Your Judge Loves and Forgives

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. Matthew, the 28th chapter.

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Now after the Sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other

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Mary went to see the tomb and behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.

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His appearance was like lightning, his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

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But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid for I know that you seek

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Jesus who was crucified. He's not here for he has risen as he said come see the place where he lay.

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Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he is going before you to Galilee.

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There you will see him. See I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb and with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples and behold

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Jesus met them and said greetings and they came up and took hold of his feet and they worshiped him.

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Then Jesus said to them do not be afraid go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me.

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This is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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Death. Man, Good Friday was a terrible day. But let me remind you of what is happening in our world.

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The reason why we are gathered here rather than at Kongsvinger or at Emanuel Lutheran Church and we are so happy that many of you are joining us from around the world.

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All of that being said the reason why we're gathering in this way is because death is stalking us and we are all trying to avoid that encounter and rightly so we fear death.

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And the reality is this that Easter challenges our fear of death in all the right ways.

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You see on Good Friday, there was Jesus Christ the Son of God who committed no sin, who did no evil, who never once even broke even the least of the commandments of God and what did we do to him?

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We put him to death and there were his disciples. Some of them scattered some of them afraid to be at the cross and people who had supported

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Jesus there on the darkness on a Friday afternoon watching as the

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Son of God himself derelict, beaten beyond recognition because of the scourging, there bleeding, suffering, crying out, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then saying it is finished and breathing his last and dying.

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There was an earthquake. All of it, none of it made sense. How could this be?

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Maybe they had gotten it wrong. Maybe they were incorrect in thinking that he was truly the

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Son of God. Maybe they had worshipped him and followed him in vain and then

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Saturday none of them could work and Jesus lie stone -cold dead in a dark tomb.

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He kept the Sabbath day perfectly, not only was he resting in the tomb, he didn't even burn a single calorie.

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He did nothing, didn't even breathe. Think about our world right now.

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Terrible news coming out of New York where there are dead bodies of people who have died of COVID -19 whose bodies are not being claimed.

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People who died alone, whose bodies are now unclaimed, that they're burying in a potter's field in New York.

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And all of us, the reason why we're social distancing is because we don't want that to happen to us.

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But there was Jesus. Yeah, they claimed his body, but none of it made sense. And then, near the morning, during the dawn, on the

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Sabbath, once the Sabbath was over, first day of the week, Sunday, the very first day of the week, the first day of the new creation.

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Good way to think about it, by the way. It says in our Gospel text that after the Sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week,

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Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, they went to see the tomb. Now, I don't particularly like visiting graveyards, kind of reminds me of my own mortality.

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And it says this, Behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.

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His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. And here's the reaction of the guard that they had set.

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Remember, the Jews had said, we know that this guy, you know, he said before he died that he would rise again from the dead.

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And so we need to set a guard, a guard of soldiers who's gonna make sure that the disciples don't come and steal the body.

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Why would they think such a silly thing? The reason why they thought such a silly thing is because they didn't believe the words of Jesus.

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And we're gonna note, even the disciples barely understood them, if at all, because Jesus had told them as he was heading towards Jerusalem that he would be handed over to the

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Jews, then he would be handed over to the Romans, and that they would crucify him, and then on the third day he would rise from the dead.

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And all the disciples, not really paying much attention to the words of Jesus, kind of patted him on the head and said, there, there, it's not all that bad now.

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What are you talking about? But listen to me. Jesus never says something's going to happen and it not happen.

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And we can hear this then in the words of this bright, lightning -like angel who is there to comfort the believers, the disciples, these women who have come to the tomb, and he says to them, do not be afraid.

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Easy for him to say. He's bright as lightning. Being in the presence of a holy angel has a general propensity to cause your knees to knock and for fear to rise up in your hearts.

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And the reason for this is quite simple. Because you and I, we are sinners.

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And when sinners are in the presence of the holy, that usually doesn't go well for the sinner.

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And so fear and trembling are the rule of the day. But here this angel has not come to say,

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I don't know what you guys were thinking. Why on earth would you crucify your God? No, he's not there to chastise them.

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He's not there to let them know that God's gonna let him have it. No, it's quite different.

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He says to them, do not be afraid. And brothers and sisters, because Christ has bled and died for your sins, you have nothing to fear from God.

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You have nothing to fear at all. He calls you to repent of your wickedness, recognize that you are a sinner, trust him that his death on the cross was sufficient to even save you.

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And so the good news of Easter is do not be afraid. The angel says,

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I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified, and Jesus will always be the one who was crucified.

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We learn from other accounts that Jesus still bears in his hands and his feet the scars from the cross.

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All as a reminder of his great love for you and for me. And so he says,

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I know that you are here seeking Jesus who was crucified, but he's not here. He's risen, and here are the important words.

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Are you ready? As he said. Jesus said that he would rise, and he did.

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He said that he would rise, and Jesus never says something and it not come true. So Jesus said,

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I will rise, and he did. In fact, the angel says, if you want to come see, you can. Come see the place where he was laid.

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He is risen. Come and see. So then the angel gives him orders.

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You go quickly and tell his disciples that he's risen from the dead. Behold, he's going before you to Galilee, and there you will see him.

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See, I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb, and they departed with fear and great joy.

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That's quite the combo if you think about it. Fear and joy. Usually the two don't mix very well, but in this particular case, all of the above.

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It's a day of emotional, well, chaos, fear and joy mixed together.

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And so they ran to tell his disciples, but Jesus can't even wait until Galilee because of his great love for his disciples and these women.

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And so Jesus, it says, behold, Jesus met them, and he said, greetings. And they came up, and they took hold of his feet, and they worshipped him.

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Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.

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And so note, the hymn that we just sang kind of gives us a great view of the theology going on here.

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This is one of the better hymns written by Martin Luther. Let me highlight just a few of the stanzas, if you would.

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Going back to Good Friday, a first stanza of our hymn today said, Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands, for our offenses given.

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And he did this because of his great love for you. Yes, he died so that you might live.

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You see, your death cannot atone for your sins. Your death cannot propitiate the wrath of God, and the reason for it is quite simple.

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Because your death and my death, these are the wages of our sin. But Jesus never committed any sin, and so God laid on him your sin and my sin, and so he lay in death's strong bands for your offenses and mine.

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But now he sits at God's right hand and brings us life from heaven. Therefore, let us joyful be, and sing to God right thankfully, loud songs of alleluia.

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Alleluia. Man, it's good to hear that word again. We've not been permitted to sing or to say that word for all of Lent, and now it comes roaring back this

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Easter Sunday, and we can sing alleluia. No son of man could conquer death, not you, not me, not nobody.

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In fact, even Harry Houdini said that before he died, he was going to try to escape death, and I would note this, that even now, to this day,

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Harry Houdini is still dead. It's kind of how that goes.

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In fact, my grandparents are still dead, and my great -grandparents are still dead, and probably yours as well.

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You see, none of us could conquer death. Such ruin sin had wrought us.

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No innocence was found on earth, including you and me. We were each born dead in trespasses and sins and at war with God.

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Therefore, death had brought us into bondage from of old and ever grew more strong and bold and held us as its captive.

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Alleluia. But Jesus Christ, God's own Son, came down,

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His people to deliver. And brothers and sisters, Christ has come to deliver you, to deliver you not only from the fear of death, but from death itself.

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Destroying sin, He took the crown from death's pale brow forever. Stripped of power, no more it reigns.

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An empty form alone remains. And then here we have two stanzas that end the same way.

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Its sting is lost forever. Alleluia. And so the sting of death is lost forever.

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Think of it this way. If death is like some kind of murky, underworld, cavernous cave kind of thingy, it's depicted that way in the ancient literatures as Hades, or there's another word for it, but I can't remember it off the top of my head.

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But you get the idea. You cross the River Styx, and once you go into the murky underworld, you never come back.

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But see, Jesus, by rising from the dead, He's taken, man, just C4 explosives to the back of the cave of death itself and blown a hole right through it.

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So into death you go. And you sit there and go, well, I thought it would be a lot darker than this. Because there's light at the end.

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Death, His sting is lost forever. In fact, think of it this way. The ultimate showdown was not when

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Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. That was barely even a fight. Jesus hadn't even eaten for 40 days.

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I can't even make it 40 minutes. But you get the idea there. He was going toe -to -toe with the devil in need of some food, a sandwich or something.

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And probably in need of chapstick as well. He was out in the wilderness, and what happens is He defeats the devil in three rounds by quoting a few verses from the book of Deuteronomy.

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Hardly the fight. But the fight with death was different. And Jesus literally dove headfirst into death itself in order to conquer death.

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It was a strange and dreadful strife when life and death contended. But the victory remained with life.

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And note here, Jesus is not talking about life in the abstract. Jesus says, I am the way.

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I am the truth. I am the life. Remember from our Gospel text from a couple of weeks ago, from the

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Gospel of John chapter 11, Jesus said, I am the resurrection. The resurrection is not an event.

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It's not some abstract thing coming in the future. Mark it on your calendars.

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It'll be here on a Thursday afternoon. It's none of the above. Jesus is the resurrection.

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And what does He say? Anyone who believes in me, Jesus says, even though he die, yet shall he live.

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And everyone who believes and dies will never die, Jesus says. Do you believe this?

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So He contended with death toe -to -toe, you know, that pale, ugly thing that death is.

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But the victory remained with life. And now the reign of death is ended. Holy Scripture plainly says that death is swallowed up by death.

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Its sting is lost forever. Verse 5.

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So here our true Paschal Lamb we see, whom God so freely gave us.

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You see, now this is invoking the Exodus. Jesus' blood is the blood of the Passover Lamb. He is our

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Passover Lamb, and His blood that covers us causes God's wrath to pass over us, and we do not receive what we deserve.

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You see, here our true Paschal Lamb we see, whom God so freely gave us. He died on the accursed tree.

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Why? So strong was His love to save us.

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The reason why Jesus laid down His life is because of His great love,

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His mercy, His compassion, His grace for you.

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So strong His love to save us. See, His blood now marks our door. Faith points to it.

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That's the blood of Jesus. And death now must pass over. Satan cannot harm us.

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Alleluia. So remember, I said most important words in our

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Gospel text were these words, that He is risen as He said.

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Well, what has Christ now said for you today, that you can hang on His words even though you cannot see their fulfillment yet, because never does

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Jesus say something is going to happen, and it doesn't. Well, for the promises that are for you this magnificent Easter Sunday, listen again to the preaching of the

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Apostle Peter to that Roman centurion and his family named Cornelius. And here's what it says in Acts chapter 10.

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Peter opened his mouth, and he said to these whom God had sent him to, to proclaim

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Christ, he says, Note this then, you who have joined us from all over the world, from Korea, from Oslo, Minnesota, from Radium, from Warren, from wherever you're joining us from, whether it's in Indiana or across the globe, it doesn't matter.

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God doesn't show any partiality. All who fear Him and do what is right, they are acceptable to Him.

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But what does it mean to do what is right? Well, Peter will go on to explain. And so he says this, This is the heart of the message of Easter.

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God has given us a message of good news, the good news of peace, of shalom that comes through Jesus Christ.

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No longer is there hostility between you and God because Christ has laid down His life so that you can have peace.

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See, you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, how

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God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

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And we are witnesses of all that He did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

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They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree. But God raised

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Him on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

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Let me kind of summarize it this way. It sounds too crazy to be true. I mean, everybody knows that death is final, but yet Peter is saying that he not only witnessed that Jesus was alive on the third day after He was dead, but that also

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He ate meals with Jesus, drank with Jesus. This is to assure us that the tomb was truly empty, and indeed it was.

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This is not some myth. This is not some legend. This is human history.

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God, our God, your God, was born of the Virgin Mary, and He suffered under Pontius Pilate.

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He died and rose again for our sins and for your salvation.

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Peter is an eyewitness of this, and then he says these words. And again, remember, as Jesus said.

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What has Jesus said that will come true just like His resurrection?

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Here's what Jesus commanded Peter to preach. He said this. Jesus commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

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Now, by the way, that's not the good news part. Okay, that's kind of the part that might make you a little bit uncomfortable.

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A little bit of a note here. I may or may not have, in the course of my adult life, earned a couple of speeding tickets here or there.

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My wife never enjoys it when I get a speeding ticket. But always and again, when you get a speeding ticket, you are given information about how and where you are to appear in court.

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Court is no fun. I always like to avoid that. And so I will never contest my tickets.

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It's best just to pay the fine. But if you don't want to pay the fine, you can appear before the magistrate, before the judge, and usually it doesn't go so well during tickets and things like that.

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I don't know anybody who's ever beat a ticket by going to court. But here's the thing. What if, what if the judge contacts you ahead of your hearing and says, listen,

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I want to pardon you. This is my desire, that you be pardoned.

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And I will pardon you under these conditions. You would say, I'll take the pardon.

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I mean, because then you don't even have to pay the fee. My wife would prefer those kinds of tickets.

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I'm just saying. But anyway, so listen then to what Peter says, that Christ commanded, let everybody know that he is the one who's to be the judge of the living and the dead.

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So here's part of this message. And remember, it's as he said, everything he says will come true.

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There will come a day that all of you who are here, gathered in this internet meeting room, when you and I individually will stand before this

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Jesus who is our judge. This is most certainly true. Because everything he says is going to take place is going to take place.

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But note then this, your judge loves you. Your judge died for your sins.

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Your judge wills for you to be pardoned. Your judge wills for you to have eternal life.

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Because he has suffered the consequences of all of your sin for you.

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And so the next part of what Peter says is the best part. You see, to him, to Jesus, all the prophets bear witness.

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And here's the part, that everyone who believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins through his name.

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So brothers and sisters, those who are gathered here today, I have great news to announce to you.

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Christ Jesus is your judge. And everyone who believes and trusts in him, receives from the judge a full pardon, full forgiveness of their sins.

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And of this you can be assured, because Jesus rose bodily from the grave that first Easter morning.

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Man, sounds too good to be true. But it's not. So let us keep the festival to which the

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Lord invites us. Christ is himself the joy of all. He's the sun that warms and lights us.

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Now his grace to us imparts eternal sunshine to our hearts.

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The night of sin is ended. Alleluia. In the name of Jesus.

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We confess our faith together in the words of the Nicene Creed.

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Even though we're not having the Lord's Supper, we will go with the Nicene Creed today. I believe in one

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God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one

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Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds,

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God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the

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Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the

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Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

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He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the

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Father, and he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.

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And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the

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Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.

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And I believe in one holy, Christian and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

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Amen. We continue with the prayers of the Church. And let me grab a couple of things here.

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And as we pray today, I will say these words, Lord, in your mercy, and your response is, hear our prayer.

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So rejoicing in the resurrection of our Lord and sharing in His peace, let us pray to the

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Lord on behalf of ourselves and all people as they have need. Oh, risen

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Savior, set free our tongues to confess your resurrection before a world that is still captive to sin and death.

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Give us courage to go to every place and to speak in every language the salvation that is won for us upon the cross and the hope granted to us of life that death cannot overcome.

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Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Oh, risen Savior, make us to burn with the fire of your love that we may love you above all things and love our neighbors as ourselves.

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Deliver us from fear and relieve the anxiety of our hearts that we may live out fully the hope planted within us and the new lives we received in the waters of our baptism.

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Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Oh, risen Savior, anoint the words of those who preach to us your gospel.

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Open our ears to hear with faith all that He has done to save us. Raise up many who will serve you in the various callings of your church and who will serve us in your name with your word and your gifts.

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Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Oh, risen Savior, hear us on behalf of Donald, our president.

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We pray for our governors. We pray for the Congress of the United States and all the state and local elected officials.

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Give them, according to your word, that their labors for our nation's health and welfare may not be in vain, nor forgetful of the vulnerable, the aging, the unemployed,

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Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Oh, risen Savior, hear us on behalf of those who cry to you in any need, especially the sick, the suffering, the disabled, the wounded in spirit, those who suffer mental illnesses, and those who are in their last days on earth.

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Especially today do we remember Mike, Kate, Carol, Coral, Bob, Shirley, Wilbert, Phyllis, Diane, Charlotte, Warren, Pat, Gene, as well as Jerry, Bruce, Haley, Samantha, and Gloria, and anyone whom we now name before you in our hearts.

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Give them grace according to their needs. Sustain them in their afflictions to the day when their sufferings will be exchanged for the glory and the life to come.

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Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Oh, risen Savior, accept the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving from our lips and the tithes and offerings we bring this day.

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Increase in the hearts of your people delight in your mercy, gratitude for all of your benefits, and eagerness to support the mission of your church in word and deed.

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Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Oh, risen Savior, open the hearts of all who commune this day that they may receive to their benefit your body and blood in the sacrament.

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Give comfort and certainty to those who long for your supper and believe your Son's holy testament, that they may know that they have what

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Christ says, the forgiveness of their sins. By this communion, strengthen us in all faith and equip us to love one another as you love us.

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Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. All praise to you, dear Father in heaven, for you have opened up to us the way of eternal life and the resurrection of your

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Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We give you thanks for all those who have gone before us in the faith and now rest from their labors.

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Keep us in that same faith and embolden us by your resurrection to be fearless in the face of disease, chaos, loneliness, and every sorrow of this world.

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Give us with Job the solemn expectation to cheer us. Our Redeemer lives, and we too shall be resurrected and glorified to live with Him in His eternal kingdom.

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Through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one

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God, now and forever. Amen. And again, that address is...

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