Jesus' Words Never Fall to the Ground

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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

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

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 21st chapter.

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While some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, Jesus said,

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As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will be not left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

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And they asked Him, Teacher, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?

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And He said, See that you are not led astray, for many will come in My name saying, I am He. And the time is at hand.

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Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these must first take place, but the end will not be at once.

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Then He said to them, Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes in various places, famines and pestilences.

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There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogue and the prisons.

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And you will be brought before kings and governors for My name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

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Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.

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You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.

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You will be hated by all for My name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.

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When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart.

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And let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are the days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written.

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Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, for there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.

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They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the

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Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And there will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roar of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.

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For the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

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Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up, raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

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This is the word of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Here again stands a five of the hymn that we just sang.

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My Savior paid the debt I owe, and for my sin was smitten. Within the book of life

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I know that my name has now been written, and I will not doubt, for I am free, and Satan cannot threaten me.

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There is no condemnation. Let me ask you a question. Has Jesus ever said something that wasn't true?

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Has Jesus ever allowed any of his words to fall to the ground? When we talk about arrogance, talk about arrogance.

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When I was a Nazarene, I thought it was ultimately arrogant that anybody would have confidence that they would be able to stand on the day of judgment and could say with certainty here and now that they are saved.

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Why? Because I never heard the gospel. C .F .W.

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Walther, in his book The Proper Distinction of Long Gospel, notes that the pietists of his day, the thing they hated the most about the liturgy was the absolution, because it's so final.

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I, as a called ordained servant of the word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you, and by his command and in his stead,

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I forgive you all of your sins. The pietist says, how can you do that? How can you tell that person that they're forgiven?

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How can you be so sure? What if they're not? Huh? Again, I'm going to ask the word, the question.

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Has Jesus ever lied? Have any of his words ever fallen to the ground? So when we talk about arrogance, oh, and there's a lot of it running around today, a lot of it.

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We talk about arrogance. It is absolutely arrogant for you to think that somehow you know better how human beings are saved than Jesus Christ.

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For you to say to a sinner who's been forgiven, yeah, but, even if that sinner is you, that's arrogant.

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That's taking God's word and saying, hmm, yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

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Maybe not. Maybe not for him or her. But what about that person?

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Oh, next week something scandalous is going to happen. No joke. Listen to atheists.

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Atheists talk about, so you Christians are saying that if a person just totally lives in sin all their lives and on their deathbed, they receive

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Jesus, that they're going to have eternal life? Yeah, yeah, actually.

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Yeah, we do say that. And I'm not ashamed of it. Next week, a fellow who's being executed for his sins will receive not only an absolution from Christ, but the final judgment here on earth.

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And again, I ask the question, has Jesus ever lied? Have any of his words ever fallen to the ground?

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I can't think of anything that he's ever said that he's lied about. So when Jesus says, you are forgiven, it is arrogant to say, yeah, but.

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It is not humble. It is the opposite of humble. Consider our gospel text today.

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Our gospel text, more of the gory details of the end of the world. Last sentence of our gospel text,

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Jesus says to his Christians, those who have faith in him, now when you see these things begin to take place, straighten up, raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near.

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That sounds to me like Jesus is saying that his saints are completely forgiven and they got zero, nothing whatsoever to fear on the day of judgment.

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And that's not my opinion. That's Christ. Straighten up.

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My redemption draws nigh. Shouldn't I be cowering in the corner? Shouldn't I be praying a little bit more?

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Work the inventory. Have I done enough good? Have I lined all of my works up in a row? Is everything spick and span?

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Is the brass polished? I don't want to be embarrassed on the day of judgment. Salvation is by grace through faith on the merits of Christ alone.

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It is arrogant to think otherwise. And Jesus himself says to his

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Christians to have confidence. But those who are trying to be saved by the law, when they see somebody having confidence that their salvation is totally won by Jesus, received as a free gift, the way scripture says, they say of that person, oh, that's presumptuous of you.

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That's arrogant of you. How dare you think that you somehow can stand on the day of judgment?

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Oh, believe me when I tell you, on my own steam, on my own righteousness, I haven't got a snowball's chance. It ain't going to happen.

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Because Christ died for the ungodly. I am numbered among that group.

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And so are you. So consider then these words of comfort in the Gospel of Luke, a little bit of inside baseball before we get into this, because I know there are people who listen to our sermons outside of this congregation from all over the world, that Lutheran pastors, there's a group of them, and they're quite vocal.

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They note that in the writings of the church fathers, at least this is their claim, that in the writings of the church fathers, all of that discourse in the

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Gospel of Matthew, that the church fathers believed that, well, all of those things had been fulfilled.

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So in my preparation for the sermon today, this is Luke's version of the Olivet Discourse, I spent some time reading the fathers.

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And I was pleasantly surprised, actually quite happy to note, that Augustine, Irenaeus, Ambrose of Milan, and other important men who are considered the church fathers all believe that Luke's account of the

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Olivet Discourse includes information regarding the end of the world. Because it does.

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So those of you inside baseball, that's what that's about. So that being the case, we consider our text then.

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So Jesus was with a group of people, they were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings.

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And Jesus says these words, As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will be not left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

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Again, I ask, has Jesus ever said something and it not happened? No. Now, a little bit of a note here, liberal scholars, biblical scholars, and I'm going to have to put the word in quotes, they operate with this belief.

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If Jesus truly prophesied the destruction of the temple in 70

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AD, nearly 40 years before it took place, then that was truly a miracle. And they assume miracles are not possible.

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So you know what they do with the dating of the Gospel of Luke? Well, it had to be written about 90, between 90 and 110

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AD, long after the destruction of the temple. Forget the fact that Paul quotes from Luke.

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That's a whole other issue. Luke was along for many of the missionary rides.

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Read the book of Acts in the wee sections. But note here, Christ truly did prophesy the destruction of the temple long before it happened, almost four decades.

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And he notes that not one stone will be left upon another, and if you were to visit Jerusalem and go to the Temple Mount to this day, off on one side of the

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Temple Mount is a huge stone rubble heap. That stone rubble heap is what's left of the temple.

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Just like Christ said, every stone was thrown down. Does Jesus ever say something is going to happen and it not take place?

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So they asked him, Teacher, when will these things be? What will be the sign that these things are about to take place?

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And now something weird happens. This is one of the interesting things about prophecy and Scripture. Jesus is going to take the end of the world, and he's going to take the destruction of the temple, two different strands, and he's going to basically weave them together.

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And in the ancient world, they didn't have some of the developments that we enjoy in language and in writing.

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In fact, if you were to look at a first century manuscript, a Greek manuscript, everything's uppercase.

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There are no spaces between letters. It's just one continuous run -on sentence.

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They don't have bold and italics, and they don't have commas and question marks. That was like writing 1 .0,

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maybe 1 .2. I think we're up to like 7 .6, something like that. The operating system keeps getting updated.

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But back in Jesus' day then, because they didn't have some of the innovations we have, there was this idea that when somebody asks you a question, the first thing that comes out of your mouth is the most important, period.

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And if you really want to emphasize a point, you kind of say it over and over again, you repeat yourself. So listen to the first thing that Jesus says.

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See that you're not led astray. See that you are not led astray.

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You see, think of it this way. The devil knows full well that those who have faith in Jesus Christ are possessing and holding onto an amazing, beyond belief, treasure.

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Sitting in their lap is a promise from Christ that you are reconciled to God the

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Father, that you have an inheritance in the new earth that Jesus is going to create on the day when he returns to judge the living and the dead, and that rather than facing the penalty for your sins,

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Christ has faced them all for you, bled and died in your place on the cross, broken, smitten, and afflicted on the cross for your sins and mine, and all of this is a free gift.

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And the devil hates the fact that that is sitting in your lap, and he's trying to figure out a way to deceive you for you to exchange the treasures of the new earth for the counterfeit of his deceptions.

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That's the only way he can get rid of it. So he's going to deceive you into believing in a false

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Christ, a false gospel, a false spirit. You see, a false

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Christ cannot save you. That's an idol. A false gospel is no gospel at all.

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It doesn't save you, and neither does a false spirit. That, again, is an idol. So the devil knows full well he's got to figure out a way to snatch that treasure out of your hands, out of your lap, and he's going to do so by means of deception.

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So Jesus warns, the last days they are marked by deception, plain and simple.

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He says, many will come in my name. That means they're going to be in the church because the world hates

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Jesus. They're not going to receive anybody in Jesus' name. So many are going to come in Jesus' name, and they're going to say,

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Ego eimi, I am. I think of Kenneth Copeland. Kenneth Copeland, not too long ago, was talking about the fact that Jesus said that I am, ego eimi.

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And Kenneth Copeland says, you know, when I read those passages in the Bible, and Jesus says

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I am, I say, thank you, Father, I am too. It's blasphemous.

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Did Jesus not say this? Coming in my name, saying I am. Think of Joel Osteen's book,

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I Am. He takes the words of Jesus, I am, and he turns them into declarations that you're supposed to speak in order to have your faith -filled words create a better outcome for your life.

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So you were to say things like, I am the head, not the tail.

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I am rich. I am wealthy. I am healthy. I am wise.

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I am strong. It's blasphemy. But Jesus is the

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I am, and he did not give us those words in order to teach us how to declare and decree a better future for ourselves.

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Then he says, many will come in my name, saying I am. And then others are going to say, the time is at hand.

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The time is at hand. Jesus warned there's going to be a whole lot of people, like wearing the sandwich boards.

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Repent, the end is near. The end is near. Four blood moons. The rapture's next Thursday.

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You know what Jesus says to do? Don't go after them. He told you ahead of time.

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So when the next best -selling book hits the Christian newsstands, telling you, oh, we've cracked the eschatological code, we now know how to properly read the revelation, and we're zeroing in on a date when

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Jesus is returning, you know what Jesus says? Don't go after them. Just ignore them. They don't know what they're talking about.

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The end days are filled with deception. So when you hear of wars, now

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Jesus kind of points something out. When you hear of wars and tumults, yeah, don't be terrified. These things must first take place.

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The end will not be at once. Nation will rise against nation. Kingdom against kingdom. And this isn't even a sign of the end of the world.

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Have you noticed that since Jesus has risen from the grave, ascended into heaven, that humanity seems to be, well, our history just seems to be marked with all kinds of wars and stuff.

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You think of several wars. We know it as Americans. You think of, well, you've got the

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Iraqi conflict, and you've got the Vietnam War, the

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Korean War, World War II, World War I. And then you've got the

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Civil War. The wars just keep going on. So if war breaks out again, don't worry.

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That's not a sign of the end either. That's been going on for a long time. Great earthquakes will happen in various places.

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I've been through a few of those. I lived in Southern California growing up. Those are fun. Not really.

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And there will be pestilences in various places. There will be terrors, great signs from heaven. And before all of this, and I love how the church fathers take this part of the

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Olivet Discourse. They say that this part is fulfilled because Jesus was warning his disciples who would become the apostles what would happen to them, and they think that this part is actually fulfilled.

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Before all of this, they will lay their hands on you. They will persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake.

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This will be your opportunity to bear witness. So settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer it, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or to contradict.

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And you think of the Apostle Paul. Before he was the Apostle Paul, he was Saul of Tarsus, and what did he do? He rounded up Christians and had them beaten and flogged, and the synagogues stood there while Stephen was being martyred, the first Christian to bear witness with his own life to the forgiveness of sins won by Christ.

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And so the apostles, then Paul, had his head taken off his shoulders by a Roman centurion, Peter was crucified upside down, and just like Christ said, they would testify before kings and governors, and they did.

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Does Christ ever say anything will happen and it doesn't take place? Does he ever lie?

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No, he doesn't. And now it kind of bleeds over onto us.

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You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends.

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Some of you they're going to put to death. You'll be hated by all. It doesn't say some, it says all. You're going to be hated by all.

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There's a day coming when Christians will be the pariah of the entire world. A little bit of a note historically, if you've ever read the biography of Heinrich Himmler that came out a few years back, he was open about the fact that once they were done exterminating the

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Jews that the Christians were next. You'll be hated by all for my name's sake.

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But listen to what Jesus says. Not a hair of your head will perish. Now some of you are sitting there going, well, it's already too late for me on that one.

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It's already too late. No, it's not, because remember the resurrection, you get your hair back in the resurrection.

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Not a hair of your head. Christ has numbered all of them, and none will be missing when you are raised from the dead.

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So not a hair of your head will perish, and by your endurance you will gain your lives. It's important to note here that just like your human body is taken care of by food, right?

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Have any of you tried fasting for long, long, long periods of time? How do your energy levels hold up?

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Yeah, they just disappear, right? Because your body is sustained. You have endurance and strength by eating.

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But man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So the way that you are given by God to endure is by availing yourselves of the means of grace which feeds your soul, your salvation, your faith, your confidence.

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That would be the word, the absolution, the sacraments, the body and blood of Christ. By your endurance you will gain your lives.

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In fact, Christ even says in John 6 that when you eat his flesh and drink his blood, you are abiding in him.

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Important. And then Jesus says this, and this gets a little scary. When you see

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Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you know that its desolation has come near.

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So back in 70 A .D. when the legions of Rome landed on the shores of Judea and made their campaign against the rebellious

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Jews of the time and they were heading towards Jerusalem, what did the Christians do? They skedaddled.

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The Christians left town. Why? Because Jesus said to. They left town.

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They didn't hang out in Jerusalem because they knew exactly what was going to go down because Jesus said so.

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Has Jesus ever said anything that has not come to pass that isn't true? No. So Christians skedaddled, but the rebellious

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Jews, they locked themselves up in the city of Jerusalem. But Christ said, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are the days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written.

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A little bit of a note here. I'll do a little bit of this more in depth in the Bible study today.

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But the days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written, Christ is invoking the last part of the curses of the

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Mosaic Covenant against the people of Israel. If you look at the curses of the Mosaic Covenant in the book of Deuteronomy, it's ever -increasing punishment from God.

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And the last part is actually horrifying. Because God says, if you persist in breaking my covenant, then what will happen is that part of the curse would be that people would engage in cannibalism, eating their own children.

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And that's exactly what took place during the siege of Jerusalem. It's terrible what happened.

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And this was to fulfill all that was written. It was a day of vengeance against the unbelieving Jews. This is why

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Jesus says, Alas for women who are pregnant, for those who are nursing infants in those days, there will be great distress upon the earth and great wrath against this people.

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They will fall by the edge of the sword, be led captive among all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the

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Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled. In fact, after the

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Romans sacked Jerusalem, finally got in there and destroyed it, and the

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Jews made their last stand at Masada, and they lost the war, the

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Roman emperor declared that the Jews were not permitted to live in Israel anymore.

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Cast them out of the land and change the name of the region to Syria -Palestinia by official edict of the

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Roman emperor. Jesus foretold that that would happen because none of his words ever fall to the ground.

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And there will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars and on the earth distress of nations and perplexity because of the roaring of the sea.

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And this part, I have no idea what this is referring to. This is not in our history. This is what's coming.

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The book of Revelation describes the distress of those days as being so bad. And when the sign of Christ's return appears in the heaven, that people will hide under rocks and in caves and wish to die, seek death, but it'll elude them.

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The stress of nations, perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.

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And the powers of the heavens will be shaken and they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

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And note then, this is a terrifying picture, but it's only terrifying to those who have not been forgiven.

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You see, God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son so that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life.

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You see, light came into the world, but men loved darkness instead. So men, persisting in sin and unbelief, enjoying the works of the dominion of darkness, when

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Christ finally comes and the day of forgiveness and redemption has come to an end, there is only left judgment, and it's sad and it's tragic because there isn't a single human being on planet

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Earth that Christ has not bled for or died for, including you and including me. And for them, this is terror.

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For them, this is tragedy. For them, this... Well, how did the hymn say it?

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Fear shall banish idle mirth. It won't matter which movies in the theater at the time or whether or not somebody's up for an

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Academy Award and all the fun things we like to watch on television, that's all going to come crashing down and people are going to be terrified because they know they're going to face the wrath of God for the rebellion against him, but not you.

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You see, Christ says to you when these things begin to take place, you who have been forgiven, you who have been united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, you who are trusting in the promises of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life given as a gift, you lift their heads up, you straighten up because your redemption is drawing near.

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There's nothing to fear for you, nothing at all. As Malachi said,

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Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers will be stubble.

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And I cannot think of anything more arrogant than saying to Jesus, I don't need your forgiveness.

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I can't think of anything more arrogant than to say to the Son of God, I know better than you how one is saved.

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Thank you, but no thank you. But on that day, the arrogant and the evildoers will be stubble.

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That day is coming. It shall set them ablaze, literally, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

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But brothers and sisters, you heard the absolution today. You heard the words of Christ, not me, say that you are forgiven.

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Today at this altar, at this rail, you will hear these words, take, eat, this is the body of Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

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This is the blood of Christ, shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. You see, you fear the

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Lord because you've been given by God to do so. You are here to hear again those words that you are forgiven and to take comfort in the promises of Christ and to marvel in awe at the gift given because of God's great love for you.

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But for those who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

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The day of sorrow will give way to joy. There will be no pain.

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There will be no sickness or death anymore. The sun of righteousness, that sun on the first day of the new earth, will rise with healing in its wings and you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

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Never seen that. I'm assuming that's a good thing. It's a joyous thing. And so this is what awaits us.

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Why? Because you got your act together? Because you put all of your good works in a row, nice and tidy?

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And Jesus is saying to you, good boy, good girl? No. Christ died for the ungodly.

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You are here because Christ has repented you. He's given you faith.

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He has given you the ability to trust in Him and His promises are sure.

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Has Jesus ever said anything that hasn't come true? Have any of His words ever fallen to the ground?

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Not one. Then hear again His words to you. You are forgiven.

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Straighten up. Your redemption draws nigh. In the name of Jesus. You can do so by sending a tax -free donation to And again that address is

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