Prophet Business is Dangerous Business

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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

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

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

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Luke, chapter 13, verses 31 through 35. At that very hour, some

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Pharisees came and said to him, Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.

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He said to them, You go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today, and tomorrow and the third day

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I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.

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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets, stones those who are sent to it.

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How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen, her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

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Behold, your house is forsaken, and I tell you, you will not see me until you say,

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Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Don't you love it when you get together with your family and somebody ruins the whole occasion by talking about either religion or politics?

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Isn't it funny how often times when we get together as families, we set ground rules. No talk of religion, no talk of politics.

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And the reason for this is quite simple, is because as soon as either of those subjects gets brought up, well, war breaks out.

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There's consternation. There's loud talking. Maybe even shouting. And in some families where they allow drinking, well, that just lubricates the whole fight.

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Right? It's true. Now, pay attention today, because we're going to connect our

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Old Testament text, our New Testament gospel reading, as well as our Epistle text.

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And we're going to see a straight line. And we're going to see a straight line, how it seems to be that much of religion and politics often times are in cahoots against a very important message.

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If you remember what we heard in our Epistle text, we heard that many today live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

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Enemies. Could you imagine being an enemy of the cross of Christ? Why on earth would you want to be an enemy of the very cross, the message itself of the forgiveness of your sins?

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Well, the Epistle text answers this question by pointing out the fact that those who are opposed to the cross of Christ, well, they have their minds set on things here on earth, not on things above.

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And this distorts their understanding of things, and as a result of it, the very message that is their salvation is the one that they hate the most.

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They think it's the stupidest. Who wants to waste their time on a Sunday morning going and hearing about some guy who was crucified?

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I've got better things to do. Ah, man, football season isn't going to come around until fall, though.

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Maybe it's time to start breaking out the fishing rods. All right? I notice around here that every summer, people disappear to the lake.

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Not sure which one it is. I'm beginning to think there's many of them around here, but... That's another sermon.

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Okay. Let's return to our Old Testament text, and we'll work our way through it. And you'll notice that our

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Old Testament text kind of picks up with Jeremiah saying something. Well, let's do a little contextual work here.

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If you open up your Bible, your pew Bible, to Jeremiah 26, in your pew

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Bible, it should be on page 654. We're going to take a look at verse 1 and figure out what on earth it is that Jeremiah was saying that made people so mad.

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Well, let's take a look. Verse 1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the

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Lord. There's your politics here. We've got a political anchoring. And notice what happens next.

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Here's the message from God that Jeremiah's got to preach. Thus says the Lord. Now notice it's all capitals.

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All capitals in the Old Testament means that we're dealing with the very name of God itself. So you can say, thus says

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Yahweh. That's His name. Stand in the court of the Lord's house. Speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the

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Lord. All the words that I command you to speak to them, don't hold back a word.

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Poor Jeremiah. Man, I'm telling you. This prophet business is a dangerous business.

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I mean, when you preach the word of the Lord, well, it could get you in a lot of trouble. In a lot of trouble.

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And the reason for this is quite simple. Because each and every one of us wasn't born good.

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You know, when you see those little babies and they're so cute, they look so innocent. Don't be deceived. No, don't be deceived.

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We all remember them when they were like the smallest. That's when they are the most demanding.

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Right? Without words. More like screams of terror. Feed me.

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Change my diaper. Hug me. Love me. And everything you do is always like walking on eggshells.

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Right? There's a sign here. Pay attention. Well, each and every one of us were born dead in trespasses and sins.

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Not a single one of us is born loving God. No. We love ourselves. Big difference.

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Right? We want to be the center of the universe. We want to be God. So, this is why preaching what

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God wants you to preach could get you in a lot of trouble. But God says don't hold back anything. Let it fly.

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They're going to be offended, so brace yourself. Now, it may be, it may be that they will listen and everyone turn from his evil way so that I might relent of the disaster that I intended to do them because of their evil deeds.

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Notice here the love of God. You see, our sin is slavery.

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Our sin destroys us. Our sin earns God's wrath. But God doesn't desire to throw us into the fires of hell.

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God does not desire to let loose with his judgments. He instead desires that we would repent and be forgiven and live.

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This is his desire for us. So he says, alright, don't hold anything back and the reason for this is maybe some will listen.

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You shall say to them, thus says Yahweh, if you will not listen to me to walk in my law that I have set before you and listen to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom

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I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.

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Now, a little historical note, just like Shiloh, what's a Shiloh? It's a good question.

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Shiloh means peace, but Shiloh is a city and in ancient times before the temple was built,

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Shiloh was the place where when the children of Israel came into Israel finally, into the promised land, this is where the tabernacle was.

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So this is where the original temple was, but the original temple wasn't made of stone. It was a big canvas kind of thing, a big tent and it was there for a long time, but once the temple was built, what happened to the place where it was,

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Shiloh, where it was? Well, it became a ghost town and still to this day you can visit

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Shiloh. I've done this by looking at other people's vacation photos. You should try it sometime. It's a great way to go on a vacation, get on the internet and go where you want to go and look at all the pictures that somebody else took for you, right?

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And just imagine yourself there, but you can still see photographs of it today. You can see the outlines of the rocks where the tabernacle itself was.

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It's totally desolate. Nobody lives there. It's not a high -end neighborhood. It's just like, well, the

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Lord says here, like a ghost town. He's saying to the people of Jerusalem, listen to me. Your sin has earned my wrath.

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Repent, repent, be forgiven, be forgiven, because if you stay on this path, nothing but destruction is what's in your future because that's what you've earned, but I don't want to give you that.

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I want to forgive you. I want you to live, but if you don't, then

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I'm going to make Jerusalem like Shiloh. All right, verse 7.

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So the priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the

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Lord. You can almost hear like the dark music beginning. Dun, dun, dun.

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Enter Darth Vader. Right? This may not go well.

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So Jeremiah, when he had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak, notice poor Jeremiah. He's not even speaking his opinion.

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These are words from God. All the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people. Notice the religious leaders.

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Here's what they said. I wish they had said this. Oh, you're right. We repent, forgive us. Nope. Here's what the first thing is.

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Lay hold of him. You will die. That's it, Jeremiah.

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You're dead. And who are the people calling for his death? The religious leaders.

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That's a strange irony. You'd think that if they were truly worshiping and serving the one true

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God that they would hear the word of the Lord and say, yep, this man speaks truth. This man speaks truth.

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No, instead, you will die. Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh saying this house shall be like Shiloh and this city shall be desolate without inhabitants.

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And all the people gathered around Jeremiah and the house of the Lord. And when the officials of Judah, here comes politics now, religion and politics now working together, heard these things, they came out from the king's house to the house of the

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Lord and took their seat in the entry gate of the new gate of the house of the Lord. And then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, this man deserves the sentence of death because he has prophesied against this city as you have heard with your own ears.

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Isn't it strange that you can almost hear echoes of Jesus on trial, in this trial.

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You can almost hear the same charges against Jesus. He speaks against the temple.

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He says, tear down this temple and I'll build it again in three days. And there's a reason for this. The reason is because you can hear in this text the echoes of the forthcoming trial of Christ.

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And even our gospel text makes that clear. You've heard it with your own ears.

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And then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people saying, Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and this city and all the words that you've heard.

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Now therefore, mend your ways. Repent. Repent.

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Repent of your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of Yahweh your God. And the

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Lord will relent of the disaster that He has pronounced against you. But as for me,

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I'm in your hands. Do with me as it seems. Do whatever you want to do. Wow.

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So sure that He has the words of God that they want to go ahead and take

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His life. No problemo for Him. Plus, I mean, death for Him would have been a lot easier than the job that God gave

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Him to do anyway. Please kill me. Right? Do whatever seems right.

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Only know this for certain, that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon the city and its inhabitants.

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For in truth, the Lord did send me to speak all of these words in your ears. Watch what happens here.

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When God's Word goes out, it does things. There's a reason for that.

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Because the Word of God is living and active. And the words that He spoke were not His words. They were the very words of God.

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And God's Word doesn't return to Him void. So then all the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, this man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of Yahweh our

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God. Wow. Didn't see this coming.

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And certain of the elders of the land arose and spoke to all the assembled people saying, Micah of Moresheth, he prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah, thus says

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Yahweh of hosts, or Yahweh Sabeoth, Zion shall be plowed as a field,

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Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height. Did Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and all

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Judah put him to death? Did he not fear Yahweh and entreat the favor of the Lord?

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And did not the Lord relent of the disaster that He had pronounced against them? We're about to bring great disaster upon ourselves.

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There was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath -Jerim.

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He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah.

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And when King Jehoiakim with all of his warriors and all the officials heard his words, the king sought to put him to death.

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But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. Then Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men,

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Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and others with him. And they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim who struck him down with a sword and dumped his dead body in the burial place of the common people.

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But the hand of Ahakam, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.

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Look at that. God's word did something. They began to think, wait a second, does this man really deserve to die for speaking

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God's words? Of course he doesn't. Is he speaking death and destruction or is he not preaching and teaching mercy and forgiveness in God?

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And so we come back now to our gospel text, Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13.

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In a similar way, religion and politics are working hand in hand against the very son of God.

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Now God not sending his prophet, but sending his own son. Watch what happens.

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Verse 31, chapter 13. At that very hour, some Pharisees came and they said to Jesus, get away from here.

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Herod wants to kill you. Now I've got to throw a flag on the play. I wish I had a whistle.

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Wait a second. Since when did the Pharisees care about Jesus being armed? Right? Hmm, what's going on here?

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Oh, Herod wants to kill you, Jesus. Well, actually, I've read several texts that say the Pharisees want

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Jesus dead. So why are they warning him, right? Well, probably in the context it's that Jesus' word is going out.

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People are listening to him. The sick are being healed. Demons are being cast out. The dead are being raised.

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And they've just had about enough of this. So let's send a threat to Jesus and we'll have it signed

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Herod. Oh, Herod's going to kill you, Jesus. You better run away. Get out of here. We're done with you, right?

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How strange. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of Israel at the time.

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They claimed to worship the very God that Jesus is. Why aren't they repenting and trusting in Him?

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So Jesus, who, by the way, will never have His life taken from Him.

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Never. He laid down His life of His own accord. Nobody had the authority to take

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Jesus' life from Him. He laid it down. And He wasn't about to have His life taken from Him before the appointed time.

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So Jesus says, You go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons, I perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day

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I will finish my course. Oh, there it is. Third day stuff. Important things happen on third days. Really important things happen on third days.

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It was on the third day that Christ rose from the grave. Jesus making an allusion to that.

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And then Jesus says, Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.

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So what we see is a pattern developed in the Old Testament. The people of God chase after idols, reject the true

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God who saves. God sends His prophets. He sends

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His prophets and says, Repent. Repent. Be forgiven. Give up your false gods.

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Come, I will heal you. I will forgive you. I will restore you and I will care for you.

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This is the message of the prophets. Well, over and again, God would send His prophets to appeal to the people to repent and to be forgiven.

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And they would have none of it. And so many of the prophets were actually killed.

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In the city of God itself. How ironic is that? Oh, Jerusalem, Jesus then says this.

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Oh, Jerusalem. And you can hear the love, the compassion, and the broken heart of Christ in these words.

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Oh, Jerusalem. The city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

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It was Jesus who sent those prophets and now He Himself has arrived. And Jesus is way more than a prophet.

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Way more. How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.

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You are not willing. What a beautiful picture. God gathering up His children like a hen gathers up little chicks.

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And see, Jesus does that in a very real way because He does go to Jerusalem. He cannot perish anywhere else except for the place that has stoned the prophets.

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And there is the one to whom the prophets point to. What does He do? He spreads

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His arms. They have Him nailed to the cross so that He can gather us, the forgiven, under the wings of God.

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All because He loves us so much. But they wouldn't repent.

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They wouldn't be forgiven. They didn't receive the very God who they claimed to worship because their minds and hearts were set on earthly things.

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So He says, Behold, your house is now forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see

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Me until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. When Jesus says your house is forsaken,

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He's promising to do to the temple what was done to Shiloh. In mere decades after the death of Christ, the

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Roman army, under General Titus, surrounds Jerusalem, besieges it, and when they finally break through the wall, the first place they go is to the temple.

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And because of all the gold that's in the temple, they set fire to it. And the temple burns.

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And it's said in the annals of history that the gold itself from the temple flowed like a river.

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Flowing out from the temple. And it seeped into the cracks of the stones.

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And the greedy Romans then tore the temple apart to get to every last bit of gold.

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And by doing so, they ended up taking the temple and literally scraping it off the temple mount.

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And what's left of the temple sits as a stone heap today off to one side of the temple mount.

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You can visit it to this day. The house is forsaken. The temple becomes like Shiloh.

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But see, the temple itself was never the point. The temple was a type and shadow pointing us to the one who was the true sacrifice for our sins,

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Jesus Christ. And so, we've looked at how things were in the

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Old Testament, how they were in the times of Christ, and now Philippians, even though it was written thousands of years ago now, almost two, is written to us as Christians today and we find that nothing has changed.

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Nothing. Nothing has changed. Because Jeremiah, the prophet, pointed to Christ.

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Christ, the fulfillment of the prophecies of Jeremiah, has fulfilled them and now we proclaim

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Christ almost prophetically. You can say it this way, today the Word of the Lord comes to you,

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Christians. The Word of the Lord comes to you. You prophetically know what the future is.

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Because God's Word has told you. You find it in the pages of Scripture. And now you speak as a prophet to the nations, calling people to repent, to be forgiven by Christ.

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And God will relent of the disaster that He has intended for them because of their wickedness, which is the fires of hell.

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Right? We have so much in common with Jeremiah, it's not even funny. And so Paul, writing under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit, says this to us today. Brothers and sisters, saints of Christ, join in imitating me, keeping your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us, the apostles.

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Why? For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, they walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

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God's very message of love and forgiveness. The cross.

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The thing that Christ was crucified on. Why? Because your sins were laid on Him.

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He suffers in your place on the cross. Your sins were on Him. He was condemned in your place and bled and died and suffered the wrath of God for you so that you would never have to be condemned.

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And yet, people live today as enemies of the cross and Christ.

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And just like back then, it's the same today. Some of the most vocal opponents of the cross of Christ are found in religious institutions.

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They're pastors. They're leaders. They're politicians too. Right? And when the church and state work together in cahoots against the cross of Christ and oppose the message, they may as well be under the rule of the devil.

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But Paul says this, their end is destruction. And how sad, because Christ bled so that it wouldn't be.

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Their God is their belly. In other words, their appetites, their desires. The things they want to do.

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How sad, because their God really is not their belly. Their true God is the one who bled on the cross.

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Their glory is their shame. With minds that are set on earthly things.

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And how foolish is that? How foolish is that really? Why on earth would you set your mind on things here?

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Nothing here lasts. Including you. You don't last.

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In my short time here at Kongsvinger, we've buried three. Who's next? Who's next?

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You're not going to be here for very long. I promise you. It was yesterday that I graduated from high school.

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I blinked, and now look at me. I'm almost 50. I'm afraid to close my eyes, because when I wake up again, goodnight,

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I'm going to be in a hospital bed, dying. Same with you. Why would you set your mind on anything here?

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Because everything here is passing away. Including you. We all know this, and we confess it in the

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Creed, that Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead. It's tomorrow.

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Put it in your day planner. Think about it. With minds that are set on earthly things.

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But here, Christians, pay attention. You Christians. All of us here are

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American citizens, I'm sure. Is there anyone here who is not an American citizen? No, we're all American citizens.

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Now, I understand when you look at your passport, you look at your birth certificate, you realize you're an American citizen.

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That's all well and good. But the other thing is, is that all Christians have dual citizenship.

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You have a different passport when you can't see. Right? Your citizenship is in heaven.

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And from heaven we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Soon, and very soon, there will be no

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America. There will be no Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, any of the nations of Africa.

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There will be no China, no Japan. There will only be the Kingdom of God. It's an invisible kingdom now, here among us.

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And someday soon, it will be visible. You will not have an

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American passport. And because there will be no borders, you will not even need one. You will be able to freely travel anywhere in the

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New Earth without a passport because all places will be flying the same flag, the flag of the crucified.

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So our citizenship is in heaven. From heaven we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to transform our lowly, even dead bodies to be like His glorious body by the power that enables

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Him to subject all things to Himself. And as a result of it, therefore, my brothers, whom

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I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm.

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Stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Stand firm. Tell people like Jeremiah did, disaster is coming because of your wickedness, but repent and God will relent because Christ has been crucified for you and Christ has victoriously risen from the grave.

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Repent and relent. There is forgiveness and mercy in Him. Don't hold any words back.

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You say, but Pastor, if I do that, people are going to think I'm just a complete jerk or a complete idiot.

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Yeah, I know. You're in good company. You're in good company. You're in the company of the prophets and even

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Christ Himself because they didn't listen to Him. They crucified Him. So stand firm. Stand firm even to the end because you are already saved and you are already a citizen of heaven.

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In the name of Jesus, amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to 1 -877 -KUNGSVINGER

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LUTHERAN CHURCH 15950 470th

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Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744 And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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