We've All Tested Positive for the Disease Called SIN

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 from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

Luke, the 15th chapter. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear

Jesus, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man received sinners and eats with them.

So he told them this parable, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety -nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them,

Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety -nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she finds it?

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.

Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. This is the gospel of the

Lord. In the name of Jesus. Alright, let me ask you a weird question.

I don't usually like going to the dentist. I think that they're evil people because they always inflict pain.

But have you ever been to the dentist office, you know, showed up early, like when everybody else has the early morning appointments, and there you are in the waiting room, and there's a whole bunch of other patients there, and the doctor has yet to arrive, and there he comes in the door, takes one look at the waiting room, and goes,

What is this? A bunch of people with dental problems?

If you would just brush your teeth, you wouldn't need me. What's wrong with you people?

Then he storms off in a huff. That doesn't make any sense, does it? Or how about somebody who's a psychiatrist, gets a job at Altru, work in the mental ward, right?

Goes in for the first day of work, and storms out, and says, I can't work here, there's a bunch of crazy people here.

Nobody does that either. Or how about an emergency room physician scoffing at the fact that the waiting room is full of sick people?

Nobody does this. And there's a reason why, and because these people, it's their jobs to heal the broken, to care for the sick, to bind up the wounded.

And it's with that thought in mind I would like you to consider our gospel text. I'm gonna go a little bit longer because Jesus said this is a single parable, not three.

It says this in our gospel text, the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to hear

Jesus, and the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

I always point this out, if Jesus didn't eat with sinners, he would have eaten by himself the entire time he was incarnate here on earth.

It's important to note then there's a problem here in the Pharisees' thinking, and this is important for us to make this distinction.

The Pharisees here believed that sinning made you a sinner. It's quite evident that that's the case.

But Scripture teaches something very different, very different indeed. Scripture teaches that we sin because we are sinners.

When I first came into the Lutheran Church, having spent time in the Nazarene Church, charismatic movement, evangelicalism, there were hurdles that had to be overcome, if you would.

I don't know if you've noticed this about Lutherans, they are a strange group. In fact, when

I was an evangelical, I didn't even think that Lutherans were saved. And my first contact with them, I even verbalized that and said, they can't be saved, they're not even trying, right?

But when I first came into the Lutheran Church and experienced for the first time that thing that we do at the beginning of every service, and that is the confession and absolution,

I didn't have a problem saying the words, I have sinned against God and thought were indeed by what I've done and by what

I've not done. The words I struggled with were these words, I confess that I am by nature sinful and unclean.

I heard those words and I thought it was a complete cop -out. This is ridiculous. You're like saying, well

God, this is just how I am. But isn't that like a cancer patient saying to their doctor,

I have cancer? You see, that's the thing. Years ago, I'll tell you a little about some of the frustrations of my childhood.

I've learned that I can do good therapy for myself here by talking about the things that I went through in my childhood. I consider this to be group therapy, you guys are gonna be helping me out.

But when I was a junior in high school, we attended a very strict

Catholic Church, not Catholic Church, but a Christian school run by the Nazarenes for the most part.

And we were not allowed to have a prom. Dancing was not forbidden.

They were very Norwegian in that sense. And as a result of that, we had what was called a junior -senior banquet.

And I, well Barb and I were dating at the time and I was goo -goo for her and she wasn't exactly goo -goo for me, but that's a different story altogether.

But I was really looking forward to this junior -senior banquet because if I can't dance, well at least we can dress up nice and see my wife in one of those beautiful dresses and I can wear a tuxedo.

We won't talk about the fact that A's tuxedo fashions were abysmal, you know, we try not to talk about that or remember the photos.

But the idea was is that just like ten days before the junior -senior banquet, my mother gets a phone call from the school that my brother was in and he had to come home sick.

And when he arrived home, he was covered in chicken pox. And I came home from school and there's my brother with chicken pox and I got angry at my mom.

And here's the reason why. Mom! Why didn't you tell me that Mark had the chicken pox? Because if I had known that,

I would have gone to live at Mike's house because the incubation period for chicken pox makes it so I'm going to break out with the chicken pox either a day or two just before the junior - senior banquet.

And my mom had words with me, she thought I was being a jerk for saying that. I'm still in therapy on that one too.

But sure enough, right on time, just two days before the junior -senior banquet,

I broke out in chicken pox and I was miserable. Not only miserable from the chicken pox, but miserable because I had bought these tickets to go to the junior -senior banquet and there was no way

I was going. It was just utterly abysmal. Now, we all know what chicken pox is like.

It's just horrifying. It's terrible. Your whole body breaks out. You have to control your urge to itch and you've got this rash with these pimply -like heads on them and you don't want to break the head.

It's horrible. But here's the thing, is that now that I've had the chicken pox,

I still have the chicken pox. I am just one good anxiety attack or one really bad season away from breaking out in shingles, which is the reanimation of the dormant chicken pox virus that's sitting in my body.

In fact, my great -aunt, she had a bout with shingles and where the shingles broke out was really close to her spinal cord and the shingles got into her brain.

Her brain swelled and she died. So note something here.

I am a carrier of the chicken pox virus, even though I am not symptomatic right now.

It's a good way to think about sin is that way. It is like a complete corruption of our nature, body, soul, our complete person.

And each and every one of us, we are born with this condition. Whether you are currently symptomatic in a major way or you just have minor outbreaks right now, it doesn't matter.

You have tested positive for sin and because of this, this is the reason why you sin.

So it is not a cop -out to say I am by nature sinful and unclean. It is saying, Lord, I have tested positive.

I am a sinner. And then the symptoms of that condition are that I have sinned against God and thought word -deed.

And so think across your life for the last week or yesterday or the last month or the last year.

Can any of you say you've been completely symptom -free from this disease? I can't, and neither can you, which is why we begin the divine service with a confession of sin, confessing that we are all sinners.

And so you'll note then that these Pharisees, their thinking is upside down, it's backwards, it's inside out.

I mean, who in their right mind thinks that they're not a sinner? And so Jesus then tells them this parable, singular, and he asks the question, what man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety -nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

Now listen, my first master's degree is business. I have an MBA from Pepperdine, and I can tell you, in the business world when you have an asset that's lost or is no longer useful or you think has been destroyed, it's really simple, you just write it off.

It's gone, let it go, and then you keep track of the assets that you still have. So what

Jesus is saying here doesn't make any business sense, doesn't make any sense even in the shepherding world.

This is like, what planet are you from, Jesus? That's kind of what's going on here.

So he goes, he leaves ninety -nine perfectly good assets out in the open country, unprotected, to go after the one that is lost until he finds it.

Important to know, there's a lot of talk in our days about seeker -driven churches. Churches that, well, apparently will attract a religious seeker.

But Romans says that no one seeks for God, and Paul there in Romans 3 is quoting the

Psalms. No one seeks for God. All have sinned, all have turned away, together they become worthless.

Their throats are open, graves, you kind of get the idea, this isn't going to help your self -esteem.

But you'll note that Christ himself says that he came, he came to seek and to save the lost.

So if we're going to talk about seeker -driven churches, let's talk about the one who seeks the lost. Let's talk about that guy.

Jesus is the seeker. And so you'll note here, he is seeking those sheep that have been lost, those who in the madness of their sin have wandered away from the fold.

They've become full -blown symptomatic of the disease of sin. And Jesus, rather than scolding them and saying, if that sheep hadn't have been so stupid, well, sheep are dumb anyway.

If that sheep had just exercised some common sense, a little bit of self -restraint, he wouldn't have got himself lost.

Jesus isn't that way at all. Knowing the madness of sin, knowing that this is his sheep, he loves and cares for his sheep and goes and seeks for it and finds it.

And when he has done so, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And by the way, this is a picture of repentance.

You'll note who's doing the repenting. Christ is doing the repenting to us. And so then when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying, rejoice with me,

I have found my sheep that was lost. And so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

This is a picture of you. This is a picture of me. We were born dead in trespasses and sins lost under the dominion of darkness.

Christ sought us out through his word in the waters of baptism, and he found us and he rejoices.

And then you'll note then that there's some kind of weird strange party at the end of all of this. There must be a lot of partying going on in heaven for all the sinners out there who are repenting.

I wonder if they're getting any work done, right? And then Jesus tells the second part of this singular parable is what woman having ten silver coins.

Now these aren't exorbitant coins, they're not gold, but I mean they have some value. She loses one coin, does not light a lamp, and then sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it.

Now I don't have silver coins and can't say that I could afford such a thing, but I can say this, I've lost my keys from time to time.

And we all know how this goes, you know. And my wife always says something helpful like, well they're gonna be in the last place that you, you know, the last place you, when you find them, that'll be the last place you look.

It's like, thanks, right? You know, but what do you do? You lose your keys, can't drive anywhere, you're gonna be late for work, so you start scouring.

You look in the bookshelf, you look on the keyhook, you look back into the pants that you put into the laundry the night before. You look and and when you finally find them, ah, found my keys.

And so here's this picture of this woman seeking diligently for the thing that she has lost, this coin, but now it gets kind of ridiculous.

Having found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice for me for I have found the coin that I have lost.

When you find your keys, do you call the neighbors and say let's party? It doesn't make any sense.

And that's kind of the, that's kind of the gospel sizzle here in this text, is that there's this idea that this woman in her rejoicing is now gonna have a party and spend more money than the coin that she just lost and found.

And isn't that how the gospel works? Notice, no scolding of the coin for getting lost, only rejoicing that the one who sought it found it.

And then these two first parts of the singular parable form the basis for what comes next.

And the one that, for whatever reason the lectionary left out, but I'll bring back in, and it's the parable of the lost son.

And this is the one that hits home for all of us. And remember, it's the Pharisees here that are kind of the presenting problem.

They do not see themselves as sinners. And we're gonna note here that Jesus at the end part of this parable is going to engage in the seeking of even these lost

Pharisees. Because that's what's truly going on here. And so Jesus then said, there was a man who had two sons.

And the younger of them said to his father, father give me the share of property that is coming to me. And I got a note this, if we, always and again, this is an

Eastern culture. This is an Eastern concept here.

And we here in modern or postmodern West, we do not understand this properly.

But, you know, if you were to travel to China, no young man would treat an older man this way, let alone his father.

The subtext is he basically says to his father, and dishonors him in saying it, dad

I wish you would just drop dead. And you can almost hear the audible gasp from everybody hearing

Jesus say this parable, because no son speaks this way to his father, especially in public.

But what does the father do? He does the unbelievable. Basically says, son you want me dead?

All right, I'll die. And so he divides the property.

Rather than saying, how dare you dishonor me? He says, all right,

I'll give you the property. It's coming. So he divided the property. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country.

Of course he had to do that, because nobody in town was going to put up with this fellow after this. And there he squandered his property in reckless living.

And brothers and sisters, this is each and every one of us. This is the truth of the situation.

Each and every one of us, we were born in rebellion to God. The first commandment is you shall have no other gods.

What does this mean? That we should fear love and trust in God above all things. Do you do that? No. You do not love

God with your whole heart, and you've dishonored God in all of your sin, and all of your idolatry, and all of the different ways in which you have sought your own solutions to your own problems, rather than coming to your gracious and heavenly

Father. And still you have the audacity to basically say, I like the benefits that you offer me,

God, but I don't really want to have anything to do with you. Our prayers oftentimes are cold.

Our minds are distant. It's the same thing. And so what do we do with the good gifts that God has given us?

We, like this fellow, we squander them as well. So when he spent everything, a severe famine rose in that country, and he began to be in need.

So he went and he hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs.

And a little bit of a note here. Remember, in the first two parts of this parable, God is the one who's seeking.

Christ is the one who's seeking. He's the one who is going and finding and bringing back.

And so you'll note then, how then is this lost son being brought back? Well, remember, he was raised in a

Jewish family, which means he heard the Torah Saturday after Saturday and after Saturday in the synagogue.

And the proof of this is actually in what happens next. If you're hungry and somebody's cooking up bacon, at this point

I'm dropping my head and folding my hands and praising God I'm saved. I can have a meal.

But note here, this Jewish fellow, although he is feeding pigs, he ain't eating pigs and he's remaining hungry.

So that word of God that was preached into him every Saturday in the synagogue is still now in his heart, convicting him even of his sins.

God is seeking this lost son in order to bring him to his right mind and doing so through his word that he heard.

Remember, Isaiah says that sometimes the word of God falls like a rain and other times it falls like the snow.

And so when it falls like the snow, you just need to wait for the circumstances to thaw that snow. And so the thaw now has begun in this fellow and the word of God is working in him.

So rather than eating the pigs, he remembers that Torah forbids him from eating pigs' flesh.

So when he came to himself, it says, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

Ah, the word of God doing its work. Notice he confesses that he has sinned. He confesses that he is a sinner and that his grievous sin has caused him to sin against God himself and also his own father who worked this repentance in him.

God did through his word. And the fact that he knows some of the finer points of the Torah, it goes on to say, so I'm going to say to my father,

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. He's actually invoking an obligation that his father would have to care for him that's written in the

Mosaic Covenant. You see, the word of God is at work here. God is seeking the lost son. So he arose, came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion.

His guts were totally wrenched. And doing the unthinkable, while the son was still a long way off, he hikes up his toga, ran, and embraced his son and kissed him.

Only love. Only mercy. Only compassion. Only forgiveness.

What kind of father is this? I don't know a father like this, including myself.

And that's kind of the point. Rather than saying, how dare you show your face here?

You're in need? Good. Finally. It's about time you were in need.

You told me to drop dead, so I did. And then you took what was given to you as a gift and you squandered it. Oh, you have a lot of gall showing your face here.

Again, that's like a physician telling somebody who's sick. This is ridiculous.

If you had just exercised and dieted properly, you wouldn't be in need of me. But that's not how

God operates. Because remember, Jesus says that he's the great physician. And it is not the well who need a physician, but the sick.

And if you do not think you are sick, then why are you here?

Jesus didn't come for the well. He didn't come for the self -righteous. You remember the sheep that Jesus left?

The 99. And the claim that, well, there's more rejoicing over one sinner who repents than 99 people who need no repentance.

I mean, between us right now. This is a fairly good -sized group here for Kongsvinger. Do you think we could come up with a list of 99 people who do not need to repent?

Okay. 50. 10. 1.

I can only think of one. That would be Christ. But not me. Not you.

And so the Father here recognizes that God has worked repentance in his own

Son. And he has compassion on him. He goes, embraces him, and kisses him. And now here comes the confession.

The Son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your

Son. And so the Father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe. Put it on him.

This is the robe of Christ's righteousness, by the way. Put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet.

Bring the fatted calf and kill it. That's Jesus. He's the one who has to die so that we can party.

And let us celebrate. For this my Son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

And they began to celebrate. And it's clear here in this telling of the parable that Jesus is saying of these

Pharisees, these sinners, I mean these tax collectors, these sinners, these people who are coming to Jesus that he's eating with, that he's receiving, that they are just like this lost son.

You and I are just like this lost son. Born dead in trespasses and sins.

Made alive in the waters of baptism. All by God's mercy and grace.

We were lost and Christ has found us. And there's celebration that needs to take place.

But now we come back to the Pharisees. Does Jesus not care about them? I mean they're kind of an ornery group if you think about it.

So turned around and they're thinking that they don't even recognize that they are part of the group known as sinners.

But you'll note then that Christ's compassion for them now shines through. Because the next and last part of the parable is a very strong appeal on the part of Christ.

And he will firmly demonstrate that they too are sinners in telling this part of the parable.

Not to condemn them, but because he is seeking even them. Seeking their repentance.

Seeking to forgive and to absolve them. So now the older son, the older son clearly is representative of these self -righteous

Pharisees. He was in the and he came and he drew near to the house and he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

And he said to him, your brother has come, your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound.

And rather than saying praise God, now this boy gets really mad.

So he was angry. And listen, he refused to go in.

So now he is dishonoring his father in much the same way that his younger brother dishonored his father.

In front of all the neighbors, in front of all the guests, while everybody is feasting and celebrating, there's that insolent older brother, that older son basically saying,

I refuse to go in there. How dare he? And everyone's noticing that he ain't there.

And his lack of presence at the celebration is basically a very strong dishonoring of his father.

And everyone hearing this parable would have seen that as that. But now the unthinkable happens.

The father, rather than saying you are embarrassing me in front of the neighbors, why don't you do what you're supposed to do.

Get in there. Celebrate with us. And if you need to have a talk with me, we can talk after this is done and then the neighbors leave.

You're embarrassing me. You're dishonoring me. Instead, the father does this. He goes out to this son.

Unthinkable. And he pleads with him. He entreats him. But he answered his father, look, these many years

I've served you, I never disobeyed your commands. Lie. You never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours, who devoured your property with prostitutes, that's slander by the way, you killed the fatted calf for him.

And he said to him, son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours.

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this. Your brother was dead and is alive.

He was lost and is found. And so you can see now the one who seeks and saves the lost is even seeking and saving the self -righteous lost.

Those who are so blind by their concepts of self -righteousness that they fail to see that they are sinners as well.

And Jesus, by showing that they are guilty of breaking the fourth commandment and dishonoring, like, well, this son, they've dishonored

God himself and have broken the first, Jesus has firmly put them in the group of sinners as well.

But he's not doing this to condemn them. He's doing this in order that they would come to their senses, that God's Word would open their minds, that they would repent and be forgiven.

So the reason we sin is because we are sinners. And so it is fitting that we recognize then that there is a time of celebration coming.

We'll confess that Jesus is going to return in glory to judge the quick and the dead in just a few minutes.

And note that first order of business when Jesus returns after the resurrection is a blowout party for the beginning of the new age, the wedding feast of the

Lamb. And I gotta admit, I've taken a look at the invitee list. Oh boy, it is just a total mess.

I mean, you all have seen Star Wars, you know, the episode 4, New Hope, the cantina scene.

What a seedy place that was. Listen, the cantina has nothing on the guest list for the wedding feast.

There's going to be prostitutes, tax collectors, get this, attorneys. There might even be some pastors.

There will be some stay -at -home moms, guys who teach martial arts, people who homeschool farmers.

Oh my goodness, it is just a scandalous mess.

Every single one of them, dead and lost, found by Christ, washed in the waters of baptism, bled for, died for, all of their sins taken by Christ Himself, and He suffered for all of them.

And then in His mercy clothed them in His righteousness. So is it a cop -out to say that I am by nature sinful and unclean?

Not at all. It is not a cop -out. This is most certainly true. So brothers and sisters, let us again rejoice.

Let us praise our great God and Savior, who didn't give us what we deserved, but sent

His only begotten Son into the world, born of the Virgin Mary, who then bled and died for us under Pontius Pilate, so that scoundrels and sinners and seedy people like us can be forgiven and absolved, and that the angels of heaven would rejoice, and we will someday rejoice together and rejoice with Christ when we see

Him face to face. And let us then put to death that self -righteous Pharisee that's inside of us that would cause us to look down on other people who are symptomatic of sin and treat them as if somehow we haven't tested positive for that same disease when we have.

So I confess that I am by nature sinful and unclean, and so are you.

And Christ has bled and died for all of us. So repent, be forgiven.

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

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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

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