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Series A – Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany – Sunday, January 29, 2017 | 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
0:29	the holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew chapter 5 verses 1 through 12.
0:34	seeing the crowds Jesus went up on the mountain and he sat down his disciples came to him he opened his mouth and he
0:41	taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of
0:46	heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall
0:53	inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be
1:00	satisfied blessed are the merciful for they shall receive Mercy
1:05	blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God blessed are the peacemakers for they
1:11	shall be called the sons of God and blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the
1:19	kingdom of heaven and blessed are you when others revile and persecute you and
1:24	utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account Rejoice be glad for your reward is great in heaven for
1:31	so they persecuted the prophets who were before you in the name of Jesus
1:37	I’ve been looking forward to this text for some time and the reason for it is
1:43	actually quite well bad uh let me put it this way in the annals of Christian history there are littered literally the
1:49	wrecks of terrible sermons that utterly miss the point of the Beatitudes and as a result of it if you get this
1:56	wrong you end up laying a very heavy burden on people because it gets read like this you can
2:04	be blessed if you do this that’s law
2:11	but if you pay attention to what Jesus is saying here this isn’t law this is
2:17	proclamation of gospel the revealing of how things really are
2:22	now let me give you an example of some bad preaching on this from somebody
2:27	who’s passed away do you all remember Robert Schuler Hour of Power and the Crystal Cathedral
2:34	this was a guy who was really really into positive thinking and he wrote a
2:39	book apparently about the Beatitudes called the be happy attitudes and let me read
2:45	from the book sleeve here’s what it says many seek happiness in wealth Fame relationships even drugs and of course
2:52	they fail so the question is how can we be happy I thought the song just said don’t worry
2:59	be happy I digress in his most inspirational best-selling book to date Dr Robert
3:07	Schuler the spiritual host of the weekly telecast The Hour of Power probes the
3:12	Beatitudes for the answer and discovers eight Universal positive mental
3:18	attitudes that have been used for their healing value Through the Ages through
3:23	them you can make real happiness truly possible in your lives
3:29	you’re looking at me like that’s what Jesus was getting at right
3:35	let me give you some examples so the be happy attitudes number one I need help I
3:42	can’t do it alone so I need to learn the miracle working statements I need help and I am sorry that’s his explanation of
3:49	beatitude number one beatitude number two I’m really hurting but I’m going to
3:54	bounce back learn when bad things happen to good people they become better people
4:01	Dan does anyone see the problem with that statement learn that when bad things happen to good people they become
4:06	better people I thought scripture said that none is righteous not even one or how about beatitude
4:14	number three I’m going to remain cool and calm and corrected uh blessed are the meek is a poor translation
4:20	apparently Meek in the Bible means the mighty and the stable and beatitude number four really I really want to do
4:26	the right thing so I need to learn how to adopt a go for it attitude toward my
4:32	life and my dreams the awkward silence in here is palpable
4:39	I suspect that you all are thinking that doesn’t sound quite right and the reason
4:46	why is because it’s not Jesus nowhere in the Beatitudes was telling you to have a
4:51	go for it attitude and the Beatitudes are not about steps that you take after
4:57	affirmations that you speak so that you can have a happy and fulfilled life
5:04	that’s transaction talk we all know how transactions work I do this the
5:11	agreement was that if I do this you will give me that transactions work well at
5:17	Walmart they work very well with employers if you work for me 40 hours a
5:22	week then I will pay you this amount of money deal
5:28	these are good deals that’s a transaction and when you talk about the Beatitudes in this way you turn the
5:34	Beatitudes into a transaction now let me give you another example the purpose-driven fellows have put
5:41	together their own recovery program akin to like Alcoholics Anonymous now I am
5:47	not saying the recovery programs are a bad thing but I am saying that what they celebrate recovery folks have done by
5:54	taking the Beatitudes and turning them into eight recovery principles they’ve totally missed the point of what the
6:00	Beatitudes are about and so here’s how they treat the Beatitudes that I need to
6:05	realize that I am not God which is like a no duh kind of thing I must admit that
6:11	I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable so step one based on the
6:17	first beatitude is Happy are those who know that they are spiritually poor that means I need to earnestly believe that
6:23	God exists that I matter to him and that he has power to help me recover beatitude number two happy are those who
6:29	mourn for they shall be comforted this means I need to consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to
6:37	Christ’s Care and Control you hear the law in there I must
6:42	consciously commit all of my life and will to Christ’s care and control how
6:48	long is that going to last 60 Seconds five minutes and if you’re really gutsy
6:56	maybe 10 . I’ve made the decision that I’m going to commit all of myself to God
7:04	was that a Ferrari I saw coming over here in this I seem distracted sorry
7:09	that’s kind of the point we still have a sinful nature so when you turn the Beatitudes into law in this way you miss
7:16	the whole point now the late Ken Bailey who was a good biblical scholar and the author of the book Jesus Through Middle
7:23	Eastern eyes I think he has some great insight as to how to properly understand the Beatitudes here’s what he says the
7:30	beatitude should not be understood to mean if you are Meek then you will
7:36	inherit the earth and see the if then that’s law he says as a group the Beatitudes do not mean
7:43	blessed are the people who do X because they will then receive y the point is
7:48	not exhortation for a certain type of behavior instead they should be read
7:53	with this sense look at the spirituality and authentic Joy of these people who
7:59	have or will be given X he continues instead blessed be the
8:04	happy daughter of Mrs Jones because she will inherit the Joneses Farm the woman in question is already the happy
8:11	daughter of Mr Jones she is not working to earn the farm so everyone knows that
8:16	a key element to her happy and secure life is that she and the community around her know that the farm will one
8:22	day be hers the first statement affirms a happy state that already exists the
8:29	second statement affirms a future that allows her to even now to live in that happy life
8:35	so you’ll notice it doesn’t say in the Beatitudes blessed will be
8:42	it says blessed are now I know that sounds pirity so let me
8:48	change it up blessed is how’s that you are already blessed so with that
8:53	let’s return to Our Gospel text Matthew chapter 5. we’ll start at verse one we’ll pay
9:00	attention to something going on here seeing the crowds Jesus went up on the mountain and when he sat down his
9:06	disciples came to him he opened his mouth and he taught them now this is important who is Jesus preaching to
9:14	Believers are unbelievers Believers and this makes all the
9:19	difference in the world now there is a big error that occurs in many churches today and I don’t not sure
9:26	where this came from but the idea is is that a pastor literally goes to the pulpit and he preaches to the people in
9:34	a Christian Church as if they’re not Christians
9:39	and I would ask the question what is the result of that type of preaching in your own psyche
9:47	if the pastor doesn’t assume that you are Christians but assumes that you are pagans then he’s never going to boldly
9:54	Proclaim that Christ has loves you blood and died for you that you are forgiven that you are a child of God that your
10:01	sins are washed away all of that instead he’s always going to preach with this
10:06	kind of thing in mind you may be forgiven you might be one of those who
10:13	is but I’m not exactly sure so I I don’t want to give you a false hope
10:19	Jesus here is preaching to Believers as if they are believers now remember
10:26	Christians do good works because they are Christians not in order to become
10:33	Christians so if you’re doing your good works in order to go to heaven
10:39	you’ve missed the whole point and you’re going to fall far short because there ain’t no amount of Good Works you’re
10:45	going to be able to do to get you there instead Heaven is given to you and
10:51	Christians are regenerated given a new nature this is all a gift from God it’s
10:57	not a transaction Christ does this for you so just like cows moo
11:02	cats meow because they’re well cows are cows and that’s what cows do and cats are cats and that’s what cats do
11:08	Christians do good works because they are Christians so this isn’t transaction talk
11:15	this is Christ literally revealing to you your blessed State as Christians
11:23	so he opened his mouth and he taught them and he said blessed are the poor in
11:30	spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven this is a scandalous statement on
11:36	this part and this is part of the reason why I spent so much time in last Sunday’s sermon digging into what the
11:41	kingdom is if we were to boil last the week sermon down the kingdom has a king it has a people
11:48	it has a land now in our case as Christians we have a king we are his people
11:55	and we do have a land but you can’t point to it anywhere on our globe so right now I’m looking at the Kingdom
12:02	because I see the people of the Kingdom and Christ is here present our King
12:08	now the land we’re looking forward to is well the promised land the new Earth so
12:13	keep that in mind and so for Jesus to say blessed are the poor in spirit you can almost say spiritual Beggars or
12:18	those who are spiritually bankrupt theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven he’s saying the kingdom they have it already
12:24	now and it has nothing to do with kicking the Romans out of Israel nothing
12:30	to do with that at all so this is a very scandalous statement on Jesus’s part and
12:35	it’s important for us to know that Jesus is actually in a sense rephrasing and working with Isaiah chapter 66 verse 2.
12:42	and here’s what Isaiah 66 2 says this is the one to whom I Yahweh is speaking
12:49	whom I will look He Who is and the ESV says humble and contrite in spirit and
12:57	trembles at my word let me put it back into Hebrew he who is Ani
13:03	that means poor or afflicted he who is poor or Afflicted and contrite
13:09	in spirit and trembles at my word what does it mean to be poor in spirit
13:15	well it’s the person who through the preaching of God’s law realize well I
13:22	ain’t got nothing there’s if I’m going to be saved by my good works I ain’t going to make it because every time I
13:28	look into the mirror of God’s law the reflection that comes back is quite
13:34	awful this is why we confess I am by Nature sinful unclean I’ve sinned against God
13:41	in thought in word and indeed check the Ten Commandments and you keep
13:47	coming up woefully short and so to be poor in spirit is to literally turn your pockets out and say Jesus I know I’m
13:54	supposed to have something in my pockets but I got nothing
14:00	and Jesus says of those who realize this that theirs already is the kingdom of
14:06	God because only when you have nothing can you receive from God everything does
14:13	that make sense so this describes the humble and Pious person who knows that they need God’s
14:19	grace and they tremble at God’s word
14:27	next beatitude blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted now it’s
14:35	important to note this is not talking about the morning that comes as a result of losing somebody close to you
14:41	there are those who are unbelievers who experience this type of mourning and
14:46	that is not a blessed state in their case blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted so let me read
14:53	from Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verses 2 through 5 to help us understand what this morning is talking about here’s
15:00	what it says in Ecclesiastes it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting
15:07	for this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart sorrow is better than laughter for by
15:15	sadness of face the Heart Is Made glad the heart of the wise is in the house of
15:20	mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of Mirth it is better for a
15:25	man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools so the type of
15:32	mourning we’re talking about is the morning of an introspective life as opposed to a life that basically busies
15:39	itself and works really hard and then well lives for the weekend and then
15:44	spends the weekend pretty much engaged in Mindless frivolity
15:51	but we as Christians hearing God’s law and gospel we mourn as a result of the
15:57	fact that we ourselves are evil and we mourn over our evil the evil in
16:04	our lives the evil in our world as we realize our inability in and of
16:09	ourselves to conquer it we cannot and we realize that we are utterly failures when it comes to loving God and
16:16	loving our neighbors as we ought and this then produces in us a Godly grief
16:22	and a Godly mourning and blessed are those who experience this morning which
16:29	is why it is also important that pastors preach both law and gospel and they
16:36	don’t shave off the hard edges of the law fearing that they might offend or hurt somebody we all need to be hurt in
16:43	this way because this causes us to see the truth about ourselves and to seek God’s mercy blessed are the meek Jesus
16:51	continues for they shall inherit the earth now you’ll notice our translations
16:57	say Earth this could technically be translated the land which is it the land or the Earth and
17:03	I’m convinced that Jesus’s original hearers his disciples would have heard the word erids
17:11	and they would have thought land because remember a kingdom is a king a people
17:17	and a land but what does Scripture say is the promised land for Christians
17:24	is it a small postage stamp size piece of property out there in the Mediterranean which everybody in the
17:30	world seems to love fighting over which doesn’t make a lick of sense to me is
17:36	that is that what were promised no the text says they shall inherit the earth
17:41	now I want to point you to a very interesting passage in the Book of
17:47	Romans in the Book of Romans chapter 4 and we’re going to note one particular
17:53	word but before we get to that word I would like to remind you when God
17:59	Appears to Abram before he becomes Abraham he’s living in Ur of the chaldees decent neighborhood back in the
18:06	day and he’s basically told to take his family and head to the promised land
18:13	and he gets there and lives as a Sojourner and then he dies Hebrews tells us that that the promised
18:22	land always pointed to the promised land which is actually
18:27	the new Earth here’s another verse that will help us here’s what it says in Romans chapter 4
18:33	13. for the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be the heir
18:40	of the what does the text say world
18:46	world notice that the promised land here in
18:52	Romans 4 13 isn’t talking about a piece of property in the Mediterranean it’s
18:58	talking about every piece of property on the whole planet
19:03	so here’s the idea coming back to this beatitude blessed or the meek for they
19:09	shall inherit the earth and brothers and sisters if you are one who has been
19:14	brought to mourn over your sins if you are one who has been brought to well see
19:21	yourself as poor in spirit you are humbled by God remember humble
19:27	yourself from the sight of the Lord he will lift you up the meek the lowly
19:32	the oppressed the foolish in the eyes of the world not the strong or the rich and
19:38	the Mighty the meek are the ones who will inherit the entire Earth because
19:44	the meek are the ones who are the ones who can be given to who have nothing and by having nothing
19:50	have everything and so you notice Jesus is describing these people how they
19:56	already are and assuring them that in this that you
20:01	already are that they are happy and blessed oh and that blessing gets even better
20:07	blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they
20:12	shall be satisfied now Jesus does not say here blessed are
20:19	those who live righteously and maintain a righteous lifestyle we got to make
20:25	sure we understand this rather he affirms blessed are those who hunger and
20:31	thirst after righteousness the statement presupposes that righteousness is
20:36	something that the Christian continuously strives after the blessed
20:42	are not those who arrive but those who continue at whatever cost
20:48	in their pilgrimage toward a more perfect righteousness this is the countless constant Relentless drive
20:55	towards righteousness that characterizes the Blessed because they are already blessed remember you do what you do
21:02	because you is what you is Paul in Colossians chapter 3 gives us an
21:07	example of what this looks like remember in Colossians chapter 2 he gives us that brilliant wonderful gospel that Christ
21:15	has take the record of death that stood against us and he nailed it to the cross
21:20	disarmed it completely fulfilled it no longer can the law accuse us we are saved by grace through faith it’s all
21:27	gift from God and because we are regenerated through the water to the
21:33	water and the word that because of that regeneration we have now been raised with Christ and listen to what he says
21:40	in Colossians 3 if then you have been raised with Christ brothers and sisters
21:46	have you been raised with Christ I would say oh yeah you bet your bippy you have you have been raised with
21:52	Christ because you have been buried with him in the waters of your baptism you’ve been raised with him in the waters of
21:58	your baptism your sins have been washed away you have been regenerated you are connected to Christ you’ve died and you
22:05	are now alive in him so because you have been raised with Christ listen to this seek the things that are
22:11	above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your minds on the
22:17	things that are above not on the things that are here on Earth for you have died this is most certainly
22:24	true and your life is hidden with Christ in God and when Christ who is your life
22:30	appears you will also appear with him in glory therefore put to death what is
22:35	Earthly in you this is what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness knowing that we still have a sinful
22:42	nature whose only desire is to do the wrong thing with an increasing appetite for more of
22:49	the wrong thing and so we as Christians because we are Christians are admonished
22:54	to put to death therefore what is Earthly in us and this includes sexual immorality impurity evil passions evil
23:02	desires and covetousness which is idolatry that’s right you Farmers if you
23:08	keep looking over at the other farm and thinking man I wish I had that combine beware beware on account of these things
23:15	the Wrath is coming and these you two once walked when you were living in them but now you must put
23:22	them all away put away anger wrath malice slander and obscene talk from
23:28	your mouth don’t lie to one another seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on
23:35	the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator here there is not Greek and Jews
23:42	circumcised and uncircumcised Barbarian scythian slave Norwegian polish
23:48	you get the point but Christ is all and in all so put on then as God’s chosen
23:54	ones because you are already his chosen ones and You Are Holy and you are
24:00	beloved so therefore put on compassionate Hearts kindness humility meekness and patience bear with one
24:08	another if one has a complaint against another forgive each other as the Lord
24:14	has forgiven you so too you must forgive and above all these put on love which
24:19	binds them all together in Perfect Harmony and Let the Peace of Christ rule
24:25	in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and so you’ll notice here
24:30	scripture in spurring us on to Good Works it’s that hunger and thirst for
24:37	righteousness that is already there because we are new in Christ and so we
24:42	have our sinful nature we have the new nature they’re warring with each other I get it so take your old Adam bring him
24:49	to the Waters of baptism and hold his head in the water until the bubbles stop unfortunately he can hold his breath for
24:56	a long time I’m just saying that’s the idea to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to say I can’t stand
25:02	what this guy wants I want the things of Christ and you hunger and thirst for
25:09	them when was the last time you were hungry I mean really hungry I remember my kids I’d go out and play in the yard and they’d come back Mom I’m starving no
25:17	really you’re not you’ll be just fine but you kind of get the idea hunger and thirst is something that’s like all consuming that’s kind of the idea and we
25:25	are already this in Christ blessed are the merciful they shall
25:30	receive mercy and I can think of no better words to explain this than the Lord’s Prayer forgive us our trespasses
25:36	as we forgive those who trespass against us remember we forgive because we are
25:42	forgiven blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and you’re thinking how can I get me one of those
25:49	well remember scripture says in Romans 2 29 that circumcision is a matter of the
25:54	heart done by the spirit not by the letter and that in Colossians 2 we hear that you were also circumcised with a
26:02	circumcision made without hands by the putting off of the body of the flesh but the circumcision of Christ having been
26:08	buried with him in baptism in other words you have been given by God this
26:13	gift of a pure heart and because this is gift well you will see God
26:20	you don’t have to make your heart pure you’ve been given a pure heart in Christ
26:25	blessed are the peacemakers they shall be called sons of God
26:31	what does this mean well I think Paul’s words from second Corinthians chapter 5
26:36	verses 18 through 21 are quite apropos here because what was Jesus doing on the
26:43	cross he was making peace between us and God
26:49	here’s what it says all of this is from God through whom Christ reconciled to us
26:54	to himself and he gave us that’s us Christians the ministry of reconciliation
27:00	reconciliation totally implies that well there was a hostility that existed and
27:07	so now the hostility between us and God has been reconciled by Christ that is in
27:13	Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the
27:21	message of reconciliation therefore all of us Christians we are now ambassadors
27:27	for Christ and God is making his appeal through us to all of the people we know
27:34	and he’s imploring people on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God
27:40	for our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God
27:46	so a peacemaker well that’s simply one who tells everyone what Jesus has done
27:53	to make peace with God for us and blessed are those who are persecuted
28:00	for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you
28:08	and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be
28:13	glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you and we all know
28:20	if you tell people but they are sinners and that Christ is bled and died for them that they cannot
28:26	save themselves by their good works but they must be brought to repentance and Trust in Christ for the Forgiveness of
28:33	their sins that when you start talking this way and say Jesus is the only way or you basically say you know that Allah
28:40	God that the uh the Muslims worship that he’s an idol or whatever or you make some kind of an affirmation on your
28:47	social media on Facebook or whatever that affirms what the Christian faith teaches what’s going to happen to you
28:54	people are going to unfriend you they might begin gossiping about you and saying well awful things about you that
29:01	aren’t even true and Jesus says when that happens
29:06	understand this that you are already blessed and that yours is the Kingdom of Heaven
29:13	you have it already and rejoice for your reward in heaven is great and you think man if it’s all gift
29:20	how can it be a reward that’s one of the great mysteries of Christianity because we are given to and we receive and why
29:27	is it that the world rails against the good news that we have to Proclaim well
29:32	our epistle text says it’s so succinctly for the word of the Cross is folly to
29:37	those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God
29:45	and we are being saved Brothers and Sisters in Christ I’m here to pronounce to you that you
29:52	are blessed you are poor in spirit have been brought to mourn over your sins you are
29:59	peacemakers because Christ has made you all of these things and the Kingdom of Heaven is yours and you will stand
30:06	before him someday face to face not in shame not to hear depart from me I never knew
30:13	you but you will stand before him so that he can say to you well done good and faithful servant because your sins
30:19	are forgiven because you have been given a pure heart you have been United with Christ in his death and his resurrection
30:26	you have heard the Absolution your sins are forgiven there is no better blessed
30:32	State than the state that you are in and understand this what we believe by faith now because you might say well I don’t
30:39	feel blessed and I don’t exactly look at either but that doesn’t take away from the fact
30:45	that you are that someday our faith will give way to sight and you will see Jesus
30:52	face to face and he will say to you like I said well done and you will be with him forever
31:00	Jesus is King you his people in the new Earth that he is bringing
31:05	with him when he comes back and in that new Earth he himself will even wipe away every tear from your eyes
31:13	you are blessed in the name of Jesus amen
31:18	[Music]

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