Prince of Peace

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 Rosebrook.

The Holy Gospel according to St. John chapter 4 verses 5 -42.

So Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there.

So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.

It was about the sixth hour.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

For Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him,

and he would have given you living water.

The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.

Where do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob?

He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

So Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here.

The woman answered him, I have no husband.

Jesus said to her, You are right in saying I have no husband.

For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where the people ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in

Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know.

We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father

in spirit and in truth.

For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

The woman said to him, Well, I know that the Messiah is coming, He who is called the Christ.

When He comes, He will tell us all things.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He.

Just then His disciples came back.

They marveled that He was talking with a woman, but no one said, What do you seek or why are you talking with her?

So the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people, Come, see a

man who told me all that I ever did.

Can this be the Christ?

So they went out of the town and were coming to Him.

Many Samaritans from the town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony.

He told me all that I ever did.

So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days,

and many more believed because of His word.

And they said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves

and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.

In the name of Jesus, hear then again the words of our epistle text, Therefore, since we have

been justified by faith, we have peace with God

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wow.

Peace with God.

You know, peace is something that is very elusive to us human beings, especially in our sinful and fallen

state.

And I'm not just talking about wars with other nations, right?

It's been a while since we've been at war.

But if you think about our lives, they seem to be marked with conflict.

Conflict with parents.

Conflict with spouse.

Conflict with children.

I always love the conflict with children.

It makes me crazy.

Now, and then, take a look at the world around us.

Maybe turn on Fox News or CNN, whichever one you prefer.

And you'll notice that politically, things don't seem to be quite peaceful right now.

Could you imagine what would happen if, well, if President Trump and Hillary

Clinton decided they were going to hold a peace summit and they disappeared for a while and then

emerged days later and announced that they've worked out a peace settlement and they're calling on members of

both parties and the media to cease their political battles and their bickering and that they've agreed

to work together for the good of the nation and that peace and unity were paramount in moving forward

as the American citizenry.

That there would be no longer any political mudslinging and all of the billion dollars wasted on

political attack ads in the future would be given to the poor.

I got an amen.

Yeah, I wish I was speaking prophetically, but the rest of you kind of look, well, like, that ain't ever going to

happen.

Yeah, peace, it's quite elusive.

But the reality is this.

The lack of peace that we have horizontally is because, well, we were

born dead in trespasses and sins and as a result of our sinful rebellion against God, we

have hostility with God vertically.

Everything flows from this relationship down into the rest, if you understand what I'm saying.

But our text, again, says therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have

peace with God.

Peace.

Hmm.

And let me just say this.

We need this peace in the worst way.

This is the peace that really matters.

Think of it this way.

If you were to get into an argument with somebody that you love right after

church and then were driving to McDonald's to get something to eat, not that I recommend eating at McDonald's,

I'm not saying that, but then you were in a tragic car accident and you were unable to actually reconcile with

your brother or sister before your demise, you still wouldn't go to hell.

Peace with God is kind of an important thing in this sense because if you ain't got that worked out,

the consequences are eternal.

So we need this peace in the worst way.

And let me remind you of one of the prophecies regarding Jesus that we reviewed again during the Christmas season.

Here's what it says in Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 -7.

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

The government shall be on his shoulder, his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, and here's the important word, Prince of Peace.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace and there's a reason for this.

Of the increase of His government, Isaiah then continues, and of peace there will be no

end.

Give me some of that.

I could really use that.

Now, we need this peace, like I said, vertically because, well, John chapter 3,

verse 36 puts it this way.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, whoever does not obey the Son shall

not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Are you really saying, Pastor Rosebrough, that God has some wrath associated with His character?

You bet your bippy I'm saying that because I didn't say it.

The text says it.

This is inspired by God.

So let me remind you of just what a dire circumstance we find ourselves in.

Romans chapter 1, starting at verse 21 says this about humanity.

Although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him.

But they, that's all of us, became futile in their thinking and they were foolish in their hearts and they were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling

mortal man, birds, and animals and creeping things.

Yeah, idolaters are a lot lazier nowadays.

They don't take the time of actually making a carved image.

They just invent one in their mind.

So therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of

their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and they worshipped and

served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen.

And so for this reason, God has given them up to dishonorable passions.

For their women exchanged natural relations with those that are contrary to nature and men likewise gave

up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.

Is that text actually condemning homosexual passions?

Yeah, it is.

Right?

And don't think it stops there.

It gets worse.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind

to do what ought not to be done.

And here's the list.

Are you ready?

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, their gossips, slanderers,

haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient

to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die.

And indeed they do.

They not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them.

Anyone here say, well, I'm in the clear.

That list didn't say anything about me.

No.

Yeah, over and again when I read lists like this, I must confess that I see myself

in the list.

And that well, that is a little disconcerting.

More than a little.

Romans 2, verse 2 then goes on.

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

So do you suppose oh man, you who judge those who practice such things.

Yeah, I always find it fascinating that somebody will sit there and go, well, at least I'm not gay.

While they're gossiping about somebody else.

Really?

So that's how that works.

You're gossiping about this person and thanking God that you're not gay.

While the list I just read actually put gossips in a worse category.

So we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

So do you suppose oh man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself that you're

going to escape the judgment of God.

Notice the hostility of God towards sinner.

And notice the threat.

More than a threat.

It's almost a promise.

It's a sure thing.

Persist in this and you're going to stand before God and things are not going to go well.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and his forbearance and patience not knowing that it's God's

kindness that is meant to lead you to repentance but because of your hard and impenitent heart,

listen, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's

righteous judgment will be revealed.

Oh, that's so 8th century Pastor Rose, bro.

Nobody talks like this anymore.

We've moved on beyond this wrath of God stuff.

Get with the program.

We're in a postmodern society.

It's the 21st century.

Talk about love.

Scripture here is talking about those who persist in sin and rebellion against God as storing up

wrath for themselves.

Should I just ignore this?

Should you just ignore this?

Or should we take this seriously?

We should take this very seriously.

Because God will render to each one according to his works to those who by patience and well -doing seek

for glory and honor and immortality.

He will give eternal life.

But for those who are self -seeking and isn't that the way of sin?

Always about the self.

Yeah, Jesus, listen, I just need a little me time.

So I'm going to go engage in my favorite sin because you know it's all about me.

Those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be

wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil.

The Jew first and also for the Greek.

But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good.

The Jew first and also the Greek for God shows no partiality.

Now this text is not teaching salvation by works because only

those who are saved by grace through faith are the ones who seek

to do good, who have been regenerated.

So as you can see, this hostility between God

and us, it goes from top to bottom.

It goes from heaven to us and oh yeah, this is really serious.

Like eternal damnation, serious.

Sin is not something to be winked at.

Sin is not something to be taken lightly.

Sin sends people to hell.

But keep this in mind.

We are also hostile towards God.

The hostilities go from us to him.

Romans chapter 8 verses 5 through 8 says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is death.

The mind that is set on the spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Hmm.

Sounds like a state of conflict, of hostility, of straight out war.

What's the solution?

Well, let's go back to our gospel text then in John chapter 4.

I mean, with all of this hostility, we know how this story should

go.

The story should read as follows.

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.

It was about the sixth hour, and a woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said, give me a drink.

She got cheeky with Jesus.

Jesus calls down sulfur from heaven.

Samaria no longer exists even to this day.

That's how this is supposed to go.

Now, let me explain why.

If there was ever a group of people that really needed

to have a come to Jesus meeting, it's the people of Samaria.

Let me tell you about the history of this place.

It's part of what was known as the Northern Kingdom.

And if you know your Bible history, you know about King David.

After King David comes King Solomon.

And he started well.

He started well.

I mean, God appears to him in a dream and says, ask me for anything.

And what does Solomon ask for?

Wisdom, so that he can rightly govern God's people.

And God not only gives him wisdom, he gives him wealth and all the other things that go along with this, and made him the

wealthiest man in the world, all because he didn't ask for wealth, but because he had the wisdom to ask for wisdom.

But things didn't go so well later in his life.

You know how rich people collect things?

I know some rich people.

They collect some pretty interesting things.

Rich people, they collect cars.

Some of them collect guns.

I wish I had enough money to collect guns.

Wow.

Or, well, in Solomon's case, he collected women.

Lots and lots of women.

I would say this argues against him being the wisest man in the world.

And it really didn't matter to him if the woman he was collecting was a believer

in Yahweh.

In fact, many of the women that Solomon collected were flat -out idolaters.

They worshipped Asherah, Baal, Molech.

And, well, Solomon decided it would be a great idea if he, you know, set up little

buildings and high places and altars so that his wives could

worship any way they saw fit.

And this became a problem.

And it displeased God.

So much so that God literally had a prophet contact a fellow by the name of

Jeroboam to let Jeroboam know that God was about to take Israel

and tear it apart.

And that ten pieces of Israel, ten of the tribes of Israel, were going to come under the reign of

Jeroboam.

All because of Solomon's sin.

So upon Solomon's death, Solomon's son Rehoboam, not to be confused with

Jeroboam, Rehoboam becomes the king of Israel.

And if you know the story, this fellow is a moron.

And through his utter stupidity and his bad counselors,

well, what happens?

Exactly what God said would happen.

The whole kingdom flies apart.

And the ten northern tribes end up under Jeroboam.

But then we read in 1 Kings chapter 12 what Jeroboam does after God fulfilled the

prophecy that he had given to him.

It says this, starting at verse 25, Jeroboam built Shechem, in the hill country of

Ephraim.

And he lived there.

And he went out from there and he built Penuel.

And Jeroboam said in his heart, heart?

That's how that works.

Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David if this people go up to offer

sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem.

Then the heart of all of this people will turn against their Lord to Rehoboam, the king of Judah, and they'll

kill me and return to Rehoboam, the king of Judah.

So the king took counsel and he made two calves of gold.

Uh -oh.

Two calves of gold.

And he said to the people, you've gone to Jerusalem long enough.

Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of

Egypt.

And here's the sad part.

The Israelites went, okay.

If they had known their Bible, they would have said, whoa, wait a second here.

I seem to remember something about a golden calf.

And it didn't go well.

Remember when Aaron claimed that the people of Israel demanded that he

make them an idol.

And so he took their gold, threw it in the fire, and poof!

Out came this calf.

Remember that story?

Poof is not in the text, but I think it should be.

If things did not go well for the Israelites, then God, well, killed many of them for

this sin.

So Jeroboam even outdoes Aaron, not with one golden

calf, but with two.

And then he tells them to no longer go to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices, to have their sins

forgiven.

And the people of Israel didn't have enough Biblical discernment to say, hmm, this doesn't sound good.

They actually went along with it.

So here, O Israel, are your gods, these golden calves who led you out of Egypt.

He set one in Bethel, the other he put in Dan.

Then this thing became a sin for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.

He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people who were

not even Levites.

And Jeroboam appointed a feast in the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah.

He offered sacrifices on the altar.

He did in Bethel sacrificing to calves that he had made.

And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made, went up to the altar

that he made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month and the month that he devised in his own heart.

And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.

I mean, not only did this guy set up his own altars and idols, he even came up with his own competing feast

days so that the children of Israel would not muster in Jerusalem as they were told to by

God at the appointed feasts.

And nobody batted an eyelash.

Everyone said, OK.

And keep this in mind.

This was nine hundred and sixty years before Jesus

sets foot in Samaria in our text today.

For a thousand years about the northern kingdom remained in utter

well, idolatry, heresy.

Totally well, religiously screwed up.

Deserving of God's punishment and wrath.

In fact, we even learn in 1 Kings 13 that God sent a prophet to let Jeroboam

know, oh, this is not going to stand.

See, God is actively hostile.

So this is what we should expect, right?

The Samaritans, total heretics, half -breeds, people who don't even worship properly.

Jesus goes into town, calls down fire from heaven.

Story over.

Problem solved.

But here's the issue.

Jesus is the prince of peace.

And in his first advent, he has not come to condemn the world.

He's come to seek and to save the lost.

So, we return to our gospel text and we read, a woman from Samaria came

to draw water.

It's the sixth hour.

That's high noon.

This is sketchy.

The reason why she's drawing water at noon is because she doesn't want to be seen by anybody.

And we learn why later in the text because, well, she's the town slut.

She's had five husbands and is currently shacking up with her honey.

And she doesn't want to be seen by the other people in town and so she comes to draw water at high noon when nobody else is

there because it's hotter than blazes out there.

Heaven's demercatory.

So, a woman from Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me,

a woman of Samaria?

For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

You can almost hear her with that kind of southern axis thing.

How did my aunt used to say it?

Oh, bless your heart.

We all know what that means, right?

When a southern lady says to you, oh, bless your heart, she's saying, you're such an idiot.

And she's doing it so kindly, right?

Oh, bless your heart, you know, Jesus.

Why are you asking me like this?

So, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and

he would have given you living water.

So, the woman said to him, oh, bless your heart.

Sir, you have nothing to draw water with.

The well's deep.

Where do you get this living water, right?

She thinks she's got the upper hand in this conversation at this point.

Where do you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father, Jacob?

He gave us the well to drink from himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

Conversation's not going so well up to this point.

So, Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

Everyone who drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of living water, welling up to eternal

life.

The woman said to him, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

Interesting that our Old Testament text tells us about the waters of Meribah.

Children of Israel, after crossing the Red Sea, are in the wilderness and they are

thirsty and they are grumbling and quarreling and arguing with God.

Give us water.

And what does God do to the complaining, grumbling Israelites?

He gives them water.

And so what he does is he sends Moses to that big rock at Horeb and he tells Moses,

you strike that rock and out of it will come water.

And it did.

And all of that points to Christ because 1 Corinthians tells us that Christ was that rock.

And there's Jesus bleeding, dying, suffering on the cross and he

yells out to Telestai, it is finished, gives up his spirit and dies.

And the Roman soldier, just like Moses, takes his lance and thrusts it into the side of

Jesus and out comes water and blood.

All of that prefiguring Jesus.

And see, Jesus is on his way to the cross already.

He's on his way.

So, Jesus tells this grumbling woman who's quite

quarrelsome with him, where do you get this living water?

You know, right?

That lady?

He gives her living water.

Let me explain.

So Jesus said to her, alright, go call your husband and come here.

The woman answered him, you can almost see her doing this sheepishly, well, I don't have a husband.

Jesus said to her, well, you're right in saying I have no husband for you have had five

and the one you have is not your husband.

What you've said is true.

And immediately this cheeky woman stops being cheeky and she starts getting very religious.

The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you're a prophet.

And she's right.

Jesus is a prophet.

He's the promised prophet of Deuteronomy 18, but he's more than prophet.

He's prophet, priest and king.

And then she gives a little theology lesson.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain.

And the mountain she's pointing to is right within sight.

It's Mount Gerizim in Samaria.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain.

But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship.

Notice Jeroboam's sin, his deception is still running through the minds

and the hearts of the Samaritans 960 years later.

So she can't even figure out where she's supposed to worship.

Conflicting voices have her all confused and she just keeps doing what she's been taught to do.

So you say that our fathers worshipped on this mountain.

You say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship.

And watch what Jesus says.

Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know.

We worship what we know.

For salvation is from the Jews.

And Jesus straight up there in one sentence just puts to bed Jeroboam's heresies.

The hour is coming and is now here when true worshippers will worship the Father in

spirit and in truth.

Notice it doesn't say in spirit or truth.

It says and.

The two go together.

To separate them, you lose both the truth and the spirit.

True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father is seeking such people

to worship him.

You know what Jesus is saying to this woman?

Literally.

The Father is seeking you to worship him.

Brothers and sisters, the Father is also seeking you just

like he sought the Samaritan woman seeking you to worship him in spirit

and in truth.

God is spirit.

Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

And the woman said, I know that the Messiah is coming.

He who is called the Christ.

So even in the heresies and the idolatries of the Samaritan religion, she has heard the whispers

of the Messiah.

And when he comes, he's going to tell us all things.

And Jesus does something quite amazing.

Search the Gospels.

You will not find Jesus do this with anyone else.

He literally tells this woman straight up, I'm the Messiah.

That's what he says.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, I'm he.

He never said this to the Pharisees.

In fact, the Pharisees, every time they would confront Jesus, give us a sign, give us a sign.

If you're the Messiah, just tell us plainly.

He tells this idolatrous, adulterous Samaritan woman, you know,

how's the song go?

It's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game.

This woman's got three strikes.

She should be out of here.

But rather than being thrown out, Christ is loving her.

Christ is forgiving her.

Christ is seeking her.

Christ is calling her to come and to worship the Father and Spirit

and in truth.

So he says, I am the Messiah.

So just then his disciples came back and they marveled that Jesus was talking with a woman.

But no one said, what do you seek or why are you talking with her?

So the woman left her water jar and she went away into the town and she said to the people, come see a man

who told me all that I ever did.

And you could just see the people in town going, oh, I bet that was a pretty picture.

Right?

Can this be the Messiah?

Really?

The Messiah?

So they went out of town and they were coming to Jesus.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus saying, Rabbi, eat.

He said to them, I have food to eat that you don't know about.

His disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?

Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Why do you say there are yet four months?

Then comes the harvest.

Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for

harvest.

Jesus is literally telling his disciples, here we are in Samaria, boys, lift up your eyes, look

around.

The field is white for harvest and he's not talking about the harvest of God's judgment and

wrath and fury.

He's talking about the harvesting of souls for the kingdom of God.

Penitent believers in Christ forgiven of all of their trespasses.

Look up and see the Samaritans are ripe for the harvest.

And already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may

rejoice together.

For here the saying holds true, one sows and other reaps.

I sent you to reap for that which you did not labor.

Others have labored and you have entered into their labor.

So many Samaritans from the town believed in Jesus because of

the woman's testimony.

He told me all that I ever did.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them.

And he stayed there for two days.

If the Pharisees knew about this, their brains would have blown up and they would have been

standing at the border of Samaria and as soon as Jesus stepped foot in Israel, they would have had him stoned.

How dare you love them?

How dare you hang out with those sinners?

Many more believed because of his words.

They said to the woman, it's no longer because of what you said that we believe.

We've heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed

the Savior of the world.

This is unbelievable.

It's not supposed to go this way.

They were supposed to end like Sodom and Gomorrah and rather than that happening, revival has

broken out.

People are repenting of their sins.

They're believing in Jesus.

And that's what Jesus is all about.

He's the one who makes peace between us and the Father.

Paul says it this way in Colossians 1, Christ is the image of the invisible God.

He's the firstborn of all creation.

By him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.

Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

He is before all things and in him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body of the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile

to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, whether in

Jerusalem or Samaria, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And brothers and sisters, this next part speaks to us as well.

And you and me.

We were once alienated from God and we were hostile in mind, doing evil

deeds, but now Christ is reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to

present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

This is exactly what Jesus was doing.

He reconciled this Samaritan woman to God through his death on the cross

and he has presented her and all of the Samaritans of that village now,

holy and blameless and above reproach before God and this is exactly what he

has done for us.

You are baptized, you are forgiven, you are washed.

You are pardoned, you are absolved and the hostility between you and God has been brought

to an end by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And now Christ is presenting you holy and blameless before the Father.

And so continue in the faith.

This is the only faith that can save you.

Continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel

that you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.

And as we learn in other passages, because Christ has made peace with God for us, reconciled us to

the Father and we have this peace vertically, we now have peace

with each other because we can love and forgive which is why we pray, forgive

us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

So we thank God.

We thank God for his great mercy in not giving us what we deserve, but giving us a Savior the

Prince of Peace who has reconciled us to God by making peace through his blood.

In the name of Jesus,.

Amen.

If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744.

And again that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950

470th Avenue NW Oslo, MN 56744.

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And again, thank you for listening.