The First Two Cases of the Day of Judgement

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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

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

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke the 23rd chapter.

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There followed Jesus a great multitude of people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for Him.

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But turning to them Jesus said daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me but weep for yourselves and for your children.

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For behold the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.

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Then they will begin to say to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us.

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For if they do this when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry? Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with Him.

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And when they came to the place that is called the skull there they crucified Him and the criminals one on his right and one on his left.

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And Jesus said father forgive them for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments and the people stood by watching.

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But the ruler scoffed at him saying he saved others let him save himself if he is the Christ of God his chosen one.

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The soldiers also mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying if you are the king of the

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Jews save yourself. There was also an inscription over him this is the king of the Jews.

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One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying are you not the Christ?

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Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him saying do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation and we indeed justly.

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For we are receiving the due reward of our deeds but this man has done nothing wrong. And he said

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Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. This is the last

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Sunday of the church here. This is the day that we consider the day of judgment. This is an anxiety causing topic.

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Who of you have not woken up in the middle of the night going I'm gonna die someday and stand before God.

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Maybe it's just me. Well as we consider our gospel text we are again looking at Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and we'll note that the section that has been chosen for us in the lectionary points to something quite fascinating.

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The day of judgment of all things. I think a good way to think of it is this. Is that what we are seeing in our gospel text are the first two human beings judged on the day of judgment.

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Let me explain. In Matthew's gospel chapter 25 we get the parable of the sheep and the goats and it's a fascinating parable.

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Here's how it begins. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him he will sit on his glorious throne and before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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He will place the sheep on his right the goats on his left. Now I would remind you in our gospel text today that it clearly says that Jesus is the

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King of the Jews and what humans what the Romans did in mockery actually was true.

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You'll note that it was a official Roman governor Pontius Pilate who clothed him in purple who brought him before the crowd and said behold your king and it says in our gospel text that although people were mocking him the soldiers said if you are the king of the

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Jews save yourself and there was an inscription over him this is the king of the

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Jews and Christ crowned with the crown of thorns has ascended his glorious throne because note this it says in the

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Old Testament that it is the glory of God to forgive sins and so now the first two human beings to stand on the day of judgment are before Christ.

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Both of them criminals both of them suffering the death penalty for their sins and note this that the wages of sin

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Romans chapter 6 says is death that each and every one of us we all deserve exactly what these fellows also reserve what does

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Jesus say take up your cross and follow me which kind of begs the question when am I going to be crucified maybe a good way to think about the day of judgment is in these terms that we stand before the

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King him on his cross bleeding dying for our sins we on our crosses rightly being paid the wages of our sin it's an interesting way to think about it so one of the criminals who are hanged they railed at Jesus he railed at Jesus are you not the

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Christ the Messiah save yourself in us it'll be glorious Jesus it'll be the best prison break ever come on Jesus use that miracle working power and we can get out of here we can go and we can live on the run live off the land steal things from people some more and we could be the like desperadoes right but he doesn't even recognize who he's talking to nor does he even recognize what

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Jesus is doing Jesus is not about to save himself he is at this point long ago made the decision that he was going to willingly lay down his life not to save himself but in order to save you and to save me who rightly stand under the condemnation of death so the other rebuked him interesting court case going on here and I like to think of the one who rebukes the other criminal as being on Jesus's right that would be quite appropriate wouldn't it and so he railed he rebuked him and said do you not fear

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God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation but we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds but this man has done nothing wrong what an interesting confession scary confession if you think about it in the presence of Christ who's crowned in glory who has ascended his glorious throne to confess before this king that he is rightly condemned and that he is guilty but what is it that we say in our liturgy if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us but if we confess our sins

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God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so confessing his sin confessing his guilt confessing that he is rightly deserved he's getting what he deserves he points out that Christ has done nothing wrong and indeed this is true what sin can you point to the spotless lamb of God what sin could you impute to him say well there was this one time that Jesus did that thing never once did

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Christ sin and you'll note that the scriptures make it clear that he is not dying for his own sins because again the wages of sin is death so that how can

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Christ die well because the sin of these two criminals was on Christ that day your sin was on Christ that day

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God has laid on him the iniquity of us all and so Christ was bleeding dying and suffering not for any sin that he committed but for every sin that you and I committed each and every one of us all the ways in which we have not kept

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God's holy commandments either by worshipping and serving and believing in a false

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God by taking God's name in vain not keeping his words sacred and gladly hearing and learning it disobeying our parents all the ways in which we have murdered other people even in our hearts and with our words the ways in which we've committed sexual sins and adultery either in thought word or indeed by stealing by taking in bearing false witness against our neighbor and don't even get me started about the different ways in which we covet other people's stuff every sin is listed in the

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Ten Commandments in one form or another and which of us can say we've kept it perfectly the wages of sin is death is not life and so this fellow confesses that he is rightly deserved and is getting what he deserves and he knows that Jesus is innocent but then an amazing thing happens the judge of the whole earth these first two men to come forth before Jesus on the day of judgment this one man does something amazing he prays to Christ and he says

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Jesus please remember me when you come into your kingdom it's very humble but man it is loaded and crackling with all kinds of meeting consider our

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Old Testament text today in prophet Malachi the people of Israel are grumbling against God and they are what good is it to serve

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God I don't have you notice it seems like the evil seem to do pretty darn well in this life how is it that you know that guy who's been like undercutting everybody who's been stealing and and just engaging in all kinds of well deceit and foolery and trickery and abuses and mistreats others how is it that guy is so wealthy and doing so well how come his house is so huge his cars are always brand -new they don't don't even get me started about the televangelist they blaspheme

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God's name every time the television cameras are on and they're jetting around the world in their 60 million dollar jets vacationing at five diamond resorts eating caviar on the

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Mediterranean Sea in the south of France how is it that they're so successful when well

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I don't know I get up every week and prepare a sermon come here and you know my trucks now 11 years old it's got problems all right

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I'm not jetting around anywhere unless it's like you know the lowest price ticket I could find on kayak .com

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how is it that the wicked they do so well well Malachi it says here the arrogant in this life are blessed evildoers not only prosper they put

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God to the test and they escape so what benefit is there to actually believing in Jesus we're persecuted we're hated people slander us you say that you believe in Jesus and people unfriend you on Facebook you say that Jesus is the only way of salvation and they say you're in a cult it's a valid complaint at least in part but then here's the answer given so then those who feared the

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Lord spoke with one another and Yahweh paid attention and he heard them and so a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the

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Lord and esteemed his name in the book of Revelation if you've been following the daily readings of the book of Revelation this week it talks about the

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Lamb's book of life everybody whose name is written in the

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Lamb's book of life they are saved this is the book of remembrance and so God has said that a book of remembrance will be written and those who feared the

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Lord and esteemed his name will have their names written in it and they shall be mine says Yahweh Salva oath the

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Lord of armies in the day when I make up my treasured possession I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him and then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked between the one who serves

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God and the one who does not serve him no distinction now but there's a sharp distinction coming and so you know then that in our gospel text this criminal who's confessed his sins before the king crowned in glory ascended his throne standing between heaven and earth he then prays to Jesus Jesus remember me man that is a bold prayer for a guilty criminal to pray to Jesus because he probably knows full well the scriptures teach that there's a book of remembrance that's written in Jesus will you remember me will you save me will you spare me like a son the way

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Malachi said and what did Jesus say to him are you kidding me come on the scandalous you're a criminal you're dying for your sins here and rightly so how dare you ask me to remember you

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I mean what kind of God would I be if I allowed a human being to spend his entire life despising my word sinning like there's no tomorrow living only for himself and then on his deathbed this isn't even a bed on well before they throw the switch on the electric chair he prays a prayer to me and says

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Lord have mercy on me and remember me what kind of God would I be if I forgave him you know after living an entire life like that everyone would be scandalized by the thought of it it's not what he says is it and this gives me comfort

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I know it's scandalous for the world I know it's scandals for atheists this is one of their big arguments against Christianity so you're saying if Hitler repented of the sins on his deathbed but you know that that he's saved yeah and if he's not then what on earth would make me think that I could be because who of us can say we are any better than this fellow we're not

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Christ died for the ungodly that's you and that's me so in this prayer he prays

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Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom and he said to him and here's the first first person on the day of judgment to receive a verdict from Christ and here's what he says truly

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I say to you today you will be with me in paradise how can this be what is going on here the other gospel texts say that this criminal also mocked

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Jesus what happened what turned all of this around well faith comes by hearing and hearing by the

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Word of Christ we believe that God works the means of grace and what is the gospel

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Paul so clearly tells us that he received the gospel the actual contents of the good news itself from Jesus and he says in first Corinthians 15 this is the gospel this is the one that saves you that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture and that he was raised again on the third day in accordance with the scripture and so this fellow on the right of Christ that day he saw his

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God and Savior bleeding and dying for his sins and God the

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Holy Spirit worked faith in him so that he would cry out to Christ confess his sins in the presence of the exalted and glorious King crowned in glory that day and dare to say

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Lord remember me and the first human being to receive a judgment on the day of judgment is this unnamed fellow and Jesus declares him forgiven huh have you ever been in one of those situations where you've been asked to do something with a group of people and they always say who is anyone want to volunteer to go first right nobody wants to go first because you're not sure how this is gonna go down it could go but it could go really badly you know

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I always felt bad for my kids because my wife would always try to get them to volunteer who wants to who wants to do something for me today who wants to be good you know and it was always a trap okay always a trap and so I remember we were coming home from a trip to Colorado one time and we were in the vehicle we were just minutes away from arriving at home and my wife throws out one of these really scary questions you know who wants to volunteer to you know who wants to listen they're still in therapy working this out and so one of my daughters

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Christina sheepishly said okay I'll do it and no sooner does she say that that all right here's the chores

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I'm gonna give you when you get home and the other two are like thank God I didn't volunteer for that right yeah they knew they knew but this is kind of the situation so note then here this these two fellows go first on the

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Day of Judgment you want to know what the Day of Judgment is like these are the first two fellows to go first and seeing the outcome you sit there and go wait a second that guy didn't get what he deserves he was given mercy and forgiveness who would like to go next

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I'll go Lord I confess that I am by nature sinful and I've sinned against you and thought and word and deed by what

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I've done and by what I've left undone I haven't loved you with my whole heart

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I haven't loved my neighbor as myself and I justly deserve your present and your eternal punishment but remember me

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Lord forgive me renew me what is

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Jesus gonna say to that I forgive you all of your sins you will be with me in paradise brothers and sisters the

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Day of Judgment happened this morning when you confessed your sins and Christ the judge your king who is in glory now at the right hand of the

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Father he has declared his verdict and he has said to you you are forgiven and so this

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Day of Judgment hear these words because they apply to you truly you will be with me in paradise 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

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Avenue Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th