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1 Year Lectionary – First Sunday in Advent – December 03, 2023 | 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
0:28	holy Gospel According to St Matthew the 21st [Music]
0:33	[Applause] [Music]
0:39	chapter when they drew near to Jerusalem they came to Beth to the Mount of Olives
0:44	and then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them go to the village in front of
0:50	you and immediately you will find a donkey tied in a cult with her untie them and bring them to me if anyone says
0:58	to you you shall say the Lord Lord needs them and he will send them at once this took place to fulfill what was spoken by
1:04	the prophet saying say to the daughter of Zion behold your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey on a
1:12	Colt the full of a beast of Burton and the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them they brought the donkey
1:19	and the colt and put on them their cloaks and he sat on them most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road
1:25	and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road and the crowds that went before for him and that
1:30	followed him were shouting hosana to the son of David blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord hosana in the
1:37	highest this is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus Amen all right
1:43	going to start in a weird place today it’s going to help us out at least for the focus that I would like as we look through these texts this year you’ll not
1:50	we’ll look through these same texts next year and the year after that uh we have an opportunity now that we’re on the oneye series to uh really begin to
1:57	memorize the scriptures and to go deep deep into them since the repetition will allow us to do that but I’m going to
2:03	start in of all places Genesis 11 there’s something we need to pick up from this verse in order to kind of key
2:09	in onto what’s going on in Jeremiah 23 here’s what it says now the whole earth
2:15	had one language and the same words and as people migrated from the East they
2:20	found a plane in the land of shanar and they settled there you’ll note that this
2:25	is not what they were supposed to be doing this is After the flood and God is specifically commanded Humanity that
2:31	they are to spread out throughout the Earth they are to go out and fill the earth once again but um they’ve decided
2:40	that they’re going to do what six-year-old girls do when they play soccer and that’s they’re going to play Clump ball have you ever seen
2:46	six-year-old girls play soccer it’s um wow okay uh you’ll know when you play
2:52	soccer people are supposed to have positions you have goalies and then you have forwards and you have people who are Defenders and stuff like that and
2:58	you’re supposed to have your team spread out throughout the whole field but six-year-old girls when they play soccer
3:03	they all just come together in one big Clump and they kind of move around like this and and it’s rather fascinating to
3:10	watch and when somebody scores you sit there and go who scored and how did it happen because how you get a ball out of
3:16	the clump is quite the thing but all of that being said we’re not supposed to play Clump ball after the uh After the
3:22	flood at least Humanity wasn’t supposed to and so they’ve decided that they’re all going to settle there an important
3:28	thing here and that is this is that you’ll note at this point there is one language on the earth and weird thing
3:35	and you ask an evolutionist ask an evolutionist where did all the languages come from you know why do we have
3:41	Japanese and Chinese and why do we have Thai and German and kelt and all these
3:47	other little sub things why why is there Norwegian and Swedish and all this kind of stuff and you know what they don’t
3:52	legitimately know they don’t have an answer but the weirdest thing is that when you look at the archaeological
3:58	evidence all of these languages appeared pretty much at the same time fully developed it’s weird how that happened
4:05	but alas I digress so here L humanity is in one place and they said to one
4:10	another come let us make bricks burn them thoroughly and they had brick for
4:17	stone bitamin for Mortar and then they said come let us build ourselves a city
4:22	and a tower with its top to the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of
4:29	the whole Earth and those are the important words lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth we
4:36	don’t want to leave each other we family is a high value to us and it would
4:42	require us to to leave our immediate family Network to travel across different parts of the world and to fill
4:48	in the earth as God has told us important note here is that within gnosticism they actually offer an
4:54	alternative Theory as to why the people here decided to build the themselves a
5:00	tower it’s rather fascinating as I’ve been doing a deep dive into nosism for the past couple of years and I’ve run
5:06	across this in in several different Gnostic sects and the idea here is is that in gnosticism Yahweh is the bad guy
5:14	okay and so the reason why they were building a tower according to gnosticism and this is one of their secret
5:20	knowledge bits right so I’m telling their secrets here to you and the reason why they built the Tower is so that they
5:26	wouldn’t be destroyed if God decided to send another flood see that Tower would be high enough that they would just sit
5:32	there and go well there’s all the flood waters ner nener ner God you missed us that’s basically their idea and so I
5:39	would note when somebody comes along to you and says listen I know the real reason why something happened in the
5:46	scriptures it’s not in the biblical text but let me tell you it’s over here don’t listen to them okay the text says very
5:53	clearly why this went down the way it did and what their intent was it had
6:00	nothing to do with the fact that they well wanted to survive another flood just in case instead the idea here is we
6:07	don’t want to be dispersed we don’t want to go over the face of the whole earth we want to make a name for
6:13	ourselves so Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built and Yahweh said behold
6:21	they are one people and they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do and
6:28	nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them come let us go down there and confuse their language so
6:35	that they may not understand one another’s speech so Yahweh dispersed
6:41	them from there over the face of all the Earth and they left off building the
6:46	city note the important word Yahweh dispersed them God said nope you’re not
6:52	going to Clump up here and I’m going to spread things out for you and you can imagine it this was had to be quite a
6:59	shock in event there they are working on their Tower and somebody says can you hand me a bucket of nails and a hammer
7:04	please and it comes out right and nobody’s able to get
7:10	anything done nobody can communicate it’s kind of a mess and then you’ve got the big problem of people figuring out
7:16	well who says the same words that I say and so you sit there and go hey does anyone here speak English anyone here
7:23	speak English right and then you know your neighbor who really annoys you says I speak English and you go
7:29	H right not you because now God has chosen your
7:37	network of friends and relatives because what fun is it to hang out with a bunch of people you can’t understand right and
7:44	so this come this brings this entire project to a complete grinding Halt and
7:50	then it goes on to say therefore its name was Babel because there Yahweh confused the language of all the Earth
7:57	and from there Yahweh disperse them over the face of all the earth a little bit
8:05	of a note here if you know anything about Judaism another thing I’ve been studying a lot lately is there’s a group
8:10	of Jews called askanazi Jews have you ever heard this there so if you if you in the Jewish Community there’s
8:16	different kinds of Jews and the ashkanazi Jews are the Jews that settled
8:21	in the northern part of Europe up in Germany in the Ukraine and bits and places like that and they trace their
8:28	name back to one of the sons of Japes named asanas okay so the it’s kind of a
8:34	Biblical idea but you’ll note that they weren’t really dispersed until much later in human history uh asanas was was
8:40	dispersed there first but when they were dispersed and they got to Europe they became known as the ashkanazi Jews and
8:47	so think of it this way we’ve all been dispersed and I hate to say it this way
8:53	but uh you know I begin to think that maybe Karma might be a thing because we hear at konger you know have you noticed
9:00	that God has dispersed us to American Siberia have you noticed that and so I’m thinking that maybe we’ve done something
9:06	wrong and and you’ll note that God has sent them to the North Country you’ll hear that in the Jeremiah passage but
9:12	when you hear it in this context here in Oso Minnesota you have to say that God
9:18	has dispersed us to the nort country right that’s the right way of saying it at least that’s the way the locals do so
9:25	that being said let’s take a look now at at our old Testament text for today
9:31	Jeremiah CH 23 and watch what it says behold the days are coming declares
9:37	Yahweh when I will raise up for David A righteous branch and he shall reign as
9:44	king and deal wisely and shall execute Justice and righteousness in the land
9:51	and you’ll note that this is a prophecy an anticipation of the Messiah Jesus Christ an anticipation of both his first
9:59	and his second Advent but we knowing now that Christ has already come we know who
10:05	this son of David is this righteous Branch the one who shall deal wisely
10:11	shall execute Justice and righteousness in the land and here the word in Hebrew edits could actually function as a
10:18	little bit stronger than land it could be the Earth that’s one of the alternate translations here and you’ll note that’s
10:25	exactly what we’ve got here so at the beginning of our Advent season the beginning of our penitential season as
10:31	we are anticipating celebrating the birth of Christ let us consider the fact
10:37	that because of our sin uh the the the current crop of politicians that we have
10:44	not just here in the United States or in Minnesota they’re weak anemic
10:50	righteousness is not exactly a thing that traffics in our Pol political scene
10:56	and it has been this way for Millennia human politicians and rulers do not deal
11:02	wisely they don’t rightly execute Justice few of them can you call them
11:08	righteous many of them you can call shrewd and some of them you can even call Crooks and you’ll note that part of our
11:16	consequence of sin is bad government and you’ll note the American system kind of
11:23	works well because it presupposes that people are greedy I hate to say that but
11:29	they basically said rather than fight it why don’t we figure out how to harness it and so our entire political system
11:36	and our our our economic system basically has harnessed sin and turned
11:42	it into an economic engine but as we look at what’s happening to our world
11:47	politically and around the world politically we can see that uh we do not
11:53	have anyone that fits this description and as Christians then we long for we
11:59	yearn for we even groan inwardly regarding the fact that the current crop of politicians are such a mess and so
12:06	Christ here is held up to us as one who deals wisely execute Justice he is
12:13	righteousness in his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely
12:18	that’s not happening now and this is the name by which he will be called Yahweh
12:25	is our righteousness and this invokes some beautiful text in scripture Yahweh
12:30	the Lord is our righteousness note then that uh we if we were to stand before
12:36	God in our own righteousness that ain’t going to go well and as we enter into
12:42	this penitential season we are reminded that we are to focus now in anticipation
12:49	of Christ’s birth a focus on the sin that exists within in us that has made
12:55	it not only possible but required for God to send his son so that we can be
13:02	forgiven pardon saved but this text Yahweh is our righteousness invokes some
13:08	wonderful passages in scripture Philippians chapter 3 comes to mind a text I go to with some frequency where
13:15	the Apostle Paul points out that we are to look out for the evildoers who mutilate the flesh those who have an
13:22	outward form of self-righteousness through their self-righteous religion the Pharisees
13:28	and they do not actually worship God by Spirit or truth and as a result the
13:34	Apostle Paul says that we we Christians really are the ones who worship by the
13:39	spirit of God we glory in Christ and we put no confidence in our flesh though I
13:45	myself have reason for confidence in the flesh Also if anyone thinks he has reasons for confidence in the flesh Paul
13:51	says I have more I was circumcised in the eth day of the people of Israel of The Tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of the
13:56	Hebrews as to the law Pharisees is to Zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law
14:04	blameless but whatever gain I had I count it as a loss for the sake of
14:09	Christ indeed I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his
14:15	sake I have suffered the loss of all things and I count all of those good works under the Torah as rubbish in
14:21	order that I might gain Christ and be found in him and here are the important words not having a righteous of my own
14:30	that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness that is from God and
14:37	depends on faith you’ll note that these words of the Apostle Paul here in
14:42	Philippians chapter 3 uh they are the Fulfillment of this Prophecy from Jeremiah 23 that he will be called
14:50	Yahweh is our righteousness Jesus is our righteousness we have received from God
14:57	by grace through faith Faith salvation not by our righteousness but
15:04	by his we are clothed in his righteousness and fascinating thing to
15:09	this day there are people out there who do not see and understand this particular aspect of Christians and what
15:16	the Bible teaches and as a result of it they teach some pretty funky doctrines
15:22	okay so for instance um there’s a particularly wellknown
15:27	reformed charismatic Pastor in from Minnesota from the Minneapolis area and
15:34	he legitimately teaches that on the day of judgment that Christians are going to
15:39	face final judgment or some kind of like extra judgment and this is going to test
15:45	to see whether or not you have any righteousness of your own and if your righteousness doesn’t measure up then
15:51	you’re not going to be in and I sit there and think what are you talking
15:56	about man Yahweh is our righteousness I do not have a righteousness of my own in
16:05	fact my righteous Deeds my best good works this is where it gets awful if you think about it is that your best Works
16:12	my best works every single one of our best best best things that we’ve ever done is still tainted by sin as a result
16:20	of it Christ had to not only die for your worst sins he died for everything
16:26	in between and all the way up to to your best good work Christ had to bleed and
16:31	die for and so that being the case this idea of facing some kind of final justification based upon your
16:38	righteousness baloney baloney it’s just hogwash not
16:44	having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ so
16:52	here Jeremiah is totally prophesying the New Testament doctrine of salvation by
16:59	grace through faith alone apart from works and prophesying that Yahweh would
17:05	send his son to bleed and die for our sins and that he although did no evil
17:11	God would lay on him the iniquity of us all and then by grace through faith we
17:18	are clothed in the righteousness of Christ having our sins washed away
17:23	Christ now clothes his bride in splendor in the Splendor of his own
17:29	righteousness and so you’ll note here as we go into this penitential season I’m
17:35	not hearing a lot of Doom and Gloom in fact as I’m listening to these texts I I
17:40	think that William Tapley would be a little bit upset there’s nothing here that he could point to regarding the
17:45	destruction of the world you know have you ever heard William Tapley sing Doom and Gloom oh it’s rather fascinating
17:51	he’s got really mad CIO skills if you haven’t seen it just look it up on the internet but all that being said there
17:57	is no Doom and Gloom here so as we enter into this penitential season you’ll note that there are still little aspects of
18:04	the echo from last week the end of the world that still are echoing here today
18:09	and it’s in light of the great things that are coming upon Christ’s return that we should then consider repentance
18:17	Jeremiah goes on to say therefore behold the days are coming declares Yahweh when they shall no longer say as Yahweh Lives
18:24	who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt but as Yahweh lives who brought up and led the offspring of
18:30	the House of Israel that’s you and I we’ve all been grafted into Israel out of the nort country yes even Oslo
18:37	Minnesota out of the nor country and out of all the countries where he had driven them this is where Yahweh has driven all
18:43	of us because of our sin and our Rebellion they shall then dwell in their own land in the new Earth beautiful
18:51	promises but you’ll note no threatenings here of God’s judgment not for us Christians not here Advent one we should
18:59	be on our face isn’t John the Baptist supposed to be showing up and screaming at us that we need to repent not on
19:06	Advent 1 you’ll note our repentance is informed in the first week of Advent by
19:12	the great things that are coming in fact that’s the whole point of our epistle text besides this you know Paul writes
19:21	that the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep and this is the Slumber of sin for salvation is near to
19:28	us now than when we first believe and how many thousands of years ago did Paul
19:34	pen those words you got to admit that salvation is definitely nearer to us now
19:39	than it was when Paul first believed yet alone when we first believe in fact
19:46	we’ll note that because the way God keeps time a day for him is like a thousand years or a thousand years like
19:51	a day right Jesus just left yesterday practically I was just the day before yesterday that Jesus ascended into into
19:58	heaven that being the case you’ll note that Christ isn’t slow in coming he knows exactly what he’s doing and in
20:05	fact his salvation is nearer now than ever before but this isn’t held up for us to somehow Shake in our boots and
20:11	consider that oh no I wonder if we’re going to make it no the night is far gone the day is at hand so then let us
20:18	cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light in light of Christ
20:25	soon appearing let us walk properly as in the daytime not in drunkenness and
20:30	sexual immorality and sensuality not in quarreling and jealousy instead because
20:37	Christ’s return is so near because we will joyfully be called from the grave
20:43	or will reunite with him up in the clouds when he returns in glory to judge
20:48	the living and the dead we will see him as he is we will experience the joys of
20:54	the world that is to come we will finally be done with with our sin clothed in his righteousness we then
21:02	skate through the day of judgment legitimately it’s a joyous occasion for
21:07	us so put on the Lord Jesus Christ now make no provision for the flesh now in
21:15	light of the great things that are coming don’t gratify the desires of your sinful flesh your sinful flesh is at war
21:21	with you and hates the new person that you are in Christ and so we see this beautiful
21:28	theme working out and here’s where it’s kind of fascinating there’s a thing that’s coming up in the Book of Ezekiel
21:35	and I we’re still a few weeks off maybe a month or two out but in the Book of Ezekiel there’s an interesting thing
21:41	that happens in the middle part of the book God is having Ezekiel write out
21:47	words of judgment against the kings of the Earth the Gentiles and in one
21:53	particular chapter God is having Ezekiel speak out judgment against the king of
22:01	Ty and then this weird thing happens okay it’s invoking the king of Ty and
22:07	all of a sudden in Prophecy it says you were there in Eden how old is this king
22:13	of Ty I don’t remember him being on the ark but this is the where it gets interesting in the in the
22:20	scriptures there’s layers if you would layers of meaning layers of Prophecy and
22:26	so when God there begins to talk about judgment against the king of Ty he
22:32	begins to describe and give us some of the backstory of Satan himself it’s a
22:38	fascinating thing and when you read it it’s like he invokes the king of Ty and then immediately starts talking about
22:44	Satan and gives us some of the story that we don’t know about how Splendid and beautiful he was and how he became a
22:50	narcissist and all that kind of stuff and so he sees those same traits in the king of TY but God is clearly judging
22:57	the king of Ty while at the same time talking about Satan God can do things like this and so you’ll note that during
23:04	Palm Sunday which we’re a long way off from that at the moment although Easter is going to be a lot earlier this year
23:10	uh thank God but all that being said something fascinating is happening here
23:15	the text that we read on Palm Sunday for Christ triumphal entry is the text from the Gospel of John here the church
23:23	Begins the new year with the triumphal entry of Christ with I with Jeremiah’s
23:29	prophecy ringing in their ears they will raise up God will raise up a righteous Branch for David and he will deal justly
23:35	and all this kind of stuff and it’s as if the church fathers have said I know this is about the first Advent of
23:42	Christ but keep the second Advent in mind as you read this text that’s why
23:49	they chose that epistle text that focuses is on Christ’s IM imminent return and the joys of heaven and all of
23:57	that being the case putting off our sinful flesh in light of all of that and
24:02	so as we read this account again think of it similarly it doesn’t work
24:09	perfectly to when Christ finally enters into Jerusalem and Glory because when he does return to Jerusalem in glory to
24:15	judge the living and the dead he will not be riding a Colt the full of a donkey he’s going to be riding a warhorse and that thing’s going to have
24:22	a lot of blood on it right but you’ll note here that’s the hint the idea then
24:29	is is that we read this with both the first and the second Advent in our eyes
24:35	in our mind in the Forefront of our thoughts now when they drew near to Jerusalem came to Beth the Mount of
24:41	Olives Jesus sent two disciples saying to them go into the village in front of you immediately you will find a donkey
24:48	tied in a Colt with her untie them and bring them to me if anyone says anything
24:53	to you you shall say the Lord needs them and he will send them at once
24:58	little bit of a note here one of the worst sermons I ever heard was from a Seeker driven Vision casting leader and
25:04	he did a sermon on this called Grand Theft donkey and I thought oh you are
25:09	totally missing the whole point one of the most miserable sermons I’ve ever heard Christ did not steal this donkey
25:15	he borrowed it and the owners were assured that that was going to be returned and they acquiesced and gave it
25:21	willingly little bit of a note there so this took place then to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet say to the
25:27	Daughter of Zion behold your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey on a Colt full of a beast of
25:34	burden the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them they brought the donkey and the colt and put on them
25:40	their cloaks as he sat on them most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the
25:46	trees and spread them on the road and the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting hosana to the
25:53	son of David blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord hosan in the the highest and so consider the chronology
26:00	here in the in the church here last week we heard the end of the world we heard
26:05	the Judgment of God against the Sheep well for the sheep and against the goats
26:11	and we heard their fate he has returned in glory next order of business is seeing our
26:18	King seeing our King paraded before our
26:23	eyes as he goes to ascend his throne and take possession of the Kingdom
26:30	forever right it’s this beautiful picture here and what takes place in
26:35	this historical event is beginning to to really kind of chime with the Bells and
26:43	The Echoes of what’s coming in just the days ahead when Jesus returns that’s the
26:48	point first Advent second Advent now become overlapping and we can see it we
26:55	can see the joy that is set before us is it any wonder that the Apostle Paul so boldly so wonderfully tells us that we
27:03	know that the hour has come for us to wake from sleep that salvation is truly
27:08	nearer to us now than when we first believed indeed the night is far far
27:13	gone look off into the East can’t you see the pink highlights in the clouds
27:20	already on the low part of the Horizon the sun is about to rise so then let us
27:25	cast off the works of darkness Christ who bled and died for all of those Works in darkness has come to set
27:32	us free set us free from slavery to sin death the devil he has delivered us from
27:38	the Dominion of darkness and transferred into his glorious Kingdom of Light he
27:44	all of this he has done because of his great love and his Mercy because he acts
27:49	wisely as Jeremiah prophesied that he does
27:54	Justice indeed he has he is so just that he fulfilled his own justice so that you
28:00	and I can be forgiven of our sins by taking our sins upon himself and
28:05	bleeding and dying in our place and fulfilling the justice of God and its demands against
28:12	us and he is just around the corner so note then the call of Advent 1 is let us
28:20	walk properly as in the daytime let us make no provision for the Flesh and for
28:26	to gratify it sinful desires let us humbly continue to repent and in this
28:32	season consider the sin that made it necessary for God to send such a wonderful savior to us and thank God
28:38	that he has but also that keep the joys of the earth that is to come of the
28:44	reunion you will have with those who have departed in the faith that you will have when you see them when Christ
28:49	returns of you seeing your savior face to face and not hearing from him depart from me you wicked wicked and evil
28:56	people I never knew you instead hearing from them from him that well done good
29:02	and faithful servant now enter into the joy of your master hear the joy that is set before us and because of what is
29:09	coming knowing that we will finally be be set free from sin this day pray to God the Holy Spirit to give you the
29:16	strength to stay awake to cast off the works of darkness and walk properly as
29:22	he has commanded us to do in the name of Jesus Amen

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