Constantinian Judaism

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. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Quite a cryptic gospel text.

00:33

You know, what is that all about? The Pharisees looking out for Jesus' health and safety and well -being?

00:39

That doesn't sound right. The reason it doesn't sound right is because we know for a fact that they've been plotting for more than a year on how to kill

00:47

Jesus. So why all of a sudden are they like, hey Jesus, Herod's out to get you.

00:53

You know, you better be careful. Yeah, something's up here. In fact, I think a good way to put it is is that the fact that they know that Herod's out to get

01:00

Jesus? Hmm, sounds to me like religion and state have come together in a way that's unholy.

01:08

In fact, oftentimes when church and state combine together, it's the dynamic duel of the devil, if you would.

01:15

It's kind of like Mystery Babylon in the book of Revelation. We must be careful because when religion and state come together, they're not really doing the will of God.

01:26

In fact, I think Paul put it quite succinctly when he talked about the fact that there are people who are opposed to the cross of Christ who are worldly people.

01:38

Worldly. And he says of them, their God is their belly. In other words, think of it this way.

01:44

Back in the ancient world when we talked about having a strong feeling, the Greek word is actually kind of fun. The Greek word is splogonizomai, right?

01:53

You know, it means your guts. Have you ever heard somebody say, I hate your guts, right? That's a very strong hate.

01:59

And so when your God is your belly, what that means is your God is your feelings.

02:06

Your mind and heart and life are not ruled at all by God's Word, His commandments,

02:13

His normative word as far as Revelation. No, when your God is your belly, this is idolatry.

02:19

Your idol now is what you feel. And those felt needs of yours oftentimes are going to be driving really, really insanely demonic behavior on your part.

02:32

I mean, consider our Old Testament text, if you would. Back when the temple was built by Solomon, Solomon at its dedication made it very clear that the purpose of this facility that was built by him was so that the name of God might dwell on it.

02:51

And then when you read the Torah, you read the book of Leviticus, and it talks about all of these different sacrifices that were to take place in the tabernacle and eventually in the temple.

03:01

God says these very specific words, and the words are, so they shall be forgiven.

03:09

The whole reason why there was a tabernacle and was a temple was for the forgiveness of sins.

03:16

And those animals that were sacrificed were all type and shadow pointing to the one true sacrifice in Jesus Christ.

03:24

But as is often the case when human beings, sinful human beings and their sinful passions, their belly burbling up within them, leading them astray, oftentimes you will find people within the visible church who are enemies of Christ.

03:41

That just seems odd. But that's exactly what happened in the times of Jeremiah.

03:47

Just a little bit earlier in the context of our Old Testament text, it says this in Jeremiah 26, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, who by the way was a wicked, wicked, wicked king.

04:00

So wicked that God said, your descendant will not actually be the Messiah. That's how wicked this guy was.

04:06

He said, in the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came from Yahweh.

04:12

Thus says Yahweh, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the

04:21

Lord. All the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not hold back a word.

04:28

All right. So Jeremiah is given a prophecy, words from the

04:33

Lord himself, that he is to speak in the temple complex as people come to worship.

04:39

And you would think hearing a word from God in the house of the Lord, people would stop, take pause, listen, consider, and add their amen to it.

04:50

But that's not the case because we're dealing with idolaters at this point, which by the way was the predominant sin of Israel.

04:57

In fact, it was so bad that in the ancient times, during this time, immediately before this, they had put up little images to Asherah and to Baal and to there was all these false deities within the actual temple itself.

05:12

And so God has sent his prophets, many of them, calling Israel to repent, calling

05:18

Israel to get rid of their stupid idols, the things that they are worshiping, which are the works of their hands, and that God has promised to forgive them.

05:28

Over and again the true prophets turn people from their sins and assure them of God's mercy and grace because the

05:35

Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. So the Lord says, here's what you say.

05:42

Okay, so don't hold back a word. And God says, it may be, maybe they'll listen. And every one of them turn from his evil way so that I might relent of the disaster that I intend to do them because of their evil deeds.

05:54

So you shall say to them, thus says Yahweh, if you will not listen to me to walk in my law that I have set before you and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom

06:06

I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.

06:18

And Shiloh was one of the places where the tabernacle had dwelt for a while in the Old Testament, in the time of the judges.

06:24

And it got moved on. In fact, it's not there. And after it moved on, Shiloh became well, a desolate place, a city that nobody lived in, a town that was vacated.

06:35

And so God is saying, if you will not repent of your sins, I'm going to take Jerusalem and this temple and I'm going to make it like Shiloh.

06:43

And of course, nobody was happy to hear this. The priests and the prophets. That's like all the religious leaders there are, right?

06:52

The priests and the prophets and all the people, they heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Yahweh.

06:58

And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and the people laid hold of Jeremiah saying, you shall die.

07:10

Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh saying this house will be like Shiloh and the city shall be desolate without inhabitant.

07:17

And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. Whoops. Yeah. Um, by the way, when

07:25

Jeremiah was commissioned, God pretty much said that people aren't going to listen to you. So when we talk about successful ministries, um,

07:33

I think we have to use a different metric when it comes to Jeremiah. How many people did Jeremiah upset today?

07:38

The more he upset, the more successful his ministry. It's just kind of a weird metric, but so he's got everybody upset at him in the house of the

07:47

Lord. And then if that's not enough, when the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the

07:52

King's house to the house of the Lord and took their seat at the entry of the new gate of the house of the Lord.

07:58

So now we've got the King, the King's officials, the priests, the prophets, and all the people.

08:05

This is not a fair fight. One guy versus the whole nation. And of course, when that happens, most people are going to sit there and go, you know, how is it possible that Jeremiah is right?

08:15

Who does he think he is? I mean, seriously, who do you think you are, Jeremiah, that you're speaking in a way that is upsetting all of these official people, the

08:24

King, the priests, and the prophets, and somehow you think you're in the right, right? That's how the people think.

08:31

So who are you gonna, who are you gonna cast your vote for? But we know the truth, and the truth is, is that Jeremiah was speaking the actual words that God gave him to speak in the very place where he told them to speak them.

08:44

So despite the fact that he was outnumbered and all of the official officials were opposed to him,

08:50

Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people saying, well Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and the city and all the words that you've heard.

08:59

Now therefore, mend your ways, repent, and change your deeds, and obey the voice of Yahweh your

09:05

God, and Yahweh will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, behold,

09:11

I'm in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon the city and its inhabitants.

09:20

For in truth, Yahweh sent me to speak all of these words in your ears. And by the way, if you want to read the rest of the chapter and you're wondering what happened to him, they didn't kill him.

09:31

They decided not to kill him. So, but you'll note here that Jeremiah's plight sounds a lot like Jesus.

09:37

Now fast forward into our gospel era, if you would, and keep this in mind, that Jesus is saying and doing things that are threatening to the institutions and the things that have grown up around the temple.

09:57

The purpose of the temple was the forgiveness of sins. This is the place where God caused his name to dwell.

10:03

And you'll note that on a couple of occasions, Christ, when he would travel to Jerusalem, he would make a point of, well, making a court of whips and driving the money changers out.

10:14

Because here's what happened is that a whole industry grew up around the temple.

10:20

And so the way it went was something like this. Well, we are under Roman occupation. And yes, the

10:25

Torah allows people to, if they're traveling from a long distance, to not have to bring their animals with them.

10:30

They can exchange them for money, bring the money with them, and then they could buy a sacrificial animal when they get to Jerusalem.

10:37

But here's the thing. Take a look at those denarii. You see whose face is on that? That's the

10:43

Roman emperor. This is pagan, dirty money. And you can't buy a sacrificial animal with one of these.

10:50

So we've set up these exchange tables. And you can exchange your denarii for temple shekels.

10:57

Of course, there's a 25 % surcharge for the exchange. But it's all going to good things, you know, ministry and all, you know.

11:05

That's a little weird, don't you think? And then consider this. Jesus not only drove the money changers out and took issue with that whole thing, that Jesus had this really weird habit that he would forgive people of their sins immediately without even sending him to the temple.

11:27

This is going to disrupt business. This is going to change everything if this keeps going on. I mean, think of it.

11:32

That poor fellow who was a paralytic, that they lowered him through the roof of Jesus's house.

11:38

Yeah, read the Gospel of Mark. That was actually Jesus's house that they dug the hole in. They lowered the paralytic through the roof.

11:43

He lands on the ground safely, and Jesus looks at him and says, your sins are forgiven. And they all go, what?

11:52

Who can forgive sins except for God alone? And Jesus is all, why are these evil thoughts rising in your hearts and in your minds?

12:01

So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, I say to the paralytic, rise, take your mat, and go home.

12:08

And he did. Now think of it this way. This is going to totally change business.

12:15

I mean, you can already at this point, if you are invested in the power and the institutions that have risen around the temple, you can see that your profit margins are going to plummet if this keeps going on.

12:30

This Jesus is going to change everything. Think of it this way. Do you all remember Blockbuster? Does anyone remember

12:36

Blockbuster? Yeah, I mean, Blockbuster at one time kind of ruled the entertainment world.

12:43

I remember having to make a choice. My family, when Blockbuster first came out and those video tapes came out, they made a decision.

12:49

Are we going to go with beta or we're going to go with VHS? My parents chose beta. It was a bad decision.

12:55

We ended up having to convert it into VHS later. But do you know that Netflix, Netflix, the guy who came up with the idea, met with the executives of Blockbuster and pitched the idea to them.

13:09

You know what they said? They said, listen, the Internet's a fad. The Internet's a fad.

13:15

No one's going to want to get their DVDs and entertainment via the Internet. No one's going to want to do that. As of today, there is one

13:22

Blockbuster store left in all of the United States. One. All right, and so Jesus coming and forgiving sins,

13:31

Jesus saying statements about the temple being torn down, where Jesus says not one stone is going to remain on top of this temple mount.

13:40

It's all going to be thrown down. This is challenging the business and the institution around it, whereby these people have made themselves wealthy and powerful.

13:50

Is it any wonder they wanted to get rid of him? Right? So then we come to our gospel text.

13:58

At that very hour, some of the Pharisees came and said to Jesus, hey, Jesus, get away from here. Herod wants to kill you.

14:04

Uh -huh. Right. And Jesus is having none of this. So he said to them, you go and tell that fox.

14:10

Behold, I cast out demons. I perform cures today and tomorrow. And the third day, I finish my course.

14:17

Jesus doesn't seem to be fazed about this particular threat on his life, even coming from as high as Herod himself.

14:23

In fact, you'll note that Jesus, when he was at Capernaum in the synagogue there, not Capernaum, but Nazareth, and they got upset and they wanted to throw him off the cliff, he just walked right through the middle of them.

14:33

Remember, nobody can take Jesus' life. He lays it down of his own accord. And he says he's going to finish his course on the third day.

14:39

And indeed, he did. Crucified under Pontius Pilate. And on the third day, he rose again from the grave.

14:45

Rose again from the grave and was crucified so that you and I can be forgiven and reconciled to God. That free gift of God without having to pay for it.

14:55

Right. You remember the scandal that we're talking about in the news over the last couple of weeks about those college admissions.

15:01

They were calling it pay to play. Yeah. How many different churches have created systems where it's pay to pray?

15:08

Right. Lots of power, lots of money associated with that. But Jesus says, none of that. I'm not worried about that. I must go on my way today, tomorrow and the following day.

15:17

It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. And then we get these tender words from Christ. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

15:28

How often would I have gathered your children like a hen gathered her brood under her wings. And you're not willing.

15:35

Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the

15:43

Lord. Many, Paul says, whom

15:48

I've often told you about and now even warn you with tears. They walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

15:55

The Pharisees and Herod did. There are many people in the visible church today who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

16:02

And the reason why is because they are idolaters. Their feelings, their need for power, their need for control, their idolization of the institutions that have grown around the church have well gotten in the way, shall we say.

16:20

And Paul says their end is their destruction. Their end is destruction. They glory in their shame and their minds are set on earthly things.

16:28

But brothers and sisters, forgiveness of sins is free. It is a gift.

16:35

Christ went to the cross for you and you cannot buy his forgiveness with money.

16:42

And his church doesn't exist for you to flex power or to have that inner need to be in control of everything.

16:52

Take over and keep this in mind that even the United States government is established by God.

17:00

And yet there are people who idolize even that. Very fascinating. But see, we are not to be that way.

17:08

We are not to have idols. We must examine our lives and ask ourselves what false gods have we established and worshiped and look to to receive good from and to satisfy our feelings and our inner passions for self glory and power and wealth and things of that nature.

17:27

And we need to repent because you have to understand this. Idolatry is completely 100 percent opposed to the worship of the one true

17:36

God, which is the reason why idolatry is always a mortal enemy of the cross of Christ.

17:43

Where the cross of Christ disappears and diminishes, then you know that a false god has taken hold and taken over.

17:51

Scripture says, though, of those who do such things that their end is destruction. But see, our citizenship is in heaven and there's a reason for this.

18:01

Remember, I said that Solomon, when he dedicated the temple, said this was the place where the name of God would dwell.

18:07

Well, brothers and sisters, God caused his name to be put on you in the waters of baptism.

18:12

When you were baptized, whoever the pastor was, he said, I baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the

18:19

Holy Spirit. And you were given the gift of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, the washing away of all of your iniquity, united with Christ and in his death and his resurrection.

18:30

And now your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Isn't that fascinating? Isn't that fascinating?

18:36

All of this you received as a gift, as a gift from Christ. So because of this, because we are forgiven, because Christ has bled and died for us, because Christ has repented us, because Christ has given us faith.

18:52

Now our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

18:59

And he then, when he returns, will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to him even subject all things to himself.

19:12

And see, Jesus says to them that you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the

19:18

Lord. And you get the idea here from Jesus that the Pharisees and Herod, when they say blessed is he who comes in the name of the

19:24

Lord, they will not be saying that in rejoicing. They will be saying that in order to say that Christ, you are right and you are vindicated.

19:32

But we who've been bled for died for, we who are fed with Christ's body and blood, we who are forgiven when he appears, he we will say blessed is he who comes in the name of the

19:43

Lord. And for us, that will be worship and thanksgiving and praise, a day of rejoicing rather than a day of dread.

19:52

Hmm. So let us repent of our idolatry and stop making our stomach and our feelings and our passions, our gods.

20:03

Instead, trust in the outside word of God that comes to us, even in such a humble place as this tiny church in the middle of radium,

20:11

Minnesota. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, in the name of Jesus.

20:17

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

20:35

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

20:42

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

20:49

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

20:56

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