Following Jesus' Example?

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 Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the fourth chapter.

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When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee and leaving

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Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet

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Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the

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Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

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And for those dwelling in the region in the shadow of death, on them light has dawned. From that time,

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Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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While walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

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And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him, and going on from there, he saw two other brothers,

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James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

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And he called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. And he went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

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So his fame spread throughout all of Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, and those oppressed by demons, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them.

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And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the

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Jordan. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. We just sang this hymn,

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O Christ, our true and only light, and in stanza two it says this, Fill with the radiance of your grace the souls now lost in error's maze.

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Enlighten those whose inmost minds some dark delusion haunts and blinds.

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And it's a weird occasion for me. I don't normally do sermons like this, but the reality is that in our gospel text today, we have a portion of our gospel text that is probably one of the most twisted

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Bible passages in our current day. I'll explain it as we go. Think of it this way.

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Are any of you familiar with something called Sherman's Bowties? You guys familiar with Sherman's Bowties?

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What is that? You've got to think Civil War here. Remember General Sherman and his march to the sea?

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Those of you in the South, I know you call it the War of Northern Aggression. I get it. Okay, I have relatives from the

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South, and when I was a kid, when I would say stupid things, my aunts would say, oh, bless his heart. I get it.

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Okay, but all of that being said, Sherman's Bowties, when Sherman cut loose from his supply line and decided he was going to live off the land, he let his soldiers engage in all kinds of mayhem, if you would, and they waged war against the civilians of the

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South in that march to the sea. And one of the things they did is they would take railroad tracks, basically long pieces of iron, and they would warm those things up and fire, and then bend them into bowties and leave them in different places, basically completely tearing up their travel infrastructure.

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And I would note that this portion of Scripture, the last part of our Gospel text, in today's charismatic

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NAR and Pentecostal movements, it is one of these texts. They've taken it and twisted it up a lot like a

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Sherman Bowtie. And what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to unwind that. And the reason why

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I'm having you guys consider this twisting of Scripture is because, believe it or not, most of you know people who believe falsely regarding this text.

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And as a result of it, they are lost in error's maze. And it all sounds so pious when, in fact, it is not.

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But before we get to that, let's walk our way through our Gospel text so we can know the context.

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Here's what it says, beginning at verse 12 of chapter 4, when Jesus heard that John the

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Baptist had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. Jesus at this point, he had been living in Nazareth, and apparently he had made the trip, signed the papers, bought a house, or maybe got an apartment.

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We're not exactly sure what the arrangement was, whether he owned or rented in Capernaum, but he definitely had a house there.

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And they didn't have U -Haul back in the day, so I'm sure he had to get a cart to carry what few belongings he had and travel from Nazareth to Capernaum to set up shop there.

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And all of this fulfills what was said through the prophet Isaiah, which we read in our Old Testament text,

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Zebulun and Naphtali, the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the

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Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light. And for those dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

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Think of it this way, Zebulun and Naphtali were two of the Old Testament tribes of Israel, and they were the first to go into full hog idolatry, just absolutely.

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They didn't go into syncretism, they went into the full worship of Baal and Asherah and Molech and all this nonsense.

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They were the ones who led Israel astray. And as a result of it, they're remembered for that, and their region became polluted, if you would.

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Note, the scripture describes that region as Galilee of the Gentiles.

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Gentiles are not believers in God, Gentiles are the people who are pagans and idolaters.

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And it's into this darkness that Christ has decided to set up shop and begin his earthly ministry after his baptism.

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I like to think of it this way, of all the places that he could have chose, this was the least likely place that he would have ever succeeded.

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In New York, and part of New York State, there's a region called the

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Burned Over District. And it's called that because you can't plant a church there and have it survive.

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That hasn't happened since Charles Finney. And the reason why it's called the

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Burned Over District is because that's the place where Charles Finney and his false new measures and his false revivalism took root and basically burned everything over.

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And now it's like soil that's been salted, nothing grows there spiritually. You don't plant a church in the

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Burned Over District. Think of Zebulun, Naphtali, Galilee of the Gentiles, this is the

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Burned Over District of Christ's day. And he doesn't set up shop in the easiest place to set up shop, he sets up shop in the hardest and the darkest place.

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And you're going to note here then, verse 17, I'll reference this again later in the sermon, from that time

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Jesus began to preach saying, and listen to his message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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And the way the Greek reads, from that time Jesus began to preach saying, think of it this way, you could literally translate it, from that time and then from that time on,

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Jesus continued to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Note that just like John the Baptist, just like the Old Testament prophets, just like the apostles, after Jesus, Jesus was a preacher of repentance.

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You'll note that Jesus didn't come and say, I'm here to announce just how much you are just the apple of God's eyes, you guys are so awesome,

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I'm here to dig out the gold that's inside of your heart, right? And if you know what I'm referencing here, that's the approach of Bethel Church in Redding, California.

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They don't confront people regarding their sins, makes you wonder if they even believe what the scripture says, that we are all born dead in trespasses and sins.

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Christ knowing full well that we are born dead in trespasses and sins, his message is a message of repentance.

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And if you think that you don't need to hear that message, you are woefully wrong, or that your pastor shouldn't be preaching repentance, you don't know what you're talking about.

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This is the message of the scriptures. And then from there, we learn that Jesus then calls his disciples, and if you want to get the fuller details, you'll note that Matthew's account here, verses 18 through 22, is very highly condensed.

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If you want to get the entire account, read the Gospel of Luke. Luke gives the entire account of how that all went down, and when you look at the two together, you see that they dovetail each other perfectly well.

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Now, here we get then to the text where it gets twisted. Jesus went throughout all

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Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. If you were to travel to Bethel Church in Redding, California, or you were to visit churches in the local area that are under the influence of this heretical church, which is basically a cult, they would tell you that Jesus' message was the gospel of the kingdom.

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And when you ask them what is the gospel of the kingdom, they will say performing signs and wonders, and doing miracles, and following the example of Jesus, and healing the sick, and giving sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf.

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Here's the sneaky little secret, though. That's not the gospel of the kingdom.

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And those today who are claiming that they are performing signs and wonders, they aren't. Have you ever seen their grand miracle that they perform, the leg lengthening trick?

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Okay? And that's exactly what it is. It's a parlor trick. And yet, in these churches, it is held up as a great example of God acting in a miraculous way.

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Well, if you believe that leg lengthening is a miracle, then listen, I got one for you. Watch this.

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Isn't that great? That's the same quality of miracle that we're talking about here. And so you're going to note, they miss something when they read this text.

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Proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, then they say the gospel of the kingdom, then, is healing every disease, every affliction among the people, and healing the sick and those afflicted with demons and things like that.

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That is not the gospel of the kingdom. And Martin Luther, long, long ago, said this, that if you err regarding grammar, you will necessarily err regarding theology.

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And they miss a very important word, and the word is chi in the Greek, and it's and in the

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English. He was proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing the sick.

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The gospel of the kingdom is not this idea that we need to go out and heal the sick and do these miracles that Jesus did.

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In fact, none of us can do the miracles that Jesus did. Now you might be saying, but wait a second, didn't

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Jesus say that if you believe in him, that greater works than he did, you will be able to do?

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Didn't Jesus say that? The answer is absolutely Jesus said that, but he wasn't talking about performing miracles.

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Let me give you the text in question here. The text in question is from the gospel of John, chapter 14, and here's what it says starting at verse 12.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the

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Father. Now note, it doesn't say greater signs.

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It says greater works. In fact, if you want a good cross -reference on this in the gospel of John, chapter 20, starting at verse 30, it says this, now

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Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these, these what?

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These signs are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing, you might have life in his name.

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And I would note this, the Greek word semeion is not a synonym for ergon.

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Semeion is the Greek word for signs. Ergon is the Greek word for work. So note,

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Jesus says, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do.

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Jesus isn't saying you're going to perform greater signs. It's absolutely false. He says you will perform greater works.

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And here's where, if you just take a look at what's going on, you'll see exactly what

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Jesus meant. Jesus' earthly ministry lasted how long? Three years, right?

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At the end of his ministry, at the time of his death, his burial, his resurrection, at that time, how many believers were there?

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A hundred, 120 -ish, right? Not that many.

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So Jesus, his work on earth, as far as ministry work goes, I mean, it was good, but it wasn't like quantitatively out there, right?

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When the apostle Paul was converted to Christianity and began going on his missionary journeys and planting churches, at the end of his life, how many people were now

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Christians as a result of his ministry? A larger, greater number than Jesus, right?

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How about Peter? Same thing. How many years, decades, did Paul labor as a

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Christian? Far more years than Christ did. Same with Peter. And both of these men laid down their lives, and you'll note that they, their works were absolutely way greater than Jesus' works were.

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And as apostles of Jesus Christ, those who were specifically sent as emissaries of Christ directly, who can do business in his name and give commands in his name, which ordinary apostles could not do, was the, did the apostle

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Paul perform greater signs than Jesus? No.

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Did Peter perform greater signs than Jesus?

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No. They performed a handful of signs, and they're recorded for us in the Acts of the Apostles.

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But greater signs than Christ did? No. So when Jesus says, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, it is not talking about performing miracles.

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And you'll note that in today's charismatic movements, people are put under a very heavy burden, told that they have to perform miracles.

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They need to yield themselves to the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit can then see their yieldedness and finally begin to perform miracles through them.

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But this is not what the scripture teaches at all. And so you'll note that these people are caught in error's maze.

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So we continue then with our gospel text that Jesus did perform signs and wonders, but he proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom and he performed miracles.

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And as we heard John say, the purpose of Jesus' miracles, these were signs so that you might believe that he is the

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Christ, the son of God. And here's an important bit. Have you ever read the scriptures and go, man, what's wrong with the day

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I'm living in? How come we don't have miracles the way they had miracles in the Bible? Have you ever stopped to think and really investigate this out?

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Miracles are even rare in the scriptures. I want you to think about it.

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Was Noah a miracle worker? How about Abraham? Isaac?

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Jacob? Nope, not at all. How about that guy who had the dreams,

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Joseph? Was he a miracle worker? Nope, not a miracle worker at all. Who was the real first miracle worker in all of scripture?

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Moses. And you'll note that when Moses was being commissioned by God as a prophet, because that's exactly what

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Moses was, Moses, he wasn't really keen on the assignment. Read Exodus 3 and 4.

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And he legitimately asked God, well, what if I go to the children of Israel and say the God of your fathers has sent me?

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And they go, what sign do you do to prove that this is the case? What did

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God do? No problemo, I'm going to give you three signs. And what were they? Changing water into blood.

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That sounds interesting. Changing water into blood, then taking his staff, his shepherd's staff, throwing it on the ground and it becoming a serpent.

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And then he can grab it by the tail and it would become a staff again. And the third sign is he can take his hand, stick it into his cloak, pull it out and it would be leprous, put it back in and it would no longer be leprous.

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And these were the signs that God gave him to validate that he was actually sent by God.

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And after Moses, who were the great miracle workers? Was Joshua a miracle worker?

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No, Joshua wasn't. How about the judges? No, they weren't miracle workers either.

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How about Samuel? No. David? Solomon?

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No, they weren't miracle workers either. The next miracle workers in scripture are Elijah and Elisha, the ones who kind of set up the school of the prophets, whose task was to write the

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Old Testament. That's what they were doing. And God sent miracles with them to validate their prophetic ministry and the project they were working on, which was the writing of the

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Old Testament. And then after Elisha, who were the great miracle workers again? No, I don't know any great miracle workers until Jesus, right?

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And you're going to note this, anybody who says, well, you can do greater works than Jesus. That means you can perform miracles.

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I would like to point something out, and that's this. Who among us can say that after their death, they raised themselves from the grave on the third day after they died?

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Not a single one of them, okay? And I'll be blunt. Doing this is not nearly as impressive as raising yourself from the grave, right?

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When Jesus went into the temple and cleared the money changers out in the Gospel of John early on, the

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Pharisees and the scribes and the people in charge of the temple came up to Jesus and said, what sign, by what authority are you doing these things?

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Because Jesus was acting like he had complete authority to kick people out of the temple. He is

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God, by the way. And that temple was set up in the name of Yahweh, who Jesus is in human flesh.

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And Jesus answered them, tear down this temple, and in three days I will build it again, I will build it again.

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And they said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple, Jesus, and you're going to rebuild it in three days?

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But what does the text say? The temple he was referring to was the temple of his body. And you'll note, in all of Scripture, there is nobody, even who comes close to Jesus in the miracles that he's performed.

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And here's where we've got to pay attention to the error that is running through the church in our time.

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Bill Johnson, the apostle of Bethel Church in Redding, California, here's how he says it nowadays.

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He said, Jesus is God, eternally and never stop being God, but he is also man, completely man.

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In his earthly life, he lived from his humanity to illustrate his dependence on the

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Father in a way that could then be emulated by us. Whoa, wait, what?

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In other words, what he legitimately believes is that Jesus performed all of his miracles as a man fully submitted to the

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Holy Spirit, not by virtue of the fact that he's God in human flesh, which no

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Scripture teaches. And then on top of it, that we're supposed to follow the example of Jesus when it comes to being miracle workers.

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Again, what kind of a head trip does this put on people? Puts a huge head trip on it and crushing guilt when they fail to operate in the miraculous the way

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Jesus did. And then Bill Johnson twists a biblical text. He says, Jesus said, the

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Son of Man can do nothing of himself, illustrating his dependence.

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Wait a second, I know what that text is. And he ripped this out of context and left an important part of the details out.

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This text is found in the Gospel of John, chapter 5. And here's what it says.

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Jesus says in chapter 5, verse 19, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the

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Father doing for whatever the Father does that the Son does likewise. When you put

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Christ's words back in their context, you'll note that he is not saying,

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I can do nothing of myself, which means I can do only my miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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That's not what he was saying. He was saying, I can only do the things I see my Father doing. I do the exact same things as God.

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I don't do things of my own accord or according to my own will. So what

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Bill Johnson has done here has completely twisted this text.

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And unfortunately, there are millions of people, you even know some people, who believe that we are supposed to follow the example of Jesus by performing miracles.

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Now I would note, this doesn't make a lick of sense, because you'll note in the scriptures in the book of Acts, who were the ones who could perform miracles?

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The apostles, right? But what about the grassroots, ordinary, everyday kind of Christian?

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You know, the people who were just hard at work doing what people do, being hard at work. Well there's an account in the book of Acts chapter 9.

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It's a story of Dorcas, and I have to say this up front. I went to school when I was in junior high with a girl whose parents named her

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Dorcas. Don't do this, okay? She was teased horribly for having this name.

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I know it's biblical. If you're going to name her according to Dorcas, name her

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Tabitha, but do not name her Dorcas. Because in English, that's not a good word, a good name to have.

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Just saying. So here's what it says in Acts chapter 9, 36. There was in Joppa a disciple named

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Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity, and in those days she became ill and she died.

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Note, that's normally how it goes. When somebody has an extended illness, then they die.

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And you're going to note, there's no mention here that the other godly Christian women who were working with Tabitha or Dorcas, that they tried to decree and declare and command and control and perform miracles to heal her of her illness.

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Not a lick of that is even mentioned, right? Instead, she became ill, and over the course of time, she died.

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And when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, please come to us without delay.

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So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took with him to the upper room, and all the widows stood beside Peter, weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

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But Peter put them all outside, and he knelt down and he prayed. And turning to the body, he said,

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Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up, and she gave her his hand, and he raised her up, and then calling the saints and the widows, he presented her alive.

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Note, the apostle Peter can operate in the signs of the apostles. And note, he also did not chastise these women, going, why are you bothering me?

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Why aren't you following the example that Jesus gave you to follow? Why didn't you raise her from the dead?

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You know why? Because they couldn't. They were not given those signs.

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They didn't have that authority, and it is a false doctrine to say that because Jesus performed miracles, we can perform them too.

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In fact, saying that is complete idolatry and a twisting of God's word that binds people's consciences and ruins their faith, because at the end of the day, they're going to have to come to grips with this horrible, brutal reality.

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They can't perform miracles. Despite all their delusional attempts to do so, they're not able to operate in them.

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And then when they come to the end of that line, and they look back in these churches, and they say, you know what?

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They weren't really performing miracles there either. This whole thing is a scam. Christianity is false.

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There are a whole lot, not a small amount, a whole lot of people who are ex -former

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Christians, because when this bad theology runs its course, you say

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Christianity is a complete scam. It's not real. It's just a bunch of delusional people all playing make -believe when it comes to signs and wonders and miracles.

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That's where it leads, and here's what's worse. If the person is suffering from a chronic illness, they have the crushing weight of feeling guilty because somehow their lack of faith or their sinfulness has kept them from being able to operate in the signs that they were supposed to engage in.

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And so you'll note this idolatry ruins people. It ruins their faith and sends them out of Christianity altogether.

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And if you know anybody who believes these things, have mercy on them and walk them through these texts and show them how they have been deceived.

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And I would note this. Not only did Peter not chastise those women when they called him to raise

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Dorcas from the dead and to restore her, not only did he not chastise them for not following Jesus' model of performing signs and wonders, it is that same apostle

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Peter who has given us a very clear text telling us what we as Christians are to do, how we are to model

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Christ. In fact, here's what it says in 1 Peter 2. Listen carefully.

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Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and to the gentle, but also to the unjust.

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Now, most of us have had to work out in the workforce to one degree or another.

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Maybe you started off as a teenager working in a fast food restaurant or maybe working in the service industry, finding a way to make a living in a restaurant or whatever, and then you were able to graduate from college and get a job in your field of study or whatever.

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But here's the thing. Once you go to work in the workforce, you're going to show up and you're not going to be the boss, you're going to have a boss.

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And I would note this as somebody who's been in the workforce, I've had some pretty bad bosses, some really goofy bosses who've made some really boneheaded decisions.

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I have a hard time watching The Office, even though it's in reruns. The reason why is it sends me into PTSD.

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I trigger and I feel like, ugh, I don't want to remember that because I swear I worked for Michael Scott.

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I worked for Dunder Mifflin, even if it was in a different industry, right? And what do you do when you have an unjust, stupid boss who's overbearing, who mistreats people, mistreats you, and you're just there to do your job to make a living?

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What do you do? Well, Peter says this, it is a gracious thing when you are mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

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Wait, I thought I was supposed to have my best life now. Good luck on that, by the way.

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For what credit is it if when you sin and you are beaten for it, then you endure?

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But if when you do good and you suffer for it and you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

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For to this you have been called, and listen to what he says here, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

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When Jesus was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and by his wounds you have been healed.

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For you were like sheep straying, but now you have returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls.

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Putting it this way, the sin we're dealing with today head on, false doctrine is a form of breaking the first commandment and also the second.

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It is a form of idolatry where you are worshiping a false god, a god of your own making, but secondly, by twisting

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God's word, by tinkering with it and evacuating of its true meaning, you are taking

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God's name in vain and you are making his word void.

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These are grievous sins against God and against other human beings because people then who trust in your lying words and in your twisted words of scripture then are in danger of losing not only their lives but their eternal souls.

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And so you'll note that God has had mercy on us and sent Jesus Christ who suffered and bled in our place so that we can be forgiven of all of our breakings of God's commandment including the first and the second commandment.

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And that being the case, he also in the gospel, which is the good news, he has forgiven us of our sins, reconciled us to God, and as Peter says, has given us a clear example for us to follow.

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The example that we are to follow in the life of Christ is not the life of a miracle worker, but as those who suffer for doing good.

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That is what we are to do. That is the model of Christ that we are to follow.

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We are not to emulate Jesus in his miracle working. Good luck on that, by the way, if you try.

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It doesn't matter how yielded, how obedient, how much you try, you will never be a miracle worker like Christ.

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But I would say this, the one thing I can say for sure is that every ordinary grassroots

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Christian knows exactly what it's like to suffer when you've done good.

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And you'll note that this is a gracious thing in the eyes of God and Christ has left this example for us to follow.

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So brothers and sisters, it's a weird thing to do. On the occasion of this text from Matthew 4, we must come to grips with the fact that Jesus did perform miracles.

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This is absolutely true, and he performed them to prove that he was none other than God in human flesh, and no person today in the charismatic movement, the

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NAR, or any evangelical church even remotely comes close to Christ. And anyone who's claiming that they are, they're putting on a magic show not performing miracles.

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Right? They're deceiving you. And anyone who says that we have to follow the example of Jesus by performing miracles is also twisting

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God's word and lying. Let us repent of all ways in which we have broken the first and second commandment, trust that Christ has bled and died for our sins as the scripture says, and he has proved that we are forgiven by raising himself from the dead on the third day after he was crucified, and let us then take the advice of the apostle

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Peter to emulate Christ, to follow his example by suffering for doing good, just as Christ did.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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

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