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Series A – Second Sunday in Lent – Sunday, March 05, 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 third chapter [Music]
0:37	now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews this man came to Jesus by night and said to
0:42	him Rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these
0:48	signs that you do unless God is with him Jesus answered him truly truly I say to
0:53	you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Nicodemus said to
0:58	him how can a man be born when he is old can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born Jesus answered
1:06	truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is
1:12	born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is Spirit do not
1:18	Marvel that I said to you you must be born again the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound but you do
1:25	not know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who was born of the spirit
1:31	Nicodemus said to him how can these things be Jesus answered him are you the
1:36	teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things truly truly I say to you we speak of what we know and
1:42	bear witness to what we have seen but you do not receive our testimony if I have told you of Earthly things and you
1:48	do not believe how can you believe if I tell you Heavenly things no one has
1:53	ascended into heaven except he who descended from Heaven the son of man and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
1:59	wilderness so must son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have
2:05	eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but
2:11	have eternal life for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be
2:18	saved through him this is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus
2:24	I need a prop for a sermon illustration so just think of this as like an herbal supplement would you do that for me
2:30	thank you so have you noticed that human beings have this thing they’re afraid of death
2:37	and there are people who make all kinds of money by playing on that fear I mean
2:44	have you ever been like scrolling through social media and you see an ad that says something like this ah we have
2:51	found an herbal supplement that is put together from rare herbs that are only found in Tibet in places like this and
2:59	quick you need to act now before they they they take this video down because
3:04	they don’t want you to know about this herbal supplement because this herbal supplement will take 10 years off of
3:11	your life it will make you a hundred pounds lighter it will actually reinvigorate you and if you are in your
3:17	50s people will swear you are in your late 20s quick act now for five easy
3:23	payments of only 49.95 you can have this herbal supplement and well again act now
3:30	before they they keep you from doing it so the person purchases this nonsense right this herbal supplement and they
3:37	got up upselled some some extra turmeric to go along with it because we all know how the benefits of turmeric right
3:44	and so death starts knocking on their door and the person pulls out their bottle of herbal supplement and says be
3:51	gone death I have taken the supplement and death goes right yeah you’ll note
3:59	that we do that right and so here’s the thing have you noticed that when we read in
4:06	the scriptures that we Christians are not promised are not promised that death
4:11	will not come to visit us in fact when you look at the way scripture talks about birth and death you’ll note that
4:19	it your your physical death like doesn’t even measure in like the the discussion
4:24	it’s the weirdest thing okay so here’s what we’re gonna do we’re going to take a look at why this is why is it and and
4:33	how we can kind of work this out and we’ll work through our text this way so first note
4:38	Christ says God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but
4:43	in order that the world might be saved through him you see God so loved the
4:49	world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him believes it should not perish but have eternal life
4:56	noteworthy emphasis is salvation through Christ that you will not perish but have
5:03	eternal life and the question is be saved from what perish in what way
5:09	because you’ll note that as a pastor I’ve buried a few folks from Kong’s finger right and if I continue to serve
5:16	here there’s a good chance I’ll bury some more Kong’s finger folks that’s what we pastors are called to do and I
5:22	can legitimately say that each person that I have buried in a physical sense
5:29	has perished but have they now really that’s kind of
5:34	the thing that we’re going to focus on on so our text begins Gospel of John chapter 3 there was a man of the
5:41	Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews this man came to Jesus by night and said to him Rabbi we know that you are a
5:47	teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him now Nicodemus has to be
5:54	credited here he’s recognizing a few things that in all of human history there was nobody that can do miraculous
6:00	signs like Jesus in fact that’s still True to this day every wing that whacker
6:06	doodle in the Pentecostal church is a claim that we can do greater miracles than Jesus doesn’t understand what the
6:12	text is talking about when Jesus says you can do Greater Works so Nicodemus notes Here you you have to be from God
6:18	these cannot be demonic signs they have to be truly signs that you have been sent from God and so Jesus you’ll note
6:25	that he does something interesting he does this quite annoyingly but uh not so
6:30	much annoyingly if you think about it he like changes the subject right have you
6:36	noticed people come to Jesus and they want to talk about one thing and Jesus isn’t interested in talking about that thing he’s interested in talking about
6:42	another thing Jesus is an interest in talking about himself he’s interested in nicodemus’s Soul he’s interested in his
6:50	salvation and he knows exactly what Nicodemus needs to hear so that he
6:55	repents and trusts in Christ and you’ll note it’s Nicodemus who was there when Christ’s body was taken down from the
7:02	cross and he helped prepare Christ’s body for burial important things that we consider here so Jesus says to him amen
7:10	amen that’s what it says in the Greek amen amen I say to you unless one is born I always like to keep this word
7:16	untranslated unless one is born Anno then he cannot see the kingdom of God
7:25	well that’s an Abrupt change of subject with no segue thanks Jesus my head is
7:30	still spinning right and so here we are then we are now confronted with the fact
7:37	that for Christians there is a second birth
7:42	and it’s important that we keep our births right and our resurrections right and our deaths right do they kind of
7:48	have to work through this biblically so you’ll note our Old Testament text last
7:54	week Adam and Eve were clearly told by God actually God told us to Adam and Adam taught it to Eve that that they
8:01	they eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil they would surely truly
8:07	die did they the answer is yes
8:13	they absolutely died but you sit there and go well how is that so because they
8:18	were breathing when God handed out the curses and the punishments and stuff how
8:23	did they how can you say that they died and here’s where we must understand
8:29	something scripture makes it clear that we are not to lean on our own
8:35	understandings we are to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on our own
8:41	understanding so when we talk about death as human beings we oftentimes
8:46	Define it according to what our experience but our experiences are not
8:52	the measure of divine biblical Doctrine so when we talk about death we’re going
9:00	to need to adapt our definition of death and expand it out so that when we are
9:07	talking about the death that God is talking about and the birth that God is talking about that we’re going to have
9:14	to adapt so that our definitions now are informed and conformed to the biblical
9:20	definition we do not let experiences Define our theology instead our
9:26	experiences have to be judged by biblical Doctrine so that our
9:32	understanding of theology is correct so did Adam and Eve die that day yes yes
9:37	they did you look at the book of Ephesians chapter 2 and Ephesians says
9:43	that you were all Once Dead in trespasses and sins in which you once
9:49	walked following the course of the prince of the power of this world things like this right so we were all born and conceived dead
9:57	and trespasses in sin so what is this death that God was referring to back in
10:02	Genesis it’s a spiritual death that’s legitimately what took place and
10:10	you’ll note in Adam’s case 900 something years after his fall into sin his body
10:16	then went dot dead too right the spiritual death leads to physical death
10:22	and God has spaced out those events if you would so it’s absolutely true that Adam and
10:29	Eve died on the day that they aid of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil this is why we are all born and
10:37	conceived even dead as in doornail when it comes to God dead
10:44	and we’re not talking mostly dead Miracle Max can’t fix this we’re talking totally Stone Cold spiritually dead so
10:51	that when Christ is talking about here then is being born Anno thin now the
10:57	Greek word anothan can be can mean again and can also mean from above Nicodemus
11:04	reaches into his experience bag and tries to figure out what Jesus is saying
11:10	in you know and hinting at with him by trying to interpret it according to his
11:15	understanding of things so Nicodemus said to him how can a man be born when he’s old can
11:21	he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born of course not that’s ridiculous that’s
11:28	silly it’s actually gross that’s not what God is talking about here that’s not what Jesus is getting at so Jesus
11:35	kind of doesn’t like rebuke Nicodemus just kind of keeps going on he says listen I say to you unless one is born
11:42	of water in the spirit what’s that a reference to yeah it’s it’s a reference to that over
11:49	there the baptismal fund it’s an actual reference to baptism he cannot enter the kingdom of God and then listen to the
11:55	words that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit
12:01	is spirit we need to be spiritually raised from
12:09	the dead this is most certainly true in fact here’s where another biblical text
12:16	will help us just a little bit in the Book of Revelation chapter 20 we
12:22	hear this in verse 6 blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first
12:28	resurrection over such the second death has no power now I’m just complicating
12:34	things because it sounds like we’re doing math right but here’s the thing blessed and holy is the one who shares
12:39	in the what first resurrection those who are born from above who are
12:45	born by the spirit who are born again all of these phrases are biblically correct that is the person then like you
12:53	and like I who has experienced the first resurrection
12:58	what’s the second Resurrection the resurrection of your physical body right
13:04	and you’ll note that Christ here talks about the fact scripture talks about the fact that there is not only a rebirth
13:11	but that rebirth is likened to and described as a first resurrection and that first resurrection then makes it so
13:17	that the second death has no power over you what was the first one again you were
13:24	spiritually dead when you were conceived because of the sin of Adam and Eve what’s the second death according to
13:31	scripture the second death is being thrown into the Lake of Fire on the last day with the devil and all of his demons
13:37	that’s the second death now you’re going to note something here when we start to kind of count this up okay those who are
13:45	twice born do not experience the second death those
13:50	who are twice born in this life are already experiencing the first resurrection
13:56	those who are twice born will also experience a second Resurrection unto
14:03	eternal life in fact everybody receives a second receives the resurrection unto eternal life but only the twice born are
14:10	the ones who are kept from the second death now you might might want to ask the
14:16	question here yeah but what what about my physical death here because you know the graveyard out here has like two
14:22	dates on it you know birth date death date there’s there’s two dates on every Tombstone what about the one that’s
14:29	coming for me that’s going to be that second date I’ll be blind scripture doesn’t really care about that
14:36	and here’s the reason why Jesus says that everyone who believes in him will
14:42	never die in other words because you have already been buried with Christ raised with
14:49	Christ the spirit has made you alive and regenerated you’ve experienced the first resurrection that means you’re never
14:56	going to die and you sit there and go but I see people dying all the time who are you
15:02	going to believe Jesus or your experiences stop relying on your experiences
15:09	your death legitimately in the grand scheme of things is a non-event except
15:15	for you when you die you’re going to finally see Jesus face to face so it’s kind of kind of be a big deal for you
15:22	this is why Christians can die well this is why Christians can die as Martyrs and
15:28	this is why we don’t fall for those stupid and I mean legitimately stupid
15:33	theological nonsensical theologies that claim things akin to the herbal
15:39	supplement here have you heard that Ken Copeland claims that God has told him he
15:44	will live to be a hundred and twenty okay and the man already has a pacemaker
15:50	all right and and you’ll he does this ridiculous thing I mean have you noticed
15:55	that Ken Copeland that if you see video of him he doesn’t have a single gray hair on his head okay and and what does
16:03	he teach people he teach people that the reason why he has no gray on his head is
16:08	because he uses the power of His faith-filled words and so he speaks to
16:14	his hair okay and he puts his hand over his hair and he says hair in the name of
16:20	Jesus I command you to stay the right color and not turn gray right and he
16:27	teaches people to do this I’ve seen audiences where you have bald guys doing
16:32	this to themselves it’s absurd right so note here God doesn’t save us from
16:44	physical death that’s not the point of Christianity nor is God really in the
16:51	business of making it so that your life can be exploded out beyond the normal up to 120 years of weird things like this
16:58	okay so that being the case Jesus says so don’t Marvel that I said that you
17:04	must be born on oath and born from above the spirit blows where it wishes you
17:09	hear it sound you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is what born of the
17:17	spirit that’s the first resurrection and Nicodemus okay the Emoji you know the
17:23	little nuclear blast coming out of his Cranium just he just he doesn’t get this he goes how can this be right and Jesus
17:31	said are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things truly truly I say to you
17:38	we speak of what we know we bear witness of what we’ve seen but you don’t receive
17:44	our testimony if I have told you of Earthly things and you don’t believe how can you believe me if I tell you of
17:49	heavenly things and then Jesus gets really interesting here no one has
17:55	ascended into heaven except he who descended from Heaven the son of man and
18:01	as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him
18:08	may have eternal life so there’s a little bit more of a hint here as to why it is we Christians still have to
18:14	physically die and that’s because of what Christ makes reference to here in the Book of Numbers chapter 21. in
18:22	numbers 21 we get this account and here’s what the story says starting at verse 4 from Mount hor the children of
18:28	Israel set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom and the people became impatient on the way and
18:34	the people spoke against God and Moses why have you brought us up out of Egypt die in the wilderness for there’s no
18:40	food there’s no water we load this worthless Manner and I’m mana and I’m sure that they spoke these words like in
18:47	the the the the the temper tantrum kind of tone of a three-year-old right
18:53	so then Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people they bit the people so that
18:59	many people of Israel died in previous sermons on this text I’ve noted that the connections here between
19:06	what takes place in the Garden of Eden and its impact on us to this day still is profound you’ll note that in the
19:14	types and shadows and in the imagery of the Old Testament the serpent is the one who brought our first parents into sin
19:21	and tempted them and they went for it and you’ll note then each and every one of us because scripture claims that we
19:28	are all born dead in trespasses and sins and the scripture is correct that we each and every one of us like Adam and
19:35	Eve are serpent bit we all have the Venom of the serpent
19:41	running through us and you’ll note that Adam and Eve they weren’t Bitten on their legs they were bitten in their
19:46	ears through the words of Satan right and so we still have that Venom running
19:52	through us this is the reason why the children of Israel grumbled against God
19:57	grumbled against Moses what should they have done they should have trusted that
20:03	God means to take care of them and they should have asked them for their daily
20:09	bread and the things that they need in Humble Faith but instead they grumbled
20:14	like a bunch of well you know privileged three-year-olds and
20:19	as a result of it God now punishes them and here’s the thing fiery serpents are not something you want to get bitten by
20:26	the reason why they’re called fiery serpents has literally nothing to do with how they look because they’re
20:32	bronze adders they basically have a bronze color to them the reason why they’re called fiery serpents is because
20:38	if you are the unfortunate one to be in venomated by one of these Critters that basically it is described as what the
20:46	pain that you feel it’s as if your entire insides have turned on fire okay
20:52	this is the ultimate hot flash if you would but this is one that where it ends
20:57	in your death and so many of the people of Israel they died they were bitten and
21:03	they died and the people came to Moses and they said we’ve sinned for we have spoken against Yahweh and against you
21:10	pray to Yahweh that he would take away the serpents from us so Moses prayed for
21:15	the people and here’s the thing did God take away the serpents
21:20	no he did not he did not take away his punishment he
21:25	did not take away the curse instead God had Moses do something that’s quite
21:31	interesting he had Moses set up if you would a sacrament
21:36	all right now what is a Sacrament my catechumens should be paying attention to this part right a Sacrament is when
21:43	God takes his word and he attaches it to something physical on this Earth okay baptism is a washing
21:50	of water and the word what the Lord’s Supper is Bread and Wine and then with
21:56	the words of Christ added to it it is also the body and blood of Christ given
22:01	and shed for the Forgiveness of our sins right so here God commands Moses to make
22:08	a fiery Serpent and to set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten when he sees
22:14	it then he shall live so Moses made a bronze serpent set it on
22:21	a pole and if a serpent bit anyone he would look at the bronze Serpent and live and you’ll note God didn’t save
22:28	them from the curse of fiery serpents he saved them through the curse through
22:35	a promise and Jesus then takes this imagery in John chapter 3 and applies it
22:41	to himself he says as Moses lifted up the serpent of the Wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever
22:48	believes in him may have eternal life each and every one of us are truly snake bit under the Dominion
22:56	of darkness when we are conceived and born and God is the one who delivers us from the Dominion of darkness and it is
23:02	true that we have eternal life however that is all apprehended and grasped by
23:08	faith and in the meantime what happens to us the normal thing we grow up we
23:16	grow old we grow weak and we die this is
23:21	how this goes from generation to generation to generation and no herbal supplement from Tibet is going to stop
23:28	this all right in fact the reality is this you and I do not know when our
23:34	death is but when we can when we again add up how the scriptures talk about birth and death and Resurrection the
23:42	death that we need to be on have on our mind to avoid is the second one not the
23:47	first one which we’ve all already experienced and you’ll note that we can legitimately say that because we have
23:54	been United with Christ and his death and his resurrection as the scripture says in our in the waters of baptism we
24:00	truly have already experienced the first resurrection and we are those who are blessed as God’s word claims that we are
24:08	and this then is a great gift and a great mystery and the nice thing about
24:13	it the fact that God doesn’t really think that our physical death here and now is that big of a deal makes it
24:19	possible for us to live without that fear of death anymore death can come tomorrow right in fact it would be a benefit if
24:26	it did for me right so same with you death could come for us at any time and then we Don mourn as the world Mourns
24:34	regarding death have you ever seen an unbeliever’s funeral holy smokes what a completely vapid and
24:43	sad thing those things are I remember once when I lived in Indiana I was
24:48	playing Disc Golf in the summer I like to play disc golf and the the park that I used to play disc golf at they had
24:55	this really nice gazebo one of these things where you know people can rent them from the city and use them for
25:00	parties and things like this and I remember as I was approaching the 18th hole they’re called holes still they’re
25:06	not really holes it’s really a basket but I was approaching the 18th hole and I was watching as a bunch of people
25:13	dressed in dark black colors were listening to a country and western song
25:18	played out loud on a kind of like a makeshift PA and they had a bunch of balloons and they were releasing the
25:25	balloons and this was some kind of a a symbol of something and and so I
25:31	recognized one of the people that was there in the Gazebo and after I finished the 18th hole I said what’s going on
25:37	here it says oh or we’re just having a a life celebration over somebody that we
25:43	know that just died and I went oh and I said well is there a pastor here
25:49	he said no there’s no no there’s no Pastor here we just kind of gathered together shared some stories released a
25:54	balloon and played some of his favorite music wow
26:01	right but the reality is this we are already alive in Christ we’ve
26:08	already experienced the first resurrection we are going to be raised to eternal life and so we know all of
26:15	this is true because we believe these words that God so loved the world that
26:22	he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but
26:29	have eternal life as Christians we recognize then that we have been given the gift of
26:35	Salvation it is not by our works it is the gift of God it is by grace through
26:41	faith and each and every one of us now possesses eternal life which makes it possible that when we do finally expire
26:49	here our bodies catch up with death itself that we will always be able to
26:55	say to each other I’ll see you later it’s never goodbye for the Christian and
27:02	so when we gather together here for a funeral and boy does Congressman know how to put on a funeral right We Gather
27:07	here for a funeral we’re here to Proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and in defiance of death itself
27:16	we Proclaim that that person is still alive even though they are not physically with us because nobody who is
27:23	in Christ ever eternally perishes and Jesus makes it clear that God is the god
27:29	of the living and not the dead and all of this is because of the good news the good news that God did not send Jesus
27:36	Christ into the world to condemn us or to scold us or to give us the Eternal why don’t you guys get your act together
27:43	no that’s not why he was sent he was not sent to condemn us but in order that we might be saved through him
27:52	so brothers and sisters know this that there is a day coming when you will physically expire but
27:58	that’s kind of a non-event there’s the first birth there’s the second birth there’s the first
28:04	resurrection there’s a second resurrection and everybody who has experienced the first resurrection they
28:11	will never perish because to perish is to experience not the first death which we’ve all already experienced because of
28:17	Adam and Eve but to eternally perish is to experience the second death that
28:22	death where one is thrown into the Lake of Fire and spends an eternity in the torment of God’s Wrath along with the
28:29	devil and his angels but we even though this is what we have earned God does not
28:34	desire your damnation instead he desires your salvation and this is why God has
28:41	sent his son the one who bore your sin and mine on the cross and so we look to
28:46	Jesus crucified and we look to him just as Moses said look to the serpent and
28:52	live we look to Christ and we live and we know then that we are saved not from
28:58	temporal death but we are saying saved from Damnation and the second death and
29:04	because of God’s great love and mercy Christ bleeding and dying for our sins walking us then now through the curse
29:11	not taking us out of it we know and trust that we have eternal life in the
29:17	name of Jesus Amen

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