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Series B – Third Sunday of Easter – Sunday, April 18, 2021 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:23	The holy gospel according to saint luke
0:30	the 24th chapter glory to you oh lord
0:37	as they were talking about these things Jesus himself stood among them and said to them peace to you but they were startled and
0:45	frightened and saw they thought they saw a ghost and he said to them why are you troubled and why do
0:50	doubts arise in your hearts see my hands in my feet that it is i myself touch me and see
0:56	for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that i have and when they had said this he showed
1:01	them his hands and his feet and while they still disbelieved for joy they were marveling he said to them have you anything here
1:07	to eat so they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate before them
1:13	and then he said to them these are my words that i spoke to you while i was still with you that everything written about me in the law
1:19	of moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled then he opened their minds to understand
1:25	the scriptures and said to them thus it is written that the Christ should suffer
1:30	and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to
1:36	all nations beginning from jerusalem you are witnesses of these things and behold i
1:42	am sending the promise of my father upon you but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high
1:48	this is the gospel of the lord in the name of Jesus amen all right so a little bit of
1:57	it seems like i’m going to start off on a tangent and i think i need to so you know me i like photography art is
2:04	something that i do to keep my sanity because my my other day job requires me to
2:10	slog through copious amounts of heresy and joshua my son describes that as the
2:15	swamp of sadness swamp of sadness that’s that’s not a bad way to think about it so art is something that i’d use to keep
2:22	my sanity and so i thought i would do something kind of fun something kind of renaissance right so what i thought i would do is take a
2:29	class online on art history i’m thinking why not study the masters
2:34	and and really study art because you know it’s pretty well i’ve been listening to a series of
2:40	lectures in my art history class online by a french gal by the name of lis martino
2:46	now that’s how she pronounced her name i’m just mimicking it i don’t know any french and she was doing an in-depth
2:53	analysis of the message that is encoded in manet’s last painting
3:00	which i have reproduced in your bulletin the name of the painting is a bar at the follies bergere and uh
3:07	it’s pretty i mean there’s that girl she’s dressed opulently and of course you’ve got the wonderful inside interior of this
3:15	this facility the folla’s bergere and you’ve got the gilded ceilings and
3:20	the chandeliers and all this kind of stuff and i was thinking this should be an interesting lecture right
3:26	well let me do a little bit of digression here all right we’ll talk about this and what it means because it
3:32	has everything to do with well our good works and so i’m going to interpret this as a theologian it’s
3:38	through the lens then of our gospel text and then a little bit more of first john so we live in the 21st
3:46	century right yeah so here it is 2021 and everything wrong with our society who
3:53	have we been blaming it on you know well the boomers right and especially
3:58	those ones that brought us the sexual revolution because have you noticed that uh well you know society as it is
4:06	the whole thing regarding sexual immorality has just run amok in our nation right well
4:14	i hate to say this but my art history class has proven to me that the sexual revolution isn’t the problem
4:20	you know what the problem is we are the problem sin that dwells within us
4:25	and so i would note that this particular painting although it’s hard for me to explain the
4:30	finer interpretations of it that what that many put the code coded in here
4:36	but what he is doing in this painting is talking about the state of affairs and
4:42	the overt hypocrisy of so-called civilized culture in france in the end of the 1900s
4:50	now let me talk about what happened that kind of busted things open for people in europe
4:57	at the time if you remember the middle of the 1900s we get darwin writing the origin of species
5:04	right he writes the origin of species and then he writes another book that talks about how the different
5:10	genders supposedly descended using evolution and in darwin’s theory that he
5:16	postulated regarding how we now have different genders he’s he basically says that the first humans
5:22	that evolved from monkeys and apes that they had both sexes in one person
5:28	and then eventually that split out and that men evolved quicker than women
5:33	and he overtly taught that women are inferior to men
5:38	inferior and now you’re sitting there going i think we should stone darwin i agree let’s get to it but anyway but
5:45	but here’s the idea then is that and then his ideal understanding at
5:51	least he thinks scientific understanding of how the genders should relate he believed that
5:56	men should be catabolic that was the term he used basically meaning strong rugged
6:01	intellectual getting things done women on the other hand the ideal
6:07	evolved woman is anabolic which means she’s supposed to be
6:12	kind of weak and faint and and and things like this and then according to then spencer who
6:18	followed darwin spencer basically postulated that in this society then
6:24	a good civilized society has a big distinction between the sexes according to catabolic and
6:30	anabolic categories and because women are so weak they really shouldn’t be spending time intimately
6:37	with their husbands unless for the purpose of procreation
6:43	i want you to think about this no intimacy in marriage unless it’s for procreation
6:49	in fact the women in france at the time were a set of pajamas that allowed easy access for intimacy
6:56	should the reason arise for procreation and what this ended up doing was destroying
7:03	families destroying them all in the name of science and of course
7:10	the french were also overtly catholic and so the roman catholic church was
7:15	completely on board with this idea that’s right human intimacy only for the purpose of procreation
7:22	well we all know how that’s going to work because our marriages are our most intimate relationships and
7:28	you’ll note scripture teaches us that it is within the context of marriage that we not only procreate
7:36	but that we also have that important relationship that is so many ways
7:43	symbolizes the body of Christ in their relationship to Jesus right
7:50	and without that intimacy well what ends up happening well in france and this is what manet
7:57	is in basically holding up to people’s noses and faces
8:03	what ended up happening is that prostitution ran amok men’s most intimate
8:10	relationships were with expensive courtesans and what we see in this painting you
8:17	can’t really see it too well here but if you see a color version of it is is that we’re looking at a woman who’s standing behind a bar
8:24	and if you look in the background in the gallery you can see men sitting with their
8:31	well not their wives their wives wouldn’t dress this way they’re sitting with their cortisones
8:36	this is their most intimate relationship and in france what ended up happening is that with prostitution running amok
8:43	we’re talking literally hundreds of thousands of women throughout paris some of them legal some of them
8:49	illegal and what ended up happening is that these men spent their energies on their
8:55	prostitutes rather than their wives it just destroyed the family all under
9:01	the pretense of men who were religiously attending church while at the same time embracing
9:06	the spirit of the age and so what we see in this painting which is kind of haunting is a woman with kind of a blank stare on
9:13	her face and based on the way that she is dressed and in the context of where she is
9:18	manet is subtly revealing that she is a clandestine prostitute and that you can see then in
9:24	the reflection over on the right hand side that she’s being propositioned by a man
9:32	and as beautiful as it is what he’s doing is showing the hypocrisy that’s going on in a civilized society
9:39	that can’t that claims to be religious and follow Jesus Christ the other part that’s a little bit more interesting is that the woman
9:46	the way she’s posed is intentionally designed to mimic one of the most popular ways of
9:53	depicting the virgin mary at that time with her hands open kind of like this you’ve probably seen the statue
9:59	and the face that she has that kind of blank expression is the same exact
10:05	expression as Jesus’s expression in a famous painting depicting him coming in glory
10:10	to judge the living and the dead and what manet is doing here is basically holding
10:15	up to people their rank hypocrisy while claiming to be religious they are engaging in overt sexual
10:23	immorality sounds like the sexual revolution right
10:29	right and so a little bit of another side note along these lines i know the
10:34	art history lesson is a little bit odd for a sermon but on the other part of this is is that
10:40	with the rise of this was the rise of syphilis and you all remember the suffragettes in the
10:46	united kingdom at the beginning of the 20th century what was their slogan you probably know half their slogan
10:52	votes for women that was a claim right votes for women we all know that part of
10:57	it but there was a second half to that slogan because there’s a comma that comes after votes for women the other one was
11:04	chastity for men what we saw in the rise of the suffragettes was a reaction
11:11	against the rank immorality that had run through europe into the uk and other
11:16	places as a result of the embracing of the i the the revolutionary ideas of
11:22	evolution and as a result of it what was happening is that men were going to the brothels
11:28	bringing syphilis home to their families giving it to their wives and when they would get pregnant their children would
11:34	be born either dead or severely infected with syphilis and the women said enough
11:40	is enough and this was all under the guise of a Christian nation under the eyes of you know you know
11:47	people attending church and so we got to recognize here that i
11:53	almost consider that to be more wicked than what we see happening in our days because in our days people don’t even
11:58	care about Christianity right most people who are embracing the new morality
12:04	they have they have no desire to be Christians or attend church and granted it’s come into the church but it’s time for us to
12:10	get real about something and that is is that with the good news of Christ risen from the dead
12:16	the scriptures reveal very clearly that we are set free from sin we are not
12:23	set free to sin and so in that context here again the words of
12:28	Christ from our gospel text Jesus after appearing to his disciples
12:34	he says to them so clearly that he’s not a ghost he even asked for something to
12:39	eat and then he notes that these were the words that i spoke to you that while i was still with you that everything
12:44	written about me in the law of moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled thus it is written that the Christ
12:50	should suffer and then on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance
12:55	and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from jerusalem
13:02	you see it is incomplete to say that oh it’s all about god being love and god forgives sins indeed he does Christ bled
13:09	and died for all of our sins but even peter in his preaching from our first reading today
13:15	calls the people to repent and you’ll note that in peter’s sermon here after
13:21	he after god healed the man who was paralytic
13:26	that peter makes it clear that each and every one of us we are
13:31	responsible for the death of Christ you’ll note that peter just indiscriminately in this sermon
13:37	says that you denied the holy and the righteous one and you asked for a murderer to be granted to you
13:43	have you ever stopped to think how could he possibly do such a thing was he taking names was there a roll call was
13:50	there a sign up sheet on that good friday when Christ was on trial and he says i know that you were there
13:56	it sucked and you abraham i saw you there and jacob and you are all there
14:02	no he doesn’t do that he tells the crowd who had gathered
14:08	there that day that they were the ones responsible and by extension
14:13	you and i are responsible too
14:18	i killed Christ you killed him you asked for a murderer to be released
14:25	to you instead of Christ and as peter then goes on to say we are all guilty then of killing
14:32	the author of life but god has raised him from the dead and because Christ is raised from the dead
14:38	we know that there is mercy forgiveness and reconciliation in Christ and so what does peter do he calls the
14:44	people to repent he says repent therefore turn again so that your sins may be blotted out and
14:50	that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the lord and what does he mean by times of
14:56	refreshing what does he mean you know we’re not talking about sitting
15:01	down and having a nice iced tea on a warm summer day that’s not what he’s talking about he’s talking about
15:08	the buffeting impact and consequences of sin the life that we are living right now is
15:15	described as well in arid deserty wilderness terms this is no place to lay down stakes
15:23	you know for the long term you’re only sojourning through here this is not a proper place to live forever
15:29	instead we are looking forward to a land that flows with milk and honey a true promised land the new earth
15:34	but in the meantime Christ offers us refreshment and that is the refreshment not only of
15:40	the confidence that there is forgiveness in him for every one of our sins but also the
15:45	refreshing work of the holy spirit and producing in us now the fruit of the holy spirit
15:51	love joy peace patience kindness gentleness self-control these sound very
15:58	refreshing and the idea here is is that sin is the opposite of refreshing have you
16:04	ever noticed that you are most disgusted most ashamed of yourself when you always fall short
16:12	it’s never our sin that we’re proud of it’s always the stuff that we know that we’re doing according to god’s will
16:19	and so with that consider then are the words of our epistle text
16:24	in our epistle text and i’m going to kind of focus in on the family aspect of it we remember last week we heard from the
16:31	apostle john that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us this is true but if we confess our
16:38	sins god is faithful and just who forgive us our sins and all of this because Christ has died in our place and so if we say
16:46	we have not sinned we make god out to be a liar and then he gives us these comforting words don’t lose these words as we
16:52	continue it through this passage because if you lose these words you’re going to mess up a proper understanding of what john is
16:58	saying he says i’m writing these things to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin and we have this
17:05	week and today and we will tomorrow we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous he is the
17:10	propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world
17:16	and then he goes on in verse seven and this begins to form the immediate context of our epistle text today
17:22	he says i am writing to you no new commandment but an old commandment remember repentance for the forgiveness of sins
17:29	repentance so that god will send refreshing so here’s the new it’s not a new commandment but an old
17:34	one and the old commandment is the word that you have heard at the same time it is a new commandment that i am writing to you
17:40	which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away
17:47	and the true light is already shining because Christ has risen from the dead
17:52	we have assurance then that the darkness that we were born into the darkness that we still struggle
17:58	within ourselves the darkness that surrounds us with those who oppose Christ
18:03	that this all is passing away and the light of Christ is already shining from
18:09	the empty tomb all of that being said whoever loves his brother abides in the light
18:15	and in him there is no cause for stumbling but whoever hates his brother is in the
18:21	darkness and walks in darkness and doesn’t know where he’s going because the darkness has blinded him and
18:28	so now he starts to bring in family type language it is inappropriate it is out
18:35	of bounds not only is it out of bounds and inappropriate it is flat out contrary to scripture
18:42	to hate your brother
18:48	in fact john is clear that if you are doing this you are not walking in the light so who is your brother well let’s start
18:56	here take a look around brothers and sisters we are all in Christ
19:01	and the scripture refers to the saints always in terms of family y’all are my brothers
19:06	and my sisters you all are family but i would also note then this that each and every one of us
19:13	we also have a mom and a dad we many of us are married and we have a
19:19	husband or a wife or we have children we have brothers and sisters and cousins
19:25	and you’ll note is it me maybe it’s just me that being sanctified in the context of
19:32	a household is always so challenging right you put a bunch of sinners under the same roof
19:38	and you know what they do they annoy each other have you ever noticed that and and families what do they do they
19:44	well they don’t always get along sometimes they fight maybe mom’s you know mom gets upset and
19:51	annoyed and it rupts like a volcano and then dad does too and then the kids start kicking the cat and it just goes from
19:57	the you get what i’m saying right but you’re going to note then in the
20:04	last words the very last sentences of the old testament
20:09	the prophecy given regarding john the baptist talks about something very interesting
20:16	last words of the old testament read as thus behold i will send to you elijah the prophet
20:21	before the great and the awesome day of yahweh comes and he will turn the hearts of fathers
20:27	to their children in the hearts of the children to their fathers lest i come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction
20:35	and so you’ll note here that one of the real fruits of the holy spirit
20:40	is the repentance that comes that leads to fathers having their hearts turned back
20:46	to their children and notice it doesn’t say mothers to their children because moms don’t seem to have a struggle in that department
20:52	for the most part but when a father turns the mom comes along as well it is talking about the wholeness that
20:58	comes the refreshing that we can have even in our own families and this is the
21:04	thing that we all long for is it not is it not the reason why there’s so much rampant sexual immorality and just
21:10	nonsense that goes on from age to age to age is it not because we are seeking love
21:16	we all are well but according to that old country and western song many of us are looking for love in
21:24	all the wrong places right the reality is this what we are
21:30	called to as Christians is to sacrificially love each other
21:35	even if you’re not getting love in return and that’s the hard thing so coming back then to our
21:43	to our epistle text hang on a second here i got to get there watch where john goes he says i am
21:50	writing these things to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake
21:55	the refreshing that comes from the holy spirit through repentance and the forgiveness of sins
22:00	then takes little children so that they obey the fourth commandment willingly not perfectly but willingly
22:08	i’m writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning i’m writing to you young men because you
22:13	have overcome the evil one i write to you children because you know the father i write to you fathers
22:19	because you know him who is from the beginning i write to you young men because you are strong
22:25	and the word of god abides in you and you have already overcome the evil one and so because we
22:31	have been united with Christ in his death and his resurrection in the waters of baptism note then we are not trying to overcome
22:39	the evil one you couldn’t do that if you wanted to anyway Christ has already overcome him and proven so by rising from the dead
22:47	and because we are in him we share in his victory and we have already overcome the evil one so then here is the
22:54	admonition that john gives us do not love the world or the things that are in the world listen the world isn’t going to lead you to
23:01	Christ it’s not the world’s narratives and the values
23:06	and the ideas that are in vogue today they’re going to fall by the wade side in a decade anyway and another crop of
23:12	weird ideas are going to come up and everyone’s going to embrace the new thing you know what you’re supposed to
23:17	do ignore it don’t love the world don’t even listen to it you see anyone
23:25	john says who loves loves the world the love of the father is not in him all that is in the world and it’s all
23:31	categorized in these three distinctions the desires of the flesh yeah i see that on the internet
23:36	desires of the eyes yeah you know you know for all those bright shiny sparkly things
23:42	that there are in the world have you gotten rid of your car that you bought five years ago i mean it’s perfectly good but of course you’ve got
23:48	to get the latest one with the leather seats and the and the gps that drives itself and all
23:53	that right isn’t this how we work just watch the commercials and always always always always you’re just
24:01	you are the desires of the eyes i’ve got to have the latest and the greatest and then also the pride of life
24:06	the pride of life talking about all that that we seek for power and glory for ourselves this
24:14	is not from the father it’s from the world and the world is passing away with its desires and we know this because
24:19	Christ has risen from the dead so whoever does the will of god then abides forever
24:24	now the next section here in this epistle is going to be a warning against antiChrist but i’ve got a whole sermon
24:29	on that coming up in a couple of weeks we’ll talk about that then so then watch where he goes verse 28 of
24:36	chapter two and now little children ah i like this i like this a lot here’s the reason why you want to
24:42	know how god looks at you remember we have the spirit of adoption because Christ has bled and died for us
24:48	we have been regenerated united with him we are now god’s children presently and here god
24:54	the holy spirit is reminding us that not only are we his children oh but he refers to us as his
25:00	little children his little ones and aren’t the little ones always so fun to care for and stuff
25:06	right exactly you and i are god’s little children he says this abide then in him so that
25:13	when Christ appears we may have confidence not to shrink back from him in shame at his coming if you know that he
25:20	is righteous you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him now i
25:25	know a thing or two about practice notice it’s not saying you have to be sinless the idea here is is that because we’ve
25:31	been regenerated because we are in Christ because we have the holy spirit because we live in repentance what do we
25:39	practice righteousness all right now back in the day i used to play golf the reason i don’t play golf anymore is
25:45	because i didn’t need a mistress and golf is like a mistress all right it requires a lot of practice
25:51	you have to practice your long game you have to practice your mid-irons you have to work on your short game you have to work on your putting
25:56	and of course always the psychological aspects because always and again when you’re playing golf the whole game occurs right here in
26:03	your head so if you have a bad shot you can easily go into a fit and that fit will cause another bad shot and it’s just a mess
26:10	so in order to be good at golf you gotta practice and you know what i was tired of putting
26:16	the time necessary to practice golf because at the end of the day that’s just recreation
26:22	you know where i really need to practice i need to practice being a good husband i need to practice being a good father i
26:30	need to practice being a good pastor i need to practice being a good friend
26:37	that’s what i need to practice that and when we apply ourselves to practicing righteousness and selflessly
26:44	loving others we’ll never be perfect at it not until Christ returns or we’re with
26:51	him in glory but we’ll get better at it practice in this case doesn’t make
26:57	perfect but practice is one of those things that we can all do on the contrary then you’ll note that
27:05	practicing evil is the opposite of what we’re called to so then again hear that again these assuring words see what kind of love the
27:12	father that he has given to us i always consider this next part to be almost like
27:17	whispering scandalous things that we should be called the children of god that’s right we i mean look around what
27:24	a motley crew we are a bunch of sinners can you believe it see what kind of love the father that
27:30	he’s given to us that we should be called the children of god are you nuts
27:36	right i like to say that when i get to heaven the prostitutes and the tax collectors are going to go oh good night god’s letting anyone in now
27:43	right that’s the whole point that’s the scandal of the cross that real sinners like you and me that were forgiven
27:50	but see what kind of love love i love this word that love the father that he’s given to us
27:56	and the reason why then the world does not know us is because it didn’t know him you see
28:02	because being selfish and focusing in on the unholy trinity of me myself and i
28:07	that’s not love it’s narcissism and when we are narcissistic we are most
28:13	like the devil yet the world doesn’t know us it didn’t
28:18	know him beloved we are god’s children and here’s the important word now you do not need to strive to be
28:26	god’s children god has made you his children and you are that now and what we will be well it’s not
28:34	yet appeared but we know that when Jesus appears we’re going to be just like him because we shall see him as he is and
28:40	everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure purifies himself through the forgiveness
28:47	of sins that is offered in Christ but everyone who makes a practice of sinning if that’s what you’re really
28:52	practicing well you’re also practicing lawlessness and sin is lawlessness you know that he
28:58	appeared then in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin you see sin
29:04	is not freedom sin is slavery going back to sin is like the well the children of israel in the
29:09	wilderness saying we got to go back to egypt
29:14	life ain’t that way that’s slavery and neither is sin sin is slavery it’s not freedom so no
29:20	one who abides in him keeps on making a practice of sinning no the one who
29:26	keeps practicing sinning has the one who keeps practicing sinning has either seen him
29:31	or known him it’s neither and so little children let no one deceive you whoever practices
29:36	righteousness is righteous as he is righteous and we practice righteousness because we are god’s children
29:43	now and that’s what god’s children do whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil the devil has been
29:50	sinning from the beginning the reason the son of god appeared was to destroy the works of the devil
29:56	sin in all of its ways so no one born of god makes a practice of sinning
30:01	god’s seed abides in him and he cannot keep on practicing sinning because he has been born of god
30:08	so by this it is evident who are the children of god and who are the children of the devil whoever does not practice this
30:14	righteousness is not of god nor is the one who does not love his brother
30:20	so brothers and sisters you’ll note then this is some this is some tough law for us to hear
30:25	but it’s necessary because each and every one of us still has our old sinful nature
30:30	clinging to our necks desiring to follow the world and its messages to follow the world in
30:36	its beliefs to follow the world and its morals and each and every one of us is tempted to
30:42	despise the ones closest to us and think only about ourselves but this
30:47	is not appropriate for those who are in Christ so again let us heed the words of the
30:52	Apostle Peter let us repent so the times of refreshing may come because Christ is risen from the dead he
30:59	is risen indeed alleluia

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