If You're the Son of God Come Down From the Cross

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

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 Roseberg. Tonight's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 27.

And over Jesus' head they put the charge against Him, which read, This is

Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with Him, on one the right and one on the left.

And those who passed by derided Him, wagging their heads and saying, You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.

If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests, with the scribes and the elders, they mocked

Jesus, saying, He saved others, He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel, let

Him come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God, let

God deliver Him. Now if He desires Him, for He said, I am the Son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with Him also reviled

Him in the same manner. In the name of Jesus. Well, I haven't divulged what our sermon series is gonna be for the midweek

Lenten services until now. A friend of mine, a colleague, one of my seminary professors who

I work with, with the Aletheia Seminary and the Aletheia Synod. He came up with an interesting idea, one that I have to give him credit for, because I've never heard a sermon series quite like this.

Oftentimes, pastors will do a sermon series during Lenten season, where we look at the words that Jesus spoke from the cross.

Over this Lenten time, we're going to look at the words that people spoke to the cross. The things that they said to Jesus while He was on the cross.

Today, focusing on these words, those who passed by derided

Him, wagging their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself if you are the

Son of God, come down from the cross. This Lenten tide, always and again, we have to examine our lives in light of the ten commandments.

First commandment, you will have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things, only

God. Well, that's kind of the rub. Have you ever noticed that we have this amazing ability to just cobble together our own deities without much effort?

I was recently rebuked by a woman in the UK. She has her own ministry and she is out there defeating demons and declaring prosperity.

In fact, she even recently declared the pandemic to be over and declared that anybody who gets

COVID will live. That hasn't gone very well. And let's just say that in our exchange,

I pointed out that she was a false teacher. And she then proceeded to let me know that she has looked at Christianity very closely and that she wouldn't be a

Christian if there wasn't something in it for her. Her words exactly. Well, there is something in Christianity for all of us, but the thing is that it may not be the thing you expect.

And that's kind of the rub, if you think about it, is that we have our own preconceived notions of what it is exactly that we need to be saved from and what exact kind of savior we're going to be requiring for such a task.

Are you suffering from credit card debt? Don't worry, so $1 ,000 seed offering, make your check payable to Pastor Chris Rosebro.

And don't do that, right? So we need a financial savior.

We need a political savior, right? We need one of those. We need saving from poverty.

We need saving from sickness. We need saving from the pandemic. And so we need something practical. We need something, well, you get the idea.

And so when you approach scripture in this manner, it's amazing what we're capable of doing.

We're capable of not seeing the savior that is there for us.

Because, well, what good is a crucified, cursed, suffering, dead

Jesus? In fact, isn't that the whole point of these words to the cross?

You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. You're going to die,

Jesus. Save yourself. Isn't death like the end of everything anyway, right? We all know how that works.

Even Harry Houdini is a fellow who wanted to conquer death. There's a seance held every year on the anniversary of Harry Houdini's death.

And they ask, Harry Houdini, have you conquered death? Come forth. And guess who doesn't show up year after year after year?

Harry Houdini continues to be dead. And so there they are thinking that Jesus is on the verge of his ultimate defeat.

Come down from the cross. Save yourself if you're the son of God. When he saved others, he cannot save himself.

And there's the point. Jesus wasn't there to save himself. He was there to save you.

He was there to save me. Because man, we needed saving. And the fact that these people, rather than being on their knees humbly praying, pleading with God for mercy, that God himself,

God the Father, would send the son to suffer and bleed in our place and die, they are mocking him, deriding him, thinking that the gospel is some kind of a scandal, something to be looked at like a cockroach on your floor.

But it's not. In fact, you'll note that it was Peter who had this same inclination, the same way of thinking, if you would.

In our gospel text coming up this Sunday, it's from the gospel of Mark's account of this passage from Matthew.

We'll just take a look at some of the highlights. When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he took his disciples outside of Israel.

We're going to ask the important question, who is the son of man? So he asked them first, who do people say the son of man is?

And they said, well, you know, some say John the Baptist, other Elijah, and others Jeremiah, one of the prophets.

That's a weird answer for Jews, by the way. They don't believe in reincarnation. So all of a sudden, they've become

Hindus, right? So Jesus now pushes the point just a little bit further.

Who do you say that I am? And then we get this great confession of the apostle Peter. You are the

Christ, you are the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

And no sooner does that come out of Jesus' mouth, that Jesus, it says, from that time began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, he must suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests, the scribes, and then be killed.

And on the third day, be raised. Jesus speaks about these things now bluntly, plainly.

And Peter takes him aside and began to rebuke Jesus. Man, I am still shocked that the text doesn't then go on to say, thus perished

Peter, you know? Because who can rebuke God, right?

So he says, far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

This isn't what I signed up for. I'm working and maneuvering with the other guys to figure out which cabinet position

I can get in your new administration, Jesus. We've already picked out robes for the coronation ceremony.

And we're building an army that you can go and conquer Rome with. What are you talking about?

You're gonna go to Jerusalem, hand it over, and die. That's not according to the plans that we, we need somebody who's gonna flex some muscle here and take the

Roman Empire off of our backs. Far be it from you,

Jesus, far be it. So Jesus turned around and said to Peter, get behind me,

Satan, you're a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

You see, our problem isn't the other party that we don't vote for. Our problem isn't poverty.

Our problem is not that we suffer financially. Our problem is not that we need a better economy.

Our problem is not communism, it's not capitalism. Our problem is sin. It is our rebellion against God and all of the turmoil and the muck that we go through day after day, week after week, year after year, without end.

All of this is the consequence of our sin. And if Jesus were to just deal with one of the symptoms and not address the root, we're doomed.

And how many of us are guilty, like Peter, of having in mind the things of man, the things of this world, and by doing so, are in league with the devil?

Well, now that you put it that way, I guess we're all guilty of that, myself included.

So brothers and sisters, this Lenten Tide, our meditation for tonight. These words to Jesus while he's on the cross.

You who would destroy the temple, rebuild it in three days. Save yourself if you are the son of God. Come down from the cross.

Let us thank God that Jesus had in mind the things of God and that he didn't come down from the cross. Because scripture's clear, that Christ had at his disposal, even while nailed to the tree and suspended between heaven and earth, he had at his disposal myriads of armies of angels that at his slightest little command would have immediately taken him off the cross and slaughtered everybody there standing at the foot of the cross, mocking him.

But Jesus didn't raise a finger. He didn't wink. He didn't say, uncle.

He sat, suspended between heaven and earth, there to save you and me.

In fact, I can't think of a better way to put it because it's so beautifully put in the hymn that we just sang.

Listen to these lyrics. Thou hast suffered men to bruise thee that from pain

I might be free. Falsely did your foes accuse thee, thence

I gain security. Comfortless thy soul did languish, me to comfort in my anguish.

Thousand, thousand thanks shall be dearest Jesus unto thee. Verse six, thou hast suffered great affliction and you have borne it patiently.

Even death by crucifixion fully to atone for me. Thou didst choose to be tormented so that my doom should be prevented.

Thousand, thousand thanks shall be dearest Jesus unto thee. Then for all that wrought my pardon, for thy sorrows deep and sore, for thine anguish in the garden,

I will thank thee evermore. Thank thee for thy groaning, thy sighing, for thy bleeding and for thy dying.

For that last triumphant cry, and shall praise thee, Lord on high. Let us thank our great, merciful

God and Savior, Jesus Christ, that he suffered all of these things.

He didn't come down from the cross. He didn't save himself so that you and I can be saved.

In the name of Jesus, amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744. And again, that address is

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744. We thank you for your support.

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