That We Should Be Called Children of God

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, chapter 24, verses 36 -49.

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you.

But they were startled and frightened and thought that they saw a spirit.

And he said to them, Why are you troubled?

Why do doubts arise in your heart?

See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Touch me and see.

For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

And while they were still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat?

And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Then he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of

Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should

suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be

proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the

city until you are clothed with power from on high.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

In the name of Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, last week we began a study of the epistle of 1 John, and we

noted that it's important to understand the historical background, that there was a heretic by the name of

Serentis who was behind much of the motivation for John to write this epistle.

And just to recap, Serentis was a proto -Gnostic, he was one of the very first ones who had

taken Plato's philosophy that the material world that you see before you is

evil and inconsequential and that the real thing is spiritual.

Now I know that not all of you have seen the movie, the Star Wars movies, but I will make reference to it because many people kind of

get it.

In the Star Wars movies, that same Gnosticism exists, where Jedi

are, when they're in their bodies, are not as strong as when they're out of their bodies.

They become more powerful after their death or after their bodies disappear.

In fact, in the second Star Wars movie, and we won't talk about how it works out

here, I'm talking about the second one when I was a kid, not the second one, never mind, you get the point.

But in the second Star Wars movie, Yoda is training Luke Skywalker and talks about how

crude matter is not really what's real or what matters, but it's the spiritual, it's the life

force that really is important.

And I gotta say this, that many people who call themselves Christians in one way or another buy into this

false idea.

Think of it this way, as Christians we are tempted to think that the material world that we see around

us is evil and that the spirit is good.

This is not what scripture reveals.

And it has a severe impact if you buy into this, it has a severe impact on your belief

regarding sanctification.

And here's what I mean.

If you believe that the material world is bad and that the spirit is good, then what

ends up happening is that you are tempted to error in two ways.

And one way is to err the way the Sorinthianites did.

The Gnostics, by believing that their bodies were evil because matter is evil, they

basically indulged in all kinds of sin, debauchery, and sexual immorality.

They did not allow their bodies to be denied anything because in their way of thinking, it didn't

matter.

Whereas on the other end where you can err is believing that somehow because the body

and physical things are evil, that you end up going towards legalism and the heresy of

the Pharisees or the Judaizers, where you severely treat your body as if somehow

through that severe treating of your body that you are earning your salvation.

Both of them are errors and both of them kind of work from the same idea.

So as we get into our text today, you have to keep these things in mind.

Now, we're going to go back into the book of Genesis first so that you can properly understand that the

material world that we see in front of us, that we can see, that we can taste, that we can

touch and smell, that this was actually created by God and it's not

evil.

Genesis chapter 1 we'll start at verse 26 just to get our context.

God said, let us make man in our image, after

our likeness.

You notice the plural pronouns there and this is God the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy

Spirit speaking amongst themselves.

Let us make man in our image and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heaven, over the

livestock, over the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man, and listen to these words, God created man in his own image.

In the image of God he created him male and female he created them.

In other words, in our physical creation as male and female, God had made us

in the image of God and before the fall of man into sin, we in the

created material universe that God made and spoke into existence, we perfectly

reflected the image of God.

So God then blessed them, said to them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth,

subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the

earth.

God said, behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, every tree with its seed and

its fruit, you shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that

creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food and it was so.

And God saw that everything that he had made and behold it was

very good.

So note that in the creation itself, everything that was created God

declared that it was very good.

And so we have to lose this idea that somehow the material world is bad

and that the spirit is good.

God made matter.

He made creepy critters.

He made all the things that you see in front of you, from the trees that made the wood, to the

plants that made the cotton that put the fabric on our pews, to the clothes that you're wearing, there's nothing that

you can see, taste, touch or smell that God has not created.

To the food that's on your table and it is very good.

And so the problem that we see in our world is caused by our

sin.

And Adam and Eve in rebelling against God committed what is called the original sin and there's no original sins

after that, they're all kind of falling into the same pattern.

But the original sin then corrupted us, like leprosy corrupts a body.

It's a disease if you would.

And so our physical bodies, yes, we have sinful passions, but that is not how we were

originally created.

If matter itself were evil, then Jesus could not have saved us.

And here's the reason why.

By God becoming human, taking on a human body had, if the material world

were evil, then Jesus would have sinned by becoming a man.

He would have been tainted by evil by taking on human flesh.

And the Gnostics knew this.

This is why they refused to believe at the end of it that really Jesus was even

material.

In fact, as Gnosticism develops, the Gnostics denied that Jesus even left footprints when

he walked, that he only appeared material because had he really been material, he

would have somehow taken on the evil of matter.

Now all of that plays then into our Gospel text, which we'll look at before we get into our Epistle text.

Go back with me now into the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, and consider what

Jesus says here in his appearance on Easter Sunday.

This was after the road to Emmaus.

The fellows came back.

Cleopas came back, hoofing it back, saying, We've seen the Lord.

He is risen indeed.

And there they are talking to the other disciples on the first Easter Sunday.

And as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Shalom,

peace to you.

But they were startled and thought that they saw a ghost.

So there Jesus shows up in their midst and says, Peace, guys, shalom.

And they go, Ahhhh! It's a ghost!

So what turns out to be something that's supposed to be peaceful, they think it's a horror movie.

It's like The Ring.

Jesus is like Samara coming out of the grave and he's now going to get his vengeance on people.

It's kind of that kind of thing.

But Jesus is like, Ahhhh!

So he said to them, Why are you troubled?

Why are doubts arising in your hearts?

And then he says this, See, look at me.

Look at my hands, my feet.

It's I, myself.

Touch me.

See, a spirit, a ghost doesn't have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

And when they had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here

to eat?

You'll notice this about ghosts.

They don't eat food.

Except for, and I'm going to make this point, in the very, very first Ghostbusters movie, there was heresy.

And the heresy was they had a hot dog eating ghosts.

Ghosts don't eat hot dogs.

Ghosts and spirits don't eat food.

So just remember that next time you watch Ghostbusters.

A hot dog eating ghost, they don't eat food.

And that's kind of the whole point.

So Jesus is there.

He's there in the flesh.

He says, Touch me.

A ghost doesn't have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

And then he eats with them.

So they gave him a piece of broiled fish.

He took it and ate it before them.

And then he said to them, These are my words that I still spoke to you while I was still with you.

This is the closest Jesus gets to saying, I told you so.

But he's a little bit too polite for that.

But see, listen guys, I told you this.

I told you explicitly.

We're going to Jerusalem.

They're going to reject me.

I'm going to be handed over to the Gentiles.

They're going to crucify me.

I'm going to die and I'm going to rise again on the third day.

These are the things I spoke with you while I was still with you.

That everything written about me in the law of Moses, that's the Torah, the prophets, and the

Psalms, all of the Old Testament must be fulfilled.

And note here that Jesus makes it very clear that the Old Testament is written about him.

Nobody doubts that the New Testament is written about him because the disciples, the apostles seem to be obsessed about telling us about Jesus.

But even Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms were all written about Jesus.

And so then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them,.

Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.

And then here's Luke's version of the Great Commission and that repentance

for the forgiveness of sins.

I think it's better translated as for.

Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all

nations beginning from Jerusalem.

And that's kind of the important part because our God has taken on human flesh.

We now see that having been raised from the dead after dying for our sins on the cross, he's given a message

for us to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

And sin is a very important vital category because as we confessed earlier, sin is

committed in thought, in word, in deed by the things you do and by

the things that you don't do.

And you're going to note that many sins, although they begin in your heart, are carried out then with your

physical body.

Repentance for the forgiveness of sins recognizes then that we have sinned against God

with our bodies and that we are to repent and bear fruit in keeping with repentance, having

trusted in Christ for our forgiveness.

Important categories.

So with that, let's now return to the epistle of 1 John

and we'll pick up a little bit where we left off.

Chapter 2, I'll start at verse 7.

And you're going to note then the importance of as Christians that we recognize that we have a

category for sin, that we do not indulge in it, and that we now,

having been sanctified, having been justified and declared righteous, we then bear fruit

in repentance in good works, the mortification of our sinful flesh, and love

towards one another, which requires us to keep this in mind, that now that we have been forgiven,

God expects us to glorify him in our bodies and to not think that sin doesn't

matter.

It does.

Because your body was purchased by Christ himself.

So, 1 John 2 verse 7.

Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you

have had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard.

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because

the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining, and

Jesus is that true light.

Whoever says that he is in the light, and listen to these words, and hates his brother

is still in darkness.

This makes perfect sense because we pray in the Lord's prayer, forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And let me say this, notice it says hates his brother.

These are your brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so, whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no

cause for stumbling.

But whoever hates his brother is still in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know

where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

So I am writing to you little children, and notice he is saying that we are the children of God.

I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake, and indeed

they are.

Not for yours, but for his.

I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you children because you know the father.

I write to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning.

And I write to you young men because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have

already overcome the evil one.

So do not love the world or the things that are in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life,

it's not from the father, but it is from the world.

And the world is passing away along with its desires.

But whoever does the will of God abides forever.

And what is the will of God?

That you believe in Jesus.

Now last week we already read through the section that is a warning against Antichrist.

So let us then fast forward just a little bit to verse 26.

And here's what it says.

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

But the anointing that you receive, the Holy Spirit that you received in the waters of baptism, from him abides in you, and you have

no need that anyone should teach you anything.

But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and it is true and is no lie, just as it is taught, abide in

Christ.

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have

confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has

been born of God.

And now, here John begins to discuss the biblical Christian doctrine of sanctification.

And I've said it before, and it always bears repeating, that you're going to note that he's very careful in his wording,

so that we do not err in the side of the Gnostics, where it doesn't matter what we do, and we can just go on and

engage in sexual immorality and debauchery and all kinds of sin, because after all, the material world is evil.

Nor does it go to the other extreme, in self -righteousness, where we are saved because

we do good works.

No, that's an error as well.

In fact, it's kind of the opposite error of that other error.

They're kind of flip sides of the same coin.

Instead, Christian sanctification always has this in mind, that the reason why you do your

good works, and why you keep God's commandments, and these are important to you when you practice

righteousness, is not in order for you to become righteous, it's because you already

are.

I've said it before, cats meow, dogs woof, cows moo.

I know this is really profound, and you know the reason why they do it?

Cats meow because they're cats.

Dogs woof because they're dogs.

Cows moo because they're cows.

And Christians do good works and practice righteousness because they are

already declared righteous.

Because they are already children of God.

You do not do your good works or keep God's commandments in order to become a child of

God.

That would mean that you are somehow earning your salvation and trying to exchange your good works as

the price for your salvation.

I assure you, there is no amount of good works that you could do that could possibly come close to the

redemption price that it would take to save you.

That was accomplished for you by the blood of Jesus.

So watch how he avoids both errors and makes it important for us in our bodies to glorify God.

So if you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has already

been born of God.

And the reason why you practice your righteousness is because you are born from above.

Now, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of

God.

And watch these words, and so we are.

It doesn't say, and so we will be, or so we hope to be someday.

It says we are.

So we sang it this morning, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that

we should be called the sons of God.

And so we are.

So the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Beloved, we are God's children now.

Not then, now.

You presently are the children of God.

And what we will be has not yet appeared.

I gotta admit, having injured my back yet again, I'm really looking forward to seeing what

I will be.

Because what I currently am is weak.

Alright?

I'm looking forward to not having problems like this in the future.

And we all know what we're talking about here.

So what we will be has not yet appeared.

But we know this, that when Jesus appears, we will be like him.

And we will see him as he is.

So everyone who thus hopes in him, watch the word, purifies himself as he is

pure.

See, because we have this hope given to us, we have this faith, we then actively

purify ourselves through the daily practice of repentance.

The daily practice of trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.

Think of it this way.

Repentance is not a flu shot.

You don't go once a year to get your repentance shot.

And you sit there and go, I'm glad I got that taken care of.

Sin shouldn't be a problem ever.

No.

Repentance is a daily practice.

And we daily pray, forgive us our trespasses.

So it's about daily returning to the waters of your baptism.

Daily trusting that despite your weakness, despite your sin, that Christ has

bled and died for these sins.

And that he has made you his own.

That you are presently a child of God.

And because you are presently a child of God, you strive against the desires

of your sinful nature.

You do not indulge in them.

And you daily take off the old man and put on the new.

The new that is given to you in Christ.

You don't do this in order to become a child of God.

You do this because you is one.

That's the idea.

So behold what manner of love the Father that he has given to us that we should be called the children of God and so we are.

So behold, we are God's children now.

What we will be has not yet appeared.

And that we know that everyone who hopes in him purifies himself.

So everyone then who makes a practice of sinning.

And notice the words.

Practice of sinning.

We noted that last week Ecclesiastes 7 .20 said that there's no one who is perfectly righteous who does not sin.

But there's a difference between sinning and making a practice of sinning.

Unbelievers make a practice of sinning.

We, although we sin daily and we sin much, we continue in repentance and we

struggle against our sinful flesh, the temptations of the devil, and the world.

So anyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness.

You know that he appeared in order to take away sins.

And in him there is no sin.

So sin is not your friend.

Sin is a slave master.

Sin is something that seeks to dominate you through the power of the devil.

And Christ has not died on the cross so that you can live in sin.

That doesn't make any sense.

Which is why then when you consider like liberal mainline denominations who say that God

blesses same -sex marriage, it doesn't make any sense.

They are keeping people in their sins rather than calling them to repent and to be forgiven.

Christ has come to take these things away, not to affirm us in them.

So no one abides in Christ, keeps on sinning, or you can say continues to make a practice of

sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

Little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is already righteous.

You see, the reason you practice righteousness is because you are righteous, as he is righteous.

So whoever makes a practice of sinning, that person is of the devil, which is what the

Corinthians were doing.

Oh, the material world doesn't matter, so we're going to indulge our bodies in all kinds of craziness.

John is saying, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been

sinning from the beginning.

You see, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

No one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed

abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he is born of God.

So do you know of any cows that meow?

No.

Any dogs that moo?

Moo.

No.

And there's a reason for this, because dogs woof.

Christians do not make a practice of sinning, so the one who does these things shows that

he's not of God, for no one born of God makes a practice of sinning.

So by this it is evident that we are the children of God, and watch how he does this.

And by this it's evident that we are children of God.

And who are the children of the devil?

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the

one who does not love his brother.

In other words, don't tell me how much you love Jesus while you hate the people that Jesus has brought to

church.

That doesn't make any sense.

In fact, God's love doesn't abide in you because not loving your brother is a form

of practicing sin.

You see?

Then he goes on.

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous.

So do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no

murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

So these words are very strong.

They cause us to have to reflect on our own lives again in light of the Ten Commandments.

And so I would remind you of this, brothers and sisters, that this text written to Christians

assures us that we are God's children now.

We have been brought to penitent faith in Christ.

Our sins have been washed away.

We have been united to Christ in his death and his resurrection.

And we recognize that we still have a sinful nature that desires to practice sin and

would tempt us to not love each other.

And so insofar as you have fallen short of God's law, and you have been

practicing sin, and you have been not loving your neighbor as yourself,

then I call you to repent.

Repent and recognize that you have fallen short.

Recognize that God requires you to glorify him in your body and that

your good works are to be carried out in Christ with your bodies, with your

minds, with everything that is within you.

And that it does matter because Christ has redeemed all of you, not just your spirit, but your body

and your spirit together and that there is a day coming when he will call each and every one of us from the grave.

And he will make a new heavens and a new earth and we will not be floating up in outer space

amongst the clouds and the ether with spiritual harps without the ability to put our feet down.

No, the hope that we have is that he's going to make all things new and on this new earth we will

glorify God in our perfect sinless bodies for when he appears we will be like him and we

will see him as he is.

So, repent of your sin.

Repent of your lovelessness.

Trust Christ and love God because you are loved.

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance because you are a child of God.

Trust in him and practice righteousness and purify yourselves daily and offer your bodies as living

sacrifices to your neighbor for your neighbor's sake because you are already a Christian.

If you are not doing these things, then you'll note that this text calls into question whether or not you even belong to

Christ.

These are hard words and require us to examine ourselves.

If the reason you are doing your good works is in order to be saved, then you need to repent.

You cannot offer these to God for your salvation.

If you think that what you do in your body doesn't matter, that because Christ has died for you, you now have a license to sin,

you need to repent because it does matter.

And over and again, we must return back to the promises of God that our sins are washed

away and that Christ has bled and died for every single one of our infractions against his

holy law.

And because we are saved, we then keep and guard his commandments, knowing that his commandments show us the path

of freedom and sin is slavery.

So, see what kind of love the Father has given to us?

That we should be called the children of God.

And so we are.

And so we are.

And so are you.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

1 -59 -50 470th Avenue NW Oslo,

MN 567 -44.

And again that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 1 -59 -50

470th Avenue NW Oslo, MN 567

-44.

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