Who is Listening to the Word?

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

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

00:18

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

00:25

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 10th chapter.

00:39

Jesus said, do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

00:45

I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter -in -law against her mother -in -law, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

00:53

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

01:00

Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it.

01:07

Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever receives you receives me. Whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

01:14

And the one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.

01:24

Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

01:32

This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, another tough gospel text.

01:39

We have to consider what Christ is saying here. Christ says he has not come to bring peace to the earth.

01:46

I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. And we're going to talk about the conflict that Jesus is referring to here.

01:52

And then he says, I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter -in -law against her mother -in -law.

01:59

That doesn't seem too uncommon, though. Daughter -in -law against her mother -in -law. That might be normal.

02:05

Sorry, I had to say that. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

02:13

Why? Is it because we're just so cantankerous, we can't get along with each other?

02:18

Is that the issue? No, the issue comes down to this. Whose words are you listening to?

02:26

Are you listening to the words of God, or are you listening to the words of the culture? Have you noticed that most families nowadays, they have to have standing rules during holidays.

02:37

Standing rules go something like this. There will be no discussion of what? Religion and politics, right?

02:43

Because religion and politics, they seem to go together. And when things get rolling at a family event, or a holiday get -together, oftentimes there's conflict.

02:54

So the conflict Christ is talking about is the conflict that comes from those who believe and hear the words of God, and family members who do not hear the words of God, will not listen to them, and instead have exalted their own opinions above the word of God.

03:14

So last week, we noted that this was the thing that we have to deal with, because when we speak the truth, we should expect persecution.

03:23

Christ has made it very clear that because he was persecuted, crucified, and died, that we shouldn't expect any better treatment than he got.

03:32

After all, Christ did nothing wrong, yet they killed him. And so you'll note, this is really at the heart of a couple of our texts today, our

03:40

Gospel text and our Old Testament text. And the question comes down to, again, who are you listening to?

03:47

Or maybe a better question is, whose do you belong to? When I was growing up, when my parents told me that I needed to do certain things, you know what?

04:00

I listened to them. Now if I didn't listen to them because I was being lazy or just obstinate, there was always consequences.

04:07

But if somebody else's parents came up to me and told me that they wanted me to do this, that, or the other thing, my response would have been, well,

04:15

I don't have to listen to you. You're not my dad. You're not my mom, right? When did you start having authority to give me orders, right?

04:24

And so, well, we can kind of talk about this, whose do you belong to? Who do you belong to?

04:30

Either God is your father, or Satan's your daddy. And that's really where the dividing line is.

04:38

Those who will not hear the word of God, who do not believe and trust God's words, who despise preaching and his word, this is the fruit of those who are the children of the devil, not the children of God.

04:54

So we're going to take a look now in our text in Jeremiah, and we're going to add a little bit of context to it, because it needs some context added.

05:03

I have no idea what the people who put the three -year lectionary together were thinking. And by the way, I did a little research on this.

05:09

Roman Catholics and Episcopalians slash Anglicans had a big say in the creation of the three -year lectionary.

05:17

And I just have to wonder, did they leave the context out because they have issue with the word of God?

05:25

I just have to wonder. I'm speculating out loud. I shouldn't do that. But consider the context.

05:31

Let me back up a little bit in the book of Jeremiah. In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 6,

05:37

God says these words of Judah. To whom shall

05:42

I speak and give warning, so that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised.

05:49

They cannot listen. Behold, the word of Yahweh is to them an object of scorn.

05:59

They take no pleasure in it. Doesn't that sound like today? I mean,

06:04

I'm not talking about the world out there. I'm talking about within the visible church. How many churches today have no pleasure in hearing the word of God?

06:13

You attend a big box megachurch, and over the course of a really long service, a 45 -minute sermon, how much of God's word do you hear?

06:25

A couple of verses, maybe, out of context. And then you'll note here that many of the pastors today, they're all about, well, preaching soft things to you.

06:39

And so God continues in Jeremiah, chapter 6. For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain.

06:47

And from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wounds of my people lightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.

07:01

Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed at all. They did not know how to blush, therefore they shall fall among those who fall.

07:11

At the time I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord. So you'll note, listening to God's word is a vital thing.

07:21

And so in chapter 28, in the fuller context, backing up to verse 1, here we have a collision.

07:27

A collision between a true prophet of God, Jeremiah, and you'll note that Jeremiah hasn't been sent with soft words and a silk pillow to lay people's heads on.

07:37

He has not been given by God the messages of platitudes of joy and peace and prosperity and health and God's provision and all this kind of stuff.

07:48

Instead, he's been given the task of preaching God's wrath against a stiff -necked and obstinate people who are engaging in rank idolatry.

07:58

And where this takes place then is in the temple itself, in the temple courtyards.

08:03

And so this is where the children of Israel, the high holy place, the temple, and God has sent

08:09

Jeremiah to prophesy that if they will not turn from their sin and their idolatry and all of their blech, right, that they are going to be put under the yoke bars of Nebuchadnezzar.

08:28

And so God has given Jeremiah a prop. He wants him to prophesy with a big old wooden yoke around his neck to make the point.

08:38

And by the way, Nebuchadnezzar has already come in his first wave and carried off the king, the rightful king, and replaced him with Zedekiah, set up a puppet king, and made off with a whole bunch of the implements of the temple and the first round of exiles.

08:54

And how long has God said they're going to stay in Babylon? Seventy years.

09:03

I'm 55 years old, okay, if I had been born in Babylon year one,

09:08

I'd still have 15 years before I can go home. You get the idea, that's a long time.

09:14

And of course, everything that Jeremiah has said would come to pass has begun to come to pass.

09:21

Why? Because he's a true prophet of God. And true prophets always have a 100 % batting record when it comes to prophecy.

09:30

They never get it wrong. So we hear then what's taking place.

09:37

And listen carefully to who's paying attention to the word of God here. So in that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year,

09:48

Hananiah, the son of Azur, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of Yahweh, in the presence of the priests and all the people.

09:56

Now this is important. In the presence of the priests and all the people in the temple.

10:02

Now if they had been paying attention to God's word, what does God's word say to do to false prophets?

10:12

Kill them, right? If someone is preaching false prophet, they're a false prophet, the punishment is death, which then requires the people of God to know

10:24

God's word well enough to be able to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of a lunatic.

10:34

I think Hananiah kind of falls into the lunatic category. I'm 100 % convinced that if Hananiah were living today, he would be making regular appearances on Prophecy Bingo.

10:44

He would have a YouTube channel dedicated to releasing words of the Lord with much frequency and telling everybody about how there is going to be a suddenly and a change of the atmosphere and all this other nonsensical stuff that these so -called prophets are prophesying today.

11:01

He's that same kind of prophet. So he arose and he spoke to Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh in the presence of the priests and the people who should know better because they should know their word.

11:12

Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Hananiah now prophesying, prophesying,

11:20

I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years, I will bring back to this place all the vessels of Yahweh's house, which

11:29

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took away from this place and carried to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place

11:36

Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares

11:43

Yahweh, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. And Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Reading said,

11:49

I approve, I agree, I got a check in my spirit saying that this is correct. And Cindy Jacobs and Chuck Pierce all said, amen, amen, right?

11:59

You kind of get the point. But here's the thing. This not only contradicts what

12:06

Jeremiah is prophesying, but this also contradicts what

12:11

Isaiah prophesied. And Isaiah is safely in his grave at this point, and everybody recognizes that he was a true prophet of God, and his words,

12:22

God requires the children of Israel to know the words of the prophet

12:27

Isaiah, and requires them to speak them to their children and to their children's children, because they are the very words of God.

12:35

So if they had been paying attention to their Bibles, these priests and those people listening to Hananiah, they would have recognized,

12:45

Hananiah, you're out of your mind. Your brain has been baked in the sun, you should have wore a hat when you were out farming and look what happened, right?

12:54

And so they should have taken him off and stoned him, or at least locked him up and punished him.

13:00

But the prophet Jeremiah then spoke to Hananiah, the prophet, in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of Yahweh.

13:08

And the prophet Jeremiah said, and I always like to picture him clapping, amen, amen.

13:22

May Yahweh do so. May Yahweh make the words that you have prophesied come true, and may he bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles.

13:35

Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people.

13:41

The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms.

13:53

So you'll note Jeremiah referencing his Bible here. Again, whose words are you listening to?

14:00

And you'll note there's conflict here between people of the same tribe, of the tribe of Judah, and what's happening here, you have enemies within their own households, all because some are listening to the words of God and believing and others are not.

14:16

But then Jeremiah says this, as for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that Yahweh has truly sent the prophet.

14:30

Peace, peace, when there is no peace, that's what the false prophets were prophesying and Hananiah is no different.

14:37

So then Hananiah had a prophetic temper tantrum. He did not like being rebuked, even in the slightest, by prophet

14:47

Jeremiah, and he was sick and tired of his message of God's judgment and God's wrath and just had it to here, and he was sick and tired of looking at that stupid yoke around Jeremiah's neck.

15:02

And so what did Hananiah do? He went and he grabbed the yoke bars off of Jeremiah and kind of did like, you know, like one of those rock and roll moves, where they take their guitars and smash it on stage.

15:16

He took the yoke bars and went, broke it all apart, right? And then, to add insult to injury, he then prophesies again, wait a second,

15:28

I'm getting a download, Hananiah says, I feel a suddenly coming on, and he says, even so,

15:34

I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, from the neck of all the nations, within two years.

15:44

Right, right. How did that work out for him? So Jeremiah went his way, but God wasn't done with Hananiah.

16:00

Now remember, he said these things in the presence of the priests and of the people. You'll note that if you know your

16:07

Mosaic covenant, it's the Levites who were tasked with the job of teaching and instructing the children of Israel in the synagogues, teaching and instructing them every

16:17

Sabbath, the word of God. You would think that these priests would have had enough biblical sense to recognize a wingnut wackerdoodle when he was in their presence, but what did they do to Hananiah when he falsely prophesied peace when there was no peace?

16:31

Well, we better wait and see what happens. I mean, how are we supposed to know? They did nothing.

16:37

And so God decided that he was going to act on his own accord.

16:47

So sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the oak bars off the neck of Jeremiah, the prophet, the word of Yahweh, came to Jeremiah.

16:55

You go tell Hananiah, thus says Yahweh, you have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron.

17:05

Yeah, I think back. You remember the whole COVID -19 thing? I like to think it's ancient history now, but there was

17:12

Ken Copeland in the opening days of COVID -19, decreeing and declaring as the prophet of God, the end of COVID in March of 2020, how did that work out by the way?

17:28

And then there was a whole bunch of prophets prophesying that it was going to end in Passover of that year. And you know what?

17:35

This thing just stretched out and stretched out. And I got to the point where I was saying, would you guys just put a cork in it, please?

17:43

Because I feel like this thing's going to stretch out as many days as possible until you guys be quiet so that nobody would ever think that you got it right.

17:55

Same thing regarding Hananiah here. So he broke the bars, the yoke that God told

18:03

Jeremiah to wear, and that was made of wood. So now God's replacing his wooden yoke bars with yoke bars of steel, of iron.

18:14

So thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, I've put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve

18:22

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they shall serve him.

18:29

For I have given him even the beasts of the field. And then Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet

18:35

Hananiah, listen, Hananiah, Yahweh hasn't sent you. I know you got a prophetic activation.

18:43

You paid 500 bucks to Jennifer LeClaire and she gave you a prophetic activation, but you're not a prophet, all right?

18:50

Absolutely false. God didn't send you. And you have made these people trust in a lie.

18:59

And isn't that exactly what is happening today? I know we make sport of it on Prophecy Bingo at Pirate Christian, but at the end of the day there's a whole bunch of people believing these people, these false prophets, and by spewing these words that God hasn't given them to speak, they are causing people to trust in flat out lies.

19:22

And God doesn't take that lightly. Remember that it says you shall not blaspheme, you shall not take the name of the

19:32

Lord your God in vain because God will not hold him guiltless, the one who takes his name in vain and drags it to emptiness.

19:39

Therefore, thus says Yahweh to Hananiah, behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth, although the priests should have done that earlier.

19:50

If they had known their word, if they had been listening to the voice of God, they would have known to get rid of Hananiah immediately, but they didn't.

19:56

So God's going to do it himself. I'm going to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die because you have uttered rebellion against Yahweh.

20:07

And in that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.

20:17

Who turned out to be the true prophet here? Jeremiah. How do we know?

20:22

His words came to pass. And had they been paying attention to the word, they would have known better.

20:29

But Jesus here in our New Testament, in our gospel text, promises us this same kind of conflict, this conflict between those who will hear the words of God, those who belong to God and those who belong to the devil.

20:45

Those who belong to God hear the voice of God, abide in the words of Christ. If you love me,

20:51

Jesus said, you will abide in my word. That means hearing it, marking it, studying it, meditating on it, doing it.

21:04

Those who do not belong to Christ, they take no pleasure in God's word.

21:10

So consider a New Testament example of this same kind of conflict. People of the children of Israel, these are all

21:19

Jews in Judea. And it's after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ and after the day of Pentecost.

21:27

And what has happened is that Peter and John have gone into the temple to preach Christ and him crucified for our sins, to call people to repentance and faith in the one who loved them so much that he laid down his life so that they might live.

21:43

And when they got into the temple, they found a fellow who was crippled and he was expecting alms, some kind of money to help him pay his bills.

21:54

And Peter looks at him and says, silver and gold, I do not have any, but what I do have,

21:59

I give you in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to walk. The guy did.

22:05

God healed him. And it led to a commotion. And of course, the commotion,

22:11

Peter took advantage of that commotion to preach Christ and him crucified for our sins. And then in chapter four, it says, as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple, this all takes place in the same place that our

22:26

Old Testament that we just read, Jeremiah 28, takes place in the same place. And there's priests and there's the people and you got the

22:34

Sadducees and you got the high priests. They're all right there on the scene.

22:40

And so they came upon them and they were greatly annoyed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

22:50

And so they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

22:57

But many of those who had heard the word, they believed in the number of the men came to about five thousand.

23:05

Would you think about this? These are fellow Jews. These are all people of the same family.

23:12

These are not only descendants of Abraham. These are descendants of Judah. They are brothers and sisters and cousins.

23:20

They are of the same nation, the same religion, supposedly.

23:27

And you'll note that there's conflict here. The apostles are in deep kimchi, as like one of my old

23:34

Korean war veteran guys used to say. Deep kimchi for doing what? Preaching Christ.

23:41

But you'll note that the priests, they should have known the word of God. They should have known that Jesus Christ was the one prophesied by Moses and the prophets.

23:52

They should have known the scriptures well enough that Jesus, to them, they would have seen him as he truly is.

24:00

God of God, light of light, very God of very God, as the scriptures proclaim about him. But they're not paying attention to the scriptures properly.

24:08

In fact, Judaism in Jesus' day, in the days of the apostles, was overrun by the religion of the

24:14

Pharisees and their false revelations and their so -called oral Torah. So there's

24:21

Peter and John, and they got arrested and had to spend the night in prison.

24:28

And I know for a fact from the archaeological evidence that first century prisons were not a place you wanted to be.

24:36

The smells, it's just not a good place. And why were they arrested?

24:43

For preaching Jesus and healing a fellow. So on the next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem.

24:52

It's time for a leadership meeting, time for management to come and take a look at what's going on.

24:58

Along with Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas. So the high priests are there. These are men who should know the

25:04

Bible, right? And there was Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family, people who should have known the scripture.

25:14

And when they had set them in their midst, they inquired. And listen to this question.

25:19

Tell me if this sounds like an odd question to you. By what power or by what name did you do this?

25:30

Wait, what? Are we really on trial here for doing a good thing, right?

25:38

So then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, now rulers of the people and elders, if we're being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man by what means this man has been healed, it's a good thing he was, right?

25:54

You're not going to say that's evil, are you? So let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom

26:05

God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

26:17

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

26:28

And these are the words of Scripture, these are the words of the apostles. This is the truth.

26:33

There is salvation only in Christ, and indeed this is a beyond true statement, it is truth itself.

26:44

But you'll note, we live in the day where our family members put coexist bumper stickers on the back of their

26:50

Subarus, right? And we are told by people like this who are parts of our own families that we are haters, that we are phobic, that we are reprehensible, that we are just terrible, manipulative, mean -spirited people for saying that there's salvation only in Jesus Christ.

27:16

And so, they bring the conflict to us. But who's listening to the words of God here?

27:25

Is it you, or is it them? Because it's true. Jesus Christ, as we confessed in the

27:32

Nicene Creed, was born of the Virgin Mary, and this was all for our salvation.

27:40

And he suffered under Pontius Pilate. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

27:51

And God has made you his own in the waters of baptism, he's washed away your sins.

27:58

Christ who has bled and died for you takes his saving work on the cross and applied it to you individually when you were baptized in the name of the

28:06

Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. He has opened your ears, and he has circumcised your heart.

28:13

He has washed away your sins, all because of his great love. There is no other deity that exists.

28:21

There is no other Savior, there is only him. And so the apostles are preaching the truth.

28:28

But who's listening to the word of God here? Now, when all the leaders saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated men, apparently they spoke with some kind of like, hick accent, right?

28:42

Maybe they spoke thick redneck or something, I don't know. But they recognized these were not men of letters, they were common men.

28:50

So they were astonished and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, well, there's this guy here, okay?

29:00

And he was completely healed. They had nothing to say in opposition.

29:06

But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another. And they were saying, well, what shall we do with these men?

29:14

For that is a notable sign that has been performed through them, it's evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, we cannot deny it.

29:26

Hello? You can't deny that this was a great sign? Who did the sign? God did, right?

29:32

The people are praising God because of the sign, why aren't you?

29:40

Because they don't belong to God. They do not like his words, they refuse to hear them.

29:47

They prefer to hear other words, they have a different agenda than bending the knee to God and trusting in him and hearing what he has to say.

29:59

So they stupidly, and that's what this is, stupid, we can't deny that this is a miracle that took place, but watch what their solution is to this then, okay?

30:08

We cannot deny that this sign has been performed, but in order that it may not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.

30:18

We gotta put an end to this. Put this under wraps. Sounds like a conspiracy theory, right?

30:26

So they called them and they charged them not to speak or to teach in the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered them, well, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.

30:43

And when they had further threatened them, you see how this went, the disciples were pretty much nonplussed, we're just gonna obey

30:49

God rather than you. And then you could just see them, if you come back in here again, we see you preaching

30:54

Jesus again in the temple, we're going to arrest you and we're gonna crucify you just like we crucified

30:59

Jesus. And their basic answer was, whatever, right? We're gonna obey

31:06

God. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people for all were praising

31:16

God for what had happened, for the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old.

31:23

I hate that verse, by the way, it makes it sound like anyone over 40 years old is really old. Hey, what?

31:30

No, don't do that. Ashley, she's all, yeah, you are, right?

31:37

But watch what happens next. You'll note, again, this is the conflict that Christ has talked about.

31:43

So when they were released, they went to their friends and they reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them, the irony here is thick.

31:52

And so when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and they said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything that is in them, who through the mouth of our father

32:02

David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why? Why do the Gentiles rage and why do the people's plot in vain?

32:10

The kings of the earth, they set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the

32:15

Lord and against his anointed one, his Messiah. Why do the

32:21

Gentiles rage? Why do our family members who do not believe? Why do they rage and plot in vain and get angry and shake their fists and clench their teeth and threaten you and do all kinds of stuff when you preach the truth and tell them the truth of God?

32:38

It's because they do not belong to Christ.

32:45

That's the reason. It's they're dead in trespasses and sins. Heathens are going to heath.

32:52

That's what they do, right? And so what are we to do in the midst of that?

32:57

Are we just to just say, well, that's what the heathens do. No, we have to pray because you'll note that their threats are legit.

33:03

These are not empty words that they were threatening the apostles and these Christians with. And so they are praying back to God, noticing that in the

33:12

Psalms that the nations rage and the people plot in vain against the anointed Messiah of God.

33:18

For truly in the city there were gathered against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed both

33:24

Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

33:32

But now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed to the name of your holy servant,

33:47

Jesus. And so they prayed to God, please, in the midst of these threats, these here, that these these ravings from these men, please grant us boldness, help us to not fold, help us to not be cowards, help us to speak the truth even in the face of their threats and if necessary, to suffer the consequences accordingly.

34:12

While you, in the midst of all of this, save people. And so when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the

34:21

Holy Spirit and they continued to speak the word of God with boldness. And so, brothers and sisters, that's exactly what we are called to do, to speak the word of God with all boldness.

34:34

Remember last week, Jeremiah, at his commissioning, we read the opening portion of Jeremiah chapter one,

34:40

God told him that he was going to be in conflict, that people would oppose him and God told him, do not be dismayed by these people.

34:46

And then he comforted them and said, I will be with you. Consider the words of Christ in the words of the great commission in Matthew chapter 28.

34:55

Jesus says, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Go there for make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

35:02

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded, which requires you to read your

35:08

Bibles, by the way, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

35:14

You'll note that in the midst of the growing hostility on this planet as it continues to spiral into insanity and the suicidal tendencies of sin and the ragings against the truth and against the very

35:30

God who loved them and so much that he sent Christ to bleed and die for them, that we must remember that Christ is always with us and that the

35:39

Holy Spirit, when we ask will give us the boldness to speak the truth in love. But let me remind you that because of what

35:46

Jesus did on the cross, you belong to him. In fact, Paul in Ephesians one says in him we have redemption through his blood and through him we have the forgiveness of all of our trespasses according to the riches of God's grace, which he has lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he has set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

36:22

And then you'll note that he goes on to say that we've been in Christ obtained an inheritance, a promise of the new earth, a world without sin and a world without end.

36:31

When God re -genesis's, is that a word, can you do that? When he re -genesis's the world and brings us back to Eden, having been predestined then according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him.

36:52

You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believed in him.

37:00

And because of this you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

37:09

So brothers and sisters, Christ has spoken the truth. He's absolutely correct.

37:14

But you might say, and I have to kind of say this in the midst of all of this, there's one thing that, glaring thing that kind of stands out in this text, and that is during Christmas, isn't that when we sing about Jesus being the

37:27

Prince of Peace, right? And he'll be called Wonderful Counselor the Mighty God, right?

37:34

The Prince of Peace. But you'll note Christ here is saying that he didn't come to bring peace, but that's noted he didn't come to bring peace to the earth.

37:47

What Jesus came to do was to bring peace between you and God by laying down his life, bleeding and suffering and dying, in order to reconcile us to God so that we can be adopted and be made

38:02

God's children again. And so brothers and sisters, it is true. Christ is the

38:09

Prince of Peace, but not peace to the earth in this era, but peace to the earth in the era to come, and in the meantime, now peace with God.

38:21

So note then, it is a harrowing, difficult, and anxiety -causing problem to have members of your own household be your enemies because of your confession of Christ.

38:36

But do not be dismayed by them. Continue to preach the truth in love. Cry out to God the

38:42

Holy Spirit to give you boldness to speak the truth so that you would not cower in the face of persecution.

38:48

And note that when this does happen to you, you can say, this is exactly what

38:53

Jesus said would happen. That makes him a true prophet just like Jeremiah and the others.

39:00

Think it through. 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 Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

39:21

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

39:28

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

39:35

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

39:42

All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.