A Living Hope

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 Saint John, the 20th chapter.

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On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the

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Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you.

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When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the

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Lord and Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

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And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

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If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.

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Now Thomas, one of the twelve called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him,

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We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my fingers into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side,

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I will never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.

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Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side.

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Do not disbelieve but believe. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him,

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Have you believed because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.

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But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. Alleluia, Christ is risen in the name of Jesus.

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Hear again the words of our epistle text today. Peter writes, So many decades later after what we heard in our gospel text,

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and kept in heaven for you.

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What comforting words we have here. And you'll note, this is an amazing thing that Peter is writing, talking about a living hope.

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Well, he knows a thing or two about living hopes because isn't Christ our hope? Christ is alive.

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He is risen from the dead. He is risen indeed. And so Peter here is speaking quite boldly.

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But when we find Peter and the other apostles in our gospel text today, they are anything but bold and confident in a living hope.

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In fact, they seem to be quite confused and quite fearful. And their fear is actually quite understandable.

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But hear again the words of our gospel text. On the evening of that day, the day of the resurrection, the women had already been to the tomb.

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And the women had come back saying, Jesus is risen. He's risen from the dead. We've even seen him, touched him.

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We've seen a vision of angels. All the things that go along with that. And the disciples, Peter and John, they run to the tomb.

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They take a peek inside. And they are scratching their heads going, what is going on?

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And so it says, on the evening of that day. So the day of the resurrection, Easter Sunday itself, they are in an upper room with the doors locked for fear of the

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Jews. Now, what is going on here? It kind of doesn't take much imagination to figure out what's going on here.

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They're looking for a place to hide out, to lay low. And maybe this is the same upper room that they celebrated the

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Passover. The text doesn't say. But the idea here is that they needed a place to not be in the line of sight of the

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Jews who had crucified Christ because they feared for their own lives. Have you ever noticed how religious zealotry,

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I'm not talking about true faith in Christ, religious zealotry in false religions, the people who hold these religious beliefs that are falsely, that are not true, they have a tendency to want to back them up with death.

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You think of Islam and its proclivity to murdering the infidel, all in the name of Allah.

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And so you'll note that they are rightly worried, they are rightly fearful.

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And so on that day, after visiting Jesus' tomb, you can see what's going on here.

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Somebody says, we need a place to lay low, a place to hide out. And so one of the apostles clearly finds a place, maybe again, it's that upper room that they use for the

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Passover, we don't know, but you can see how they would have slunk in there. First they had to open the door carefully, take a look to make sure there was nobody inside.

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You know, if they had firearms, they'd need to clear the room, make sure that everything is okay, right? And then once they've got that worked out, they've gotta draw the curtains, they don't want anybody seeing in, see what's going on, and then once they give the signal that everything's clear, the other disciples come in, they shut the door, and they lock it, right?

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This is not a good way to exist. And so they are there for fear of the

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Jews. And then while they are there in their fear, Jesus all of a sudden appears amongst them, in the midst of them.

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How did he get in? Well, I would note that Jesus, being both God and man, he's capable of doing stuff you and I can't do, right?

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He didn't climb in a window and distract them and then appear, he just appeared because he can do that by virtue of the fact that he is

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God in human flesh. And what does Jesus say to them? I love the fact that Jesus doesn't come in and scold them.

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What is with you guys? Come on, where's your faith? Didn't I tell you

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I was gonna rise from the dead? Come on, you need to grow up, man up, gentlemen.

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This is no way for a Chad to behave, right? This is not how he's talking, right? Instead, he speaks words of kindness to them.

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Peace, shalom, peace be with you. And this is the peace that comes from God due to the fact that Christ has bled and died for our sins and by his vicarious suffering has reconciled us to the

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Father. No longer is our sin counted against us, no longer can sin be pointed to and say, this fellow deserves hell because Christ has suffered in our place on the cross vicariously.

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Peace be with you. And Jesus now, seeing the shock on their face that he's appeared in their presence, he showed them his hands, he showed them his side, and when all of that doubt had given way to the truth of the resurrection, yes,

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Jesus rose bodily from the grave just as he said. The disciples were glad when they saw the

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Lord and Jesus said, peace be with you as the Father has sent me, even I am sending you.

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And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

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Yeah, it kind of invokes the book of Genesis. There's Adam's lifeless body, right? And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

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Jesus inspirates with the Holy Spirit his disciples to make them his apostles and send them with the power of the

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Holy Spirit to do the task that he has given them to do, to be eyewitnesses of the resurrection and proclaim to each and every one of us that in Christ there is forgiveness of sins.

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Even as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And he said, receive the Holy Spirit if you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.

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If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld. Ah, he gives the church the office of the keys, keys to bind sins for the impenitent, to loose sins for those who trust in Christ and repent of their sins.

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This is an authority that the church has to speak on Jesus's behalf and comfort sinners and to rebuke the impenitent.

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This is a powerful authority that Christ has given to the church and we exercise this authority every Sunday here.

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So Thomas, one of the 12 called the twin, was not with them when

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Jesus came. We don't know why he missed the meeting. Maybe he had to find a way to sneak down to the local sushi market and buy himself some sushi and grab himself a

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Dr. Pepper. We don't know, it doesn't say. So we're not sure why he missed the meeting.

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So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. Now they've begun their work of witnessing to the resurrection of Christ himself, to the disciple who missed the meeting.

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We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails and place my finger into the marks of the nails and place my hand into his side,

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I will never be leave. Hmm, does faith come by hearing or faith come by seeing?

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Yeah, you're gonna know here. Faith comes by hearing and he's rejecting. But eight days later, hmm, eight days later, the next eighth day, what would have been

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Sunday? You'll note that Jesus has this habit of appearing Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. Is it any wonder that the

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Christian church, from its very beginning, from its very inception, from its very outset, no longer worshiped on Shabbat, on Saturday.

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Instead, they gathered to have the Lord's Supper, to pray and to hear the words of scripture on Sunday.

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Instead, the Lord's Day, the day that he rose from the dead. On the eighth day, eight days later,

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Jesus appeared while the disciples were again in an upper room, doors still locked.

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Fear hasn't quite given way to courage here. But again, Jesus comes and he speaks to them, peace, peace be with you.

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You'll note that today, when we gathered on the Lord's Day, Christ has come amongst us, because we're two or more gathered,

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Christ is truly present and Christ is speaking to us words of peace in the absolution that we heard today, that Jesus has forgiven you of all of your sins.

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He speaks peace to us. Now he has to deal with his doubting disciple, the one he also will choose to become an apostle.

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He says, put your finger here, Thomas, see my hands, put out your hand, place it in my side.

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Do not be disbelieving, but believe. That's a better translation of the Greek, by the way. And now,

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Thomas, who said he will never believe. Jesus, who makes allowances for his weaknesses and his doubts, he now gives the great confession.

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Hakurios mu, kaihateos mu, you are my Lord and my God. And Jesus said to him, have you believed because you've seen me?

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But blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. You'll note that Christ is declaring each and every one of us today blessed.

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We have not seen the risen Lord. We trust the eyewitnesses who have told us that they have handled

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Christ's flesh, that they have put their hands into the marks of Jesus and into his side, that they have touched him, that they have ate with him, that they have listened to him, that they have spent time with him after his resurrection.

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We trust their words and Christ has declared to us that we are blessed, even though we have not seen him.

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And you'll note then this gospel text ends with these words, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.

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In fact, most of the miracles of Christ are not recorded, but the ones that are recorded are sufficient.

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They are all that we need. These signs are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of God, and by believing, you might have life in his name. Ah, as John writes these words, this is the last of the gospels to be written, much, much later, decades later than Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

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And you can hear in these words that John writes a certainty, a very strong certainty.

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John himself hangs on to this living hope that Peter mentioned in our epistle text.

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These are not the words of a man who is cowering in fear. These are the words of a man who has certainty.

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And it's here where I'm gonna note that again, in our epistle text, Peter says that we have been born again to a living hope.

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What is a living hope, by the way? That's kind of an interesting thing. We talk about hope, right? I have hope regarding certain things in life.

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Let me give you an example of something I recently hoped for and my hopes were dashed to pieces.

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It happens from time to time, by the way. I, have you noticed, like other people, have you noticed that Amazon has seemed to take over the retail world?

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And not for no good reason, too. I kind of like the convenience of being able to pull up a webpage, find the thing

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I'm looking for, ordering it, and then a few days later, it's showing up on my doorstep. It's really cool.

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And the nice thing is is I can legitimately say at this moment, as of this time, no one has been successful in porch pirating any of my

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Amazon packages. And that being the case, I have hope that the things that I order on Amazon are going to appear miraculously on my doorstep and I will be able to enjoy the things that I've purchased.

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Well, a recent purchase of mine, in case you haven't figured this out, I like photography, I had ordered a couple of items for my camera and for my tripod, and there were three items in a package that were all put together and sent to me via Amazon, and I had hope that they would arrive safely.

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And I have this thing that I do when I have a package coming, I put up the UPS website and I put the tracking number in and I look at the progress, and I always love the words out for delivery, right?

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These are great words because then I know that the thing I've ordered is going to show up very shortly and I look forward to it.

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And it said it'll arrive by 8 p .m. 8 p .m. came and went.

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It didn't arrive. 8 .30 came and went. It didn't arrive.

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I'm checking the website. Out for delivery. But then my

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Ring camera went off. I got the notification, I heard the bells, and I realized, ah, my package has arrived, and so I quickly ran downstairs.

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Well, actually, I hobbled this because it was this week. Yeah, just saying. There may be a broken ankle involved.

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But I hobbled down the stairs, went and opened the door, and there was my package safely leaning against my door.

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But then I noticed something. The package was opened. What? So I picked it up.

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It was very light. It was supposed to be heavy. And I looked at the torn top of it, looked into my package, and there were not three items.

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There was only one. Two of them had been pre -porched, pirated.

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We not only have to worry about porch pirates, we have to worry about pre -porched pirates now. This is a terrible thing.

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And so my hopes that I would be able to enjoy this camera gear have been dashed to pieces, and now

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I have anxiety regarding ordering anything on Amazon because I know of the existence of pre -porched pirates, right?

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Excuse me, I'm still in therapy over this. But here's the point that I'm making, is that when we talk about hope in this lifetime, you'll note that the things that we hope for, we don't have certainty regarding the things that we hope for.

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We hope that things are going to work out, but we have a level of understanding that things may not work out as we hope, because this world and this life, because of sin, has a way of throwing things, curveballs at us that make it so that sometimes the things that we are hoping for, it doesn't quite work out that way.

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But you're gonna note here, Peter, in our epistle text talks about the fact that we have been caused to be born again to a living hope.

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Hope here is not just hope, it's a living hope, and here's the thing. This is the kind of hope that is beyond the kind of hope that we have in this world.

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A living hope is a certainty, a confidence that the thing that we're promised, we already have.

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A living hope is something that isn't filled with doubt. A living hope is something that is filled with absolute confidence.

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And why is that? Because Jesus is our living hope. Because he is risen from the grave, we know with certainty that the things he has promised, he will deliver, because Christ does not lie.

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And because he is risen from the dead, we know that we have forgiveness, mercy, and grace with God. And Peter here even invokes the inheritance that is still to come.

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And you'll note that faith, as the epistle to the Hebrews says, faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we cannot see.

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True living faith is not about doubt, it's about certainty. And you can always tell that somebody has fallen under the sway of really bad, liberal, post -modern nonsense when they say things like this, that the opposite, the enemy of faith is certainty.

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This is how they talk. In fact, recently I was alerted to a fellow on Twitter who has a doctorate and supposedly is a

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New Testament scholar, and he posted something like that on Twitter. He says, doubt is not the enemy of faith, he says certainty is the enemy of faith.

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So since he has a PhD and makes a big to -do about it on his Twitter profile, as well as noting what his pronouns are supposed to be, right,

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I went ahead and figured, well, if he's a New Testament scholar, he probably knows

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Greek, so I copied that verse out from Hebrews, faith is being sure of what we hope for, confident or certain of what we cannot see, copied it from the

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Greek and just sent that to him as a response to his tweet, and then I, of course, had to just put a little bit of a dig in there and ask the question, how has

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Satan so deluded you that you reject how Scripture defines faith? You know what he did?

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He blocked me. Conversation ended, right?

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But all of that being said, we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and you can see this confidence, this certainty now borne out in the actions of the apostles in our first reading.

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Remember the apostles on the day of the resurrection and on the eighth day after the resurrection, the following Sunday, they were still in an upper room, windows drawn, doors locked, still in fear of the

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Jews, the guys who'd crucified Jesus. They were still in fear of them, but in our first reading today, something has completely changed.

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The men that they feared, they are now being drugged in to give an accounting for the things that they're doing, and they don't care what the

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Jews can do to them. In fact, listen to what it says. Let me back up a little bit in the context.

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In Acts chapter five, verse 27, it says they, the Jews, they brought them, the disciples, and they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them.

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This is the same guy who tore his robes when Jesus was on trial, saying he's blaspheming because he claims to be the son of God, right?

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Okay, that's the same guy, and he says, we strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet you have filled

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Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood on us. Too late, that's already happened, right?

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So Peter and the apostles answered, and note here, this is way different than what took place in the upper room.

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There's cowering in fear. Peter stands up and says, well, we must obey God rather than men.

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What's it to ya, okay? The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree, and God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

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I love that part, the forgiveness of sins, because I need that, and so do you. And he says, we're witnesses of these things, and so is the

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Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey. Now, the Roseboro translation then goes on to say, and then the

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Jews went, whee, right? It says they were enraged, and they wanted to kill them.

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Isn't that the very thing that they were fearing? And here's the thing, by my reckoning at this point, they had within their power to murder at this point all of Christ's apostles.

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They were all there. They could have nipped Christianity in the bud. Do you think

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Jesus was about to allow them at this point to be murdered? Even if he had, do you think

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Jesus isn't capable of spreading the message of the gospel? He is. And so these men, they don't fear the

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Jews any longer. You'll note, they have a living hope, because Christ is risen from the dead.

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And I would note something here. Over and again, one of the things I have to deal with as a pastor are those who have real anxiety, real fear, guilt even, regarding the fact that they, well, they feel remorse and guilt because they don't have the courage to speak the gospel at times when they know that they should or that they could.

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And I would note here, rather than beating people over the head and saying, how dare you not speak the gospel when you know you could and should, right?

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This is not gonna solve the problem. Instead, I would note, yeah, there are times we ought to speak, and sometimes we sinfully don't because like Peter, like John, like the other apostles, we oftentimes fear others and fear the repercussions that we would face in the light of speaking the truth, whether that be banned on Twitter or Facebook or things like this, or we be excommunicated from our work for speaking the truth.

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Oftentimes, we fear those repercussions and we cower just like the apostles did in the upper room.

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But you'll note, it wasn't Jesus scolding them that gave them the confidence, that living hope that they had, and the boldness that followed.

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It was their confidence in Christ's resurrection that then led to the confidence to speak the truth, even in the face of the most severe and dire consequences, death itself.

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And so I would note that you are in good company if you fear speaking the truth. We all do that.

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But note here, the confidence to speak the truth is not coming through guilt. The confidence in speaking the truth comes in knowing that Jesus is risen from the dead.

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And because he is risen from the dead, there's nothing that anybody can do to you. So the Pharisees, the council, they wanted to kill the apostles.

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And so Gamaliel, a Pharisee, a teacher of the Pharisees, he stands up and basically says, listen, if this thing is from God, you're opposing

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God. We don't know if it's from man or God, so be careful what you're doing here. And so here's what happens.

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They listened to Gamaliel, and rather than murder the apostles and put Christianity to an end when they could have, they took his advice, and they called in the apostles, and they beat them.

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I'm sure that had to be fun, right? Getting a good beating.

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And it doesn't say how this went down, but no, there's an actual process that takes place here.

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Did they line all 12 of them up, each on their own pole, and then beat them?

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Or did they do it one at a time? Did they go, well, Peter, it's your turn.

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You're next, John. Hey, Andrew, get ready. Bartholomew, you're on deck.

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How did it go down? It doesn't say. It just says that they beat them. How many of them? All of them.

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And did they sit there and go, oh, man, we should have stayed in the upper room? No. They beat them, and then they said to them, do not speak in the name of Jesus at all.

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You know what they said to that? Pfft, right? So when they left the presence of the council, they were rejoicing.

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Woo -hoo! What are you guys rejoicing about? Praise the Lord, praise the

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Lord. Let the people rejoice. What has gotten into you guys? Ah, we have been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus.

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And then what did they do? And every day then. Let's redouble our efforts. Let's do this every day now.

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Every day, in the temple, from house to house, wherever they went. I would say even guys doing it on the internet, right?

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They didn't cease teaching and preaching that Jesus is the Christ. Wow, what a change.

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From fearful of death to rejoicing in suffering and beating and dishonor.

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Well, there's a reason for that. And it has to do with everything that Peter writes about in our epistle.

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Again, hear these words of the Apostle Peter. Blessed be the God and Father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy.

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I've read the text a few times, but now it's time to highlight it. I love the word great here.

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Megas in the Greek, right? It doesn't say according to his mercy. It says according to his megas, mercy.

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Great mercy. You gotta note this. When it comes to your salvation, God isn't up there trying to figuring out, trying to figure out how to get the mercy and the grace to work so that you can be saved.

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It isn't like how it works in the accounting world with budgeting. Okay, by the way,

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I hated being in the corporate world and having to deal with budgets because what budgeting requires you to do is engage in prophecy.

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You have to forecast and predict into the future what your expenses are going to be, right?

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And here's what happens. When the future doesn't turn out the way you did it when you budgeted, right?

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What do the accountants do? Now we have to stay to the budget, right? And so you have to figure out how to work the finances.

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You gotta take from this pot and put it over here in this pot and maybe draw a little from this one in order to get the thing that you need in order to pay for it, right?

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Your salvation is not like this. God isn't sitting there going, wow, you know,

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I've only got this much mercy that I can hand out here. Thankfully, that guy died and didn't believe in me so I can take some of the mercy that I would have given to him.

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And I, yeah, not quite enough here. Let's see here. He's not working your salvation out like that.

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According to his great mercy, super abundant, beyond what you've sinned.

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According to his great mercy, he, God, he has caused you to be born again.

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You weren't born again by a free will decision to ask Jesus into your heart. This text says,

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God has caused you to be born again. To what? To a living hope. That confident hope.

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That living hope because Jesus is our living hope. He has risen indeed. He is our living hope.

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And so we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To what?

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An inheritance that is imperishable. Undefiled.

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Unfading. Kept in heaven for you. In other words, the hope that we are looking for, the hope that we have been promised, there are no pre -porched pirates who can steal your inheritance in heaven.

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It is being guarded by Christ himself and good luck taking even the smallest item from the inheritance that Christ has promised you because he, in his great mercy, has bled and died for all of your sins.

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So our inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

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Who? You. Who? By God's power. Whose power? You are by God's power being guarded through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

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What powerful words. You are being guarded by whose power? This morning

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I had a wonderful conversation with one of our saints who attends here via the internet.

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She has a relative who's about ready to meet Christ, right?

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And she kinda confessed that in the midst of all of this, in talking about the imminent death of her grandmother, that she feels so worn out.

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Have you noticed how hard the Christian life is? Do you ever feel worn out?

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Isn't that exactly what scripture says that the antichrist would do?

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Wear out the saints? Yeah. Maybe if you're not feeling worn out, you're doing it wrong.

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But here's the thing. You're not saved by your efforts. Your faith is not sustained by your efforts.

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Your faith is being guarded by God's power. What does Paul say? When I am weak, then

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I am strong. As a result of that, note then here, yes, you are worn out.

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You don't have the strength necessary to fight this fight. You don't have the courage needed to proclaim

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Christ and Him crucified to your family and your friends and your coworkers. But God's power is the one that makes it possible for you to sustain your faith, and it's through God's power, you yourself are being guarded through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

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So then in this, then you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.

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Every time I read that text, I sit there and go, why is it that God seemed to find it necessary? Because it makes it sound like maybe there's some

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Christians that won't be necessary for them to go through trials. Not so with me, not so with you, right?

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You'll note, it is necessary. I think he's kind of talking tongue -in -cheek here. Even though if necessary, and it is, that you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, and listen to these words, your faith more precious than gold.

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And here's where I'm gonna extend the sermon just a little bit more. I love scrolling through social media and seeing some very interesting

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TikToks and reels and things like this on social media. And I recently saw an interesting reel put out by a fellow who was dealing with the fact that there seems to be a double standard in the dating world.

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At least he perceives that there is, and so he put a TikTok out about it. And so he puts in the scenario a situation where he's on a first date with somebody he's met through an online dating app.

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They get into the vehicle and the gal starts talking about things like, well, let me ask you a question.

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Do you live with your parents? No, I live by myself. Do you have any roommates? No, I don't have any roommates at all. I pay for my own house.

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How's your credit score? Perfect. What kind of job do you have? I work in management.

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And he has a nice car to boot. And by the world standards, he has very high value as a person in a relationship.

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So he starts asking the same questions of the gal. Yeah, well, what about you? Do you live on your own?

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Oh no, I live with my parents. Oh, how's your credit score? Well, we're working on it. Well, what do you do for a living?

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Well, you know, my parents are subsidizing me and I hope to get a job soon. High value versus low value.

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And in the TikTok, he says, get out of my car, right? Get out of my car. So you'll know, the world teaches us to think in terms of value and not value.

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Worthlessness versus things that are high value. I would note that everybody in the world seems to believe that gold is precious and has high value.

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What's more precious than gold? The very faith that has been given to you by God to trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

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It is more precious than gold itself. It is of higher value than anything because faith always looks to the thing that it trusts in.

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The reason our faith is more precious than gold is because our faith is in Jesus Christ.

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How does one evaluate the value of Jesus himself? And so our faith is tested.

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And even though gold perishes through fire while it's tested, all of this testing is done so that we may be found in a way that results in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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And here we hear an echo of our gospel text today. Jesus says to Thomas, you have believed me because you've seen me.

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Blessed is the one who has not seen me and yet believes. And here Peter says these words kind of in an echo.

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Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him.

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And you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. And now you are obtaining the outcome of your faith.

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What is the outcome of our faith? And if somebody from Houston says that you might have your best life now, no.

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What is the outcome of your faith? The salvation of your souls. So brothers and sisters,

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Christ is risen indeed. And we have been born again to a living hope, a confidence, a surety, a certainty that Christ will make good on his promises, that we are reconciled to God the

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Father. We have received the forgiveness of sins because he is risen from the grave. We now have boldness and confidence to speak the good news to others so that they can share in this joy with us.

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And all the while, God by his power is guarding our faith and we will see the result of it when he appears and we are obtaining the outcome of our faith, the terminus of it is what?

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The very salvation of our souls. And because Jesus is risen, that is exactly what we have today and tomorrow and on into eternity.

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An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven. No pre -porched pirate can steal it from you.

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Hmm, a living hope. Sounds like everything, doesn't it?

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Because it is. Alleluia, Christ is risen. 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

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

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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

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