SermonKilling Messengers of God
An all-creatures Bible Message

Killing Messengers of God
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
8 March 2015
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Luke 13:33-35
John 2:19-25
Acts 7:51-53

Killing messengers of God has been an evil blight on religion for thousands of years.
 
People who follow the corrupt ways of this world don’t want to hear the truth, so they lash out at the prophets and other messengers who brought them the information.
 
In John 2:19-25, we are told about how God’s foremost messenger, Jesus Christ, responded to those who lashed out at Him for bringing them the good news.

19. Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 
 
20. The Jews therefore said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"
 
21. But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

We run into similar backlash when we tell people about how God wants us to live in His heavenly will here on earth, and end the killing and eating of animals and all other ways of exploiting them.
 
Most mock at the fact that animals were created with souls and spirits just as we are, and that they want to live just as much as we do.
 
And maybe these corrupt and evil people don’t try to kill us as they did Jesus, but they still continue to torture, kill, and eat animals in full knowledge of the fact that they are causing them to suffer horribly.
 
So instead of changing from their evil ways, they harden their hearts and souls until they become indifferent to the suffering of animals, which is exactly what they did when they killed Jesus.
 
People listen to the lies of the agribusinesses who say that their animals are “happy”, or that they don’t suffer or feel pain, so that the people who join them in their corruption of God’s truth and heavenly intent will use their lies in an attempt to justify their own indifference to the suffering and death they promote with their gluttony and money.
 
They also help spread the lies about it being manly to eat meat, and that we need animal foods to get our protein.
 
These are the same kinds of people who are killing messengers of God, and who killed Jesus.
 
They are followers of the devil, the father of lies, and not of the Lord our God.
 
Don’t be like them!

22. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken.
 
23. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, beholding His signs which He was doing.
 
24. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men,
 
25. and because He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man.
NASB

In other words Jesus knew the evil that was in their hearts and souls, and knew that the intent of their hearts and souls was about killing messengers of God like Himself.
 
Do you remember what Jesus said about these kinds of people when He entered Jerusalem the week He was killed?
 
Note what we are told in Luke 13:33-35…

33. "Nevertheless I [Jesus] must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.
 
34. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!

And even though Jesus knew the evil intent of most of the people, and that they were prone to killing messengers of God, He still reaches out to them in love, the same kind of love that a mother chicken extends to her babies.
 
We don’t believe that Jesus used this example of a mother chicken by accident; He was also telling the evil people that even the animals had more love and compassion than they did.
 
So Jesus goes on and tells them about their fate.

35. "Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' "
NASB

And it’s not just mouthing the words, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'
 
It’s about truly meaning it, because many people said this when He entered Jerusalem, and then a few days later turned around and shouted, “Crucify Him!”
 
These are the people who are killing messengers of God.
 
And listen to what Stephen said to those who were killing messengers of God, before they stoned him to death, as we are told in Acts 7:51-53.

51. "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.

They are willingly following the lies of this corrupt world rather than following the truths of God.
 
This is the same kind of hardness of heart and indifference to the suffering of others that most people are projecting against animals and the people who care about them.
 
And this includes people who eat and wear animal products, because like those who directly raise and kill animals, these consumers also are complacent in the suffering and death of the animals, and are equally guilty of resisting the unction of the Holy Spirit.
 
This is also the root cause of all of the religious wars and violence that have existed for thousands of years.
 
God wants to bring us peace, but the devil wants corruption and bloodshed.

52. "Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;

They are like Manasseh, the ungodly king of Israel; tradition holds that he killed the prophet Isaiah by having him sawn in half in a hollow log.
 
They are like those who abuse animals on farms and in laboratories, and finally kill the animals without any empathy.
 
They are sociopaths!

53. you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep
it."
NASB

And Stephen’s words are not just meant for the people some 2,000 years ago, they are meant for every person who has hardened their heart and soul against the unction of the Holy Spirit and the heavenly will of God.
 
We are not to be like those people who were killing messengers of God, or in other ways belittling them.
 
We are to be the peacemaking children of God that Jesus called us to be.
 
We are to bring heavenly love and compassion to the earth for all humans and animals.
 
We are to be the life givers who stand against the powers of evil that bring only pain, suffering, and death.
 
We are to help free creation from its present corruption.
 
We can do it!
 
Amen.

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