This is a Hard Saying

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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

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

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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Alright, here it is, that really embarrassing doctrine. You know, those people who don't like Lutherans, they think we're failed

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Roman Catholics. You know, because we believe that we receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ in, with, and under the bread and the wine.

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And so we are always kind of being chastised for that. But we're going to take this text head on.

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But I'm going to preach this sermon in three chapters because I like doing that.

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I like fleshing out the themes and working together some things. So recall, as we've been working our way through the book of Genesis, recall that after Adam and Eve, our first parents, and yes, they were literal people.

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Jesus believed in them because, you know, He's the guy who formed them, just saying. But after Adam and Eve, eight of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it says this, after they had received their punishments from God, that the man called his wife's name

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Eve. Again, I still don't get it because the Hebrew there is Hala.

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That's really her name. Let's not call her Eve, let's call her Hala. That's really her name.

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Let's just adopt that. Repeat after me. Right, you got it.

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So her name was Hala because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and they enclothed them.

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What a beautiful picture, by the way. Kind of terrible if you think about it. Some poor little animals lost their lives so that Adam and Eve could be clothed and have their nakedness covered.

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Sounds a lot like the Gospel, does it not? Jesus Christ, the only righteous one among us, sacrificed for our sins so the nakedness and shame of our sin could be covered by His righteousness.

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Beautiful picture. But then it says these words, Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.

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And He's not talking to the angels. This is the Trinity discussing amongst themselves. And now we've got this interesting sentence, the unfinished sentence in Genesis 3 .22.

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Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and listen to the words, and live forever.

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And then the sentence kind of tapers off. It never is complete. It's almost as if God is saying, I can't even imagine the thought.

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Could you imagine Adam and Eve eating of the tree of life and living forever as fallen, sinful human beings?

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Even the thought is too terrible for God to consider. Chapter 1. Keep that in mind.

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Coming back to our Old Testament text in Joshua chapter 24, there's a verse in here that we're all very familiar with because if you visit the

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Christian bookstore, you can find this verse on magnets that will go on your refrigerator. You can find it on bumper stickers, on coffee mugs.

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As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And unfortunately, there's a lot of people who kind of use this verse in a very legalistic way.

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You know, when it comes to, you know, sins like smoking, drinking, dancing, playing cards, as for me and my house, we will serve the

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Lord. This is how it gets used, or should I say misused. But it's important for us to note that in Joshua 24, we've got this wonderful retelling by Joshua of the gospely things that God has done for them.

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And the real context of that verse is in the context of Israel not returning to idolatry, which begs the question, what is an idol?

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An idol is the invention of the human mind. We as creatures seem to have to have this thing where we've got to have a

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God and as the saying goes in scripture, it says that God made man in his own image and we've been returning the favor ever since.

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We've been making gods after our own image. And that's kind of the thing. A God is an idol, is the creation of a human mind.

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But listen to Joshua 24. Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summon the elders and the heads and the judges and the officers of Israel and they presented themselves before God and Joshua said to all the people, and we must never forget this, that Joshua, the guy who led the children of Israel into the promised land, it wasn't

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Moses and the law that brought them into the promised land, it was Yeshua, which means

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Yahweh saves. And don't forget this, Jesus himself, that was his Hebrew name.

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When Jesus was out playing with the kids in Nazareth when he was growing up and dinner was ready and his mother shouted out,

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Yeshua, it's time to eat, of course he would always come running immediately because being the son of God, he would never disobey his mother.

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When I was a kid, if my mom said it was time to eat, that was the 10 -minute warning. But that's a different story.

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I'm a sinner. So those of you who have kids know what I'm talking about. So Joshua, remember that, he's tied in shadow pointing us to Christ.

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So he said to all the people, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Long ago your fathers lived beyond the

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Euphrates. Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, they served other gods.

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That's right. Did you know that Abraham was an idolater before God called him? That's what this text is saying.

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But now here comes this important distinction. Listen to this. We as Lutherans understand that when

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God gives a command and says you must do this or don't do that, that's law.

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But when it recounts what God has done for you or what God promises to do for you, that's gospel.

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And so here the people of Israel have come summoning to Joshua and they have been presented before him and watch all this gospel stuff that Joshua then says.

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So we learn that Abraham and his father and brother were idolaters and then watch the verbs.

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God speaking, Then I took your father Abraham from behind the river and I led him through all the land of Canaan and I made his offspring many.

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I gave him Isaac and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau and I gave

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Esau the hill country of Seir to possess. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt and I sent

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Moses and Aaron and I plagued Egypt with what

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I did in the midst of it and afterwards I brought you out.

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Who's doing all the stuff there? God is. This is a recounting of gospel things that God has done.

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And remember, this is a picture, a type and shadow of the very story that we find ourselves in.

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Each and every one of us, we were born dead in trespasses and sins under the dominion of darkness, the tyrant, himself the devil.

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And God, through his mighty acts, has rescued us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and through the preaching of the gospel and the waters of our baptism where we were united with Christ in the

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Red Sea, the Red Sea of baptism, which is the mixing of Christ's blood with the water, which cleanses us, forgives us and frees us.

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You see, this is all our story. And so here Joshua is reminding them of their identity, and their identity is found in these gospel -y words, these gospel -y verbs that tell us of the great things that God has done for them, that he has given, that he has plagued, that he has led, that he has called.

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And it's beautiful. God continues. He says, I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you came to the sea.

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The Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried to the

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Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon and cover them.

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And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time. And then I brought you to the land of the

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Amorites who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you. I gave them into your hand and you took possession of their land and I destroyed them before you.

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Then Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, rose and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited

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Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam.

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Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over the

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Jordan and came to Jericho and the leaders of Jericho fought against you and also the Amorites and the

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Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites. And listen to the verb.

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I gave them into your hand. And then I sent the hornets before you which drove them out before you, the two kings of the

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Amorites. It was not by your sword or by your bow. I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built.

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And you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.

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Now therefore, And so note, gospel, gospel, gospel. God saying,

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I did all these things for you. And all of that gospel stuff, now

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Joshua speaks. So he says this, Therefore, fear Yahweh. Serve him in sincerity and faithfulness.

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Isn't it amazing that Joshua was a good law gospel guy? Right? So put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt.

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Serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve.

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Whether the gods your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

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But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. And there it is.

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Choose this day whom you will serve. It's in the context of the gospel being preached, the good news of what

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God has done. And listen to this great response from the people. The people answered, Well, far be it from us that we should forsake the

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Lord and serve other gods. For it is the Lord, our God, who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed.

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And the Lord, he drove out before us all these people, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore, we also will serve the

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Lord, for he is our God. Even the people of Israel know their identity in God through the great works that he has done.

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And it's all gospel. And their response is, Of course, we will serve. Chapter 2.

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That was chapter 2. Now for chapter 3. Coming back to our gospel text. Idolatry is back on the table.

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Jesus Christ, Yeshua, the Messiah, is now conquering

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Canaan once again. He's going through the towns of Israel and he is setting the captives free.

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The blind are receiving their sight. Sins are being forgiven. The woman with the 12 -year issue of blood has been healed and been saved.

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The lepers are cleansed. The deaf are hearing. The demons are being cast out.

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The dead are being raised. And the children of Israel have been fed miraculously in the wilderness.

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A multitude of 5 ,000. Oh, Joshua's on the move again.

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Canaan is being conquered. There's no denying it. But now the question kind of comes up.

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Which God are you going to believe in? The one who has conquered and done so mighty works?

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Or are you going to believe in the God of your own creation? The God that's a little bit reasonable. Think of it this way.

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In our day, in our time, there have been people in the Christian church scoffing at the idea that God would have

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Jesus be born to a virgin. Because after all, we live in a scientific age. We know that virgins don't give birth.

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We have pictures from our biology text that explain how the whole process works with the egg and the sperm and the ovaries and all this kind of...

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We get all of this. We've seen the pictures. The microscope doesn't lie. Virgins don't give birth.

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And yet a virgin did give birth. Her name was Mary. Her son is Jesus. So who are you going to believe?

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Who are you going to believe in? Tell me this day whom you will serve. The God who is the one who was born of the virgin

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Mary? Or are you going to believe in the God of your own making? The one that can think rationally, scientifically, and say, that can't happen.

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Is that the God you're going to believe in? You see, that's kind of what's going on here. Jesus here in our text says,

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I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

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And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. What? What?

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Huh? Huh? How is that possible? So, the text says, the

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Jews disputed. They disputed among themselves. How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

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Now watch what Jesus doesn't do. Jesus doesn't go, listen guys, I was just talking symbolically.

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It's an allegory, a metaphor. You know, symbolically, eating on my flesh.

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You guys totally missed the whole point. He doesn't do that. Jesus does something rather fascinating.

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He doubles down and clarifies. Watch the clarification. So Jesus said to them,

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Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

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Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

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For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

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Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

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Are you kidding me? Jesus makes it clear he wasn't talking symbolically here.

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He clarifies and says, my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink, and they're freaking out.

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But notice the abiding part. Have you ever heard sermons about abiding in Christ?

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Bad sermons about abiding in Christ basically talk about all the things you're not supposed to do. Don't do this, don't do that, do this, do that, do this, do that, and you're abiding in Jesus.

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Pah! Jesus says, The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

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It makes perfect sense. You come to the Lord's table, you take, eat, the pastor says, this is the true body of Christ given for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

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You take and you eat, and Jesus is now in your tummy, and he is abiding inside of you.

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Are you kidding me? For real? Yeah. That's what Jesus is saying.

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Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, that's disgusting. Is it? Whom will you serve?

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Which God are you going to believe in? My flesh is true food.

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My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him, as the living

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Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

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So this is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread that the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live, listen to these words, will live forever.

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Whoa, wait a second. Are you kidding me? Remember there in Genesis, God thought if they ate of the tree of life and lived forever, that would somehow be a bad thing.

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And it would have been. But Jesus now is making it very clear that on the cross, the tree of death is what you can kind of think of as the cross being.

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That is the tree, the tree of death, where people are tortured and die and bleed out.

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There, Jesus bled out and died for our sins. His body then becomes the fruit of that tree.

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The cross now is the tree of life. And anybody who eats of the fruit of that tree will live forever.

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So Jesus said these things while he was in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. We know the very location.

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I know exactly where this is. I can point it to you out on Google Maps. So when many of his disciples heard this, notice it doesn't say

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Pharisees. The text actually says disciples. These are guys who were following Jesus around who think he's potentially the

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Messiah, that he's the son of David, that he's the one to come to redeem Israel. These are disciples. These aren't scoffers.

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They heard Jesus say this and they said, this is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?

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But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, do you take offense at this?

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So then what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before? Talking about his deity.

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Now listen to these words. Important they are. It is the spirit who gives life.

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The flesh is no help at all. You ain't going to figure this out with your brain. You're not going to figure this out by looking inside your heart.

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The spirit is the thing that gives life. Your flesh is no help at all. So stop looking in your brain.

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Stop looking in your heart. Forget it. You're not going to find the answer there. The question is, do you believe your

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God has said, and that's who Jesus is, eat my flesh, drink my blood, and you will live forever.

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Do you believe him or not? Spirit gives life.

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The flesh is no help at all. The words Jesus said that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some who do not believe.

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For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him. And he said, so this is why

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I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father. And after this, many of Jesus' disciples turned back and they no longer walked with him.

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Jesus just shrunk the church. Gasp. What on earth is he thinking?

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How do you grow a megachurch by teaching this kind of message? People were offended. They were appalled.

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I can't believe that. And they'd up and walk away and they never set foot in church again.

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The deacons and the elders need to have a chat with Jesus about his messages. They're driving people away.

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The bottom line, the offering plate is starting to dip. He doesn't care.

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What he said was the truth. So now, Jesus said to his 12, do you want to go away as well?

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You can join them if you want. Peter answered, and it's always

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Peter, isn't it? This guy, he's like Johnny on the spot. And sometimes what he says is brilliant and other times what he says is just face palm bad.

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But Peter chimes in, he says, Lord, to whom shall we go?

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Who are we going to go to? I mean, that's the question. Same question for us.

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To whom shall we go? Shall we turn to Muhammad and Allah? Should we start praying five times a day towards Mecca?

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Maybe we can go to Buddha. We can sit under a tree and experience enlightenment and try to figure out how to get off the wheel of reincarnation.

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Or maybe we can become Mormons and follow the prophet Joseph Smith. Or maybe invite the

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Jehovah's Witnesses in and hang out at their place. Lord, to whom shall we go?

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And here are the words. You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that You are the

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Holy One of God. And there it is. Choose this day whom

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You will serve, the idols of Your own creation, the

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God who is not capable of feeding You with His body and blood, or the one who is, who says that He feeds

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You with His body and blood. And listen to all the gospel promises. The one who eats

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My flesh has eternal life. Take, eat. This is My body given for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

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You eat this and you abide in Me and I in you. You see, when you believe Jesus, you have it all.

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The forgiveness of sins, eternal life. As Luther would like to say, it's all in the bag.

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But if you follow the God of your own making, what have you got? Your reason, your logic, and you have no eternal life.

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No forgiveness of sins. This calls for faith. Choose this day whom you will serve, the

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God who has conquered mightily on your behalf, taken all of your idolatry and your sin and your filth, and had it poured on Him full strength.

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He became the sinner on the cross so that by grace through faith you can be declared the

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Holy One, the one who is righteous, the one who feeds you with His body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.

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Will you believe Him? Or will you believe in that reasonable, rational

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Jesus who's tidy and clean and never asks you to do anything that you would never understand?

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That Jesus isn't the real Jesus, by the way. That Jesus doesn't have the words of eternal life.

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That Jesus is an idol. Although He's named Jesus, He doesn't exist.

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He's just, He's idolatrous, He's the gods of the Amorites, the Hivites, the

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Jebusites, the Girgashites, the Uptites, and the Balletites. He can't save you.

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Jesus has the words of eternal life. You heard Him in the absolution today.

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You will hear Him speak to you when He says, Take, eat this as my body. Take those promises then to the bank.

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This calls for faith. This calls for belief. As Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go?

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You have the words of eternal life. We've believed. We've been forgiven. We have eternal life.

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And you, we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. You are the true one.

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You would never lie to us. Why would we never, why would we not receive the gifts of your grace that you give us in the

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Lord's Supper? So repent of your idolatry. Repent of your unbelief.

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And believe. And come here to this table today boldly, confidently, and take and eat and drink the blood and the body of Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

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And take the promise to the bank. You have now eternal life.

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You will live forever. In the name of Jesus.

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Amen. We thank you for your support.

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