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Stay grounded in God's Word As He was leaving the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" "Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus, "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?" Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. [Mark 13:1-7] "A man walked into a small grocery store to buy a box of cereal. He was amazed to see every shelf in the store filled with jars of mayonnaise. He told the owner of the store, 'I want to buy a box of cereal but I can't find any.' The grocer said, 'It's in the basement. Follow me.' "They went down into the basement and it too was filled with cartons and cartons of mayonnaise. The man said, 'Wow, you must sell a lot of mayonnaise!' The grocer said, 'No, I don't sell much mayonnaise. But the guy who sells me mayonnaise - boy, can he sell mayonnaise!'" (Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com) Some people will buy anything if the salesman is convincing enough. Satan can't make temptation work unless he can convince us to buy into the deception that yielding won't hurt us. Deception is something all of us have probably experienced. In the above text, while Jesus and His disciples were leaving the temple, the disciples complimented the building's magnificence. Jesus dismissed the physical beauty of that structure. He told them that the temple was doomed for destruction in future years. In 70 A.D. the Romans completely destroyed it. The text continues, the disciples went to Jesus and asked Him to tell them about the last days or the end times. Jesus' response was, "Be on your guard." When Jesus tells us to be on guard, He is telling us that we have an enemy who is the devil. The devil is an expert deceiver. He is an expert salesman, the best. He is constantly selling nightmares. Unfortunately, for those who buy what he has to sell, by the time they find out what they have really bought, it is too late. They discover that they have exchanged Paradise, for the nightmare of hell. As we come to the end of the Church year, we talk about the end times. In our world today, there are many people going around talking as if they know the time and the hour of Jesus' return. They claim to have this knowledge through revelation, which they have gleaned from Scripture. Yet the Bible tells us that only God's knows that day. There is a story about a Scotsman named Arthur Ferguson who was a remarkable salesman. He was so good, he "sold" Lord Nelson's Statue, which was affixed in London's Trafalgar Square, to an American for about $30,000. Later he sold the famous clock Big Ben to another American for $5,000 and took $10,000 from yet another as down payment on Buckingham Palace. By the time the law caught up with him, he had sold the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. He spent several years in prison for his remarkable deceptions. There are many Arthur Fergusons going about selling lies about our Lord's return. Stay grounded in God's Word and be on guard. You cannot be deceived if you stay focused on the cross and live according to God's Word of truth. Amen.
Rev. Samuel M. Boodle, Pastor The Lutheran Church of Nassau, P. O. Box N 4794, Nassau, Bah. Phone 323-4107.
Thursday, November 19, 2009 |
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