The Mystery Revealed to the Nations

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king

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Behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying where is he who has been born the king of the

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Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him when Herod the king heard this

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He was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people

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He inquired of them where the Christ the Messiah was to be born They told him in Bethlehem of Judea for so it is written by the prophet and you

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O Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah and from you shall come a ruler who?

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Will shepherd my people Israel then Herod summoned the wise men and secretly ascertained from them

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What time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem saying go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him

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Bring me word that I too may come and worship him after listening to the king They went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was

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When they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the house

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They saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshipped him then opening their treasures

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They offered him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod They departed to their own country by another way.

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This is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus All right.

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Do you guys remember the four blood moons scare boy? That was a close one. We nearly didn't make it through that one

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And of course you you remember during the four blood moons I mean there was the Shemitah thing going on and all of the people who were looking up into the heavens and Wondering what the blood moons meant.

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Those are the same people who this past year actually the year in 2017 in September told us that there was a great sign that was to appear in the stars

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Jupiter had spent a whole bunch of time in the womb of the Constellation Virgo and was about to be born and they said that this was a sign to the earth

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There was going to be shakings things were going to be toppled over This was going to be the thing that everybody would recognize as something spectacular

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Something ominous something. Well, that's the thing. It's always something but you never know exactly what the something is

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Now I would say this to those who do such things and that is is that they have rightly understood that God has created stars and the

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Sun and the moon for the well for Times and seasons and things like that if you would turn back with me

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Into the book of Genesis chapter 1 I would like to show you something here and we'll pay attention to what's going on Here's what it says

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Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 And we'll do a little work here

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Wonderful sentence in the Hebrew better sheet better. Ah Elohim at Hashem. I am by a tire

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In the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth and see this is the big thing

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There's a beginning before there was a beginning. What was there? there was only eternity and don't ask me how that works because I Well you and I we live in the time and space continuum you things start things end

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And so that's the thing the fact that there was a beginning is a big deal Because before there was a beginning there wasn't a beginning there was only just eternity

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And how does that work? I again no clue but in the beginning God created the heavens of the earth the earth was without form and void

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Darkness was over the face of the to home over the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering

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Brooding over the face of the waters here We see the Holy Spirit's first appearance like a bird if you would because the word hovering is this

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Birding term like a mother hen brooding over her eggs and God saw

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God said let there be Light and there was light

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God saw that the light was good. God separated the light from the darkness God called the light day and the darkness he called night and there was evening and there was morning the first day

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God said let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate waters from the waters and God made the

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Expanse the rakia and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse and it was so God called the expanse heaven and there was evening and there was morning the second day

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God said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear and it was so God called the dry land earth and The waters that were gathered together he called seas and God saw that it was good

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And God said let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed fruit trees bearing fruit in which there is seed each according to its kind on the earth and it was

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So the earth brought forth vegetation plants yielding seed according to their own kinds

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Trees bearing fruits in which is their seed each according to its kind and God saw it was good

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And there was evening and there was morning the third day now

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You'll note vegetation pops up before the even the Sun is created. So of course, you know plants need

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Light to do the photosynthesis thing. We all learned this in grade school, right? So, how is it that these plants are?

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Doing these things remember God said let there be light God turned the lights on it's as if his glory is a thing that is illuminating this creation that he is made and the reason why it is like that is because that's exactly what's going on and then

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God said Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens in the rakia of the heavens

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To separate the day from the night let them be watch for signs and for seasons for days and for years

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Let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth and it was so God made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day the lesser light to rule the night and the stars and God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth

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To rule over the day and the night and listen to separate the light from the darkness

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And God saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning the fourth day you'll note that God specifically gave

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Sun and Moon and The stars to separate light from darkness and to serve as signs

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So take that whole blood moon stuff and all the things you were feeling about how important it was Disconnected for the four blood moons

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Throw it on to this star that shows up in our gospel text. This is the sign of signs

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This is a star that separates light from darkness even to this day

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It is still doing so so with that we return to our gospel text That's all kind of frame and we come to that wonderful wonderful passage of Scripture Talking to us about the visit of the wise men the

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Magi now important to note today We are recognizing what is called Epiphany and it's a celebration in the church

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But a lot of people sit there and go what exactly are we celebrating right? Are we celebrating that?

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Three wise dudes showed up and gave Jesus gifts. What's the celebration about answer? The celebration is that now?

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God has Manifested himself in the flesh not merely to Jews but to Gentiles See, this is the first manifestation of the salvation of God in Jesus Christ To all nations the

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Magi and the people who were with them They are the first fruits of the believers of the

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Gentiles and it's a big deal you see when Jesus is born the angels show up and they show up to Jewish shepherds out in Bethlehem to tell them about the

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Sign the baby who has been born to them Christ the Lord who's Emmanuel God with us come to save us

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And what do they do? They go and they worship him so here now

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Not Jews, but Gentiles are showing up to worship their

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Savior I don't know about you. But when I was a young kid, I would first read the Bible, you know, I always thought man

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I Wish I was Jewish because it's like, you know, they've got this great heritage this amazing heritage

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God has worked through these people Throughout the millennia of human history and it's through them that the

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Messiah has come to us And I always felt like I was kind of getting left out, you know Plus the church

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I went to really didn't quite Understand how things work as far as who is Israel and who isn't and so they would always talk about the people who are currently living in Jerusalem and in Israel today in the established re -established nation of Israel today as if somehow

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They are the people of God despite the fact that they reject Jesus as Messiah It never really made any sense to me

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How would you know how that thing but then you realize in Scripture as you read it that every Gentile Norwegian or German doesn't matter every

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Gentile who trusts in Jesus Christ is Grafted into Israel.

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So congratulations. You are all now Hebrews You grafted in that's the idea so but the first fruits don't do it

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Mike I know what you were gonna do You look like you're about to say something Jewish Muzzletoff It's kind of scary that I knew you were thinking that so in our text today.

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We are celebrating the revealing of the mystery of ages that it's not just Jews but Gentiles people from all tribes all languages all nations who are going to be

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Believers in Jesus Christ, so we return to our gospel text and here's what it says now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea In the days of Herod the king behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem best guess these are fellows who are coming from the area that was formerly known as Babylon and How they knew that this star had something to do with the king of the

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Jews The best that we can come up with well, this has to do with the heritage of Daniel Daniel and so the the

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Jews spent time 70 years in exile in Babylon and left an indelible impression and Daniel was kind of the the top of the

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Wise men of Babylon of the day and the Lord was truly with them. And so we don't exactly know by what?

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Mysterious arts they figured this out. But here's the thing. They knew that the stars serve as a sign and so they have found this star that is serving as the quintessential star sign of all of human history

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And like I said, this star is separating light from darkness even in our text So it says so they came to Jerusalem and they were saying

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Where is he who is born the king of the Jews where we saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship

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Him, huh? So when Herod the king heard this he was troubled and all

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Jerusalem with him now a little bit of a pause here. Let's take a look at our text from Isaiah Isaiah chapter 60

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I want to note something here over and again the way Tradition works. We think that there were three guys on camels and they show up in Jerusalem No, no, no.

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No, but the reason why we think that way is because there were three gifts gold frankincense myrrh and in our

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Sermon text our sermon hymn today. We actually saw the significance of each of the gifts

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King God Sacrifice, you know gold frankincense myrrh gold

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Recognizing that Jesus is a king Frankincense that incense that's burned reminds us of those psalms that says let our prayers rise before you

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God as Incense the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice and so the prayers of the incense rising up Well that shows that Jesus is

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God but myrrh. That's that strange one. That's that weird one That's kind of an outlier think of it

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The best way that you put it is it's the old world's version of embalming fluid Which is a strange thing to give to a newborn kid

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But there it is nonetheless So because of the three gifts people have now think there's three wise men and they've even kind of come up with names for them

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You know belches are some weird names like this, you know, okay think of it this way

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Herod was such an insane power controlling maniac if three dudes show up on camels wearing turbans and Looking for a king to worship.

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He'd probably would have killed them But the book of Isaiah the prophecy from our Old Testament text explains to us in graphic detail

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That this was quite the entourage. Let me show you Isaiah 60.

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Let's read it out in all six verses Arise shine for your light has come

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The glory of Yahweh has arisen upon you behold darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples or the nation

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And this is the darkness of our sin, but Yahweh will arise upon you His glory will be seen upon you wonderful veiled

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Reference here promise to us being clothed in the righteousness of Christ You see in the book of Revelation it talks about how when this is all said and done that the

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Saints themselves will shine like the Sun He's thinking how is that possible?

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Well when you're decked out in the righteous garments of salvation the righteousness of Christ This is the glory of the

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Lord is now seen upon you And so the nation shall come to your light kings to the brightness of your rising

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Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together They come to you your sons shall come from afar your daughters shall be carried on the hip and then you shall see and be radiant and your heart shall thrill and Exult because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you the wealth of the nations shall come to you and then watch this verse 6 a multitude of Camels shall cover you the young camels of Midian and Aoife all those from Sheba shall come they shall bring gold

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Frankincense and shall bring good news and the praises of the Lord. Ah a

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Multitude of camels. So you remember it says in our gospel text that the people there in Jerusalem They were all troubled that everyone's talking about the city was buzzing when these guys show up Why because we're talking like a small army if you would a brigade

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Maybe a regiment have come and there are some multitude of camels and notice the explicit

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Prophecy two of the gifts are prophesied by Isaiah by name

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Two of them by name and you're gonna note here that it says of those who would come

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That they would sing the praises of Yahweh They come because they see the sign the star and they end up worshiping and Believing in Jesus.

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These are the first fruits of the Gentiles So with that in mind you can see what's going on And it's rather interesting because the text says in our gospel text we return now it says we saw his star when it rose and we've come to and what's

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Fascinating here is the Greek word for that's translated is worship Could literally be translated as come down to honor him and the way the old world

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People would honor is to basically honor by bowing down to their face to the ground

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But see one implies Honoring the other implies worship.

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It's the same word. So, how do you know which one it is? Are they believers or not?

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Well, what did Isaiah say? You see Isaiah tells us that this

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Greek word must be interpreted as worship Because it was prophesied of the ones who bring the gift that they will sing the praises of the

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Lord and that only comes through faith and So they are the first Gentile believers in Jesus first fruits of that group

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So when Herod the king heard this he was troubled in all Jerusalem with them Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people he inquired of them where the

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Christ was to be born Now it's fascinating that Herod didn't know now we can understand that the

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Magi wouldn't know because you see this was a mystery That had been covered up Veiled until now and now the covering is coming off you think of you know

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I'm a kind of an Apple guy, you know, I mean by technology like, you know I've got an iPad and an iPhone and an iMac and you know, pretty much all the

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Apple stuff But every single year they have these big events where Apple announces and reveals

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The new technology that they're working on like the iPhone 72, you know, whatever

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You know, what are they up to now the iPhone X? But you get the idea and it's a big deal and people from around the world tune in to the to the internet stream

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Broadcast to see it and of course in the months and weeks leading up to the big announcement of the big new thing

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There's always leaks, you know Somebody's on the production line in China has taken a surreptitious

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Photograph of what the new thing is supposed to look like at least here's a component part So we think the new phone's gonna do this or that or whatever so but it's all under wraps until the big revelation

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That's what's happening here. God is pulling back The curtain

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Pulling back the cover so that all the world can see this mystery that has been hidden from the foundation of the earth is

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Now being revealed to the whole world Move aside Apple. This is bigger than that.

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So where's he's to be going the king of the Jews He doesn't know where they're gonna be with this guy's

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Herod is a king in Israel It doesn't know where the Messiah is to be one. So they told him All right he's gonna be born in Bethlehem of Judea for it is written by the

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Prophet and You Oh Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for from you

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Shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel ah, look at that the

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Messiah comes from the city of David and Like David he too is also a shepherd and now you can see the type and shadow between David and Jesus It's beautiful when

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Herod summoned the wise men secretly he ascertained from them What time the star had appeared he sent them to Bethlehem saying go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him

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Bring me word that I too may come and worship him Liar, that's not what he's up to but that's not the point of our sermon today

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So after listening to the king they went on their way and behold the star

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That they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was

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That is some star. I don't know any stars that behave like this and yet this star

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This is the sign the sign of the new season the sign now of the day of God's Salvation today is the day of salvation this star signaled the beginning of this day the day when?

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Every sinner who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved Even though your sins be as scarlet

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This Jesus that they are worshiping because of his sacrifice for your sins

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He will wash away your scarlet sins and robe you in the radiant bright white righteousness of his own

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Forgiving and pardoning today is the day of salvation Here is the revealing of this mystery to the nation's so they come the star leads them right to Jesus's house and They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy going into the house.

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They saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and They worshipped him

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God calling the nation's to himself and Look at this their faith then already begins producing good works

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So then opening their treasures They offered him gifts gold frankincense and that really strange one mer mer

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Which again points to this bet the fact that Jesus is going to bleed and die for them. It's about Preparing him already now for his death

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And so they then being warned in a dream not to return to Herod They departed to their own country by another way now to help us understand the revealing of the mystery that we just looked at I'd like to take a look at another text and that's our epistle text today if you would turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 3 and I'm gonna read a little bit past what is in our

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Epistle text because it's fantastic what Paul is doing here. So Paul in Ephesians 3 says this

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For this reason I Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you

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Gentiles Assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you

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Important to note here. Paul does not consider him to be a steward of God's law He's a steward of God's grace

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You see we have the law in Moses. Let's see something new is happening So how the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written

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Briefly, so notice he's talking here in terms of mystery and a mystery that is being revealed

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When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ Which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed

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To his holy apostles and the prophets by the Spirit So do you see this great mystery is now being made known whereas people in the ancient world before Christ Had no concept of this mystery.

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It was kept from them But to us it has been revealed and here's the mystery that the

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Gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ through Christ Jesus through the gospel

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The mystery is that now all people of all

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Nations who trust and call upon the name of the Lord will be saved and they are all heirs together

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Wow, we are all the people of God So of this good news of this gospel

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I was made a minister according to the gifts of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power

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To me though. I'm the very least of all the Saints This grace was given to preach to the

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Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone

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What is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things?

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so that through the church the manifold or you can say multidimensional or Poly -dimensional wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places this was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our

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Lord in whom we have boldness and Access with confidence through our faith in Him so I ask you not to lose heart over what

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I am suffering for you, which is your glory now note here Paul references boldness and Confidence through faith and I'll say this if you've ever sat under preaching that only sounds like that really kind of Tune that is a broken tune that goes like this

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La la la la la la la la la la la la la and more la la la la la la la la la

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Yeah How much law can you get well? Give you some more law on top of that if all you're hearing is law law law and you gotta you gotta you gotta does

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That create boldness and confidence that you have a right standing before God Yeah, no

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And the reason why is because God's law is always condemning us always pointing out where we fall short

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So la la la la la doesn't create confidence at all. It creates terror

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Creates fear but notice Paul is a steward of God's grace a

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Steward and a minister of the good news and what is the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins in accordance?

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With the scripture that he was raised on the third day for our justification and that God was in Christ Reconciling the world to himself you see the forgiveness of sins in God's grace and the free gift of mercy that we have in Jesus gives us boldness and Confidence you talk that way sometime with somebody who's not so sure whether or not they have a right relationship with God And they if they ask you how you're doing you basically say

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I couldn't be better me and God were tight I have absolute confidence that I am saved.

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I'm redeemed and I cannot wait to see Jesus. They might actually say to you Whoa, you're kind of getting a little uppity there

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Slow down. How could you be so sure? In fact nowadays in many churches doubt is kind of considered to be at the in thing

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You see Paul here is talking about boldness and confidence and that only comes through the cross and through Jesus So I ask you not to lose heart over what

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I'm suffering Paul says and then comes something rather fascinating We'll end with this thought

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Have you ever read in the prophet Ezekiel that portion where Ezekiel is told to kind of go and measure out?

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The temple complex and ever scratched your head and said what's that about a similar thing occurs in the book of Revelation again?

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There's kind of measuring off of things. You know, what is that all about? It always has to do with the temple

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Well, I like to think of it this way that the fulfillment is found here in this text the next verses

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And I'll show you what I mean for this reason Paul then says I bow my knees before the father

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Just like the Magi did before Jesus Says from whom every family in heaven on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory that he may grant you to be strengthened with power

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Through his spirit in your inner being So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to listen to this

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Comprehend with all the Saints What is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses

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Knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God So think of it this way this mystery that has been made known in Christ not just to the

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Jewish nation, but now to all nations starting with the Magi this mystery

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That is Christ God invites you to now sit down and like Ezekiel and like the

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Apostle of John See if you can measure it out Can you measure the love of Christ for you tell me what is its breadth?

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What is the breadth or the length or the depth of the love of Jesus for you?

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It's tough to measure You see God Demonstrates his great love for you that even when you were a sinner and at your worst

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Christ died for your sins God so loved the world

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That he gave his only begotten son That whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life

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Do you comprehend the breadth the length the height and the depth of this?

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Great love for you in Christ This is the next mystery if you would

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Good luck figuring it out and yet you are invited to sit and start to comprehend and noodle this out

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But it is great news So let us this day Because of the great love that God has for us with a great revealing of the salvation that has come to the whole world that every people's every tribe

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Language nation that God is calling them like the Magi from the east

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Calling them to now come and worship Jesus Christ the mystery

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Held back and now revealed to all nations including our nation today

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Let us comprehend with all the Saints the breadth the length and the height and the depth of Christ and let us to worship our wonderful loving kind Savior who has given us the greatest gift that we could ever receive the gift of himself the gift of Reconciliation with God the gift of eternal life in the name of Jesus.

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Amen If you would like to support the teaching ministry of kungs vineyard

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Lutheran Church You can do so by sending a tax -free donation to kungs vineyard Lutheran Church 159 5 0 470th

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