Q and A Sermon Part 2

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Fiber Arts Event 8/22 at 6 PM

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Call to Worship

Believe it or not We have finished Psalm 119 two sundays ago, so we are going to finish the book of Psalms as our Call to worship

Psalm 120 NKJV

A Song of Ascents. In my distress I cried to the Lord, And He heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips And from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you, Or what shall be done to you, You false tongue? Sharp arrows of the warrior, With coals of the broom tree! Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech, That I dwell among the tents of Kedar! My soul has dwelt too long With one who hates peace. I am for peace; But when I speak, they are for war.

Introduction

I love Q/A (Expand on how they can ask questions, the cards location)

The need to be confessional, BREIFLY the uses of confessions. The vote on the business meeting on the 1689 and how that helps you with many questions. The power of knowing your Bible.

What does the Bible Say about Bigfoot, or other Cyrptids

This question was a lot of fun for me, I have some unique experinces with the supernatutal so it was a jounrey. But to many of you this is not a topic you maybe interested in. So what I’m going to do is look at the Biblical evidence of such things and then let you decide. I do believe we live in a very supernatural world, but I also believe what God has said listen to his warning.

Leviticus 19:31 NKJV

‘Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.

Isaiah 8:19 NKJV

And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

Obviously God knows whats best. He is a father who is looking out for you. PArt of growing up is realizing the warnings and traditions have value.

My warning would be to stay away from this stuff, you should instead keep busy worshipping your God, loving your familiy, and minding the responsbilities you have tasked to you.

I’m a pastor, part of my call is to steward the sheep, to equip you so you might live suceefully in Christ and then you go out and share with others to do the same.

I didn’t go into this wantonly, I want wrapped in prayer and covered by the blood of Jesus.

When I was doing my homework here I went to Christian sources, but they referance a lot of very wierd, dark, and sometimes very evil stuff out there.

The Plan

I’m going to present what the Bible says, show you some expereinces from Christian history, give you my view, and end with some practical advice for when you run across anything like this.

From The Bible

The Bible mentions supernatural Creatures

Behmouth, Giants, the levithan, dragons, angels, demons, ghosts, Are all throughout the bible. That’s not to mentin necromancers, witches, magic, and so on.

Behmouth,

was descibed in Job 40:15-24

Job 40:15–24 NKJV

“Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, And his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron.He is the first of the ways of God; Only He who made him can bring near His sword. Surely the mountains yield food for him, And all the beasts of the field play there. He lies under the lotus trees, In a covert of reeds and marsh. The lotus trees cover him with their shade; The willows by the brook surround him. Indeed the river may rage, Yet he is not disturbed; He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, Though he takes it in his eyes, Or one pierces his nose with a snare.

Giants

Genesis 14:5–7 NKJV

In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him came and attacked the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mountain of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is by the wilderness. Then they turned back and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and attacked all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazezon Tamar.

Abarham fought and killed these things

Amos 2:9–10 NKJV

“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, Whose height was like the height of the cedars, And he was as strong as the oaks; Yet I destroyed his fruit above And his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, And led you forty years through the wilderness, To possess the land of the Amorite.

That was reported in Answers in Genesis

Dragons

Revelation 12:9 NKJV

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan,

Ghosts

1 Samuel 28:7–21 NKJV

Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at En Dor.” So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Please conduct a séance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you.” Then the woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?” And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!” And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.” So he said to her, “What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down. Now Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” And Saul answered, “I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may reveal to me what I should do.” Then Samuel said: “So why do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you and has become your enemy? And the Lord has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, and was dreadfully afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no food all day or all night. And the woman came to Saul and saw that he was severely troubled, and said to him, “Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice, and I have put my life in my hands and heeded the words which you spoke to me.

I think this women consorted with demons, and she was expecting her familier spirit to show up and instead she so the spirit of the dead Samuel

Angels and Demons

The scripture is full of these stories

Their numbers

Daniel 7:10 NKJV

A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.

Revelation 5:11 NKJV

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,

The proof of Satan and demons

Revelation 12:4 NKJV

His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.

Revelation 12:9 NKJV

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Conclusion

We have to conclude from just this evidence that they’re real, or if you don’t want to go that far the Bible treats them as real and Jesus does interact with them in his ministry.

From History

Mythical creatures are mentioned in every civilization from ancient times until today. People report seeing things still. You may know the stories, someoone you know may have experinced something, or maybe you have one yourself!

Late Antiquity

This story of Saint Atony and the satyr you might find facinating

The Life of Paulus was written in the year 374 or 375 during Jerome's stay in the desert of Syria, as is seen from c. 6, and was dedicated to Paulus of Concordia as stated in Jerome's Epistle x. c. 3.

8. Antony was amazed, and thinking over what he had seen went on his way. Before long in a small rocky valley shut in on all sides he sees a mannikin with hooked snout, horned forehead, and extremities like goats' feet. When he saw this, Antony like a good soldier seized the shield of faith and the helmet of hope: the creature none the less began to offer to him the fruit of the palm-trees to support him on his journey and as it were pledges of peace. Antony perceiving this stopped and asked who he was. The answer he received from him was this: I am a mortal being and one of those inhabitants of the desert whom the Gentiles deluded by various forms of error worship under the names of Fauns, Satyrs, and Incubi. I am sent to represent my tribe. We pray you in our behalf to entreat the favour of your Lord and ours, who, we have learned, came once to save the world, and 'whose sound has gone forth into all the earth.' As he uttered such words as these, the aged traveller's cheeks streamed with tears, the marks of his deep feeling, which he shed in the fullness of his joy. He rejoiced over the Glory of Christ and the destruction of Satan, and marvelling all the while that he could understand the Satyr's language, and striking the ground with his staff, he said, Woe to you, Alexandria, who instead of God worships monsters! Woe to you, harlot city, into which have flowed together the demons of the whole world! What will you say now? Beasts speak of Christ, and you instead of God worship monsters. He had not finished speaking when, as if on wings, the wild creature fled away. Let no one scruple to believe this incident; its truth is supported by what took place when Constantine was on the throne, a matter of which the whole world was witness. For a man of that kind was brought alive to Alexandria and shown as a wonderful sight to the people. Afterwards his lifeless body, to prevent its decay through the summer heat, was preserved in salt and brought to Antioch that the Emperor might see it.

So you can make of that as you will. Constantine the great who legalized Christianity was sent the Satyr to see it.

In the Medieval ERA

Saint Thomas Aquanis Held that angels are individually a unquie speices every single one as they didn’t have shared substance with one another, being spirit. He held that their is a heirachy amongst the angels High, middle, and low. That would corispond with the demonic realm. This is not eleborated directly, but based on angels, Arch angels, texts like:

Revelation 12:7 NKJV

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,

It’s not hard to establish that this maybe the case.

Remeber a third of them fell, but the system thye have was maintained, swapping God for Satan

Early Modern era

To move up closer to the current day, in 1597 King James, who authorized the bible you all know published a book on demonlogy. He was the king of Scotland before he was the king of England and the thrones unified under one monarch, He was vey interested in the topic. He was invovled with witch cases and witch hunting, and he believed that the fairy creatures of his era were related to demonic entities.

Today

Many people report odd things, abudctions, encounters, lost time, demonic possion, interactions with these things and so on.

From My life

(MAybe)

So Bigfoot? My Conclusion

I think that based off of the natural world that the supernatural world is just as divierse in creation, but that we are, because of sin and our fallen nature, not allowed to know it. I believe we have a big adventure coming for us when we reside with God.

Today, I think things disguise themselves to distract you from Christ. Good supernatural beings always point to Jesus. If you run into them ask it if he worships the God-man Jesus born of Mary. If it can’t affirm that you have a demon on your hands.

What to do?

First thing, you need to know is don’t go looking for this stuff. You have enough trouble in your life, don’t go signing up for more. It’s real.

Second thing, sometimes a scratch on your window is just a tree branch

Three the do exist so you need to not be scared but be prepared and you have three things to help you

Blood of Christ, confession of Christ, the Person of Christ

Confession

If you run into something you have the confession of Christ to protect you and to use as a test for authenticity. If it can’t confess Jesus is Lord, you tell them he is.

Blood

If you’re in real trouble, remeber you are covered in the blood of Jesus. You know the hymn “What can wash away my sin”

Devils are in Sin, you are covered by the blood none of their works have power over you. Never forgot it, pray it back, delcare it.

Jesus

If you forget all of this, remember he is yours and you are his. He protects his people, call for him to help you and he will.

Conclusion

Why doesn’t Jesus Know about the end of the world?

You may have read:

Matthew 24:36 NKJV

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

Mark 13:32 NKJV

32 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

And that may have left you with a question how can Jesus not know this?

That Brings us to the nature of the God-man

The nature of Jesus

Jesus is one person, but has two natures Fully God and Fully man.

Fully God

John 1:1–5 NKJV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Fully man

John 1:14–18 NKJV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ” 16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

The Issue

That most people don’t understand how Jesus did what he did and what the incarnation means. They missunderstand the person and nature issue. This leads to two errors, Nestorianism tottally divided, or Euthyhcism tottally mixed.

The answer

Jesus is one person, with two natures One God, One Man.

The Fully man Jesus was able to do the miracles he did because he was able to perfectly obey God sinlessly and was empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the acts of God perfectly.

God cannot Change, but the man Jesus could.

As a human being he had to grow Luk 2:52

Luke 2:52 NKJV

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Jesus experinced Tiredness

John 4:6 NKJV

6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

He had to become fully human to delver us from Sin, having a body and Soul

John 1:14 NKJV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Romans 8:3 NKJV

3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

So he was fully man, with all those limitations. God in all powerful, The divine Christ is aswell, but the human Jesus could not lift skyscrappers like superman.

JEsus repetedly knew the future, but only when the Father would reveal it to him through the SPirit which he would not do at times.

He ddin’t know who touched him, He marveled at the faith of the Centurion and so on.

Background

This discussion has been going on for a long time so much so that the church in 451 AD had the counsal of Chalcedon to define the nature of the God-man

You had two major camps

The Near Blending camp, and the Near dividing camp

They came to this statement

Historic Creeds and Confessions The Symbol of Chalcedon

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [coessential] with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

If you can’t agree with that, you’re probaly not a Christian.

To wrap up

There are 3 major positons in Western Christian thought 2 I reject and one I find Biblical

The Roman positon

is that the divine permiates the person of Jesus and is therefore present, yet distinct, this is reflected in their view of the supper

The Lutheran position

is that the nature of the divine is communicated to the human nature. Think of a kettle, This also is reflected in the supper

And the last postion, mine and the one that I believe is correct.

The Reformed Positon

That the finite cannot contain the infinite. Jesus had experinced in the human flesh all the things of man as we established.

So Jesus did what he did by the power of the Holy Spirit. All the Trinty is present in the actions and teachings of Jesus.

This maintains a strict seperation of the natures and at the same time makes Jesus relatable to us.

He truly suffered, so he knows your sufferings. He really grew up. He really know what it is like to depend on God. He knows what it’s like to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

When you take the supper he is Spiritualy present, but he is bodlily present in heaven before the thrown of his father making active intersession for you.

1 John 2:1 NKJV

1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

We love our prayers warriors, Jesus is your commander and chief.

Haaving human flesh he was able to be our perfect priest as only a men could be a priests

Hebrews 2:17–18 NKJV

17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

That is why we don’t have priests, any longer, the work has been done. The perfect priest broke his body on the cross.

The whole point is this he had to be fully man to as PAul the author of Hebrews said

Hebrews 2:9–14 NKJV

9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying: “I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.” 13 And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And again: “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.” 14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

Give the Gospel

Benediction:

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." (Numbers 6:24-26.)