The One Whom the Prophets Longed to See

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

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

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our first reading this evening is taken from the epistle of 1st

Peter chapter 1 verses 1 through 12. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect, exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father and the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again, to a living hope, to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, which is the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the

Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Please stand for the Holy Gospel. The Holy Gospel according to St.

Matthew chapter 13 verses 10 through 17. Then the disciples came and said to Jesus, Why do you speak to them in parables?

And he answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

For to the one who has, more will be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Indeed in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, You will indeed hear but never understand, you will indeed see but never perceive.

For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they've closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart in turn, and I would heal them.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. The text says,

Concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, a grace that's to be ours.

That's right. This is one of those times when we can say, ah yes, this text tells us something about us, but it tells us about what

Christ has done for us. About this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the

Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but they were serving you.

And see, we hear these words from Peter, and you know what? This applies to us directly.

You see, what we're going to be looking at tonight is the prophecies regarding Jesus. In fact, we're going to spend our

Advent services in the evenings, you know, midweek this week, looking at these prophecies.

Why? Because they point us to the coming, the first coming of Christ, and Peter here says that these prophets that we're going to be reading tonight, they were serving you.

They were serving you. And the way they were doing that was by looking carefully regarding the predictions of the sufferings of Christ and his subsequent glories.

And by doing so, they were not serving themselves, but they were serving you. And in the things that have now been announced to you, and through those who preach the good news to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from angels, these are things into which the angels long to look. The angels were really the first, if you would, to kind of celebrate

Advent. It took them a long time, thousands of years, and it goes all the way back to the

Garden of Eden. And as we look then at Christ's first Advent, and we look at what the

Old Testament says about Jesus, you know, we'll go back again to that text we've spent weeks on now in our

Sunday school, that very opening text in Genesis. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the

Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

The woman said to the serpent, well we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

And the tragedy is that Adam and Eve fell for this temptation. They wanted to be like God, but in disobeying

God's command they ended up becoming exactly like the devil. That's the cruel irony of this temptation.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. And then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And then they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the

Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, well I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid.

Afraid of the good God who made man. And upon making the creation God said that everything that he had made was very good.

And now it wasn't. The relationship had been fractured by sin.

So much so that the man had to hide himself from the very God who made him. He said, who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? And the man said, the woman that you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.

And then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you've done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock, above all the beasts of the field, and on your belly you shall go.

And the dust you will eat all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring or seed.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Now we've read it.

We've read this four weeks in a row in Sunday school. And yet this is the very first prophecy.

And a lot of times we don't think of Genesis as a prophetic book. You know, you think, well, when we talk about prophetic books, you think of Isaiah or Jeremiah or Micah, you know, or Amos.

Those are the prophets, right? Well, oddly enough, Moses really was a prophet.

And we don't think about that. But he even says it of himself that much.

He says that he is a prophet. And now we look at another prophecy from Moses himself, kind of the first prophet.

Deuteronomy chapter 18. Interesting passage, because in here we have a very interesting thing that explicitly talks about the coming of our

Savior. And it's all in the context of prophet. If you remember that one time in the

Gospels, the Pharisees kind of confront Jesus. You know, tell us plainly, you know, are you the

Messiah? And John the Baptist, they asked him, are you the prophet? They asked this of John the Baptist.

He says, no, I'm not, right? And so when you read that text and they're asking John the Baptist, why are you asking him if he's the prophet?

And of course he's John the Baptist, and he is kind of prophetic, but why are you asking him if he's the prophet?

Well, the reason why is because the prophet, well, this is a title that goes all the way back to Deuteronomy.

And Moses wrote about Jesus. And let's see what Moses wrote. When you come into the land that the

Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering.

How sad that human beings have fallen so deep into sin that they have to be commanded by God to not murder their own children in the name of religion.

It shows you how corrupted we've become. So there shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, or tells fortunes, or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead.

Yeah, that's right, seances are out of order for God's people. Yeah, by the way, just a little note aside here.

There's something to some seances. Don't think for a second that it's all just smoke and mirrors.

There are some people who hold seances, and yeah, they're very good tricksters. Others, on the other hand, they've kind of tapped into something, but I assure you they're not talking to your dead relatives.

You have to kind of see things biblically. Since we can't see them, the question is, what's going on?

Well, if you ever find yourself in a situation where a psychic, or a medium, or something like that, is saying that they're talking to you, oh,

I can see your dead aunt, or your grandmother, or your mom, or whatever, and they're able to give you information that only you would really know, because that's kind of a fascinating little thing, okay, that somehow proves that they're talking to your mother.

Understand this. The demons have been here a lot longer than we have. When the demon is saying, yes,

I'm your mother, in reality, you have to get the right voice. Yes, I'm your mom. I mean, yes, I am your mother.

You know, just keep that in mind. Okay, little aside. So, don't listen, you don't, no one gets to go to fortune -tellers or to diviners, but as for you,

Yahweh, your God, has not allowed you to do this. You're thinking, this is a prophecy about Jesus?

Yes, stay tuned. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you.

You catch that? Moses says, the Lord your God, Yahweh himself, he's going to raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

It is to him you shall listen. Just as you desired of the

Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my

God or see this great fire any more lest I die, and the Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken,

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers.

Boy, if that isn't an explicit statement on the part of Moses. And so it shows you why the people, the children of Israel, always were kind of looking out for, is this, could this guy possibly be the one?

They knew he was coming, because Moses didn't talk in, you know, quatrains or weird obscure riddles or anything like that.

This was plain and simple, and I think the probable good explanation is for this, is that Moses probably had a few face -to -face conversations with Jesus himself.

I think that's a good way of explaining it, right? So the Lord told him that he's going to raise up a prophet like himself, and I will put my words in his mouth, in Jesus's mouth, he shall speak to them all that I command him, and whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name,

I myself will require it of him. But the prophet, now here's the fun part, talk about a little, we'll get a little side note here regarding false prophets, but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, well that same prophet shall die.

And if you say in your heart, well how do we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? Well, when a prophet speaks in the name of the

Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet that has spoken it has spoken it presumptuously, and you need not be afraid of him.

A little side note there, okay? There's lots of people claiming to be prophets today, lots of them, lots of them, you know.

If I had a dollar for every one of them, I would be a very wealthy man. The problem is, is that so many of them, like almost all of them, are guilty of prophesying falsely.

Things they've said were going to happen didn't happen. What does that make them? A false prophet. See, God doesn't stutter.

God doesn't go, okay, so I kind of want this, and maybe something like that's gonna happen, just kind of speak in vagaries.

Notice he said, I'm gonna raise up a prophet from among you, like you, from your brothers. You are to listen to him, and if you don't listen to him, you'll be held accountable.

So all the way back in the writings of Moses, in Deuteronomy of all places, we have one of the clearest prophecies regarding Jesus, that he would be a prophet, and Jesus has kind of different offices.

He's prophet, he's priest, he's king, so he has his prophetic office, he has his priestly office, he has his kingly office.

He's all of the offices of the Old Testament rolled into one. In fact, he's Israel reduced down to one person, and so Moses from Peter says that Moses was serving you.

He was serving you by writing these things down so that you would know about it, so then you know.

And then we have these wonderful prophecies of Isaiah that we're all so familiar with, but Isaiah explicitly wrote about Jesus, and we'll talk about one of the more explicit prophecies that Isaiah wrote about Jesus, that is oftentimes referred to as the fifth gospel.

And Isaiah lived long, long, long before Jesus ever walked the earth, and we have these wonderful little accounts.

Isaiah chapter 7, verses 10 through 14, the Lord spoke to Ahaz. Yeah, through the prophets.

Isaiah chapter 7, the Lord spoke to Ahaz. Ask a sign of the Lord your God, let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.

Ahaz wasn't a believer. He didn't have faith. He didn't like God, so he comes up with this pious little excuse.

Ahaz says, oh, I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test. Really? God has said, has come to you through the prophet and said, ask for a sign.

Make it as spectacular as you want it. Oh, no, no, I would never put the Lord God to the test.

Were you listening? You're not putting the Lord God to the test. The answer is, well, here's the answer.

He said then, hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my

God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. God himself is going to give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name

Immanuel. Now that's a sign. That's a sign.

A virgin giving birth to a son and calling him Immanuel.

Immanuel means God with us. Blasphemous name if he isn't, if he isn't

God. And there's that prophecy. What a spectacular sign. And it makes perfect sense with what we just read from Genesis chapter 3.

The seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. You see, Moses, all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, was prophesying of the virgin birth, because he didn't say it was going to be the seed of a man and a woman.

It was the seed of the woman. And Isaiah fleshes this out. And these, at the time that these were written, okay,

Peter makes it clear that the angels in heaven were sitting there going, did you see that? Did you see what was, what's going on?

They were even marveling at how, as God started to unfold his word and begin to get clearer and clearer light about who this

Messiah would be, that he reveals that he would be born of a virgin and that he would be called, his name would be

Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah chapter 9, the people who walked in darkness, verse 2, have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shown.

You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy, they rejoice before you as with the joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Oh, I've got, I want to know about this. The yoke of the burden that I bear has been broken.

Who is the rod? Who is our oppressor? Our oppressor is the devil. Scripture makes it clear that we're born dead in trespasses and sins and in slavery to the devil himself.

And yet we have these words of redemption, of being set free, not in a passive way, but kind of in a violent way, if you would.

You know, this rod of oppression is broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle, tumult in every garment rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given.

To us. This is God's gift. The promised

Messiah, the seed of the woman, the prophet like Moses, born of the Virgin, called

Emmanuel. He was born for us. A great warrior in battle who breaks the rod of our oppressors.

Sin, death, the devil. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given.

And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And I'm looking forward to seeing the total fulfillment of that.

Could you imagine living in a day, new heavens, new earth, where Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, and he sits on the throne of his father,

David, forever. Never again will there be a nasty, snarky political cartoon. Never again will we be thinking, oh, we've got to get to the polls so that we can put some people into government that know what they're doing, right?

Never again. We will have not a single complaint. The government will be on Christ's shoulder.

For unto us, a child is born. A son is given. The government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called,

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the

Prince of Peace. Man, do I want to see this.

The now and the not yet isn't quite satisfying. The deposit guaranteeing the inheritance, well, that means the inheritance is coming.

But man, I'm looking forward to the day when we receive that inheritance. When we get to see Jesus face -to -face, and we see with our very own eyes that the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, and the zeal of the

Lord of hosts will do this. I mean, we sing the song, right?

We all know how it goes from Handel's Messiah, and it's wonderful when you sing it.

But when you see it in its context, the promises here that are given to us, Isaiah was serving us,

Peter says in writing these things down, to give us a hope, a hope that's everlasting and eternal, a hope that breaks the bonds of our mortality and sets our eyes on the one who is eternal, who for us was born.

And then to end our little sampling tonight, and we'll pick this up next week from here, even

Micah the prophet told us exactly where this Immanuel, king of kings,

Lord of lords, mighty God, Immanuel, born of the virgin, would be born. He says, but you,

O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

He's all over this Old Testament. He's everywhere. And that's the thing, if you were to think about it this way, is that the entire

Old Testament is, in a real sense, the text of Advent, because it's the thing anticipating and looking forward to our redemption, the crushing of the head of the serpent, the breaking of his tyranny over us, the end of death, the end of suffering, the end of disease, the end of having to say goodbye when somebody dies, either suddenly or languishingly, but forever being able to see our

God face -to -face. The entire Old Testament is the text of Advent, and as Peter said, let me read it again because it's just so well put.

Concerning this salvation, this salvation, our redemption, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the

Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which the angels long to look. Or as Jesus said, blessed are your eyes for they see.

And don't think for a second that just because you haven't seen Jesus face -to -face that that doesn't mean that your eyes cannot see.

They do. And how do I know this? Because your ears they also hear. You're here tonight to see and to hear about this great and wonderful Savior, the prophet that God raised up who's like Moses, the one whom the

Lord said to listen to him. You're here to hear him. You're here to hear him tonight and he is speaking to you through his own words of Scripture.

For your eyes see, your ears hear. For Jesus said, truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people they long to see what you see and hear and did not see it and hear it, but you do.

What a great Savior we have. What a great Savior. And as we draw near to Christmas and celebrate this amazing sign of the

Virgin giving birth, let us ponder what it means. Let's stop and think for a second.

Why has God acted so miraculously, so powerfully to set us free?

All of us were born dead in trespasses and sins. We sided with the devil in Adam and Eve.

Each of us has earned hell, but God in his great love has given us a reprieve and a pardon.

And it's wonderful. You think about, you know, the stories you see or a movie from time to time about the guy who's on death row, right?

And he makes that march, dead man walking from a cell to the electric chair.

And they've got the phone on the wall and the clock is ticking. We've all seen those types of movies.

The drama is intense. Some people have actually lived this. And then, just before they're about to throw the switch, the phone rings and the governor grants a pardon.

Well, the thing is, is that even if the governor grants a pardon in that case, the man still spends the rest of his life in prison and then eventually dies.

But see, in our case, Jesus, when the clock was ticking, the phone rang and he said, let him go free.

Stay the execution. Open the doors and let him walk out. Why? Because he's suffered in our place.

He's broken the rod of the oppressor. What a great salvation we have. And these prophets of the

Old Testament were serving us and writing these things down and giving us a hope and a salvation that points us all to Jesus.

And I thank God for them. And I thank God for the salvation that Jesus has fulfilled, promised to them, through them, for you and for me.

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

Avenue, Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. And again that address is,

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

Avenue, Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. We thank you for your support.

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