Collision of Truth and Lies

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. The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the 8th chapter.

Jesus said to them, Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.

The Jews answered him, Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered,

I do not have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory, there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.

Truly truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. The Jews said to him,

Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets. Yet you say,

If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died, and the prophets died?

Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.

It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God. But you have not known him, I know him.

If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word.

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So the

Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham. Jesus said to them,

Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Today in our gospel text, we see the collision between the religion of works and truth, the religion of grace.

That religion of works, it's a satanic religion, it takes on many forms. But the religion of works is all about exalting oneself, quite demonically.

So if you think about it, you go, well, I've got to save myself, so here's what

I'm going to do. I'm going to get busy, and I'm going to clean myself up. I'm going to make myself into a shiny new penny.

I'm going to work hard. I'm going to, well, keep all of my New Year's resolutions. I'm going to give money to the poor.

I'm even going to clean up my act and watch what I'm watching on TV. All this kind of stuff,

I'm going to do that. And at the very end of it all, God's going to owe me eternal life.

To me be all praise and glory at the end of that. But that's not, that is not the true religion.

And Jesus Christ is not about showing you all how you can save yourself by your good works.

And Jesus, he comes in mercy and grace, but he also comes in truth.

And so you're going to note that the religion of works, like the devil, likes to operate in two primary categories, lies or slander and murder.

It's funny how this works. When shown to be false, it becomes slanderous and murderous.

And so I'm going to back up a little bit into our text. I like the context here because it's so good. So I'll start at verse 21.

If you want to follow along in the gospel of John chapter 8, Jesus said to them, I am going away.

You will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot come. Jesus is saying this to unbelieving

Jews. He's not saying this to pagans. He's not saying this to atheists. He's saying this to very religious people.

But religious people, nonetheless, who are relying on their good works in order to save them.

So the Jews said to him, will he kill himself? Since he says where I'm going, you cannot come. He said to them, you are from below.

I'm from above. You are of this world. I'm not of this world. I told you, you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am.

Egoimi, Greek. That's the divine name. Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

Well, see, if they believe that Jesus was God in human flesh, that he was the I am of Exodus 3, then you know what they'd be doing?

They'd be listening to every single word that Jesus was saying and hanging on every one of them, writing them down as best as they could, writing them onto their hearts.

But they don't believe that Jesus is God. They deny this fact. And Jesus is quite clear. Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

Yeah, Jesus is none other than God the Son, second person of the Trinity in human flesh.

So they said to him, who are you? Jesus said, well, just what I've been telling you from the beginning.

I have much to say about you, much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world that what

I have heard from him. Now, Jesus here is referring to the Father. He says he declares to the world what he's heard from the

Father. Now, the text says they didn't understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the

Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, or I am, and that I do nothing on my own authority.

Now, interesting point here. The unbelieving Jews, even at Christ's crucifixion, and the miraculous things that took place while Jesus was being crucified.

You know, the sun going dark for three hours. Then when Jesus lifted up his voice and cried out to Telestai, into your hands

I commit my spirit. Then what happened? The great earthquake. The curtain in the temple from the

Holy of Holies to the holy place was torn in two from top to bottom. Great things happened. Did they even then believe that Jesus was

God? No. But, you know, I do find it fascinating that in fulfillment to this, the ones who recognized that Jesus was the

I am were none other than the Roman soldiers who were crucifying him. If you think about it this way, the

Roman soldiers who were tasked with the job of crucifying fellows, which you have to think is a really grim job, they knew how it went.

They'd done it a few times. They know the standard procedure. It's a terrible way to die, by the way. Terrible way because once they nail you to the cross, in order to breathe, you have to pull yourself up.

And then you let yourself down to, you know, and then to exhale. And most of the fellows who died via crucifixion died via asphyxiation.

You know, they basically wore out. Jesus went when he was finished. He chose when he was going to die.

And what did the Roman soldiers say? Surely this man was the son of God. So Christ's words were fulfilled.

When you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am and that I do nothing on my own authority, but I speak just as the father has taught me.

And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone. I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

And as he was saying these things, many of the Jews then believed in him. So Jesus then told the

Jews who believed in him, and understand there's two groups here, the Jews who believe in him and the

Jews who don't. The Jews who believe in him are listening. The Jews who don't, well, they're still being cantankerous, right?

So he says to the Jews who believe in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Here's where I have to make a point. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

A disciple is a learner. A disciple is a learner. And, well, if you're a learner, that means there's a curriculum.

Let's pretend for a second that I was so inspired by the movie, Rudolph the Red -Nosed

Reindeer, that I've decided that I'm going to seek after a third career, and I'm going to become a dentist, right?

Well, in order to become a dentist, I have to go to dental school, don't I? Which would mean

I have to read dental texts. Now, let me make this clear. I avoid dentists at all costs.

I never want to see one again as long as I live. I don't even want to be one. I don't even want to be in their presence.

I mean, I don't consider them despised of the earth like accountants and attorneys, but they're kind of up there.

You know what I'm saying? But all of that being said, if I never read a dental text, and I didn't really apply myself to my homework, and didn't pass the tests, and then afterwards set up my own dental shop, would you all come to visit me?

Would you all want me to examine your teeth? Not on your life, right?

I would be the most inept, dangerous dentist in all of Grand Forks. Might even get arrested for practicing dentistry without a license.

But all that being said, why is it then in the church, why is it in the church that people who call themselves

Christians attend churches where God's Word is piecemealed out, tiny little specks of it, a half a verse here, part of a sentence there, out of context, and God's Word barely makes an appearance at all?

One of the things I've heard from people who attend our services online, and this is a common refrain, they hear more

Bible in one service at Kongsvinger than they do in an entire year at some of these large big box megachurches.

How can you say you are a disciple of Jesus when you don't abide in the words of Christ?

And by the way, there's only one place you can go to find those words, it's the Bible. That's the only place.

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Amen to that. And what do we need to be set free from? Slavery to sin, death, and the devil, which are not our friends.

This is an unholy trinity that's conspired to drag us into hell with the demons and the devil on the last day.

So the Jews answered him, we're offspring of Abraham, and we've never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it you say that you'll become free? Now this shows something here, and that is that they don't understand the scriptures.

They've clearly heard the text regarding the exodus, but they have not been able to kind of piece together what it all means.

And I find this fascinating because if you understand how Judaism works, one of the things that they make very clear in their annual rehearsing of the exodus, in their

Passover celebration, is that they recognize that each generation of Jews, they are participants in the exodus as well.

There is no generation of Jews since the exodus that hasn't participated in the exodus.

If that's the case, then if you've participated in the exodus, then you have been slaves.

The question is slave to what? So note here, they are not properly abiding in the words of Christ already because they're not rightly understanding the biblical text.

So Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

And he says, I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

And you're going to note here, who's Jesus talking to? Jews. And there's this weird thing that runs around in the visible church today that somehow being genetically

Jewish gives you some kind of an inside track with God. Jesus is saying,

I know you're sons of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me. There's a huge disconnect here.

And that's the point. He says, I speak of what I've seen with my father. You do what you've heard from your father.

And boy, that kind of has an interesting air to it.

Is Jesus insulting us a little bit here? So they answered him, Abraham's our father.

Jesus said to them, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you were Abraham's children, truly his children,

I'm not talking genetically here, I'm talking having the same faith as Abraham because wasn't

Isaac the son of the promise? Right? If you were Abraham's children, you'd be doing the works

Abraham did. But now, you seek to kill me, a man who's told you the truth that I heard from God.

Have you noticed that the world seems to be less and less tolerant regarding truth? If you remember, it was just a little while ago we had

Kyle Mann from the Babylon Bee for our fundraising event. Since then, just a few weeks ago, the

Babylon Bee's Twitter account has been suspended. You want to know why? Because they dared to call a man, a man.

Just think about that for a second here. Even though the fellow likes to wear dresses and stuff like that, that doesn't make you a woman.

I'm sorry. That's just not how that works. Biology cannot be changed by wardrobe changes in psychology.

You are a man because God has made you a man. You are a woman because God has made you a woman. The Babylon Bee, whose

Twitter account had more than a million followers, was locked and suspended for daring to call a man who dresses in women's clothes a man.

Isn't that how the devil operates? No toleration of truth whatsoever. You'll note

Jesus ran into that too. If Jesus were on Twitter, they would have canceled him. He says, you seek to kill me, a man who's told you the truth that I've heard from God.

This isn't what Abraham did. You're doing the works your father did. There it is again. Your father.

Who is he referring to? They said to him, we weren't born of sexual immorality.

We have one father, even God. You'll note here, we're sons of Abraham. Jesus said, nah.

You're doing the works of your father. They're going, well, we're not illegitimate children here. What's going on?

We have one father, even God. There's the irony because the God they claim to believe in is standing right in front of them and telling the truth to them.

They're like, la, la, la, la, I can't hear you. That's what they're doing. Jesus said, if God were your father, you would love me.

For I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord. He sent me. Why do you not understand what

I say? It's because you cannot bear to hear my words. You are of your father, the devil.

Your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

Woo, wow. That's quite the, you'll note, if you believe that Jesus never said anything blunt, firm, that could offend somebody, you are gravely mistaken.

If the Jesus you worship looks like that little Precious Moments Jesus, I can't stand that guy. Who wouldn't harm a butterfly?

That ain't Jesus. So you're going to note that Jesus, when it comes to false teachers, to those who are destroying people's eternal souls,

Jesus stands his ground and he lets them have it with the truth. And he says the hard things that need to be said.

He says this for our benefit, but he also says it for theirs because he wills for them to repent and to be forgiven.

You are of your father, the devil. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character. For he is a liar and the father of lies because I tell you the truth.

Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. One of the things I always get asked is how do you know that you're right?

Isn't that really arrogant? You think that Christianity is true, that Jesus is the only way.

How do you know you're right? It's real simple. Because every other religion out there relies on lies and they enforce their lies murderously.

It's just the truth. It's absolutely the truth. In fact, I can always tell a false teacher because they're twisting up the word.

If a teacher in the pulpit is fluent in speaking lies and you sit there and go, well, what he just said isn't what the

Bible says, well, there's a reason why. He's speaking parcel mouth, a little

Harry Potter reference there. He's got the tongue of the serpent back in his teeth and that's how he's speaking to people.

You are of your father, the devil, Jesus says. So because I tell you the truth, you don't believe me. And now

Jesus decides to go all objective on them. All right, which one of you convicts me of sin? Come on, let's hear it.

Can you point to any sin that I've committed at all? This is objective truth. Today's people call this hate facts.

So Jesus is giving the hate fact here. You can't convict me of any sin, can you?

You've never seen me once do anything wrong. Which of you convicts me of sin? So if I tell you the truth, why don't you believe me?

Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you don't hear them is you're not of God.

And again, he's talking to religious people who read the Bible. Well, out it comes, because remember, the devil's a liar and a murderer.

So the Jews answered him, are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and you have a demon? All right, so there's the explanation, right?

It's a slanderous narrative. The reason why Jesus is doing the things he's doing, because he's secretly a

Samaritan. And the term Samaritan, well, I hate to say this, is pretty much the

Jewish equivalent of the time of the word that we can't say that begins with N that they used down in the

South back in the times of segregation. You say the word Samaritan and it's invoking that kind of racism.

Are we not saying that you're a Samaritan and that you have a demon? Out comes the slander. Can't defeat the facts, can you?

Jesus is speaking truth. You can't convict him of sin. You got nothing on him, which means you need to listen to him and repent.

No, we're not going to repent. We're just going to slander you. So he says, I don't have a demon. I honor my father, you dishonor me.

Yet I don't seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, he's the judge. And here comes some great words for us.

Truly, truly, amen, amen. I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

Now, we listen to these words with faith and boy, is that a great gospel promise.

Truly, truly, I say to you, anyone who keeps my word, he will never see death.

Now, the last person we buried here was Arlen Stangroom, right? That's the last person, and let's be blunt.

Christ told the truth, he didn't see death. In fact, I remember getting a phone call from Victor, okay, over at DeBoer, right?

After he'd picked up Arlen's remains. And he said, you know, I just want to let you know, pastor, that I picked up Arlen today.

And it's like, this is the first time you've called me to tell me that. Well, yeah, okay, all right. And he goes, and he really had a peaceful look on his face.

And I go, okay. And he says, yeah, as a mortician, that's kind of an interesting thing. I just want to let you know.

Thanks, okay. But here's the thing. We know that Jesus is telling the truth.

You will never see death. How do I know? Fast forward just a little bit to the book of Acts.

In the book of Acts, chapter seven, we have the account of the first Christian martyr, the first man to die for his confession of Christ.

His name is Stephen, right? And he was telling the truth about Christ. And he was able to stand his ground against the

Jews who didn't believe in him. And their response was, we will, we will rock you.

All right, sorry, I just had to put that in there. So they stoned him. And as he is being stoned to death, here's what happens.

He said, behold, I see the heavens opened. And the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

He's about to die. He doesn't see death. He sees

Jesus. You see the difference? And so they cried out with a loud voice and they stopped their ears and they rushed together at him.

And then they cast him out of the city and they stoned him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man.

And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. This is the Lord Jesus he was already seeing with his own eyes, standing, standing at the right hand of the

Father. And then falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against him. And then he went.

And when he said this, he fell asleep. Jesus is right. All who believe in him, who keep his words, they will never see death.

You won't see death, you'll see Jesus. Well, at this point, the unbelievers just think, well, now we know you're a loony tune.

So they said, we know that you have a demon. And then you can just kind of hear the snark in their voice. Listen, Jesus, Abraham died.

So did the prophets. And what's their point? Abraham heard the voice of God, he died.

The prophets gave us the Bible and they died. Are these not the words of God? They died.

So yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father

Abraham who died and the prophets who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?

It's a great text. So Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.

It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God. But you have not known him,

I know him. If I were to say that I don't know him, I'd be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word.

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. And here

Jesus adds information to the biblical text because there ain't no text in Genesis that says,

Abraham saw the days of the Messiah and rejoiced that he saw them. There's no text that says that. It's not in the

Torah, it's not in the Psalms, it's not anywhere in the prophets. This is extra biblical information which

Jesus could have only gotten had he known Abraham. And of course he knew

Abraham. If when you read the Genesis account, who do you think Melchizedek was, right?

Who do you think it was that said to Abraham, look up at the stars in the sky. Count them if you can.

Your descendants will be more numerous than these, Jesus said. Of course he knew

Abraham. So the Jews, still not listening to Jesus, who had already said, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

He said, they said, you are not yet 50 years old. You've seen Abraham?

And here it comes. Amen, amen, I say to you. Before Abraham was,

I am. This one hits. The light bulb goes on.

They ask the question, who are you making yourself out to be? And all of a sudden, it hits. You're claiming to be.

So what do they do? They picked up stones to throw at Jesus. But can anyone take

Jesus's life? No, Jesus says, I lay it down in my own accord. You can't take the life of the

Son of God. He can only give it. And so he hid himself and went out of the temple. So what does it all mean?

What does it all mean? I think a good way to think about this is that we come back to some of the salient points.

One of the salient points had to do with keeping the words of Christ. Guarding them, holding them true.

The one who abides in the words of Jesus. Those are the ones who are truly Jesus's disciples.

In the third commandment, we are admonished to hold God's word sacred.

To gladly hear and learn his word. But how many of us turn a cold ear to God's word?

Or look at our schedule. You know, hang on a second here. Church, yeah, no. I don't think

I'm gonna be able to work that in today. I've got gardening to do. It's warm outside.

How many of us do things like this? Or you sit there and go, ah, you know, I was up late last night. No, I don't.

Or, you know, I'll go to church at Christmas. Maybe Easter. Yeah, twice a year.

That's all. And man, I go to church, but that stupid Roseboro guy, he preaches forever.

Okay? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So you'll note then, we oftentimes are guilty of these exact same things that Christ is talking about.

Of not wanting to hear his word. Of not truly being attentive to it. Of being cold and tepid, even with our prayers.

And not only that, we have this uncanny ability with our own sin to hear a biblical text.

God says, don't do that. And we take God's word and we go, and then we do the thing it says not to do.

This is a scary thing, right? This is a scary thing. But here's the good news. That Jesus Christ, and we hear this in our epistle text, he is our great high priest.

He has died for all of our breakings of the third commandment, the first commandment, all of the commandments.

All of the ways in which we have not truly heard God's word. Let it sink in.

Allow the Holy Spirit to have that work in us where he produces within us true sorrow and contrition for our sin.

And as well, an equal and above measure of confidence in the forgiveness of sins in Christ.

And then also, through the Holy Spirit, producing us the fruit of the Spirit. In good works and love towards neighbor.

Each and every one of us, there isn't a Sunday that goes by where we do not have to say, I have sinned against you and thought, what a thought word indeed.

And so you'll note then, that abiding in the words of Christ isn't merely looking at the law and saying, yeah,

I've screwed up. Because Christ here is confronting self -righteousness.

Abiding in the words of Christ is truly believing that he is the one who bore your sin on the cross.

That his blood is the blood that sanctifies you eternally. That his sacrifice is a once for all sacrifice that atoned for all of your sins so that you can have peace with God.

So that every single one of us, rather than getting what we deserve, instead we are given what

Christ promises, eternal life and that we will never see death.

His words are always true. And so, this fifth

Sunday of Lent, let us repent of all the ways in which we have been inattentive to God's word.

In our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds. And let us have confidence, growing confidence.

In fact, daring confidence to believe that as the scriptures say, as the words of Christ say, that we are truly the sons of God, adopted by grace through faith.

And that we then have peace with God because of this

Jesus who went toe to toe with the self -righteous that day in John eight.

In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. Amen.

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