This is My Beloved Son

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

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

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the third chapter.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him saying,

I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were opened to him and he saw the

Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him and behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

Jesus said the one who exalts himself will be humbled the one who humbles himself will be exalted and boy oh boy

Jesus practices what he preaches. And that's really what's going on at least in part in our gospel text today.

Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan to John the Baptist to be baptized by him. Remember Jesus says of John the

Baptist of those born of woman that none is greater than him. And John would have prevented

Jesus saying hey I need to be baptized by you and you know what

John's right. Note the humility, the humbleness of John here. He doesn't somehow exalt himself over Jesus.

He recognizes his place. He recognizes his sinfulness and Jesus does something no one expects.

Not even John the Baptist. Yet we use the phrase when somebody like one -ups another person you know so you know you jumped four feet

I jumped four feet two inches. You weigh 235

I weigh 255 right. You know we we we one up people right. Well what does

Jesus do? He one downs John the Baptist. He goes lower and it's vital that he does because up to this point

Jesus has not been anointed to be the Messiah. He's not been ordained to that office yet.

You'll note up to this point Christ hasn't preached any sermons. He hasn't done anything like that.

He's not acting in the office of Messiah and we learned from the book of Acts that there were some fellows who tried to put themselves into that office by the way which is a scary thing if you think about it because God says in Deuteronomy 18 he says to Prophet Moses that I will raise up a prophet like you and I will put my words in his mouth and to him the people must listen right.

Which kind of begs the question well how do we know who that guy is? Well here's the issue.

Other people throughout the history of Israel rose up claiming to be people.

Claiming to be people. Can you imagine that? Claiming to be somebody. I am somebody important.

In fact we hear this in the book of Acts chapter 5. John and Peter had been arrested an angel sprung him from the clink and then they went back to preaching at the place where they arrested and they were brought before the high priests in the

Sanhedrin and here's what it says starting at verse 27 when they had brought them they set them before the council high priest questioned them saying we strictly charged you not to teach in this name the name of Jesus yet here you fill

Jerusalem with your teaching and you intended to bring this man's blood upon us I would like to say too late for that you know

Jesus's blood is right there on you but Peter and the Apostles answered listen we must obey

God rather than men the God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging on a tree and listen to the words

God exalted him at his right hand and we're going to see from one of the cross references to our gospel text that God the father also exalted

Christ with those words you are my beloved son but no God exalted Christ at his right hand as leader archaic on in Greek it's so much more than leader it's like supreme the guy who's king of kings and Lord of Lords God has exalted him as leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins ooh yeah love that part because that's what we need and we are witnesses to these things and so is the

Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him and off in the distance you can hear the volcano rumbling and then boom

Krakatoa goes off so when they heard this they were enraged and they wanted to kill them but a

Pharisee in the council by the name of Gamaliel a teacher of the law held in high honor by all the people he stood up he gave orders to put the men outside for a little while and he said to them men of Israel take care what you are about to do with these men for before these days

Thutis rose up claiming to be somebody Thutis Thutis that's th it's in the text right here

Thutis he claimed to be somebody and a number of men about 400 people joined him he was killed all who followed him were dispersed and they came to nothing and then after him

Judas the Galilean rose in the days of the census drew away some of the people after him he too perished and all who followed him were scattered note that the world is not well lacking in men who exalt themselves who think they are somebody

I think of today's vision casting leaders in so -called megachurches I am sent by God it happens to be that my father was the pastor before me but nepotism is not really a thing here but I am sent by God and I have a vision and it's your responsibility to make that vision come to pass right this is how they talk and you are to listen to them and of course now we have people running around claiming

I am an apostle I am a prophet and what are they doing they're claiming these things but you'll note that none of Jesus's Apostles dare take that name upon themselves

Christ exalted them in that office the prophets of old they were minding their own business when the

Word of the Lord showed up and many of God's prophets of the Old Testament when the

Lord showed up to put them in the office of prophet they said I'm not so sure about this

Moses himself said send someone else but we live in a day where anybody can claim anything

I am important I am sent by God really are you really truly hmm right and so what happened to those men well they perished they weren't really sent by God and so here we have

Jesus in our gospel text he won downs John the Baptist he goes to the lowest position and while Jesus was baptized immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the

Spirit of God ascending like a dove coming to rest on him and behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased no guesswork needed God the Father isn't expecting you to kind of figure out well this guy claims to be from me this guy claims to be from me this guy claims to be from me this guy claims to be from me see if you can sort it out

God the Father said no this is the one he's the one that's him no guesswork necessary Christ has humbled himself

God the Father has exalted him here's the cross reference Hebrews 5 verse 5 says so also

Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest but was appointed by him who said to him you are my son today

I've begotten you as he says also in another place you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and it's important to note that that same theme also occurs in our

Old Testament text in Joshua chapter 3 Moses is dead chapter 1 begins with Moses my servant is dead and what does

God say about Joshua the man now chosen to come after Moses God says in verse 7

Yahweh said to Joshua today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all

Israel no man dare to put himself into Christ's shoes or claim to be the

Messiah or sent by God when they are not there's a very dangerous thing and here's the thing though we human beings want to be important we want to be the center of attention we hate it when other people receive the accolades and we don't when

I was growing up do you know what the worst day of the year was you sitting there going Christmas no that was a good day

I got presents worst day of the year my brother's birthday all right think about this it was terrible because everybody was singing to him right and guess what he got presents not me it wasn't my birthday and the worst bit he got the

GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip and I did not and I wanted it so bad

I couldn't stand it worst day ever my brother's birthday all right well what does that tell us about me about you right we want so badly to be important and this all comes from the devil if you think all the way back to the

Garden of Eden oh God doesn't want you to eat of that tree because he knows that when you'll eat of it you're gonna be just like God right we who were by nature not

God thought that equality with God was something to be grasped something to be eaten let's plunge us into the misery that we are in and so I think then you know

Christ in our his baptism it kind of invokes several scenes from the

Old Testament one is the ordination of Aaron and his sons the other is the anointing of King David or of one of the other prophets you get the idea in fact

I think it's good in this context to reacquaint ourselves with the ordination of Aaron Aaron was one of these guys that God also chose why because Moses didn't want the job because he said he didn't talk too good right he was a little nervous about the public speaking thing he says fine

Aaron speaks well so God called Aaron too and it just so happens that on their way to the promised land after the tabernacle is built and God has revealed the

Old Testament worship and sacrifices God chose Aaron to be the first high priest and here's the bit his uniform was spectacular made of the best stuff absolutely beautiful regal and whoa all right listen to what it says in Leviticus 8 so Yahweh spoke to Moses saying take

Aaron and his sons with him and the garments and the anointing oil hmm anointing oil right and the bowl of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread and assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting and Moses did as Yahweh commanded him and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting

Moses said to the congregation this is the thing that Yahweh has commanded to be done who's commanded it

God who chose Aaron and his sons God who is the prophet at this point

Moses and I love what happens next so Moses brought Aaron and his sons and listen to the words and he washed them with water he did what huh that sounds like an allusion to baptism and then he put the coat on him

I love this part did Aaron clothed himself that day no Moses the prophet of God clothed

Aaron he put the whole uniform on him Moses put the coat on him tied the sash around his waist clothed him with the robe put the ephod on him tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod around him binding it to him with the band and he placed the breastplate on him and the breastplate he put the

Urim and the Thumen and he set the turban on his head and on the turban in front he set the golden plate the

Holy Crown as Yahweh had commanded Moses what is

Aaron doing at this point holding still right he's passively being clothed he is passively being installed he is passively being ordained you know

I think about the fact that we have a ordination ceremony that goes for men who are rightly called to the pastoral office and those who bristle at the concept that men are actually called by God and that they are ordained they they besmirch the right itself and rather than calling an ordination they besmirch it by calling it a coronation and it is not it is not that in any sense of the word just like Aaron's ordination was not his coronation he was called by God and placed into the office of high priest and no man dare to put himself into that office or even the office of pastor he must be rightly called so then

Moses took the anointing oil and he anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it he consecrated them he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and its utensils in the basin and it stand to consecrate them and then he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him and Moses brought

Aaron's sons and clothed them with coats tied sashes around their waist bound caps on them as Yahweh had commanded

Moses so you'll know Moses is doing all the work he's the prophet of God Aaron is passively receiving and now he's had his head anointed with oil and you could just see the oil running down his beard and dripping and ah amazing sight but here's the thing there were other sons of Levi who had well they had the stink eye they were looking on greedily jealously upset and they after not short not long after the ordination of Aaron and his sons they put together a little rebellion and boy listen to this one from number 16

Korah the son of Ishar the son of Koah son of Levi so he's a Levite as well and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab and on the son of Pelleth the sons of Reuben they took men and they rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel 250 chiefs of the congregation chosen from the assembly well -known men

I want you to think about this here all right God called Moses God called

Aaron God called the sons of Aaron God made Moses prophet

God had Moses ordained Aaron did these men call themselves no well there's

Korah like young Chris Rosebro not happy that his brother has received birthday presents and is just as angry as all get out but he's a little more subtle than I am and quite quite deadly he's decided to get 250 chiefs because we all know that you gather 250 leaders of your people they can't be wrong right that's the thing you laugh and you chuckle but in the reality the whole purpose of the 250 chiefs is to squelch anybody who would dare to speak out you think you're better than these 250 chiefs you think you know better than Luther Chemnitz Jerome you think you know better who do you think you are right 250 chiefs of the congregation chosen from the assembly they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and they said to them you have gone too far all the congregation are holy every one of them and the

Lord is among them it's the priesthood of all believers man we don't need no pastors

Dale's men are exalting themselves above us we're all holy we can all teach we can all preach uh -uh that ain't how it works why have you exalted yourselves above the assembly of Yahweh Moses heard this he fell on his face you have to wonder was he thinking he was needed to duck so we wasn't going to get struck by lightning so he said to Cora and all his company in the morning

Yahweh will show who is hit is his and who's holy and we'll bring him near to him and the one he chooses he will bring near to him so take censors

Cora and all of his company put fire in them put incense on them before Yahweh tomorrow and the man whom the

Lord chooses shall be the Holy One you've gone too far you sons of Levi you've gone too far well as the account unfolds they finally do show up before the tent of meeting and here's what happens in verse 25

Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram and the elders of Israel and followed him he spoke to the congregation saying depart from these tents of these wicked men touch nothing of theirs lest you be swept away with all of their sins they got away from the dwelling of Cora Dathan and Abiram and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents together with their wives and their sons and their little ones and Moses said hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all of these works and that it has not been of my own accord if these men die as all men die or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind then

Yahweh has not sent me but if Yahweh creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them and they go down alive into Sheol then you shall know that these men have despised

Yahweh and as soon as he had finished speaking all these words the ground under them split apart the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their household and all the people who belong to Cora and all their goods what did

Cora do he exalted himself Oh under the pretense of we're all holy how dare you exalt yourself yet God is the one who calls men and here's the important bit in our gospel

Christ shows up he doesn't show up in royal robes he's probably wearing the ordinary garb of a day laboring carpenter construction guy from Nazareth probably has the calloused hands to prove it he's not what anybody expects he's not riding a horse he comes humbly and John says dude

I need to be baptized by you I'm the sinner you're the Savior and Jesus goes no no let it be so for now it's fitting to fulfill all righteousness and he goes straight to the bottom and who exalts him none other than God the

Father this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased I would note that the accolades that David received from God David is a man after my own heart

I mean that's that's nice okay but remember David you know murderer adulterer you know a little bit of blood on his hands a few issues if we're saying it politely and God says he's a man after my own heart but of Jesus he says this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased and that voice of the father on the mound of transfiguration goes even farther in that account and says listen to him it's in that context then that we are chastened because of our satanic vain glorious ambitions and our denial that God is the one who calls men and places them into office and that God himself is the one who placed

Christ into his office as Messiah Philippians says do nothing not something nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit in humility count others as more significant than yourselves but if I do that then how is anybody supposed to know how great

I am the problem is you're not I'm not let each one of you look not only to his own interest but to the interest of other have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was by nature

God he didn't count equality with God a thing to be grasped he emptied himself taking on the form of a slave being born under the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross and you're going to note this that in order to fulfill all righteousness so that you and I can be forgiven

Christ serves us everything he does in his ministry he does it for you he does it for me he's not seeking his own glory he's not seeking his own power he's seeking you and he bears your sin in his body on the cross as your slave taking down to the dregs the wrath of God so that we can be forgiven and pardoned and because of this

Christ the most humble of us all God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the of God the Father it's in this regard then that we should re -examine our epistle text because it also flows from this

Paul here preaching about and talking about well the scandal of the cross

I chose to know nothing among you except for Christ and him crucified for our sins even Paul notes that he doesn't come to people in power and in great wisdom or anything according to the worldly view right consider your calling then brothers not many of you are wise according to worldly standards not many were powerful not many were of noble birth

I would note this that after I sent in my DNA to ancestry .com I did not get a call from Buckingham Palace to let me know

I was the lost royal okay fact after having that done

I'm sure they've redoubled their security all right we do not come from noble birth we are common everyday sinner scripture describes us in our sin as being worthless get over yourself you're the problem but God chose what's foolish in the world to shame the wise he chose a poor carpenter's son from Nazareth God chose what's weak in the world to shame the strong Jesus who committed no sin submitted himself to a sinner's baptism to fulfill all righteousness he made himself the weakest of the weak he didn't even defend himself when he was on trial for his life but he willingly laid down his life for you and me

God chose what is low and despised in the world even the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God could you imagine just how insufferable that would be a human being daring to boast about himself in the presence of God the last being that did such a thing well was cast down to the earth he is the source of your life in Christ Jesus have you noticed that throughout the

New Testament you see that phrase all the time in Christ Jesus in Christ Jesus you are in Christ what does

Paul say in Romans 8 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and here's the best bit

Christ baptism is the first of the Christian baptisms and when we have been baptized as we sang in our hymn we have been baptized into Christ think of Christ is like the

Ark Noah's Ark when you were baptized you were tucked safely into Jesus and saved through water you have been baptized into Christ into his death and into his resurrection and he the one whom

God has exalted he will raise you up on the last day there's nothing that we have to boast of so he is the source of our life in Christ whom

God made our wisdom God has made Jesus our righteousness he's made him our sanctification he's made him our redemption sounds like Jesus is our all in all and isn't that the point and so then we learn that the one who humbled himself

God has exalted and he hasn't exalted us apart from him we are in him and so let us repaint repent of all of our vain gloriousness and our jealousy of those whom

God does exalt and if we're going to boast about anything let us boast in the

Lord the one who so richly has forgiven us and given us life in Christ in the name of Jesus amen if you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church you can do so by sending a tax free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

Avenue Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that address is

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th