LutheranLectionary.org

Series A – Good Friday – Friday, April 07, 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
0:22	The holy Gospel
0:29	According to Saint John the 19th Chapter then pilate took Jesus and flogged him
0:35	and the soldiers Twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and raid him in a purple robe
0:42	they came up to him saying Hell King of the Jews and they struck him with their
0:48	hands pilate went out again and said to them see I am bringing him out to you so that
0:53	you may know that I find no guilt in him so Jesus came out wearing the crown of
0:58	thorns and the purple robe pilate said to them behold the man
1:05	when the chief priests and the officer saw him they cried out crucify him
1:10	crucify him pilate said to them take him yourselves
1:15	and crucify him for I find no guilt in him the Jews answered him we have a law and
1:21	according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God
1:27	when pilate heard the statement he was even more afraid he entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus
1:33	where are you from that Jesus gave him no answer so pilate said to him
1:40	you will not speak to me do you not know that I have authority to release you an
1:47	authority to crucify you Jesus answered him you would have no
1:52	authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above therefore he who delivered me over to you has the
1:59	greater sin from then on pilate sought to release him but the Jews cried out if you
2:05	release this man you are not Caesar’s friend everyone who makes himself a king
2:10	opposes Caesar so when pilate heard these words he
2:15	brought Jesus out and sat down on the Judgment seat at a place called The Stone pavement and an Aramaic gabitha
2:24	now it was the day of the preparation of the paths over it was about the sixth hour he said to the Jews behold your
2:31	king they cried out away with him away with him crucify him
2:36	pilate said to them shall I crucify your king the chief priests answered we have no
2:42	King but Caesar so he delivered him over to them to be
2:47	crucified so they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place of a
2:56	skull which an Aramaic is called Golgotha There They Crucified him and with him two others one on either side
3:02	and Jesus between them pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross it read Jesus of
3:10	Nazareth the king of the Jews many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near
3:17	the city and it was written in Aramaic in Latin and in Greek
3:22	so the chief Priests of the Jews said to pilate do not write the king of the Jews but rather that this man said that I am
3:29	the king of the Jews pilate answered what I have written I have written then the soldiers when the soldiers had
3:36	crucified Jesus they took his garments and divided them into four parts one
3:42	part for each Soldier also his tunic but the tunic was seamless woven in one
3:47	piece from top to bottom so they said to one another let us not tear it but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be
3:55	this was to fulfill the scripture which says they divided my garments among them
4:01	and for my clothing they cast lots so the soldiers did these things
4:07	but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s Sister Mary
4:13	the wife of clopus and Mary Magdalene when Jesus saw his mother and the
4:19	disciple whom he loved standing nearby he said to his mother woman behold your son
4:25	and when he had said then he said to his disciple behold your mother and from that hour the disciple took her into his
4:32	own home after this Jesus knowing that all was now finished said to fulfill the
4:37	scripture I thirst a Jar full of sour wine stood there so they put a sponge
4:43	full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth and when Jesus
4:49	had received the sour wine he said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his
4:55	spirit since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on
5:01	the cross on the Sabbath for that Sabbath was a high day the Jews asked pilate that their legs might be broken
5:08	and that they might be taken away so the soldiers came and broke the legs of the
5:14	first and of the other who had been crucified with him but when they came to Jesus they saw that he was already dead
5:21	they did not break his legs but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a
5:26	spear and at once there came out blood and water he who saw it has borne
5:32	witness his testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth that you may also believe for these things
5:40	took place that the scripture might be fulfilled not one of his bones will be broken and again another says they will
5:48	look on him whom they have pierced after these things Joseph of Arimathea
5:54	who was a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews asked pilate that
5:59	he might take away the body of Jesus and pilate gave him permission so he came
6:05	and took away his body Nicodemus also who earlier had come to Jesus by Night
6:11	came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes about 75 pounds in weight so they
6:18	took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen claws with the spices as is the
6:24	burial custom of the Jews but in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new Tomb in
6:32	which no one had yet been laid so because of the Jewish Day of preparation since the tomb was close at hand they
6:39	laid Jesus there grace mercy and peace to you from God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit
6:45	who may be seated in Luther’s small catechism at the close
6:50	of The Commandments Luther asked this question what does God say about all of these Commandments he
6:58	says I the Lord your God am a jealous God punishing the children for the sin
7:03	of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to a thousand generations
7:10	of those who love me and keep my Commandments and again Luther’s famous
7:16	question that he asks vasastas what does this mean God threatens to punish all who break
7:23	these Commandments therefore we should fear his wrath and not do anything against them
7:29	but he promises Grace and every blessing to all who keep these Commandments therefore we should also love and trust
7:34	in him and gladly do what he commands have you noticed that the world seems to
7:41	think so little of God’s word but here’s the thing it’s not just the world it’s you and I as well that’s kind of our
7:48	problem have you ever noticed or had a time in your life when you thought you knew better than those who were in
7:55	authority over you when they gave you a commander gave you a warning I remember as a kid my mom and I and my brother
8:01	well we all lived with our stepdad in the mountains the foothills of Monrovia
8:07	California now if you guys are familiar with California at all or Southern California you’ll note there seems to be
8:13	an annual event that happens every fall Southern California catches on fire it’s
8:20	a thing it’s a thing and the reason why is because during the summer months the Mojave Desert that’s north of southern
8:27	California well it warms up and it warms up big time and when you get into The
8:34	Fall season you start getting these high pressure systems that come right over the Mojave Desert it and high pressure
8:40	systems with a lot of energy like that kick up a lot of winds and so you get these winds that come off the Mojave
8:46	Desert down into the Southern California Basin and it gets hot like 105 110 112
8:56	hot but don’t worry it’s a dry heat right but here’s what happens those winds they get to gusting 35 45 50 60
9:05	miles an hour and they are hot and always and again some hapless person Chucks a cigarette butt out of a window
9:13	in a dry place and next thing you know Southern California is on fire and we lived in the Foothills so we had a lot
9:19	of brush and shrubs and and growth and things like that we were not in a good place and so my mom and my stepdad
9:26	always warned me about playing with fire did I listen to them not even close
9:32	right I did you you old people don’t know what’s going on and it was during
9:38	this time in my life that I discovered a wonderful thing that I enjoyed doing and that was killing ants all right I you
9:44	know forget army men okay we had Trails of little black ants and they would go all over the place if a mouse died in
9:51	the yard they would be all over its corpse pretty quick and consume that thing lickety-split and so I enjoyed
9:57	killing time by killing ants and one of my friends introduced me to this idea
10:03	that you can take an open flame in a can of raid and when you put those two together you have Napalm you have a
10:11	flame thrower and boy this was an escalation of the ant killing technology that I embraced fully but again my
10:19	parents had warned me that we live in a very dangerous place and fire is not something that you play with
10:25	did I listen no so one day I was out killing ants
10:31	using this new technology that I discovered and there were in our yard
10:38	these little baby palm trees and the thing about baby palm trees is they have this hair on them and that’s not even
10:46	the right way of putting it it’s it’s this fibrous thing that they emit from the very trunk itself and it’s like
10:53	kindling and when you take a flamethrower and that kindling together there’s a sound
11:00	that it makes when the two come together and the sound is right
11:05	well when this happened my eyes got as big as a saucer my I went into full panic mode I was terrified at this point
11:13	because I had started a fire and it wasn’t very far from our garage I mean
11:20	the overhang of the garage was like dangerously close and at this point the
11:25	adrenaline was going so big inside of my body I can hear my heartbeat in my ears
11:31	and time itself seemed to slow down quickly ran got the hose that I washed
11:36	the cars with came back over and sprayed down this palm tree and I successfully
11:42	knocked that fire down thankfully
11:47	but that didn’t get rid of the smell nor the fact that the palm tree was now
11:53	black and I had some explaining to do and when my mom got home from work
11:59	everything gets really fuzzy in my memories at this point right but here’s what I had done
12:07	I had taken the words of my parents and I didn’t listen
12:12	and what was just Theory fire starting something dangerous
12:20	man it no longer was theory in my mind anymore from that day forward I realized
12:26	that God was gracious to me because I easily could have burned our house down and started a wildfire that would have
12:33	resulted in other people’s houses and properties being destroyed and I would have been the cause of that
12:39	and that event still haunts me to this day
12:45	and I think God in his Mercy allowed me to see the consequences of my Disobedience but see them in a way that
12:52	really got my attention and with that we considered today you’ll note during the
12:58	Lenten season we’ve been working our way through second chronicles and we’ve been focusing on the good Kings of Judah but
13:05	it’s here today I would like to formally introduce you by way of the biblical text
13:11	probably one of the worst kings of Judah who ever lived and why he was so bad will become very
13:17	apparent from the text as a king of Judah you’ll note that if you know your Mosaic Covenant he would have been
13:24	required by God’s law to hand write copy word for word every word of the
13:32	Torah all the first five books of the Bible one wonders if he did that because
13:37	of what the scripture says Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to Reign and
13:43	I’m in second chronicles 33. and he reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem
13:49	and he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh according to the Abominations of
13:55	the Nations whom Yahweh drove out before the people of Israel and here’s what we have to note something today
14:02	people today are engaging in all kinds of evil and you know what they think it’s totally fine it’s okey-dokey you
14:09	know why they think it’s fine and it’s okey-dokey because they’re doing what is good in their sight with no regard for
14:16	what is evil in God’s sight we do not Define good we do not Define evil God
14:23	has that prerogative and when we are doing evil we have no right to say that
14:28	God is just fine with it he’s hunky donkey when he’s not
14:33	so he did all according to the Abominations of the Nations whom Yahweh had driven out before the people of
14:39	Israel he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down he
14:44	wrecked it altars to the balls and made astroth and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served them he built altars
14:51	in the house of Yahweh of which Yahweh had said in Jerusalem shall my name be forever and he built altars for all the
14:57	hosts of Heaven in the two courts of the House of Yahweh he burned his sons as an
15:03	offering in the Valley of the son of hinnom and used fortune telling and Omens and sorcery and dealt with mediums
15:09	and necromancers he did much evil in the sight of Yahweh provoking God to anger
15:17	provoking indeed I would note here what a horrible horrible King this is who
15:23	would take not a son but Sons it says Sons plural that is a horrifying
15:28	sentence he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the son of
15:34	hinnom that can mean only one thing he was into the worship of Molech and as
15:39	I’ve pointed out before no follower or believer in this false
15:45	demonic God Molech would have ever called him Molech because that’s not the
15:51	name for him it just so happens that the name for Molech is actually the same
15:57	word that we use in Hebrew for King malach but there’s some Defiance in the
16:04	masoretic text whoever pointed the Old Testament refused to point it in a way that would
16:11	give even the remotest slightest honor to such a horrible deity who would
16:18	demand the sacrifice of infant Sons and so rather than calling him Melech as
16:24	his followers would have invoked him they repointed it and the vowels they
16:30	used instead were the vowels that turn into the word Molech which means shame
16:38	and indeed it is horrifying how is it that he could possibly believe
16:44	how could Manasseh possibly believe that he is doing good by murdering his own
16:51	children and I would note something here and that is that scripture is clear that we all
16:58	have inherited Adam’s sin as the scripture rightly says None is righteous no not one no one seeks for God
17:05	altogether have become worthless and also as Paul writes in Ephesians we were
17:11	all born dead in trespasses and sins and as a result of that we note that before
17:16	God none is righteous but you’ll note that the purpose of government is to punish an evildoer and an evil doer is
17:24	to be punished and put to death only on the testimony of two or three Witnesses
17:30	if one is brought up on charges and those charges cannot be proven before
17:35	the state before the government before the king one is to be considered innocent the government cannot take the
17:43	life of people who are innocent and yet that’s exactly what Manasseh did
17:49	he put to death his own innocent children
17:54	his own innocent Sons that’s how Wicked he is
18:00	he engaged in fortune telling the reading of Omens and sorcery dealt with
18:06	mediums and necromancers sounds like Bethel Church in Reading doesn’t it right
18:12	he did much evil in the sight of Yahweh provoking God to anger and the carved image of the idol that he made he set in
18:19	the house of God that you’ll note that the author here can’t even bring himself to saying what this is really going on
18:25	here but we know what it is from the cross references he did much evil he carved an image and idled and he made he
18:31	said in the house of Yahweh this was the guy who made an ashirah for Yahweh so
18:37	that Yahweh can have a girlfriend a female deity consort and the author of
18:42	the scriptures can’t even bring himself to give all the details he just mentions it as that that carved image that one
18:49	right and all of this despite the fact God had
18:55	said to David and to Solomon in this house in this Temple in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all the tribes of
19:01	Israel I will put my name forever and I will no more remove the foot of Israel
19:06	from the land that I appointed to your fathers If Only They will be careful to do all that I have commanded them all
19:13	the law and the statutes and the rules given through Moses and Manasseh LED Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
19:20	astray to do more evil than the Nations whom Yahweh destroyed
19:25	before the people of Israel just consider the irony here
19:31	the people who were driven out by Joshua and the tribes of Israel as they came into the promised land they didn’t even
19:39	engage in this much evil Manasseh has set a new low water mark when it comes
19:48	to flat out Disobedience and idolatry so what does God decide to do you’ll
19:57	note is it God’s will that and he should perish not even one including Manasseh
20:03	so the Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people he sent them Prophets
20:08	when you read the book of Second Kings it’s very clear he sent him prophets who are calling him to repentance but they
20:16	paid no attention none whatsoever
20:25	right pay no attention to God completely discounted his words casting behind them
20:30	paid no attention and believe me when I tell you it’s not a wise thing to take
20:36	God’s words and cast them behind your back and act like he will not act because he will
20:43	therefore Yahweh brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of
20:48	Assyria who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and
20:57	brought him to Babylon what a spectacle that had to be
21:04	the reigning monarch of Judah captured with hooks like he’s a fish
21:11	bound with chains like he’s a criminal or a slave made to March of his own
21:19	strength All the Way to Babylon are you paying attention yet Manasseh
21:30	but here’s the thing don’t we do this every single day
21:37	take God’s words his Commandments
21:43	maybe we’ve become accustomed to just being so forgiven of our sins that we
21:49	think it’s okay to go ahead and make the cross just a little bit of a license to sin it’s no big deal it’s all forgiven
21:56	anyway right sometimes we do this sometimes we just don’t want to hear
22:02	God’s words we know that it’s wrong but don’t don’t don’t confuse me with facts
22:10	our sinful nature just like that horrible plant it says feed me
22:16	right and fools that we are we feed it there’s a lot of Manasseh in all of us
22:22	isn’t there there’s too much of it in me
22:28	so God had mercy on him had him captured with hooks bound with
22:33	chains marched off to Babylon and it says when Manasseh was in distress and I can’t imagine how distressing this had
22:40	to be he comes to his senses he entreated the favor of Yahweh his God
22:48	and he humbled himself and I love the adverb here greatly before the god of his fathers
22:55	he prayed to him and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and
23:01	brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom and then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God
23:07	and in bearing fruit with keeping repent with repentance Manasseh then sets about
23:13	the business of trying to undo all of the damage that he has done
23:19	unfortunately the damage he has done is so devastating and so great and the
23:25	hearts of the people are dead set on the worship of these false gods that even these reforms only last for such a short
23:33	time so he built an outer wall for the city of David West of gihon in the valley and for the entrance into the
23:40	fish gate he carried it around ophel and raised it to a very great height he also
23:45	put commanders of the Army in all the Fortified cities in Judah he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the
23:51	house of Yahweh and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the House of Yahweh and in Jerusalem he
23:58	threw them outside of the city he also restored the altar of Yahweh and offered on its sacrifices of Peace offerings and
24:05	Thanksgiving and he commanded Judah to serve Yahweh the god of Israel nevertheless the people still sacrificed
24:12	at the high places but only to Yahweh their God but still they were not supposed to even be doing that
24:19	now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name
24:25	of Yahweh the god of Israel behold they are in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel
24:31	and his prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty and all his sin and faithlessness and the sights on which he
24:39	built high places and set up the asherim and the images before he humbled himself behold they are Written In The
24:45	Chronicles of the seers and so Manasseh slept with his fathers they buried him
24:51	in his house and Ammon his son reigned in his place
24:57	and then centuries later the great great great grandson of
25:03	Manasseh Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem born of the Virgin Mary and he sets
25:11	about the course of his life and we’re going to note there are big differences between Jesus and Manasseh at no point
25:19	did Jesus ever not listen to God’s commands and not heed the warnings of
25:26	God’s Commandments at no point did Jesus ever sin he was tempted in every way
25:32	that you and I are attempted and yet was without sin at no point did he ever break a single command of God and it’s
25:41	important to note why it wasn’t in order to set an example to us about the fact
25:46	that God’s law well obviously it’s easy to keep Jesus kept it so get busy and get doing it that wasn’t the point Jesus
25:54	did this to make him qualified to be the sinless Spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
26:00	your sin and mine he did it so that he
26:06	can impart To Us by faith his own sinless righteousness because you’ll
26:12	note rather than causing innocence to be suffered to be murdered and sacrificed
26:18	for Jesus Jesus is the innocent one who rather
26:23	than calling for other people’s blood willingly lays down his life and sheds
26:29	his blood for you and for me and in our case he did so before we were
26:37	even children before we were even thoughts in the in
26:42	the hearts and minds of our parents he did this out of his great kindness and
26:48	mercy in fact you’ll note here that the sermon Hymn for today was not a funeral
26:55	dirge and I would remind you all that good Friday is not a funeral for Jesus
27:01	instead we heard these words sing my tongue the Glorious battle sing the ending of The Fray now above the cross
27:08	the trophy sound the loud triumphant lay tell how Christ the world’s Redeemer as
27:14	a victim won the day and here’s the best bit of all of this
27:19	is that Jesus Christ knew what he was doing and Satan had no
27:26	clue what was going on because Satan played into it perfectly
27:32	in fact it was brilliant beyond all reason because if you think about it
27:38	look at the world around us have you noticed the Supreme lack of kindness that there is
27:44	the growing acrimony malice hatred
27:50	strife one one has to wonder if historians if
27:56	in the future will look back on this time and say that the Bloodshed of the second American Civil War hadn’t already
28:03	begun because people are losing their lives right now blood is being shed over ideological
28:11	reasons and you’ll note that the world is just a hot mess of malice
28:18	hatred Discord strife
28:23	murder the list goes on and you know what it makes perfect sense
28:30	as you see we were all conceived and born in sin and we are all because of our fallen descent Children of the devil
28:37	and children are just like their papa right is it any Wonder can anyone look at
28:44	humanity and say oh there’s a great species Noble in all that they do
28:50	we are a screwed up race me as well as you and everyone on Down the Line
28:56	because of sin and so Jesus chose to conquer sin and to
29:02	conquer the Dominion of darkness and the devil in one of the most brilliant moves ever and the devil couldn’t figure it
29:10	out it was written clearly for him what God was going to do in the Old Testament
29:16	did we not read about the crucifixion of Christ as we recited Psalm 22 today
29:23	I think the devil was completely blind to it because he can’t comprehend anymore because of his sin and his fault
29:31	he cannot even begin to comprehend love patience kindness goodness gentleness
29:38	self-control he doesn’t understand it at all he rules the world through rage he
29:46	rules the world through the threat of murder bend the knee or die is how the
29:53	devil operates and so the devil has conquered Humanity with death and the threat of death for
30:01	millennia it’s the one thing you can count on him doing and so Jesus comes and he pulls
30:09	the ultimate Jujitsu move of all time
30:16	he lays down his life and the scripture is clear that if the devil had really understood what was going on he would
30:23	have never consented to having Jesus crucified never consented to it but we learn about
30:30	something about the nature of Satan Satan’s big job if you would and this is
30:36	one of the reasons why I think attorneys are so evil is he is the accuser of the Saints the picture in heaven prior to
30:43	Christ’s death burial resurrection and Ascension is the one of Satan being the
30:49	accuser of who the Saints the Accuser is how it goes in the Hebrew
30:57	and you think about it this way how is the only way that you can silence an accuser of this because it’s not as if
31:03	the devil is like completely out to lunch when he sits there and goes would you just look at the saint of yours you
31:09	call him holy didn’t you see what he said to his spouse didn’t you see how he
31:15	handled his children I saw what he did he wasn’t totally truthful you call him
31:20	a saint I call him a sinner and the Satan constantly accusing the
31:27	Saints isn’t that what he did with job oh consider my saint job here well the only reason why he’s so holy is because
31:33	you’ve made his life cushy take all of his stuff away and he’ll curse you to your face God you’re on
31:40	right so how does one silence an accuser like
31:46	this who is so litigious that he’s constantly filing lawsuits in the courts of Heaven against the Saints of God
31:54	Christ the King of Kings the Lord of lords the judge of all the Earth
32:01	he becomes one of us and by going to the cross
32:08	he propitiates the wrath of God for you
32:13	in the book of Colossians it talks so beautifully about how Christ took the
32:19	record of debt that stood against each and every one of us that is a record of each and every one of your
32:25	transgressions and believe me the list is a lot longer than you think
32:30	every single commission Omission everything you should have done but didn’t do everything you did do that you
32:36	shouldn’t have done in thought word deed down to the Nano second is recorded in
32:42	that record of debt and believe me phone books pale in size in comparison to
32:49	what’s in those books for you and for I and what does Jesus do with that by
32:55	bleeding and dying for our sins he propitiates the wrath of God
33:01	and he cancels then the record of debt that stood against us and nailed that
33:07	thing to the cross and it cannot accuse us ever again and
33:13	so now when Satan tries to accuse you do you not see what your Saint just did
33:19	Jesus says I have no idea what you’re talking about I can’t find any record of it here in this record of debt you must
33:27	be mistaken sir I don’t think he calls Satan sir but you get the idea
33:33	but all of this is what Christ was doing his death on the cross is not a defeat it’s a complete Victory and it’s the
33:40	greatest victory of all time it is the thing that sets us free from the Dominion of Darkness sets us free from
33:45	the consequences of our sins we said it in our responsory tonight when we said
33:51	we have an advocate with the father Jesus is the propitiation for our sins
33:56	by the way propitiation will be one of those great words to use in a Scrabble game if you can ever figure out how to
34:02	pull it off I can’t imagine how many points you’d get for that but then again I’ve never beat my wife in a single game
34:09	of Scrabble and the 30 plus years that we have been married it’s a little bit of a dry spell I’m trying to figure out
34:14	how to remedy this but all of that being said if I were to ask you what does propitiation mean
34:20	the not a lot of people know what it means a good way to think of it is this is a propitiation is kind of like and
34:28	let me give you a couple of an analogies it’s kind of like if God were throwing a thunderbolt at you maybe Zeus style a
34:37	propitiation would be a shield that then would deflect that Thunderbolt and cause it to Ricochet and go off somewhere else
34:43	that’s one example of it I don’t usually like invoking Zeus though so here’s a better way to think of a propitiation
34:50	you see there’s some guys they’re in a foxhole they’re in a fire fight the enemy is really coming at them hard and
34:57	next thing you know a grenade has just come over the top of their Foxhole and what is one to do with in something like
35:04	this and then one of the men of the Battalion throws himself onto the
35:09	grenade just as it’s going off so that his
35:17	so that his buddies could live that’s a propitiation
35:24	that’s what Jesus did he took the grenade for you
35:30	and in so doing he didn’t lose he won he was delivered up to death
35:37	he was delivered for the sins of the people
35:42	including North dakotans and minnesotans and people from South Carolina who
35:48	that’s a strange Breed by the way all right no matter where you are Christ was
35:55	delivered up to death for your sins and blessed is he whose transgression is
36:01	Forgiven and in whose sin is put away your sin is put away it can no longer
36:07	accuse you anymore there’s no record of it to even accuse you with it and we are not set free to sin we are
36:15	set free from sin and so I must leave you with this warning here if you do not think that God has wrath you have not
36:22	yet considered what on Earth Jesus was doing on the cross you want to get a
36:27	picture of God’s Wrath you look at Jesus suffering bleeding and dying and crying out my God my God why have you forsaken
36:35	me you see I I don’t think we take sin
36:41	seriously enough there’s a stanza coming up verse in the
36:46	hymn that we’re going to be closing with and the name of the hymn is O darkest
36:52	woe in verse 3 reads thus o child of Woe
36:59	who struck the blow that killed our gracious master it’s a great question
37:05	it was I it was I
37:11	thy conscious cries I have wrought disaster
37:17	and that’s the thing about our sin look at the lives of all of us
37:24	who of us have not been touched by the destructive nature of sin
37:29	who of us is sin has not wrought disaster and you’re going to note here
37:35	the disaster that your sin and I my sin is caused is much greater than me catching a palm tree on fire when I was
37:42	a kid my sin has wrought disaster because my
37:47	sin has killed Jesus Christ and so is yours
38:00	but that’s not a complete picture of the cross that’s only one deep facet of it
38:09	full picture is this on the cross we see God’s Wrath for sure
38:15	we see the consequences of our sin borne out with each struggling breath of
38:20	Christ as he pushes against the nails in his wrists in order to raise himself up
38:28	just enough to breathe while all the splinters from that cross dig deep into the wounds of his open back
38:36	while he languishes in the dark suffering bleeding
38:41	dying yes the wrath of God is truly there but like I said it’s incomplete
38:48	you see the scriptures are clear it was for the joy set before him that Christ endured the cross despising its shame
38:54	for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son into death
39:01	so that you and I might have eternal life so we see the wrath of God and we see
39:07	the love of God colliding at the cross but the love of God is the thing that
39:12	that wins the day because the whole thing was planned and orchestrated before the foundations of the Earth
39:18	because of God’s Great Mercy love and kindness to us so it is true our sin has
39:26	wrought disaster there’s no way around it yet that disaster is the very thing
39:31	that brings us the joy of eternal life the promises of the Forgiveness of our
39:37	sins the propitiation that swages the justice of God and fulfills it so that
39:44	you and I can be forgiven and so we are
39:49	and so this day we Ponder the horror of the cross
39:56	and also its Wonder and you’ll note that there’s a lot of manasa and I
40:02	there’s a lot of Manasseh in you and so today consider the contrast between the
40:08	worst and the best Kings and unlike Manasseh Jesus does not have a son
40:15	who will take to the throne upon his death
40:21	he dies childless but here’s the thing
40:27	as we’re going to hear in just a few days death couldn’t hold him because he truly
40:32	was innocent God Vindicated him and he rose from the grave and unlike Manasseh and Ammon and
40:39	Josiah and Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat and David and Solomon and all the kings of Judah Christ now lives risen from the
40:48	grave Victorious and he reigns forever never again will there be a new king
40:55	because there is only one king forever and ever and the great news is that he’s your
41:00	king and mine and he’s a gracious and kind governor and he’s one who is hell-bent on saving each and every one
41:08	of us and thank God for that
41:13	so it is true we have an advocate with the father Jesus is the propitiation for our sins
41:20	he was delivered up to death he was delivered for the sins of the people and blessed is he whose transgression is
41:27	Forgiven and whose sin is put away blessed are you
41:33	because these promises are true for you in the name of Jesus
41:39	amen

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