Who Do People Say That I Am?

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel, according to St.

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Mark, chapter 8, verses 27 through 38. Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi.

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On the way, He asked them, "'Who do people say that I am?' They replied, "'Well, some say

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John the Baptist. Others say Elijah. Still others, one of the prophets.' "'What about you?'

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He asked. "'Who do you say that I am?' Peter answered, "'You are the Christ.'

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And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him. Then He began to teach them that the

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Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.

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He spoke plainly about this. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when

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Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter. "'Get behind me, Satan,' He said.

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"'You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.' Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said, "'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself.

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"'Take up his cross. Follow Me. "'For whoever wants to save his life will lose it.

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"'Whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will save it. "'What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul?

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"'Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? "'If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, "'the

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Son of Man will be ashamed of Him "'when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy angels.'"

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In the name of Jesus. So our gospel text this morning takes place in a very interesting place.

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The text reads, Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi.

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Now, if you study that very important book of the Bible called the Book of Maps, that's right, all of Scripture is inspired and God -breathed and inerrant from the

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Book of Genesis all the way to the Book of Maps. And so if you look and consult the Book of Maps, you will see that Caesarea Philippi is a little bit outside of Israeli territory.

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In fact, this is a town that, well, Caesarea, it had experienced a name change recently at the time of Jesus, named after Augustus Caesar, the god -man, the god -king, right?

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And so Jesus is telegraphing something here. The big reveal, the big confession is about to take place as to who

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Jesus is. Finally, once and for all, all questions will be answered. There will be no doubts as to who

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Jesus is, and this revelation takes place in Caesarea Philippi? This is a place that prior to being named

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Caesarea Philippi was called Panion, named after the god Pan. In fact, famous place there, the

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Gates of Hades, if you've ever been there. I haven't been. In fact, I've studied biblical archaeology using other people's vacation photos.

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That's what the Internet's good for. But trust me, the people who've been there, they took great photos of it.

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Then you take a look there at the Gates of Hades. You can see these little grottos up in the stone wall there where all these different idols were.

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This is where Jesus is. So he's asking the question, kind of the PR question, the generic public opinion poll question, who do people say that I am while surrounded with all of these pagan idols?

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So, well, they said, well, Jesus, we took an opinion poll. 40 % say that you're

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John the Baptist. We've got 25 % coming in with Elijah, and then everybody else is not so sure.

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They say you're one of the prophets of old. So there's the opinion poll. But this opinion poll, this question, was kind of the setup for the real question, the most important one.

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What about you, he asked, who do you say that I am? And the text doesn't say that there was that awkward pause, but you can almost imagine it, can't you?

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So Peter, he chimes up. He says, you are the Christ. You are the

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Messiah. Now, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, write, and this hasn't been revealed to you by men.

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This has been revealed to you by the Father. But then Jesus goes on in our

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Markan text. We've got to be faithful to our text. Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him, which kind of begs the question, why?

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What's going on? Well, Peter's next move helps us understand that a little bit. But if you know anything about first -century

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Judaism under Roman rule, is that there was a lot of messianic expectation.

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And some people even took it upon themselves to claim themselves to be the Messiah. And they were always interested in flexing political muscle, raising an army or a militia or zealots, kind of similar to jihadists, if you would, and basically making a stench of themselves politically with the

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Romans. And part of the reason for this is that the people of Jesus' time were really good at keying in on the

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Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah that have to do with his coming in judgment, coming in power, coming in glory, eradicating, getting rid of the evildoers, right?

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Well, the problem was that all of those Old Testament prophecies point us to Jesus' second coming, his second advent, when we confess in the

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Creed. You know, we believe that he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.

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There are prophecies about Jesus' return, not only in the New Testament, but also in the Old. And so the people under Roman oppression, first century, waiting for the

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Messiah, they look at these, they say, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, the Messiah is coming and he's going to flex muscle and he's going to get rid of those ornery pagan

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Romans. That's how they read it. But that's kind of the problem, is because they ignored the other passages.

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Lo, he comes to you humble, riding on a donkey, the colt, the foal of a donkey.

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On him was laid the iniquity of us all. He was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.

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So there's prophecies regarding Jesus' first and second advent in the Old Testament and the people of Jesus' time, they're kind of wrapped up in the prophecies regarding Jesus' second advent.

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So Jesus, he's at this point teaching the disciples how to rightly understand him and it's going to take up too much bandwidth for him to correct everybody, so he has to start with this group.

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So Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him, that he's the Messiah. So then he began to teach them that the

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Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

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Notice Jesus is very blunt. The text says that he spoke plainly about this. Very plainly. So all right,

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I'm the Messiah, guys, but here's the deal. We're going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to be rejected, killed, and then rise again on the third day.

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Nobody saw this coming. The disciples, what? And you can kind of imagine at this point they're thinking, but Jesus, when you come into your kingdom, aren't we going to be your cabinetmen?

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I want to be chief of staff. One other guy, he wants to be the head of the Department of War. I mean, we're going to get rid of these

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Romans, right? What's this talk about you being rejected and killed? So Peter does something rather odd.

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Just a minute ago he was praised and got the question right as to who Jesus was, that he's the

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Messiah, that he's the Christ. So Peter takes Jesus aside and began to rebuke Jesus. Now, in the corporate world, we talk about career limiting moves.

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So in the corporate world, if the senior vice president of a particular department makes a decision and one of the guys in the lower ranks decides to take the senior vice president aside and then rebuke him or do it publicly, that's called a career limiting move.

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Generally that person is asked very politely to go plan somebody else's corporate team. So here we have

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Peter, and we could say that this could be an eternity limiting move.

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This is a big deal. He's taking God and human flesh aside and rebuking God. Oof. Yeah, how do we say it here?

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Oof -da. Yeah, this is a big oof -da. So, Jesus is kind, he's patient and long -suffering.

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But it says this, Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me,

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Satan. Whoops. Ouch. So there's the great apostle

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Peter, the guy who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, got the question right, and then turns around and does something sinfully stupid, so sinfully stupid that Jesus gets right to the root of the matter and says, you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men, and as a result of it, he says

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Peter is Satan and tells him to get behind him. Kind of points out the fact that Peter is a lot like, in fact, he's exactly like all of us.

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All of us who, in one moment, we can confess that Jesus is Savior, that he's died for our sins, that he is

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords. No sooner do we confess the words of the Nicene Creed, God of God, light of light, very

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God of very God, begotten, not made, that we leave here and we, well, do something sinful.

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This has to do with the fact that as Christians, we are saved and still waiting for the consummation of time, the redemption of our bodies, the resurrection.

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So we have our sinful Adam to contend with, and our sinful Adam really enjoys and is quite prone to doing the work of the devil.

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Even Peter had the same problem. So Jesus rebukes him, says, get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God, the things of men.

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Jesus has not come to flex political muscle. He's not come to get rid of the

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Romans or set Israel free from the Roman occupation. That's not what he's about. Those are the things of men, not the things of God.

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Jesus has a very specific mission for which he's come, and he's not about to let

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Peter tell him otherwise. And so he puts Peter in his place.

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So then Jesus calls the crowd to himself. He said, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

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Now, this is a phrase that has historical meaning. Why? Because the Romans used crucifixion as, well, let's put it this way, psychological warfare.

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You want to see what happens to the people who stand up to the emperor and the Roman Empire? Well, we'll show you.

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We'll show you what happens to those people. They take them out. They march them in a death march, making them carry their own crosses, bloodied, bruised, and beaten after being scourged.

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And then they take them right outside the city gates, you know, along the path as you're going into Jerusalem for everybody to see.

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And there those poor wretches are nailed to the cross, and they languish, some of them for days.

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And then after they die, oftentimes their bodies are left on the cross. This is the statement. You stand up to the

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Roman Empire, this is what we're going to do to you. And so everybody's familiar with this death march of the

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Romans. And notice what Jesus says. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

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Jesus is at the head of the procession, carrying his cross. He's calling us all to deny ourselves.

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What kind of revolution is Jesus leading? The answer is he's not leading a revolution at all.

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He's calling sinners to die, die to themselves, and ultimately be raised again by him.

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Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for me in the gospel will save it.

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So what good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? Let's answer the question. There's no gain at all.

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You can be a billionaire in this life, have everything that this life has to offer, and at the end of the day, without penitent faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, your short, tiny, little lifespan is nothing but a wisp, a vapor that vanishes when the sun comes out.

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You'll die. You'll die. And you'll have nothing except for an eternity in hell.

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So what can a man gain? If he gains the whole world and yet forfeits his soul, absolutely nothing.

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Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Let's answer that question. Nothing. There's nothing you can give in exchange for your soul.

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Nothing. You are incapable of saving yourself, paying your debt to God. That has to be paid for you, and that's what

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Jesus is all about. And Jesus says, If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous generation, well, the

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Son of Man will be ashamed of him. And the thing is that Jesus' words truly are shameful to the world.

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You really are telling me that I'm a sinner? That I need to be forgiven by Jesus?

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There's nothing I can do to earn God's favor? That I can't merit it by my good works?

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Precisely. Repent. Deny yourself. Take up your cross.

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Follow Jesus. This is what he tells us. And thankfully, Jesus did not listen to the satanic advice and rebuke of Peter.

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Instead, he fulfilled his mission. He went to the cross. He was rejected by the elders.

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He was beaten. He was scourged. He was crucified. He did die. And he did rise again.

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And our epistle text frames it so nicely as to what he accomplished by not listening to Peter's satanic advice.

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Romans 5, 1. Therefore, since we have been, past tense, we have been declared righteous by faith, we now have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Because Jesus didn't listen to Peter and fulfilled his mission, we now have peace with God.

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Through him we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

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Not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings. That's right. The world doesn't rejoice in their sufferings, do they?

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No, the world sits there and says, I'm suffering, there must be something wrong. What can I buy? Who can

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I talk to? What can I do to remove this suffering from me? But we as Christians who have taken up our crosses and followed

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Christ, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the

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Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And here's the best part. For while we were still weak, at the right time

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Christ died for the ungodly. Did you catch that? Christ died for the ungodly.

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That's you. That's me. That's how Scripture describes us.

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And you sit there and go, well, I'm really not that bad. No, let me read it again. While you were weak,

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Christ died for the ungodly. If you're not ungodly, Christ did not die for you.

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He only died for the ungodly, period. And that's part of what it means to deny yourself.

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Stop fooling yourself into believing you're a good person. You're not. I'm not.

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I'm ungodly. You're ungodly. And the good news is that Christ fulfilled

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His mission. He went to the cross, and He died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die.

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But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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So we're all that. We are ungodly sinners.

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And Christ, while you were weak, powerless, unable to do anything, He bled,

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He died for you. And this is how God demonstrates His love for you. While you were at your worst, not your best, at your worst,

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Christ dies for you. He dies for the ungodly. And this is how

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God shows His love for us. And since, therefore, we have now been declared righteous, justified by His blood, thank you,

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Lord, that it's all gift, it's all mercy. How much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God?

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For if while we were enemies, there's the word, another one, ungodly, sinners, enemies, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.

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How much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life?

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More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation.

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So Christ went to the cross. He didn't listen to the satanic advice of Peter. Peter was sinning in that moment, and Jesus rebuked him.

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And Jesus fulfilled His mission, His mission to save His enemies, His mission to save the ungodly,

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His mission to save sinners, sinners like me, sinners like you.

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Therefore, we humbly deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow

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Jesus and rejoice in our sufferings, because truly this is an offensive message that we have to proclaim, and yet it is the greatest good news of all, that God has reconciled us to Himself by what

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Christ did for us on the cross. In the name of Jesus, Amen. We thank you for your support.

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