Series A – All Saint’s Day – Sunday, November 5, 2017 | 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 |
| 0:29 | the holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew chapter 23 verses 1 through 12. |
| 0:34 | then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples the scribes and the Pharisees sit on |
| 0:41 | Moses’s seat so practice and observe whatever they tell you but do not but not what they do for they |
| 0:50 | preach but they do not practice they tie up heavy burdens hard to Bear lay them on people’s shoulders but they |
| 0:56 | themselves are not willing to move them with their finger they do all their deeds to be seen by others for they make |
| 1:03 | their flackataries Broad and their fringes long and they love the place of |
| 1:08 | honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and sitting and greetings |
| 1:13 | in the marketplaces and being called Rabbi by others but you are not to be called Rabbi for |
| 1:20 | you have one teacher and you are all brothers and call no man your father on Earth for you have one father who is in |
| 1:26 | heaven neither be called instructors for you have one instructor the Christ the greatest among you shall be your servant |
| 1:32 | whoever exalts himself will be humbled whoever humbles himself will be exalted |
| 1:38 | this is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus |
| 1:44 | important categories that we’re going to need to begin to understand in order to get what’s going on not only in our Old |
| 1:50 | Testament text but our gospel texts today long time ago Martin Luther after posting the 95 |
| 1:57 | thesis participated in what was called the Heidelberg disputation and in that |
| 2:03 | event there was an important distinction that was made that I think is quite helpful for us today when we talk about |
| 2:10 | the fact that there are many religions on the earth the reality of the of of it |
| 2:16 | is this there are only two there are only two religions there is the religion of self Glory |
| 2:24 | and there is the religion of the Cross there is the Theology of self-exaltation |
| 2:31 | and there’s the theology of the crucified big difference important categories to |
| 2:38 | understand what’s going on in fact Our Gospel text in our Old Testament texts work very closely together and you’re |
| 2:44 | going to note here that the thing that that the false teachers have in common |
| 2:50 | is that they are all about themselves important thing to note |
| 2:56 | so with that let’s frame our sermon today by returning to our Old Testament text Micah chapter 3 we will start in |
| 3:03 | verse 5. and here’s what it says thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who lead my |
| 3:10 | people astray important to note here that in our politically correct culture |
| 3:15 | it is considered a sin against Society to say that all religions are not equal |
| 3:23 | to somehow say that your religious views are wrong whereas these are right and |
| 3:28 | you’re going to note that scripture does not agree with politically correct culture scripture teaches us that there are |
| 3:35 | those who in the name of God are teaching doctrines that lead people astray scripture is Unified on this idea |
| 3:43 | in fact this is a Breaking of the first commandment you will have no other gods before me and this is scriptures |
| 3:49 | condemnation against idolatry even idolatry that invades the church and is |
| 3:56 | spoken by people who hold official positions within the visible church so |
| 4:01 | the Lord here in Micah is condemning those prophets who lead my people astray and here’s what they do |
| 4:07 | they cry peace when they have something to eat but they declare war against him who puts nothing |
| 4:14 | into their mouths remember in the book of Jude there are three primary |
| 4:19 | different types of false teachers Arcane Cain is the fellow who basically goes |
| 4:24 | through all the religious motions offers sacrifices but has no faith Balaam who |
| 4:30 | was the prophet for prophet and Korah who Rebels against the established order |
| 4:35 | and offices that God has ordained in his church here we see the profits for profit are |
| 4:42 | at work and they are theologians of Glory to be sure and here’s what happens when they arrive |
| 4:50 | in a house when they have something to eat they declare peace for that house |
| 4:56 | but when the one who puts nothing into their mouths they end up warring against them this would be like you inviting me |
| 5:02 | to your home to offer a blessing in your home and me kind of hemming and hawing and kind of making an emotion like you |
| 5:09 | know I’m expecting some money and you thinking what is is there something wrong with his hands why are his fingers |
| 5:15 | itching what’s going on there and eventually you don’t quite get what’s going on and you never write me that |
| 5:21 | check and slip it in my hand and so rather than blessing your home I call down a curse on it because you weren’t |
| 5:27 | smart enough to figure out I need some moolah if you want a blessing from God |
| 5:32 | what terrible people these are but the reality is there are people like this even today |
| 5:38 | so God talking about these false prophets speaks a condemnation for all |
| 5:43 | of Israel and says this therefore it shall be night to you without Vision Darkness to you without divination the |
| 5:49 | sun shall go down on the prophets and the day shall be black over them the fear shall be disgraced the diviners put |
| 5:55 | to shame and allusion to hell here and they shall all cover their lips for there is no answer from God |
| 6:02 | but as for me now Micah here is not being uppity he’s not speaking |
| 6:07 | arrogantly he’s speaking the truth as for me I am filled with power with the spirit of Yahweh and with Justice and |
| 6:14 | might to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin and |
| 6:21 | you’re going to note that the prophets of old the prophets of old were preachers of repentance and the |
| 6:28 | Forgiveness of sins they preached God’s law and they also proclaimed the good |
| 6:33 | news that Yahweh forgives sins so here you’re going to see a true prophet Micah |
| 6:39 | literally saying that he’s filled with the Holy Spirit and declares |
| 6:44 | transgression and Israel’s sin he says this hear this then you head to the house of Jacob and you rulers of the |
| 6:51 | House of Israel who detest Justice and make crooked all that is straight important phrase there |
| 6:58 | false teachers false prophets theologians of Glory take the straight |
| 7:04 | things of God and they make them crooked pay attention to how they do this you |
| 7:10 | who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity its heads give judgment for a bribe it’s priests teach for a |
| 7:18 | price it’s prophets practice divination for money |
| 7:23 | this is quite the racket it’s a money making Ponzi scheme with the religious |
| 7:29 | leaders sitting at the top of the pyramid and so God then paints them this |
| 7:35 | way says they lean on Yahweh and they say is not Yahweh in the midst of us no |
| 7:42 | disaster shall come upon us therefore Because of You Zion shall be |
| 7:49 | plowed as a field Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins the mountain of the house a wooded |
| 7:57 | height and that verse 12 is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem itself |
| 8:02 | which was fulfilled in 70 A.D decades after Christ’s crucifixion resurrection |
| 8:09 | and Ascension to the right hand of the father and so with this kind of as a frame |
| 8:15 | let’s return now to Our Gospel text in Matthew chapter 23. |
| 8:20 | and we’re going to pay attention to the greater context by going past where our reading goes and you’re going to note |
| 8:26 | what what Jesus is saying here speaking to the false teachers of his day |
| 8:32 | theologians of glory and how can you like readily understand that these |
| 8:37 | people are false teachers it’s quite simple these Pharisees claimed to |
| 8:43 | worship the god of Israel and there was the god of Israel standing in front of |
| 8:48 | them in human flesh born of the Virgin Mary and they did not believe him did not |
| 8:54 | listen to him and they sought to take his life why because they weren’t really |
| 8:59 | about glorifying the one true God they were all about glorifying themselves and |
| 9:06 | self-righteousness does this so we can we thou return to Our Gospel text |
| 9:11 | Matthew 23 verse 1. Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples |
| 9:16 | scribes and the Pharisees they sit on Moses’s seat so do and |
| 9:23 | observe whatever they tell you but not the works they do for they preach but |
| 9:29 | they do not practice now let me help you understand what’s going on what’s a Moses seat have you any have you ever |
| 9:35 | heard of one of these things or seen a photograph of one now like I always point out I haven’t traveled to the holy |
| 9:43 | land yet so I always visit there via someone else’s vacation photos it’s a good way to it’s very inexpensive to |
| 9:48 | travel that way and plus Google Earth is getting better and better the new update if you haven’t got it already it’s |
| 9:53 | fantastic but a little bit of a note here when you look at other people’s vacation photos of the synagogues of the |
| 10:00 | first century and we have found them like in Capernaum and other cities that |
| 10:06 | are mentioned in the New Testament one of the interesting pieces of furniture that you will find in these synagogues |
| 10:12 | is a very large Stone seat Stone seat Well the preachers of Jesus’s |
| 10:20 | day didn’t preach from pulpits they preached from the Moses seat and if you know your Torah you know your Old |
| 10:26 | Testament then you know that God had specifically set apart the Levites to offer sacrifices in the Tabernacle which |
| 10:34 | eventually became the temple but they were also tasked by God to teach the |
| 10:39 | people of Israel the word of God and so there was an |
| 10:45 | established order set up and when the people would gather at synagogue the |
| 10:50 | levite would sit and teach from the from God’s word and instruct them that was |
| 10:55 | the idea so there was an office with the Moses seat so you know so if somebody thousands of years from now digs up the |
| 11:02 | remains of Kong’s Winger and finds this piece of wood right you know this is the pulpit it’s a symbol of the office of |
| 11:09 | the ministry the preaching the word preaching the word office right so Jesus is saying they sit on Moses’s seat |
| 11:17 | now remember Pharisees are not necessarily Levites these are guys who’ve jumped the fence |
| 11:22 | According To Jesus into the Sheep pen and so Jesus is saying yeah when they’re sitting on the Moses seat and |
| 11:28 | instructing you from the word listen to them when they teach you the word but don’t do what they do for they preach |
| 11:34 | but they do not practice and listen to this they tie up heavy burdens that are hard to Bear they lay |
| 11:41 | them on people’s shoulders but they themselves are not willing to move them with their fingers these are preachers |
| 11:48 | of law law no gospel right |
| 11:54 | they do all their deeds to be seen by others they make their flackataries |
| 12:00 | Broad and their fringes long flackatary by the way if you’re not familiar with |
| 12:05 | this little piece of furniture jewelry if you would the |
| 12:11 | um the Jews of Jesus’s day took God’s words from the Old Testament like |
| 12:17 | extremely literally when God was telling them that the word of God should be in their mouth should be in their hearts |
| 12:24 | should be what they’re talking about should be on their foreheads they came up with this clever way of like taking |
| 12:30 | this literally so they would write out of small passage of scripture maybe like the Shema hero Israel the Lord Our God |
| 12:37 | the Lord is one on a piece of parchment roll it up stick it into a little box |
| 12:42 | and paint it black and then strap it to their foreheads and see the word of God is on my forehead all right and the |
| 12:49 | Pharisees they made the biggest flackataries of them all they were practically hard hat right and walking |
| 12:56 | around look at how big my flackatary is right and if you want to know what the fringes are these are the sits the oath |
| 13:02 | that are commanded in the book of numbers for the men of Israel to wear and these you know when they had garments were basically not shirts like |
| 13:09 | you’d buy at Walmart or a tailor today it was something more like a poncho and on the corners of the Garment that they |
| 13:16 | would wear were these well specified tassels all right that each of the men |
| 13:21 | of Israel were required to have on their garments but the Pharisees what they |
| 13:28 | would do is they would make sure that everybody knew that they had their tassels on by making them so long you |
| 13:34 | could practically put a pocket watch on it and swing it around with it right so everything they’re doing is to glorify |
| 13:42 | themselves it’s a racket we’re there at the top |
| 13:48 | so they make their flackataries broad their fringes long they love the |
| 13:56 | place of honor at Feast the best seats in the synagogues greetings in the |
| 14:01 | marketplaces and being called Rabbi by others oh Rabbi I didn’t know that you shop here well yes I do of course right |
| 14:08 | and but you are not to be called rabbi Jesus says for you have one teacher |
| 14:14 | you’re all Brothers and no man call no man on Earth your father for you |
| 14:21 | have the one father who is in heaven you get a note here the title for a |
| 14:26 | pastor as father is strictly forbidden by scripture because it puts him above rather than |
| 14:33 | below the people he serves and I need to remind you maybe it’s fortuitous that my |
| 14:40 | vestments were forgotten today right that the reason why I wear this |
| 14:46 | is to this is a visual reminder of my position in this church I am not the |
| 14:51 | head of the church this is a slave shackle a slave shackle to remind you I am the |
| 14:57 | servant the slave of the church big difference altogether right |
| 15:03 | neither be called instructors where you have one instructor the Christ the greatest among you shall be your slave |
| 15:09 | whoever exalts himself will be humbled whoever humbles himself will be exalted |
| 15:15 | and then Jesus gets very Politically Incorrect pay attention woe to you scribes and |
| 15:24 | Pharisees hypocrites now the term woe is a term used of |
| 15:30 | judgment somebody whom God calls woes down upon |
| 15:36 | are not headed to eternal life they are headed to Eternal damnation it is that kind of a term and a hypocrite of the |
| 15:43 | Ancient World Theater of the ancient world the actors were what they would do is they would put masks on so there was |
| 15:50 | a mass that depicted happiness another one sadness or whatever the the feelings were and so the actors of those days |
| 15:57 | they were called Hypocrites because they would put a mask on that showed what their emotions were but underneath it I |
| 16:04 | mean whatever their face had you know they basically stoic right so he’s basically saying to them you are people |
| 16:10 | who wear masks you shut the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces for you neither |
| 16:15 | enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in a good way to think |
| 16:21 | of false teachers theologians of Glory is well these are the guys who if they |
| 16:27 | were a football team they would always play defense now I understand they would have to be a little bit better than the |
| 16:33 | Vikings at this point but [Music] but the idea then is this is that the |
| 16:40 | person who’s making a run for the goal line trying to get into the Kingdom of Heaven the false teachers play defense |
| 16:48 | and their job is to tackle that guy to make sure he doesn’t make it into |
| 16:53 | eternal life that’s what false teachers do and this is Jesus’s picture of them you shut the |
| 16:59 | Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces you neither enter yourselves nor do you allow those who would enter to go in woe |
| 17:08 | to you scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte and when |
| 17:14 | he becomes a proselyte you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves |
| 17:21 | I think it’s important to note this that in all of scripture the person who |
| 17:27 | spoke the most about hell and revealed the most details about hell itself was |
| 17:34 | Jesus Christ nobody even comes close to him it’s as if this particular Doctrine |
| 17:41 | is so important but so controversial |
| 17:46 | that Jesus basically said leave it to me I’ll explain it in all of its gory |
| 17:52 | details because if we had all of the Gory details of Hell from the prophet Isaiah people would dismiss it and say |
| 17:58 | well that’s just Old Testament if it was from the Apostle Paul they would challenge it and say yeah you know the |
| 18:04 | Apostle Paul he really wasn’t one of the inside circle of Jesus so when it comes to the doctrine of Hell itself Jesus is |
| 18:12 | the greatest teacher of it in all of scripture and so here he’s saying to these false teachers that they and their |
| 18:19 | disciples are literally children of hell theologians of Glory |
| 18:25 | it’s all about them and then he says this woe to you blind guides you say if anyone swears by the |
| 18:31 | temple it’s nothing but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple he’s Bound by his Oath a little bit of a note here |
| 18:38 | notice what Jesus said you who say this |
| 18:43 | theologians of Glory are not interested in accurately conveying what God’s word says they are well obsessed with giving |
| 18:52 | their opinions and their ideas and setting not them up as doctrines within |
| 18:58 | Christ Church and the Pharisees their body of work where they had their own |
| 19:03 | theology it was called the tradition of the elders and here Jesus is taking the doctrines of the tradition of the elders |
| 19:10 | and literally throwing it into the rubbish Den to be burned |
| 19:15 | and he says you say if anyone swears by the temple it’s nothing but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple he’s |
| 19:21 | Bound by his oath and then Jesus says you blind fools which is greater the |
| 19:27 | gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred isn’t it funny they think |
| 19:32 | the gold is the sacred thing because they’re all about money right you say if anyone swears by the altar it’s nothing |
| 19:38 | but if anyone swears by the gift on the altar he’s Bound by his oath there you go again Jesus saying you say and they |
| 19:46 | taught this Doctrine as if it was a Doctrine from God himself and Jesus says uh-uh this is not from God this is from |
| 19:53 | you you blind men which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred so whoever swears by the altar |
| 20:00 | swears by it and everything on it whoever swears by the temple swears by it and him who dwells in it whoever |
| 20:07 | swears by Heaven swears by The Throne of God and by him who sits on it woe to you scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites you |
| 20:14 | tithe mint and Dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the |
| 20:20 | law note here these guys are meticulous in |
| 20:25 | their tithing so much so that they’ve gotten into their spice rack and figured |
| 20:30 | out 10 and throw it into the offering plate maybe next week we can do that barb we’ll go through your spice rack |
| 20:36 | and you know work out the 10 of the cinnamon and all that other stuff that we have in our kitchen right we’ll throw it into the offering pray but I would |
| 20:42 | like to point this out why do you think these guys are making such a big deal about tithing all the way down to their |
| 20:49 | spices because who do you think was the one who when the plate was passed counted the |
| 20:55 | money and pocketed it the Pharisees did so look at look at look at I’m tithing |
| 21:02 | all the way down to 10 of my cinnamon put it into the offering plate and then |
| 21:08 | once church is over they’re the ones counting it saying thank you for my cinnamon back and they they do this so |
| 21:15 | they basically say I’m doing it you need to do it too |
| 21:22 | but they’re the ones ingratiating themselves and Jesus says to them you have |
| 21:29 | neglected the weightier matters of the Torah and I love what Jesus does here the next |
| 21:35 | part of this Jesus Takes law gospel and repentance and just says |
| 21:42 | it in three words Justice mercy and faithfulness it’s a good way to describe |
| 21:48 | the message of scripture Justice is the call of God for us to repent repent of |
| 21:55 | our sins and this is informed by The Ten Commandments Mercy through the Forgiveness of sins and then |
| 22:01 | faithfulness in bearing fruit and keeping with repentance by having good |
| 22:06 | works or being zealous in good works for your neighbor for your neighbor’s sakes Jesus says these you ought to have done |
| 22:13 | without neglecting the others you blind guides straining out a gnat and |
| 22:19 | swallowing a camel I’d like to see somebody write that into a political cartoon because I think the picture itself is quite absurd and God himself |
| 22:26 | is capable of some of these absurd word pictures next week’s Old Testament has another one like this and he says woe to |
| 22:33 | you scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites you clean out the inside of the outside of the cup and the plate but the inside |
| 22:39 | are full of greed and self-indulgence you blind Pharisees first clean the |
| 22:44 | inside of the cup and the plate so that the outside Also may be clean woe to you |
| 22:50 | scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites for your like white washed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within |
| 22:57 | are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness so you also outwardly appear |
| 23:05 | righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness now |
| 23:11 | note this false teachers are not guys who on the |
| 23:18 | surface look like criminals they don’t act like them they put on |
| 23:26 | righteous pretenses for the purpose of lining their wallets with money |
| 23:33 | and so these fellows look good on the outside but their Doctrine and |
| 23:40 | their theology is all screwed up and they are totally putting on a show and |
| 23:46 | in reality they are Lawless think of it this way think of like the most notorious |
| 23:52 | televangelist on TBN right this is a fellow who if you critique him |
| 23:59 | somebody’s going to might say to you how can you critique that fellow you sit |
| 24:04 | there and go well do you not watch the news and pay attention he says if you send him a thousand dollars God’s going |
| 24:11 | to bless you that’s ridiculous that’s absurd this we just saw an expose on the |
| 24:17 | news about this teacher he Jets around the world in the latest Gulf Stream |
| 24:22 | private jet he stays in five Diamond Resorts he lives in a mansion on the |
| 24:30 | Pacific coast in the most expensive neighborhood in Southern California come on and they’ll sit there and go but |
| 24:38 | but look at the good that he does he set up an orphanage in Haiti and there’s 20 |
| 24:43 | kids who are being fed and clothed in Haiti because of his Outreach |
| 24:49 | to which you should say how does feeding 20 orphans in Haiti justify taking |
| 24:55 | Millions from welfare moms in the United States |
| 25:02 | you see they look righteous but they’re not they’re Lawless and they’re hypocritical |
| 25:10 | woe to you scribes and Pharisees you Hypocrites you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of |
| 25:16 | the righteous saying if we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have taken part with them in shedding |
| 25:21 | the blood of the prophets uh-huh notice that Jesus doesn’t even give any Credence to their words he says |
| 25:27 | thus you witness against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets |
| 25:33 | fill up then the measure of your fathers you serpents you brood of vipers yeah |
| 25:39 | you’ll notice that Jesus actually engaged in some name-calling If This Were happening today I’m sure |
| 25:47 | the news media would be freaking out did you hear what Jesus said to those |
| 25:52 | religious leaders he said their moms were snakes oh that Jesus fellow you can’t be |
| 25:58 | listening to him he didn’t pull any punches he didn’t mince words you serpents you brood of |
| 26:04 | vipers how are you to escape being sentenced to hell |
| 26:13 | well that would require them to repent of their idolatry to repent of their |
| 26:20 | self-glorification and to be forgiven by Christ and then Jesus says something very |
| 26:27 | interesting he says therefore I send present tense you prophets wise men and |
| 26:34 | scribes some of whom you will kill and crucify some you will flog in your |
| 26:41 | synagogues and persecute from town to town Jesus didn’t say I sent you these |
| 26:47 | fellows he says I send them now and who did Jesus send he sent the apostles |
| 26:55 | he sent the apostles some of them were crucified and killed some of them were flogged in synagogues and some of them |
| 27:02 | were scribes Matthew Mark Luke John James Jude Peter |
| 27:09 | right and notice they’re all sent from Jesus and Jesus describes them as men who |
| 27:16 | would be despised who would be persecuted not men who would live in |
| 27:21 | mansions but men who would be living on the Run that’s how he’s describing them and that |
| 27:29 | they would be flogged in the synagogues again over and again I see a phrase like this and I think it’s been a long time since we’ve had a good flogging here at |
| 27:36 | Kong’s finger right to which I would say what kind of church |
| 27:42 | does that I mean what church has a flogging pole |
| 27:48 | set up in it and as part of their liturgy would have somebody flogged |
| 27:54 | but see the religion of self-glory will defend that self-glory even if it |
| 28:03 | requires physically beating or flogging or murdering another person who would |
| 28:10 | challenge them and Rob them of their Glory |
| 28:15 | self-idolatry makes you God makes you in charge and when your God if |
| 28:22 | somebody dares to not obey you they could pay the ultimate price |
| 28:30 | you could damn them by taking away their lives such as the Theology of self Glory |
| 28:38 | but Jesus says I send you prophets wise men and scribes those who write the scriptures |
| 28:44 | some you will kill and crucify some you will flog in your synagogues and then persecute from town to town |
| 28:51 | so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the Earth |
| 28:56 | from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of barakaya whom you murdered between the sanctuary |
| 29:02 | and the altar truly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation |
| 29:09 | now as we read a text like this it’s very easy for us to sit there on the sidelines and you say go go Jesus you |
| 29:15 | get them wow you’re really letting them have it you’re speaking truth to power |
| 29:21 | Dude down with the man sitting on the sidelines just applauding |
| 29:26 | Jesus’s performance here but I don’t know if you’ve noticed that as Jesus was |
| 29:32 | calling down the woes on the Pharisees he not only got dangerously close to |
| 29:38 | condemning some of our own behaviors and thoughts that we’ve had within ourselves he came right out and did it |
| 29:46 | have you noticed the Pharisee within you yet have you noticed the Theologian of Glory |
| 29:52 | within yourself that your Tendencies your thoughts The |
| 29:57 | Works that you have done actually are perfectly in line with what these false |
| 30:03 | teachers that Jesus is condemning have done you see false teachers always and out |
| 30:09 | started out as lay people first and I must confess there are things that are in these |
| 30:15 | condemnations that I know for a fact I myself am guilty of |
| 30:21 | and it makes me terribly uncomfortable so focusing in on those words |
| 30:29 | on you may come all the righteous blood shed on Earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah |
| 30:35 | the son of barakaya it reminds me of when Jesus himself was |
| 30:42 | on trial in the Book of Matthew are you familiar with it from our Good Friday texts when Jesus is on trial and Pontius |
| 30:51 | Pilate is trying to get him off trying to literally get Jesus rescued right well what ends up happening is is |
| 30:59 | that the people there at Jesus’s |
| 31:05 | trial they literally cry out crucify him |
| 31:12 | crucify him and they want Barabbas and pilate himself |
| 31:19 | is appalled by all of this listen to these words from Matthew 27. |
| 31:26 | pilate was sitting on the Judgment seat verse 19. besides while he was sitting on the Judgment seat his wife sent word |
| 31:32 | have nothing to do with that righteous man for I have suffered much because of him in a dream now the chief priests and |
| 31:38 | the elders they persuaded the crowd and they asked for Barabbas to destroy Jesus the governor again said to them |
| 31:45 | which of the two do you want me to release to you they said Barabbas pilate said to them then what shall I do with |
| 31:51 | Jesus who is called the Christ they all said let him be crucified |
| 31:56 | and he said why what evil has he done they all shouted out all the more let him be crucified so |
| 32:03 | when pilate saw that he was gaining nothing but rather that a riot was beginning he took water washed his hands |
| 32:10 | before the crowd and said I am innocent of this man’s blood see to it yourselves listen to these words and the people |
| 32:16 | cried out his blood be on us and on our children |
| 32:24 | his blood be upon us and on our children |
| 32:30 | interesting if Jesus’s blood is on you is that good or bad |
| 32:39 | it can be either one it depends |
| 32:45 | are you a theologian of self-glory are you using the things of God and |
| 32:50 | Christ to exalt yourself and to extort Power Glory and money from others |
| 32:57 | then the blood of Christ is on you and you are guilty of it and that guilt will condemn you to |
| 33:03 | Eternity and Hell the one who exalts himself will be |
| 33:09 | humbled but for those of us whom God’s word has crushed |
| 33:17 | exposed our sinful hearts and intent in the wickedness of our deeds and the Very |
| 33:22 | things that we think within ourselves and exposed us for what we are guilty |
| 33:28 | sinners Christ’s blood is on us not to condemn us |
| 33:33 | but to forgive us |
| 33:38 | but in order for that to happen the little deity within yourself |
| 33:45 | Must Die must be killed must be exposed for who he is |
| 33:51 | or she and so that’s the difference |
| 33:58 | so brothers and sisters Christ’s blood is on all of us |
| 34:05 | Christ’s blood is on us to forgive us let us continue then to put to death |
| 34:11 | that maniacal self-centered sinner within ourselves who seeks his or her |
| 34:18 | own Glory so that Christ’s blood being on us may be too for our forgiveness |
| 34:25 | not for our damnation in the name of Jesus amen [Music] |
| If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax-free donation to: Kongsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th Ave NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message, and, again, thank you for listening. |
LutheranLectionary.org 