From Fearful to Overcoming the World Church

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 in 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. John, the 20th chapter.

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On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the

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Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. When He had said this,

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He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again,

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Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when He had said this,

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He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.

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If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when

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Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them,

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Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into His side,

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I will never believe. Eight days later, His disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.

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Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then He said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see

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My hands, and put out your hand and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.

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Thomas answered Him, My Lord and my God. And Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen

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Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. This is the gospel of the

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Lord. Christ is risen. In the name of Jesus.

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Here are the words of our epistle text. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

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Well, you're going to note that in our gospel text, our apostles that are highly featured in this gospel text seem like the opposite of overcomers.

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I'm just saying, cowardly hiding out in an upper room with locked doors, one has to wonder did they have a secret knock.

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Right? Right. Exactly. You got it. One has secret knocks and is hiding in fear in locked rooms because they are afraid of their own skins being flayed and them being crucified.

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That's kind of the idea. They're terrified of what's going on. They've already received the report that Christ is risen from the dead, from the women who've come back from the tomb, and so on the evening of that day, the day of the resurrection, the first day of the week, the door is being locked where the disciples were for fear of the

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Jews, overcomers indeed. It doesn't seem like they're much of overcomers, right?

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Jesus came and stood among them and he said to them, why did you guys abandon me that the other night?

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I was on trial. You guys scattered like a bunch of sheep. You, Peter, you denied me three times.

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What's wrong with you people? He didn't say that, did he? Now, by the way, that's probably what my wife would say, but all of that being said, he says these words instead, peace be with you.

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He knows full well, Peter's denied him three times, Christ looked at him on the third time after he denied him.

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He knows full well that they scattered when the shepherd was struck and that they all ran and fled and now they're hiding out and Jesus isn't here to scold them for all of this because he knew that the scripture had to be fulfilled.

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He even told them that on the night that he was betrayed and so he brings to them tidings of peace, the peace that has been won by his victorious death on the cross so that they can be forgiven, pardoned, reconciled to God and that all of their sins and all of the ways in which they've acted like cowards can also be forgiven as well.

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They are truly clothed now in his righteousness. He has bled and died for all of their sins.

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Their judgment has been, well, fixed by Christ because he suffered judgment in their place and he's also done the same for you and I as well.

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And so you'll note today, despite the fact that you have hardly lived the perfect, sinless, spotless

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Christian life this past week, Christ does not come here today to scold you. He comes to bring you good news of peace and has given you the forgiveness of your sins in the absolution.

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So note, Christ brings that peace to us as well. So when then he said these things,

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Jesus then showed his disciples, note there are 10 present, not 11.

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The 12th one is already dead because he's committed suicide. There are 10 present. We don't know where Thomas was.

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I've seen scholars speculating that he was at Starbucks getting lattes for everybody and that was the problem because you all know how complicated it is when you have to order a latte from Starbucks for 10 guys.

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That gets really complicated. So that explains why he was gone. Actually no scholar has said that. Just wanted to make that clear.

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So Thomas isn't there but Jesus, you'll note. He shows him, shows all of them, his hands and his side.

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What he offers Thomas later in this text is nothing less than the same thing he offered to the other disciples.

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Jesus wants them to touch him. They want them to have confidence that he is truly risen from the grave.

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Just as he said, that this isn't some kind of weird magic trick, that this is in fact exactly what he said it would be, his very bodily resurrection.

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So he showed them his hands and his side and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord and then

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Jesus said to them, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

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And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

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If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are already forgiven. That's how the verb tense is worked there. And if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is already withheld.

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Note, Christ here then gives to the church, not to Peter because he gives it to them all, the office of the keys.

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The authority that the church has to pronounce in absolution for penitent sinners and to withhold forgiveness for those who refuse to repent.

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This is an important thing given to the church on the day of the resurrection, which I think should make it even a little bit more important in our minds.

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But like I said, Thomas was at Starbucks and he missed the meeting. So that being the case, when he arrived, the other disciples told him, we have seen the

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Lord, but these words do not impact him the way that they had hoped that they would.

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So he said to them, lest I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand in his side,

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I will never believe. These are words of pain, by the way, and one can hardly blame him.

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I would say that all of the disciples are feeling guilt and shame. All of the disciples are feeling absolute remorse and confusion as a result of Christ's crucifixion.

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They didn't know how to process it when Jesus told them flat out, point blank, what was going to happen. And then when it happened, it's clear that all of them were struggling.

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So Thomas here, having not seen the Lord, only getting the report from the other disciples, refuses to believe.

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I will never believe, he says, never ever will I believe. Well, Jesus is not about to let

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Thomas go by the wayside. And so eight days later, note the pattern here. Jesus appears to the disciples on Sunday.

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The following Sunday, which is the eighth day later, he appears again to them. This is the reason why the church no longer gathered on Saturday for worship, but gathered on Sunday, because these are the days that Christ appeared, kind of setting the pattern.

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And in fact, worship in the ancient church was described as worshiping on the Lord's day, the Lord's day, the eighth day of the week, not the seventh day.

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Eight days later, his disciples were inside again. Thomas was with them this time. And although the doors were locked, you'll note that they're still fearful.

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Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. And then singling out Thomas, he said, put your finger here and see my hands.

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And note the kindness of Christ. Note the compassion that he has for Thomas and his disbelief.

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He says, put out your hand, place it in my side. Do not be disbelieving, the Greek says, but be believing.

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And one has to wonder if the reason why Thomas believed is because Jesus said those words. Do not be disbelieving, but believing.

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Christ is the one in the beginning of creation said, let there be light, and there was light. God said, let the seas team with fish, and it did.

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So he says to Thomas, do not be disbelieving, but believing. And Thomas immediately then gives out the great confession, my

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Lord and my God. And that is exactly who

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Jesus is. He is Thomas' Lord and God. He is your

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Lord and God. And to deny that Jesus is Lord and God is to make

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God out to be a liar, because the testimony of God is sure on this. Jesus is in fact our

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Lord and our God. And Jesus doesn't rebuke him and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there,

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Tex. Worship God, don't worship me. He doesn't say that. Instead, Jesus affirms the truthfulness of his confession.

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And he asks the question, well, have you believed because you have seen me? Well, blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.

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And that's all of us, because none of us have actually had coffee with Jesus at Starbucks.

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I've never had. You never have. We don't even know how tall he is, how he keeps his hair or anything of the sort. But you'll note this blessing then is spoken to us.

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And then we hear then that the purpose of this book, the purpose of the book of John, and I would note that this thesis statement of the book of John also seems to apply very well to the rest of Scripture.

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Jesus did many other signs in the presence of disciples, which are not written in this book, but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name. And since we have all done the liturgy so many times together, we hear those words, we can hear the tune that goes with it, right?

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So there we have an interesting starting point in our sermon today. The disciples are fearful.

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And this is an important thing. There are many today who challenge the veracity of the gospel's claims that Jesus rose from the dead.

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And those claims challenging the veracity of what the gospels give us are continuing to grow and increase in intensity.

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And the number of mockers and scoffers that are growing out there and all claiming that they have academic credentials to undermine the authority of these accounts is growing by leaps and bounds.

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And there's whole TikTok accounts and YouTube channels dedicated to debunking what the gospels say here.

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But I would point out to those debunkers that they've got a problem, because how then do they explain the willingness of the disciples to lay down their very lives and be martyred in their confession that they are the eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ and his resurrection?

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How do they explain it? Because you'll note here, one of the theories is that, well, the disciples stole the body.

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That was the idea. Well, if they stole the body, what does that mean about the disciples? They all knew the whole thing was just a story they made up.

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Are you willing to die for something you know is a lie? Are you willing? I'm not willing.

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No way. In fact, the Apostle Paul, how do they explain the Apostle Paul? The Apostle Paul is a fellow who was out there persecuting

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Christians and killing them. You'll note the first Christian martyr, Stephen, everyone laid their cloaks at the foot of Paul, who was

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Saul of Tarsus at the time. He had a run -in with the risen Christ, and Jesus yanked him into his kingdom, forgave him all of his sins, and then made him one of his apostles.

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Think it through, right? So you'll note then, our theme today has to do with overcoming.

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But note, when we talk about overcoming, we have to not buy into the way many popular preachers and teachers talk about overcoming, because they'll say, are you an overcomer?

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Well, on any given day, I seem like I'm overcome. What they're trying to do is trying to talk about the growth in holiness in your life and things like that.

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Indeed, there is growth in our holiness, but there isn't a single day that goes by that I do not need to pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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That's not the overcoming that we're talking about here. Jesus himself, in the Gospel of John, chapter 16, verse 33, says,

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So we're talking about overcoming here. You will note that the one who overcomes the world is the one who, in the face of tribulation and the face of persecution, is given the supernatural strength by their faith then to endure the suffering and tribulation that comes from being a

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Christian. You'll note here in Minnesota, the Minnesota state legislature seems to be on attack mode when it comes to Christian churches, in fact, all faiths.

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They've made Minnesota to be a transsexual sanctuary state, and as a result of it, they've lifted up exemptions regarding certain laws when it comes to gender identity and things like this, and they refuse to give exceptions to the churches regarding these things based upon their religious beliefs, which means that the state of Minnesota and Christian churches like ours and the

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Missouri Senate and others are in a collision course with the state of Minnesota. So this is the type of tribulation we're talking about.

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I can foresee a day when the state of Minnesota passes legislation that says that I can't say from the pulpit that God created us male and female.

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When that day comes, what do you think I'm going to do? Preach it. We're going to break the law.

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This is what we're talking about as far as overcoming is concerned. Christ says, you will have tribulation in the world, but take heart,

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I have overcome the world. And Christ's resurrection then is the very thing that emboldens and then strengthens – is that a word?

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Strengthens the disciples who become the apostles, and when we read then in Acts chapter 5, we see a complete flip -flop in their attitude regarding their own safety when it comes to preaching and proclaiming

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Christ. In Acts chapter 4, they had already been told by the high priest, you are not allowed to preach in the name of Jesus anymore.

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Did they obey the authorities? No. So what we see then in Acts chapter 5 is something quite fascinating when you consider it.

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If you want to follow along, I'm going to be starting at verse 17. It says, the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is the party of the

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Sadducees. I just have to note here, that doesn't sound like a fun party to attend. I would rather go to the happy you -sees rather than the

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Sadducees party because, what? Don't look at me like that.

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But the party of the Sadducees, and listen, they were filled with jealousy and they arrested the apostles, plural.

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Not one of them, all of them. And I want you to think about this for a second. This is actually a dangerous moment in the history of the church.

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The church is still in its infancy and the Holy Spirit has already arrived, but we're very, very early into the preaching of Christ and it hasn't even begun to reach other nations yet.

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And here, all of the apostles are arrested, which means that had they acted and decided to give the apostles the same fate as Jesus, the church might have had a very harder struggle when it came to getting up and running.

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Whose problem is this, by the way? This is Jesus' problem. I want you to know that. When Jesus, when we face persecution and trials and tribulations, it's not our job to fix the problem.

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It's Christ's, because you'll know we overcome the world by our faith. And since our faith has an object and that object is

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Christ, you can say that we overcome the world by our Jesus. That's the right way of thinking about it.

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So here, the apostles have all been arrested. They were then put in the public prison. And then during the night, an angel of the

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Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.

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Now, a little bit of a note here. When an angel gives a command like that, who told the angel to give that command?

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Jesus. So who's the one who's ordered the disciples to do this, like, by worldly standards, boneheaded thing?

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Let me walk you through this. When you commit a crime and you're put in prison and then you break out of prison, which is a crime, you don't go back to the scene of the crime and commit the crime again, okay?

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This makes no sense. No sense at all. But who told them to go back to the scene of the crime and break the law again?

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Jesus did through this angel, okay? So you'll note who's in charge, and the disciples aren't at this point going, wait, we've got to go to the upper room.

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We need all that again. No, they do exactly what they are commanded to do.

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So when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and they began to teach.

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And you could just see them go, all right, here we go. Christ has told us to do this, we're going to do this. And they're going to do it regardless of the cost.

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So when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the

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Senate of the people of Israel, and they sent to the prison to have them brought. I mean, think about this for a second here.

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We're talking about the entire Senate of Israel is present. This would be like bringing the

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Congress and the Senate of the United States together for the purpose of putting disciples on trial. And then you've also got like the

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Episcopal Church showing up and all of their people. We're talking like huge mucky mucks within the government of Israel at this point.

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They've all showed up to put these guys on trial and to let them know they're not going to stand for them preaching

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Christ anymore. That's the whole point of this rigmarole. So they came together, but when the officer came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported.

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We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.

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Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to.

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So someone came and told them, look, the men who you put in prison are standing in the temple and they're teaching the people.

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Wow. Okay, the impact this has to have is huge. So then the captain with the officers went and brought them, not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

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And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them saying, we strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled

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Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

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Now there's a lot that can be said about this, and I think I should say a few things. Number one, you'll note he's reminding them that we told you not to teach

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Jesus anymore. You stop doing that. We gave you direct order. You need to stop now, right?

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But the second part is actually kind of fascinating, because he says, you are intending to bring this man's blood upon us.

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I can hear at this point a quote from Macbeth, out, out, damn spot, right?

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It's a fascinating play. By the way, have you guys seen the new trend where people are taking Shakespearean plays and sonnets and speaking them in a southern accent?

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It works. It's the craziest thing. It actually works. And what's funny is that I've been kind of doing a little bit of research on this and I found a couple of historians who say the reason why it works is because Shakespeare didn't speak today's

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Queen's English. That was a later development in dialect in the UK, and that the

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English that Shakespeare spoke was probably closer to a southern accent. So I'm just saying, okay,

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Google it, check it out. It's a fascinating thing. So out, out, damn spot, right?

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You get the idea. So here they are speaking words that show that their guilt regarding the murder of Christ is there on their hearts.

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Remember when the crowd, when Pilate said, his blood be upon you, and they shouted back, his blood be upon us and on our children, right?

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And so the blood of Christ is truly on the hands of the chief priest and he's showing by his statement here that his conscience is really still bugging him about it.

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And every time he hears the disciples preaching Christ, he's reminded of his murder that he committed.

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And still he has to be fearful as all get out because Jesus, the report is that he rose from the dead and he knows that he paid the soldiers to lie and say that the disciples had stolen the body.

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Guilty conscience indeed and there's nothing that he can do to stop it. So having heard this strict, direct threat from the chief priest and this order given by the chief priest,

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Peter stands up and the apostles and they answered, we must obey God rather than men.

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This is what it looks like to overcome, by the way. We must obey

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God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

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God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins.

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Isn't that awesome? Peter preaches the gospel here to them, even offering them the forgiveness of their sins. Are they going to hear it?

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No. And we are witnesses to these things and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.

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What a change at this point. And here, Christianity hangs in the balance and that is not an overstatement.

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Christianity hangs in the balance as a religion because at this point, they are so enraged by what they hear

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Peter and the apostles say, they wanted to kill them all on the spot.

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Now isn't that interesting? Just a few weeks earlier, they were hiding out in an upper room. Not one week, but two full weeks of hiding out in an upper room with a locked door for fear of the

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Jews and now they don't fear them at all. How is that possible?

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Well, it has to do with how we started the sermon. Christ is risen. He's risen indeed.

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Hallelujah. They know it and they are willing to suffer even death for what they know is true.

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Have you ever heard the phrase, you can't unsee what you've seen? Or you can't unring that bell?

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Usually it's used kind of in terms of like, you had your eyes open and you saw the truth about something that's ugly.

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Over and again, I receive emails from people who tell me that they've been in abusive churches and once they saw what they saw, they can't unsee it.

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And that's generally how people are. And so you're going to note here, the disciples can't unsee what they've seen.

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They've seen the risen Savior. They know that Christ has been raised from the dead and they know full well that in him there is the forgiveness of sins.

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They've touched his hands. They put their fingers into his side. They've confessed him to be Lord and God.

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They know full well he is risen from the grave. They can't unsee it and nobody can talk them out of it.

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So they were enraged and they wanted to kill them. And at this point, Christ intercedes.

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I consider this to be one of those moments where the disciples had no defense at this point.

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They were utterly defenseless. And God then steps in and uses of all people a

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Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel. Rabbi Gamaliel happens to be one of the fellows who was instrumental in training

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Saul of Tarsus. Very notable Pharisee. Not a friend of Jesus, if you would.

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But he then speaks and he gives counsel that then frustrates the plans to kill the disciples.

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And I would note, as Christians, we do not need to follow his advice and I'll explain it. But let's just listen to what

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Rabbi Gamaliel had to say. A Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.

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And he said to the men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days,

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Thutis rose up, claiming to be somebody. And a number of men, about 400, joined him and he was killed.

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And all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him.

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He too perished. I would note Gamaliel at this point is speaking in an understatement because we know about Judas the

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Galilean that he and his followers were crucified. And they were made an example of.

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He perished and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone.

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If this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail.

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But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found to be opposing

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God. Now a little bit of a note here. Gamaliel's advice frustrated the plans to kill the disciples.

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And that's what God used to save them. But his advice is not something we are to follow.

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And I must make that clear. Here's the reason why. I'll give you an example. So back in the days, decades ago,

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I was invited to actually teach at a Baptist church and I did. Don't ask me why. It was a long, it was an interesting opportunity.

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They knew I was Lutheran. They said it wouldn't be a problem. It did become a problem. But I was teaching a group of older seniors at this particular church.

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And it was during that time when Joel Osteen's father died. And Joel Osteen became the head pastor of Lakewood.

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And he then wrote that famous book that became a New York Times bestseller, Your Best Life Now. And I began to warn the people in that Bible study class about Joel Osteen and said, he's not a solid teacher.

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You should not be watching him. He's twisting the scriptures and he's filling your heads with things that are false and mythologically untrue.

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And one lady came up to me after I had given that warning and said, well, don't you think we should take the

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Bible's advice? What advice is that? Well, if Joel Osteen is of God, then couldn't we be opposing

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God by opposing him? Shouldn't we wait and see and let things pan out?

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I'm all, no. That's not advice that we are to take. Instead we are to follow the clear passages of scripture that tell us what to do with false teachers.

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That we are to rebuke them, to silence them, and to warn about them. The clear passages say these things. So we don't follow

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Gamaliel's advice. I would also note that the heretic, Harry Emerson Fosdick, who was notable in the early 20th century in the

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United States as one of the ones who was spearheading the modernist liberalism, the denial of miracles, the denial of the resurrection, the denial of the virgin birth of Christ, and claiming that because we live in an age where we have electric razors, that that means we shouldn't believe in the resurrection of the virgin birth.

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He, in his famous sermon, Shall the Fundamentalist Win?, he argued that the church needs to just leave the modernist liberals alone.

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If it's from man, it'll fail, and if it's from God, then you all would be opposing God and opposing the message that we're bringing.

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He used that same argument. So don't follow Gamaliel's advice when it comes to false teachers.

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When it came to the apostles, who are true, that God used this particular line of reasoning to frustrate the plans to kill the disciples, but it is not advice that we are bound to.

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We are bound by the scriptures and the clear commands of the Holy Spirit as how to deal with false teachers. So Gamaliel speaks his opinion, and God uses his opinion to frustrate them, and then as a result of that, they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them, and then charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then they let them go.

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So at this point, these disciples, who just a few weeks earlier were hiding for fear of the

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Jews, now get their first physical beating, where they caned, where they whipped.

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It doesn't give us exactly the details as to what that had to be, but each of them received a good thrashing, physical harm and violence against them for preaching

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Christ. Now I can assure you at my age, if I receive a beating for preaching

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Christ, I'm going to be seeking medical attention and things like this, and I may not be acting victorious or like an overcomer at all.

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Hopefully you'll understand that's the case. But watch what these disciples then do. They left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

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What has gotten into these men? Well, they're overcoming the world by their faith, and this is what it means to be an overcomer.

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Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name, but what about the command not to preach

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Christ anymore? It says then, from every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the

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Christ is Jesus. Hmm. I would say that the resurrection seems to have changed everything.

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So brothers and sisters, again, hear the words of our epistle text. Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is what we're talking about.

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And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith, our Jesus. Who is it that overcomes the world except for the one who believes that Jesus is the

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Son of God? And brothers and sisters, you do. And so as the world continues to plummet further and further into insanity, and the days get darker and darker, and the light of Christian churches that are preaching the truth begins to shine brighter and brighter against that darkness, that note here, there's a good chance that you will be called to make the good confession of faith and be threatened with violence, threatened with the loss of your job, threatened with imprisonment or persecution or whatever, if you don't toe the new dark line.

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You know what you're supposed to do in that circumstance? Understand exactly this. You are in Christ, Christ has overcome the world, and through your faith you overcome the world as well.

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You basically say, that's cute, no thank you, I'm going to obey Jesus, not you. That's what we're called to do as Christians.

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And the apostles here have shown us the power of Christ's resurrection in their own life.

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And remember this. You and I are blessed because we have believed that Jesus is the

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Christ, and that he is risen from the dead, and that he is our Lord and God, not because we have seen with our eyes, but because we have believed with our ears, what the scriptures have told us.

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So live in that blessedness. Know that your sins are forgiven, and know that those who are going to lose their minds and get angry at you and make you suffer for preaching and proclaiming

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Christ and believing and telling people about what he has done, that their time is short on this earth, and that our time on the new earth is forever.

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Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger 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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All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.