The Greatest in the Kingdom

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

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

00:18

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

00:25

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

00:31

Matthew, chapter 18, verses 1 through 20. Glory to you, O Lord. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked,

00:38

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? He called a little child and had him stand among them, and he said,

00:45

I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

00:52

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.

01:02

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

01:14

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin. Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come.

01:24

And if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire.

01:36

And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the fire of hell.

01:47

See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my

01:55

Father in heaven. What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the 99 on the hills and go and look for the one that wandered off?

02:06

And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the 99 that did not wander off.

02:14

In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

02:20

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you.

02:26

If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

02:39

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

02:48

I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

02:54

And again I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my

03:01

Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.

03:07

This is the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. In the name of Jesus.

03:18

So what were the disciples thinking? Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? By whose standard are they making this judgment?

03:27

Man's standard? The world's standard? I mean, who is the greatest in the United States of America?

03:34

Is it the richest CEO? Is it the President of the United States? Who is the greatest here in Oslo, Minnesota?

03:45

The man with the biggest acreage? Is it the guys with the green combines or the red ones?

03:52

Right? You see, we all kind of understand how this greatest thing works, right?

03:59

The greatest thing, you know, it's talking about greatest. We're talking about people who've gone out and done great exploits, have made a name for themselves, have risen above everybody else, climbed the corporate ladder or seized the greatest amount of property or land, who has the largest house, the fanciest car, the most expensive combine, right?

04:22

We all know what greatest means. And some scholars wonder if at this point, because Jesus has already begun to talk about the fact that he's going to go to the cross and that he's going to die, some scholars wonder if the disciples are thinking, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

04:37

Like, who's the greatest disciple so that when you, you know, die, Jesus, who's going to take over, right?

04:45

Yeah. So, Jesus answers their question, and I'm going to be reading from my translation today, so if you want to follow along in your

04:55

Bible, you can. I actually translated the text, and I'm going to preach from my translation. The reason why is because there's certain things in the

05:02

Greek that I need to tease out, okay? And I'm a theological nerd in that way, so my apologies.

05:09

So let me read. In that hour, at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

05:16

And he called to himself a child and had him stand in the midst of them. And he said,

05:21

Amen. Truly I say to you, if you do not turn around. Now, the

05:28

NIV says change. The ESV says turn. The Greek word is a little bit stronger than turn.

05:34

It's like about face, do a 180, turn around. So Jesus, in a sense, is kind of rebuking them.

05:40

So he's got this little child, tiny little tyke, right? Probably about Benjamin's size, okay?

05:45

Has him stand in the midst of them, and he says, If you don't turn around and become as the little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

05:53

Now, the word for little children is paideion.

06:00

Literally means, these are the smallest children. There are several words for children in Greek. These are the smallest ones.

06:06

These are infants, newborns, okay? Robin and Roger, Jesus is talking about your grandchild, okay?

06:15

If you don't turn and become like an infant, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

06:23

And you just go, What? Infants can't do anything. All they can do is receive.

06:31

They don't do anything except for be fed and, you know, dirty their diapers and, you know, they're just kind of needy.

06:42

I mean, how can they be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? But this is what Jesus is saying.

06:48

Also keep in mind, Jesus is also here saying that infants can have faith, right? Yep. So if you don't become like a little child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

06:58

Therefore, whoever will humble himself as this child, this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

07:06

And whoever might receive one such child in my name receives me. Now keep this in mind.

07:12

The child is the metaphor. So how do we receive a child in Jesus' name and, therefore, receive

07:18

Jesus, who are the neediest among us? And we're talking about people who are Christians at this point.

07:24

We're talking about believers, right? What is a believer? A believer is somebody who confesses that God is the creator of heaven and earth.

07:32

And when you confess that God is the creator of heaven and earth, you confess that you are a creature, that you are not

07:39

God. Remember the devil's temptation in the Garden of Eden was, oh, when you eat of the fruit, you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

07:46

The temptation is to be like God. Well, if you're God, you don't need anybody, right? Somebody who has faith, like a child, understands that everything they have is received as a gift.

07:59

That's what a child is. So when you receive somebody who's a fellow believer, who's needy, and you're actually meeting their needs because they're a believer, well, you're receiving

08:11

Jesus. Jesus says this. Now Jesus kind of turns things in verse 6, and it gets a little bit dark.

08:19

Pay attention. Whoever might cause one of these little ones who have faith in me. That's right.

08:25

You have faith in Jesus. You are one of Jesus' little ones. I don't care if you're 80 years old.

08:32

You are one of Jesus' little ones. You're a tyke. You're receiving from him. And now he's saying this.

08:39

Whoever causes one of these little ones to have faith in me to stumble or to sin, oh, it's better for him to hang a millstone of a donkey around his neck and drown in the depths of the sea.

08:49

Notice in your translation it says great millstone. The Greek is a little bit more fun. Millstone of a donkey it says.

08:56

The millstone is the big wheel. You've got a big stone wheel, and then you've got another stone wheel on top of it, and then you've got a bar going through it, and you hook a donkey up to it, and the donkey goes around in a circle.

09:08

So it would be better for you to have that big millstone in the center that the donkey is using to kind of grind the wheat.

09:15

It would be better for you to tie that around your neck and be thrown into the depths of the sea than to cause one of Jesus' little ones to stumble.

09:24

That tells you about his great love for you, how jealously he guards you.

09:29

And then he says this. Woe to the world because of the stumbling blocks, the things that cause sin.

09:36

It's necessary for the stumbling blocks to come. Nevertheless, woe to the man through whom the stumbling blocks come.

09:42

Now, keep in mind, Jesus doesn't talk about sin as only having its origin outside of you.

09:49

Jesus also is somebody who understands what later was developed as a doctrine called simul justus et peccator.

09:57

You're going, blah, blah, blah. Okay, let me explain. This is a Latin phrase, and this is one of the phrases that the reformers put together talking about the state of a

10:07

Christian. Have you ever noticed as a Christian it seems like you're at odds with yourself? One day you want to do good, you want to help that person out, and then the next day you take a knife and you stab them in the back?

10:20

You know what I'm talking about, right? I'm not the only one that's done that, right? So the idea here is that not only are the sources of sin and stumbling blocks the world and the temptations to sin caused by the world and the devil, but also the stumbling blocks come with inside of us.

10:37

And the reason why is because as Christians we are simultaneously justified. That means we're declared righteous by Christ, and we're still sinner at the same time.

10:49

Simul, simultaneously, justus, justified, et, peccator, and sinner at the same time.

10:55

We're sinner saints now. Now, when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, we'll only be saints, right?

11:02

Thank God. Okay, can't wait for that day because sometimes being a Christian is just for the birds. It's difficult.

11:08

And Paul picks up on this tension. If you remember a few weeks ago we read this from Romans 7. Let me read this, see if this sounds familiar.

11:15

Paul writes, he says, We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

11:21

I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I don't do, but what I hate to do, that's what I do. And if I do what

11:27

I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good, and it is no longer I myself who does it, but it's sin that's living in me.

11:34

I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but cannot carry it out.

11:42

For what I do is not the good that I want to do, no, it's the evil that I don't want to do. This is what I keep on doing.

11:48

Does this sound familiar to any of you? Okay, it's like, is this not, if we were to just put cameras and hide them in your homes, is this not how all of us live as Christians?

11:59

So we have this tension. We have the new man regenerated by Christ that's in us, and we have the

12:06

Holy Spirit living in us, and we are truly new creations in Christ Jesus, and at the same time we still have our sinful flesh to contend with, and you know what the sinful flesh likes to do?

12:17

Sin. That's what it excels at. That's what its appetite is for. And so as Christians we have this tension where we feel like we're being pulled in two different directions, and we are.

12:26

So Jesus picks up on this, and he describes it in these terms.

12:32

He says, but if your hand or foot causes you to stumble, notice he's making a distinction between you and your sinful flesh, right?

12:43

But if your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, cast it from you. It's better for you to enter into life crippled or lame, or having two hands or two feet and then be thrown into the eternal fire.

12:54

And he says, and if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. Cast it from you.

12:59

It's better for you to enter into life with one eye or one eyed, or having two eyes and be thrown into the hell of fire.

13:07

Now thankfully we don't celebrate every year Amputation Sunday, because I think this would just take this idea just to an extreme.

13:15

You know what I'm saying? But the idea behind this is not that it's the cutting off of your limbs, but in reality the mortification of your flesh.

13:25

Now, so this is what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about mortifying our sinful flesh that wars with the new man within us.

13:33

So how do we do that? Thankfully the Apostle Paul gives us a very practical way to do that.

13:39

And if you have your pew Bibles, I'd like you to open to Romans 6 and follow along. So how do we mortify the sinful flesh?

13:47

How? The answer is actually an odd one, but it's a good one.

13:53

The answer is you keep returning back in your mind to the waters of your baptism, and you trust the promises attached to it.

14:02

Here's what it says in Romans 6. Paul, after preaching the Gospel so beautifully in Romans 3, 4, and 5, kind of anticipates his critics' response, and he says,

14:12

Well, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

14:18

Yeah, when you preach the Gospel, that you're totally saved by what Jesus has done, not by any works that you have done, oftentimes you'll have people go,

14:25

So what you're saying is I can just sin all I want? No. No.

14:32

You're not hearing this properly. So Paul asks this question because he gets asked this a lot.

14:38

He said, Now watch this. We died to sin.

14:45

How can we live in it any longer? Now answer the question. When did you die to sin?

14:53

And he writes, If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

15:21

For we know that our old self was crucified with him. With whom? With Jesus. So that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

15:35

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.

15:44

Death no longer has mastery over him. So the death he died, he died to sin once and for all.

15:51

But the life he lives, he lives to God. So in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ.

16:01

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you will obey its desires.

16:06

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

16:15

Where? In the waters of your baptism. And offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under the law, but you are under grace.

16:28

So you want to cut off sin? Don't cut your hands off. Return back to the waters of your baptism where your sinful flesh was crucified with Christ.

16:41

This is how we mortify the flesh. By believing the promises that God has given us regarding our right standing before him, the washing away of our sins, our being united in Christ's death and resurrection, in our baptisms, our hearts being circumcised by the hand of Christ.

16:58

These are the ways in which we mortify our sinful flesh. And this is what Paul just said in Romans 6.

17:03

So Jesus, in Matthew, now we'll go back to our text, in Matthew 18, is hinting at this.

17:10

Okay? And he's talking about this conflict that we have with our own sinful flesh, and he talks about cutting things off.

17:18

Well, the way we cut them off now is not by taking a knife or a saw and hacking off an arm or a leg, but the way we cut off sin is by returning back to our baptism and trusting the promises of God regarding them.

17:31

That's how that's done. So, then Jesus, now keep in mind, this is all into the context, as we've been reading,

17:37

Jesus is talking about the little ones. You, you are his little ones, right? And so he says this.

17:43

Pay attention, verse 10, see to it that you do not despise one of these little ones, the little ones who trust in Jesus.

17:51

For I say to you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

17:56

This is one of the passages that hints at, kind of, it's ever so fleeting, you can just see it so quick, that those who are believers have angels literally assigned to protect and guard and keep.

18:13

There it is, right there. And Jesus says, and their angels, the angels of the little ones, oh, they see the face of the

18:20

Father always. And then you go, can you tell me more about that? And just as soon as Jesus says it, he's on to the next thing.

18:27

Just little glimpses of it. This is not for us to see right now. We believe this by faith, but this is not something we see by sight.

18:34

And then he says, so what do y 'all think? That's what he says. It's in the plural. I put that in the plural in my translation. What do y 'all think?

18:40

Yeah, because in Greek, it's either you singular or you plural. And you plural is just like if you're from Texas, it's y 'all, okay?

18:50

So I put that in my translations all the time. So what do y 'all think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one goes astray from him, would he not leave the 99 upon the hills and go and look for the wandering one?

19:03

The wandering one. Now, listen carefully to what's going on here. Keep in mind, everything's in the context of the little ones.

19:09

The little ones, the children, the infants. These are the ones who are greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And now, one of these little ones has wandered off, okay?

19:19

And Jesus says this, that he's going to leave the 99 in the hills and he's gonna go look for the wandering one.

19:27

And if he happens to find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the 99 that did not wander.

19:37

Thus, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish, right?

19:44

So when somebody who is baptized, who confesses Christ, wanders off, it's not the will of the

19:50

Father that they should perish. Instead, that they should be found. They're out wandering. Now, then how does this look?

19:56

This is where we get to the great church discipline text. Everybody knows this.

20:02

This is the church discipline text here, Matthew 18, verse 15, right? But keep in mind, you don't properly understand church discipline unless you understand this is in the context of Jesus searching for his wandering little ones.

20:16

If you just read at verse 15 and not keep in mind, this is in the context of a loving

20:22

Jesus, a sacrificial Jesus, a shepherd Jesus, whose heart is aching over that lost little sheep, you don't understand church discipline.

20:34

If you think church discipline is just about taking out the hammer and smashing a sinner, you don't understand church discipline at all.

20:43

Church discipline is not about smashing somebody who's sinning. Church discipline ultimately is the way in which

20:51

Jesus is hunting and searching for one of his lost little ones.

20:57

That's what the context of this is. So he says this, but if your brother sins against you, oh, now we've got a wandering sheep, go and reprove and correct him between you and him alone.

21:10

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Now, notice what this doesn't say. I have to be blunt.

21:18

This text does not say if your brother sins against you, get on the phone and start letting everybody know what a rotten scoundrel he is.

21:27

It doesn't say get on Facebook and start messaging and making snotty little comments about him.

21:35

No. Why? Because he's one of Jesus' little ones and he's wandering, right?

21:43

So if your brother sins against you, this is how Jesus goes and finds his little sheep. You go and you correct him between you and him alone.

21:51

If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. The sheep has come home, right? But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two more in order that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might be established.

22:07

This is a sheep that doesn't want to come home. Not only is this a wandering little one, now this is an obstinate wandering little one who thinks that the wilderness is a great place for sheep to be out and about.

22:19

It's a dangerous place. It says this, but if he refuses to listen to them, then you tell it to the church.

22:28

In other words, let me make this practical. If somebody who's a Christian sins against you, and we're all members of this congregation, right?

22:38

Let's come up with a fictitious story here. Let's say that Don has said something nary about Richard, right?

22:47

So Richard, he does the right thing here. He goes to Don and he says,

22:52

Don, Don, brother, I'm concerned for you. You've sinned against me.

22:59

Repent and be forgiven. And Don says, I'll go pound sand.

23:04

Not that Don would ever say that, right? So Don tells Richard to go pound sand. Now what's

23:10

Richard do? Does he come to me, the pastor? Nope, not yet. I'm not involved yet. So Richard says, okay,

23:17

Roger and Janet, we've got to go talk to Don. So Richard, Roger and Janet, they all meet with Don and they say,

23:24

Don, brother, brother, you've sinned. Repent and be forgiven.

23:29

Notice it's not just repent, but be forgiven, right? Christ bled and died for you. You're baptized.

23:36

Baptized little ones who are in Jesus, they seek forgiveness. They seek reconciliation.

23:42

They want to be forgiven. Repent, Don, repent. And Don says, get out of my house.

23:51

Then what? Go back with him a few more times and beg him to repent.

23:56

All in love. The goal is reconciliation. This is what church discipline looks like.

24:04

Doesn't sound very disciplinary when you put it this way. So Don persists and refuses to repent.

24:12

Now you bring it to me. Only after you've done this do you bring it to me. So I go to Don and I beg with him and plead with him to repent, to be forgiven, to be reconciled to God and to his brothers and sisters.

24:25

But he refuses. Now what? Well, church, here's what

24:32

Jesus says. But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two more in order that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might be established.

24:42

But if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. But if he also refuses to listen to the church, he is to be to you like a pagan unbeliever and a tax collector.

24:56

Now let's make something very clear here. Pagan, unbeliever, and tax collector does not mean that we are to shun them.

25:05

How did Jesus treat pagan, unbelievers, and tax collectors? He called them to repent and to be forgiven and preached the good news to them as if they were unbelievers, right?

25:14

So that's how we're to treat somebody who refuses to repent and to be forgiven. That's how you treat a pagan tax collector.

25:22

Now years ago, years ago, I was a member of a LCMS congregation and there was a gal who was having an affair.

25:34

And her husband, in love, pleaded with her to repent and she wouldn't. So he brought two or more witnesses, pleading with her to repent and to be forgiven.

25:46

And she wouldn't. One of the most somber and serious moments

25:51

I've ever been in the church was when at the beginning of a divine service in an

25:56

LCMS congregation, the pastor read these words. This is from the rite of excommunication from the

26:04

Holy Christian Church. Let me set this up for you. Here's what it says. Excommunication is a solemn declaration spoken by the pastor and it's best announced in the divine service.

26:16

Like the spoken word of absolution, excommunication is the voice of God himself. Remember, the word says if you forgive the sins of any, they will have been forgiven.

26:27

If you retain the sins of any, they will have been retained. There's two keys, a binding key and a loosing key.

26:33

And Jesus references them both in our gospel text. So excommunication is none other than the voice of God himself that we hear through his call to an ordained servant of the word.

26:43

The rite normally takes place during the divine service immediately before the service of confession and absolution.

26:49

So the pastor stands and here's what he says. I'm going to plug in a name here.

26:56

We'll use the name Brittany because there's no Brittany's here. So listen to this. Pastor says,

27:03

Beloved in the Lord, Christ our Lord says in the gospel according to St. John, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.

27:12

If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. As a called and ordained servant of the word,

27:18

I must make known to you that our fellow member Brittany has by continued impenitence despised her baptism.

27:30

It's terrible. How can you despise such a great gift as the forgiveness of your sins?

27:36

You don't want to be forgiven. Listen to the spirit in which this is written.

27:45

By continued impenitence, she has despised her baptism. She was under church discipline and although repeatedly admonished from the word of God, she has refused to repent.

27:58

Following the direction of our Lord in the gospel according to St. Matthew, I and other members of this congregation have pleaded repeatedly with her to receive

28:06

Christ's forgiveness, one for her on the cross, but to no avail. Finally, Brittany refuses also to hear the church.

28:20

In order to show the seriousness of her impenitence and as a last effort to win her back to our

28:29

Lord. That's what church discipline's about. It's a last ditch effort to win somebody back to the

28:36

Lord. I announce that Brittany is now excommunicated from the

28:42

Holy Christian Church until she repents. Brittany may not come to this or any other

28:48

Christian altar for the Lord's Supper. She also is not permitted to serve as a sponsor at Holy Baptism or engage in any other rights or privileges of the church except for to hear the preaching of God's word.

29:03

She's welcome here to hear God's word. May Almighty God mercifully grant her grace to confess her sin so that she might receive the

29:13

Lord's forgiveness and be restored to communion with God and his church. I've seen this done, and it leaves you speechless.

29:29

But thankfully, in her case, she repented. Months later, she came back and she was reestablished in the fellowship.

29:37

But it was the most terrible thing I've ever seen. It was horrible to hear, not that she was being disciplined by the church, but that she refused to be forgiven, that she refused to acknowledge her sin as sin, and that she loved her sin more than Jesus.

29:58

Terrible, absolutely terrible. So, that's what's going on in this text this morning, the great church -disciplined text.

30:08

But it's all under the context of Jesus searching for that lost sheep, that little one whom the

30:17

Father doesn't will to be perished or destroyed. Right? If church discipline is not done in this spirit, then it's not truly church discipline.

30:28

Because Christ, He has bled and died for us. We have been purchased with His blood.

30:34

We are precious to Him, so precious that He calls us His little ones.

30:42

What a tender way for our Lord to talk to us. And so, even in church discipline, where it feels like, experientially, that you're getting the backside of God, even that has as its goal repentant faith in Christ and reconciliation and forgiveness.

31:02

If you don't understand that, you don't understand what it means to be in church discipline. It's all, all with the goal of the

31:09

Gospel in mind. So the text ends, our Gospel text ends, Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven.

31:18

Whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. This is the office of the keys, to forgive and bind.

31:24

All penitent sinners are to be forgiven. Impenitent sinners are not

31:29

Christians, because they don't want to be forgiven. Again, truly I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my

31:39

Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst. Dearly beloved in Christ, today we have gathered, there's more than two of us here.

31:50

Today we have gathered in the name of Christ, in the name of the Triune God. And Jesus is here in our midst today, speaking to every one of us through his word, calling us what we are, his baptized little ones.

32:04

He's washed away our sins. He's forgiven us all of our trespasses. He remembers them no more.

32:11

He's cast them as far away as the east is from the west. You couldn't find your sins even if you were to search for them in the deepest oceans.

32:19

They're gone, because Christ has done this for us. You are in him. Your sins are washed away.

32:25

You have been buried with Christ and raised with Christ. And this morning, Christ is going to be here to serve you, his body and blood, to assure you of his love for you and his forgiveness.

32:39

These are great promises, and they are sure, and the reason they're sure is because the one who made them is none other than God in human flesh.

32:49

He can be trusted. So if you ever find yourself in the awkward position where a member of Kongsvinger comes to say to you,

32:59

Brother or Sister, you've sinned. Repent. Listen to them.

33:06

Their goal is reconciliation. Their goal is your forgiveness, not your pain, not your hurt, not to brand you with a scarlet letter.

33:16

Instead, Jesus made that scarlet letter and put it on himself. It's the big scarlet letter S. The one who had no sin became sin for us so that we might be the righteousness of God.

33:29

So we repent, we trust, and we guard carefully against the stumbling blocks of the world and our sinful flesh, and we come here

33:38

Sunday after Sunday again and again to come back to our baptisms, to come back to hear

33:44

God's word and hear the comforting words of the assurance of the forgiveness of sins because this is good news, and it's the only good news that will see us safely through to the shores of Cana on the other side.

33:57

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

34:17

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

34:25

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

34:31

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

34:38

All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.