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Series B – Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – Sunday, February 7, 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 mark
0:31	the first chapter
0:40	immediately Jesus left the synagogue and entered the house of simon and andrew with james and john now
0:46	simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever and immediately they told him about her and he came and took her by the hand and
0:54	lifted her up and the fever left her and she began to serve them that evening at sundown they brought to
1:00	him all who were sick or oppressed by demons and the whole city was gathered together at the door and he healed many who were
1:07	sick with various diseases and cast out many demons and he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him
1:13	and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark he departed and went out to a desolate place and there
1:19	he prayed and simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and said to him everyone is looking for you and he said
1:26	to them let us go to the next towns that i may preach there also for that is why i came out and he went
1:32	throughout all of galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons
1:37	this is the gospel of the lord in the name of Jesus amen well last week’s gospel text was
1:44	kind of harrowing if you think about it demons in church this week’s gospel text
1:50	seems to be a little less well ominous but i would argue it’s quite as ominous
1:56	as last week’s text let me kind of explain here so last week we noted that Christ went into the synagogue in capernaum
2:03	and there a fellow manifested a demon and said we know who you are Jesus you’re the holy one of god and Jesus
2:09	told him be quiet and cast the demon out and people were marveling that he had spoke as one with authority and
2:15	even cast out demons and right after that the text says immediately
2:21	Jesus left the synagogue now if you were to travel to capernaum i always travel there using google earth and other
2:27	people’s vacation photos it’s a little less expensive well you’ll note that just a few blocks down the street from where the synagogue
2:34	was is the house of simon peter and andrew and james and john so Jesus is
2:39	heading over to their house and it says this simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever and immediately
2:46	they told him about her we’re going to pause there we got some work to do before we can move
2:52	forward in the sermon but i want you to consider a few things here number one we in our modern
2:59	era fevers can be something that is serious but most of the time for us it’s not
3:06	you’ll note that this is the days before thermometers before antibiotics before tylenol before before
3:12	advil but still even in our time in our time fevers can be serious at the risk of
3:21	giving too much information a week and a half ago my wife woke up with a fever my
3:26	wife has had some complications in regards to covet and other things she woke up with a fever and i grew up in a
3:32	medical family and so i know a thing or two about managing a fever honey you’re gonna need to drink lots of water
3:38	here’s some tylenol four hours later we’ll switch it out with some advil and we’ll kind of be on the rotating
3:44	thing and then constantly monitoring to see how things were progressing well first bout of tylenol it went okay
3:50	she still was maintaining a minor fever and by the time we switched over to advil ibuprofen
3:56	uh things started getting a little worse she was warming up and that seemed to have no effect so by
4:03	the second round of tylenol was we gave that to her and watched in
4:09	the 30 minute period where her temperature went from 102 to 104.7
4:14	and 104.7 we used to be a really good radio station back in l.a on the fm state on the fm side but that’s a
4:20	hold on the thing 104.7 is not a good thing as a fever and i realized at that point
4:25	something was a miss and so i said honey we’re going to the hospital and she
4:31	didn’t put up a fight it was awesome so you know we went off to the hospital and sure enough they found the source of
4:36	what was causing the problem and they prescribed the proper medications and antibiotics to deal with
4:41	the issue and it took a few days for things to settle down and so my wife will tell you she feels
4:48	like she dodged a bullet that was a pretty serious and painful event for her and so you’ll note that even in our days
4:55	fevers can be quite the problem but what do you do in a world where there are no antibiotics well there is
5:00	no advil where there is no way to deal with these things fevers can be a well a life-threatening
5:06	thing and i would note that in our cross-reference to this gospel text in the gospel of luke luke makes it
5:12	clear that not only does she have a fever she had a really bad one an extreme one this was a pretty severe fever that she was dealing
5:19	with now one of the other points i would like to make in regard to this gospel text is this and that is is that we don’t
5:26	know the name of simon peter’s mother-in-law now i’ve noted that one of the things that the
5:32	gospel writers had a tendency to do if they knew the names of the characters especially if
5:39	later during the time when the gospels were being written they often recorded the names of the people
5:44	who were healed by Jesus or had been taught by him and things like this
5:50	in this particular regard i’m kind of glad that they didn’t give us simon peter’s mother’s name and there’s
5:56	a reason why i’m glad about it because knowing how rome has gone off the rails you can already see what would have
6:02	happened had we known the name of this woman right yeah let me just give you a fictitious name
6:09	i’ll use my grandmother-in-law’s name gladys if her name was gladys
6:14	that’s not a hebrew name but if her name was gladys then rome to this day would have made saint
6:20	gladys the patron saint of all women who have a fever and if you have a fever
6:26	you can pray to saint gladys and she will heal you of your fevers
6:31	you know it’s true this is what they’ve done but here’s the thing i always kind of note this other thorny little
6:37	issue is is that had they done that had they actually known the name of this woman and
6:42	beatified her and made her the patron saint of women who have fevers they would have always had to deal with
6:47	that thorny little bit of information that she was the mother-in-law the first pope okay
6:56	how do you explain that one okay yeah because i only know of one way in it to get a mother-in-law i don’t know
7:02	of any other way to get one there’s only one way that i know of to get a mother-in-law that is you have to marry a gal
7:08	all right it’s usually a package deal they come together it’s it’s kind of fascinating but so you’ll
7:13	know that that’s one of the things here but you’re also going to note this that
7:19	simon peter’s mother-in-law who is ill with a fever that there’s no mention as to any kind
7:25	of guilt on her part when it comes to having come sick and
7:32	often times when we deal with illnesses within our own lives we kind of think that illnesses
7:39	kind of work off of the idea of a quid pro quo i did something bad god made me sick now that does
7:47	happen by the way but it’s actually more rare for that to happen consider it this way is that you think
7:54	of somebody who maybe spent their adult life eating a lot of junk food and fast foods and
8:00	things like this and as a result of it later in life they develop diabetes
8:05	and so you can sit there and go well there may be a connection between the two and often times there is or you can think of people who are
8:11	engaging in really gross sexual sins and as a result
8:17	of that they incur a sexually transmitted disease and we can say that there’s a correlation there but the
8:23	thing is is that we are tempted because we understand that we are sinners we are
8:29	tempted when we sin to think that it can be tied directly to an event a sin something that we’ve done
8:36	wrong in our lives and that is actually a wrong way to think about it when we talk about
8:42	illnesses in general and here’s the reason why if i could i know i’m going to end up
8:47	milking the fact that i had kovit for like all kinds of sermon illustrations so my apologies here you guys are going
8:53	to learn more about covet in the next few weeks that you ever wanted to know but i want you to think about this
8:59	all right we’re going to start with a statement that we all know how this statement ends let me let
9:05	me i’m going to put a blank here and you can fill in the blank to air is
9:11	human right but may i strongly vehemently oppose the concept
9:19	to air is not human god made us good god made us in his
9:25	image and you’ll note that in our experience it appears as if to error is human
9:34	but that’s not true so let me pull up the covet illustration here i
9:40	recently had covid was covid a natural part of my humanity
9:48	no kovid was an invader covid was a corruption of my body covid was
9:55	something that my body fought off i was never covid covid is never chris
10:01	all right and if you’ve had covet or any other disease you can say the same thing about yourself and here’s what we must recognize that
10:08	sin is described in scripture in those same kind of terms it is a corruption
10:15	of our nature it is not our nature we are by nature
10:22	after the fall born sinners but still that is a corrupted nature that we’ve inherited from adam
10:29	and eve and the condition the illness is known as sin
10:36	sin that’s the illness sin is the illness now oftentimes we talk about illnesses in
10:42	terms of what is the root cause and what are the symptoms
10:47	well the reason why we sin and the reason why we suffer many in various different
10:54	kinds of diseases and maladies is because all of those are the symptoms of the big condition of
11:02	the root cause known as sin coming back to covid
11:08	you’ll note that if you were to look it up online that coven has a spectrum of symptoms
11:14	and not any one person no one person has them all but what ends up happening is that there
11:20	are some people who have no symptoms or some people who have mild symptoms
11:25	and then you have people who have severe symptoms and the symptoms can include a runny nose you know a fever it could
11:32	also include a rash it could include vomiting and diarrhea and then covered
11:38	pneumonia and the thing is is that nobody can say well you only have a runny nose even
11:44	though you’ve tested positive for covid that means you don’t have covet no
11:49	that’s not how that works so you’ll note then that the condition that scripture teaches us that we all
11:54	suffer from is that we all have a corrupted human nature
12:00	we suffer from and have all tested positive for the disease known as sin
12:07	and that disease manifests in our lives in all kinds of actual sins of
12:15	thought word and deed and it also results in our bodies experiencing various
12:22	and sundry diseases this is all the consequence and symptoms of sin and so you’ll note
12:30	here nothing is mentioned about simon’s mother-in-law having committed this sin
12:35	therefore she is now suffering a fever and so we can all then consider it this way
12:40	every time each and every one of us falls ill whether it’s a cold or whether it’s
12:46	covid or maybe some long-term ailment like diabetes or cancer that we recognize
12:53	that each and every time that something like this happens to us it’s like a little mini death if you
12:59	would a reminder of our mortality a reminder of the fact that we all have tested
13:06	positive for sin and we all as human beings kind of have a natural
13:11	fear a loathing a uh something we don’t want to have happen in our life
13:16	and that is to have that conversation with our doctor you know if you’re smart and i’m not
13:22	necessarily smart if you’re smart you you visit your doctor with some regularity maybe once a
13:27	year and all that kind of stuff it’s kind of like taking your car into the shop to make sure you get a tune-up
13:33	at least that’s what i’ve been told but we all fear that one of those days one
13:38	of those years when we show up at the doctors and you know they do all the blood work and they run all the tests every year to make sure everything is
13:44	okay we all fear that one conversation where they say you know we found something odd in your test
13:51	results and we’re going to need you to come in to have a discussion with you about them we all fear that conversation not only
13:58	do we fear it we there’s a second part to it because the the one conversation we don’t want to have is
14:04	for the doctor to look us in the eye and say we’ve run the test the results have come back you’re going to need to get your
14:10	affairs in order because you haven’t got long to live we all fear that
14:16	it’s it’s a conversation that none of us wants but i would argue something here and
14:23	that is is that as a pastor i have to tell you the truth about the
14:29	condition that you and i all suffer from and that is this is because
14:34	we have all tested positive for sin because we have all failed to love god
14:39	with our whole heart mind body soul strength because we have also
14:44	egregiously failed to love others as ourselves as Christ has loved us
14:50	this is proof the tests have come back that you have all tested positive for sin and i hate to
14:57	say this you’re going to need to get your affairs in order because you are going to die
15:04	and you sit there and go but wait Christ is the great physician this is a text about Jesus healing
15:10	somebody doesn’t Jesus always heal no and you’re going to see that as this
15:15	text develops your condition is terminal the wages of sin
15:20	is death you have rebelled against god i have rebelled against god we have
15:26	earned the very death that god has promised to give us and Christianity does not promise us
15:32	that we will not experience the death that we deserve as the consequences of
15:37	our sin in fact Christianity and trust in Jesus
15:42	is not the vaccine for sin that analogy doesn’t hold
15:49	instead what Christ promises each of us those who’ve been brought to penitent faith in Christ
15:55	who trust in Christ’s vicarious work to save us from our sin
16:02	that he will bring us through death into life that’s
16:09	what’s promised to all of us and so you’ll note here one of the interesting things we see in our gospel text
16:16	is this and that is that simon peter’s mother-in-law she didn’t decree
16:24	she didn’t declare it doesn’t even say that she prayed in fact you’ll note this she did
16:31	nothing Jesus came to her instead we learned this that
16:38	peter and andrew james and john they told Jesus about her and Jesus
16:45	came to her and i want you to consider this then when you see here that they told Jesus
16:51	about simon peter’s mother-in-law see this as a form of prayer and it’s
16:57	really easy for us to say but but but but but they got to see Jesus face to face
17:02	he they were in his presence he they could see him and they could know that he was
17:07	hearing them do you think when it comes to prayer that matters one wit
17:13	it doesn’t Christ Jesus is our great high priest in our mediator before god
17:20	and the scriptures assure us that he hears us when we cry out to him and so you’ll
17:25	note then that even though we do not have the joy yet and notice i said yet yet
17:32	of seeing Christ face to face we can too bring to Christ’s attention
17:39	those whom we love and care for who are in need of the great physician to come and to
17:46	touch them and here’s the next part which i think is so beautiful that i love this aspect of
17:53	the gospel of mark because these little details regarding Christ’s tenderness
17:58	and humanity really shine forth it says that Jesus came and he took her by the hand and he
18:06	lifted her up i think about the text that’s coming in a few months where Jesus goes to the house of jairus
18:13	the synagogue ruler whose 12 year old little girl was at the point of death and she died while Jesus was on the way
18:19	because you know that woman showed up with the issue of blood and caused a disturbance and a delay and Jesus wasn’t
18:25	able to get to jerius’s daughter before she slipped into the next or into the next world but Jesus tells
18:32	jerry’s do not fear only believe and he goes into the inner room where the corpse of the little girl was and it says he took her by the hand he
18:39	took her by the hand and he said these wonderfully wonderfully tender words to her
18:44	talithakumi i say little girl arise and she did and she did and i would note
18:51	something here that Christ’s hands have touched all of us who have been baptized in in
18:59	colossians chapter 2 it says that each and every one of us when we were baptized
19:05	we were circumcised with a circumcision made without human hands the circumcision of Christ and so
19:13	Christ’s hand has touched every baptized believer already and
19:19	Christ has called us already from the grave because in our baptisms we have been
19:25	united with him in his death and his resurrection and Christ’s tender hand
19:30	has already touched you who are baptized into Christ
19:36	so note then that Christ takes her by the hand lifted her up and the fever left her how could it not
19:43	right and then note it says she began to serve them and i would note this is an appropriate
19:49	thing from time to time i’ve noticed that uh don don mathson here at kongsfinger
19:56	he will send people away from the divine service by saying go in peace serve the lord these are good words
20:03	these are good words you sit there and go oh well that means you’re ending on law no it doesn’t it doesn’t mean that at
20:10	all you’ll note that paul emphatically states in ephesians 2
20:16	that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works and this
20:23	is what happens with all who are true Christians Christ raises them up and they begin to
20:29	serve god and neighbor joyfully from their heart doing the good works that Christ has called them to do
20:35	that’s a good point to make and so you’ll note then that after this at that that evening
20:41	word got out of what Jesus had done to simon peter’s mother-in-law and healing her
20:46	and that is that evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons and the whole
20:53	city was gathered together at the door and Jesus healed many who were sick with
20:58	various diseases cast out many demons and he would not permit the demons to speak because they
21:03	knew who he knew who he was now it’s important to note here that Jesus didn’t then say you
21:08	know i think it’d be a good idea if we eradicated disease within the middle east and he didn’t set up a tent healing
21:15	revival there in capernaum and turn capernaum into a pilgrimage site
21:20	where if you had any kind of various illness or malady or demonic oppression that you can come and
21:26	Jesus eradicate it if Jesus wanted to he could have easily done that
21:31	but he didn’t why that’s not why he came and this is where we
21:38	must recognize then that signs and wonders are used to
21:44	validate the message that is being taught signs and wonders are not where the real
21:52	power is and giving people miraculous healing doesn’t solve
21:58	the actual root of the problem the root of the problem is sin these are the symptoms and i would
22:04	note here that Jesus’s healing of simon peter’s mother-in-law
22:10	was a temporary fix how do i know because she’s been dead
22:16	for two millennia in other words another illness came at a
22:22	later date and she died but the question is did she perish did
22:29	she perish eternally the answer is no she had faith in Christ so you’ll note then here’s an important
22:35	important thing for us to consider in our day there are charismatics
22:41	people in the nar and other wingnut whackerdoodles on tbn out there
22:46	claiming that Christ always heals everybody who comes to him Jesus
22:52	heals this is as i used to say when in seventh grade this is bellogna
22:58	all right this is not true and this text of ours proves it emphatically i want you to
23:04	consider what it says so rising very early in the morning while it was still dark Jesus departed and went out to a
23:12	desolate place and there he prayed this is a different sermon topic but always consider the fact that Christ is a man
23:18	of prayer the very son of god in human flesh is a man of prayer
23:23	if the son of god in human flesh is a man of prayer we ought to be as well people of prayer prayer is very powerful
23:31	very potent very important and the devil would confuse us
23:36	and misguide us and mislead us regarding prayer but that like i said that’s a different sermon but here’s what it says so it’s early in
23:42	the morning you can they didn’t have eggs and bacon because they were jewish so i’m not sure what they were eating
23:48	for breakfast i just loathe and lament the fact that
23:54	there was no bacon you couldn’t smell this bacon being made there early in the morning but maybe the eggs were coming
24:00	up and i don’t know maybe some toast or a bagel or something who knows but the point is while it was still
24:06	early simon and those who were with them they were searching for Jesus and they found him and they said to him
24:14	everyone is looking for you at the breakfast hour there was another
24:22	crowd in front of peter’s house and peter had to go hunting for Jesus and
24:28	say come on it’s time let’s get let’s get these people healed that’s really what he’s implying
24:35	but Jesus said to them let us go on to the next town so that i may preach there also for that
24:41	is why i came out and he went throughout all galilee
24:46	preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons and we know from earlier in this exact chapter of mark
24:54	that Jesus is a repentance preacher his messages repent and believe the good news believe the gospel
25:01	and so you’ll note then this Christ didn’t come to set up a healings signs and
25:07	wonders show the signs and wonders validated the message that he preached
25:13	but the message he preached was the actual thing that was dealing with the root
25:19	cause of all of these illnesses and demonic oppressions and the root cause is sin repent and
25:27	believe the good news addresses the fact that each and every one of us have tested positive for
25:32	sin and we need the comforting words of the gospel that in Jesus there is forgiveness mercy
25:39	grace pardon and peace and god has lavished this good news and this mercy upon us
25:46	because of his great love for us it is the gospel that scripture says is the power of god unto salvation
25:53	for all sinners who believe you and i included Christ died for the ungodly
26:00	paul says in romans 4 and guess what we all qualify
26:06	and because we all qualify then you’ll note that it is through the preaching of the gospel that thus
26:11	the root cause of of our maladies is addressed it is only through the
26:18	gospel then and you’ll note that that’s the reason why Christ came out and what did Christ do he preached
26:25	repentance and he preached the forgiveness of sins and after his death and his resurrection
26:30	he passed the mantle i’m going to use that term just to tweak some people he
26:35	passed that mantle on to his apostles and told them to proclaim repentance and
26:41	the forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations beginning in jerusalem
26:47	and they did and those apostles made disciples as Christ commanded them to do and those disciples made
26:53	disciples who made disciples who made disciples you and i are here today hearing the
27:00	good news of the forgiveness of sins in Christ because we have been prayed for
27:07	people have told us about told Jesus about us and Jesus has come to us forgiven us
27:15	renewed us strengthen us feeds us cares for us and you’ll note then
27:21	that this work then continues today the preaching of the good news and through that preaching
27:27	we are made right with god and i would then note this there is a text in isaiah in isaiah 53
27:35	talking about how Christ has borne our illnesses how Christ has borne our diseases and by
27:40	his stripes we are healed and this i want to make clear is absolutely
27:45	true and that Christ wills for all who believe in him to be perfectly
27:53	healthy but not now only on that day when he reaches out
28:01	his hand and lifts each and every one of us out of the grave the real grave that we are all heading
28:07	to on that day we will be like him because we will see him as he
28:14	is he will raise us in bodies that will have no sickness no disease and won’t age so horribly the
28:22	way we age just look at me i’m a train wreck right there’s a day coming
28:28	and so note then that Christ truly has borne our sicknesses in himself and he truly wills for each and every
28:35	one of us to be perfectly healthy not now then and so take comfort
28:41	brothers and sisters take comfort in the fact that Christ comes to us and he lifts us
28:48	up and heals us of the fever of sin and all of its consequences and this he
28:54	does out of his pure love grace and mercy that he’s had on us not because of anything that we’ve done
29:01	but because of everything that he has done so this fifth sunday of the epiphany
29:07	take comfort in these words take comfort in the fact that even if you’re suffering
29:12	physically in your body that Christ has never left you or forsaken you and that all the promises that you will
29:19	someday rise from the dead are sure and true because you have been united with Christ
29:24	and he has conquered sin death disease and the devil in the name of Jesus amen

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