The Holy Spirit and the Word

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. John, the 14th chapter.

00:39

Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

00:48

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the

00:53

Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the

00:59

Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

01:07

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

01:13

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you,

01:18

I am going away, and I will come to you. If you love me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the

01:23

Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.

01:31

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the

01:39

Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

01:45

This is the Gospel of the Lord, in the name of Jesus. Here again the words of the second stanza of the hymn we just sang.

01:54

Come holy light, guide divine. No, we're actually talking about the

01:59

Holy Spirit. Cause the word of God, of life to shine, teach us to know our hearts are right, and call him

02:06

Father with delight. From every error keep us free, let none but Christ our master be, that we in living faith abide in him, our

02:16

Lord, with all our might confide. Alleluia, alleluia. So you'll note that over the past few sermons

02:24

I've been debunking, if you would, kind of de -goofifying people's understanding of the work of the

02:30

Holy Spirit. There's a lot of really bad ideas out there about what the Holy Spirit has come to do.

02:37

But as we've sober -mindedly worked our way through these biblical texts, we can see that as Christ said in last week's

02:43

Gospel, the Holy Spirit is truly our helper. And he helps us, and he bears witness to Christ, he glorifies

02:51

Christ. And then earlier in the Easter season, we noted that the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of our sin and our unbelief.

02:59

All of these are very vital, important parts of the Christian faith. And today for Pentecost, we're not going to focus on Acts chapter 2, instead we're going to focus on our

03:10

Gospel text and the words of Christ. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my

03:17

Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Now, we English speakers, especially also because we as sinners also have this thing called the opinio legis that kind of works upon us.

03:29

When we hear the word of God, we have a default bias to hear the law.

03:35

It's a fascinating thing. You ever had a car where the alignment was off and it kind of pulled to one side or another?

03:43

Each and every one of us after the fall into sin, when it comes to hearing God's word, we have this thing that happens.

03:49

And that is that we oftentimes steer towards the law. If you take the hands off the wheels of your doctrine and your theology, you'll end up in the curb of self -righteousness.

03:59

By the way, it takes two hands to get you all the way into the other ditch, the ditch of antinomianism, but that's a whole other story.

04:05

So you're going to note here, Christ says, if you love me, you will keep my word. We hear the word keep and we go, well, that means obey.

04:12

No, it don't. It do not mean that. In fact, the Greek word tereo here is a word that means to guard, to hold it sacred, to kind of keep it at the front of your eye.

04:25

And you'll note this then keeps Christians from engaging in rank hypocrisy because you'll note the world accuses

04:31

Christians of hypocrisy all the time. You Christians, you constantly are telling the world they can't do this, they can't do that.

04:40

But then you guys turn right around and you do the same thing that you say that God condemns. You hypocrites.

04:46

Right? And you'll note that if the word here was obey, we truly would be hypocrites.

04:54

But the word is keep. And so we sit there and go, yep, Christians, they acknowledge that God's law is holy and that it forbids us from doing things.

05:02

And yes, people who are Christians actually break these commandments and they do some really stupid boneheaded things.

05:10

Yep, this is exactly what happens, but that doesn't make us hypocrites because we're not saying that you're saved by keeping the law.

05:19

If we said that, we would be lying to you and we would be hypocritical. And I would note all the self -righteous who think that they're saving themselves by the law, they are indeed hypocrites.

05:28

They practice, but they do not preach. They lay heavy burdens on people and they are not saved.

05:33

So those people would be hypocrites. But Christ here says, if you love me, you will keep, you will guard my words, you will hold it sacred, you'll gladly hear and learn it.

05:43

God's word will be in your ears, it'll be in front of your eyes, it'll be the thing you're thinking on.

05:48

You'll desire to learn it greater and more and deeper with better precision and understanding.

05:55

These are signs that you already love Christ, right? And those who claim that they are

06:01

Christians and hate God's word, Jesus says, whoever does not love me does not keep or guard my words.

06:08

In our adult catechism class this week, one of them, we played a video of an ELCA pastrix who in a pulpit, wearing a stole, went on a rant and an absolute tear.

06:20

And what was she attacking? The word of God. Can't trust it, don't need to follow it, most of it you can just ignore.

06:28

And that apostle Paul, to him, and oh, she just went on and on and on.

06:34

And I'm sitting here going, this is a perfect example of what Christ is saying. She doesn't keep

06:40

God's words or Christ's words. She doesn't hold them sacred. She attacks them, but of course, from after burning the whole book down, she pulls out the little bits and pieces that she wants to keep, right?

06:53

Because love is all that really matters, is the way they talk. But Christ tells us definitively, whoever does not love me does not keep, does not hold sacred, does not guard my words.

07:05

The words that you hear from me, Christ says, are not mine, but they are the Father's who sent me.

07:11

And then he says this, these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. Note the context.

07:16

But the helper, there it is again, the Holy Spirit is the helper. When the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the

07:22

Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you, important words.

07:30

So you'll note the Holy Spirit, one of the primary things that the Holy Spirit was sent to do was to remind the apostles of all the things that Jesus said and did.

07:41

And if that's the case, then we can have confidence that what we are reading in the Gospels and in the book of Acts and in the epistles regarding the works and the teachings of Christ are accurate and true.

07:54

And not only that, but Christ says that his words were not even his own. Those were the words given to him by the

07:59

Father. Note, starting to get some Trinitarian theology in here. So we can have confidence that what we have in the holy, sacred scriptures is the actual word of God, and it's inerrant, it's infallible, it's authoritative, and we need to be about the business of hearing it, of understanding it.

08:21

And so, I thought I would follow the same pattern that I used last week, did a little bit of an excursus into the book of Acts.

08:28

One of the things I like about the one -year lectionary is it gives me the ability to start to pull in other texts and kind of flesh the ideas out using greater pieces of scripture.

08:37

It's fascinating how they all hinge together. But we'll take a look back at the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 2, we read after Peter gave his great sermon on the day of Pentecost, which by the way was the real miracle.

08:52

That sermon that led to the conversion of how many thousands of people that were baptized that day.

08:58

So all of these newly baptized Christians, the text says in Acts chapter 2 verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.

09:08

And what were the apostles teaching? Well, we find it in the gospels. So they were devoting themselves to the words of Christ, the doctrines of Jesus, the words that Jesus had been given by the

09:22

Father. You start to see how the circle closes. And they were, so they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

09:32

And then fast -forwarding into the text, I thought this would be a fun place to go. We're going to drop ourselves into Acts chapter 13 and we're going to listen in as the apostle

09:42

Paul is sharing the gospel with a group of Jews in a synagogue in a place called

09:49

Antioch in Pisidia. And I want you to focus in on where the

09:54

Holy Spirit is working. And I'm going to note something here. I'm going to point this out to all of our Pentecostal friends, that in this text, all the people who come to faith in Jesus Christ, not a single one of them saw a single miracle.

10:09

Not in Antioch, Pisidia. There was nobody who had their legs lengthened. Nobody is speaking in tongues.

10:16

Paul did not raise anybody from the dead in Antioch, Pisidia. There were no lepers cleansed and there were no paralytics healed.

10:26

Just kind of think this out for a second. So is the Holy Spirit working at all? This sounds like, well, one of those dead

10:33

Lutheran churches. I speak tongue -in -cheek. Acts chapter 13, verse 13.

10:42

It says, now Paul and his companions, they set sail from Paphos. They came to Perga and Pamphylia.

10:47

And you'll note the Holy Spirit had set aside Paul and Barnabas for the purpose of going and evangelizing.

10:52

And this is the first missionary journey. John, that's John Mark, left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch and Pisidia.

11:01

And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and they sat down. And note what it says next.

11:07

After the reading from the law and the prophets. Ah, now we're going to see clearly in passages in this, in the book of Acts, that when the word of God is preached,

11:23

God, the Holy Spirit is active. In fact, if you were to kind of think of it this way, when you look at the account of Stephen, the very first martyr of Christianity, as he is on trial and asked the question regarding the false charges brought against him, are these things so?

11:41

The chief priest asked Stephen. Stephen didn't answer the question, by the way. He just went on a biblical tirade, a wonderful lecture, giving an overall summary of what?

11:53

Summary of the scriptures. And it's beautifully done. It goes on and on and on. You can see the guys, you know, there in the council going, what's the point he's trying to make?

12:01

And the point comes like in the last chapter, the last paragraph, where basically Stephen says, you, just like your fathers, have resisted the work of the

12:10

Holy Spirit and you're doing so even now, and you're even guilty of murdering Jesus, right? And you sit there and go, wait a second.

12:17

Stephen just said in that text that the patriarchs of old, you know, not the patriarchs, but the descendants of the patriarchs, the people who were the forebearers of the chief priests and people putting on the triad, that they always resist the

12:32

Holy Spirit. Wasn't the Holy Spirit sent at Pentecost? The answer is yes.

12:39

Well, where was the Holy Spirit working before he indwelled believers? In the word.

12:47

The word is living and active and sharper than a double -edged sword. Why is it living and active?

12:53

Because every word of scripture is God -breathed. Ah, the

12:59

Spirit has breathed on the scriptures. And so wherever the scriptures are preached, God, the

13:04

Holy Spirit, is active. Active convicting people of sin, condemning them, and assuring people of forgiveness that God offers in Christ.

13:13

You'll note this is important stuff. So we're not looking for the goofy, we're not looking for the spooky, we're looking for the thing that Christ said the

13:21

Spirit would do, right? And so, listen then, on the Sabbath they went into the synagogue, they sat down, and after the reading from the

13:28

Law and the Prophets, which means the Holy Spirit was there through the preaching of the word, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying,

13:35

Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. So Paul stood up and motioned with his hands.

13:42

Now I do not know what the motion was that he did. I don't know if he went Y -M -C -A,

13:48

I don't know if he did that or something else, right? But he motioned with his hands, we're not told what the motion is, and then he says this,

13:55

Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers, made the peoples great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it.

14:07

And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness, and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

14:15

All this took about 450 years. After that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

14:21

What is Paul doing right now? Well, this is like the Cliff Notes version of the

14:27

Old Testament, and it's highly succinct and super paraphrased. And by the way, if you don't know what Cliff Notes was, or I don't even know if they still make them,

14:35

Cliff Notes were the things that made it possible for you to cheat on book reports back in the 1980s. I'm just saying, okay?

14:42

You had the choice of reading a five to six hundred page tome that was boring as all get out, or you can read the

14:48

Cliff Notes and you'd know all about what the story was and then you can make an informed decision about what to say on your book report and pray, pray, pray that the teacher didn't figure out that you didn't read the book.

15:00

It's just, sorry, I'm doing therapy right now by myself. I may or may not have ever done something like that.

15:08

All that being said, Paul here is giving a summary, a Cliff Notes look at the

15:13

Old Testament and reminding them of their history. Now among them, we're going to learn that among those in the synagogue that day in Antioch, Prasidia, were also people who were converts to Judaism.

15:26

They were converting. They were devout in their belief in Yahweh, but hadn't quite yet been circumcised.

15:33

That's a whole group of Gentiles, and so this is a packed house, if you would. So Paul continues, all of this took about 450 years.

15:41

After that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet, and then they asked for a king and God gave them

15:46

Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years, and when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified,

15:55

I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all of my will.

16:02

Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. As he promised before his coming,

16:08

John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, and as John was finishing his course, he said, what do you suppose that I am?

16:17

I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet

16:22

I am not worthy to untie. And brothers, the sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear

16:28

God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

16:34

For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every

16:43

Sabbath, they fulfilled them by condemning him. Now let's slow down and walk back through verse 27.

16:52

Paul here is invoking the people directly responsible for murdering

16:57

Christ. Now again, I would reiterate, we're all responsible for the murder of Christ. But note the problem he presents here.

17:05

He says, for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every

17:16

Sabbath, they fulfilled them by condemning him. This gets at a problem that exists to this day.

17:22

Do you know that some people, they attend church just because they feel like it's an important thing to do, but they don't care a whit about what's really said?

17:32

That's true. And that existed all the way back at the time of Christ. There were people who were attending the synagogue and they would go

17:40

Saturday after Saturday to the synagogue and they would hear the word and well, like a

17:46

BB ricocheting off of a brick wall and none of it ever sunk in. And oddly enough,

17:53

Paul here is saying that that phenomena had taken place among the rulers, the religious rulers of Christ's time.

18:03

Think it out. It makes a lot of sense when you start to put it together. Those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, had they applied themselves to the scriptures to rightly understand them, they would have go, oh,

18:19

Jesus is the Messiah. And they would have been on board. And you'll note that some did. You think of Nicodemus, Lord, we know that you have come from God because nobody can do these great works that you are doing unless God had sent him.

18:31

Nicodemus knew it. And so there was some Jews who figured it out, but those who figured it out,

18:36

I would note probably the common theme there is that those ones knew their Bible. But I would note then in our day, just because somebody is a religious leader, high and mighty in their office within the visible church, doesn't necessarily guarantee that they are somebody who has devoted themselves to a proper understanding of the word.

18:56

And this is not only impacting leaders, but also lay people. Some lay people, you know why they come to church?

19:02

Because it's a social function. They look forward to the doughnuts after church and the coffee and the conversation and being part of the community.

19:10

Other people come because they want to network with people so they can get their next client for their business, right?

19:19

And some people come because if they don't come, people in their family will give them a hard time and it's just the path of least resistance to go to church.

19:29

Do they want to be there? No. What are they doing during the sermon? Working on their grocery list, checking social media, checking out, falling asleep, all these kinds of things, right?

19:39

And you'll note this is a great danger that each and every one of us are tempted by. Do I really need to go to church?

19:47

Those folks at Kongsvinger, they don't even sing on key at times, right? Did I say that out loud?

19:55

Sorry, but you get the idea. What do I really need? It's just so boring and all that pastor ever does is drone on and on and on and on about the

20:04

Bible. Note, you are in grave danger if this is your mindset.

20:13

The scripture is clear. You shall remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean,

20:18

Herr Luther says, that we should fear and love God so we do not despise preaching in his word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

20:28

And when we do not do these things, you'll note we are in grave, grave danger.

20:33

Just going through the motions and ignoring the word is exactly what led to the crucifixion of Christ.

20:41

That's what Paul is saying. Again, hear the words. Those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every

20:53

Sabbath, they fulfilled them by condemning him. Ouch.

21:00

And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, which shows you there's something really wrong.

21:08

Don't we condemn guilty people to death, not innocent people, right?

21:14

Though they found no guilt in him worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

21:24

But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

21:34

And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the father, this he has fulfilled to their children by raising

21:41

Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm. You are my son. Today I have begotten you.

21:47

And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption he has spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessing of David.

21:54

Therefore he says, in another psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption.

22:00

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, he fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.

22:08

But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Now you'll note, I'll make the point again, just to kind of twist the knife, this sounds just like a boring

22:19

Lutheran service. Nobody's speaking in tongues. There are no signs and wonders.

22:25

And all Paul is doing is droning on about Jesus, connecting him all the way to the people of the

22:31

Old Testament, right? Is the Holy Spirit not present here in Antioch, Pisidia?

22:38

Has the Holy Spirit just flown over? Have we gone into dead letterism here?

22:45

Of course not. Christ makes it clear in our gospel text, if you love me, you will keep, you will guard my words.

22:53

And note how Paul has not only guarded the words of Christ, held them sacred. You'll note he references

22:58

John the Baptist. It's clear from this reference and others in this that the

23:04

Apostle Paul has made himself a very familiar with the gospel accounts of the

23:10

Apostles. He's talking about John the Baptist. He'll be talking about some other things here that make it clear that he's steeped in the teaching of the

23:19

Apostles who were before him. And he knows full well the story of Christ and all of its connections.

23:24

And so here he then is weaving into this sermon, Old Testament text, to this

23:30

Jewish audience to let them know that what the scripture said would happen has happened. What God has promised through our fathers has taken place.

23:38

And we're here to proclaim good news to you. And what is the good news?

23:44

Here's the kicker. So let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man,

23:50

Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

24:01

That is good news. And you're going to note here, this is one of the fascinating things about scripture because it is living and active.

24:07

Here Paul, preaching in Antioch, Pisidia, says words that fly off the page and come straight into our ears.

24:15

And we then recognize we are hearing the same promises proclaimed to us.

24:22

So let it be known to you, you Norwegians and others here at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church in Oslo, Minnesota, don't you know, that to you brothers, through this man,

24:32

Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to y 'all. And by him, every one of you who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

24:43

And that everyone and everything shows not only the universality of Christ's death on the cross, but the universality of the fact that every one of your sins have been atoned for.

24:56

Oftentimes, we as sinners, we sit there and think, you know, when I look back across just all the wicked, terrible things that I've done, there's some things that I just sit there and scratch my head and wonder, can

25:07

Jesus forgive me of that? The answer is absolutely, because that's part of the everything.

25:15

Right? From your most despicable sin that you are most ashamed of, to all the sins that you just dismiss is not a big deal.

25:25

I want you to think about that for a second. How many of us have had conversations with people where somebody has said, you know,

25:32

I feel really guilty because I did this thing or that thing. And somebody chimes up and goes, well, it's not a big deal. Everybody does that.

25:40

Oofta. Sorry, I'm going full Norwegian here. Oofta. No. You cannot think of your small transgressions as small.

25:51

And I kid you not, the lightest of your commandment breaking is capable of sending any of us to hell.

26:00

We must see sin for what it is. So Paul here preaches to us now and assures us that in Christ there is forgiveness of everything that we have done.

26:12

Not just some of it, but the whole kit and caboodle. It's been a while since I've used that phrase, but man, the whole lot of it.

26:19

It's all forgiven by Christ. And this is all good news. And I think CFW Walther might take an issue with the

26:26

Apostle Paul here because Paul doesn't end on the gospel. He ends on the law. But listen to what he does because every one of us,

26:34

I've pointed this out before, every one of us knows that in evangelicalism what should happen next is the Apostle Paul tells the keyboardist to start playing just as I am without a plea and, you know, humming that, you know, kind of strumming that softly in the background.

26:47

And then he says, I want everybody here to close their eyes and bow their head and anyone who wants to ask Jesus into their heart, you go ahead and you raise your hand right now.

26:55

And so people are raising their hands and Paul says, I see that hand, I see that hand. This is not how this works.

27:02

And the reason why it doesn't work is because he's not asking anybody to ask Jesus into his heart. Paul knows full well in Romans chapter one, he says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.

27:18

You'll note that when you read Romans chapter one, verse 18, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

27:27

It uses the word that all the charismatics in Pentecostals like to point to. It uses the word dunamis, okay?

27:35

And if you've ever spent any time in the Pentecostal churches, everyone's blabbering on about dunamis. They'll say, do you know what dunamis means?

27:41

Oh, we get the word dynamite from it. Okay, listen, dunamis does not mean to blow things up.

27:46

I'm sorry, that's just not how this works, you know, and your linguistic understandings are terrible.

27:52

Stop talking like this. But then they'll say, what we need here in church is we need dunamis power.

27:58

We need dunamis power of the Holy Spirit through a rhyme of word, right? They'll talk like this, okay?

28:06

Jeff, you know what I'm talking about, right? But here's the thing,

28:11

Paul says in Romans one, the gospel, the good news of Christ and him crucified for our sins is the dunamis, the power of God unto salvation.

28:24

So is there dunamis power here in Antioch, Pisidia? You betcha.

28:31

You bet your bippy there is. How do I know? Because he's preaching the gospel, and the gospel is the dunamis power of God unto salvation.

28:39

The Holy Spirit is present. But Paul here doesn't leave on that note. Watch what he does next. We have to have words with the apostle

28:45

Paul and go, what were you thinking? He then says to those at the synagogue, beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about, a reference again to the word of God.

28:55

Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I'm doing a work in your days, a work you will not believe even if one tells it to you.

29:05

Zing! Okay, there's the sermon. Is the Holy Spirit working or not?

29:12

Well, let's keep reading. So as they went out, the people begged that these things might be told to them on the next

29:19

Sabbath. Please come back next Saturday. Tell us more. All right, that's a good response, right?

29:25

And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed

29:31

Paul and Barnabas, who as they spoke with them, they urged them to continue in the grace of God.

29:40

So far, so good. But the story then continues. So the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the

29:48

Lord. What did they gather to hear? The word of the Lord, right? The Holy Spirit is living and active, and the word of God is living and active as a result of the work of the

29:58

Holy Spirit. Everyone's gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by the apostle

30:09

Paul, and they were reviling him. Now the irony here is thick.

30:15

Let me explain it to you, okay? Aren't Jews supposed to be familiar with the Ten Commandments?

30:21

I would think that they are. They talk about Torah and being Torah observant.

30:27

Hasn't somebody told them as they were hearing the scriptures Saturday after Saturday that being jealous and coveting is evil and wicked and a breaking of two of the

30:38

Ten Commandments? Hmm? You know, and by the way, jealousy and envy, they're kind of, they go close.

30:46

These are horrible feelings. Absolutely. Have you ever experienced it? It is just like acid on your soul.

30:53

The first time I legitimately felt that feeling of jealousy was when my younger brother on his birthday, which is in January, and mine's in May, my younger brother on his birthday got a

31:06

GI Joe with a Kung Fu grip and an Evel Knievel motorcycle that can jump the Grand Canyon, okay?

31:12

And I, okay, the whole world had come to an end because he had the exact toys that I wanted.

31:20

Thankfully, my parents did not give him a Millennium Falcon. That would have been just, I would have murdered him, okay?

31:27

Just saying. But you get the idea here. So when you see that kid with the stink eye going on at a birthday party because he's so jealous about what the kid whose birthday it is, that's what

31:40

I felt. You all probably know what I'm talking about, right? But what does the scripture say?

31:48

You shall not covet. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

31:55

You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's manservant or maidservant or his

32:02

GI Joe with a Kung Fu grip or an Evel Knievel motorcycle that can jump the

32:08

Grand Canyon. You shall not covet these things. Coveting takes place in the heart. So you're gonna note here, these people who are hearing the word of God, some of them are inattentive to it.

32:20

And as a result of it, when sin rises up, they don't sit there and go, oh,

32:25

I need to repent. Watch what happens next. So they began to contradict

32:34

Paul. They began to revile him. Scripture in the Old Testament forbids the reviling of elders.

32:41

And Paul and Barnabas, they spoke out boldly saying, well, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you thrust it aside and you've judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we're gonna turn to the

32:55

Gentiles. You'll note that Paul doesn't sit there and go, oh, we're sorry.

33:02

We're gonna see if we can make this a little bit more seeker sensitive for you and things like this, right? Nope. He basically says, listen, the word of God has come to you.

33:10

And indeed, what Paul is saying is correct. He's an apostle of Jesus Christ. He speaks with the authority of Jesus.

33:16

And it was the word of God that he preached to them in its fullness, both law and gospel. And since they have thrust aside the word of God, can we say that they love

33:27

Jesus or not? They don't. And should they have recognized that what was spoken was true?

33:35

Yes, they should have. They had no excuse. They were hearing the word of God every Sabbath. So Paul says, we're gonna turn to the

33:43

Gentiles. He says, for as the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

33:51

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and they were glorifying, listen to what the text says.

33:57

They were glorifying the word of the Lord. Doesn't say they were glorifying the

34:04

Holy Spirit. They were glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

34:12

And the word of the Lord then was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and they stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.

34:26

But Paul, demonstrating that he knows full well the teachings of Christ, he shook off the dust from his feet against them and went on to Iconium.

34:37

Where did he learn to do that, by the way? From the teachings of Christ. Christ said to do such things.

34:44

So who in this text loves the Lord? Who in this text hates the Lord? Who is holding

34:52

God's word? Who is rejecting it? You can start to see where the fault line is.

35:00

And in this context, I would also bring up the folks in Berea because I think this is a good example. Paul had the same treatment that he received in Antioch, Pisidia as the treatment that he received in Thessalonica.

35:10

The people, the Jews in Thessalonica, really wanted to murder Paul and he had to slink away by night.

35:16

In fact, it says this in Acts 17 verse 10, the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.

35:22

And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. And now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

35:30

They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so, but listen to what follows next.

35:39

Many of them therefore believed. Think this out with me.

35:45

The synagogue in Berea, scripture commends them as having a more noble character. What made their character more noble?

35:53

They wanted to make sure they were not deceived. They were seeking a right understanding of God's word.

35:59

And when the apostle Paul came to them, they heard everything that he had to say with eagerness and they said, now you need to wait,

36:06

Paul. We're going to put you in timeout and we are going to open up the texts of scripture and we're going to test to see if what you are saying is true.

36:18

And if it's not, hit the road. Right? Could you imagine some churches today if people would just have this attitude?

36:26

Well, Kenneth Copeland, you know, we find your word of the

36:33

Lord to be interesting and your claim to having power over COVID -19 to be, well, something we've never heard before.

36:40

But what we're going to do is we're going to take your message, Ken Copeland and Benny Hinn and Digger Hernandez and Vlad Savchuk and Isaiah Saladbar, we're going to take your words and we're going to test them according to scripture.

36:54

Could you imagine how many fewer false teachers it would be in the church if people just did this?

37:03

And you're going to note, Paul didn't sit there and get mad at them and go, I'm the apostle Paul, touch not

37:09

God's anointed. Right? He didn't do anything of the sort. What did he do?

37:15

Let them test. Because he knew that once they dug into the biblical texts to fact check the good news that he was preaching, that they would see it written all over the prophets.

37:30

And therefore the text says, as a result of this, many of them believed. So brothers and sisters, this

37:39

Pentecost, it may have sounded like I've not really preached about the Holy Spirit because you'll note, none of you are speaking in tongues.

37:48

We're not going to be opening up the mic for prophecy afterwards, all right? And this might just seem like another one of those dead

37:56

Lutheran confessional services where the Holy Spirit said, nope, I'm out of here. But is the

38:04

Holy Spirit working here today or not? How do you know?

38:11

Because the word was preached, Christ was proclaimed. His death on the cross placarded as the solution to all of your sins.

38:20

In fact, I cannot think of a better way of ending a Pentecost sermon than with the words of Joel, the prophet

38:29

Joel, in the mouth of the apostle Peter. Peter, on that great day of Pentecost, the great miracle that took place was the sermon that he preached that led through the

38:40

Holy Spirit to then convert thousands on that day. In this kicker, as part of his sermon, he quotes the prophet

38:49

Joel and says that, I will show wonders in the heavens above,

38:55

Yahweh says, signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the

39:04

Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. A little bit of a note.

39:11

Everybody hearing the apostle Peter on that Pentecost Sunday would have remembered that just 50 days prior, there was three hours of darkness in the middle of the day.

39:27

Josh and I, we traveled all the way to Indiana to go see the eclipse. You know how long it lasted?

39:33

Like four and a half minutes. And it was amazing. I mean, absolutely, if you've never seen a total eclipse, it's worth seeing.

39:42

But it lasted four and a half minutes. How long did the darkness last while Christ was on the cross on that Good Friday?

39:52

Three hours. Three hours is long enough for everybody to have anxiety thinking that it's the end of the world.

40:01

Three hours of darkness is something that people would be remembering just 50 days later.

40:07

Oh yeah, I'm so glad that stopped. I hope that never happens again. We thought for sure we were doomed.

40:14

But you'll note that in the scriptures, the sun going dark and the moon showing like blood is a sign of God's judgment.

40:22

It's one of the big judgments of the last day. It's done in darkness. It's done with the sun no longer shining, the stars disappearing.

40:31

All of that being said, Christ's death on the cross, those three hours that there were darkness was a sign of judgment.

40:37

But it not your judgment, but Christ being judged in your place. The whole sins of the world being judged and punished in Christ for you.

40:48

Is it any wonder then that Joel then continues, and it shall come to pass, and it has, just as he prophesied, it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the

41:01

Lord shall be saved, and that includes you, yes, even you.

41:10

So brothers and sisters, I am so thankful for the gift of the Holy Spirit and the

41:17

Word of God that he enlivens, that he gives light to, and that he uses his own power to convict us of our sins and to assure us that in Jesus there is forgiveness for all of our sins.

41:33

Oh indeed, come Holy Spirit, God and Lord, in the name of Jesus, amen.

41:43

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

41:56

Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

42:04

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

42:10

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

42:17

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