5th Wednesday in Lent Service

It's almost there, in the dark period.

Normally, I don't know.

But it wasn't until a little over a year,.

I guess, I don't know how to do it.

But still, I've got it. Basically, I've got it. Silent age.

It ended up getting out. Yeah.

That's what I was afraid of.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, all of this.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

Oh, you just, like...

You can't...

You have to run all of these from there, under the floor.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

I've got it. Yeah.

Opening the Midweek Lent Service

I would like to welcome you all to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Tonight is the fifth midweek service that we've conducted in Lent. Just a little bit of a heads up, next week will be the last of the midweek services, and then when we get into Holy Week, it's going to be a marathon with a sprint at the end.

We will have Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil on Saturday, and then Easter Sunday. It's just going to be four days, so be prepared for that. We will be following the order of Vespers tonight on page 229.

The psalm is 102. It's a long one, and we will be using psalm tone H as in Amberg. It's a silent H, and so if you are physically present here at Kongsvinger, please rise. Psalm 102, and yes, it is a long one.

Psalm 102 and the Penitential Cry

This is one of the more important penitential psalms in the Psalter. The wilderness. I lie all the day, my enemies taunt me, for I eat ashes like bread. Because of your indignation and anger, my days are like an evening shadow.

But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever. You will arise and have pity on Zion. For your servants hold her stones dear. Nations will fear the name of the Lord. He regards the prayer of the destitute. Let this be recorded for all generations to come.

That he look down from his holy height to hear the groans of the prisoners. That they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord. When peoples gather together, he has broken my strength in midcourse. O my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days.

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth. They will perish, but you will remain. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away. The children of your servants shall dwell secure. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

Amen. You may be seated. The hymn is 430. Please rise for the reading of the gospel. The Holy Gospel according to Saint John, the 19th chapter. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him, and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, arrayed him in a purple robe.

They came up to him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.

So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man. When the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.

The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God. And when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from?

But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all, unless it had been given to you from above.

Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.

So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at the place called the Stone Pavement in Aramaic called Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover.

It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your king. They cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to him, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. O Lord, have mercy on us. Deliver me, O Lord, my God, for you are the God of my salvation. In you, O Lord, do I put my trust. Leave me not, O Lord, my God.

Deliver me, O Lord, my God, for you are the God of my salvation. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus. So y 'all remember Desert Storm? Some of you are too young to remember that. It's history for y 'all.

For some of us, it's actual experience. One of the things I remember is that that was the first war fought where everything was kind of happening in real time. It was really interesting to kind of keep up with the war minute by minute, hour by hour, and get updates and see smart bombs hitting things and stuff like that.

But one of the hardest things to look at was the pilots, the U .S. pilots, when their planes would get shot down. There was a few of them. And the Iraqi government, well, they weren't exactly kind to our pilots.

It was really fascinating to watch what would happen. Number one, ejecting from a U .S. military jet at near the speed of sound is not a safe thing to do. It generally results in the pilot receiving lacerations, black and blue, bruises on his face and stuff like that.

And then, of course, despite the Geneva Convention, you always have governments like the Iraqi government engaging in mild forms of torture, shall we say. And so what they did with these pilots is they decided to make a spectacle of them for the purpose of trying to draw in the sympathy of the world.

It was kind of fascinating. And I remember one particular pilot. He was told and really forced and coerced to tell the media just how evil the U .S. government was and how innocent the Iraqi people were and how peace-loving they were and that this was an unjust, illegal invasion of their territory.

And you're watching this guy, and he clearly has been beaten badly. And the only thing I felt, asides from sheer anger that they were using this man this way, was pity for him. Absolute pity, thinking, oh, Lord, please help this man come home to his family, that kind of stuff.

There's something like that going on in our texts today. If you remember last week when we left off as we're working our way through the Passion narrative of Christ in the Gospel of John, we hear that Pilate says of Jesus, I find no guilt in him, none.

Pilate is very observant. He knows what's going on. He knows that it's the chief priests and the scribes, that they're jealous of Jesus for whatever reason they have it out for him. But Jesus hasn't done anything deserving of death.

And so Pilate's first attempt to release Jesus is to basically put Jesus up against Barabbas and let the people decide. And he was fully expecting that people would say, let poor Jesus go. Jesus, he healed my grandmother.

He cast a demon out of my son. My brother is able to see because of Jesus. That was what he was expecting. And that's not what he got. Instead, the people cried out, we want Barabbas. What am I supposed to do with Jesus?

Crucify him, crucify him. And you'll note that in the hymn that we just sang, there's a particular stanza that kind of stands out that fits perfectly well with this. And here's stanza four from our Lenten hymn that we just sang.

Why? What hath my Lord done? What makes this rage and spite? He made the lame to run, he gave the blind their sight. Why this rage? Why the spite? Why this murderous malice and hatred towards Jesus? Answer?

That's how it goes with people who are under the control and the dominion of sin, brought on by the devil's temptation. You'll note that nobody is at peace with Christ unless they have repented of their sins and trust in him.

Nobody can sit there and say, well, I really have a high view of Jesus. Really? You have a high view? How high? Oh, I think he was the best guy ever. Really moral. I think he did some good things. You'll note that they might say that in a calm voice, but what they're really saying is, I think he's lying about being the son of God.

And I don't believe that he's the only way to heaven. And so I'll say good things about him, but those good things don't even come close to the truth. That's rage. That's spite. That is absolute vindictive, malice-filled gossip and slander about Jesus.

But if they say it kindly, with a big old smile, we say, oh, well, that's really pious of you. No, it's not. And so you'll note here, the anger and spite that we see is the anger and spite that is actually inside of all of us, not just in these people.

And I'll explain why that applies to us later. So Pilate now has got to come up with plan B to let Jesus go. And his decision is he's going to really rough Jesus up. And I don't mean just a little bit.

He's going to like injure him so badly that had Jesus been let go at this point, he would have spent a month in the hospital. That's what we're talking about. This is before there were antibiotics. Keep this in mind.

So Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. I need to remind you that this is not only where Jesus begins to bleed and die for your sins and mine, but this flogging is an extremely painful and torturous thing to have happen to any human being.

And it was fascinating. They called it the 40 lashes minus one. Apparently 40 was too much, but 39 was just the right amount, right? And so the way they worked it out, they had this thing, this thing with leather straps on it, and they'd woven into the straps, bits of glass and metal and things like this.

It was designed not only to whip you, but to inflict as much damage to your back as humanly possible, leaving as little skin on after it was done. So Jesus had to be bound to a pole to have this happen to him.

I still remember seeing the depiction of this in the movie about Christ's crucifixion. The Passion of the Christ. It was horrible to watch. Horrible. So the soldiers flogged him, and then they twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on Christ's head and arrayed him in a purple robe.

And they came up to him saying, Hail, King of the Jews. Now a little bit of a note here. What they meant as mockery, Christ legitimately chose as his coronation. You'll note he's being recognized by the Roman government as the King of the Jews.

Granted, backhandedly, but yet nonetheless. In fact, what was the actual charge that was written against Jesus written above his cross? Jesus, the King of the Jews, right? That's what the official position of the Roman government was.

This is what Christ has chosen for himself. And then they came up to him and they struck him with their hands. And you can tell this is Jesus just getting a walloping. His face is being bashed in. His eyes being bruised.

His nose being broken. I mean, that's what we're talking about here. Really roughing him up. And note this. At this time, the Jews hated the Romans and their occupation force. They were not well thought of, with just some exceptions.

And people, actual Roman soldiers, who were kind to the Jews. But you'll note Rome had subjugated Judea to abject poverty. And the only people who were really doing well financially at this time were those who were in cahoots and part of the corruption of the Roman government.

And so Pilate's thinking here is really mess Jesus up bad and then show him to the people. And the people will say, let that poor fellow go. Let him go. How dare you, you evil Romans. That was what he was hoping.

So they struck him with their hands. And then Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him. And you could see them, the people going, well, if you found no guilt in him, why did you beat him so badly?

Why did you flog him? This is horrible, right? That's the point. Pilate wants to let him go. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, behold, the man.

And when the chief priests and the officers saw him, you can hear the rage, the seething rage. They cried out, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said, take him yourselves and crucify him for I find no guilt in him.

You can see what's happening. It's very clear. Pilate is not on board with this. So the Jews answered him, we have a law. And according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God.

And what comes next is fascinating. When Pilate heard the statement, he was even more afraid. Why? Why would Pilate, who is known as being kind of a bloodthirsty and brutal ruler, even by Roman standards, he was later removed by the emperor for his brutality.

Why would he be afraid? And I would posit this idea. You know the reason why he was afraid? It's because when he heard that Jesus claimed to be the son of God, he knew it was true. I want you to think about this, all right?

So a little bit of an odd analogy here, but in preparation for trouncing my father at virtual reality golf, I've been playing a few rounds, okay? And there's this wonderful thing on VR golf and that is that you can set up a game and invite perfect strangers to play golf with you.

And the weirdest thing happens when I play golf with perfect strangers, I hear Jesus's name all the time, okay? And I don't mean in a pious religious sense. Somebody misses a putt, it's Jesus Christ, okay?

They miss a fairway or end up in the ocean, I hear Jesus's name again. Never once have I heard a guy who shanked a shot go, oh Buddha, okay? Never once heard it. And there's a reason why, because we all already know who our God is.

It's hardwired deep inside of us. And that's the thing, when we hear the gospel, we know it's true. We just know that we know that we know that we know, and it's deep down inside, you can't shake it out of us.

Pilate knew full well that Jesus is the son of God, and when he heard it with the words, it hit him like a freight train, and he was even more afraid. So he takes Jesus into his headquarters, and he asks him straight up, where are you from?

Now Jesus has already told him, listen, my kingdom's not of this world. This now actually explains everything. Pilate knows who he's dealing with, and he does not want to mess with this. But do you think for a second that Satan is going to let Pilate not play his role?

I want you to think about that for a second. He really wants to let Jesus go. And so what's going to happen next is fascinating, but I'm getting slightly ahead of myself, a little bit ahead of the narrative.

Jesus gave him no answer. Where are you from? Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?

And then Jesus, cool as a cucumber, bleeding profusely, needing medical attention, probably having to say this through a very, very bruised mouth, puffed up face, looks at him and says, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.

Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. No, Pilate is not off the hook. In another gospel account, he washes his hands of the whole affair. He can't wash away the sin. And so at this point, Pilate is dead set on releasing Jesus.

He knows that something is afoot that he should not be messing with. So Pilate then sought to release him. But the Jews, they cried out and listen to what they say. If you release this man, you're not Caesar's friend.

Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. Let me translate this for you. It's this really simple, Pilate. You play your role. And if you do anything else, we're going to report you to Caesar. And you know what's going to happen to you?

You're going to lose everything. This is coercion. This is manipulation. This is blackmail. I was thinking about this nature of humanity to try to control other people and oppress them and manipulate them for their own purposes.

I've been following the fall, the destruction of the International House of Prayer. We've heard about Mike Bickle and his things. Well, a story was just, let's say, released last week that had everybody turning their heads and scratching going, what?

So there was a gal by the name of Misty Edwards. Misty Edwards was the head worship leader at the International House of Prayer. And she's famous in the Charismatic and Pentecostal and NAR groups because she has publicly stated that she decided to be celibate, to basically dedicate her life for the purpose of holiness, of being a vessel for God's will and leading people in worship and all this kind of stuff.

Kind of like the charismatic version of a nun, except in 2014, she began a seven-year-long adulterous affair with another world worship leader who happened to be married to Mike Bickle's sister. And what's interesting is that that wasn't her first affair.

She had also had a previous affair with a married man, and there was some kind of, shall we say, digital evidence. We don't know exactly whether it was a recording, a video. We don't know. But here's the interesting thing.

The man that she was having the affair with had the evidence. And when she wanted out of this adulterous relationship, he held that evidence over her head and basically wouldn't let her go. Horrifying, terrible.

We're talking about blackmail, extortion kind of stuff. Who does this, right? Answer. We do. That's the thing. Humanity in sin is gross, is absolutely satanic. And so Caesar here is thinking literally entertaining thoughts.

How can I let Jesus go? And they play this card. And the card basically says this. You don't do what you're supposed to do here, Pilate? Pilate, you got to think about this. This is a guy who served in the Roman military, is now an appointee of the emperor himself as the governor of Judea.

In fact, one of the things I love about the Roman uniform for their magistrates and their governors and even the emperor is they have that really cool kind of leather thing that they wear that has the six-pack abs.

I think I should get myself one of those, right? It would be the ultimate deception. But you get the idea. So he's wearing that kind of thing. And if anyone was having their best Roman life now, absolutely Pilate.

This is a guy who could have written books, gone on a book tour back in the day. That's how popular he is. He has a beautiful, intelligent wife. He's well placed as a powerful person and exercises his authority even to the point of being tyrannical.

And so basically they're saying to him, you don't do what we're demanding you to do. You're going to lose it all. Not only are you going to lose it all because everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.

Let's make this clear. We're going to accuse you of siding with that instigator, Jesus, and you'll be crucified next. This story is deep, but that is the nature of sin. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, sat down on the judgment seat at the place called the Stone Pavement and an Aramaic Gabbatha.

It was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, behold your king. So he's now playing his role. And they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him.

Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? And the chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered over to be crucified. Now listen to those words. The chief priest said, we have no king but Caesar.

What a load of hypocrisy. Because if you think about it, Jesus cast the money changers out of the temple. Who was it that set up the money changers in the temple? It was the chief priests. And what was their whole narrative?

Their whole narrative was this. The Caesar claims that he's a God on earth. And all of that filthy Roman money, whose inscription is on it? Jesus asked the question, show me a denarius. Somebody ting, throws the denarius over to Jesus.

He grabs it, says whose inscription, whose likeness is this? Caesar's. You give to Caesar what is Caesar's, right? So the chief priests, they argued. Caesar's image is on the coins. He claims to be a God.

Every single piece of Roman money is idolatry. And so when you come to the temple and you need to offer sacrifices, and you need to purchase an animal for the sacrifice, or you want to give money to the temple, you can't give that idolatrous dirty Roman money because it's with his image on it, right?

And so they set up the temple shekel exchange, and they always made just enough money off the exchange that they were wealthy, right? Never worked out for the people who were pilgrims in Jerusalem. They had made themselves rich off that whole narrative.

And now they sit there and say, we have no king except for Caesar. Do you now? Really? You won't even acknowledge the son of David as your king? It's fascinating when you think about it. But here's the thing.

We hear this, and the reason why this story makes sense to us, you know, I don't have to explain the evil behind it. I just have to describe it. The reason I don't have to explain it is because we all know this evil.

We've lived it. We've committed it. We know how this is how the world operates, because the world is full of seven billion sinners. You think politics is corrupt? The church is corrupt. The fortune 500 is corrupt.

Hollywood, are you going to be shocked to hear this? They're corrupt too. Oh yeah, I know. You're going to note, where has this corruption of sin not impacted? Only one place. That's Christ. He lived the spotless, sinless life that you and I do not live.

He was never corrupted, but you'll note it was God's will to crush him. It was God's will to have him beaten and flogged and crucified so that he can bear your sins and mine. And you'll note, fast forwarding into the book of Acts, it's the apostle Peter in Acts chapter four, who says indiscriminately to the group of people that he's preaching to in Jerusalem, and I mean, we're talking months after Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

Months after that, a whole bunch of pilgrims are in town, and what does Peter say to them? You crucified the Lord of life. Well, how dare you, Peter, accuse all these innocent people who probably weren't even there when Pilate was putting Jesus on trial?

How dare you accuse them of crucifying Jesus? You know what Peter would say to that? You did it too. Peter then would confess, I did it as well. That's the point. Why all this rage and spite? Why all this hatred towards God?

That's the consequence and the effect of sin. And you'll note, despite all of that rage and spite, Christ is still willingly laying down his life. He's not defending himself. He's not putting up any kind of resistance at all to everything that has happened to him.

He is actively and passively obeying the will of the Father to be crucified so that you and I can be forgiven and pardoned by his death on the cross. A good way to think about it is, is that how can we be redeemed by just one man's six hours on a cross?

And the answer is this, is Christ is worth more than every one of us combined because he is truly the Son of God, and he lays down his life willingly because of his great love for you. So as we continue to work our way through the Passion narrative, don't think about them.

Think about us. We've all participated in this. We're all guilty of this. Had you been there that day in your unregenerate state, you would have cried out for Christ's crucifixion. That's the point. May God have mercy on us.

In the name of Jesus, amen. Please rise. Let my prayer rise before you as incense. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. The Lord be with you. Let us pray. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, your mercies are new every morning, and though we deserve only punishment, you receive us as your children and provide for all of our needs of body and soul.

Grant that we may heartily acknowledge your merciful goodness, give thanks for all of your benefits, and serve you in willing obedience through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen. O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works. Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Let us bless the Lord, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.