The Madness of Sin

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.

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Mark chapter 3 verses 20 through 35. Then Jesus entered a house and again a crowd gathered so that he would and his disciples were not even able to eat.

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When his family heard about this they went to take charge of him for they said he is out of his mind.

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And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem they said he is possessed by Beelzebub by the prince of demons he's driving out demons.

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So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables. How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand.

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If a house is divided against itself that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided he cannot stand.

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His end has come. In fact no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up to strong men.

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Then he can rob his house. I tell you the truth all the sins and the blasphemies of men will be forgiven them but whoever blasphemes against the

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Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He's guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying he has an evil spirit.

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Then Jesus's mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent someone to call him.

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A crowd was sitting around him and they told him your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.

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Who are my mother and brothers Jesus asked and then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and he said here are my mother and my brothers.

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Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.

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In the name of Jesus. Alright today we begin an extended journey through the gospel of Mark and it's going to take us all the way up in to and through the month of November.

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That's how the lectionary works by the way. Now this gospel records for us the eyewitness testimony of the

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Apostle Peter. It is uniquely written and is often times referred to as the gospel of action because it is written in the present tense.

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Kind of fun to translate because everything is like happening right now. It's present tense and all of the different accounts of Jesus's actions are strung together by the word immediately.

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So if you ever take the time to read through the gospel Mark and immediately and immediately and immediately.

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Jesus is on the move immediately through this gospel. But as we dive into this gospel please keep in mind that these words were written so that you might believe that Jesus is the

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Christ. That he's the Messiah and that by believing you would have life in his name. The author and the one who conveyed these events to the author believe that what they have to tell you about Jesus is of the utmost importance.

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These accounts are not fairy tales. They're not myths. They are the memories of men who saw, heard, and witnessed the life, teaching, miracles, death, and resurrection of God in human flesh.

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Come to earth born of the Virgin Mary to save, rescue, and redeem you and to redeem me.

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So our foray into the gospel of Mark begins in Mark chapter 3 verse 20.

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And you're thinking that's a weird place to start. And I agree. It really is. And the reason that we're beginning here is because of the fluctuations of the lectionary.

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And remember the season of Pentecost begins 50 days after the Passover. And the

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Passover is actually based on the lunar calendar of the Jewish people. And it is not a fixed date in our calendar.

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As a result of the lateness of the Passover this year we've lost two weeks of readings in the gospel of Mark.

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That's, you know, so we're actually starting off today as proper five. Proper five?

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Yeah, we missed two weeks. But I'm never gonna let that keep me from teaching you what the

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Bible says. So because of this I'd actually like to take a moment and bring you up to speed so we don't lose some of the important details surrounding this morning's text.

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So if you have your pew Bible go ahead and open up to the gospel of Mark chapter 1 verse 1.

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We will not read everything here. I'm gonna take you through this at jet speed if you would.

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We're gonna get a 10 ,000 foot flyover and I'll point out some of the landmarks along the way. Remember I used to be a jungle cruise captain at Disneyland so I'm very good at pointing things out.

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So including the backside of water. If you've ever been there you know what I'm talking about. Mark chapter 1 verse 1 says this, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the

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Son of God. Everything that follows this sentence has got to be framed according to that.

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Whoever wrote this, Mark wrote this, and these are the preaching notes of the Apostle Peter, they want you to know that Jesus Christ is none other than the

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Son of God. And so from there, real quick, you'll notice that it begins with John the

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Baptist. In the gospel of Mark there's no nativity story. You don't hear about Jesus's birth. Jesus is fully grown in the gospel of Mark when he appears.

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John the Baptist is doing his preaching and his baptizing. And so then you'll notice that starting at verse 9 it covers the account of Jesus being baptized and then immediately he goes out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

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Doesn't give us much details there. And then it begins with his ministry and it says this, verses 14 and 15, now after John was arrested

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Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel or the good news of God saying, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the good news.

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Now what does this tell you about Jesus? Well, number one, we can figure out from here that Jesus was not a feel -good preacher.

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He was a preacher who preached repentance. He preached repentance and the forgiveness of sins because that's what the gospel is.

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The good news is of the forgiveness of sins. So Jesus was a law, gospel, sin, grace, repentance, forgiveness of sins kind of preacher.

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And I've learned from experience being that kind of preacher can get you into trouble. So, just saying, okay.

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And we'll see how things fare for Jesus. Now you'll notice starting at verse 16 is the account of Jesus calling the first disciples.

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Starting at verse 21 through 28 we have the healing of a man with an unclean spirit, kind of Jesus's first encounter with somebody who's demon -possessed.

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And then we have Jesus's healing ministry to go along with his preaching ministry. Now keep in mind, nothing changes.

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Jesus is a preacher of repentance and forgiveness of sins. So all of the miracles that he's performing, they are in a sense showing that the message that he's preaching is true.

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Does that make sense? Miracles always come with the theology. And so even if somebody were to perform a miracle today, the question you have to ask is not whether or not that was a true miracle or false miracle because it may be false and it may be true.

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But the question is what's the theology that comes with the miracle. So Jesus's theology that accompany his miracles is repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

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And so then we have Jesus going and preaching in Galilee. He cleanses a leper. And then the famous passage in chapter 2 where Jesus heals a paralytic.

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Keep in mind the Gospel of Mark reports to us that Jesus performed this miracle in his own home.

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That's right. Jesus had a flat in Capernaum. It was decorated in modern first century attire and deco thing.

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You know what I'm saying. Anyway, so while Jesus is there, keep in mind at this point

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Jesus's healing ministry and his preaching ministry are kind of taking off. And the text says that there were so many people in front of his door that the guy who was the paralytic, they couldn't even get in.

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And so they come up with this great idea. Let's vandalize Jesus's house and we'll dig our way through the roof and lower the guy, you know, to the floor so that Jesus can heal him.

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And no sooner did they do this that Jesus says to the man, he doesn't say to immediately just get up and walk,

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Jesus says, son your sins are forgiven. And of course some of the religious officials, and religious officials are kind of the bad guys in these stories, the religious officials say, well who can forgive sins except for God himself?

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And Jesus's response is kind of like, right. You're asking the right question. And then he says, so that you may know that the

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Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, I say to you, rise, take up your bed, and walk. And people were amazed.

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They'd never seen anything like this. So Jesus is not only healing people, he's doing something scandalous here.

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He's forgiving sins. Only God can do that, right? And then after that we have the calling of Levi.

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Levi is a tax collector. Keep this in mind in the hierarchy, in the social structure of Israel of the day.

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You know, you have kings and princes up at the top, and hard -working Jews, and religious officials way up here.

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And then down at the bottom of society, you have dogs, prostitutes, and tax collectors.

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Okay, and keep in mind, dogs are better, alright? So Jesus calls one of his disciples from the lowest of the low, a tax collector, a man who has literally betrayed his own countrymen, and is collecting money for the, you know, the

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Roman Empire, unheard of. So this kind of tells you that Jesus was not very popular with the people who are up here, because he's recruiting guys who are all the way down here.

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So then we have a question about fasting. We won't get into that. Jesus declares that he's the

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Lord of the Sabbath, kind of another big deal. We'll take a quick look here at chapter 3, verse 1.

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Kind of an important story. It says this, again, Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.

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We've all seen people with this type of problem, right? We've seen people who, you know, have a hand that's, you know, all withered up like this, right?

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And so here's what it says, they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath. Apparently, you know, the laws of the

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Sabbath that say you can't work on the Sabbath somehow require that Jesus can't heal, because that's working, right?

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So they wanted to see if they can accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, come here.

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And he said to him, said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?

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But they were silent. And Jesus looked around at them with anger. Oh, that's right. It said Jesus was angry.

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There goes Precious Moments Jesus. That guy doesn't exist. Jesus was actually angry, and he was grieved at their hardness of heart.

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And he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And the guy went, and he was healed.

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Now, the question is, if somebody stretches out his hand, does that work on a Sabbath? No, right?

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So he stretched out his hand, and his hand was restored. Pharisees were not happy about this, and watch the response, verse 6, they went out and immediately held counsel with the

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Herodians against Jesus on how they could destroy him. Yeah, if we had somebody here, a

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Kongsvinger, who was healed like this in our church, in our midst, what would be our response?

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Kill the guy who performed the miracle? We'd all be praising God, right?

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So think, think here. There's a big disconnect that's going on here. Next portion, we have, we have basically a great crowd is following Jesus.

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And in verse 11, kind of an important thing, it says, whenever the unclean spirits saw Jesus, they fell down before him and cried out, you are the

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Son of God! And Jesus strictly ordered them not to make him known. So the demons know exactly who

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Jesus is. We don't, and that's kind of the problem.

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The demons recognize Jesus, but we don't. And I would say, based upon how this text is written,

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I think the Pharisees were making note of the fact that whenever a demon, a demoniac, would come in contact with Jesus, Jesus would hush them up and not let them talk.

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That's, so they're kind of building off of this when we get to our text today. So some, they're basically saying, that behavior of Jesus, every time those demons want to speak, he shuts them right up.

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I think we know why. That's what's going on here. So now we get to our text, verse 20, after Jesus calls his apostles, then we get to this.

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When he, Jesus, went home, so he went back to his house with the roof, with the hole in the roof, right?

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And the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. Jesus is literally, his ministry is taking off to such an extent, he's not even capable of taking care of his own bodily needs.

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He wants to eat and there's so many people there, he can't even have a meal, can't even have a sandwich. And watch this, his family heard this, and so their interpretation of what is going on here?

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Oh no, Jesus is cracked. He's snapped. He's gone weak in the mind.

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He's literally, we need to institutionalize Jesus, there's something wrong with Jesus. That's their interpretation.

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They, when it says that they thought he was out of his mind, that's not figurative. That's for real.

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If he, Jesus were alive today, the guys with the white coats and the jacket with the things, the arms that go like this, they'd have that for him.

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His family literally thought he'd come unglued. So they said he's out of his mind.

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And then the scribes kind of jump in. So you kind of get the idea of what's going on. Oh, by the way, regarding Jesus' own family,

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John records for us in John chapter 7, verse 5, that not even his brothers believed in him. So keep that in mind.

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Jesus early on, his own family really didn't even believe that he was the Son of God. So here's the question I have for you.

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Is this the fault of Jesus? Or is this caused by our sin?

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Think about this. What's causing this? And then we get this. The scribes came down from Jerusalem and were saying,

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Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of the demons he casts out demons.

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Now think about this for a second. This is slanderous, murderous gossip. This is the type of gossip that is intended to assassinate a person's character.

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But think of the twisted irony of the statement. The scribes were part of the religious leaders in the religious elite of Israel.

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Because there was technically no separation between church and state at this time, these men were, in a very real sense, government officials, and they were supposed to be experts in the

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Bible. If there were ever a group of people who should have known better, it would have been this group of men.

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And the Old Testament Scriptures foretold the Messiah, Jesus's birth, and his miracles, and his ministry.

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These men are familiar with the Bible, the Old Testament, and yet they're saying Jesus is possessed.

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Yeah, in fact, here's more sickness to the irony. Jesus, if you really think about it, he is the

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God whom these scribes claimed to be worshiping. Yet, not only did they not recognize

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Jesus for who he is, they made it their mission in life to oppose Jesus and to destroy his work, his message, and ultimately destroy

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Jesus himself, all in the name of God. John, in his eyewitness account of Jesus, records

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Jesus's explanation for how things like this could be as messed up as they are.

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You know, where those who claim to worship the God revealed in the Old Testament can have that very same

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God standing right in front of them in the flesh, and not only not listen to him, but seek to destroy him.

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Here's what Jesus says in John. He says, if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God, and I am here.

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I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what

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I say? It's because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

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He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

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When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

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But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me?

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Whoever is of God hears the words of God, and the reason you do not hear them is because you are not of God.

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This, by the way, folks, is the effects of sin. These effects create a sort of madness where a human being, a creature created by God, is so poisoned by the deception of the devil that they believe good is evil and evil is good.

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They are so blinded by the effects of sin that they believe that the God who made them is the devil and that the lies of the devil are the gospel truth.

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We saw this madness already taking hold on our first parents in the Garden of Eden after they disobeyed

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God as a result of the devil's lies and ate the forbidden fruit. Hear again from our Old Testament text.

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And they, Adam and Eve, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the

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Lord among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man and said to him, Where are you?

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Does anyone else think it's just dumb to think that you can hide from God? I mean, really, where could you go?

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You couldn't hide from God in the highest mountain or in the deepest cavern. You couldn't hide from God if you were out orbiting the rings of Saturn.

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You still could not hide from Him. And yet the madness of sin, the effects of sin, already had taken hold of them to the point where they are doing something ultimately just is so stupid and foolish.

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So God says, Where are you? And said, Well, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

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He said, Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? Now here comes the passing of the book.

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Oh, it was the woman you gave me! Ultimately blaming God, really.

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It's the woman you gave me, right? Yeah, this is all God's fault and the woman's fault.

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Right, yeah. The words man up come to mind, right? She gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.

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And then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you've done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate. You see, sin totally wrecks our ability to even think rationally.

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So much so that we are blaming God for our own evil. And this is what we see going on now in our text.

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Notice that the persecution that Jesus is facing is religious persecution.

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It is religious persecution within the church, if you would. And this persecution that Jesus is suffering has serious ramifications for us today.

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And here's the reason why. Jesus in John chapter 15 verse 20 says this, Remember the word that I said to you,

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A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

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Who's the they in that sentence? Were the

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Romans at this time persecuting Jesus? No. It was the religious people.

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All the people claiming to be worshiping the God that Jesus is. They were the ones persecuting him.

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So Jesus said, A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

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This persecution is not the hands of the world, nor is it the hands of atheists. This persecution is at the hands of those who profess to be believers in the one true

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God. We see these exact same types of persecutions today, by the way, of Christians by professing

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Christians. The religious authorities and experts today have gotten together and they have determined all kinds of things.

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The religious experts, they have determined that Jesus is teaching on hell. Well, that's just too harsh and negative.

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Instead, we believe that love wins. The religious experts today, Christian experts and theologians, they have determined that God blesses same -sex marriage.

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Yet, Scripture doesn't say that. It says the opposite. These religious authorities, they've determined that doctrine doesn't matter and it doesn't matter what anyone believes as long as they profess that they love

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God. These religious authorities have also determined that traditionalists and those who preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, well, they're nothing but closed -minded fundamentalist bigots who need to be driven out of the church.

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And if they're laymen, well, then they need to have their memberships revoked. And if they're pastors, then they need to be removed from their office, even if there are no biblical grounds to having them removed.

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Mm -hmm. And if these pastors knew what was good for them, they'd leave their posts. Uh -huh.

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And if they're not going to do that, well, then the next best thing will have their names and reputations smeared and assassinated via gossip and slander.

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Is this not what happened to Jesus? Jesus experienced this firsthand and he warned us that we would too.

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John 16 verses 1 through 4. I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

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They will put you out of the synagogues. You can say they will put you out of church. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he's offering a service to God.

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They will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me. But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you will remember that I told you, told this to you.

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Jesus warned us about this exact same kind of persecution. The Apostle John, who knew firsthand what it was like to suffer persecution and to be threatened with beatings and death for proclaiming

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Christ by religious people. In his message, in his first epistle, 1st

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John chapter 3 verses 12 through 13, John writes this, we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

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And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. So do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

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So, you kind of got the setup here. This is the effects of sin. So much so that religious people call evil good and good evil.

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Even claiming to worship the one God who's standing right in front of them and they see him performing miracles.

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They don't deny that he's performed the miracles. Their answer is, oh, he's doing that through Beelzebul.

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Real quick historical note, by the way. You've heard the word, it says here in the text Beelzebul and you've heard the other word

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Beelzebub. If you've ever wondered why there's a difference, there is a reason for that. And that is that Beelzebul is the actual name that was used by the

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Phoenicians, which means, you know, the prince of the house, the lordly prince himself, Baal.

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But Beelzebub was a play on words that the Hebrews used to mock that God. Beelzebub means the lord of the flies of the lord of dung.

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Something very true. They did the same thing with the god Molech. You've heard of the god Molech? Molech was the deity whose image, his hands were out like this and they would basically put a fire under his hands to the point where his hands turned red hot and then they would offer sacrifices of human infants in his hands.

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The name of that god was Melech, which means king. But Hebrews always referred to him as Molech.

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That means shame. Keep this in mind. So when you hear Beelzebub, Beelzebul, Beelzebub is a mocking term that mocks the false god.

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Just a little historical note. So let's take a look at now what Jesus does with these scribes.

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Here's what it says. He, Jesus, called them. That's right. Jesus called a little meeting with the scribes.

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He knows what they're saying. They're going around. He did that by demons. He did that by the power of Beelzebub.

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By the prince of the demons, he's casting out demons. So Jesus said, hey guys, come on over here. Let's have a chat. So he said to them, how can

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Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

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And if Satan has risen up against himself, the Greek here actually says if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end.

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So what Jesus does is he takes their argument and he just trashes it, shows it to be stupid.

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That's exactly what he did. Really, Satan casting out Satan? How is that even possible?

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And just takes their argument and destroys it. And then he says this, no one can enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman.

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Then indeed he may plunder his house. Now who is the strongman here that Jesus is referring to?

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None other than the devil himself. Jesus is literally saying that he has come and he's actually bound the strongman.

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And you know what he's doing? He's plundering the lair of the brigand Satan. And how is he doing it?

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By setting people free from possession. When Jesus casts out demons, he's showing that the strongman,

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Satan himself, is bound up and that he himself is taking all of the precious cargo of humans.

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Because Satan, he always traffics in humans. He's the original human trafficker, if you would. So Jesus comes along and he's setting them all free, showing that he has actually bound the strongman.

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And then he says this, truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter.

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But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.

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For they were saying he has an unclean spirit. Here we have reference to the unforgivable sin. And I cannot tell you how many times

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I've talked with Christians who said to me, Pastor Rose, bro, I think

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I accidentally committed this sin. God can never forgive me. And to which

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I would say, if you're worried about it, there's no way you could have possibly committed the sin. Real simple, the blasphemy of the

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Holy Spirit is to attribute to the devil the miracles, work, and message of Christ.

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Jesus did what he did by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so the blasphemy of the

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Holy Spirit is to attribute the work of the Spirit to the work of the devil.

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And remember what Jesus said in our message from a couple weeks ago. Jesus says, when I send the Spirit, what's he going to do?

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He's gonna convict the world of sin and unbelief and righteousness, right? So if you're feeling convicted for your sins, the

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Spirit is working on you. You have not committed the sin of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, because if you had, the

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Holy Spirit would be done with you. There's nothing to convict you of anymore. So if you're worried that you've committed the sin, that means you haven't.

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Does that make sense? Right, okay. Let's wrap this up. Moving to the last part.

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Jesus's mother and brothers came. So it's time to lock Jesus up. And standing outside of his house, they sent to him and called him.

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And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you. Why are they seeking him?

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Because they think he's crazy, right? And Jesus answered them, who are my mother and my brothers? And looking around at those who sat around him, relative strangers if you would, he said, here are my mothers and my brothers.

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Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother. Which begs the question, what is the will of God?

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John answers this for us in 1st John chapter 3, starting at verse 18. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him.

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For whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

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And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us.

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Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him, and by this we know that he abides in us by the

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Spirit whom he has given us. What does it mean to do the will of the

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Father? To do the will of God? It's to believe in Jesus Christ. To believe that he's the

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Son of God. Believe that he has come for you, that he has bled and died for your sins, all of them atoned for.

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Only Jesus is capable of saving us from the madness of our sin, opening our eyes, and helping us to see rightly what is going on.

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He is the way, the truth, and the life. And so he has called us to believe, to repent, and to be forgiven.

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Because remember, Jesus is a gospel preacher. Repent and believe the good news. This is the will of the Father. And then bear fruit in keeping with that repentance.

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As he has loved us, we now love one another. This is what we're called to do.

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And we have this assurance from Jesus. Whoever does this, which is God's will, is

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Jesus's brother, sister, mother. You are Christ's family. You who've been brought to penitent faith in Christ, who trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins, who now, because you've been set free from bondage to the devil, love and serve your neighbor from the heart, not for yourselves, but purely for your neighbor's sake.

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This is how we know we are in Christ, because we have been set free from the madness of sin.

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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

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. We thank you for your support.

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