Through Whom All Things Were Created

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Date: Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Text: Matthew 14:22-33 www.kongsvingerchurch.org

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern
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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins in salvation by grace through faith alone.
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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 14th chapter.
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Glory to you, O Lord. Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side while He dismissed the crowds.
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And after He had dismissed the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. And when evening came,
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He was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.
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And in the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said,
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It is a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart, it is
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I. Do not be afraid. And Peter said to Him, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.
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He said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.
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And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out
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His hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
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And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped Him, saying, Truly, you are the
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Son of God. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.
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All right, so it's not a secret. Barb and I own dogs. Now, if you've been to our house, well, then you know
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Max and you know Luther. I'm not exactly sure Max is really a dog, but that's just an opinion that some people have put together.
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It's just such a weird combination, West Highland Terrier and Poodle. And so he's called a
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Westie Poo. Can a dog really be a dog with the last part of it named
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Poo? Anyway, you get the idea. But here's the thing, Luther, my dog, he's not exactly well trained.
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And I gotta admit, I'm responsible for that part. He's a little unruly at times. But I always love it when little kids come to our house and they want to give
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Luther orders. They want to give him commands. And Luther just doesn't, well, obey.
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So it's always fun when a little kid says, woofer, sit, woofer, sit, woofer, roll over, woofer, shake hands.
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And woofer doesn't have anything to do with that. Woofer just goes, whatever, and goes and does his thing.
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And you'll note, though, that if I give Luther a command, I can give Luther a command with my hands.
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I can give it with my voice. And Luther, for the most part, obeys.
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There are times when he doesn't really quite feel like it. And so you'll note there that the owner of the dog always seems to be the one who is able to give commands to the dog.
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This will kind of frame our gospel text today. But to frame it even further,
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I want you to consider what is revealed for us in our Old Testament text, in Job 38.
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If you know the story, well, Job is the one who was made to suffer. Suffer greatly. Why? Well, because of his great love and his fear and faith in God.
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This is most certainly true. This is why he was made to suffer. The devil was pretty much upset about the whole situation.
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So God allowed the devil to make him suffer and suffer terribly. And at some point,
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Job kind of crosses the line in some of the things that he says. And so God decides he's going to do something that's quite terrifying.
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God decides he's going to have a conversation with Job. And he has a conversation with Job with what we here in the northern part of the
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Midwest would call a supercell thunderstorm. You know, this big supercell thunderstorm comes barreling down the highway, drops a tornado, there's thunder, there's lightning everywhere.
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Believe me, that'll get your attention, especially if God's voice comes out from that thing. And God then begins to ask
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Job a series of questions. And you'll note that God doesn't expect
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Job to answer these questions. These are more rhetorical questions, but these will help us a lot today.
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So here's what God asks Job. Where were you when
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I laid the foundations of the earth? Let that one kind of sink in.
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You could tell from like this question immediately. Job's in an uncomfortable situation.
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I think they call this an upbraiding. He's being upbraided by God here. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
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Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know.
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You'll note that God has no problem being a little sarcastic, maybe, you know, making the point that way.
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Who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
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What a beautiful picture, by the way. I didn't realize that our globe had a cornerstone, nor did
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I even know, because Genesis doesn't say that when its cornerstones were laid, that the sons of God, this is the angels, they were watching as the creation was being put together and they shouted for joy.
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Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? When I made clouds its garment, thick darkness its swaddling bands, and prescribed limits for it, set bars and doors, and said,
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Thus far shall you come and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed. Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?
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Now, let's pause there for a second. Commanded the morning? Now, in our day and age,
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I don't know if you've noticed, I keep pointing this out week after week, the world's gone a little nuts, all right? And you'll note that there are people who've notably done some pretty foolish things, commanding parts of the creation to obey their voice.
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And that's about as effective as a little kid saying, Woofer, sit. It doesn't work. Most notably, we remember, not too long ago,
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Kenneth Copeland and the fiasco that he put on where he was commanding
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COVID -19, COVID -19, I command you to come down from your high place and I blow the window guard on you, and it was just nuts.
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And did COVID -19 obey the voice of Kenneth Copeland? Yeah, no.
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I don't know if you've noticed, it just keeps getting worse. I'm beginning to think that if he doesn't keep his mouth shut, that everybody on planet earth is going to die from this thing because every time he opens his mouth, it just gets demonstrably, objectively worse.
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But note that when it comes to commanding the creation, this is the prerogative of God.
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And when God commands the creation, the creation obeys.
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In fact, obeys much better than Woofer does, much better than Luther. And so you'll note the prerogative of God is to command the creation.
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So have you commanded the morning since your days began, caused the dawn to know its place so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and that the wicked be shaken out of it.
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It is changed like clay under the seal, its features stand out like a garment. From the wicked, their light is withheld and their uplifted arm is broken.
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Have you entered into the springs of the sea or have you walked in the recesses of the
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Tohom of the deep? It's an interesting word there, of the Tohom of the deep, because if you remember when it says in Genesis that God created the heavens and the earth and the spirit, the
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Ruach Elohim, the spirit of the Lord, of God was hovering, brooding over the
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Tohom, over the deep. You'll note that here in Job, it says that God has walked in the recesses of the deep.
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Hmm, sounds to me like he's been walking on the water, and you'll note that's a prerogative of God.
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And then Job continues, or at least the story continues, have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
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Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare it if you know all of this. And obviously,
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Job doesn't. That's the point of all of these questions. But knowing that then, knowing that it is the prerogative of God to command the creation, and that God himself has walked in the recesses of the deep on the sea, yeah, keep that in mind as we look at our gospel text.
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And sadly, this is a text that there have been a lot of sermons on it that just kind of miss the entire point.
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Have you ever heard a sermon where the pastor has told you that you need to step out in faith and walk out of your boat?
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If you've heard those kinds of sermons, believe me, when I tell you, that's not the point of this text.
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This isn't about you mustering up faith to step out of your boat or any nonsense like this. And you'll note that as we walk through this text, you'll see that Peter didn't step out of the boat because of his great faith.
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He stepped out of the boat because he didn't believe it was Jesus. And so we'll take a look at what this text is really telling us about.
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And what is the focus of our pericopes, of our three lessons today? And our gospel text says this, immediately
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Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.
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And this is the same day as our gospel text from last week, the same day that Jesus fed the 5 ,000.
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And there were more than 5 ,000 there because the 5 ,000 was merely the number of men that were present.
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That didn't include the women and the children. So this was a great multitude of people that Christ fed in the wilderness miraculously.
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And when you read the gospel of John chapter 6, after Jesus performed this miracle, a lot of people went, wait a second, that's the prophet.
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The one who we were told would be coming. And they wanted to have an impromptu compulsory coronation service for Jesus to make him the king of Israel.
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And so Jesus is diffusing the situation. He didn't come, at least in this advent of Christ, his advent was not for the purpose of him being coronated and crowned the king of Israel and to set up an earthly government.
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The purpose of the first advent is to go to the cross, to bleed and to die for our sins.
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God himself, God the Father, has crowned Christ. He now has all authority given to him and he currently rules and reigns at the right hand of the
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Father. So that was not the purpose of his first advent. The purpose of his first advent was to humble himself.
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So Jesus is diffusing the situation. He sends his disciples off in the only boat that they had had at the moment and sends them across the sea back to Capernaum and Jesus himself stays behind and that's kind of the point.
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It's a little bit of misdirection because we learn from the gospel of John chapter 6 that they knew the disciples had headed out in this boat but they didn't know how
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Jesus got away. And that was the point, Jesus is making his getaway at this point.
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So after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. And when evening came, he was there alone.
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But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night,
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Jesus came to them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified.
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And they said, it's a ghost and they cried out in great fear. And so Jesus, walking on the water, and note, this isn't a calm, glassy sea, this is
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Jesus walking on the water with heavy winds, with white caps, things are tumultuous, out of control.
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And so, I don't know about you, but I'm not really used to seeing people walking on the water under any circumstances, let alone stormy circumstances.
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And we know from the fishing lore of the Sea of Galilee that there, have you guys noticed this?
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Fishermen have a tendency to be superstitious kinds of fellows, right? It's kind of part of the culture of being a fisherman.
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And so the way the story goes on the Sea of Galilee is that if a storm comes up and somebody drowns or their boat sinks and they die, that that fellow's ghost will appear when it's time for the next guy to die.
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That's kind of how this goes. So when Jesus shows up, they think it's a ghost. They're totally terrified going, oh no, we're all gonna die, because that's the guy who died last, right?
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It's kind of a game of tag, if you would. And so Jesus, Jesus cries out to them, calls out to them, and listen to the words here very carefully.
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Take heart, ego eimi, that's the Greek, I am, do not be afraid.
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And yeah, when Jesus says, I am, that's him saying that he's
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God. He's using the name that God gave Moses in the burning bush when
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Moses asked, what is your name? Take heart, I am, do not be afraid,
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I am your God. And you'll note that these are comforting words in the context because, well, things seem to be quite out of control.
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But Jesus is basically saying, don't worry, I'm God, I've got this. And you'll note earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, there was a time when
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Jesus was asleep on the back couch of their little fishing vessel during a storm, and they were freaking out, thinking that they're gonna die.
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And so they woke Jesus up, and Jesus was really tired, he had been doing, kind of burning both candles, burning the candle at both ends, and he was really tired and needing some sleep.
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And so they woke him up, do you not care that we're perishing? And what does
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Jesus do? It's almost like he's annoyed, he gets up and goes, shh, shh, and he's not shushing the disciples, he's shushing the
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Sea of Galilee. And the Sea of Galilee goes, okay, whew, right? Who is this guy?
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That text ends, that even the wind and the sea and the waves obey him.
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So here's Jesus, in the middle of this tumultuous situation, ah, take heart, don't be afraid,
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I am. Now Peter, in a moment of complete doubt, it kind of reminds me, when
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I was growing up, I used to watch this show called Different Strokes, you remember Gary Coleman? And whenever his brother
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Willis would say something that he didn't believe, he acted out in incredulity, he would say, what you talking about,
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Willis? And so this is Peter's what you talking about, Willis moment, Lord, if it's you, what you talking about?
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If it's you, tell me to come to you on the water. And what did Jesus say? All right, come, fine, that's no problem.
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So this is a great moment of doubt, incredulity. So Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, came to Jesus, but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out,
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Lord, save me. I always like to point out, that's a good prayer. It's short, it's to the point, and you know what, this is a prayer that we can pray under any circumstance, whether your boat is for really sinking, or whether you're just, well, lost your job because of COVID -19, or your family's blown apart, or maybe you're suffering from an illness, maybe even one that might kill you.
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You can cry out to Christ, Lord, save me. This is a prayer that is appropriate, given all circumstances, because here's the thing, to have a
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God, well, what is your God? Your God is that thing that you cry out to, or look to, to give you comfort and peace in the midst of troubled times.
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And so in the midst of all of this, Peter cries out to Jesus, Lord, save me. And Jesus responds to his prayer, and immediately reaches out his hand, and took hold of him, saying to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?
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And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Here we go again.
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The sea just goes totally calm, and those in the boat worshipped Jesus, saying, truly, you are the
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Son of God. Truly you are the Son of God, and that's exactly who Jesus is.
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And again, this all points to the fact that Christ himself is our
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God. He has the prerogative of speaking to the creation, and the creation listens to him.
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Consider what the Nicene Creed says regarding our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that he is, and we believe in one
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Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, and listen to these words.
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He is God of God. He is light of light. He is very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the
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Father, by whom all things were made. And that is who
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Jesus is. He is our great God and Savior, and this is comforting, comforting in so many ways.
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But before I get too far ahead of myself, also consider how our Epistle text teaches the same thing.
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In our Epistle text, it says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is
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Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And we learn from verse 17 that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ.
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This is not something that is mustered up within yourself, but through the gospel, through the means of grace, the
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Holy Spirit then produces in us repentance and faith in Christ. That being the case, then if you confess with your mouth, that is a sign that you have faith, that Jesus is
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Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. But what does it mean to say
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Jesus is my Lord? Is it to say he's my boss? Is Jesus my co -pilot?
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Is he my homeboy? What does it mean to say Jesus is my Lord? Well the text goes on to say there, in verse 12, there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
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The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the
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Lord will be saved, verse 13 says. But you'll note, the astute Bible student will see that in their
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Bible, that there's a cross -reference. That here, the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit, is saying everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and he's quoting verbatim the prophet
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Joel, from Joel chapter 2. And in that text, in the Old Testament text that he's quoting, it says everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved.
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In other words, Jesus is the Yahweh of the Old Testament. He is your
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God. So then how is this comforting to us? Well, consider the fact that our salvation was won not by a creature, not by an angel, not by a lackey, a sub, you know, some kind of sub -creature, a little bit different than God.
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In fact, our opening hymn talks to this amazing and really comforting fact.
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Listen again to the words of our opening hymn, O love how deep, O love how deep, how broad, how high.
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It's beyond all thought and fantasy that God, the Son of God, should take our mortal form.
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Why? For mortal's sake, for your sake and mine. And see, there's the thing.
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Take heart, Jesus says. I am. Do not be afraid. There is
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God in human flesh and God has taken on human flesh for us because of his great love for us.
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And the text goes on to say he sent no angel to our race of either higher or of lower place.
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Instead, God himself wore the robe of human frame and to this world himself he came.
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And that's the great mystery of the incarnation, that even though Jesus, the
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Son of God, is equal with God and he is God, he emptied himself and was found in the form of a servant and became obedient, even obedient to the point of death on the cross.
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For us he was baptized. For us he bore. He bore his holy fast and he hungered sore.
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For us temptation sharp he knew. For us the tempter he overthrew.
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For us he prayed. For us he taught. For us his daily works he wrought.
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By words and signs and actions thus, still seeking not himself, instead but seeking us.
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For us by wickedness betrayed. For us in crown of thorns arrayed. He bore the shameful cross and death.
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For us he gave his dying breath. For us he rose from death again. For us he went on high to reign.
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For us he sent his spirit here to guide, to strengthen, and to cheer. And so you'll note that God demonstrates his great love for us in the incarnation, in his death for your sins and mine.
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And so we, like the disciples there that day in this boat, we too recognize that Jesus is the
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Son of God and rightly respond to the great things that he has done for us in thanks and praise and in worship.
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So brothers and sisters, I know your circumstances from time to time may seem a little bit overwhelming, a little bit hard.
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But regardless of the circumstance that we find ourselves in, it is Jesus who is our great
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God and Savior. So take heart. Do not be afraid. He is the I Am. He has bled and died for you.
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He's risen from the grave for you. And now he is at the right hand of the Father, even interceding for you as your mediary.
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So repent of your self -sufficiency. Repent of trusting in things that cannot save.
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Repent of false gods that you take comfort in that are not able to actually help you.
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And trust in the one who can get you through this life and bring you safely to the shores of the new earth.
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In the name of Jesus, amen. 567 -44.
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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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