The Good Shepherd vs The Wolves

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

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

00:18

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

00:25

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

00:30

John, chapter 10, verses 22 through 30. At that time, the

00:36

Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.

00:45

So the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

00:52

Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my

00:58

Father's name, they bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice.

01:06

I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

01:15

My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the

01:21

Father's hand. I and the Father are one. In the name of Jesus. So we've all heard the

01:28

Disney song, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Right? Today is

01:34

Good Shepherd Sunday. This is one of the most amazing images in Scripture. The image that Christ is our shepherd.

01:43

We are His beloved sheep. Now, if you think this is an amazing thing, and makes it so that you should feel good about yourself, keep in mind that sheep are pretty dumb animals.

01:55

They are completely oblivious to the fact that they have enemies. And if it weren't for shepherds, they would surely be toast.

02:04

They have no natural defenses whatsoever, and have a tendency to wander off, and even worse, bite the hand that guides them.

02:15

Fascinating thing about them. But our text today is going to be taken from our first reading.

02:21

The book of Acts, chapter 20, verses 17 through 35. And in here, we have the apostle

02:28

Paul talking to a group of shepherds. Pastors, that's who he is talking to.

02:34

So we return now to our first reading. It says this, From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

02:42

The elders would be the pastors. And keep in mind, Paul is the guy who did all the missionary work in Ephesus.

02:48

We read about his trip there in the book of Acts, and how he stayed there for a very, very long time.

02:56

In fact, his missionary work included having kind of a standing gig, if you would, in a place called the

03:04

Hall of Tyrannus. And in the marketplaces, he worked as a tent maker to pay for his missionary work.

03:11

And everywhere he went, he would tell people about Jesus. Tell them about the fact that he is the

03:17

Messiah promised long ago from God. Tell them about the forgiveness of sins. Tell them about the fact that he is raised again from the grave for their justification.

03:27

And that he himself was an eyewitness to Jesus' resurrection. And the gospel took root in the city of Ephesus.

03:35

And Ephesus became one of the early, and I mean early, strongholds of Christianity.

03:41

Many congregations were there. Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, though, and he doesn't know if he's going to live.

03:49

He knows that trouble awaits him when he gets to Jerusalem. And so, you can kind of think about what it is that he's about to say to these pastors as, in a sense, kind of like a last will and testament.

04:01

He thinks he may be dying. He may never see them again. He's pretty confident of that. And so, keep that in mind.

04:07

We hold the words of somebody who is a dying person to be very precious and very important. If somebody ever makes you promise something while they're dying, that promise oftentimes sticks with you, and you feel that you have a very important need to fulfill that promise.

04:23

So, think of these words in that way. So, when they came to him, the pastors came to Paul, he said to them,

04:30

You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the

04:37

Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plot of the

04:42

Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in our

04:57

Lord Jesus Christ. An important word there, by the way, is the word shrink. And being a pastor,

05:04

I understand the temptations that pastors face. We follow a lectionary here, which, by the way, is a good thing for you.

05:12

Because oftentimes, and I think Gloria can even testify, as we're doing our worship committee work, planning out the worship for the month ahead, sometimes we'll get to a lectionary reading and I'll go,

05:25

Ooh, that's going to be tough to preach on. And the temptation is to shrink back.

05:30

And this word kind of has us a picture of it. If you would think of it, if you're in an army, an ancient army, you don't have machine guns, you have shield and sword or shield and spear.

05:42

And what happens is that the army is supposed to put up a united line. The guy who shrinks back is the guy who says,

05:52

Okay, I'm going to just do this, and you over here, you can dive. I'm going to stay.

05:57

I'm going to live. The guy who shrinks back acts as a coward and lets his buddies do the work while he does the living.

06:03

They do the dying. He does the living. That's what shrink back means here. So Paul says that he did not shrink back and that he told everybody,

06:14

Jews and Greeks, listen to this, of repentance towards God. This has to deal with our sins.

06:21

Repentance is saying, God, You're right. I'm wrong. You're holy. I'm sinful.

06:27

I'm not measuring up. Have mercy on me and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, which speaks to the gospel.

06:34

And Paul then continues, speaking to this group of shepherds, under shepherds of the great shepherds.

06:40

He says, Now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the

06:45

Holy Spirit testifies to me that in every city imprisonment and afflictions await me. Seriously, I mean, what kind of employer is

06:55

God? Fascinating stuff here. He says,

07:01

But I do not account my life of any value or as precious to myself. If only I may finish the course and the ministry that I receive from the

07:09

Lord Jesus. And this hearkens to Jesus' words, the one who endures to the end will be saved.

07:15

And so he received from the Lord the commission to testify to the gospel of God's grace.

07:21

And he says, Now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

07:28

Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

07:42

And you can note here, even in this address, Paul talks about the plots of the

07:47

Jews, the personal cost to himself for preaching the full counsel of God's word, which is why there's the temptation to shave off the hard edges, to not preach the whole counsel of the word of God, because, well, there's just certain passages of Scripture, certain doctrines that are revealed in the holy writings that, well, we don't want to hear.

08:11

We just don't want to hear it. But Paul says he's innocent of the blood of all. This hearkens back to the prophet

08:18

Ezekiel, where God says to Ezekiel, If you do not call a sinner to repent,

08:24

I will require his blood of you. So Paul says, I testify that I'm innocent of the blood of all, and the reason for this is because he preached the truth in its entirety.

08:36

And then he says this, Pay attention to yourselves, pastors, and all the flock in which the

08:45

Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Notice here, who is it that calls pastors into the office of the holy ministry?

08:52

It's the Holy Spirit himself. He says, take care of the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

09:01

Now that's a whole other sermon, but let me just ask the question, when did God bleed? Answer, on the cross.

09:10

So who does that make Jesus? God. Pretty simple, right?

09:16

Of course, we heard in our gospel text, Jesus said, I and the Father are one. Indeed they are, they are the same God, but they are two different persons, yet the same

09:23

God. That's the mystery of the Trinity. We'll talk about that in more depth when we get to Trinity Sunday, which is just a few weeks away.

09:30

So Paul then says this to these pastors, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you.

09:37

Among whom? Among the pastors. Not sparing the flock, and from your own selves, pastors will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

09:55

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? If you think that there are no wolves running through Christ's church, tearing up Christ's sheep, you are gravely mistaken.

10:06

Paul is not overreacting here. He's not acting in a paranoid way at all.

10:13

What he is saying is absolutely true. And just like in his day today, there are pastors who are speaking twisted things.

10:24

And they're not making disciples of Jesus. They are making disciples after themselves.

10:31

You can always tell, and I mean this, you can always tell who a false pastor and a wolf is.

10:38

They preach themselves. They don't preach Christ. That's the sure sign.

10:45

They preach me. They preach you. They don't preach Christ. You see, under -shepherds of the

10:51

Good Shepherd, Jesus, know whom they work for. And they know in whom there is salvation.

10:57

It's in Christ. He's the one who gets all the glory. The false teachers, I mean literally, the way they behave, and the doctrines they teach, which have never been heard before, oftentimes, all right?

11:10

So they come along, and they've got some new interpretation, some new doctrine.

11:15

And you sit there and think, well, the church has been here for 2 ,000 years. How on earth did the church survive without this man?

11:23

Thankfully, God has finally sent somebody to once and for all help us understand what the

11:29

Bible says, because for 2 ,000 years, we were totally clueless. Right?

11:34

But see, that's what's going on. Oh, and it's piped into your house.

11:42

Just flip the channel to that one station. Oh, there's two now, right? And you hear the guy with the shiny teeth saying, what you really need to do is decree and declare.

11:53

God is for you. He's not against you. You're the head, not the tail. You are super -de -duper important, and all you have to do is speak the right words, and you can create an amazing destiny for yourself.

12:05

God wants you to be healthy. God wants you to be wealthy. God wants you to prosper.

12:10

He's going to take you to the next level, and it's all up to you. Just stretch out with your faith.

12:16

Speak it into existence. And then when you open your Bible, the

12:21

Bible says none of this stuff. What does that make that man?

12:32

But he has a large church. Multi -million dollar ministry. He's a wolf, plain and simple.

12:43

He's speaking twisted things. He's drawing away disciples after himself.

12:51

And Jesus in our Gospel text makes it clear that these men are not even believers. Remember Jesus' words.

13:00

You do not believe me because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

13:10

These men are not even believers. Now Paul had some experience dealing with wolves.

13:18

We'll talk about two groups that are found in your Bible. The first group are the Judaizers.

13:24

We'll talk about them a little bit more next week. The Judaizers in Acts chapter 15, the circumcision group, they believed that you were not saved by grace through faith alone.

13:38

They believed that you were saved by grace and then by keeping the

13:44

Mosaic law, observing Torah. And that includes, if you're a man, a little surgical procedure that may cause you to be sore for a few days called circumcision.

13:57

You can imagine the impact that would have on evangelism, right? And it says in Acts chapter 15, the

14:05

Judaizers said that unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

14:14

Straight up lie. The Apostle Paul, when you read his epistle to the

14:19

Galatians, has some very strong words for these people. He anathematizes them.

14:25

He says, even if we are an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than one already preached, let him be damned.

14:33

And he would not budge not even an inch of ground, wouldn't compromise one bit of doctrine for the sake of the gospel.

14:43

You see, normally the way conflict works in life goes like this, all right? You've got a husband.

14:49

You've got a wife. Things start to get a little squirrely in the relationship. They start to get short and angry with each other.

14:56

And then they start making mistakes, both of them. They call the pastor up. Pastor, we need to talk to you, or something like that.

15:02

Or they go to a marriage counselor. And the marriage counselor, the pastor, will sit there and say, well, here's your part in which you've done wrong and here's her part in which she's done wrong.

15:10

And you need to figure out a compromise. It's a good way of dealing with things because none of us are actually fully right or fully wrong in our relationships.

15:18

Oftentimes we have a lot of sin that we pack into our relationships. But when it comes to doctrine, you do not make compromises.

15:27

It's the faith once delivered to the saint. The people who are teaching false doctrine, you do not compromise with them.

15:37

They are wolves. You don't sit there and say, all right, well, maybe we're saved by grace through faith alone, but it's okay to talk about it in a way where it sounds like it could also be works too.

15:51

It doesn't work that way, does it? No. And so Paul has some of his harshest words written in the inspiration of the

15:59

Holy Spirit to the Judaizers. But there's not too many Judaizers today. Although the

16:04

Judaizing heresy is making a roaring comeback, in the form of what's called the Hebrew Roots Movement.

16:12

Okay? Oddly enough, it hasn't really taken deep root here, but in Montana, there's a lot of folks that are falling for that heresy again.

16:20

In our day, though, the group that Paul dealt with that is closest to whom we deal with were the so -called super apostles, right?

16:31

You see, you got pastors, teachers, prophets, apostles, but then this other group came along.

16:39

They were called the super apostles. Paul was just an apostle. These guys were super apostles.

16:47

And let me explain how this kind of worked. Is back in the day, they didn't have television. They didn't have theaters quite the same way we had them, and they didn't have novels and books distributed quite the way they would.

16:58

So what would people do for entertainment? Well, back in the day, there were people who were skilled orators.

17:04

They were instructed in oration, and they were so good at what they did that they could hold an audience captive where people would hang on every single word.

17:17

They were generally easy to look at. They dressed well. They had makeup or their hair was done right, right?

17:24

They were not the ugly people, right? And they could command very large quantities of money for their oration.

17:34

And some of them became Christians and then carried their vocation as orators into the churches.

17:46

So, these were people that the apostle Paul had to deal with. And the odd thing is when you read 2

17:52

Corinthians, especially starting in chapter 10, Paul begins to address the church at Corinth who invited these guys in.

18:01

And you know what they said about Paul? Well, he's not one of the super apostles. I mean, look at him.

18:09

I don't know if you know this about Paul, but church history records that he wasn't very good looking. Some church fathers describe him as short, ugly, hook -nosed, and cross -eyed.

18:25

No joke, okay? And he wasn't very skilled at speaking.

18:34

Like, not at all. You don't believe me? One account in the book of Acts tells us that one time

18:40

Paul was preaching and some kid fell asleep during a sermon, fell out of a window, and died.

18:46

Okay? Now, I've never killed any of you while preaching, but I have seen some of you wander off and doze off.

18:54

That's why we have pews. It's to keep you from dying. Okay? Alright?

19:01

So by the standards of the super apostles, the super apostles were shiny pennies.

19:09

Paul was a slug nickel. Alright? That's kind of the comparison. And the church at Corinth, they were listening to these guys, and Paul has to write to kind of correct them.

19:19

And watch what he says about them. 2 Corinthians 11, I'll start at verse 1. He says,

19:25

I wish you would bear with me a little foolishness. Do bear with me. For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

19:37

But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

19:45

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

20:04

And Paul here is not complimenting them. Think about this. Another Jesus? A different spirit?

20:11

A whole other gospel? Is a different Jesus able to save you? No. Different spirit?

20:19

No. Different gospel? No. Not at all. So Paul is gently at this point, but he's going to crank it up in intensity in just a minute here.

20:32

He says, You put up with this readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these so -called super apostles, even if I am unskilled in speaking.

20:40

Hard to look at too. I'm not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

20:48

Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge?

20:55

You see, the super apostles came in and say, And how much did Paul charge you to preach here? He didn't charge you very much.

21:02

Oh, he did it for free. You know why he did it for free? Because it's not worth the same message that we would preach.

21:10

Super apostles would come in and they'd charge a large sum of money. And they would gladly pay it.

21:16

But Paul, he did it free of charge. Right? And so the super apostles convinced the church at Corinth that Paul was somehow super inferior and the reason why he was not charging anything is because his messages weren't worth listening to.

21:32

Isn't that amazing? So he says, Because I preached

21:38

God's gospel to you free of charge, I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you.

21:45

And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone. For the brothers who came from Macedonia, they supplied my needs.

21:53

So I refrain and I will refrain from burdening you in any way as the truth of Christ is in me.

21:59

This boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I don't love you.

22:06

God knows that I love you. And what I am doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms we do.

22:19

And now it comes. Watch what Paul says about these so -called super apostles. For such men are false apostles.

22:29

They are not true. They are deceitful workmen. They are disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

22:37

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Now, when we think of angel here, often times we think like the bright, shiny angel.

22:52

Big wings and stuff like that. I think a better way to think of it is this way. The word enkelos can also mean messenger.

23:00

And that's its normal usage. Satan disguises himself as a messenger of light.

23:07

You see, Satan's a preacher. Was he not preaching in the Garden of Eden? Did God really say,

23:14

Oh, you will not surely die. Because God knows that when you eat of the fruit, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God.

23:22

That was a sermon. So Satan disguises himself as an angel of light so it should not surprise you if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

23:39

And see, that's the thing. False teachers and wolves, they say words like Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, Redeemer.

23:50

But all those words have a different meaning. They preach a different Jesus, a different Spirit, totally different Gospel.

23:57

They preach themselves. They don't teach the historic Christian faith. They twist God's Word. And they stand in Christian pulpits.

24:09

Paul says of them, their end will correspond to their deeds. Translation, they're on their way to hell.

24:19

And they're trying to preach you into the same place they are going, thinking that they are preaching you into heaven.

24:25

But they refuse to preach the truth or to even believe it. Now, if you think

24:32

Paul's just being cranky, that's oftentimes a claim. There's this group of people that call themselves red -letter

24:41

Christians. Red -letter Christians, they ignore Paul. From time to time you'll get a

24:46

Newsweek article or a Time magazine article claiming that Paul is the inventor of Christianity.

24:52

Trying to drive a wedge between Paul and Jesus. Let me read to you what Jesus says about the last times from Matthew 24.

24:59

Some highlights. Verses 4 and 5 in Matthew 24. Jesus says, See to it that no one leads you astray.

25:05

Talking about what it will be like in the last days. For many will come in My name saying,

25:10

I am the Christ. And they will lead many astray. Verse 11,

25:16

Jesus says, Many false prophets will rise and they will lead many astray.

25:22

It doesn't say some. Jesus said many. Verses 22 -27,

25:30

In the last days, if they had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. For the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

25:38

Then if anyone says, look, here's the Christ, or there He is, do not believe it.

25:43

For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

25:55

I want you to think about this for a second. We all pretty much understand that what you see on Christian television ain't right.

26:04

That there's a lot of false teachers and false prophets broadcasting on Christian television.

26:11

You think it's bad now. Let me tell you what Jesus says is coming. Here's how this is going to go down.

26:19

You're going to get an email from a friend some day. And the email's going to say, Did you see what happened on TBN last night?

26:28

And you write back, No, what happened? They have a report out of Uganda. Jesus is in Uganda.

26:36

They've got photographs of Him. And they kind of look like the fuzzy photographs of the Sasquatch, right?

26:45

And there's claims coming that He's gone from Uganda and He's heading out to Madagascar.

26:53

And there's a team of people following Him. And then the report will be, Yes, Jesus appeared to us. And it's going to be all the buzz, right?

27:01

And a whole lot of people who call themselves Christians are going to get caught up in this and they're going to think it's real.

27:11

And then you will point them to this passage and they're saying, You're just being divisive. You're a hater.

27:18

You're not listening to what the Spirit is doing right now. Of course Jesus appeared in Uganda.

27:26

Like I said, you think it's bad now. This is what's coming. But Jesus says, They will arise, and listen to this,

27:34

They will perform great signs and wonders. So when the TBN camera crew finally catches up with Jesus, notice the air quotes, right?

27:44

As He's appearing in Madagascar, you know what's going to happen? This Jesus is going to perform miracles.

27:51

There's going to be somebody bonafide, stone cold dead. They're going to have a death certificate.

27:58

There's going to be a corpse, undeniably a corpse. This guy's going to raise Him from the dead. And everyone's going to say,

28:04

See, it's Jesus. And then when you listen to His message, it doesn't sound anything like what

28:14

Jesus would preach. At all. But Jesus says, They will perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, notice what

28:23

He says, if possible, even the elect. See, I've told you beforehand. So if they say to you,

28:30

Look, He's in the wilderness. You know what Jesus said? Compromise.

28:36

Just, this is all okay. No, He says, don't go out. If they say to you, Look, He's in a room.

28:43

He says, go ahead and entertain the thought. Maybe it's me. Nope. He says, do not believe it.

28:51

For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the

28:57

Son of Man. He's told us all of this ahead of time because the wolves are already in the church.

29:05

And it's going to get so bad that this is what's coming. You think

29:10

Paul was being cranky now? Sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn't he? Let's talk about what true preachers preach, though.

29:21

Paul said he didn't shrink back from preaching the truth. Preach the full counsel of the

29:26

Word of God, repentance towards God, and faith in Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians, Paul lays out the foolishness of what it is that he preached.

29:34

It sounds like total stupidity to the world. Are you ready? Here it is. For the

29:41

Word of the Cross, it's foolishness to those who are perishing.

29:48

But to us who are being saved, the Word of the Cross is the power of God. For it is written,

29:55

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discerning I will thwart. So where is the one who's wise?

30:03

Wise by the world's standards. Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not

30:08

God made foolish the wisdom of the world? And see, the wisdom of the world is all about, well, how to become one of the pretty people.

30:16

How to become one of the people who has the big house, the nice car, the nice, beautiful, new plush carpet, the padded bank account, the island in Bermuda, the bungalow in Barbados.

30:33

Right? And to be healthy, wealthy, wise. This is what the wisdom of the world is all about.

30:40

For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly, foolishness of what we preach to save those who believe.

30:49

Jews demand signs. Yeah, think of miraculous signs. Greeks, they seek wisdom.

30:57

Oh, but we don't preach any of that. We preach Christ crucified for sinners, for your sins and mine.

31:08

And this is a stumbling block to Jews. It's foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both

31:13

Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

31:22

So consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful.

31:29

Not many were of noble birth. Anyone here royalty? Good, me either. God chose what's foolish in the world to shame the wise, like an ugly, scrawny -looking, cock -eyed man with a hook nose who doesn't speak very well like Paul.

31:48

God chose what's weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

32:00

And because of God, you are in Christ Jesus. And that's true of you, brothers and sisters.

32:05

Because of God, you are in Christ Jesus. You've been washed in the blood of the

32:11

Lamb in the waters of your baptism. Your sins have been forgiven. You've been raised to new life in Him.

32:20

You were fed with the very body and blood of Christ here at the Lord's table. You are in Him, and God has placed you in Him.

32:30

And so Christ has become for us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

32:36

In other words, Jesus is everything. Jesus is your righteousness. He's your sanctification.

32:42

He's your redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the

32:48

Lord. And see, that's the scandal of all of this. When you really understand what Christianity teaches, it teaches you can't do a thing to save yourself.

32:58

You are in total slavery and bondage to sin, death, and the devil. You can't bargain your way out.

33:05

There's not enough good works that you can do. You couldn't write a check big enough and give it to an orphanage to buy your way into heaven and out of slavery to sin.

33:13

You are stuck. And the only way out of this is for God to come and save you.

33:21

And for Him to do it all. And we don't like that.

33:28

There's got to be something I can do. No, it's gift. Period. How many zeros do you want behind the check?

33:35

Put the checkbook away. You can't buy it. Because you were purchased with the blood of God. So let the one who boasts, boast in the

33:50

Lord. Paul says, when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

33:58

The reason for this is simple. For I decided to know nothing among you. Nothing.

34:05

Except for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the mark of a real apostle.

34:12

Of a true teacher. Not a wolf. One who truly is a shepherd under the great shepherd,

34:18

Jesus. They preach nothing. And I mean nothing. Except for Christ and Him crucified.

34:25

So Paul ends with these words. Therefore be alert. Be alert. Remembering that for three years

34:33

I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now

34:39

I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace, the Gospel, which is able to build you up, give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

34:48

I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. False teachers, they covet all of those things.

34:54

You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and those who were with me in all things

34:59

I have shown you that by working hard and in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the

35:04

Lord Jesus how He said, it is more blessed to give than receive. And here's our closing thought.

35:10

We've all heard those words. It is more blessed to give than to receive. We trot those words out at Christmastime.

35:17

It is more blessed to give than to receive. And so we like to give at Christmastime. But notice the context in which these words appear.

35:25

It is more blessed to give than to receive. This is now in the context of a pastor preaching

35:31

Christ as opposed to preaching himself. And as a pastor

35:37

I can say it is truly more blessed to give than to receive because if I don't give you Jesus I've got nothing to give you.

35:45

I've got no wisdom, no philosophy, no easy steps to make your life better.

35:51

I do not know the secrets of how to gain wealth or how to stay healthy. My girth should prove that.

36:01

And so it is truly more blessed to give than to receive. And I pray that in our preaching today you heard that you have

36:09

Jesus. Because there is nothing else except for Christ and Him crucified for your sins.

36:15

There is no other message that I could preach to you. Think of me like a 1970's or early 80's one hit wonder band.

36:24

I don't know if you all remember The Knack and their song My Sharona. Nobody ever talks about their other great hits because there weren't any.

36:32

Right? So I've got one message. I've got one thing to give you. Jesus.

36:39

Because He's everything. And He has done it all for you. He is your good shepherd.

36:45

He loves and He cares for you. And He loves and cares for you enough that He has warned you ahead of time to not listen to the wolves who would come in His name who desire to devour you.

36:58

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

37:18

Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

37:26

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

37:32

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

37:40

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