Kingdom Rescue Expedition

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.

Matthew chapter 9 verses 35 through chapter 10 verse 20. Jesus went throughout all the cities and the villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

When he saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the

Lord the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out to heal every disease and every affliction.

The names of the 12 Apostles are these first Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother

James the son of Zebedee John his brother Philip and Bartholomew Thomas and Matthew the tax collector

James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus Simon the Canaanian Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

These 12 Jesus sent out instructing them go nowhere among the

Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel proclaim as you go saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick raise the dead cleanse the lepers cast out demons you received without paying give without pay acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts no bag for your journey nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff for the laborer deserves his food and whatever town or village you enter find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart as you enter the house greet it and if the house is worthy let your peace come upon it but if it is not worthy let your peace return to you and if anyone will not receive you or listen to the words your words shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town truly

I say to you it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town behold

I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves be wise as serpents innocent as doves beware of men for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my name's sake to bear witness before them and the

Gentiles when they deliver you over do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour for it is not you who speak for the spirit of your father speaking through you this is the gospel of the

Lord in the name of Jesus I need to paint a picture for you if I could to help us understand our gospel text this morning

I'm sure none of you personally remember what it was like when Europe was occupied by the

Nazis however some of you here have had relatives fathers grandfathers who fought to liberate

Europe or to fought fought in World War two against the Japanese so if you would think for a minute back in history they thankfully we have movies and mini series and things like that that help us be able to imagine this but think back to Nazi occupied

Europe the Nazis in their blitzkrieg took over all continental

Europe with the exception of course Switzerland they were neutral and the atrocities and the crimes that people experienced under Nazi occupation well it's hard to imagine a whole race of people those genetically descended from Abraham they were exterminated systematically by the millions and some of you actually have relatives who helped free the camps or some of these fellows where some of these people were literally being murdered by the millions that's our picture for today

Nazi occupied Europe think about it now to help us understand this a little bit you have to imagine then that that is the touch point by which we need to understand today's gospel text because our world is occupied demonically so in each and every one of us we learn from our epistle text today and we'll work back through it each and every one of us we were born dead and trespasses and sins and under the dominion of darkness and when we talk about Nazi occupied

Europe we have to kind of understand that we play a part in this but I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit now we all know that on June 6th 1944 that was the day when things began to be pushed back in Europe it was

D -Day and the way this went out I mean this was no one knew the date of the attack but everybody knew that Allied forces were massing for a big invasion of Europe and on June 6th 1944 the

Associated Press received this dispatch from Eisenhower it actually arrived in a red and white striped courier pouch and here's what went out over the radio

Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Allied troops landed on the

Normandy coast of France in tremendous strength and by cloudy daylight today and they stormed several miles inland with tanks and infantry in the grand assault which

General Dwight D Eisenhower called a crusade in which we will accept nothing less than full victory.

German broadcast said that the Allies had penetrated several kilometers between Cannes and Assigny which are 35 miles apart and respectively nine and two miles from the sea.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons part of the record -shattering number of parachute and glider troops were fighting in Cannes and had seized a number of important bridges in the invasion area.

German opposition apparently was less effective than expected although fierce in many respects and the

Germans said they were bringing reinforcements continually up the coast where the battle for life or death is now in progress.

Midway through the report we hear that reconnaissance pilots said Allied troops had secured the beaches and were slashing inland some of them actually running in a swift advance.

The unofficial word at headquarters confirmed this while the Vichy radio admitted that the Allied drive inland was going right ahead.

D -Day the beginning of the liberation of Europe from under the boot of the

Nazis and so that's our touchpoint a little thing to kind of frame our thoughts on this and so what we're going to do now with this kind of in the forefront of our mind this idea of a grand assault to take back and to liberate those who are under a demonic and evil regime.

Let us return first to our epistle text and I'd like to read it to you out of order.

I'd like to start Romans chapter 5 verse 12 because we have to understand something very important here.

Romans chapter 5 verse 12 begins with these words, therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

This is known as the great doctrine of original sin and we have to get this. So using our occupation motif here

Romans 5 12 reveals that under the satanic occupation of our planet that we have actually done the unthinkable.

We have put on the brown shirts, have donned the swastika and we have raised our hands in allegiance to the devil and said

Heil Hitler. Each and every one of us has done this. We all stand condemned before God.

We are not like Switzerland. We are not neutral. Instead we have all sinned.

If you're not sure of this again consult the Ten Commandments. Each of in every one of us were guilty of idolatry.

We have not loving God with our whole heart. Each and every one of us has sinned grievously against our neighbors in our different vocations.

We have done so through lying about people. We have done so by not loving and serving our neighbors properly in our vocations as father, as mother, as husband and wife.

Our hearts have been turned and bent inward like the devil and we have all acted selfishly in our own best interest to the harm of ourself and our neighbor.

We've done it sexually. We've done it with our words. We've done it through the things that we have coveted. Each and every one of us has worn the brown shirt with the swastika and said

Heil Hitler to the devil. That's the state of affairs in occupied earth.

So all have sinned. For indeed sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift, and now we get a little bit of gospel, the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through one man's trespass, how much more have the grace of God and the free gift by that grace of the one man

Jesus Christ abounded for many? We'll dig into this a little bit more in just a minute.

So as we return to our gospel text in Matthew chapter 9, I would like you to kind of frame what

I'm going to say here regarding the kingdom, what Christ says regarding the gospel of the kingdom. Understand it through the words of Colossians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14.

Hear these words. God has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and God has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved

Son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins.

So when we hear kingdom talk in our gospel text today, understand it through these words that we have the forgiveness of sins.

The kingdom of Christ is the exact polar opposite of the dominion of darkness.

The dominion of darkness is all about me. It is wicked, sinful, and selfish beyond all reason.

Whereas in the kingdom of Christ there is love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

Those are your contrasts. So let's return to our gospel text in Matthew chapter 9 and we'll begin in verse 35 and watch what is happening.

Here's what it says. Jesus went throughout all the cities and the villages teaching in their synagogue and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and affliction.

And when he saw the crowds he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Brothers and sisters, this is the real D -Day.

Christ has landed. He has begun his expedition of liberating us out from under the dominion of darkness.

That is what is happening in this text. The true king of kings is now taking the field and he has established a beachhead which will lead to the liberation of people from every tribe and nation and language, including

Norwegians. And how do we know this? Well, because as soon as he gets on the ground he begins to undo the work of the devil and undo and fix the twisted wreckage that the devil has left behind in his satanic occupation of earth.

And he has compassion on the people. They're harassed, harassed by false teachers, harassed by their own sin, harassed by the demonic, harassed by their diseases.

And Jesus has compassion on them and sees them as like sheep without a shepherd. And so he says to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful.

The laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest.

And he is the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out laborers into his harvest. Think of it this way, using our metaphor today of a liberating expeditionary, you know, invasion if you would.

Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send in reinforcements. It's a big task in liberating people from under the dominion of darkness.

So he called to him his twelve disciples. And these fellows are the generals, if you would, the generals of this great invasion of the kingdom of God.

And he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, to heal every disease and every affliction.

And the names of the twelve apostles are these. And listen to this motley crew. Simon, who is called

Peter, fisherman, not a seminary grad. Andrew, his brother, James and Zebedee and John, his brother, also fisherman.

Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas, Matthew the tax collector. What? James, the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus.

Simon, the zealot. You can read zealot as terrorist. That's kind of what they were. These were the ancient world's terrorists.

They were trying to get rid of the Romans. And Judas Iscariot, who betrayed them. Wow. What a motley crew.

And you see, that's kind of how God works. Have you ever noticed that the only reason why God works with sinners is because that's the only thing he has to work with?

And we are in good company. We are in good company. So these are the generals then of this great

D -Day offensive. And he sends them out. And note this, that when the apostles do their miracles, they do their miracles by saying things like this.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you devil, you come out of that person.

Or I heal you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But when Jesus heals and casts out devils, he just basically says be healed or devil be gone.

Note how the authority and the chain of command in this army works. This is kingdom thinking here.

So he called his twelve to him. These twelve Jesus then sent out, instructing them, go nowhere among the

Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans. And it's just for this amount of time, because now the gospel is reaching all around the world.

But at that time, think of it this way. This is like Eisenhower telling the Allied Forces, we focus on Normandy and France today.

We'll worry about Italy and the Netherlands and all those other places later.

That's kind of the idea here. So enter no town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It has been centuries in Israel since there was a king.

They have been part of different, well, empires for quite a long time.

Starting with the Babylonian captivity, they were under the power of the Medo -Persian

Empire. And then with the fall of that and the rise of the Greek Empire and the conquest of Alexander the

Great, they were under the thumb of the Greeks. And then when Alexander the Great dies, the

Ptolemies took over Egypt, the Seleucids took over Syria and this part of the world.

And then the Romans rose up and conquered all of them. There hasn't been a king in Israel since Jehoiachin.

And yet the message is the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

God's reign is coming back. And it's not going to be in some small region.

It's going to extend throughout all the nations of the earth. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. And here's my favorite part.

You receive without paying, give without pay. Yeah, that's right. These apostles were not prosperity preachers.

Think of it this way. If you know your military history, then you know that when Grant invaded Mississippi, there was a very specific thing that he kind of invented and, well, perfected in the invasion of Mississippi.

And that was this idea of expeditionary force not having any supply lines.

The idea was they were able to do what they did because they weren't relying on all of the supply trains behind them.

They actually foraged off the land. It's kind of a fascinating thing. Jesus is saying the same thing about his expeditionary force.

They're not to be burdened with lining their pockets with lots of gold and silver.

That will just weigh you down. You kind of get to go off the idea of you pray for your daily bread and you understand that you get your wages one day at a time.

That's what he's saying. So you receive without paying, give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts.

No bag for your journey or two tunics or sandals or a staff. Forget the luggage and the trunks and all that kind of stuff.

You ain't got time for that. We're at war and don't take a staff with you.

A little bit of a note here. You read the Church Fathers on the staff part. Although it's just a walking staff, they see some connection between Moses and the staff as if Jesus is saying, you don't get to have that kind of thing with you.

You have the words that I've given you. And then the laborer deserves his food.

So soldiers in this army are day laborers. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.

Another important bit of instruction here. Find out who's worthy in it. What does that mean?

Well, the person who hears the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God and is forgiven of their sins and believes that the king has landed.

That's the idea. So as you enter the house, greet it. So when you blow into town and you preach the good news of the gospel of the kingdom, that the king is at hand.

If somebody sits there and goes, yes, I believe, I believe we've got to let everybody in my town know.

Could you come stay at our house? Yeah, sure. And the idea here is note that Jesus says that when you that fellow says something like this, you stay at his house and you don't jump from house to house.

You stay there until you leave. And this is important reason why. Because as the gospel goes out, the people who are going to be converted may be wealthier and have better houses or their wives might be better cooks.

All right. Don't give in to the temptation to stay in the place or move to the place where there's the best fare.

That's not what this is about. Don't have your eyes on that. So you stay there until you depart.

As you enter the house, you greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. If it's not worthy, let your peace return to you.

And what is their peace? It's Jesus. He's the Prince of Peace. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, because whose words are they given to speak?

Jesus's words. Then you are to do this. I'm going to pause here.

I want you to think about this. Jesus anticipated that there would be some who hearing the good news of the kingdom would say,

I don't want none of that. I like the Nazi occupation. I've done very well for myself under the rule of the devil, thank you.

I'm not about to switch allegiances to this other king. That's going to happen.

Notice that Jesus doesn't say, so well then what you do is take the words that I gave you and grab your exacto knife and your whiteout and kind of rework the message to make it a little bit more palatable.

He doesn't say go grab some go -go girls and have a smoke machine in a disco ball and put on a big entertaining show so that you can get more people to come in.

It's not what he says. In fact, what Jesus says next is, well, explosive.

Let me explain. We hear these words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that town.

All right, so all right, we're going to do this. So you don't want to hear that? Fine. We shake the dust off our feet.

Where did this concept of shaking the dust off your feet come from? Do you know where it originates?

It was the Pharisees who taught the Israelites to do this. And here's how the story goes.

If you, as a good Jew, have to travel in Israel and you find yourself in the most unfortunate circumstance of having to travel through Samaria, you know where those half -breed idolaters are, those wicked and evil

Samaritans live. Well, if you find yourself in that unfortunate circumstance, travel through, don't talk to any of them, don't mingle with them, and then when you get to the border back to Israel, right as you are at the border, as you're leaving

Samaria, shake the dust, that evil, wicked, sinful, yucky

Samaritan dust off your feet as a sign against them of how evil they are before you step foot into Israel, because we don't want their uck in our holy land.

That's where it comes from. So what does Jesus say to do to these people in these Israelite towns?

You treat them like evil, wicked Samaritans. It's explosive.

And then he says this, "...truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for San Francisco than for that town."

A little contextual updating here. You kind of get the idea. That's the point.

That's how it would have been heard. And you're sitting there going, what? What? Yeah, that's what's going on here.

And then he says this, this next part of this gospel text is amazing. Y 'all seen the movie

Patton? It's been a long time since I've seen it. You know, George C. Scott playing General Patton.

And there's that opening scene where Patton is out there giving this rip -roaring speech to his troops, preparing them to go into battle.

And he gives this wonderful line where he says, "...it is not your job to die for your country. It is your job to make the other guy die for his country."

It's just a great line. But anyway, and he was a little bit more colorful in his language the way he delivered it, but you kind of get the idea.

So this next part of the gospel text is kind of like the King of Kings giving kind of like one last speech before he sends his troops in.

And this is the idea, is that he's preparing some of them that they are literally going on a mission that they will not come back from.

Yeah. It's like literally saying to your troops, I know that the mission I'm sending you on,

I've got a very special mission for some of you, and you're not coming back. That's literally what he's saying.

And listen to these words, "...I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and as innocent as doves."

This is a dangerous mission. "...Beware of men. They will deliver you over to courts and they will flog you in their synagogues."

Every time I see that phrase I'm thinking, what is going on here? Synagogues are the ancient

Israel version of church. When was the last time we had a good flogging here at Kongsvinger?

What kind of church is that? Where the message of the gospel reaches that church and you decide it's a godly thing to grab that fellow, maybe chain him to the altar and give him a good flogging.

That's what's called a synagogue of Satan. Because only where the devil holds sway would a congregation believe it is a godly thing to flog a messenger of the gospel of Christ.

And yet there are churches that want to do that. And Jesus said there would be churches that do it.

"...You'll be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the

Gentiles. And when they deliver you over, don't be anxious about what you're to speak or what you're to say."

They're going to deliver you over and by the way you're going to die. "...For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

It is not you who speak, but it is the spirit of your Father speaking through you."

Let's return to the beginning portion of our epistle text in Romans chapter 5 starting at verse 6 and now consider the magnitude of what's being talked about here.

So Jesus has begun his great liberating expeditionary invasion of earth.

The king has landed, the works of the devil are being untwisted.

People are being brought to penitent faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. But it's important as we've already noted that the none of the people there are innocent victims.

Each and every one of the people that Christ is liberating are guilty of siding with the devil.

And this is the mind -boggling part about it. When we think about war, it's us versus them.

The Nazis were evil. We were a liberating force to set the world free and to give them freedom.

And when in that context we talk about what's being said among us, what are we taught to do?

We are taught to hate and despise and loathe

Nazis. But Jesus is not like any of us because I want you to consider this.

Romans 5 6 says this, for while we were still weak, at the right time

Christ died for the ungodly. That's me and that's you.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one might dare to take a bullet.

Kind of my modern -day translation, right? You got to get the idea, right? But watch this.

God demonstrates his great love for us in that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us. You see, Jesus doesn't die for us after we've waved the white flag.

Jesus dies for us not when we're at our best, but when we are at our worst.

When we have fully committed ourselves to the devil and his ways and have rebelled against God, when we are enemies of God, God says to us,

I love you and I'm going to go to earth, be born of the

Virgin Mary, and suffer and die so that you can live. This is something way beyond freedom.

There's almost no words to describe this great love that God has. So God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us. And these are encouraging words then. Since therefore we have now been justified, that means to be declared righteous by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life?

Think of it this way. It doesn't matter what the devil now throws at you, or how you were made to suffer, or what kind of persecution you may endure, or that you might lose your life, or that your health may go sour.

You have been reconciled to the King of kings. Your sins have been forgiven, and you are no longer an enemy.

And you are greater than an ally. You are an adopted, set -free slave who has been brought into the family of God himself.

You are beyond servant of Jesus. You are now brother and sister of Christ because of his great love for you.

It's unthinkable. All of you war criminals have had all of your charges dropped, and you have been given a full and complete pardon by the

King of kings. And now you are not enemies. You are reconciled, and so no matter what is thrown your way, you know that you have this peace with God.

And so you have confidence that no matter what's going on, nothing's going to separate you from this great love that God has for you.

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

So our texts today teach us that the

King of kings has landed. He has made a beachhead, and his forces that bring the liberating message of the gospel, that deliver us from the dominion of darkness, and give to us the forgiveness of our sins, has now gone forth.

It has reached as far as Oslo, Minnesota. And so we have been liberated, and we too are called now to bear arms with our voices, to speak the good news that Christ is

Lord, has bled and died for our sins, to tell our neighbors and our loved ones so that they too can be set free by this amazing, loving, kind, gracious, merciful

King of kings, who has come to set us free. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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