Christ is our Exorcist

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Date: 16th Sunday after Pentecost Text: Mark 9:14-29 www.kongsvingerchurch.org

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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. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Have you all seen the movie
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Hook? You know, with Dustin Hoffman playing Hook. Man, he was a fantastic Hook.
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There's something I want to remind you of if you've seen the movie. And well, in the story,
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Peter Pan has grown up and he's become an adult and he's forgotten who he is. But Hook wants his revenge.
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He wants the ultimate battle between good and evil finally to be fought so that he can, well, get vengeance on that boy who had cut his hand off and fed it to the crocodile.
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We all know how the story of Pan works, right? Well, as he's away, as Pan is away from Never Never Land, there's a new leader who takes over.
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His name is Rufio. And Rufio, well, he's got a really kind of weird rooster -like, mohawk, pompadour kind of thing going on.
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He's a little bit full of himself. And as the story develops, Pan finally remembers who he is.
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He's got to rescue his children. They've been kidnapped by Hook. And so he remembers who he is and, well, the final battle is on.
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But here's the thing. In the final battle between good and evil, it always has to be the hero who wins the day against the villain.
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And well, contrary to the rules laid down, the explicit orders of Pan that Hook was his,
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Rufio allowed himself to be tempted to, well, gain the glory, to gain the victory by none other than Hook himself, who kind of egged him on and was saying,
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Rufio, Rufio, as if he was so important. Well, as we all know how good fairy stories end, when one is tempted to fight evil on evil's terms, when they're not the hero of the story, they often perish, and Rufio perished.
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And I'm saying this to remind us of a few things. Our gospel text is an interesting one.
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There's quite a few themes that we can work out in here. But one of the most important themes is this.
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You are not special in the fight against the devil. Far from it.
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You are almost practically powerless. And it's a good thing to think this way.
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It's a fantastic thing to think this way. Because when it comes down to it, Christ is the champion.
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He's the one who won the victory. And ongoing, the demonic is real. Our fight against the devil, it's pitched.
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But Christ is our exorcist. He is the one who wins the day, not you.
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Don't be tempted by the schemes of the devil. In that regard, I need to give a little bit of a preface to our text.
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There are people nowadays who poo -poo the idea that there are demons. Oh, come on.
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You believe in demons? Do you believe in the boogeyman and monsters under your bed too?
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This is how they talk. And they would dismiss the gospel text today purely on that ground.
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Oh, come on. We've long since graduated as a human race from the idea of a devil and Satan and angels and demons and all that.
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Those are all the things of fairy tales. No, they're not. They are the things of our present reality.
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Scripture's clear. Our battle isn't against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of the air, against the devil, the forces of darkness themselves.
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So note here, just because this text mentions the demonic doesn't give you any grounds to dismiss it.
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You dismiss it and ignore it at your own peril or risk. And I assure you, the devil is real, and he means you the worst harm that you could possibly imagine.
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If it were not for the hand of Christ, the devil would have snuffed you out long ago, me as well.
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And it's not a coincidence that Christ has taught us to pray daily. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
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So with that, we're going to go in a few different directions here. This might seem like a little scatter shot, but remember here, you're not the one.
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You're not the victor. Don't listen to Hook when he eggs you on to come fight him toe to toe,
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Rufio, like you're the important one. You're not. So here's our context.
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Right before our gospel text begins, Jesus had taken
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Peter, James, and John, and ascended a mountain.
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We're not exactly sure which one. There's a few likely candidates, but that's neither here nor there. He ascended a mountain.
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We call it now the Mount of Transfiguration. And before their eyes, he was transfigured.
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I preach on this whole thing every single year during Epiphany.
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He was transfigured before their eyes. Moses and Elijah showed up, and they were discussing with Jesus his exodus.
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And of course, Peter, James, and John, their knees are knocking. They're terrified by what they see.
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They see Christ in all of his glory. They kind of say,
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Lord, it's good that we're here. Maybe we could set up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.
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And it's at this point that the voice of the Father is heard. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
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Listen to him. And then whoosh, everything goes calm. The light turns off.
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And there was nothing except for Jesus. And it's in this context. That's kind of just before this.
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We need to recognize something here. When we talk about the temptations of the devil and the schemes of the evil one, over and again, the devil would have you seek after the paranormal.
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Well, the signs, the wonders, the power, and the glory, the healings, and the miracles.
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And don't fall for the trick. Don't fall for it. The Mount of Transfiguration was quite the event, quite the experience.
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And Peter, later in his second and last epistle in Scripture, he writes about the
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Mount of Transfiguration, and he points us to something even more sure than that, spiritual and miraculous experience.
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Here's what Peter says. We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he had received honor and glory from God the
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Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved
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Son, with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves, we heard this very voice, born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
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So he's recalling in his mind, bringing it back to his recollection, the experience that he had there on the
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Mount of Transfiguration. He heard the voice of the Father. But here's what he says.
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But we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. The prophetic word?
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The what? Yeah, you know, the Bible. Huh? Don't you want us to chase after signs, wonders?
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Don't you want us to go and slay and conquer demons and decree and declare and take back ground from the devil?
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No, no, no, no. Put it all away.
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That's all a ruse. That's the voice of Hook. Rufio, Rufio, ah,
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Rufio. That's Hook, tempting you into a fight on ground that he's chosen.
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Stay away from it. Peter says, listen, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed than even the voice
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I heard on the Mount of Transfiguration, to which you would do well, do very well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing, first of all, no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man.
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But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. So no, this isn't in our text, but it forms the context.
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And since we're talking about the supernatural, the demonic, the paranormal,
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I would remind you, in the immediate context, the Mount of Transfiguration takes place.
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And Peter, thinking and meditating on the event, says, listen, the Bible we have is more sure than that.
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The voice of God is in the Scriptures. Stop chasing the voice of God in the wind, in the trees, in the rocks, in the bees.
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Not going to hear God's voice there. It's in the prophetic word. So coming down then from the
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Mount of Transfiguration, and that was quite the event. When they came down, the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and the scribes arguing with them.
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It's almost as if the devil thinks, all right, Jesus is up there shining his little light, so I'm going to create, well, the greatest of disturbances, and while Jesus is away with Peter, James, and John having his little conversation with Moses and Elijah, I'm going to stir up so much controversy, and I'm going to make him look like a complete buffoon and idiot while he's not looking.
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It's kind of like that. So all the crowd, when they saw Jesus, they were greatly amazed, and they ran up to him and they greeted him, and he asked them, what are you arguing about with them?
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So some from the crowd answered, teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.
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His father knows what he's talking about in this particular case. This is a demonic spirit that has robbed his son of his ability to speak.
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And the nightmare that this man and his son have gone through, we barely get a glimpse of it, and just what few details we have, they're harrowing.
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It's scary, and that's the point. And whenever the demon seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams, and he grinds his teeth, and he becomes rigid.
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Now before you sit there and say, well, this just sounds like he's having an epileptic seizure. This is more than that, far more than that.
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So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.
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Now I said, this is kind of like, the scenarios kind of set it up along these lines.
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The devil's taking advantage of the fact that Jesus is having his conversation about his exodus with Moses and Elijah, and not only does he send a demon to the field of battle, it really appears like he sends one of his strongest ones, one of the most difficult to get rid of.
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And here's the thing, Jesus had already given his disciples, who would become the apostles, he had given them authority to cast out demons.
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And so while Jesus is up on the mountain, this fellow wants help. His son has been possessed by a demon, it's robbed him of his speech, and many times it's tried to take his life, and it even throws him to the ground.
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This isn't a mere falling that's being described here. This is the stuff that you've seen in Hollywood movies, or at least they try to emulate what it is that we see here.
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And there are the disciples, the remaining nine of the twelve, they get to work.
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Oh, it's a demon! And so what do they do? I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out.
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And nothing happens. You can almost see the demon going, good luck on that one, alright?
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I ain't leaving, I ain't going anywhere. And of course, the scribes, seeing the failure of the disciples, they're
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Johnny on the spot, calling Jesus' whole ministry into question, because remember, when Jesus comes down from the mountain, the scribes were arguing with the disciples.
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What, you guys aren't able to cast this demon out? Yeah? Uh -oh. Maybe Jesus isn't the
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Messiah. The whole thing has just turned into utter pandemonium.
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It's out of control. Jesus walks into the middle of complete and utter discord and disarray, caused by whom?
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The devil, and a very, very powerful demon.
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What happens next, Jesus gives, if you would, a sigh of exasperation.
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One that is talking to, well, the faithlessness of all of humanity. So he answered them, oh, faithless generation, how long am
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I going to be with you? How long am I going to bear with you? In other words, you guys have really messed everything up.
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It's a way of basically saying, all of this is the consequence of your sin. I hope that you believe that that fruit was worth the bite that you took, because really, it's not.
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How long am I going to be with you? I've got to clean up all of your messes. And he's not lamenting having to do that, he's lamenting the entire situation that created the scenario in the first place.
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So he said, bring the boy to me. So they brought the boy to Jesus. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it confulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
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Let those words sink in a little bit here, because the scene is terrifying. If this were to happen here at Kongsvinger, I assure you, everybody would be focusing in on the person manifesting the demon.
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Why? Because, well, that's what's going on here. Like the movie The Exorcist. He's on the ground, rolling around, foaming at the mouth.
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Do you think that this is a quiet scene? No! The kid's probably making all kinds of ghastly sounds and just looking at him with all the foam coming out of his mouth.
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And you know what Jesus does? He ignores the boy. Okay? Yeah, I know, it's weird, isn't it?
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But here's the thing. Jesus is going to cast this demon out.
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And at this point, there's two victims here. Two victims of this attack, the father and the boy.
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And these demonic attacks have rocked this man's faith.
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His faith is smoldering. Barely there at all.
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And here's the important thing. Christ, when he sees a smoldering wick, a faith that has been brought almost to the edge where it's going to go out,
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Jesus doesn't lick his finger and go, and snuff it out. That's not what
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Jesus is like at all. And we all know this. How many of us can say in our darkest times that Christ, rather than cast us away, kick us in the teeth, instead brought us in from the storm, took that smoldering wick, put his hands over it, and went and blew into it to start to fan back into flame that smoldering faith.
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That's what he does here. So he looks at the father. Wow, this child is doing the exorcist thing.
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And he looks at him and says, how long has this been happening to him? And you can almost see the pause.
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You see the father going, wait, what? Oh, well, it's from childhood.
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It's often cast him into the fire and into water in order to destroy him. This father has been a vigilant father.
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This demon has it out for his kid, and he has vigilantly stood guard, kept an eye on him, kept him safe.
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And on multiple occasions, this demon tried to kill his own son. The reason his son is alive is because of his loving care.
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Even though this demonic entity is well beyond his ability to do anything with, he has still fought it and kept his son from dying, and Jesus knows this.
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And then come these words, but if you can do anything, if you can do anything,
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Jesus, you know what he needs? Have compassion on us. Please have mercy and help us.
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Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. When one comes to Jesus in need and cries out to him for help and begs that the
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Lord have compassion, does Jesus say, oh, come on. This is all your own fault.
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You shouldn't have let him play with Ouija boards and tarot cards. Everybody knows that that's how you open up the door to the demonic and to the occult.
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This is all your own doing. No, that's how the Pharisees act. And Jesus has full compassion on him.
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Jesus stops and says, well, if you can, and then listen to what he says.
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All things are possible for the one who believes. Believes what? Believes that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of God, that Jesus is the seed of the woman promised to our human race all the way back in the
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Garden of Eden, the seed of the woman who would come and deliver us by crushing the head of the servant.
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Everyone who believes. All things are possible for the one who believes and trusts in our champion,
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Jesus. In fact, this is where our Old Testament text really fits in perfectly.
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Consider that Isaiah 50 4 -10, it's a prophecy about Jesus.
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It's all about him. And listen to what Isaiah extols and exemplifies and holds before our eyes in the prophecy regarding Christ.
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Yahweh Elohim has given me the tongue of those who are taught.
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These might as well be red letters because Jesus is the one speaking these words. They are describing him.
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So that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.
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Oh man, that is so good. It actually causes me to have a little bit of a spring in my step.
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Jesus is the one who's given a tongue like those who are taught so that he may know how to sustain with a word the one who is weary.
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You. Me. Weary with sin. Weary with suffering.
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Weary with the schemes and attacks of the devil. Weary with the attacks of the demonic.
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Weary. Ah, but this one, Jesus. Our champion. The one who conquers the devil for us.
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He can sustain us with a word. And he does. What is the word that Jesus sustains us weary sinners with?
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Oh, you heard it earlier today. The word is this. Forgiven.
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So that I can sustain with a word him who is weary. And indeed he does.
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Are you weary and heavy laden? Bruised and battered in your battles against the devil?
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Have the flaming darts of the evil one struck home and wounded you?
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Are you tired of the battle? Christ will sustain you with a word. He is your champion.
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Morning by morning he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
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Yahweh Elohim has opened my ear. And I was not rebellious and I turned not backwards.
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Only Jesus can speak this way. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard.
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I hid not my face from disgrace and from spitting. And here, this is a prophecy of the beginnings of Jesus' suffering.
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That horrible first Good Friday. Where he was beaten with a rod.
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Scourged with a whip. Punched in the face. Had his beard pulled out.
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He didn't hide from the disgrace. He bore up under it. Because even then he was bleeding, suffering, and dying for your sins and for mine.
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And then he says this. But Yahweh helps me. Therefore I have not been disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint.
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I know that I shall not be put to shame. And indeed Jesus was not put to shame.
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God the Father vindicated him by raising him bodily from the grave. And that's the point.
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Jesus, by dying and rising again, has conquered the devil.
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You remember Pan and Hook? Well, they had their duel to the death.
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And all of that is just the archetypes and the stories that we tell each other. But in the real world, there was an ultimate battle between good and evil.
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And that ultimate battle, we had a champion who came forward. And he conquered our adversary and set us free.
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By bleeding, dying, spit on, having his beard torn out, scourged, and nailed to a cross.
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He willingly laid down his life and bore your sin and mine in his own body.
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So that we could be forgiven. And that the power of the devil would be snapped in half and broken forever.
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And indeed it was. He who vindicates me is near. So Jesus says, who will contend with me?
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Let us stand together. Who's my adversary? Let him come near to me.
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Jesus, having conquered the devil, basically beats his chest and says, Come on!
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Are there any of you demons left? You want to take me on? It's not going to go good for you. That's the point.
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Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up. Who among you fears
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Yahweh and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his
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God. Jesus is your champion. And in this world where we are buffered and battered.
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Buffered? Buffeted? Yeah, that's the word. I'm looking. Buffered. That's the thing that happens to my computer.
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Where we are buffeted and battered by the devil. Sometimes sneakily, sometimes overtly.
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Sometimes in ways that are very clearly supernatural and paranormal.
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It's all true. Christ, though, he is our victor. He is the one who we are to rely on.
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He is our exorcist. He is our life and our light and our salvation and our very forgiveness.
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So note then here. Jesus says all things are possible for the one who believes, who trusts in their champion,
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Jesus. Upon hearing these words, the father who had suffered so much in his vigilant battles against the demonic, which only proved to be a losing battle, he cries out after asking
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Jesus to have compassion and mercy in him. He says, I believe. Please help my unbelief.
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And that's the thing. Jesus says if you have faith the size of a mustard seed. That's pretty small if you think about it.
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It's kind of a microscopic mustard thingy. Tiny, tiny, tiny. It doesn't say you need avocado seed faith.
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You just need mustard seed faith. Here he recognizes he does believe, but he has so much unbelief having been buffeted by the attacks of the devil.
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But that's a great prayer. In fact, the things that this father prays, we too can also pray to Jesus.
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Have compassion on us and help us. Help my unbelief.
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I do believe, Lord. And how does Jesus respond to prayers of this type?
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Humble prayers. True calls out for mercy and compassion. He is our champion and our savior.
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He comes to our aid. He vindicates us. He defeats the devil for us.
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So here's what happens. Jesus saw that the crowd came then running together, so he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it,
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You mute and deaf spirit, I command you to come out of him and never to enter him again.
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And when Jesus gives the order, the devils have no options.
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They must obey the voice of their God. So after crying out and confulsing him terribly, the demon came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said,
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He's dead. He's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand.
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Another act of compassion, mercy, kindness. Our God has gotten into the muck.
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He's gotten into the mire. He's come down to our level. He reaches out his hand, and he lifts the boy up, and he arose.
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And there you can see everyone going, It doesn't say what happens next with the father or the boy, but it's not hard to imagine the relief, the joy, the peace.
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That night, that father and that boy were able to get a true night's sleep.
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Something they hadn't been able to get in years. All because of Jesus.
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And now resting in him, they are with him now in the heavenly kingdom, because Christ defeated the devil for them completely.
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And having believed and trusted in Christ, they now are with him before his throne, worshiping him, waiting for the resurrection like the rest of us.
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Well, we right here will wait with them after we die. But then comes the thorny issue.
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Man, the devil really made a mess of things, and those disciples weren't able to stop that demon. Why not?
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Well, remember what Jesus said. All things are possible for the one who believes. Believes what? Trusts in their champion,
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Jesus. So the disciples came to him privately. Why could we not cast it out?
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And by the way, this is a great thing that they weren't able to cast it out.
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You say, how do you figure? That was terrible. It was a big defeat for them. Their defeat is our victory.
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Because we go toe -to -toe with the devil, and we do not have the apostolic authority to be exorcists the way they were.
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We just don't. So when the devil shows up and starts harassing us in ways that are terrifying, or there's legitimate demonic possession and oppression and things like this going on, what are we going to do?
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We don't have the same authority the apostles had. Jesus gave them the authority to cast out demons.
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So what are we supposed to do? We're helpless. We don't have. No, no, no. No. We're not helpless.
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All things are possible for the one who believes.
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And their champion, Jesus, who conquered Hook, the devil. You get the idea, right?
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He said this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.
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Okay. Let's think about this for a second. So you're saying,
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Jesus, that there are demons that are so powerful, so strong, that even when one of your disciples or apostles commands them to come out of a person, they'll laugh and say, nope, not coming out.
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But all we have to do is get on our knees and pray to you the way that Father prayed to you.
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Have compassion on us, Jesus. Help us. And you'll answer and you'll cast out that demon the same way you cast out that demon that day after the
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Mount of Transfiguration. Right. You see it? Jesus said in the
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Great Commission, I will never leave you or forsake you. I am with you always, even until the end of the age.
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Jesus isn't there. Jesus is here. He's with you now.
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He's with us now. We've gathered in his name. He will never leave us or forsake us.
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So don't worry. What did Jesus say? Oh, faithless generation. How long am
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I to bear with you? Bring him to me. Well, Jesus is still bearing with our faithless generations, bearing with our generations, the generations that came before us and the ones that will come after us until he returns.
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He's still bearing with us because he bore our sin on the cross and he defeated the power of the devil.
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He is still our exorcist. He is our champion. When you consider the implications of it, this is the most amazing and refreshing and comforting thing ever.
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Don't listen to the devil when he tempts you to fight him on his terms. It's a trap.
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It won't end well for you. Rufio. No. When the devil is trying to pick a fight with you and harassing you horribly and manifesting and, well, doing all the things that the devil does, get down on your knees and pray and ask your exorcist, the one who conquered the devil, the one who set you free from bondage to sin, death, and the devil, who transferred you from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of his light, get down on your knees and say,
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Lord, have compassion. Have mercy. Deliver us from the evil one.
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What do you think Jesus will do? All things are possible for the one who believes.
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In the name of Jesus, amen. 470th
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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again, that address is
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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950, 470th
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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.
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