LutheranLectionary.org

1 Year Lectionary – Second Sunday After Christmas – Sunday, January 2, 2022 | 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
0:28	the holy gospel according to saint matthew the second chapter and hang on a second here
0:35	there we go [Music]
0:43	when the wise men had departed behold an angel of the lord appeared to joseph in a dream and said rise take the child and
0:49	his mother and flee to egypt and remain there until i tell you for herod is about to search for the child to destroy
0:55	him and he rose and he took the child and his mother by night and departed to egypt and remained there until the death
1:02	of herod this was to fulfill what the lord had spoken by the prophet out of egypt i have called my son
1:08	then herod when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men became furious and he sent and killed all the male
1:14	children in bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under according to the time that he had
1:20	ascertained from the wise men what then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet jeremiah a voice was
1:27	heard in rama weeping and loud lamentation rachel weeping for her children she refused to be comforted
1:33	because they are no more but when herod died behold an angel of the lord appeared in a dream to joseph
1:39	in egypt saying rise take the child and his mother and go to the land of israel
1:44	for those who sought the child’s life are dead and then he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the
1:50	land of israel but when he heard that archelaus was reigning over judea in place of his father herod he was afraid
1:56	to go there and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of galilee and he went and lived in a city called
2:02	nazareth that was and that was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled he shall be called a
2:08	nazarene this is the word this is the gospel of the lord in the name of Jesus
2:15	amen you guys remember the terminator movies you guys remember those now i may be aging myself some of you may not have
2:21	actually seen those movies but i remember very distinctly the first one was okay i mean a terminator a robot
2:28	sent from the future to kill a woman sarah connor right but terminator 2
2:34	creeped me out it absolutely just grabbed my attention and creeped me out and the reason being is because
2:42	no matter what happened that terminator thing kept coming kept coming kept coming and
2:50	you couldn’t get rid of that thing it was figuring out how to destroy it well that was all part of the plot so have
2:55	you ever stopped to think that um the devil is a lot like that and what we see in the terminator movies is a very
3:02	good depiction of how the devil operates in our gospel text today we hear of
3:09	just how wicked and evil herod is in fact think of it this way i mean how how
3:17	wicked is he he knows that the messiah has been born and his first response is to see if he
3:25	can get the magi the wise men of the east to reveal to him where the messiah
3:31	is so that he can go and worship him right and when that didn’t turn out and the
3:38	wise men kind of made a fool of herod in a rage he decides he’s going to
3:43	worship Jesus in his own way and that is he’s going to have him murdered
3:51	who does that i mean could you imagine the scandal today you know president biden orders all kids
3:59	in bethlehem pennsylvania two years old and under to be murdered right i think this wouldn’t this would make
4:05	the news i think that people would be upset i think there would be opinion pieces written saying that that’s a really really evil wicked thing to do
4:13	and so you’re going to note that herod he just cast this wide net he doesn’t send out agents to figure out who Jesus
4:19	is and have him murdered he just cast this wide net everybody two years old and under if you’re a boy you’re dead
4:26	and it’s absolutely wicked beyond all reason but you’re
4:31	going to note then this is how evil operates and i would note that evil in
4:37	operating in this way in its tenacity and its hatred towards the one true god
4:43	is really really delusional and i want you to think with me for a
4:48	second here can the word of god be broken
4:54	no if the word of god says something’s going to happen you know what’s going to happen the thing that the word of god
5:00	said right and so you’ll note that in our old testament text here we have god
5:06	promising israel jacob was his birth name israel is his given name by god
5:12	promising him that go ahead go into egypt i’m going to bring you out i’m
5:17	going to build you into a mighty nation there and i will victoriously bring you out did god bring the children of israel
5:24	out of egypt yes the whole book of exodus is all about that does god ever make a promise
5:30	and not follow through no so in our gospel text today you’ll note these important words
5:38	that after an angel appears to joseph in a dream and sends him to egypt
5:45	joseph having dreams egypt that sounds vaguely familiar and
5:51	it should that you hear these words in our text this was to fulfill what the
5:57	lord had spoken by the prophet out of egypt i called my
6:02	son so if god prophesied through the prophets of the old testament that his
6:09	son would spend a sojourn in egypt and then come out of egypt was herod going to be able to kill Jesus prior to that
6:16	nope not at all because god’s word cannot be broken and this is important for us so
6:23	as we consider then how does evil operate and believe me this has
6:28	implications for all of us we’ll note that evil is delusionally
6:34	well wicked and tenacious singly focused in fact it’s in the book of exodus that we
6:41	hear something akin to what we hear in our gospel text in exodus chapter 1 we read
6:47	these words the king of egypt pharaoh you know the guy with the snake hat think about that for a second a guy with
6:53	a snake hat sounds like a stand-in for the serpent right the devil right when the king of egypt said to the
6:59	hebrew midwives well one of the whom was named shifra and the other pua
7:04	when you serve as a midwife to the hebrew women and you see them on the birth stool if it’s a son you shall
7:11	kill him if it’s a daughter she shall live. wow all the way back in egypt the
7:20	devil was trying to figure out how to murder the messiah could you imagine had
7:25	all the male children of the hebrews been slaughtered
7:30	that would have put an end to the promise of the messiah the seat of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent right
7:37	is satan ever going to be able to succeed in his maniacal plans
7:42	no no in fact i would like to kind of posit this idea if you would for a
7:48	second that when we read through scripture especially the book of revelation and other places it’s as if
7:55	well the devil himself is wiley coyote
8:00	and the church is the road runner i mean he’s always coming up with these plans
8:06	to destroy the church and they always end up blowing up in his face
8:12	but that never seems to stop him so going back to exodus 1 here the midwives
8:18	though they feared god and they did not do as the king of egypt commanded them but they let the male children live so
8:26	the king of egypt called the midwives and said to them why have you done this and let the male
8:32	children live and i love this these women lie through their teeth to pharaoh the midwives said to pharaoh well
8:38	because hebrew women they’re not like the egyptian women apparently the egyptian women were pampered and rich
8:45	and spoiled and weak you know those those slave women of the hebrews they were vigorous you know and they said and
8:51	they said this the the hebrew women they’re vigorous they give birth before the midwife comes to them they just pop
8:57	them babies right out and you know we have no opportunity to murder those poor little male children lying through their
9:03	teeth and so the people multiplied and grew very strong and because the midwives fear god god he gave them
9:10	families and pharaoh commanded all his people every son that is born to the hebrews you shall cast into the nile but
9:16	you shall let every daughter live you’ll note similar themes to our gospel
9:22	text but what is behind this what is behind this is the devil himself and
9:27	it’s here where we should pay attention to what paul is saying not paul sorry
9:33	peter is saying in our epistle text telling us how we
9:38	as Christians are going to participate in the sufferings of Christ if you
9:44	haven’t started participating in those yet see me in about five minutes after
9:49	the service things will start to heat up shortly after that it’s just generally how this goes remember the devil is like
9:55	wiley coyote but here here’s how we think about this in revelation chapter 12 revelation
10:01	chapter 12 we have this picture here of what the devil has been up to the entire
10:08	time and what he’s currently doing now revelation chapter 12 verse 1 says this
10:13	a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars
10:21	now i know that rome thinks this is the virgin mary it ain’t all right you can tell because later this woman flees into
10:27	the wilderness and god protects her and stuff like that this is a picture if you would if you you know the 12 the moon
10:33	the sun the 12 stars that sounds a lot like one of those joseph dreams from the book of exodus that’s the point here in
10:40	revelation chapter 12 we get a picture of the church of the old testament not
10:47	specifically the virgin mary but the bride of Christ in the old testament at
10:52	in the new same kind of imagery kind of bleeds over but you get the idea here
10:58	and it’s in the in the woman the believers of the old testament that
11:03	Christ comes out of she was pregnant crying out in birth pains in agony of giving birth another sign appeared in
11:10	heaven behold a great red dragon seven heads ten horns on his head seven
11:16	diadems now i would note that uh not even on my worst day would i like to go toe to toe with a seven-headed red
11:24	dragon it sounds like that would be the end of my life the picture in imagery itself invokes well certain death this
11:32	is a weird theme to have to be preaching around Christmas time because it sounds like something i should be preaching at
11:39	halloween you know this scary imagery but here’s the thing you’ll note
11:44	that in our gospel text that well all the shepherds have gone the stars
11:50	disappeared the magi have gone back to where they’ve come from mary and joseph
11:55	haven’t even had a moment to unpack and unload the gifts that they had received
12:00	from the magi when they get word from an angel that they need to skedaddle and
12:06	wander off into egypt and they left that very night you’ll note that the
12:12	Christmas themes themselves do not have us sitting there constantly looking at Jesus lying in a manger Jesus is picked
12:19	up and handled like a football and had sent off to egypt in order to protect
12:25	his life we walk in danger all the way the hymn says and so you’ll note this
12:31	obsessed wily coyote red dragon with seven heads ten horns on
12:37	his heads he this is the one who had swept down a third of the stars of heaven talking about the angels of
12:43	heaven cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she
12:48	bore her child he might devour it she gave birth to a male child one who was
12:53	to rule all the nations with a rod of iron but her child was cut up to god and to his throne and then the woman fled
12:59	into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by god in which she is to be nourished for 1260 days you know a
13:07	time time half a time that 1260 days is the time from Christ’s ascension until
13:12	the time of his return you get the idea and so how did that work out for satan i’m
13:18	going to devour the child well that didn’t work out Christ Jesus not only was he born he grew
13:25	he laid down his life he was crucified for your sins and mind rose victorious
13:30	from the grave ascended to the right hand of the father there he reigns and rules to this day well that didn’t work
13:38	out for the dragon so and we hear now what happens in the aftermath of Christ
13:44	victorious death burial resurrection and ascension
13:49	and that is is that the devil was well he had to change careers a
13:54	little bit the next part of revelation shows us what the devil had been up to
13:59	up to the point of Christ’s burial and resurrection and death for our sins and that is is that apparently he was
14:06	the worst attorney ever very litigious you know so think of the devil you know
14:12	before Christ’s death for our sins he was up in heaven accusing the saints
14:18	filing lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit and Jesus’s death on the cross silences him here’s what it says now war
14:26	arose in heaven michael and his angels fighting against the dragon the dragon and his angels they fought back
14:32	but he was defeated there was no longer any place for them in heaven and the great dragon then was thrown down that
14:39	ancient serpent who was called the devil and satan the deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to the earth
14:46	and his angels were thrown down with him and i heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation the power and
14:52	the kingdom of our god and of the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been
14:57	thrown down who accuses them day and night before our god and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb
15:04	and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death therefore rejoice o heavens and
15:10	you who dwell in them but woe to you on the earth the devil has come down to you in great wrath
15:15	because he knows that his time is short so think of it this way Christ’s death on the cross for your sins he was
15:22	pierced for your transgressions bruised for your iniquities and mine that this then takes away the accusing power of
15:28	the devil and michael and the angels give him a new job if you would he’s no
15:35	longer an attorney and you’ll note that usually when things go poorly for something that you’ve planned this is a
15:41	time for self-reflection and to consider your life choices
15:46	but did the devil consider his life choices and decide you know maybe just maybe i should give up this fight
15:52	against god because it’s not going to go my way no not at all and we now being forgiven by Christ the
16:00	devil cannot accuse us of anything in fact paul says in colossians 2 that the
16:05	record of debt that stood against us has been canceled and has been nailed to the cross there’s nothing that the devil can
16:12	accuse you with you are covered by the blood of Christ you are clothed in his righteousness but here’s the thing
16:18	having them been thrown out of heaven and to earth the scriptures say that he’s come down in great wrath because he
16:24	knows that his time is short yippee for us but watch what happens next this is
16:30	exactly like a road runner cartoon the dragon then saw that he had been thrown
16:36	down to the earth and so he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child but the woman was given the two
16:41	wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time time and half a
16:48	time and the serpent poured out water like a river out of his mouth and after the woman to sweep her way with a flood
16:55	but the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river so the dragon had
17:01	poured from his mouth every attempt by the dragon to destroy the church god
17:07	miraculously steps in and saves the church and well does this give the devil
17:13	pause no he keeps at it so then the dragon became furious with a woman went
17:18	off to make war on the rest of her offspring that’s us on those who keep the commandments of god and hold to the
17:24	testimony of Jesus so as we hear in our gospel text how herod
17:30	wanted to murder Christ and in so doing ended up murdering a whole lot of
17:35	innocent children and we hear about what well happened in egypt all those male
17:40	children who were put to death because again the schemes and the evil of the devil to somehow put an end to the
17:46	promises of god again i ask you can god’s word be broken
17:52	no it cannot so it’s in that regard then we should consider what peter writes to us because
18:00	the fight is here it’s now and the devil is like the terminator that second one that
18:06	morphs into things and deceives and all that kind of stuff and he ain’t gonna stop he ain’t gonna stop coming after you
18:13	coming after me coming after the church coming after those who bear the testimony and confess Jesus Christ as
18:19	their savior for the forgiveness of their sins he ain’t gonna stop which means what
18:26	suffering and persecution are the order of the day
18:32	and listen to what peter says beloved do
18:37	not be surprised i had no idea that Christianity was all
18:44	about suffering who knew all right yeah i had no idea that i was going to be
18:50	persecuted for saying the truth i thought the people were going to give me the key to the city
18:56	right no don’t be surprised at the fiery trial
19:02	when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you
19:08	have you ever stopped to think just that sentence alone verse 12 of chapter four of first peter
19:14	would probably and should give people pause at like lakewood who believe that they’re having their best laugh now you
19:21	know what i’m saying here because they’re they’re going to be completely caught off guard
19:26	suffering persecution i didn’t sign up for that i signed up to be a millionaire
19:32	in the name of Jesus well that ain’t going to happen right but here’s what peter says
19:37	rejoice in so far as you share in Christ’s sufferings
19:43	how is that possible because god’s word cannot be broken
19:52	just like herod was not going to be able to kill Jesus it was never going to happen because god’s word cannot be
19:58	broken have you stopped to consider that when you are made to suffer and a
20:03	fiery trial comes upon you as a Christian that god’s word said that that was
20:08	exactly the thing that was coming so you should sit there and go wow that word of god is amazing i saw this coming
20:16	i’m not surprised by the fiery trial i know that it’s here and so you know what i’m going to do i’m going to rejoice
20:23	that god keeps his word
20:29	you all don’t seem like he’s sitting around i don’t know about that i mean should we take suffering so lightly that
20:34	we rejoice about it well it says it right there well that’s that’s my ipad but it’s in your bible if you’re reading along you
20:41	get the idea so rejoice in so far as what you share in the sufferings of Christ
20:51	and every time we are made to suffer as Christians when people lie about us
20:56	slander us come at us make us suffer take away our jobs all because of our
21:02	confession and cry or even take away our lives and i’ll say this here this is a little
21:07	bit of a sobering fact there’s a vicar of a lutheran denomination down in australia who am i friends with and last
21:15	week i had a conversation with him i knew that he was he had gone dark on social media hadn’t
21:20	really seen him for a bit so i checked in you know did one of my friend friendship things checking and seeing
21:26	how you’re doing vicar how’s it going and he got backed with me and we set up a zoom call and we talked
21:33	for a little bit but uh part of the reason why he went dark and why he was really kind of down
21:39	is that at the time remember when kabul fell last year
21:45	well he had been working with some Christian churches that were in afghanistan
21:52	and he was on a zoom call with some of the people in one of the churches in kabul when the taliban knocked on the
21:59	door of the church and he watched video stream live
22:06	as the taliban demanded that these Christians renounce Christ
22:14	in his accounting of it there were several very brave souls who
22:20	very firmly said we will never renounce Christ and they were gunned down as he watched
22:29	the religion of peace strikes again
22:35	but here’s the thing in my conversation with him
22:41	he actually was able to rejoice because he knew they were with Christ
22:46	you see we Christians have nothing to fear when it comes to death one of the church fathers says we
22:52	Christians are the masters of death and why is that because we’ve already died
22:58	the scriptures say that when you are buried with Christ in the waters of baptism you are raised with him you’ve
23:03	got death already off your bucket list so you’re already dead we are the masters of death and what does the word
23:10	of god say and the word of god cannot be broken Christ is giving you
23:16	the new heavens and the new earth they belong to you he’s coming back just like he said just
23:23	like satan couldn’t kill him just like satan can’t really destroy you when you are made to suffer rejoice that you are
23:32	participating in sharing in the in the sufferings of Christ so that you may
23:37	also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed therefore if you are insulted for the name of
23:44	Christ you are blessed do you believe these words
23:50	god’s word cannot be broken you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of god rests upon you but let
23:58	none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evil doer or as a meddler if
24:03	you’re suffering because of that well then you’re that’s not suffering in the truth that’s called punishment you’re
24:09	being punished for your sins yet if anyone suffers as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify god
24:17	in that name for it is time for judgment to begin with us
24:22	what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of god and if the righteous is scarcely saved
24:27	what will become of the ungodly and the sinner therefore let those who suffer according to god’s will entrust their
24:34	souls to a faithful creator while doing good
24:39	again we hear in our gospel text this took place to fulfill what was spoken by
24:45	the prophet this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet hear then what the prophet says
24:53	about us a little bit of a picture so when we are made to suffer and we
24:58	will be when the fiery trial arrives and it will if it hasn’t already and if you’ve just finished one don’t worry
25:03	another one’s coming the word of god cannot be broken here’s
25:09	what the prophet says in isaiah chapter 60 we begin begin to
25:15	get a picture of the world that is to come and there’s a specific prophecy about those who are troubling us and
25:22	they should would do wise to pay attention to it and maybe turn away from their sin and
25:28	repent but in isaiah 60 we have this wonderful passage where in looking at the eschaton
25:34	you get a picture of something that relates to Christ and then it bleeds over and has implications for us here’s
25:40	what it says starting at verse 1 arise and shine your light has come the
25:46	glory of yahweh has risen upon you behold darkness shall cover the earth thick darkness the peoples but yahweh
25:52	will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you and nation shall come to your light and the kings to the
25:58	brightness of your rising so lift up your eyes all around and see that they all together they come to you your sons
26:05	shall come from afar your daughters shall be carried on the hip this is talking about Christ note that there is
26:11	a day coming when all the nations those who have been brought to faith in Christ from every tribe nation language people
26:19	they will come streaming into the new jerusalem and they will even be bringing their
26:25	children with them one of the things i think is really important here is that
26:31	despite the horror that the women of bethlehem went through who lost their
26:36	children that day they were in Christ
26:41	and Christ will give them back to them their daughters their children will be
26:47	carried on the hip as they journey and sojourn now to the new jerusalem to see their lord and
26:53	savior and worship at his feet in his presence then you shall be radiant and your heart
26:58	will thrill and exalt because of the abundance of the sea it will be turned to you the wealth of the nations it will
27:04	come to you a multitude of camels shall come come cover you young camels of
27:09	midian and ephah those from shiva shall come they shall bring gold and frankincense and bring good news the
27:15	praises of yahweh all the flocks of kadar shall be gathered to you the realms of nabayaf shall minister to you
27:22	they shall come up with the acceptance on my altar and i will beautify my beautiful house who are these that fly
27:29	like a cloud and like doves to their windows for the coastline shall hope for me the ships of tarshish first to bring
27:36	your children from afar their silver their gold with them for the name of yahweh your god and for the holy one of
27:42	israel because he has made you beautiful foreigners shall build up your walls and their kings will minister to you for in
27:49	my wrath i struck you but in my favor i have had mercy on you your gates shall
27:54	be opened continually day and night they shall not be shut so that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations
28:01	and their kings led in procession for the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you it will perish
28:07	and the nations shall utterly be laid waste the glory of lebanon shall come to
28:12	you the cyprus the plain the pine to beautify the place of my sanctuary
28:18	and i will make the place of my feet glorious the sons of those who afflicted
28:23	you listen to verse 14 the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low
28:28	to you and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet they shall call you the city of yahweh the zion of the
28:35	holy one of israel so note then even those who trouble us now as Christians who persecute us and
28:41	make us suffer because of our confession of Christ the word of God cannot be broken the
28:47	prophet has made it clear speaking the words given to him by the holy spirit isaiah makes it clear that even
28:53	those who afflict us will come and bend low before Christ and other passages of
28:59	scripture make it clear that they will be made to confess the lord loved us
29:06	so can the word of God be broken no when you think of that
29:13	comical seven-headed red dragon it was the original wily coyote he still
29:21	is to this day Christ has defeated him and he cannot defeat you because you are in
29:26	Christ in the name of Jesus amen

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