The Mystery of Christ's Incarnation & Suffering

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 Luke chapters 22 and 23.

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Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put

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Jesus to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was one of the number of the twelve.

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He went away and conferred with the chief priests and the officers how he might betray him to them. They were glad and agreed to give him money, so he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

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Then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent

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Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.

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They said to him, Where will you have us prepare it? He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.

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Follow him into the house that he enters, and tell the master of the house, The teacher says to you,

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Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, furnished, prepare it there.

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And they went and found it, just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. And when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him, and he said to them,

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I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you, I will not eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

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He took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it amongst yourselves, for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

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And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you.

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Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup, after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

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But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to the man by whom he is betrayed.

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And they began to question one another which of them it could be who was going to do this. A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

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And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors, but not so with you.

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Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves?

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Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

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You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

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Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

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And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

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And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.

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And he said to them, When I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandal, did you lack anything?

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They said nothing. He said to them, But now let the one who has a money bag take it, likewise a knapsack, and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.

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For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me. And he was numbered with the transgressors, for what is written about me has its fulfillment.

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And they said, Look, Lord, here are two swords. And he said to them, It is enough. And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the

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Mount of Olives. And the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them,

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Pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying,

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Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

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And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

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And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, Why are you sleeping?

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Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called

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Judas. One of the 12 was leading them, and he drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him,

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Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said,

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Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.

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But Jesus said, No more of this. And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and the officers of the temple and the elders who had come out against him,

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Have you come out against me as a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me.

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But this is your hour and the power of darkness. Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him to the high priest's house.

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And Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together,

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Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said,

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This man also was with him. But he denied it, saying, Woman, I don't know him.

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And a little later, someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them. But Peter said,

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Man, I am not. And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying,

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Certainly this man also was with him, for he, too, is a Galilean. But Peter said,

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Man, I do not know what you are talking about. And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed and the

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Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him before the rooster crows today,

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You will deny me three times. And he went out and he wept bitterly. Now, the men who were holding

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Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. And they blindfolded him and kept asking him,

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Prophesy, who is it that struck you? And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.

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When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away to their council.

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And they said, If you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe.

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And if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on, the son of man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.

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So they all said, Are you the son of God then? And he said to them, You say that I am. Then they said,

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Well, what further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips. Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate.

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And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is

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Christ, a king. And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him,

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You have said so. Then Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowds, I find no guilt in this man.

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But they were urgent, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea from Galilee even to this place.

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When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.

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When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him.

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So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. And the chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.

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And Herod, with his soldiers, treated him with contempt and mocked him, then arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.

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And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day. For before this, they had been at enmity with each other.

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Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, you brought me this man as one who was misleading the people.

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And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.

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Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.

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I will therefore punish and release him. But they all cried out together away with this man and released to us

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Barabbas, a man who has been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder.

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Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus. But they kept shouting, crucify, crucify him.

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And a third time he said to them, why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death.

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I will therefore punish and release him. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified.

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And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted.

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He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder for whom they asked.

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But he delivered Jesus over to their will. And as they led him away, they seized one

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Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus.

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And there followed him a great multitude of the people of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

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

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

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Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?

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Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

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

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But the rulers scoffed at him, saying he saved others. Let him save himself.

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If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the

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Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews, one of the criminals who were hanged, railed at him, saying, are you not the

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Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, do you not fear

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God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds.

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But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said to Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

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And he said to him, truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. It was now about the sixth hour.

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There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

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Then Jesus, calling out in a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.

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And having said this, he breathed his last. Now, when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised

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God, saying, certainly this man was innocent. And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home, beating their breasts.

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And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things.

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In the name of Jesus. Earlier this year, my wife and I traveled to Norway.

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And when we were in Norway, we had the supreme joy of hearing worship songs in Norwegian.

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I had no clue what they were singing. Now, unless they were singing a song that we actually knew, which they did from time to time,

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I would sing along in English and hope that I remembered because, you know, even the songbook was in Norwegian.

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And you'll have to forgive me. You know, my Norwegian is, well, non -existent, except for the word

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Ufta. And you betcha. So now, with that in mind,

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I would like you to consider this, that what we have today in our epistle text in Philippians chapter two is a hymn.

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It's an ancient one. It's a song that if I were to try to sing it to you, I would fail on two fronts.

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Number one, I don't know the tune. Number two, Koine Greek is a dead language, so we don't exactly know how it's pronounced.

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All right. So we have what we call academic Greek that we all supposedly speak to each other, those of us who know

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Greek. So we can't actually hear the melody, can't hear the tune.

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But be advised, this is probably one of the most amazing hymns ever written.

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We have no clue who wrote it, but we know this, that because it is found in Scripture, it was inspired by God the

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Holy Spirit himself. So, I mean, we talk about songwriters being inspired.

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Well, this hymn itself is inspired. And so we're going to take a look back and we're going to do a little bit of back and forth.

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What I'm going to do is I'm going to braid this song, this hymn, together with some other pieces of Scripture as we, going into Holy Week, begin to ponder the mystery of Christ's incarnation, his suffering for our sins, and ultimately his glorification, a day that is still coming.

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So a lot of this has taken place. There's still a little piece that's left to come. And so we return to our epistle texts and we read these sentences from this ancient inspired hymn.

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Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

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Now, real note here. In Romans chapter 12, verse 2, we hear this exhortation from the

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Apostle Paul, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

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And I don't know if you've noticed on the news lately, but from my vantage point, it seems like the world is going crazy.

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I can't watch a single news story without thinking that something is terribly going wrong in the world.

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Everybody seems to be at each other's throats. America is divided more than ever.

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The world is divided more than ever. I mean, there was just this past week a huge rally in France against ISIS and some media outlets didn't even mention it, right?

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And against Islam and with between Islam, the whole political season, the rhetoric involved in that, the destruction of people's.

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I mean, reputations, we are a cantankerous, awful group of people, and the sufferings that we bring oftentimes are at, well, at the hands of other human beings.

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It's just awful. And the reality is, is that we're not victims in this.

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We all are perpetrators. And so Paul recording this hymn for us begins with these words, have this mind among yourselves.

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And that's what repentance is. It's a change of mind. You think you understand how the world operates?

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Well, you probably do. The way you, well, the world operates is you need to climb to the top on the backs of other people.

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You need to seek fame, fortune. You need to have the best. I mean, after all, you deserve it, right?

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This is how the world operates, and this is how the world thinks. And so, of course, you're in competition to rise to the top with 7 billion other people, many of whom will sell your mother into slavery in order to get ahead of you.

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That's the world that we live in. So Paul, in this hymn, that if we were to hear it, we would not recognize the tune or the words, says to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

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And so this hymn, ponder the lyrics of this hymn so that we can again repent, change our minds, and be conformed to Christ and the way he operates.

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And we learn from this text that it says that Jesus Christ, though he was in the form, you can even say by nature, he's

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God. That's a good way to put it. He did not consider or count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

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Now, real quick, a little bit of a side note. Have any of you had a talk with Jehovah's Witnesses about Jesus and what they believe about him?

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Jehovah's Witnesses will tell you that Jesus is not God. They will tell you that he is one of the first and greatest creations of God.

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And some might even say they think he might be Michael, the archangel. OK, so let me ask you a question.

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Let me ask you a question. All right. If we were having coffee together and stuff like that, and I were to say to you, you know, my dog,

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Luther, he's a really smart dog, and I'm so proud of him. He's the most humble dog ever. And you go, really?

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Sip your coffee and your cappuccinos. Tell me more about this humble dog of yours. Well, my humble dog,

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Luther, he does not consider equality with me a thing to be grasped. OK, you'd be, hang on one second, grab that cell phone.

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Maybe 911, Pastor Roseborough's lost his mind, right? Right. And there's a simple reason for this because dogs are not equal with humans.

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In the big chain of order of creation, dogs are below humans. Humans take care of dogs and things like that.

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Yes, they are loyal pets. But think of it this way. If Jesus isn't God, would it be of some benefit to us if he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped?

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How is that humble? You know, I'm a humble dog. I don't strive to be equal with humans.

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Well, you aren't. OK, so think of it this way. If Jesus is not God, then there's no virtue in this.

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Instead, this text reveals that he is God, and it says that he is by nature God, and he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

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And a good thing to kind of compare that with then is our first parents in the

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Garden of Eden. We return to the scene of the crime where in Genesis chapter three, we read these words, the serpent being more crafty than all the other beasts of the field that the

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Lord God had made, said to the woman, do God really say that 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 that's in the middle of the garden.

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Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows on the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.

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Knowing good and evil. And so this is the good thing to kind of compare it with here.

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Jesus, who is God by nature, does not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.

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Our first parents, who are not God at all, but were made in the image of God. They plunged us into all of this misery by striving to be like God.

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Thinking that equality with God was a thing that they should grasp. And that's what plunges us in to the problem that we now find ourselves in.

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This hymn then continues. But Jesus emptied himself.

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Emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, which kind of begs the question, what kind of God is this?

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When you read the mythological stories of Zeus and Athena and Mars and Jupiter, these are gods who wield power.

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Cross Zeus and he'll throw a lightning bolt at you and teach you a lesson if you survive the experience.

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You don't read anywhere of gods humbling themselves. But who is this

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God that we worship and serve? Says of him, he emptied himself.

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And we know this because Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, does not go around flexing his glory muscles.

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Instead, he makes very little use of his divine power, even though he is God by nature.

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So much so that it says of the boy Jesus that he grew and he learned. He matured like everybody else.

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And he was found in the form of a servant. And I want you to think of this word servant in this hymn as the lowliest of the lowest of slaves.

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I mean, in any trade, any union that you're in, any industry that you might serve, there's generally kind of a known hierarchy.

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I mean, even in the trucking world, there's a hierarchy, right? Well, in the slave world of the ancient, you know, in the ancient times, even among the slaves, there was the lowest of the low and then the top of the top.

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Even enslaved, there was stratification. If you've ever watched Downton Abbey, you kind of know what this is talking about.

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The people downstairs, even there's a pecking order there. But Jesus empties himself and takes on the form of a servant and the servant that he takes the form of is the lowest of the low.

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And he's doing this for you and for me. A great picture of this is found in the Gospel of John, chapter 13, starting at verse one.

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Before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

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During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,

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Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God, was also going back to God.

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He rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.

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Then he poured water in a basin, began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

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Keep in mind, this was a necessary step. They didn't have showers and baths back then.

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They didn't have Nikes or really cool boots. They had dusty roads and sandals.

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These men's feet needed to be washed. And the one who washed their feet, taking on the role of the lowest of the lowest servants, this is the task for the servant at the bottom of the servant rung.

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Jesus does this task. And who is he? He is God by nature.

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Who is this God who does this? Well, Peter is incensed. He's not going to have this done.

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It's absolutely scandalous. King of kings, Lord of lords, Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end.

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Acting in the role of the lowest servant, Peter said to him,

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Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him what I'm doing. You do not understand now, but afterwards you will understand.

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And then Peter protests very hard. He said, you shall never wash my feet.

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Peter thinking like the world. And think about it in our gospel text today, that very long narrative there during the

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Passover, while Christ is literally having his last meal as a free man.

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He's about to go to the cross. He's going to die in less than 24 hours. And what did the disciples do?

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They bicker amongst themselves. Who is the greatest? You can imagine how these actions of our

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Lord, taking on the form of the lowest of the lowest servant, blow that whole thing right up.

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Who is this God who behaves like this? You shall never wash my feet.

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Jesus answered him. If I don't wash you, you have no share with me. And he's checkmated.

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It's either be washed or have nothing to do with Jesus. But Jesus is everything. So Simon Peter said to him,

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Lord, then not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Wash me from top to bottom.

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And that's a good prayer. That's a good prayer. The hymn then continues in Philippians and being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form.

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God by nature now is found in human nature. And this hearkens back to the

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Christmas text that we just recently heard. I won't read them in their entirety, but let me remind you what

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Matthew says. Matthew 1, 18 through 25. The birth of Jesus came and took place in this way.

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When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, he was found to be with child from the

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Holy Spirit and her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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As he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take

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Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in hers from the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son and you shall call his name

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Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. You kind of miss it when it's translated as Jesus.

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I think it would be better, but just leave it in the Hebrew. He will be called Yeshua. The Lord saves for he will save his people from their sins.

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All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name.

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And here it is again, another reference to Jesus's deity, Emmanuel, which means

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God with us. And so Jesus was born. Joseph names him

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Yeshua. The Lord saves because God has sent to us a savior, but he didn't send some hireling, some creature that he created.

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God himself, Christ himself steps off the throne and comes and tabernacles among us.

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And we read about the birth of Jesus. Where the angels appear to the shepherds in Luke 2 in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the

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Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not for behold,

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I bring you good news, great joy. That's for everybody, for all peoples, for unto you was born this day in the city of David a savior.

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And when you read the newspapers, you look at the magazines, browse what's going on in the Internet, turn on Fox News, CNN, whichever your political bent is, and you look at how the world is unraveling.

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One thing is sure. We don't need a politician. We need a savior.

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And that's what God has given us. In fact, God himself is our savior.

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Glory to God in the highest, the angels saying, and peace among those with whom he is pleased. And the angels went away and left them in heaven.

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And the shepherds went and said, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.

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And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger, wrapped in,

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I know the text says swaddling clothes, but you could translate that as grave clothes. Strange that you can do that.

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So the mystery of godliness and what Christ has done for us is profound. The hymn then continues.

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Next stanza, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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Since we do not have to look at the horror of crucifixion, I think it's lost on us just how scandalous this is to die this way.

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The scriptures themselves record that cursed is anyone who is hung on a tree, cursed.

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And that's one of the reasons why the message of Christ's crucifixion is so scandalous to those

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Jews who know their Old Testament, because they see Jesus as cursed.

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And indeed he was. But see, that's the point. He became obedient to the point of death, but not just any death.

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The most scandalous of deaths, the death reserved for the well, the worst of the worst of the worst.

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We returned to our gospel text, a small portion of it. And it says this, when they came to the place that is called the skull,

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Golgotha, there they crucified Jesus and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

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And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Another sign,

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Jesus is just not like us at all. Makes you think we're the problem.

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How is it that you can pray for the people who are murdering you? Unjustly.

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No acrimony. No defense. No, hey,

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I'm innocent. No, hey, I'm being repressed by the imperial system.

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He goes forth, not only uncomplaining, he goes forth praying for the people who are doing this to him.

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I've never met anyone like this. So they cast lots, divided his garments, and the people stood by watching.

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But the rulers scoffed at him. Yeah, they did. He saved others. Let him save himself if he's the

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Christ of God. And there's kind of the rub. You see, Jesus didn't come to save himself.

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He didn't need saving. I do. And you do.

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So they don't get it. They're thinking the way the world thinks. Save yourself if you have all this power.

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But see, he's using all of his power to obey. To obey the will of the Father.

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That this is the way our salvation is secured. So he does not save himself. And thank

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God he does not. Because he's taken this one all the way into the ground.

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Six feet under. He's not going to do anything to stop it.

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At his command, there is a 10 ,000 legions of angels. All Jesus had to do was whistle.

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Say the word. Make a motion with his pinky finger. And all of these men and this evil would have come to an end.

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Yet he didn't. He saved others. Let him save himself if he's the

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Christ of God. The chosen one. So the soldiers mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the

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Jews, save yourself. There was also inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews. Well, at least they got that right.

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Right. One of the criminals who were hanged, railed at him saying, are you not the

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Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other word rebuked him, saying, do you not fear

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God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds.

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And he's right. But this man has done nothing wrong. How fascinating somebody dying for their crimes.

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Justly so not even sorrowful for a second. No pangs of guilt, no feelings of remorse.

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The only thing he can do is revile the very God who made him and is there bleeding and dying for his sins.

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The other one, through some miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, actually has come to his senses.

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His mind is transformed and he sees this all for what it is. I'm getting what I deserve and so are you.

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This man's innocent and I'm not. And so he says a prayer to Christ and Christ hears his prayer.

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And he says to Jesus, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

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So Jesus said to him, and this is the most amazing part. Truly, I say today to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

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Weird word, paradisos. It's not Greek. It's not

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Hebrew. It's Persian. Why is

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Jesus pulling a Persian word in right here? Do you want to know what this word literally means?

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In Persian, it means Garden of Eden. I don't think it's an accident.

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So let's plug that in. Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in the Garden of Eden.

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Christ says, behold, I make all things new. And truly, he does.

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Now, this paradise is currently with Christ in the heavenly kingdom, but it will be restored to earth on the last day.

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As we continue to consider the fact that he was obedient to death, even death on a cross, we continue reading.

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Now it's about the sixth hour. There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. While the sun's light failed, the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

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Jesus calling out with a loud voice, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last.

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Now, when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, certainly this man was innocent.

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And here's the great mystery of it all. The wages of sin is death.

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Jesus here died. How is that possible if he was innocent?

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And this is where the mystery gets profound. Second Corinthians puts it this way, verses 19 and 21 of chapter five.

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In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

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For our sake, God made Christ to be sin. Who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.

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The father imputed to Jesus all of our iniquity. And that's what the prophet says in Isaiah 53.

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Surely he has borne our griefs. Surely he has carried our sorrows. And we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

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But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

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The chastisement that brought us peace was upon him. And that's the thing.

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How is it that the innocent one dies? Because God made him,

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Jesus, to be the sinner. And that's the amazing part about it.

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All of my sins, all of your sins, all of the sins of the whole world of dirty, rotten politicians.

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To scheming lawyers, to self -absorbed celebrities. To grassroots ordinary sinners like you and like me.

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Every one of our transgressions were put onto Christ. He becomes the singular sinner.

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And then God pours his wrath out on Jesus. And he drinks that cup down to the dregs.

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Every sin atoned for. Every one. Every idolatry.

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Every disobedience. Every time you've failed to serve your neighbor. Or worse, you've sinned grievously against your neighbor.

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Christ has bled for it. And he's died for it. And the most shocking thing of all of this is that we can now say, on a

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Friday afternoon 2 ,000 years ago, God died. It's a scandalous thing to say.

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But that's exactly what he did. Because he was doing this to save you and to save me.

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The hymn then takes a wonderful turn. I like to think that the way the music must have played that go along with this hymn, that at this point, in this stanza, the music would pick up, right?

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Kind of like the Hallelujah Chorus. You know how it gets into that, ah, right? And so now this hymn says this.

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Because Christ, even though he is by nature God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself and was found in the form of a servant.

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And was obedient to death, even death on a cross. Here's the turn. God, therefore, has highly exalted him.

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Jesus, bestowing on him the name that is above every name. He is the servant of servants.

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So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under the earth.

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Every knee, not some, everyone. And every tongue confess, Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. The lowest becomes the highest.

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The greatest servant becomes the ultimate king. And you know what?

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We can trust a king like that. Because somebody who is made king under those circumstances is not made king because he's seeking after himself.

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I hate, and I mean this, I hate the way we do our elections for president here in the

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United States. The most cutthroat, the most ruthless, the most dirtiest, the biggest mudslinger becomes the greatest in our land.

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What a complete abomination. But see, Jesus comes and he does not come to serve himself.

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He does not come to sling muck. He does not come to slander. He does not come to cut out your legs and step on you as he's climbing the ladder.

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He comes and he goes straight to the bottom of humanity. Even willing to suffer the ignominy of dying on the cross for your sins and for mine.

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And God the Father says, you're the man. And God the

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Father exalts him. So at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

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Mine and yours, those in heaven, those in hell. And everybody confess, yes,

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Jesus, you are Lord. You are God. To the glory of God.

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Who's the greatest among us? Not anyone living that I know.

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But I hear read about a man who was God, who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.

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Who sought not to save himself, but to save sinners like you and me. And so as this hymn turns and we hear of the great exaltation of this humble servant, we say, yes,

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Lord, you are right. I am wrong. I don't even know how the universe really operates.

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And here's the best part. We're going to find out. We get hints of it here, the love of God.

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And what God is all about. And the one thing I'm excited about is a

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God who truly loves seeing him face to face. Who doesn't seek his own, but seeks to be savior for even his greatest enemies, enemies like me and like you.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. 567 -44.

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And again, that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950, 470th

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Avenue, Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 567 -44. We thank you for your support.

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