Lord Over Death

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. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the seventh chapter.

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Soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain and his disciples, and a great crowd went with him.

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As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother.

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And she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the

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Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep. And then he came up and touched the beer, and the bearer stood still.

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And he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak.

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And Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying,

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A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people. And this report about him spread throughout the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Death. Yeah, we don't like talking about it.

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But whether we talk about it or not, death comes. Death comes for all of us, unless Christ shows up.

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Maybe next Thursday would be a good time for him to show up, because then maybe we can avert death.

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But alas, if Christ continues to tarry, we will all someday die.

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And you'll note that throughout the gospels, there are several instances, three to be exact, where Jesus raises the dead.

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The first is Jarius's daughter, a young 12 -year -old girl. Then we have this fellow, the son of the widow of Nain.

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And clearly, he's a young man. So I would note here, this fellow, by virtue of the fact that he's a young man, and the first person that Jesus raised from the dead was a girl, a little 12 -year -old girl, that death comes for us all.

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We all are born already with one foot in the grave. And death is no respecter of persons.

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Death doesn't sit there and go, oh, well, you're too young to die. No, no, no, no. Death doesn't think this way.

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Death sweeps us all away. Infant, unborn, older, younger, it doesn't matter.

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And then the third of Jesus' raising people from the dead miracles is

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Lazarus, the one whom he loved. And so we'll note that tragedy comes for us all.

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In our gospel text today, this is indeed tragedy. In fact, the tragedy is surpassed by the mercy of Christ.

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So Jesus is traveling to a town called Nain. And as he drew near to the gate, there was a man who had died, being carried out.

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The only son of his mother, she was a widow. A considerable crowd from the town was with her.

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And this woman as a widow, I mean, she's facing abject poverty.

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That's what's facing her. She doesn't have a son anymore. Her husband has passed.

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What does her future look like? Bleak. And you're going to note something here. And that is that oftentimes tragedy visits us.

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And we cry out to God and we say, why? And I am not authorized to say why, because I do not know the mind of God.

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However, I have noticed that there are times in people's lives when

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God sends tragedy. Oftentimes it is to make it so that the good things of this earth do not tempt us in ways that we put our trust in them.

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Our heart's desire is for them rather than for God. You'll note that by faith, we despise all the things of this earth.

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We do not cast our eyes on and trust in riches or wealth or youth or in the love of a spouse or the love of a mother or the love of a child.

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If we love these things more than Christ, then we're not worthy of eternal life. We're still impenitent.

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We're still dead in trespasses and sins. And so sometimes tragedy comes as a means by which

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God strips away those things that would harm our faith. In this particular case, we're in the middle of this tragedy.

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This kid has just died. And Christ, here he has compassion. It says the

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Lord saw her and he had compassion on her. And he comes and offers words of consolation.

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He's saying to her, do not weep. This isn't a prohibition as if somehow weeping is an anti -Christian thing to do.

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No, no, no, no. This has to do with the fact that he's saying, take comfort, take comfort. Don't weep.

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I've got something for you. And then he came up, touched the beer and the bearer stood still.

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And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. Man, talk about compassion.

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Third, three people Christ raises from the dead. The fourth is himself, by the way, when

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Jesus was challenged regarding the things that he was doing, especially making a cord and a whip and driving out the money changers.

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And when the Pharisees challenged Christ and said, show us a sign by what authority you do these things.

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And Jesus said, tear down this temple and I'll build it again in three days. He said, I will build it. Jesus is

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God in human flesh. So you'll note that the second person of the Trinity, the son of God, he also was instrumental in his own rising from the dead.

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So that technically counts as the fourth. But what does this show us? What does this show us? You'll note that the reaction of the people of Nain, they immediately realized something huge has happened in their midst.

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Let their fear speak to you. Fear sees them all. And they ended up glorifying God, saying a great prophet has arisen among us.

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God has visited his people. Good words. Good words.

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God has visited his people. Indeed, he has. You see,

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God has visited his people because Christ is God in human flesh.

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As Paul says in Colossians, in him, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.

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Or as John says in the Gospel of John chapter one, that God has tabernacled among us.

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We have been visited by God. And note that although this visitation by God is 2 ,000 years ago, do not let the fact, that fact, keep you from seeing the truth.

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God's word is living and active and sharper than a double -edged sword. The fact that Christ raised this widow's son from the dead is every bit as powerful and potent as it was 2 ,000 years ago.

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God has visited his people. He's visited you. He's visited me. And he's come and demonstrated something by fulfilling one of the words of the prophets.

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In the prophet Hosea, we read in chapter 13, verse 14,

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Yahweh speaking, I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol.

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Indeed, that's exactly what God did, what Yahweh did. By taking on human flesh,

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Christ bleeding and dying for the sins of the world. Sheol now kind of being portrayed as, well, as a highwayman who's absconded with us and is holding us hostage, waiting for a ransom.

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And that's what Christ does. By bleeding and dying for your sins, he has ransomed us from sin, death, the devil himself.

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And so it says in Hosea, chapter 13, verse 14, Yahweh speaking, I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol.

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I shall redeem them from death. And that's what

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Jesus has done. You know, death, it's a terrible thing. There's just no way around it.

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If you find yourself in mourning, it often feels like the whole world is passing you by, that you've been somehow shoved to the side of the road and just had something stripped from you that was so precious and so needful.

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That's always what happens when death, right? But you know, God knows a thing or two about death.

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God the Father watched on while his son bled and died for your sins and mine.

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And what was he doing on the cross? Redeeming us. Redeeming us so that we can be set free once and for all from death.

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Is it any wonder then that Hosea then goes on to say, oh, death, where's your plagues?

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Where are your plagues, death? You seem to be a toothless wonder. You guys remember Rudolph the

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Red -Nosed Reindeer and the Abominable Snowman? How did they conquer the

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Abominable Snowman? Well, Hermie, the dentist, takes all of his teeth out.

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And see, that's what Jesus did. By him being swallowed up by death. On the third day,

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Christ rose victorious from the grave and he has totally taken away death's power.

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Death has no power over you as a Christian. Death has no power over me as a

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Christian. When we die and our eyes close in this lifetime, we are awakened to the joys of eternal life in the presence of Christ forever.

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Death is not something that is a horrible experience for a believer. Indeed, it's the exact opposite.

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So, oh, death, where are your plagues? Oh, Sheol, where is your sting?

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The answer to the question is, it's nowhere to be found. Jesus puts it this way in the

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Gospel of John, chapter 5. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the

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Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the

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Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. So whoever does not honor the

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Son does not honor the Father who sent him. So truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has, present tense, now eternal life, and that's you.

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You are in Christ. You've heard the Gospel. You've heard his words. You're hearing his words right now because the words that I'm speaking, they're not my own, they're his.

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And you trust in him and you believe in him. You already have eternal life.

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Oh, death, where is your sting, man, huh? I already have eternal life and so do you.

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He does not come into judgment and neither will you.

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But it's already passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, Jesus says, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the

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Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. You know, by Jesus raising these three people from the dead, including the son of the widow of Nain, he's demonstrated that he is the one who is the

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Lord of life and death. And he is the one who's ravaging death.

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And he's the one who's taken the teeth out of death and taken its sting away. So we already have eternal life and you, oh brother, sister, you're going to hear the voice of the

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Son of God when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead because the dead will hear, he says.

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You'll note the dead don't seem to respond to anything. You know, hey, are you there? Wake up, wake up. No, they don't respond to nothing, right?

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But they do respond to the voice of Jesus on the day that he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

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The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear, they will live.

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For as the Father has life in himself, so he's granted the Son also to have life in himself. He's given him authority to execute judgment because he is the

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Son of Man. So do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and they will come out.

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You see, that widow's son, Jesus said, young man,

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I say to you, arise. Well, Jesus, when he returns, he will say to you, arise, call you by name, arise, you'll come out.

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And those who have done good by trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, who've already passed from death to life, who will not come into judgment, they will go to the resurrection of life.

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But those who persist in sin and unbelief, well, foolishly, they'll head to the resurrection of judgment.

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Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 35. Some will ask, how are the dead raised?

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With what kind of body do they come? You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

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And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

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But God gives it a body as he has chosen to each kind of seed, its own body.

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For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, and another for birds and another for fish.

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There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, the glory of the earthly is of another.

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There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.

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The stars differ from star and glory, so it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

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It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

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It is sown a natural body and it is raised a spiritual body. Now, if there is a natural body, there's also a spiritual body.

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Thus it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being, and the last man became a life -giving spirit.

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But it's not the spiritual that is first, it is the natural, then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust.

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The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are also those of the dust.

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And as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

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So I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Our mortal flesh cannot.

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It is required that we take off this sinful flesh.

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We do so naturally by dying, all right? And then being raised from the dead.

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So I tell you, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

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So behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. There will be

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Christians when Jesus returns. But we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

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For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable. And we shall be changed.

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For this perishable body must put on the imperishable. And this mortal body must put on immortality.

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When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written.

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And we just read it. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory?

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Oh, death, where is your sting? Right? The sting of death is sin. The power of sin is the law.

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But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable in your faith in Jesus, always abounding in the work of the

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Lord, knowing that the Lord in the Lord is your labor. None of it is in vain.

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So brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ truly is the Lord of life. He's ravaged death for you.

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He suffered death in your place so that you would never have to die. And we know this theme of death and resurrection.

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It's not a theme as if somehow it's a mythology. It's a fact. You are already alive in Christ.

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You've been buried with Christ in the waters of your baptism. You've been raised with Christ in the waters of your baptism.

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God has already seated you in heavenly places with Christ. And when he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead, he will bring you back with him if you perish now.

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And he will raise you from the dead to live forever.

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There is a day coming when mothers will never again be taken away from their children.

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Fathers the same. Nor will any children die and be taken from their parents.

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But we will all enjoy our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, face to face on into eternity and enjoy each other in a world without end.

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Christ has conquered death. He is risen. He is risen indeed. And so will you.

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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

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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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