To Him All The Prophets Bear Witness

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.

Acts 10: Cornelius, Peter, and the Gospel to the Gentiles

From Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our first reading tonight is from Acts chapter 10 verses 1 through 43. At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all of his household.

He gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, what is it Lord?

And he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.

When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants in and a devout soldier from among those who attended him and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. The next day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

And he became hungry and wanted something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.

In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him, rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, by no means Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.

And the voice came to him again a second time, what God has made clean do not call common. This happened three times and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there.

And while he was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, behold three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said, I am the one you're looking for.

What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.

So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted up and said, stand up, I too am a man. And as he talked with him, he went and found many persons gathered.

And he said to them, you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection.

I asked then, why you sent for me? And Cornelius said, four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour. Behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.

Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging in a house of Simon a Tanner by the sea. So I sent for you at once and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.

So Peter opened his mouth and he said, truly I understand that God shows no partiality. But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right, it is acceptable to him. And as for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.

You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.

For God was with him and we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all of the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. To him, to Jesus, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

The Emmaus Road and the Scriptures Concerning Christ

Please stand for the Holy Gospel. The Holy Gospel, according to St. Luke, chapter 24, verses 13 through 27. This is the day of Christ's resurrection. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?

And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things?

And they said, well, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed, word before God, and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death.

And they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company, they amazed us.

They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had seen a vision of angels, and said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.

And he said to them, oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the things concerning himself.

In the name of Jesus, hear the words of Peter. To him, to Jesus, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. That's you. That's me. That's everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, who believes in him, receives forgiveness in his name.

And Peter said to him, Jesus, all of the prophets bear witness. The Bible is about Jesus. It's about what he has done for us on the promise going all the way back to that Garden of Eden. And then Jesus's words from our Gospel text, kind of reprimanding Cleopas while he's holding their eyes.

The Greek word there, by the way, it says they were not able to recognize him. The Greek idiom says their eyes were held. It's kind of a funny way of talking about it. So they don't even realize this is Jesus.

And Jesus says to them, oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

Prophecy, Typology, and the Betrayal for Thirty Pieces of Silver

Now that is one sermon I really wish somebody had hit the record button for, right? But it makes you go, well if he didn't record it, maybe we can kind of figure it out. Now last week we began to unpack this a little bit, and we looked in the Old Testament and found some of the prophecies regarding Jesus.

And tonight I'll share with you a few more. And one of them we'll look at that's kind of explicit. Another one we're going to look at that's typological, but also has some explicit things in it. And then we'll take a look at one of the Psalms.

So Jesus is of this opinion that the scriptures are about him. Peter is of this opinion that the scriptures are about Jesus, that the prophets bear witness about him. Well, do you remember that story about Judas?

He's not a very popular guy to preach on, by the way. It's just life applications are really tough to dig out of Judas's story, right? Well, if you remember the story, Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

30 pieces of silver. Now, typologically you see this theme in the Old Testament. Do you remember Samson and Delilah? Do you know what Delilah received for betraying Samson? Pieces of silver. She did. It's kind of fascinating.

And in that story, the story of Samson, well, Samson actually plays the role of Jesus. He's typologically pointed to Jesus. Kind of scary, though, because Samson is one of these Christ figures, you know, typologically in the Old Testament.

Man, that guy is messed up. He is really messed up. And so we'll have to talk about him another time, kind of unpack what's going on with that story. But suffice it to say that in the story of Samson, Samson typologically is pointing us to Jesus.

Well, this theme of being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver not only picks up as a theme typologically, but is explicitly stated as a prophecy regarding Jesus Christ. The prophet Zechariah, he's a minor prophet, in chapter 11, verses 12 and 13 of his prophecy, it says this.

Then I said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them. And they weighed out as my wages 30 pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, get this, throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them.

So I took the 30 pieces of silver and I threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. Strange prophecy. And even when you read this in context in Zechariah, you sit there and you scratch your head and go, huh?

You read it in Hebrew and then you scratch your head and go, huh? What is this 30 pieces of silver? Throw it to the potter. Well, this is fulfilled in this way, Matthew chapter 27. And there's also kind of a fun little thing here.

There's a what we call a thorny little issue. Have you ever read a book like Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties? You know, what do you do with passages like this? There's something that comes up in here.

See if you can catch it. So when Judas, this is Matthew 27 verse 3, when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.

They said, what is that to us? See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, well, it's not lawful to put them into the treasury since it's blood money.

So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Wow, that is an amazing fulfillment of the prophecy. Then Matthew writes this, then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah saying, and they took 30 pieces of silver, the price of him whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me.

You sit there and go, wait a second, we just read this from Zechariah. Why does Matthew point us to Jeremiah? Oh, I'm glad you asked. Well, the Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties written by Gleason Archer says this, as we turn to Jeremiah 32 verses 6 through 9, we find that the prophet was purchasing a field in Anathoth for a certain number of shekels.

Jeremiah 18 verse 2 describes the prophet as watching a potter fashioning earthenware vessels in his house, and Jeremiah 19 verse 2 indicates that there was a potter near the temple having his workshop in the valley of Hinnom.

Jeremiah 19 verse 11 reads, thus says Yahweh of hosts, even so I will break this people and this city as one breaks a potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again, and they shall bury them in Topheth.

It would seem, therefore, that Zechariah's casting of his purchase money to the potter dated back to the symbolic actions of Jeremiah the prophet, yet it is only Jeremiah that mentions the field of the potter, which is the principal point of Matthew's quotation.

Matthew, therefore, is combining and summarizing elements of prophetic symbolism from both Zechariah and from Jeremiah, but since Jeremiah is the more prominent of the two prophets, he mentions Jeremiah's name by preference to that of the minor prophet.

Absolutely fascinating. And so when you see what's going on, Jeremiah is the one who typologically kind of foreshadows this. Zechariah picks up on the theme and gives more explicit detail, and then Matthew takes both Zechariah and Jeremiah and blends them together and mentions the major prophet, not the minor prophet.

But what a fascinating thing that is going on there, that all the way back in the Old Testament, we can see that Jesus would be betrayed, the Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, that the money, it would be thrown to the potter, but here's what it says, though.

So I took the 30 pieces of silver, threw them into the house of the Lord, the temple, to the potter. And now you see what's going on. And you go, how on earth did Zechariah and Jeremiah figure this out?

Well, keep this in mind. Every book in the Bible is, as Paul describes it in 1 Timothy, theionoustos. That means God breathed. So even though we have 66 different books of the Bible and 40-something authors, there's one common author for every book in the Bible, and that's God the Holy Spirit.

So it's not that Zechariah or Jeremiah were so clever that they can look into the future to figure this out, because no human being could do such a thing. Instead, God the Holy Spirit gave them that. Now, another one.

The Passover Lamb, the Exodus, and Christ Our Substitute

We'll pick this up, first of all, from explicit things, and then we'll kind of move out typologically. Regarding the Messiah, the Old Testament told us that not one of Jesus's bones would be broken. Here's the prophecy, Psalm 34, 19 through 20.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken. There's the prophecy. What is all that about? What's this non-broken bone policy regarding the Messiah?

Well, this goes typologically back all the way to the book of Exodus and the Passover. You've heard the phrase, Christ, our Passover lamb, has been slain. That's from, I think, 2 Corinthians. But here's what Exodus says regarding the Passover, starting at verse 1, chapter 12.

The Lord said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.

And if a household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat. You shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old.

You may take it from the sheep or the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month. And then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Then they shall take some of the blood, put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire. With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roast it, its head with its legs and its inner parts, and you shall let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

In this manner you shall eat it, with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover, for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

I am Yahweh. The blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.".

Yeah, it's 1 Corinthians 5 .7. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been slain. Now we'll pause there for a second before we kind of finish this out. This typologically points us to Jesus. Think about it, all right?

The destroyer is coming through the land of Egypt to kill all of the firstborn in Egypt. The only way somebody's house could be spared this judgment is if the blood of a lamb is over the door lintels of their home.

The destroyer comes through, and if the destroyer sees that your house's door has the blood of the lamb over it, he passes by. If Christ is our Passover lamb, what saves us from the destroyer? Are we not all washed in the blood of the lamb?

Right? So Jesus is that Passover lamb, and consider this also. What did they do with that lamb? They feasted on it. They feasted on that lamb. They ate it. They roasted it, and you had to make sure to eat it.

So here you have this sacrifice that is a substitute. The lamb then is standing in for the firstborn of all of Egypt and all of Israel, and so the lamb becomes the substitute rather than a human being dying.

Well, it's the lamb that dies in its place, and they eat this lamb, and we here at this table, we eat the body, drink the blood of Christ, our Passover lamb who was slain. It's all there for us, but then this bones part comes up.

The second part of Exodus chapter 12. It says this,. If this isn't talking about Jesus, then I don't know what is. The apostle John in his gospel writes this. When we're reading scripture, we're not dealing with a human book.

We're dealing with something miraculous, and like I read, Christ, our Passover lamb, has been slain, has been sacrificed, and he was sacrificed for us. Psalm 22, one of the clearest descriptions of Jesus' suffering on the cross, written hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ was ever born of the Virgin Mary.

Here's what it says,. Those words sound familiar to you? Oh, my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel, and you our fathers trusted.

They trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were rescued. In you they trusted, and were not put to shame. But I'm a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me.

They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. Were those not the very words of the Pharisees while Jesus was on the cross?

He trusted in the Lord. He saved other people. Why can't he save himself? Call on God. Maybe God will rescue him, right? And yet this was written by David. Yet you are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breast.

On you I was cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me.

They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue sticks to my jaws.

You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. Did you catch that part?

They pierce my hands and my feet. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. It's as if the psalmist could see Christ being crucified. It's as if somebody had popped in a DVD and he was watching the events.

It's that clear. And think about it this way. You know, Jesus fulfilled so many prophecies. It's ridiculous the number of prophecies that he fulfilled. That some of the prophecies he could have kind of rigged if he were trying, but a prophecy like this, how does somebody rig it?

They pierce my hands and my feet. How do you get the Roman soldiers to gamble for your clothing? This all points to the amazing fact that Christ is our Lord and Savior. He is King of kings and Lord of lords.

And as Peter says, to him all the prophets bear witness. As Jesus said, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer? Beginning with Moses and the prophets, he interpreted them, all the scriptures concerning himself.

The more you look for Jesus in the Old Testament, the more you will find him. But let me continue the story a little bit. We'll go back to our gospel text. I purposely left it unfinished, and I left it unfinished so that we could continue it a little bit, because I wanted to make the point that Jesus makes.

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And then beginning with Moses and the prophets, he interpreted them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

It's all about Jesus. So the story continues. So they drew near to the village to which they were going, and Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it's toward evening, and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them. And when he was at table with them, watch this, he took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. That should sound familiar, right? And this is what it says,.

And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus. And then he vanished from their sight. So they're at table, bread and wine, and he takes it, and he breaks the bread, and they go, You're Jesus! And then poof, he's gone.

And listen to this. They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, and while he opened to us the scriptures? So while Jesus was teaching them from Moses and the prophets how all of this was written about him, even his suffering, his death, and his resurrection were prophesied by the prophets, while Jesus is showing them and helping them to understand how to read the word of God, their hearts are burning within them.

And so they rose that same hour. So it's the day is far spent. Yeah, we're going to kick it here for a little bit. They rose that same hour, and they returned to Jerusalem. They were probably hightailing it.

You're not going to believe what happened. So they found the eleven, and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. And they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Christ, the God-Man, and the Comfort of Fulfilled Prophecy

Wow, what an amazing Lord we have. What an amazing God we have. These are not magic tricks. These are the very fingerprint of God, and they comfort us. They comfort us and show us that our faith is not misplaced.

Our faith and trust in Christ is well placed. For what man could perform these miracles? What man could fulfill these prophecies? No man can. And see, Jesus is more than a man. He's the Son of God. He's God in human flesh.

He's the God-man. And the reason why He took on human flesh and was born of the Virgin was for you, for me, to bleed and to die for us, to save and rescue us from the dominion of darkness, to set us free from the power of sin, death, and the devil, and to give us hope.

And one day we will stand before Him and marvel at His scars, as we just sang. Marvel and see in His very hands the wounds that He was experienced, that He was pierced for you and for me. This is not some fairy tale.

This is not some legend or some myth. This is the truth. This is reality. This is the God who made us and who has rescued us. And we await His arrival on Christmas morning. And now in Advent, we ponder anew what it means to think about what a glorious God we have, and our own need for repentance, and trusting in Him for His forgiveness.

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.

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And again, thank you for listening.