The Carpenter’s Most Satisfying Work

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. We will now read the account of the passion of our

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Lord in two parts. The first part from the Gospel of John, chapter 18, verse 1, through chapter 19, the first half of verse 16.

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Hear the word of the Lord. When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the

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Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed

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Him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with His disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the

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Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward and said to them,

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Whom do you seek? They answered, Jesus of Nazareth.

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He said to them, I am. Judas, who betrayed

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Him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, I am, they drew back and they fell to the ground.

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So He asked them again, Whom do you seek? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.

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Jesus answered, I told you that I am. So if you seek Me, let these men go.

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This was to fulfill the word that He had spoken. Of those whom you gave Me, I have lost not one.

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Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his ear.

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The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into its sheath.

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Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given Me? So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the

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Jews arrested Jesus and they bound Him. First they led Him to Annas, for he was the father -in -law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

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It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.

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Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest.

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But Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door and brought

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Peter in. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?

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He said, I am not. Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves.

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Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself. The high priest then questioned

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Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world.

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I have always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.

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Why do you ask me? Ask the ones who have heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.

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When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying,

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Is that how you answer the high priest? Jesus answered him,

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If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong. But if what

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I said is right, why do you strike me? Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest.

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Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, You also are not one of his disciples, are you?

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He denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear

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Peter had cut off, asked him, Did I not see you in the garden with him? Peter again denied it and at once a rooster crowed.

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Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning.

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They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled but could eat the

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Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man?

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They answered him, If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. Pilate said to them,

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Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. The Jews said to him, It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.

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This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show what kind of death he was going to die.

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So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the

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Jews? Jesus answered, Do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me?

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Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me.

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What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

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If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the

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Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. Then Pilate said to him,

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So you are a king? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. For this purpose

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I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.

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Pilate said to him, What is truth? After he had said this, he went back outside to the

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Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the

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Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? They cried out again, Not this man, but Barabbas.

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Now Barabbas was a robber. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.

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They came up to him saying, Hail, king of the Jews! And they struck him with their hands.

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Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.

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So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

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Pilate said to them, Behold the man! When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out,

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Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.

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The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the

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Son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

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He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer.

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So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?

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Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.

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Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on,

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Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not

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Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when

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Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the

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Stone Pavement in an Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the

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Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your king. They cried out, Away with him!

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Away with him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king?

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The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

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Our Gospel continues. John 19, second half of verse 16.

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So they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the

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Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him.

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And with two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.

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It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Now many of the Jews read this inscription.

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For the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in Aramaic and Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the

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Jews said to Pilate, Do not write the king of the Jews, but rather that this man said I am the king of the

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Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. When the soldiers had crucified

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Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts. One part for each soldier, also his tunic.

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But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.

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This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, They divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.

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So the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister,

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Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother,

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Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother.

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And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. After this,

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Jesus knowing all that was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture, I thirst.

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And a jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

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When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit.

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Since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the

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Sabbath, for the Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

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So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.

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But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead. They did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and at once there came out blood and water.

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He who saw it is born witness. His testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe.

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For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be broken.

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And again, another Scripture says, They will look on him whom they have pierced. After these things,

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Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked

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Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission.

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So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight.

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So they took the body of Jesus, bound it in linen cloths, with the spices, as is the burial custom of the

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Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid.

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So because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid

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Jesus there. In the name of Jesus. Here again, two of the verses of the hymn we just sang.

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O sorrow dread, our God is dead. Upon the cross extended, there

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His love enlivened us, as His life was ended. O child of woe, who struck the blow that killed our gracious Master?

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It was I. Thy conscience cries, I have wrought disaster.

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Every Good Friday, as we consider the sufferings of our Lord, we are again reminded of the terrible and dreadful cost of our sin.

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My sin, and yours. Each and every one of us, born dead in trespasses and sin, under the dominion of darkness.

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Each and every one of us guilty before God. Each and every one of us deserve to spend eternity in hell, in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels.

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But God. God the Eternal. God the Glorious. God the

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Immutable. Did the unthinkable. Because of His great love for you and for me, He stepped down from His throne.

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Emptied Himself. Took on the form of a slave.

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And became obedient. Even to the point of death. Even death on a cross.

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And so now, we can say these weird words. Our God died.

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Thus, the cost of our sin. My sin struck the blow.

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Your sin struck the blow. We together are guilty. But I don't want you to feel bad for Jesus.

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Like I said, this is not His funeral. Think of it this way. Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, is now accomplishing

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His greatest project. There's a

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French phrase for it. I wish I knew it. But we'll just call it a masterpiece.

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And at the very end, He cries out these words. It is finished.

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He went to work that morning. And He accomplished something amazing.

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Something great. It's important for us to realize He did not say, I am finished.

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He said, it is finished. So let us again return to the prophet

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Isaiah. Who hundreds, and I mean hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus ever was incarnate of the

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Holy Spirit, and the Virgin Mary, literally sounds like He's standing there at the foot of the cross with Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the wife of Clopas.

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But He wasn't there physically. Clearly, God revealed all of this to Him. And we read again.

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Behold, My servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up, and he shall be exalted.

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This harkens back to the early chapters of Isaiah. I saw the Lord high and lifted up.

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And the robe of His, the train of His robe filled the temple. But this is not where Christ is today.

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Not high and lifted up. Unless you want to say that His cross, suspended between heaven and earth is where He's high and lifted up.

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But that's not how Philippians reads. As many as were astonished at You, His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance.

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His form beyond that of the children of mankind. This tells us what

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Jesus suffered in the beatings. The punches to the face. The scourge.

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Anybody seeing Jesus carrying His cross to Golgotha would have said, is that a man?

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He was so terribly marred. His form was beyond that of the children of mankind.

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So shall He sprinkle to many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him. For that which has not been told them, they see.

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And that which they have not heard, they now understand. So who has believed what He has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the

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Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, like a root out of the dry ground.

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He had no form or majesty that we should look on Him. No beauty that we should desire Him. Yes, that's right.

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Jesus was not a child star. He did not experience fame and fortune the way

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Justin Bieber and celebrities do. He didn't have a million followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In fact, looking at Him, you'd see nothing special.

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Just a young boy born to a very, very poor situation living in an obscure town in a place called

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Nazareth. Nothing. No glitter. No shiny teeth.

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No flowing royal robes. He had no beauty that we should desire

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Him. And He was despised and He was rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

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And as one from whom men hid their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not.

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Surely, though, He has borne our griefs and He has carried our sorrows. Yet, we esteemed Him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted.

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But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

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And upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with His stripes, we are healed.

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And here, we see the great doctrine. The great teaching of Scripture.

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The doctrine of substitution. Christ becomes the sinner.

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The sinless one. The spotless Lamb of God. God lays on Him our sin.

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And if you think about it, there was Peter in the garden trying to prevent this all from happening.

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He draws his sword and he cuts off the ear of Malchus. Poor Malchus, he was just doing his job.

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This is no way to treat your neighbor. And what does Jesus say to Peter? Put away your sword.

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Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me to drink? And here's the idea.

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Jesus was drinking a draught that we never want to put our lips to.

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Trust me, you don't want to drink this cup. This is the cup of the fury, of the wine, of the wrath of God.

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And Jesus takes this cup for us and He drinks it down to the bitter dregs.

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With each sip, His body convulsing. With each sip, you can hear the nails being driven into His hands, into His feet.

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With each sip, you can hear the taunts and the mocking.

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With each sip, the sky turns dark. The sun no longer shines.

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With each sip, you can feel the blood dripping down His back, over His face.

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The salt of His blood stinging His eyes. And the

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Father can't even look at it and turns

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His face away. He was wounded for our transgressions.

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This is what we earned. He was crushed, not for His own, but for your iniquities and mine.

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And the chastisement that brought us was peace. Peace.

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Have you watched the news lately? There doesn't seem to be a lot of peace in our world.

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Terrorists, bombings, ISIS, raping and murdering children. Politicians at each other's throat.

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Everyone screaming in other people's faces. Nobody listening to anybody else.

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The only thing they care about is destroying those whom they disagree with.

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There is no peace on this earth. And the reason for this is simple.

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Our lack of peace with each other is caused by our rebellion against God.

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You see, we are the ones who instigated the hostilities. We were the ones who fired the shots that began the war.

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We are the ones who rebelled against God. And because we have not had peace with God, we do not have peace with each other.

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These are the consequences of our sin. And there's no way to fix what is broken here.

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All the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put any of this back together again, but Jesus, crushed for our iniquities.

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And upon Him was the punishment that brings us peace with God. And as we heard last night in our

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Gospel text, they will know we are

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His followers by our love for each other.

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You see, we have peace with God. And because we have peace with God, we have peace with each other.

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It's because of His stripes that we have this peace and this salvation and we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

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And there's our problem. We have turned everyone to His own way.

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And what does every Hollywood movie tell us to do? Follow our hearts.

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Follow your heart. And I promise you, you will fall over the cliff into the fires of hell.

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Christ did not set you free to follow your heart. It's because you've been following your heart that you're in the mess that you're in.

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And you need this Jesus to bleed and die for you. So every one of us has turned to His own way.

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And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet He opened not

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His mouth. I'm pretty sure in all of our readings of Jesus' passion over the past few days, that Jesus is the only one who can say, excuse me,

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I object. I'm innocent. And there would have been no one capable of producing any evidence whatsoever to show that Jesus was guilty.

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It took a kangaroo court in the middle of the night. And what did Jesus do in the face of all of this injustice?

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He said nothing. Because God had laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

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And He was about to drink to the dregs. The cup the

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Father had given Him. So He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment,

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He was taken away. As for His generation who considered that He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of My people.

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And then listen to this amazing prophecy. They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death.

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Wow. How did Isaiah know? Maybe the Spirit told him.

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Although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth, yet it was the will of the

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Lord to crush Him. And why is this?

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Why is it the will of the Lord to crush Jesus? Because it's not His will that any should perish.

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Not you and not me. And so, in order to make it so that we would not have to perish, it was the will of God to crush

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Jesus. God has put Him to grief. Or as Paul says,

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God made Him to be sin who knew no sin. And when a soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring and he shall prolong his days.

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And the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And see, there begins the turn.

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And this is the reason why Good Friday is not a funeral for Jesus. He was at work.

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He'd rolled up His sleeves. He had a job to do. The will of the

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Lord shall prosper in His hand. And listen to these words. Out of the anguish of His soul, He shall see and He shall be satisfied.

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Have you ever put in hard day's work? Or maybe worked on a project that took more than one day?

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Took a lot of labor, a lot of thought. Maybe a lot of trips to the hardware store.

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Maybe a few band -aids. A few bruises. But when it was done, when it was done, did you not stand back and go, look at that.

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Look what I did. It doesn't happen very often for me. I'm a little more nerdy than I am handy around the house.

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But you know what I'm saying. We've all had these moments where we've put in a hard day and there we are.

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We're probably still smelly from the sweat. And we're looking at what our hands have wrought and we're going, yeah, that feels good.

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That's what Jesus was doing on the cross. You see, listen again. Out of the anguish of His soul,

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He shall see and He shall be satisfied. What does Scripture say? For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising its shame.

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Why? Because He was doing His greatest work. And when Jesus said, it is finished,

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I like to think that He was on that cross and there was a little bit of that satisfied smile coming out of His mouth.

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It's finished. Yeah. What was finished?

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Your salvation and mine. And see, there He was.

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And to every commentator, no one saw this one coming.

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You think back to the election back in the fall of last year. Which of the pundits ever said that Donald Trump was ever going to be our president?

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Nobody called it. And yet, He's now the president. Well, I would tell you that what

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Jesus did is the biggest upset of all times and it makes what Trump accomplished look like chump change.

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Because there He was, bleeding and dying and everybody's thinking, this guy's down for the count and he's dying and nobody is going to be talking about Jesus in a few days.

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It's over. Done with. He lost. I would beg to differ and so would

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Jesus. He didn't lose. By dying, He won. And you can almost see the devil and his angel hordes standing there, watching and mocking

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Jesus as He's dying and then just as it's almost too late,

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Jesus gets that twinkle in His eye and He goes, and you can hear them go, oh no, it was the ultimate

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Hail Mary pass. Pun intended. Had to throw that in there.

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And He lands it in the end zone and the victory is Jesus. You're saved.

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The devil lost. You're set free. You're forgiven. You do not have to stand condemned at all because He won and He did it for you.

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So out of the anguish of His soul, He shall see and He shall be satisfied.

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A good hard day's labor for the carpenter of Nazareth and He's satisfied.

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By His knowledge, shall the righteous one, My servant, make many to be accounted righteousness.

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Brothers and sisters, that's you. You have been washed. Your sins have been forgiven.

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You have been united with Jesus in His death and His resurrection in the waters of your baptism.

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You have now been accounted, credited as righteous because He was accounted as the sinner.

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The great exchange has taken place. Oh, and if the devil knew what was really going on, he would have never permitted

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Jesus to die. Oh, what a fool the devil is. He only traffics in fear and death.

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So, He will make many to be accounted as righteous. He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide

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Him a portion with the many and He shall divide the spoil with the strong because He poured out

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His soul to death and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet, He bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

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Oh, brothers and sisters, what a terrible and wonderful thing

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Jesus' death is. The cost is beyond estimation.

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The details are grisly beyond belief. It sobers us up.

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It makes us realize just how maddening and drunk we are on our own sin and that this is no trifling matter.

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And yet, through that all, Christ gains the victory. He wins the day.

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And He does this for us so that now that we can stand before our

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Creator and our Savior, not covered in fig leaves.

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You see, we imagine that God is angry at us.

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He was, but Christ propitiated

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God's wrath. And rather than flee God in the nakedness and the shame of our iniquity and our sin and hide from Him and try to cover it with our fig leaves,

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God says to me, Dear child, He says to you, Son, daughter, come here.

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Let me have those fig leaves. Let me cover you with some real clothes.

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Here's my righteousness. You're forgiven. You're bled for.

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You're died for. Do not any longer hang your head in shame.

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What a great gift. And there's not a penny I could pay to contribute to this.

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It is so amazing. It's almost too good to be true. But it is true.

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Your Jesus, your God and your Savior, has borne your iniquity, taken it to the cross, bled and died in your place so that you can be accounted righteous.

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Oh, Lord Jesus, never let us despise this great gift, but help us always to ponder it anew with each passing

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Sunday and give thanks to you rightly. Lord, it is your kindness that leads us to repentance, and we do not understand this kind of kindness.

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This is a kindness beyond measure. Help us, Lord, to be this kind to everyone that we meet so that they can see your love in us, the love that you gave us by bleeding and dying for us on the cross.

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May we glory in the satisfaction that you have in this hard day's work that you put in for us,

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O great and merciful Carpenter of Nazareth. In the name of Jesus.

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15950 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744

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And again that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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