Guarding the Words of Christ

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

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

Selective Hearing and God’s Word

In the name of Jesus. I don't know if you've noticed this about humanity, we seem to have selective hearing. Now, I know this for a fact because my wife has accused me of this. Let me explain. You know, she talks to me a lot.

I don't know if you've noticed this, but women actually use more words than men do. Men just like pointing at things and grunting. It's a weird thing that we do. But that being the case, that being the case, that there are times when my wife is saying things to me and it's like the words are ricocheting off of my head.

You know, they don't really quite sink in. I cannot remember how many times my wife has told me, I told you this already. Hmm. That's weird. It never seemed to register. Hmm. Okay, now I recognize this phenomenon also in my own children who are presently here, so I have to be careful what I'm saying here.

But I do remember as a father when they were younger, saying things like, you need to go and clean your room or you need to do your chores or something like this. And only to find that the chores have been ignored and the PlayStation is out and things that I have not said are being done.

And the things I've said that needed to be done are not being done. You'll note that. Now this phenomenon not only is here amongst ourselves as we interrelate with each other, but funny thing, it also happens regarding God and His words.

Let me remind you of what God told Noah and his family after He brought them out of the ark. Consider the seriousness of the situation. The entire earth has been deluged, drowned in the waters of the flood.

And only Noah and his family and all the animals that God brought to Noah to be put on the ark have survived the event. And so after a year, the ark lands on the dry land in the mountains of Ararat. And as they are coming off the ark, God gives this command.

Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. Kind of a two-fold command, if you would. And humanity, we learn in our Old Testament text, decided that they were going to be selective in their hearing and in their obedience.

And the fruitful and multiply part, yep, we got that. But the fill the earth part, not so much. Now, here again the words of Christ and what He says in our Gospel text. If anyone loves Me, he will keep, he will guard My word.

And My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Now, a little bit of a note, it sounds like a conditional sentence in the sense where if you keep His words, then you are loving God and therefore you earn salvation.

That's not how that works. This is kind of one of those sentences where if I were to say to you there's snow on the sidewalk outside, and if there's snow on the sidewalk outside, that means it snowed while we were in church.

So you'll note that the presence of the snow proves that there was a snowstorm. In the same way, one of the ways in which you can identify somebody who truly loves Christ is that he keeps and guards His word.

That does not mean that necessarily the person understands His words perfectly, but he's striving to understand them. He keeps them, he guards them, he holds them sacred, gladly hears, learns them, and that word of God is living and active.

The Holy Spirit is directly connected with the word of God. And so what happens then is that through this means of grace, through the word of God, God is working out of that person sin and rebellion and false belief and things like that.

But conversely, Jesus says, whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear from Me is not My own, but My Father's who sent Me. So this then helps us understand what is going on in our Old Testament text in Genesis 11.

Hear these words then. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words, which is what you would expect. Everybody coming from common ancestors, Adam and Eve, and now humanity being compressed down to one family.

And then after the flood, everybody's related to that. They've been fruitful, they've multiplied, but they haven't filled the earth as God has commanded. And as the people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.

And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks, burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, bitumen for mortar. And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top to the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.

In other words, they have intentionally taken God's word, His commands. They've followed one, the easy one, the fruitful multiply. But they are absolutely in defiance against God's command to fill the earth.

God wills for humanity to be the stewards of this particular planet that we find ourselves living on, and they've decided to just play clump ball, and everybody's stuck right in one spot. And consider the difficulty of what's being requested here, because if somebody's going to say, Well, God has said to fill the earth, and we honor, we guard, we keep, we obey God's word, that means that somebody's going to have to make the decision to leave their family networks, cousins, third cousins, fourth cousins, grandmas and grandpas, and obey God.

There's a cost involved, and everyone has said, Nope, we're going to just stay together here. Nobody is willing to sever those ties. It's way too difficult. We as a group, we're going to build a city, and we're going to make a name for ourselves.

Oh, and God, not only are we not going to obey you regarding your command to fill the earth, we're now going to build a tower to our greatness, and we're going to reach up into heaven to show you that kind of we're our own deities, and we can get to heaven ourselves on our own steam.

Side note here. This has something to do with our text. Side note. Have you ever heard a preacher say, God the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and he will never ask you to do anything against your will, and that your free will is sovereign, and therefore, that being the case, you need to make a free will decision to obey God.

God is sovereign. He is almighty and all-powerful, and you and your will are not, and you're going to note here that God is not going to honor humanity's free will. Collectively, they have decided using their free will that they're going to sin and disobey God, which is what our sinful human nature does, and so God is going to, let's say, exert his own will on the matter, and does so quite creatively.

Babel, the Trinity, and God’s Sovereign Judgment

So the Lord came down. Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. Think this is Jesus. That's a good way to look at it. So Yahweh said, Behold, they are one people.

They have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. And this is in defiance of his command. So come, and this is a fascinating thing.

We'll talk about this next week. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language. This is another one of those weird texts from the book of Genesis. Remember when God said, Let us make man in our own image.

It's a weird thing. Who's God talking to in the let us thing? Well, there's only one God, and there are three persons who are the one God, and so the one God is discussing amongst himself. Again, the pronouns are weird here.

He is discussing among himself and saying let us, and he's saying that language doesn't work. I understand, but we're talking about the Trinity. So he says let us go down and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech.

So since nobody used their free will to obey God, they've all used their free will to stand in defiance of God, God is now going to exert his power, and at this point, God is going to make the decisions as to who's going with whom, and so Yahweh dispersed them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they left off building the city.

So think of it this way. There they were. They're building their city. They're building their tower. They're making a name for themselves, and some fellow says could you hand me a hammer, and the guy next to him says what did you just say, and now they're speaking in totally different languages.

I said hand me a hammer. Yeah, no comprende, you know? And so you can just imagine the tumult, if you would, the confusion that is going on as everybody realizes, wait, we can't talk to each other anymore, and at some point, you have to realize, wait a second, I can't communicate with anybody here.

Does anybody speak my language? So you can see some poor fellow going, does anyone understand me? I'm speaking the language, can anyone understand what I'm saying, and somebody across the way goes, yeah, I understand you.

What's your name?

Johnny.

Oh, you're my third cousin, that's right. And so what happens is that everyone's shouting out, and now they're clumping up in groups, at this point, everybody who understands everybody else is all grouped together, and now they have no choice.

The building project cannot continue. There's no internet. There's no Google Translate. There's nothing here to help each other. The whole project comes to a grinding halt, and they realize, well, maybe we're just going to have to head out in a different direction, because I don't know if you've noticed, but we tend to not trust people we don't understand.

And so God has now exerted his sovereignty. You didn't want to disperse. I understand you use your free will to say no. I say yes. And so now he's come up with a creative way for us all to disperse, and it's kind of a fascinating thing that's occurring here.

And God now has put humanity under the guardianship of language confusion, which continues to this day. So they were dispersed from over all of the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore the name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord dispersed them over all the face of the earth.

And note then that the presenting problem here was that they were not keeping, they were not guarding, they were not honoring or obeying God's words, Christ's words. Instead, they despised them, and God said, well, you can despise it all you want.

I'm still going to have my will be done, not your will. And so that is what happened. Now, a little bit of a note here. We'll spend a little bit more time in our gospel text. I'm trying to weave a few texts together here today.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles

Now, in our gospel text, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and a fascinating thing is happening. Christ again has told them, if anyone loves me, he will keep my words, which kind of begs the question, where do we find the words of Christ today?

Jesus didn't write any books. I don't know if you noticed this. He wrote no books. There was no bestsellers back in the day written by Jesus Christ. So the question is, where can we find the words of Christ?

Well, the next part of our gospel text helps us here. It says this, Jesus said to his disciples, I have spoken to y 'all. He's speaking to his disciples, not to all of us here. I have spoken to y 'all while I am still with you.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and he will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Now this is an important promise, because this is not a promise for the church.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've heard pastors reference this text as if somehow the Holy Spirit is going to miraculously teach you all things directly. No, this is a promise given to the apostles that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance all that Christ has said.

And I remember decades ago now, Dr. Rosenblatt kind of pounding this into my head, basically saying, this wasn't a promise to you and me. This was a promise to the disciples, and it's an important promise.

It's the promise of Holy Spirit miraculous total recall. And he was referencing that movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, which this is not a movie review, but I didn't really like that movie. But anyway, you get the idea here.

So here the disciples have a very important advantage, which is foundational to our understanding of the inspiration of Scripture, especially as it relates to the New Testament. That the apostles then, that the Holy Spirit was bringing to their mind all the things that Jesus said and taught, so that we know that the very words that are written in the Gospels and throughout the rest of the New Testament are theanoustos, they are God breathed, and that the Holy Spirit had brought to mind all of these things, so that we can know that what is recorded for us in the Gospels and in the New Testament is true.

That it is sound. That it is accurate. That it is not mythology. It is exactly what Jesus said, did, and taught. And the implications are quite important for us because those who keep God's Word, who hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it, this is a sign then that they have been brought to faith in Christ and that they love Jesus because He first loved them.

Important thing. So we can trust the words of Scripture. But now in Acts chapter 2, we'll kind of weave this in, a fascinating thing is happening in Acts chapter 2 is that God Himself is for just a moment, in kind of a down payment kind of way, giving us a foretaste of what is to come by undoing the curse of Babel.

Pentecost and the Reversal of Babel

The Holy Spirit now is descending on the church. Then Christ is fulfilling His promise, the promise and the prophecy that the Father would send the Holy Spirit, and now the Holy Spirit arrives. And consider the implications of what's happening in this text.

It says this in Acts 2, when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Now we know it's nine in the morning because of something that Peter says later. Now I want you to consider this.

Sunday morning, nine in the morning, all the Christians are together in one place. What do you think they're there for? Hmm, what were they doing?

This!

They were doing this. They were gathered together around the Word and the sacraments to hear the Word of God, to receive Christ's body and blood. This was a church service that was going on here. That's why they were all together at nine in the morning.

Can you think of a different reason why Christians would all get together in one place at nine a .m. on a Sunday? This is what's happening here. And so during the church service, suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind.

It filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on them. Notice that they were all sitting too. I'm just saying, this is totally a church service.

So the divided tongues of fire came and rested on each one of them. And then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And these are other languages.

The text makes this very clear. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And as the sound, at the sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

Babel being reversed. And you'll note then the direction is rather than God dispersing, now the direction is God gathering. And Pentecost itself, the feast itself, the feast of the waving of the first fruits offering.

This is what you go back into your Old Testament, this is what this is about. This is the inauguration of the harvest in biblical typology. And so now the word is going out that God has begun to harvest humanity to bring in those who have been dispersed, if you would.

And they're all amazed, they're astonished because they're hearing in their own languages the mighty works of God. And they're all amazed. And they said, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? Now a little bit of a note here.

The reason why they're saying this is because, well, you know, Galileans were not exactly known for being the best scholars, the highest academics.

No, no.

These were men of the earth, rugged-handed men who, blue-collar guys who worked hard for a living. They were more like kind of Israel's rednecks.

You know?

So that being the case,.

They're like,.

When did these guys become language experts? What's going on here? And how is it that we are hearing, each of us, in his own native language? And now it lists out the different groups, how they're hearing the wonders of God in their own language.

There's Parthenians and Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia,.

Phrygia,.

Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene. Notice the extensiveness of this list. Both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

Hmm.

And we know from Peter's sermon that the focus of them telling about the mighty works of God is centering on Christ and the mighty works that He has done in being born of the Virgin Mary, suffering under Pontius Pilate, being crucified, died, buried, raised again, ascended into heaven.

This is what they're hearing about. So they're all perplexed and they're amazed. They're saying to one another, what does this mean? They know it means something because this is not something we've ever seen before.

And then here come the mockers. Some guys said, nah, listen. They're filled with new wine. Now a little bit of a note here. I always say this and I'll continue to say this every Pentecost. I don't know if you've noticed, but human beings have a difficult time speaking the language that they know natively after they've had a few too many to drink.

I've never known anybody to have a few too many to drink and then begin speaking in a completely different language fluently. So this is nonsense. And Peter himself knows that it's nonsense. And so now Peter ascends to the pulpit, if you would, to address everybody.

And so standing with the 11, he lifted up his voice and he addressed the crowd. Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and pay attention. Notice the authority with which Peter is speaking.

Notice the boldness with which he is speaking. The words that he is speaking have God's authority behind them, Christ's authority himself. He is speaking the very oracles of God and his expectation is that they would give ear to his words and as Christ says,.

Would keep them,.

Would honor them, respect them,.

Obey them.

These men are not drunk as you suppose. Nope, not at all. They are stone cold sober since it's only the third hour of the day. That's how we know it's nine o 'clock. And so now, speaking under the complete unction, if you would, and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter gives us an interpretation of the events and ties it back to the prophet Joel.

And he says, this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel and listen to the words. In the last days, it shall be, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Now a little bit of a note here. Up to this point in human history, those who have been filled with the Holy Spirit have been limited to a very specific people group.

Israelites,.

Jews,.

People related and direct descendants of Abraham. And with very few exceptions, they were all men. And now, we see that the pouring out of the Spirit is not limited to Israel genetically, but now God is doing something quite different.

Rather than dispersing the peoples across the world, He is calling them back to Himself and He is pouring out His Spirit on all flesh. It doesn't matter if you are genetically Jewish or not. You could be Norwegian or German or Polish or Chinese or Japanese or Samoan.

It doesn't matter. God is pouring out His Spirit on all flesh and they shall prophesy. Now a little bit of a note here. We can tell then from what is going on in this text that prophecy is that wonderful ability to proclaim the mighty works of God.

It is not, prophecy is not fortune telling. When somebody says to you, oh, I have a prophecy from the Lord and here's what the Lord is saying in this season that there's going to be a shaking and that during this season you're going to experience your breakthrough.

And all this nonsense. This is ridiculous. Not only is the person not saying anything, they're not even prophesying. True prophecy is what took place earlier in the text when people were under the powerful working of the Holy Spirit proclaiming Christ and the mighty works of God done in Him.

In other words, everybody here, young, old, male, female, you have the ability to prophesy. You have been given a word from God. You have been given words from Christ Himself to proclaim to the world.

And these words are sure and certain and true and trustworthy. These are words that were breathed out by God the Holy Spirit. These are words that you know can be trusted because God, Christ Himself, gave the apostles the gift of total recall when it comes to His own words.

And you also can proclaim the mighty works of God in telling people that Christ has bled and died for their sins and call them to repent. Tell Him of His bodily resurrection from the grave, His ascension into heaven, and that He is coming again to judge the living and the dead, and that God is offering a full pardon to all who would believe.

And call them to repent and to believe. And when you do so, you are proclaiming the mighty works of God and doing so in a way with God's own words. And God works through those words and therefore you are prophesying when you do that.

Each and every one of us has been given that ability and command. And then He says, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. And even on My male servants and My female servants, even on the slaves, slaves now can prophesy.

And in those days I will pour out My Spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire, vapor of smoke. And listen to this next part.

The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Back on the first day of Pentecost, 50 days earlier, the sun did turn to darkness. At noon, remember when Christ was bleeding and dying on the cross, as soon as it became noon, the sun was darkened for three whole hours.

The moon turned to blood. This was something, for the listeners, that was within their memory just 50 days earlier. Yeah, I remember. I remember at the Passover when the sun was darkened at noon. I remember when the moon turned to blood at noon.

I remember this. And that was a sign to them. And so now Joel's prophecy is fulfilled in the suffering, bleeding, and death of Christ. And he goes on to say, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

So now Peter has explained what it means using the prophet Joel, and then finishing up with Joel's concepts here in his prophecy.

Here's the kicker.

And it shall come to pass that everyone, Jew, Gentile, male, female, slave, free, rich, poor, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And this is important. Because just like the people in Babel who were building a tower to their greatness and despising rather than keeping the Word of the Lord, each and every one of us have sinned against God in that exact same way.

We have taken God's words, cast them aside, have obeyed part of it that is convenient and enjoyable for us, and despised and ignored the rest. Each and every one of us has deserved to be not only dispersed from the presence of God, but we have deserved to be taken off this planet itself and to suffer and endure His wrath for our sin.

But see, the magnificent works of God is that Christ has suffered for all of the ways and different times that you have despised His Word, not honored it, kept it, or obeyed it, and therefore have not even loved God at all, but loved yourself above all.

And so, God is saying, repent. Repent of all of the ways in which you have despised Me, despised My Word, despised My Messiah, despised everything about Me. Repent, because I am offering a full and complete pardon in Jesus Christ.

The mighty works of God is that God Himself became a man born of the Virgin Mary who bled and died for your sins that Friday afternoon in the darkness. And everyone, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

So call upon Him. Call upon Him now. Ask Him for mercy, and grace, forgiveness, and He will give it, and He will grant it. And this is most certainly true, because His promises are sure, and He never lies.

All who call upon the name of the Lord.

Will be saved.

Blessed Pentecost to you. The harvest has begun. Christ now is calling the nations back to Himself from their dispersion to join Him in a new earth, in a world without end, you and me all. So call upon the name of the Lord, and you shall be saved.

In the name of Jesus.

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