procedure for when someone heals a leper, cited as a messianic symbol
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest,
3 and the priest shall go out of the camp. The priest shall examine him, and behold, if the plague of leprosy is healed in the leper,
4 then the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
5 The priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water.
6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.
7 He shall sprinkle on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird go into the open field.
8 “He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water; and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days.
9 It shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his body in water, then he shall be clean.
10 “On the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without defect, and one ewe lamb a year old without defect, and three tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil.
11 The priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed, and those things, before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
12 “The priest shall take one of the male lambs, and offer him for a trespass offering, with the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh.
13 He shall kill the male lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy.
14 The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.
15 The priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand.
16 The priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh.
17 The priest shall put some of the rest of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering.
18 The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, and the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh.
19 “The priest shall offer the sin offering, and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed because of his uncleanness: and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering;
20 and the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meal offering on the altar. The priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
21 “If he is poor, and can’t afford so much, then he shall take one male lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering, and a log of oil;
22 and two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
23 “On the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, before Yahweh.
24 The priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh.
25 He shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.
26 The priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand;
27 and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before Yahweh.
28 Then the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the trespass offering.
29 The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before Yahweh.
30 He shall offer one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he is able to afford,
31 even such as he is able to afford, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meal offering. The priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before Yahweh.”
32 This is the law for him in whom is the plague of leprosy, who is not able to afford the sacrifice for his cleansing.
33 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
34 “When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put a spreading mildew in a house in the land of your possession,
35 then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘There seems to me to be some sort of plague in the house.’
36 The priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goes in to examine the plague, that all that is in the house not be made unclean. Afterward the priest shall go in to inspect the house.
37 He shall examine the plague; and behold, if the plague is in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, and it appears to be deeper than the wall;
38 then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut…
prophecy of a new covenant that is to come, referenced during communion
1 “At that time,” says Yahweh, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 Yahweh says, “The people who survive the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
3 Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.’”
7 For Yahweh says, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish, praise, and say, ‘Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.
9 They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 “Hear Yahweh’s word, you nations, and declare it in the distant islands. Say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
11 For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance; the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.
15 Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
16 Yahweh says: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,” says Yahweh. “They will come again from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh. “Your children will come again to their own territory.
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
19 Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.
21 “Set up road signs. Make guideposts. Set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went. Turn again, virgin of Israel. Turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
23 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’
24 Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal.
28 It will happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant,” says Yahweh.
29 “In those days they will say no more, “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
31 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says Yahweh.
33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says Yahweh: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
35 Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name, says:
36 “If these ordinances depart from before me,” says Yahweh, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”
37 Yahweh says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they…
fifth seal, souls of martyrs under the altar crying out how long until God avenges their blood
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had.
10 They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
11 A long white robe was given to each of them. They were told that they should rest yet for a while, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who would also be killed even as they were, should complete their course.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message worked through Luke 17:20 through 18:8, Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God and the coming of the Son of Man. Pastor James had just returned from delivering vehicles and supplies in Ukraine, and that experience shaped how he framed the urgency of the passage. The sermon closed with the Lord's Supper.
What was said
The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, and Pastor James gave them a measure of credit for it. They had just watched ten lepers get healed, and in Leviticus 14 there is a procedure for exactly that kind of event because it is a messianic sign. So the question, while still self-interested, may have come from something real that they had just witnessed.
Jesus answered that the kingdom of God is not coming with observable signs, no astronomical lineup, no moment where someone can point and say "look, there it is." He told them the kingdom of God is already in their midst. Pastor James read that as Jesus saying plainly: I am right here. What each person does with Jesus is what determines everything.
To his disciples, Jesus shifted the tone. He told them days would come when they would long to see even one of the days of the Son of Man and would not. People would try to direct their attention here and there, but he told them not to follow. The second coming will be like lightning that flashes across the whole sky. You will not miss it, and you will not need anyone to point it out to you.
Jesus then drew on two Old Testament moments. In the days of Noah, sufficient warning had been given and people went right on eating and marrying until the flood came. In the days of Lot, the same pattern held, a booming economy and ordinary life right up until fire fell on Sodom. Both stories carry the same point: when it comes, it comes suddenly, and the warning has already been given. Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt, unwilling to release her attachment to the life she was leaving. Pastor James connected that directly to the call not to cling to what we are being led out of.
The parable of the persistent widow closes the passage, and Pastor James read it as a parable about prayer and discouragement. An unrighteous judge who does not fear God and does not respect people still grants justice to a widow who keeps coming to him, just to stop being worn out by her. If even that judge relents, how much more will God, a righteous judge, bring justice for his elect who cry out to him day and night. The fifth seal in Revelation echoes the same cry, "how long, oh Lord," and the answer given there is that the full number has not yet been reached. The point is not to map out a timeline but to keep praying and not grow discouraged.
Pastor James closed by bringing the Ukraine trip back into the frame. Driving from the memorial cemetery to the vehicle handover, the group passed three active funerals. None of those people knew their last day was coming. That, he said, is the urgency behind the final question Jesus asks in the passage: when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? The question is not really about eschatology. It is about how we are living right now, whether we are loving one another, forgiving as we have been forgiven, and making it possible for people around us to respond to the gospel before it is too late.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
The pastor described the Pharisees asking Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, and Jesus answering that it is already in their midst. What do you think it means practically for the kingdom of God to be 'among us' right now, in this congregation and in your own life?
Jesus tells his disciples that when people say 'look here' or 'look there' for signs of his coming, they should not run after them. What are some ways you have seen people get pulled away from faithful daily living by chasing predictions or signs about the end times?
Speaker 1Good morning, everybody. How are you? Good morning. You're here. Come on.
Stand with us. We're gonna sing love lifted me. It's a beautiful morning, a great day to be here gathered together in Jesus name. Would you sing out like you mean it with me?
Speaker 2I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry. From the waters lifted me, now
Speaker 1Amen. I almost yodeled there. Right at the end. Great is that faithfulness. This one this is a favorite.
This is a favorite song. Tanya, when she it kind of surprised me years ago. I said, what's your favorite song? She said, Great is that faithfulness. That fast.
Like, it is so, so, so good. Somebody else told me that this morning. Let's sing it. Hymn number one thirty nine.
Speaker 2Is thy
Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements this morning. One of em is this, oh shoot, it's a hoot reboot. So last week, last week, I announced from the front that we were going to do instead of doing a Monday night service last week, we were going to go up to the hootenanny and we're going to play a song if they'll let us. Know, you sign up.
I don't know if you all know how the hootenanny works. You get up there and the old reliables that are there every single week always play first. They usually play two songs. And then after those old reliables, anybody else who signs up gets to go in the order they signed up. So we were number 21 on the list.
So it was on down in the program before we got there. Nick actually played. Nick played number 20. So he opened up for us. And then we all played.
And after it was over, after the song, we just sang unclouded day. Oh, they tell me of home where no storm clouds rise. They tell me of an unclouded day. And one of the ladies who helps organize it came kind of running over to us afterwards and said, hey, that was old timey and really good. And we want you back.
Come back early next week. Sign up early and we'll give you two songs. So, hey, isn't that sweet? Oh, and there were he's got video of it. There we go.
Thank you, David. That's very kind. But we had a good time in playing. And so we decided we are going back up and we're going to play for the rest of the summer. We're going to do that.
We're going to go up to the hootenanny and play a couple of gospel numbers if they'll let us and try to instead of having the come and see approach, we're going to go go and tell for a while until Awana starts back up. And when Awana starts back up so we have had Monday nights at first b going on down the hall on Monday nights at 06:00 while Awana is going on. We've had it going for eleven years now, almost eleven years. And we have been praying about what to do. The the evening has morphed this way and that, and we have gained ministry here and there.
And we've kind of been praying about what to do with Monday night. So we're going to press pause on it for now. And we're going to focus efforts on Awana. We're going to be Carl's going be a part of the administrative part of Monday nights, and I'm going to be available for listening. And we're going to just hopefully give a shot in the arm to Awana, which is going like gangbusters.
It's fantastic. We're going to join God where he's working right here. We still have the mercy ministry that Monday night has turned into that we will be on top of but we're going to we're going go up to Dorna's for the rest of the summer and when school starts back up, I think Awana is September 18 is the first Awana will be a part of what's going on there. So thank you for praying for the way that First Bee ministers in the valley. We don't ever want to hold on to anything too tightly, and we are trying our best to put it on pause and then see how God works that out.
First BBQ. This is coming in a couple of weeks. August 27, we will have out here on the lawn. We'll have games, food, fellowship. We've done it a couple of times already this summer and to to my thinking, it's been a really big success.
It's fun to get together and eat. So we're going to do Games Food Fellowship out here August 27 between services. Nine will start at 09:11 will start at eleven But in between, we're going to gather out here. And it'll still be going on at the eleven service. They'll still be out there.
They don't make a ton of noise. It will be fine. We can make more noise than they do. So kitchen committee is forming. I love this, minimal commitment required.
We're trying to spread the work across the whole body. So kitchen committee is forming. Nancy T. Has been spearheading, taking care of the kitchen, connect hour and keeping this kitchen stock. But she would like to have some help.
So minimal commitment, contact Nancy T. There's her phone number. If you forget that or don't write it down right now, you can ask us and we'll give it to you. If you've forgotten anything, left it behind, it'll stack up in the back corner next to the gray sofa over here. So if you are missing something, you can check-in the back of the sanctuary.
And we did get some people to actually go back there and look and take a few things last week. That's good. Things do accumulate around the church, if you haven't noticed. Old Bills is happening. Again, this we are in the giving season for Old Bills.
Most of y'all know what that is, but not all of you probably. The way to amplify giving in Teton County, if you're giving to a charitable organization, you can give directly to them. Or you can give through the Jackson Hole Community Foundation as a part of Old Bills Fun Run. You can give and for each dollar you put in, usually what comes out the other side is $1.00 point somewhere in that. So it amplifies your given.
That's a good thing. And there are lots of other charitable organizations in town that you can give. What First B uses these funds for is our benevolence account. So when people come and they need to have a car repair done or if they need we've had we've helped people get glasses. We've helped people with a night in a hotel or that sort of thing.
When they come and they have a need that they are just desperate for an answer and they come in, we can say yes to those needs. So we do that. And you all have been given through this faithfully for years and we've been able to keep on saying yes and we'd love to keep on being able to. But Compass Women's Care and Good Samaritan Mission are others that you can give. August 11 through September 15 is the giving season this year.
I've got another one. This one is we are in August and I know that. Operation Christmas Child, we usually send out the box at the very end of October or the beginning of November so they can get all over the world. But right now, school supplies are on sale because it's back to school time. In those boxes for Operation Christmas Child, school supplies are precious and it'd be nice to have some in there.
So if you think, Hey, school supplies are on sale. I'm going get some for Operation Christmas Child. Now this is an invitation for you to take advantage of that. It is not an invitation to bring those things into the church. Okay?
So just a heads up. Hey, you can get them, stock them up if you want to start your boxes. But we'll tell you when to bring them in and box them up information there. And if you want to know what's going on, that's the best way to find out. But if you'll contact us, we can put you on the list too.
Is there anything else I've forgotten? I'm glad to be back. Now, last week, I was back and I know, led the music but my brain was not here until about Wednesday or so. I'm glad to be back in cognitive right now. Would you stand up and we will sing surely the presence of the Lord is in this
Speaker 2this place. I can feel his mighty power and his grace. I can hear the brush of angels wings. I see glory on each face. The presence of the Lord is in this place.
I can feel his mighty power and his grace. I can hear the brush of angels' wings.
Speaker 1Holy holy. Amen. Y'all can have a seat and I have a operatory prayer. Would you join me? Lord God almighty, I'm so thankful to be here this morning.
I'm so thankful to that we can live in your present. You're omnipresent. There's not anywhere we can go to get away from you lord but when we gather in your name, there is a special blessing. Where two or three are gathered, you are right there in the midst. Lord, you are motivating your people to do your work on the face of this earth.
May we, Lord, follow you in complete and utter submission to the spirit of God. May we follow after Jesus and we go the way that you direct us to go. We'll be celebrating communion and the fact that Jesus lived every moment of his life in complete submission to the spirit. That the power that raised him from the dead is still active in us today, that you, Lord, are advancing your good gospel. Jesus, you are building your church.
May we be a part of the team that helps with that. Lord God, would you do your will and your way among us this morning and through us this week? We ask that you'd bless everything that goes into these plates, physically, financially, but also, that everything metaphorically that's put in these plates would just receive your blessing and grow and be amplified. May your gospel advance, Lord, not in spite of us, but may you use us to do that. In Jesus' name, amen.
Beautiful and dramatic piece of music that was. It's a gorgeous story of the cross. Oh, I'm thankful to be back. I'm glad to be back. Last week, I mentioned that we had gotten home but still very, very profoundly jet lagged on Sunday morning.
And so getting through this week and kind of having time to catch up. I'll share a little bit about the trip today, not everything. If you want to ask more about it, please do. We've got more than just Tanya and Pascal and me that can answer. Midge and Michelle are here, and they can answer some of the questions too about the organization that we went with.
But I'll start off with this. This is the passage we're going to. Luke seventeen twenty through eighteen eight. And we'll cover that passage which is kind of an apocalyptic piece from Jesus with the pharisees and disciples. We'll get to that in a minute, but I wanted to start off right here.
So this is in Scotland. Those flags you see are Scottish flags, and those vehicles you see are all four wheel drive, right hand drive, diesel, stick shifts, okay? They're all those are the qualifications kind of for getting these. Midge and Michelle met a founder, and this is a longer story than I got time to tell, right? And they said yes.
When the time came, they said yes. And they went and delivered some vehicles in June. And Tanya and Pascal and I went and delivered some vehicles in July. This was from our trip, so there were 11 vehicles going. And we took off, and Pascal and I mostly took turns driving.
And to be 17 and driving a right hand drive stick shift, You know, shifting with your left hand. She is a great driver, always has been, and she did a great job coming across. Set off from Edinburgh, Scotland and went down to Newcastle, England. In Newcastle, we put the vehicles and ourselves on a ferry boat across to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, we took the vehicles off and get through customs and across passport control, and then we took off like a shot from a gun across all of the rest of The Netherlands and Germany and hit the Autobahn.
But you know what? I was not in an old muscle car. I was not in a Porsche, not in a BMW. I was in a Toyota Hilux four wheel drive. So we spent most of our time in the right lane.
And we occasionally would pass a transfer truck or something, but we weren't passing any BMWs, I promise. But we were making our way and playing mechanic and helping out with some of the cars in front of us as they were breaking down a little at a time. But we made it through there, and we made it into Ukraine. So it's Netherlands, Germany, into Poland. Spent the night in Poland after playing mechanic.
We got there very, very, very late in the evening. Got up the same time we were supposed to leave the next morning, took off again, and made it to the border with Ukraine. We're used to crossing borders. Tanja and I lived just shy of the American border in Mexico for seven years, and we've crossed the border a lot. And going into Ukraine was very much like that.
A couple of guys that are with the organization, Vassal, went ahead of us and got the paperwork started so that when we got there, they did passport control and customs. And we got 11 vehicles full of supplies for medical supplies for veterans, hospitals, frontline supplies, food, meals ready to eat, biscuits they call them, oat biscuits and that sort of thing. These four wheel drives are all stuffed full of those. And we made it into Ukraine. Spent the first night in one of the larger cities, second largest city in Ukraine.
And it's a very populated town. It has been hit recently as in between the time that we were both there. It's been hit multiple times by Russian missiles. While we were there, it was hit. Air raids were underway.
So you can ask Tanya about that. So it's real. The next day, after having spent the night in a hotel and have air raids go off during the night, we were taken out on a bus and we went to a little veterans cemetery, memorial Cemetery for people who had died in this conflict. And it's very moving. So when Stuart, our guide, when we stopped and we had a chance to go around, he's walking through as we're walking through.
And I don't read Ukrainian. I don't read Russian. I don't read anything in Cyrillic. I don't even know what the noises those letters make in that language. And for me, a text based guy, I mentioned this last week, it was very jarring to not being able to understand anybody or anything.
But as we're walking maybe ten minutes into the visit to the cemetery, I noticed that on a gravestone, the things that you see. Now these are fresh. You can see that's just dirt. This was just put there. They don't have headstones yet.
They don't have boxes built around yet. Lots of flowers were planted on the graves, and they were very fresh. In fact, Stuart said, When I started coming here in January, this is the extent of the cemetery. And by the trip in June, it was four times that size. And by the trip in July, it was even double that.
It's a very sobering reality that people are dying every day in this conflict. And some when you look at the cross and you see the plaque that's up there, see a picture, most of them had a picture of the person who had died. But they also had this plaque. And I can't read anything on it, not their names, anything, but dates stand out. And you see that the June 25 was a huge day with a lot of loss.
And I think about our history, and we know battles and things, you know, but it really put that into perspective that lots of people lost their lives that day. So we were able to hand over a lot of those supplies for this is at a military hospital back from the front. It's not on the front line. It's back from the front. But this is where they bring the guys who have been injured on the front to patch them back up.
In this conflict, the enemies have been targeting ambulances and fire stations. They bomb fire stations first and destroy all the fire vehicles before they start bombing the town. That's lowdown. And this guy is a frontline soldier who had been tasked with coming back to get a vehicle because they're so sparse on transport vehicles and on ambulances that they're using these four wheel drives as unmarked ambulances. And so he was one of the guys that received it.
He, at a ceremony that night, handed over a hat and a plaque and things. And Tanya and Pascal and I were able to walk through the military hospital there and see what was going on. Y'all were probably same hospital, would assume. I don't know. Different one.
Didn't go there. But got to know this guy. And we had Google translate back and forth, back and forth, back and forth because we can't understand anything he says. These are military chaplains. They had come back from the front lines too to receive the vehicles and take them back to where they could use the best.
The shorter guy right there was very, very articulate and spoke very, very well of, the efforts. This is the first guy in Ukraine I understood. That's why he gets his picture taken. He's dressed like Luigi from Super Mario Brothers. But he's a gas station attendant who lived in Brazil for like ten years.
And he knows Portuguese and I know Spanish. He's the first person I could communicate with. And so we had a great time talking. Okay. I'll come back at intervals and say things that I think matter.
I'm thankful for Midge and Michelle saying yes and going. I'm thankful for the exposure that we had to this. I'm thankful for the grace that you all have given for me and for the family to be able to go and serve elsewhere for a time. We had an amazing time that we're still processing through, and it was really, really wonderful to be hands and feet, being able to take what was needed to people. And good news from a far country, right?
It's really, really good. Honorary Scotts for a week or so. While he was on the way back to Jerusalem. This is the last passage that I preached was Luke seventeen eleven through 19, and it was about Jesus healing 10 lepers. So he heals 10 lepers, and then towards the end of this, it says he was a Samaritan.
So he's a foreigner. He was a Samaritan that came back to say thank you. He was glorifying God with a loud voice, fell on his face Jesus' feet, giving thanks to him. He was a Samaritan. And Jesus responded and said, weren't there 10 of y'all?
There were 10 of y'all that were cleansed. Right? Where are the none? Where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God except for this foreigner?
And he said to him, you stand up and go. Your faith has saved you or your faith has made you well. So that's the last thing I preached here five weeks ago. And then, now he was questioned. Oh, guess who it was?
Jesus being questioned, guess who it was? Y'all know the answer to this. Oh, the Pharisees. It's always the Pharisees. A lot of times it says in trying to trick him, they questioned him.
This one, it just says, now he was questioned by the pharisees, religious folks of the time. This time, I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. They had just seen 10 lepers cleansed. They just saw one come back and give glory to God and Jesus tell him that his faith had saved him. And now he was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming.
Now the best way we can spin this for the Pharisees, kind of against character, is that they looked and they saw that he had healed the lepers. And we know that in Leviticus 14, we've got the procedure for what to do when someone heals a leper. Now it's never happened. Never happened. But that's a messianic symbol.
And so the best we can think of the pharisees is that they saw this happen, and then they said, okay. Kingdom of God. When's it happening? Now that's an interesting question. When the kingdom of God was coming.
Now if you wanna get rich selling Christian books, the best way I've seen is to figure out eschatology and sell it to everybody. Okay? The late great planet Earth? Oh, yeah. The four blood moons?
Oh, add add up all that has been made over the years by people figuring out when the kingdom of God is gonna come. Herald Camping's billboards that said, no doubt about it, May twelfth, two thousand ten, eleven, twelve. I don't know. Maybe it's October. It's an interesting question.
It's a really interesting question, and it's intriguing to human beings. It's intriguing to people who have come to know Christ even. It's really intriguing because we want to know. But Jesus, when they question him now, he was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming and he answered them this. He said, listen, in the first service, I did this.
When they questioned by the kingdom of God, Jesus goes,
Speaker 2ugh.
Speaker 1No. I don't I don't know that he did that. But he answered them and said, the kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed. That's actually that signs that can be observed is one word in the Greek. And it's saying, you're looking for astronomical clues.
You're looking for all of the stars to align in a certain way. You're looking for stuff, but you can't perceive it that way. You can't see it that way. He answered them and said, no. I will give them the benefit of the doubt on this too.
The Old Testament, a lot of apocalyptic passages point to things in the heavens. They do. And so, you tell us, Jesus, when the kingdom of God is coming. He said, listen. The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed.
Nor will they say be able to say, look, here it is right here, right now. Now a lot of people do try to say that. Hey, if you look in Corinthians and Thessalonians, and if you add this from second Peter, and you add this from Revelation, you add all of these things up, look, here it is right here. Normally, they say, look, here it is, or there it is, even. It's this or it's that.
He's saying the kingdom of God's not coming with signs like that that can be observed. He says, for behold, take note of this. Look. Behold. The kingdom of God is in your midst.
It's right here. He's in between his pharisee pharisees and the disciples, and he's saying the kingdom of God is in your midst. And the Greek on in your midst can be is within you, in your midst, or among you. It can be any of those three things. They're all good translations.
Since he's answering the pharisees, I think what he's saying is, I'm right here. I'm right here. You just saw something that it is observable that's never happened before, and I'm right here. What you do with Jesus makes all of the difference in your eternity. What you do with Jesus, here I am in your midst, Jesus said to that generation right there.
Now to his disciples, they had trusted him. They believed in him. It's within you. That's a possible rendering too. But among you, the kingdom of God is among you.
Oh, we've already studied the Lord's prayer when Jesus says, when you pray, pray like this and he gets down to, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven, God is absolutely king and there's no doubt by anybody that's there and he's absolutely sovereign, and his will is done in heaven just as he wants it to be. And on earth, we can be a part of the kingdom of heaven by submitting to the ruler, God almighty, king, the sovereign ruler is available. And so so he says to his disciples, he's answered the pharisees and he said to his disciples, listen, y'all. The days will come when y'all will long to see one of the days of the son of man, and you'll not see it.
There'll be a time when I go. And when I go, you'll be wishing I was here. I mean, he prepares them for that in the upper room discourse later. And he tells them, I'm gonna prepare you. The Holy Spirit is coming.
If I don't go away, you're not gonna have the comforter. I'm going. I'm preparing a place. I'll send the comforter. He's gonna come to you.
He's gonna teach you, guide you into truth that I've already taught you. But this in Luke, it says, the days will come for y'all disciples when you'll see one of the days, when you long to see one of the days of son of man. Jesus' favorite name for himself. And you'll not see it. And they will say to you, look there or look here.
Look, look, look, look around. Look here. Look there. He says, don't leave. Don't run after them.
You keep on doing what I've showed you. You keep on doing as I've told you. Keep on proclaiming the message that I've been proclaiming with you. Don't be persuaded. They'll say to you, look there, look here.
Don't leave. Don't run after them. There are lots of false messiahs that come along. There are lots of people that try to lead rebellions and insurrections that God has no part in inspiring. For just like the lightning, Jesus says, for just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the son of man be in his day.
It will be unmistakable. Now if you go to Thessalonians, there were folks who had quit their jobs. Some people got convinced that they'd missed the last day. First and second Thessalonians, they had different questions. But Jesus is saying, you're not gonna miss it.
Don't worry about missing it. Just be actively pursuing God. Seek first the kingdom of God. Yeah. Seek it.
Be a part of it. Surrender your will to the basileia, to the ruler. Be under God's rule. Just like lightning when it flashes in one part of the sky, shines to the other part, so the son of man will be in his day. You're not going to miss it.
But first, in almost every eschatological text in the Bible, there's this split range where the kingdom of God has been inaugurated by Jesus. It's been forecast by all the Old Testament prophets. It's most recently been broadcast and forecast by John the Baptist. And then Jesus inaugurates the coming of the age of grace, and he's right there. And this is that.
But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this very generation, the one that those guys were living in. It was the initial inauguration, but the consummation is still coming. And he begins here, I believe, speaking about that consummation. He says, and just as it happened in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the son of man. A warning had been given.
A messenger had been appointed. The message had been given, and Noah believed God and started making preparations and continued to proclaim and preach about judgment. And it says people were eating, and they were drinking, and they were marrying, and they were being given in marriage, and until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Had they been warned? They had.
It goes on. It says, it was the same as happened in the days of Lot. Okay. Lot. I think a lot.
Every time I see this passage or anything that had to do with Abraham and Lot, I think of the same thing. Have you ever given kids two slices of cake and then they fight over who gets the bigger piece? Right? So the way that good parents solve that is they give to one of the siblings, you get the knife and you cut the piece, and then you give the other one the choice. Right?
So they're gonna cut it with a micrometer to get it exactly in half so that the other one doesn't get a bigger piece. Well, Abraham and Lot, Abraham was very gracious. He believed God. He left the land that he knew, went to a place that God would show him. He is an example of faith, even though a flawed example of faith.
When he got up on that hillside with Lot and they were deciding how to divide up the land, basically he said, Lot, take whatever you want. I'll go the other way. What Lot chose was what looked good to him. Right? And the cities of the plain and Sodom and Gomorrah.
And it was a really, really rough situation that they were there. Very, very, very sinful place. And Lot would not have been spared either had it not been for Abraham, his intercessor, reaching out to God and saying, please save Lot's family. Please. And God agrees.
It was the same as happened in the days of Lot. They were eating. They were drinking. They were buying. They were selling.
They were planning. They were building. Sounds like a booming economy. But on the day that Lot left Sodom, mercifully by God's provision of two angels to warn. Right?
But on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. That is what Jesus is saying. This second coming is gonna be just like that. There's been sufficient warning. There's no lack there.
When it happens, it'll happen suddenly. It'll be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. By the way, I didn't put that little white box. We don't even know where that came from. It's just there.
Sorry. Hopefully, it'll be gone by next week. On that day, on that day, the one who'll be on the housetop with his goods in the house must not go down to take them out. He's saying there's gonna be a time that comes, and when it comes, be ready. Be expectant.
Be waiting on this to be happening imminently. Don't expect that you're gonna see some other sign first. You're gonna know, and it's gonna be right then. Make the decision then. On that day I mean, the decision ahead of time.
Be living on that day. On that day, the one will be on the housetop with the good in his house must not go down and take them out. And likewise, the one who's in the field must not turn back. Don't look back. Remember Lot's wife.
She did look back. Y'all remember the story of Lot's wife. So they're visited by these two angels. It's a very rough story. Very rough story the night before, but in the morning when they're gonna leave, it's time.
We're leaving. And when we leave, don't look back. That's the message that God has given. He's called them out of the place, the sinful place that they knew and probably were pretty attached to. And God I mean, if we move this forward metaphorically, if God has called you out of a life of sin, don't look back.
Don't look back. We see it. The Israelites wandered around after leaving Egypt, and they're like, why'd you bring us out here to die? It was so great back there in slavery, captivity in Egypt. If God's called you out, don't look back.
Remember Lot's wife. So remembering Lot's wife, here it is in Genesis nineteen twenty six. It says it, but Lot's wife, from behind him, looked back and she became a pillar of salt. She was not willing to let go of the attachment to the things of earth to go with the God of heaven. May it not be so for us.
Remember Lot's wife, Jesus says, whoever strives to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life, Matthew adds, for my sake, will keep it. Whoever strives to save his life will lose it. It's counterintuitive as the world goes. And whoever loses his life will keep it. I'll tell you this.
On the night, there will be two in one bed and one will be taken and the other will be left. That's the two choices. One is taken to be with Jesus. The other is left behind. Oh, left behind.
That's another one of those series. Right? That one, how many books did they make? How much money did that make? Interesting and important.
The important thing is be living in light of the gospel every day expectantly. One will be taken, other will be left. There will be two women grounding at the same place, and one will be taken, the other will be left. This is St. Vitus Cathedral.
St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Czech Republic. And St. Vitus Cathedral is up on the hill with the castle. It's the highest point in town.
Actually, the South Tower is the highest point on that. Tanya and Pascal walked to the top of that thing. I decided to stay down low and take pictures of them when they went up there. This is a scene from part of that tower. And it is, if you recognize it, I mean, history buffs probably will.
There's Jesus in the center. And on his right, your left, are the people coming out of the tombs and being lifted up to be with Jesus by the angels. And then on the left, you see that people are taken from their tombs going down into everlasting fire. That's the thing. I actually hung out down in the plaza while they were climbing the steps and listened in on a Spanish tour guide speaking to a bunch of Spaniards.
And I thought, wow, this is a great opportunity. This is the last judgment. I want to hear what this lady has to say about this scene because there's no more vivid thing. Jesus is saying one's gonna be taken, one's gonna be And this has the right and the left, sheep and the goats, if you will. And right here, on this inside of that portico, there's a picture of the Garden Of Eden.
There's Adam and Eve, tree between them, serpent in the tree, offering the fruit. And over here, right here, is Jesus on the cross, Mary and Nicodemus, there at the foot, John with them. And original sin. No doubt about it. That has happened.
And every generation has picked up from their federal head this sin, but also has done it by choice. Every one of us has erred. And then the cross is available. The cross is available in Jesus' perfect sacrifice, which we'll celebrate in communion in a few minutes. It's available.
No doubt about it. Jesus surrendered to the Spirit, walked out everything necessary, voluntarily gave his life as a ransom for all who would believe. And I asked the Spanish tour guide, I was glad to be able to speak to somebody. I said, so tell me, what's the difference between the two? And she said, well, good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell.
I said, where do you find the good people? We're all bad. Let good people go to heaven. Bad people go to hell. That was the answer.
And I was like, man, missed opportunity right here. That's the earthly way of thinking. In light of the garden and in light of the cross, the grace of God is available in Christ Jesus. While we were yet sinners, he died for us. And if we will accept what he's offered, we will be with him eternally.
The very bottom down here is a gate. It's a pretty weak gate. It actually looks like steps that you can climb over it if you want to get over it. But on that gate, there are four and four and four little plaques. And those little plaques are of two people together doing the same thing.
Some of them are grounding at the mill. Some of them are in the bed. Some of them are on the field. And one of them is gonna be taken and one of them is gonna be left. That's the implication right there.
And so I think, man, there's a lot of imagery right here that's really, really good if you understand how to interpret it. This is bracketed. If you look at brackets in the New American Standard and in most modern translations of Bible, when there's a bracket around it, it means this is maybe. It's it's definite in Matthew. It definitely says this in Matthew.
But it might be included in Luke where unwilling to say, absolutely, this is in Luke. But it's another example. Two men will be in the field and one will be taken, another will be left. Just a warning about brackets. That's the way we deal with those things that are of uncertain textual providence.
And responding, they said to him, this is the disciples. And responding, the disciples said to him, where, Lord? Now the Pharisees asked when, and the disciples are saying where. We want to see it. We want to know about it.
It's so intriguing. It's so interesting to us. We want to know when and where. And responding to them, they said, where, Lord? Where?
And Jesus said to them, where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered. Now, okay, y'all tell me what that means. I've read every commentary. I've read nine different ways of interpreting this. I can't go through all of them, but some people see vultures as the same word as eagles.
And so they say where the body is, there also the eagles will be gathered. Where the carcass is, is what Matthew says. I believe they're two different times. But where the body is, there also the vultures or the eagles will be gathered. One pretty predominant view is that those eagles or vultures are speaking of Rome.
And that the body will be gathered inside the siege of Jerusalem and the fall of Jerusalem in seventy AD. The Romans taken over. The eagles are gathered outside of the body. I don't know. I honestly don't know.
When I see this, what I think is this is the closest that I can get to Jesus ever going, well, it is what it is. It's almost like he's saying, you know, where there's sugar or where there's honey, there's gonna be there's gonna be bees. This is just the truth. It doesn't, to me, seem to offer a whole lot of new information and the fact that we disagree about what it means or says. Some people think that the body is the body of Christ, and the eagles are they've got all kinds of interpretations.
For me, it's like Jesus saying, when is I'm right here? That's what he said to the Pharisees. When? I'm right here among you. And where?
He's saying, vultures gather where there's a corpse. I think that's what he's saying. It's just a truism. It's a tautology. It is what it is.
No matter where you go, there you are. Now he was telling them a parable too to show them all at all times that they ought to pray and not become discouraged. He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not become discouraged. And saying this, in a certain city, was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect any person. Okay.
He's a judge. He has authority. He can decide what needs to happen. Doesn't fear God, doesn't respect any person. Now there was a widow in that city.
The widow kept coming to him over and over and over repeatedly saying, give me justice against my opponent. Actually, dispense judgment against my adversary is a good translation too. We have an adversary. We have an enemy. It is the devil.
And for us as Christians to see the world as it is and wars as they are and all of the upsetting things that we see every day, we should be not growing discouraged by that because we know God will be just, but we should be praying. Right? Constantly praying and not staying discouraged about it. Dispense judgment against the devil, Lord, please. It seems like he's winning.
Give me justice against my opponent. For a while he was unwilling, that unrighteous judge. But later he said to himself, you know what? Even though I don't fear God nor respect any person, yet because this widow is bothering me, because she is persistent in coming after me, I'm gonna give her justice. I'm deciding for her.
He's saying, I'm gonna give her justice. Otherwise, by her continually coming, she will wear me out. Now why Jesus uses an unrighteous judge to to say this? I don't know. And the Lord said, pay attention to what the unrighteous judge says or is saying.
Even though I don't fear God respecting person yet because this widow is bothering me, I will give her justice. Otherwise, by continually coming, she'll wear me out. Now, think about this. Will not God Almighty, who is a righteous judge, will he not bring about justice for his elect? He will.
He absolutely will. It's coming. It is sure. Now, will not God bring about justice for his elect? Those who cry out to him day and night, and will he delay long for them?
The Lord is not slack or slow concerning his promise. He will complete it. He was telling them this parable though, if you go back up to verse one chapter 18, it says, now he was telling them in peril to show them that at all times they ought to pray and not become discouraged. Just be persistent with God. He will bring about justice.
He does it by way of the cross, by the grace that he's offered in Christ. Will he delay long for them? This reminds me also of the fifth seal in Revelation since we're talking eschatology. The fifth seal opened up as, I saw the altar of the souls of those who had been slain, the martyrs, for the word of God and for their testimony that they had upheld by their death. And they cried out in a long voice, how long, oh Lord, holy and true?
How long until you avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth? How long? And then each of them by God was given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer until the full number of their fellow servants, the other martyrs, their brothers, were killed just as they have been killed. That seems so wrong to us. But the full number has not happened.
Jesus says, I tell you though that he will, God will bring about justice for them quickly. So there is an immediacy to this that needs to be understood. If you're waiting for everything to fall into place and to see the antichrist and the man of if you're thinking about all that, Jesus is saying, no. You listen to my voice. You're my sheep.
You know. Listen to what I'm saying, and go and do as I've directed you. In fact, the close of the sermon and the close of this little passage right here says, however, when the son of man does come in this second coming of Christ, when the son of man does come, will he find faith on this earth? Think about that from your own viewpoint, from where you sit right here today. You might be super interested in eschatology.
I don't know. I don't mean to blast you if that's the case. But the imminent return of Christ is possible at this moment, right now. When the son of man comes, will he find people acting on what they believe on earth? There are so many things about eschatology that are so hard to understand.
And you can't do anything really about them. When it's coming, it's coming. How about love one another? That's easy to understand. It's hard to do.
It takes faith to put that into practice. How about, Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Last week, Norris' message was so good. It was so good, especially on the point of holding on to things against other people and cursing rather than blessing. May we be living out a faith when the son of man comes.
I think that's the last slide. Communion is next, and I will invite the ushers to come forward. What you do with Jesus makes all the difference. The kingdom of God is inaugurated. It's in our midst.
It's right here among us. We're gathered in Jesus' name. We want to celebrate communion together. Lord God almighty, we ask your blessing on this, the bread and the cup. We ask it, Lord, as representation of your body.
We practice an open table so that anyone who has ever put their faith in Christ, regardless of denominational stripe, Lord, is welcome to this table. Lord, would you bless the bread and the cup? Would you bless each one who partakes, Lord? And if there's someone here that's inquisitive but knows that they've never put their faith in you, Lord, I pray that they would. That they would open up.
I pray, Lord, that as the plates pass and they aren't able to partake in good conscience because they know they haven't put their faith in you. Lord, may the ones of us sitting around who do partake, may we live our lives in such a way that we draw them into a relationship with you. Because that makes all the difference in who is received and who is left behind. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray that you'd bless in this little memorial. Amen.
On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper, and he said to his disciples who were there, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat of it. Take it in in remembrance of me. Lord Jesus, thank you for coming in the flesh, for living out the will of God and complete submission to his spirit right here so that you would have a perfect record, so that your blood would be innocent and able to be extended to anyone who would believe. In Jesus' name, by his blood, Lord, we distribute this little plastic cup of grape juice as a memorial to that.
Thank you, Jesus, for what you've done. Amen. In the same manner that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup after supper, and he proclaimed to them what they've been waiting for for a long, long, long time. We know that in Jeremiah 31, he prophesies a new covenant that is to come. And Jesus said to the disciples in the room, it's still saying to us today, he says, this is the new covenant in my blood, blood that's given for you.
It's a sacrificial and voluntary death by a perfect, obedient servant of God. This is the new covenant in my blood. Take this, drink of it, do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Amen. I've got one more thing to kinda close out that I've skipped over a bit in the first service.
I mean, in the in the description of what was going on, I mentioned that cemetery, that memorial. And in that town, we thought we were at the one for just a general some are buried there, some are not. Everyone who's died in this conflict is buried in their hometown. And that good sized cemetery, bigger than Aspen Hill. Everyone that's died in this conflict is there, and they told us later on that that's one of four in that town.
We were driving from there to where we turned over the vehicles. We passed three different funerals that were active at the time. They didn't know their last day. They didn't know what was coming. The quickly thing, there's an urgency to this gospel.
I want to sing one verse of what Judy just played twice. Would you stand with me? We're going sing the savior is waiting. Amen. In the in the passage, it said, for his elect.
And there are people that had this question. They go, how do I know if I'm one of the elect? And it gets them theologically so confused. And it's mind blowing. And it's sort of like, when's the rapt?
When's the rapture? When's this gonna happen? It's one of those questions that's an interesting thing to think on, but if you respond to the gospel, you are. Okay? You can respond yes and you are one of God's elect.
You respond no and you are not. One's taken, one's left. Lord God almighty, may we be living every day in the light of eternity. May we be calling out with an effectual call to all who will respond to your good news of the gospel. Amen.
