The Most Impressive Scars... Ever!

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. Alleluia! He has risen from the dead, and behold,

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He is going before you to Galilee. Alleluia! Eight days later,

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Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Alleluia!

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The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the 20th chapter. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the

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Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. And when He had said this,

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He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord, and Jesus said to them again,

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Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when He had said this,

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He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.

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If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when

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Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them,

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Unless I see His hands and the marks of the nails, and place my finger into the marks of the nails, and place my hand into His side,

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I will never believe. Eight days later, His disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.

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And although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then He said to Thomas, Put your finger here, and see

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My hands, put out your hand, and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered

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Him, My Lord and my God. And Jesus said to him, You have believed because you have seen Me, but blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

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Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. This is the gospel of the

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Lord. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. On the evening of that day, the day of the resurrection, the first day of the week, the door is being locked where the disciples were for fear of the

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Jews. That's how our gospel text begins. And I'll take a swipe at the Reformed here. I have to do it.

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It's just from time to time you've got to just challenge some of the things they say. So the

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Reformed are the ones who say that Christ cannot be physically present in the

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Lord's Supper. And here's the reason why. Because we all know that bodies can only be at one place at one time.

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This was Zwingli's stupid argument. And therefore, Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, so He can't possibly be present in the

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Lord's Supper. Well, last time I checked, despite Bethel's repeated attempts at trying to walk through walls, human beings just don't have that ability.

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Bodies seem to stop when they run into the matter of a wall. Jesus here, the door is being locked, the window is shut.

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There's no way for Him to get into this, right? Into this upper room. So if you were to ask an honest

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Calvinist how He did it, if you're going to be consistent, how did Jesus appear in the midst of the room?

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Because we all know that, well, you guys are experts on what human bodies can and can't do.

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And I will say this. Some Calvinists of the past have said, well, obviously, while they weren't looking,

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Jesus snuck in and climbed up through a window. No text says that.

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So just have to point that out. This is one of the weaknesses of the Reformed view.

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But that being the case, we're going to note that Jesus Christ, by virtue of the hypostatic union, is both

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God and man in one Jesus. And the communication of the attributes of the divinity as it relates to Christ's person have an impact on what

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His human body is capable of doing. And so we're going to note that Christ is capable of doing whatever

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Christ wants to do by virtue of the fact that He is both God and man, and this is one of those things.

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It's weird to kind of start a sermon off with that, but might as well. We're just walking our way through the text, right?

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So next is the important bit. Jesus came and stood among them and listened to the words that He said,

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Peace be with you. Notice that when Jesus appears to His disciples,

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He doesn't say, Dudes, what's with this? I was on trial. You guys scattered.

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And oh, man, Peter, you denied me three times to a slave girl.

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Come on. What's wrong with you? Notice, no scolding at all. And there's a reason why.

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And that is because the peace that Christ is referring to is the peace that He won.

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He won this on the cross by defeating the devil, by defeating sin, by defeating death.

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He did this by reconciling us to the Father by bleeding and dying for all of our sins.

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And so I would note, kind of front load it here. Are you terrified of the day of standing before Jesus?

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Because you know the sin that you have committed, the things that you've done, the things you've left undone, the things you should have done, the things you didn't do, the things you thought that you shouldn't have thought, the things you thunk that you shouldn't have thunk, right?

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All of that. Note then, Christ does not come here today to scold us either.

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You heard from the mouth, my mouth, the authority given in this text to forgive you of your sins, not to scold you.

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The scripture is clear. Even though your sins be as scarlet, Christ, because of what He has done for you, makes you white as snow.

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And so that is an important thing. So Christ comes speaking peace, not scolding, not wrath, because He suffered

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God's wrath in our place. And then when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side.

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And here I gotta do a little bit of an analogy. Have you guys ever noticed this, that dudes have a thing they do?

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They like to do the one -up game when it comes to scars, right? Oh, you think that's an impressive scar?

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Well, let me show you the one that I got, right? Dudes are, this is like a testosterone thing. And one of the best depictions of this particular behavior of men is in the movie

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Jaws, all right? You guys remember this movie? Probably one of the best movies of all time. Cinematically, it's just a well -told story.

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So act three of Jaws begins with them out on the water in a tiny boat. It's not that big of a boat, hunting this killer man -eating shark.

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And after a day of hunting the shark, it's nighttime. And what are they doing? They're gathered around the cabin galley table, and they start showing off their scars.

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Hooper rolls up his sleeve and says, take a look at that. That right there is from a moray eel, bit right through my wetsuit.

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Well, quit not to be outdone, rolls up his pant leg and says, you see that right there? That's a thresher shark, right?

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And so they're going back and forth. The best line in that portion of the movie is when Hooper opens up his shirt and says, you see that right there, that one right there?

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Mary Ellen Moffat, she broke my heart, right? It's such a quintessential thing about dudes.

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And here's the reason why dudes do this. It's kind of a testosterone kind of thing, because it's not about the scar.

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It's about the story about what gave you the scar, right? When you think of the movie

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Gladiator, where they depict men who've actually been in battle with swords and things like this, they've got scars.

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Their bodies are marred and mangled. But here's the thing. If we think about it in this context, this is a great testosterone moment.

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Jesus is showing off his scars. Why? Because who did he go up against? The devil himself, death.

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And he conquered it all. Oh, those are the best scars ever. I have to do kind of a Tim Allen thing from Tool Time.

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Oh, oh, oh, right? That is our conquering

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Jesus. These are the best scars ever, because they are the scars of his victory in the battle that he waged in order to set us free from the dominion of darkness.

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It is so good. And again, Jesus said to them, peace be with you.

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And this is the peace that comes from the conquering Christ. As the Father now has sent me, even so I am sending you.

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And here Jesus is doing something very interesting. This is the beginning of the setting up of the office of the ministry.

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It begins with the foundation of the apostles and continues on to this day with pastors who are called by the

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Holy Spirit to preach the word, to absolve people of their sins and to administer the sacraments.

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And something interesting happens here. A sentence that for years kind of boggled me.

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And this is the sentence. He says, and when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the

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Holy Spirit. And I've read this many times and just looked at it and drawn a blank.

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There it is. It's pretty clear what occurred here. But what's the significance of it?

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Well, if I could, let me consider one way of looking at this. Back in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter two, it talks about how

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Adam was made. And in chapter two, verse five, it says, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, no small plant of the field had yet sprung up.

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Yahweh Elohim had not caused it to rain on the land. And there was no man to work the ground. And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground.

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And then Yahweh Elohim formed the man of the dust from the ground. And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

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And the man became a living creature. All right.

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So let me kind of make the connection here. And then we'll pull in our Old Testament text too, because I think it makes the point as well.

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You see, we, because of Adam and Eve's sin, were born dead in trespasses and sins. In a similar way, this imagery is the same as what we see here in Genesis.

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There's Adam's formed, but still lifeless body. And Christ breathes into his nostrils the breath of life.

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And he says, happy birthday, right? The first thing he sees is the face of Christ.

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It's his day that he has created. And so that's the idea. Now the church has been given the

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Holy Spirit and the gospel itself. And Christ by here, giving the

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Spirit to his disciples, who become the apostles, the image then is this, that in the church, the

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Holy Spirit exists and resides, breathing the life of the good news of God over fallen, sinful, dead humanity.

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And God raises them from the dead through the preaching of the gospel. I think that's a good way to put it.

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And it ties in really wonderfully with our Ezekiel text, where there's the valley of the dry bones.

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And well, poor Ezekiel, he's asked by God, can these bones live? Well, you know

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God, you know all things. Sure, you tell me. He says, so prophesy to the wind.

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And what does he do? He prophesies to the wind. And the Spirit of God comes and puts sinew and put the bones back together and the rattling and then they stand up.

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That's what the gospel does for each and every one of us. Sin is in our friend, sin kills, sin is a toxin, sin is a poison.

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And it's, well, effects are mortally fatal. And so you'll note that Christ giving his church the

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Spirit, breathing on them, receiving the Holy Spirit, it's that same imagery that God now is raising dead sinners to the preaching of the gospel through those whom he has sent to preach the good news.

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And of course, they have authority from him. If you forgive the sins of any, they are already forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness for many, it is withheld.

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One of the great quotes I read this week in my sermon prep on this was from Johann Gerhardt. He had an admonition for pastors in his sermon.

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He said, pastors, do not let these keys get rusty. Make sure that they stay, well, clean from lots of use.

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Use the keys that God has given us often because we sinners need to be set free from our sins over and over and over again and be assured of the forgiveness that is in Christ.

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So, well, Thomas, he missed the meeting. Apparently, he didn't get the email letting him know about the meeting.

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And so he wasn't there when Jesus appeared. And Jesus shows him kindness as well.

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No scolding for Thomas. Thomas, one of the 12 called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the

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Lord. But he said to them, unless I see his hands and the marks of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into a side,

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I will never believe. And it's sad here, if you think about it, because Thomas is not believing the report of the other disciples.

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They have no reason to lie to him at all. And he's not listening to them.

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And I think if you were to think of it this way, Thomas is kind of a stand -in then for the skeptical world. And the mercy that Christ shows him in appearing to him is the same mercy that God gives to those who struggle with doubts regarding the veracity of the

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Christian faith. Christ doesn't come to scold. He comes to point this out. And so Thomas is their saint, if you would, the saint of those who feel like they need evidence to believe.

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And the evidence is given to Thomas. And his confession and his report should be enough for them. So eight days later, it's

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Sunday again, the day now that we refer to as the Lord's Day.

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His disciples were inside and Thomas was with them. And although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, apparently

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Jesus is a good lock picker, you know, and he's able to sneak in when no one's looking, right?

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Yeah. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.

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So then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side.

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Shows him as well, the scars that were inflicted on his body in his great battle, even to save Thomas.

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And I would note something here. The fact that Christ has these scars proves definitively that the body that Christ rose in is the same body that hung on the tree.

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When it's not some different body, it's the same exact body glorified now and immortal.

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Put your finger here, see my hands, put out your hand, place it in my side. Do not be disbelieving.

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That's the way the verbs really work in Greek. Do not be disbelieving, but believe. And Thomas then utters this beautiful confession and his words are most certainly true.

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He answered him, you are my Lord and my

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God. And that is exactly who Jesus is. He's our Lord. He's our God. And he comes bringing us tidings of peace, tidings of forgiveness and reconciliation, of joy evermore, of a salvation given as a gift.

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He comes to us not to scold us, but to save us, to bring us to repentance so that we can be adopted as his children and receive the inheritance assured by what

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Christ has done for us on the cross. So Jesus said to him, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

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And note that we are among that group. Christ speaks to us today and says that we are blessed.

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We are truly blessed. I haven't seen Jesus. I've never met him. I've never had coffee with him.

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You know, if he were walking down the streets of Grand Forks, I don't know if I would recognize him unless he made himself known.

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But do not worry. We are blessed, those who have not seen and yet have believed. And presently we walk by faith, not by sight.

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And see, you'll note that seeing is believing is the way the world thinks. But the reality is that we know that through the gospel, hearing is believing.

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The Holy Spirit breathed on us through the preaching of the gospel, breathed on us in the waters of baptism when we were united with Christ in his death and resurrection.

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And so having not seen him with our own eyes, we also can say exactly the way

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Job did, that with our very eyes, even though we perish and our skin fall off of us, that with our eyes, we will see

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Jesus someday. And Christ has declared to us that we are blessed. And now comes the kind of the main thesis statement of the entire scripture.

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This is not merely the thesis statement of the gospel of John. I love how our Lutheran theologians always point back to this and say, this is the thesis statement of all of the

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Bible. And here's what it says. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.

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This is most certainly true. Everything that Jesus did and said, all the miracles he performed, they were not recorded by the apostles.

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Only the ones that were necessary, right? And so he says, but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

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You see, these words are theanoustos. They are God breathed. God, the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles to write these words, inspired

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John, recalled his memory perfectly so that he can fill in the blanks that the synoptic gospels didn't give us regarding Jesus so that we might believe that Jesus is the son of God and by believing we might have life in his name.

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But that's also the reason why Genesis was written. Also the reason why Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, why all of them were written so that we would believe.

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Same with Isaiah and Amos and all the other books of the scripture. They're all written so that you might believe.

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And note this, that you might have life in his name. Sin is death.

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The wages of sin is death. Doubly so, mortal death, second death.

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There's nothing to be gained by sin. But Christ came so that we might have life and life by his name, by his vicarious bleeding and dying for our sins.

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Life that we would never have to run away from his presence and hide, but instead like joyful children, run to him on the day of his return.

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So brothers and sisters, the fact that Christ is risen from the dead is great joy for us and great comfort.

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So as we've been saying for the past couple of weeks, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, hallelujah.

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Amen. If you'd like a copy of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. We thank you for your support.

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