authority to put an end to it, and he doesn't. He has the authority to, you know, call down the judgment of God on these men. Doesn't. And so, you know, he turns a blind eye and basically does nothing to restrain them in their sin at all,.

And God is holding him accountable for it. Safe to say the church...

Okay, so I've said it before, and it's been a while since I've said it, and I'll reiterate the point. The reason why the American society has become as openly blasphemous and debaucherous as it is is because all the way back in the 1800s, the church began to stop believing that the Bible is the Word of God.

That's where you can see the break happen, and what happens is with the rise of Darwinian evolution, the church basically seizes up, and one group goes the way of saying, it's not the Word of God, it's the Word of man, and another group continues to persist in believing this, but what happens is that back in the late part of the 1900s, there were, in America, you know, the big Protestant mainline denominations, and they still preached the Word of God as if it were the Word of God because they believed it to be the Word of God, but there was a growing undercurrent, and it's here in America, it's also in continental Europe, where the impact of the Enlightenment and then kind of romanticism mixed with it, you know, sends the church off into basically lip service belief in the Word of God.

Denial of the miraculous, denial that the Bible is the inerrant, inspired, infallible Word of God, and what ends up happening with that is now look at the mainline denominations as they were, and where are they today?

The Presbyterian Church. Wiped out, except for the guys who still held to the Scriptures, what did they have to do? They had to jump out of the Presbyterian Church and start their own synod, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and then you look what happened with the vast swath of visible Lutheranism.

You do know the ELCA is bigger than the LCMS, right? By a long shot, the ELCA is bigger than the LCMS, and we can talk about the ALC if you like, we're a flea on the back of the LCMS as far as our size is concerned.

They're a hundred times bigger than the ALC, a hundred times. So the vast majority of visible Lutheranism in the United States, believing or unbelieving? Unbelieving. How about the Methodists? They're splitting up, right?

And the big split that they're having right now where those who are holding to the belief in the Word of God, do you know the majority of those pastors in the United Methodist Church who still believe the Bible to be the Word of God are ethnic minorities?

And it was the fact that they are ethnic minorities, which many are saying was the driving force for the United Methodist Church to decide to have a split because they thought that if they tried to overrun them or censor them, they would be accused of racism.

How are the Baptists doing, by the way, right now? The SJWs have got the upper hand in the Southern Baptist Convention right now. Oh, they're already here. All right. So what is this thing? The thing is unbelief basically going through the motions of religion.

This is the religion of Cain. I'm going to offer sacrifices to God, but I have no faith. I don't believe this to be the Word of God. I don't really need this. I'm doing this because I want to appear religious.

So then in the ELCA, you look at my, I have to be careful how I say this, my friend, I have to kind of put it in air quotes, Nadia Bowles Weber. She's like the poster child of the theology of the ELCA.

Does she preach the law? Not at all. And she's openly, openly right now in rank sexual immorality, openly talking about it openly. She divorced her husband. You know, a podcast she was on recently, she was talking about some guys she's shacking up with, and she's still considered a pastrix in good standing in the ELCA.

And there are whole groups of people in the visible church, and I say it that way, who believe it is our job as a church to apologize to people who are homosexuals, to apologize to those who want to be in polyamorous relationships, who want to engage in polygamy, or refuse to identify themselves according to the gender that God gave them, that we need to apologize to them so that we can be reconciled to them.

Because we have done a disservice to them by saying this is sinful, and that they need to repent and be forgiven. And they do this while wearing clerical collars, wearing albs and stoles, and bishop's hats, and chasubles with smells and bells and candles.

And statues and prayers, and it's not Christianity. Teach the truth. We gotta love them and call them.

To repent. But no, so the church now has a whole group of the church, and it's growing. Have you noticed that liberals are very militant? Have you guys noticed that? The whole idea behind coexist, you know, you see somebody with a coexist bumper sticker, they are not interested in coexisting.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many pastors who are confessional Lutherans around the world, especially like in Australia right now, who've contacted me and said, my liberal bishop wants my head on a platter, and he keeps working the system to try to get rid of me.

What do I do? They're not interested in coexisting. They want to drive you out. If you hold to the same view of scripture that Jesus actually does hold, you will not be admitted into an ELCA seminary.

They're not interested in coexisting. They are hell-bent, for real, on destroying any vestiges of confessing and believing Christianity to replace it with this nebulous, sin-affirming, kumbaya, let's all hug and get along together, and nobody's a sinner kind of theology.

Yeah. I may have misunderstood.

You know, can I offer, okay, can I offer 2nd Corinthians, Romans chapter 2, 1 through 5?

I was also thinking of the Samaritan woman at the well. That might also be good, John 5. Romans 2, watch what Paul does here, talking to Jews who have the Torah but condemn everybody.

Else but don't keep it. But is it talking just to the Jews? Well, I think this portion of,.

I think this particular chapter is steering into that distinction. Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges from passing judgment, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. So do you suppose, O man, you who judge, those who practice such things, and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you presume on the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that it's God's kindness that is meant to lead us to repentance? Now, I want to kind of key in on this phrase, presume on the riches and kindness of God.

So it's really easy for us to get into this mindset. There are sinners out there. I have the word of God. I don't, I'm not condemned. And I have the freedom to judge them, but somehow the law has no impact on me when it condemns both of us.

And in a situation like that, you'll note that Paul talks about those who are not rightly using the gospel, but just presume on the kindness of God. That's a dangerous state. You don't want to be doing that.

But then he goes on saying that, noting that it is God's kindness that is meant to lead us to repentance. So then this bears out in how we interact then with people who are unbelievers and impenitent sinners, because it's not the law of God that works repentance.

It's the law and the gospel together. And it's the kindness of God that leads people to repentance. So merely saying to somebody, you're sinful, doesn't, actually has no power to restrain the evil that they are engaging in or believing in or whatever, but saying what you are saying or what you are doing or what you are believing is a sin.

The scriptures are clear on this and Christ has bled and died for those sins because he loves you. Repent, be forgiven. There's a difference. You see, it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. So the law in and of itself cannot work the proper understanding of repentance because repentance, we believe, is comprised of two things.

Sorrow for sin and faith in Christ for forgiveness. The two go together. So somebody hasn't repented if the only thing they've done is kind of New Year's resolution style decided to change their behavior.

That's behavior modification. That's not repentance. Repentance comprises of two things, sorrow for sin and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. So law and gospel must come together and we should be exemplified in love towards neighbor and speaking the truth and not merely the truth that what they're doing is sinful, but speaking the truth that Christ has bled and died for those sins and desires to forgive them, for them to be reconciled, for them to be regenerated, renewed, sins washed away, and all of this is a gift.

And so the idea the two have to come together. Now perfect example of this, perfect example of this is going to be Jesus. I think I'm in John 5, doing this from memory. It may be earlier. Hang on a second.

Oh, we're fine. Verse 6 of Romans. Right. Well, let me explain Romans 2 .6 real quick. And by the way, it's John 4, the woman at the wells in John 4, if you want to turn to there. So here's the deal. On the day of judgment, scripture is clear that we are judged by our works.

Now, before you sit there and go, well, that means we're saved by our works. No, it doesn't. Because Colossians 2 makes it clear that when our books are opened, so, you know, so on the day of judgment, all right, I'm going to be waiting in line, right?

We're all going to be waiting in line and Christ is going to be standing on the judgment seat. He's going to say, Rose, bro, get up here. All right. Oh no, it's my turn. Right. And there he's got my book.

I know what should be in that book. You know what's in your book. And it's like, I am not thrilled with the idea of Jesus opening that book and taking a look at what's inside of it. Now we're going to be judged by our works.

This is most certainly true. But Colossians 2 makes it clear that the record of debt that stood against us has not only been canceled, it has been taken out of our books and nailed to the cross. So when we stand before Christ on the day of judgment, the judgment is by works.

Open up the books. The record of debt portion of my book has been torn out. It's missing what's left in my book. All my good works. No sin is mentioned in my book. Not because it shouldn't be there. It's because Christ took it and ripped the whole thing out and nailed it to the cross.

So the record of debt that stood against me, it's gone. So on the day of judgment, he says, Rosemarie, get up here. He opens up the book and I'm looking at it going, there's a whole section missing. You can see the tattered, you know, where he ripped it all out.

He cooked the books. Because all of the sins in the record of debt have been bled for, died for, forgiven. So now on the day of judgment, I will be judged by my works and Christ is going to sit there and go, wow, look at all the stuff you did.

And I'm going to go, yeah, wow. I had no idea. That's how it works for a Christian. So no, we're saved by grace through faith because the record of debt that stood against us is canceled, nailed to the cross.

We are forgiven of all of our trespasses. They can never be spoken against us. We are declared righteous already. And if you're already declared righteous and you have been and you are, did you not hear the absolution today?

If you have already been declared righteous by the judge, can Jesus's verdict change on the day of judgment for you? Continue in that faith? No way. So you are going to stand before Christ and you've already been declared righteous.

The only thing left to do is to reward you for your good works. But for the unbeliever who persists in sin and unbelief, they don't want to be forgiven. They don't think they need to be forgiven. Or the person who says, I'm a good person.

Well, fine, let's take a look at your books. Now they're going to be judged by their works and they've got the whole record of debt still there. That's not a good thing. So that's how you kind of understand what's going on in Romans 2 .6.

But now coming to John 4. Jesus is heading off into Gentile Samaria territory. Actually, unbelieving Samaria. So when Jesus learned that Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples did, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.

It was about the sixth hour. A little bit of a historical note. This is near the modern city today known as Nablus, which is between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim in the Palestinian West Bank portion of Israel.

And Joseph's bones were reburied there after he died in Egypt. So this is kind of an important place. So a woman from Samaria came to water. And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. Now let me make sure I got the, okay.

So wearied as he was, it was beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. So it's the middle of the day, hot part of the day. And this woman has come to draw water from the well rather than in the morning or in the evening, which would be your normal time to do it because that's when everyone's doing it.

She comes out in the heat of the day for the purpose of kind of avoiding eye contact with neighbors. And so Jesus said to her, give me a drink. His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is speaking to you, give me a drink. You would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Now note, Jesus here is not being harsh with her. He's speaking the truth kindly to her and he's focusing her on him and who he is. If you knew who I was, if you knew who was asking, you would have asked me for this.

And so she decides to play along. Woman said to him, all right, sir, you have nothing to draw with and the water is deep. Where do you get this living water? And you can almost see her doing the ancient world's version of this, the air quotes.

So where do you get this living water? I'm curious. Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it, as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty.

Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. And so you can note here, is Jesus desiring for this woman, the Samaritan woman whom Jews are supposed to hate because they're impenitent, false religionist, you know, Samaritans.

And of course we know that this woman is an adulteress also because we're familiar with the story. Is he desiring for her to have eternal life? Yes. Is he treating her subhumanly? No, not at all. He's treating her in very kind ways and at the same time kindness with a firmness to it.

He does, there's no compromise on the truth here. So the woman said, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty and not have to come here to draw water. She's thinking it's some, oh this is some kind of magic thing.

It'd be really nice to not have to keep coming out here to get the water. So Jesus said, go and call your husband and come here. And the woman said, I have no husband. Now by the way, this is like a half-truth, which is still a whole lie.

You know, she's omitting some data here because she's actually shacking up with a guy who she's not married to. Jesus said to him, to her, well you're right in saying I have no husband, for you've had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.

What you've said is true. Was it mean of Jesus to point that out? No. So the woman says, sir, I perceive you're a prophet. And now it turns to religion. Our father's worshiped on this mountain and she has Mount Gerizim literally off to one side of her from this well.

And so she's pointing to the temple complex at the top of Mount Gerizim, which is where Samaritans worship. He says, our father's worshiping on this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the place where the people ought to worship.

So let's get this out on the table. You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan. Can I worship here or not? Because we seem to keep butting heads. We Samaritans are going to keep worshiping here at Mount Gerizim, but you say we've got to worship in Jerusalem.

So Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews.

Now, does that sound harsh? Listen, you worship what you don't know. Basically, your whole religion, you don't even know what you're doing. We know what we're doing and salvation is from the Jews. So Jesus trashed her Samaritan religion and exalted the fact that salvation truly comes from the Jews, pointing out that her religion is false.

Is that unloving? No, Jesus did that, but he did it tactfully and he did it in a kind way, but he also didn't compromise the truth. So the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth.

The father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in what? Truth. Now, I'm going to point something out here. When you deny that the Bible is the word of God, that it's inerrant, infallible, that's authoritative, that it's speaking the truth, you might use words like Jesus, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

You might even use words like love, communion, Eucharist. It might physically look the same as every other church that's Lutheran, but when the pastor, or God forbid, female pastor is leading worship at the altar and is preaching to a sermon that says, we need to repent of telling people who are engaged in sin that they are sinners, are they worshiping God in spirit and in truth?

Not at all. So you'll note here, Jesus' words not only challenged the Samaritan woman and did that challenge lovingly, his words still challenge us today, spirit and in truth. So the woman said to him, well, I know that Messiah is coming.

He was called the Christ, and when he comes, he will tell us all things. So she knows that, and Jesus says, look, I who speak to you am he. Now, search the Gospels. Search all four of them for another instance where Jesus so clearly says he's the Messiah.

Will you find it? Not quite this trial. Yeah, as close as you get is during his trial. But note here, Jesus lays down all the mystery and he speaks plainly to the Samaritan woman. I'm the Messiah. I'm the one talking.

That's the guy you're talking about. I'm him.

It's kind of interesting. The Samaritans work. The Jews rejected the Samaritan woman and Jesus.

Gives her the strength. Watch the Greek on this one. I want to blow this up a little bit because, boy, this is an interesting sentence. Because not only is Jesus overtly saying he's the Messiah, watch how the Greek works here.

So lege alte ha eesus. So ha eesus, this is the subject of the sentence. This is in the nominant. So Jesus, lege, said to her, okay, ego eimi. Okay, so Jesus says to her, I am. He not only is saying I'm the Messiah, he's saying, I'm God.

Okay, ego eimi ha lalon soi, the one speaking to you. I mean, the way the sentence is front-loaded with the ego eimi, it's emphatic. It's emphatic in the way it's organized. And so Jesus said to her, I am the one speaking to you.

Interesting, right? All right. So just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman. You're not supposed to do that. Samaritan woman, two strikes, right? But no one said, what do you seek?