Closed Doors and Open Gates

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. Matthew chapters 26 and 27.

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When Jesus had finished all these sayings, He said to His disciples, You know that after two days the

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Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was

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Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill

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Him. But they said, Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. Now when

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Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to Him with an alabaster flask, a very expensive ointment, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at table.

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And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.

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But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to Me.

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For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have Me. In pouring this ointment on My body, she has done it to prepare

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Me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

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Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, What will you give

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Me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray

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Him. Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the

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Passover? He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says

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My time is at hand, and I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.

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And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve, and as they were eating, he said,

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Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me. And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another,

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Is it I, Lord? He answered, He who has dipped his hand in the dish with Me will betray

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Me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the

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Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Judas, who would betray

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Him, answered, Is it I, Rabbi? He said to him, You have said so. Now as they were eating,

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Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is

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My body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is

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My blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you,

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I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom.

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And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, You will all fall away because of Me this night.

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For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I am raised up,

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I will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered Him, Though they all fall away because of you,

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I will never fall away. Jesus said to him, Truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny

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Me three times. Peter said to Him, Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.

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And all the disciples said the same. Then Jesus went with them to a place called

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Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled.

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And then He said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with Me.

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And going a little farther, He fell on His face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.

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And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, So could you not watch with Me one hour?

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Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

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Again, for the second time He went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.

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And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

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And then He came to the disciples and said to them, Sleep, and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand.

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The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.

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And while He was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

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Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, The one I will kiss as the man sees him. And he came up to Jesus at once and said,

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Greetings, Rabbi. And he kissed Him. Jesus said to him, Friend, do what you came to do. And then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized

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Him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

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Then Jesus said to them, Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

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Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once send Me more than twelve legions of angels?

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But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so? At that hour

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Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture

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Me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But all this has taken place that the

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Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left Him and fled.

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Then those who had seized Jesus led Him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered, and Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest.

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And going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put

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Him to death. But they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said,

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This man said, I am able to destroy the temple and to rebuild it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said,

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Have you no answer to make? What is this that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent, and the high priest said to him,

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I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him,

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You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

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Then the high priest tore his robes and said, He has uttered blasphemy. What further witness do we need?

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You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment? They answered, He deserves death.

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Then they spit on his face and struck him, and some slapped him, saying,

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Prophesy to us, you Christ, who is it that struck you? Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him and said,

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You also were with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean.

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And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders,

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This man was with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied it with an oath, I do not know the man.

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After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.

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Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man. And immediately the rooster crowed.

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And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

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And he went out, and he wept bitterly. When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.

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And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. Then when

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Judas his betrayer saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying,

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I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, What is that to us? See to it yourself.

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And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said,

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It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money. So they took counsel and brought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers.

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Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet

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Jeremiah, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the

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Lord directed me. Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, Are you the king of the

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Jews? Jesus said, You have said so. But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer.

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Then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave them no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

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Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted, and they had then a notorious prisoner called

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Barabbas. So when they gathered, Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release for you,

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Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.

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Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.

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Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them,

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Which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate then said to them,

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Then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ? They all said, Let him be crucified.

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And he said, Why? What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more,

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Let him be crucified. So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying,

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I am innocent of this man's blood, see to it yourselves. And all the people answered, His blood be on us and on our children.

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Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took

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Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.

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And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews! And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.

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And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

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As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, they compelled this man to carry his cross.

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And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he had tasted it, he would not drink it.

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And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.

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Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read,

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This is Jesus, king of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.

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And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.

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If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes and the elders mocked him, saying,

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He saved others, he cannot even save himself. He's the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross and we will believe in him.

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He trusts in God, let God deliver him now, if he desires him, for he had said,

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I am the son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

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Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

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And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said,

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This man is calling Elijah. One of them at once ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.

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But others said, Wait, let's see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

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And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split.

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The tombs also were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

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When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said,

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Truly, this was the Son of God. There were also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed

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Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

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When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus.

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And he went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him, and Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.

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And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other

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Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. Next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the

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Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive,

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After three days I will rise. Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead, and the last fraud will be worse than the first.

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Pilate said to them, You have a guard of soldiers. Go and make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Hear a portion of the assigned psalm for today, which is taken from Psalm 118, starting at verse 19.

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Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them, and give thanks to the

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Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter through it. And I thank you that you have answered me and you have become my salvation.

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The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Gates and doors.

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Think of gates and doors here for a second. When you think of good movies, good movies always have a way of making very dramatic props or setting scenes that are pretty dramatic.

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I think back to when I was a kid, I loved to watch at this time of the year, The Wizard of Oz. It was always on CBS this time of the year, around Easter time, right?

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And those of you who remember, you had to get the rabbit ears just right. And I always liked it when

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Dorothy and the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow would finally get to the

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Emerald City. And when they got there, what were they met with? Ginormous doors, right?

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And so, and in good Hollywood fashion, when they bang on the door, it makes that echoey pop, pop, right?

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It's just crazy stuff. And then you can also think, another one would be

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The Return of the Jedi when C -3PO and R2 -D2 are on the rescue mission to rescue

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Han Solo from being frozen by Jabba the Hutt. They come up to Jabba the Hutt's lair and there's this ginormous door, right?

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Doors are kind of big things. And so you'll note something here. If we were to think of salvation like a door or a gate, something huge and dramatic, you'll note that in Psalm 118, it says,

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And here's where we have to soberly take something into consideration. And that is this small fact.

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Who are you to demand of God that he opens the gates of righteousness to you?

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Who do you think you are? You'll note that because of our sin, the gates of righteousness and the gates of salvation are barred.

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They will not open at our command. In fact, that's really a problem for us.

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If you were to think of it this way, there's a lot of things that we can give in exchange for crimes and misdemeanors that we perform here on Earth.

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You'll note that when somebody commits a misdemeanor or a felony, they are arrested.

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And in order to pay their debt to society, they can offer their body or actually it'll be taken from them.

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Their body and their life will be taken for them for a brief period of time while they cool their heels and think about their bad decisions in prison.

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If you live in Texas and you murder somebody, right, you will be giving your life as the penalty for the crime of murder.

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But what can you give in exchange for the sins that you've committed in order that you might be saved?

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Can you give your own blood? Can you give your own life? No, the answer is no to all of that.

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You're not able to do that. So the gates of righteousness stand closed to every single one of us who by nature are born dead in trespasses and sins and we are conceived in unrighteousness and we have transgressed

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God's holy law. And so open to me the gates of righteousness. Well, how can

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I expect the gates of righteousness to open? For me or for you? And it's here where we consider again the substitutionary work of Christ.

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And in our gospel text today, I won't reread the entire thing, but we'll pick up some highlights.

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You're going to notice there's a big theme here. And that theme is that Jesus Christ himself has pretty much every single door slammed in his face.

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Every single one of them. So that at the end of this, he doesn't have any mercy.

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There's no way out. All ways of escape are barred. All doors are closed.

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All gates are closed. And there is only one outcome. And that's the death of Christ.

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And so we read in the beginning of our gospel text that the chief priests and the elders of the people, they had gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was

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Caiaphas, and they plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

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But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. You'll note that the fact that they wanted to arrest

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Jesus by stealth and kill him without anyone knowing shows that their intent from beginning to end was nefarious.

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They were up to no good. If real justice was to be in play, then

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Jesus would have been properly arrested, with everybody understanding the crime and the allegations against him spoken very clearly, and the trial would have taken place, and witnesses would have come forth properly in order to bring about the end and demise of Christ.

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But the fact that they had to do this by stealth means that Jesus has done nothing wrong.

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If they're going to get rid of Jesus, if they're going to unalive him, they're going to have to do it on false pretenses.

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And so from there, you'll note that Judas, one of Jesus' inside guys, one of the twelve, he went to the chief priests and he said, what will you give me if I deliver

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Jesus over to you? And they paid him 30 pieces of silver. Does anyone else think that that is just an absolutely ridiculously low price for any human life, yet alone the life of the very

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Son of God? What is going on here? And from that moment,

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Judas sought an opportunity to betray him. The chief priests now have a guy on the inside working with him so that they can arrest

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Jesus by stealth and put him to death before anybody figures out what's going on.

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Doors are closing for Christ. Doors that should never have been shut.

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And then, to make matters worse, Jesus knows full well what's going to go down and he tells his disciples, all of them, you all fall away because of me this night, for it is written

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I will strike the shepherd of the sheep and the flock will be scattered, but after I am raised up,

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I will go before you to Galilee. And of course, Peter, the pretentious,

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Peter, sounds so much like me at times, who just thinks he's got everything figured out and really doesn't, doesn't quite get what's going on here, puts on a brave front and says, well, they'll all fall away,

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I will never fall away. And Jesus looks him straight in the eyes and says, I tell you this very night before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times.

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And then Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, three times prays to the Father that if it's possible that this cup would pass from him, but then he notes, but not my will, but your will be done.

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And you can hear doors creaking and closing all over the place for Jesus. His world is getting smaller and smaller.

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And by the time he is finished praying, and note, none of his disciples had enough energy to even join him in any kind of meaningful prayer themselves.

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Judas arrives, betrays Jesus with a kiss, what a horrible betrayal that is.

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And then they seize him. A scuffle ensues, and we know from the cross references who took off the ear of the servant of the high priest.

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In fact, we even know his name, his name is Malchus. And the guy who took off his ear, the one wielding the sword, it was

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Peter. And you'll note right from the get -go here, when things start to heat up, it looks like Peter's right.

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Peter's the one who's really, he's not going to deny Jesus no matter what. In fact, he even drew a sword and drew some blood, but Jesus heals the fellow, and then he chastises his disciples.

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Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father and that he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

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But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? And Christ knows what he's talking about.

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The Scriptures are clear. God's word cannot be broken. God's word cannot be broken.

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That being the case, you'll note, for anyone out there who sits there and goes, well, the Bible really can't be inerrant.

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Really? It can't be inerrant? You think the Bible cannot be without error?

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God's word itself says it cannot be broken, and Jesus here, when he's arrested, he's basically telling his disciples to stand down because the

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Scriptures must and will be fulfilled. And then he addresses the crowd.

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Jesus, always a repentance preacher, leaves them with a little bit of a message, a little bit of law to get them to think about what's going on.

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Have you come out against me as a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day, I sat in the temple teaching you, and you didn't seize me, but all of this is taking place that the

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Scriptures, the prophets, might be fulfilled. You'll note that Jesus kind of looks them in the eyes and goes, you guys do realize that you're doing exactly what the

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Bible said you were going to do. Don't you think that that should make you a little bit nervous?

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You might want to rethink your life decisions. Jesus clearly is still in control here. And so they seized

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Jesus and led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. And we know where this took place.

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It's on the list of sites that you can visit in Jerusalem if you were to go on a

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Holy Land tour. And I would note that Caiaphas' house, this courtyard that's in his house, is where the trial took place.

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It ain't much bigger than Kongsvinger right here. That shows you kind of how intimate of a place this was.

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In fact, I think Kongsvinger's a little bit bigger. Maybe if we just take the middle section, right?

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If we just took the middle section. That shows you how intimate of a place this was. And it says this, that Peter was following him at a distance and the chief priest and the whole council were seeking, listen to this, they were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death.

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Let me give you an analogy that we can kind of grasp onto. This would be the equivalent of the

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Pope looking for people to give false testimony against somebody for whatever reason, right?

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Popes aren't supposed to do that. Neither are pastors or leaders in the church.

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So if the head of the AALC, the presiding pastor, were to basically put some pastor on trial for whatever things and he was soliciting people, we need some guys to bear false witness against so -and -so, anyone up for that?

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You'll note that this is corruption of the highest order. And here's the problem, is that when you're seeking false testimony against somebody, it's really difficult to get the testimony to agree.

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So you can see some guy coming up saying, and they go, what would you like to say, what are you testifying against Jesus?

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Well, he threatened to turn me into a newt, right? Uh -huh, he did, really, yeah.

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Did he? Yes, well, he did turn me into a newt. And how come you're not a newt now? Well, I got better, right?

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We know how this goes down. And so you'll note that getting false testimony to agree is a little bit difficult.

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But finally they found two guys, they finally found two guys who said the same thing.

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And what did they say? Oh, we heard this man say, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.

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We all know about this. This is actually recorded for us in the Gospel of John. And of course, the temple that Jesus was referring to was the temple of his body.

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But don't let details get in the way. So Jesus, they said, this guy said he could tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days.

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And the high priest stood up, and he has to go with it at this point, this is the best that he's got. He says, have you no answer to make, right?

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What is this that these men are testifying against you? Oh, this is serious stuff, Jesus, right?

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But Jesus remained silent. Isn't that interesting?

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Long before the Miranda rights, you have the right to remain silent. Jesus did nothing to defend himself, not a thing, doors, more doors are slamming.

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So the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, you tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God.

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Jesus said to him, you've said so. But I tell you from now on, you'll see the son of man seated at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

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At this point, he goes ballistic.

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The high priest tore his robes and said, he's uttered blasphemy. What further witness do we need?

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You've heard the blasphemy. What is your judgment? And they all answered, he deserves death.

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And they spit on his face and they struck him. Some slapped him saying, prophesy to us, you

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Christ, who is it that struck you? More doors are closing in on Jesus.

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Of course, Peter, he's there watching all of this. We learned from another gospel that when

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Peter finally denies Christ the third time, Jesus looked at him because this is an intimate sight.

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Peter was sitting outside the courtyard and a servant girl came up to him and said, you also were with Jesus the

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Galilean. The brave Peter who just cut off the ear of Malchus, all of a sudden, he's become

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Mr. Fradycat. A servant girl has asked a question, has made a statement.

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He says, I don't know what you mean. And then he went out to the entrance and another servant girl saw him and said, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth.

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And again, he denied it with an oath. Didn't Peter say that even everybody, if everybody were to leave you,

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I'll never leave you, even unto death. Well, here's your great opportunity, Peter, but you're going to know the word of God cannot be broken.

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The word must be fulfilled. The scripture says, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.

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And here you have this ornery sheep doing his best to disobey the word of God.

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You can't do that. And so things are not going well for him. He denied that he knew

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Jesus. And after a little while, the bystanders came up to him and said, well, certainly you two are one of them. And he began to invoke a curse on himself and swear,

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I don't know the man. And then immediately the rooster crowed. Peter remembered the saying of Jesus.

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Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And he went out and he wept bitterly.

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So they take Jesus to Pilate. And Pilate, well, you know, he knows that the reason why that they brought him to him this early in the morning was because of their jealousy of him.

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And so Jesus stood before the governor and Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And you can almost hear him asking it kind of like nonchalantly.

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It's like, listen, I got breakfast in like 10 minutes. Can we get this over with? Are you the king of the Jews or not? And he says, well, you've said so.

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And then the chief priests and the elders, they began hurling accusations against him. And Pilate said, well, do you hear how many things they testify against you?

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Jesus gave them no answer, not even to a single charge. So the governor was greatly amazed.

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I mean, the scripture cannot be broken, just like a sheep before her shearers is silent. So Christ will be silent before his accusers.

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And so now Pilate's door closes. The doors of the high priest have closed in on Jesus.

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But what about the crowd? Maybe the crowd, the people that the scribes and the Pharisees and the chief priests didn't want to involve in this.

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Maybe they'll come to Jesus' rescue. Remember, they wanted to arrest Jesus by night so that the crowd wouldn't riot and put up a fuss.

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Well, the crowd that had gathered at Gabbatha that morning, the scribes and the

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Pharisees and the chief priests, they were able to work the crowd to basically say, listen, he's going to give us two options here.

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One is to release Jesus. The other is to release Barabbas. You scream and demand that he release Barabbas.

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And so they did. They screamed. When the governor said, which of the two do you want me to release for you?

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They said Barabbas. And Pilate said to them, well, what should I do with Jesus who's called the Christ?

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They said, let him be crucified. And he said, why? What evil has he done?

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And they shouted all the more, let him be crucified. And in one of the most fruitless endeavors

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I've ever seen of somebody trying to purge themself of their own sin, Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing and that a riot was beginning.

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He took water and washed his hands before the crowd and said, I'm innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves.

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Oh, no, you're not. You know that this is an injustice.

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Your responsibility, governor, is to do what's right. You can't just wash your hands and be done with this.

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I'm innocent of this man's blood, he cries out. And then all the people answered, his blood be on us and on our children.

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I remember during the men's Bible study last week, when we were reading this out, the fellow who was reading this section of the scripture said, oh, wow.

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Oh, wow, indeed. What a statement. It's breathtaking when you consider its implications.

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His blood be on us and on our children. And you know, that's a statement that's one of these kinds of statements that can cut two different ways.

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Let me explain. Each and every one of us, according to the apostles, when you read the apostles in the book of Acts, each and every one of us, although we were not present when

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Christ was on trial, we're all guilty of crucifying Jesus. It was our sin that put him on the cross.

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It was our sin that he was bearing. That being the case, we're all guilty of the blood of Christ.

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If you were to think of it that way, we're responsible. So when a believer says, his blood be on us and on our children, he is not invoking a curse.

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He's invoking a blessing. Think all the way back to the Garden of Eden, the very first brothers.

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If you ever thought that your family was dysfunctional, well, just go all the way back to Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel, right?

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What did Cain do? He slew his brother Abel and his blood was crying out from the earth against him and God brought justice to Cain as a result of his murder.

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And so blood is one of these things that can cry out. Blood is one of these things that people can have on their hands.

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Blood is one of these things that can testify about a person and they could be brought to justice because of the blood that they have shed.

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And so when the crowd cries out, his blood be on us and on our children, the first implication is to think that they're calling down a curse.

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But for all who believe, the blood of Christ is on us and we pray that it be on our children because when the blood of Christ is on us by grace through faith, rather than face justice in God's wrath, we are pardoned and forgiven by the blood of Christ.

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Christ's blood is a blessing. But if you persist in sin and unbelief and you refuse to trust that Christ has died for your sins and that in him and him only is salvation, then his blood is on you and potentially on your children, not for good, not for a blessing, but instead for God's wrath and justice.

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His blood be on us and on our children. Man, like I said in our

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Bible study, oh wow. So what did they do? They released

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Barabbas and having scourged Jesus, they delivered him to be crucified. Scourging is,

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I like the fact that it just talks about it so briefly. They scourged him. Oh, that's great. Well, that is not an easy ordeal.

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Basically, they took Christ and then secured him to a pole, his hands, had his back to these soldiers and then they took a cat of nine tails and just got into his back.

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The 40 lashes minus one? It's a mess. It really is truly a very painful, horrible mess.

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But there's Barabbas. Barabbas, the actual murderer, the actual insurrectionist, the guy who legitimately has done evil, he walks out scot -free.

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For him, the doors of the prison open. For him, the door of the palace opens.

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That day he was able to walk free in the sunlight. The doors had opened for him.

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He had been saved. Strange when you think about it. And then we hear that Jesus is mocked, he's beaten, has a crown of thorns pressed into his head, then he is led away and he is crucified and he lays down his life.

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But the final insult, the final door to slam on Jesus' face is the one that is the most startling.

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It says from the sixth hour there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour. At noon, while Christ was on the cross, the sun could no longer give its light.

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The moon stopped shining and it was dark. There was darkness all over the land, all over the earth for three whole hours.

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And Christ cried out with a loud voice, Ilai, ilai, lama sabachthani, that is my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And with one last loud clang, the last of the doors is shut on Jesus.

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There are no open doors for him. He is now bearing your sin and mine.

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He is bleeding and suffering in our place so that we can be forgiven by God.

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All the doors were shut on Christ so that the gates of righteousness could open to you and to I.

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And Christ laid down his life and crying out with a loud voice, he yielded up his spirit. And at that point, things happened.

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The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth shook, the rocks were split, the tombs were opened, saints came out of their tombs, can you imagine that?

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And they appeared to many and even the Roman soldiers there at the foot of the cross said truly this man was the son of God.

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What does this have to do with what we're saying here? Here again the words of our psalm for today, open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to Yahweh.

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Who are you that you can ask God to open the gates of righteousness to you? Well, here's the best bit, you're nobody and neither am

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I. And Christ died for all of us. In fact, it's by Jesus' shed blood on the cross that we now are forgiven and pardoned and declared righteous by grace through faith.

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And so we can boldly and confidently approach the gates of righteousness and say open up,

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I'm here. And we can enter through them, why? Because Jesus is the gate.

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He's the door. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life.

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This is the gate of Yahweh. The righteous shall enter through it. Jesus is the gate and he's the door. And it's through him that you enter through, well, damnation into salvation.

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I thank you that you have answered me and you have become my salvation. This text also says of Christ the stone the builders has rejected has become the cornerstone and that's really the point.

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Throughout our gospel text today, we see that Christ is rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected.

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Door after door, gate after gate, slams in his face. He is rejected, but he has become the cornerstone and through his rejection, we are finally accepted by God.

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That's the point of his death. This is the Lord's doing, the psalmist writes, and it's marvelous in our eyes.

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And then when we consider that in the context of what we read in our intro today, blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh.

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We bless you from the house of Yahweh. So lift up your heads, oh gates, and be lifted up, oh ancient doors, so that the king of glory may come in.

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You'll note that the end of the story is not that all the doors shut on Christ and that the gates were barred against him.

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It's that because he was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, therefore

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

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. The great reversal has already taken place beginning then with the resurrection, but that's something we can only whisper of today because next week we get to shout it as loud as we can.

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So blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. We bless Jesus from the house of God here at Kongsvinger.

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So lift up your heads, oh gates. You cannot bar Jesus anymore. No doors can be slammed in his face.

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Be lifted up, oh ancient doors, so that the king of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory?

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Jesus, strong and mighty. Jesus, mighty in battle, the one who overcame

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Satan, the world, and our sin for us. So lift up your heads, oh gates.

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Lift them up, oh ancient doors. The king of glory is coming in. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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

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