Who Sent You?

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. John, chapter 17, verses 20 -26.

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Jesus said, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

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O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you.

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And these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.

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In the name of Jesus. Alright, tough text. See if we can dig into this one.

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Jesus says in the gospel text today, he's praying. This is his high priestly prayer.

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This prayer takes place on the night that Jesus is betrayed. It's Thursday evening, hours away from Jesus' arrest.

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And he's praying. It's interesting to note who he's praying for and what he says.

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Here's what he says in his prayer. I do not ask for these only, talking about his disciples who would become the apostles.

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He says this, but I also pray for those who will believe in me through their word.

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In other words, Jesus here is praying for me. He's praying for you.

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Did you see that? And he's praying this, that they may be all one, just as you,

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Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

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Now, real quick, we've got to do a little theological work here. We'll do a kind of a planned bunny trail.

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We'll circle back and look at this prayer a little bit more. But this next section, we'll title this,

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Everything You Didn't Know That You Needed To Know About Apostles. It's kind of important. I apologize for the complexity, but I think you'll see the importance of it as we unfold today.

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Apostles. Now, I don't know if you know this, but there are people nowadays claiming to be apostles.

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All right? I was reading a book by a gentleman by the name of C. Peter Wagner. I'm actually writing a theological paper on apostles right now.

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And C. Peter Wagner is one of these guys who claims that apostles have been restored to the earth. And he literally makes the claim, no joke, that it is sinful, if you are a

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Christian leader, if you have not submitted yourself to the authority of your local apostle.

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So I did some research, and our local apostle is a woman who, well, lives in Devil's Lake.

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All right? Well, let it be known, I have not submitted to her. All right?

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And I have no intention of doing so. And I think it's kind of ironic, well, not really so, that she lives in Devil's Lake.

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But, so, just so you know, I will not be submitting to her for good reason.

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All right? When we look in the Bible, we see the word apostle appearing several times.

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In fact, many times in the New Testament. And it's important for us to understand what is meant by an apostle.

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We think, when we think apostle, we generally think, well, Peter, James, John, Paul, right?

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These guys are apostles. Well, yes, indeed they are. But then you also have other people who are outside of that circle who are also called apostles.

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And we think, well, what's with that? Well, back in the day, apostle was a very commonly used term.

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And it references, in our New Testament, people who, well, don't have an extraordinary status, as well as those who have an extraordinary status.

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And it all comes down to the question of who sent you. Who sent you? So, think of it this way.

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The word apostle, in Greek, is apostolos. Pretty simple, right? Okay? In fact, you can say the word apostle in English is just kind of a transliteration of the

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Greek, which makes it very helpful. But always the question comes up is, what does it mean? Well, an apostle is a messenger, a delegate, an envoy.

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So, if you were to show up, if you lived in the ancient world, and show up at somebody's door and say, Hello, I'm apostle so -and -so, they would ask you, well, who sent you?

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Because an apostle is one who's speaking on behalf of another person. All right? And so, when we look at the apostles, you know, the twelve, right?

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Well, those are ones who are sent by Christ. The rest, well, they're sent by people.

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All right? Let me kind of explain this. We'll do a little bit of a biblical survey here. We'll look first at kind of like the ordinary apostles.

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Ordinary kind. If you want to look on 2 Corinthians 8, verse 23, the apostle

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Paul says this. He says, As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit.

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You'll notice that Titus has an entire epistle written to him that we have, right? And he says,

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As for our brothers, they are, and here's how the ESV translates it, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.

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Well, the Greek there for messengers is apostolos. It's actually the plural, apostoloid, right?

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So, it says they're messengers, they're apostles. But who sent them? Well, the churches sent them, not

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Christ. So, in other words, Titus and these other apostles who are mentioned here are of the ordinary type, right?

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Another example of this is found in Philippians chapter 2, where Paul says, I have thought it necessary to send to you, this is verse 25,

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Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your apostle and minister to my need.

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Now, he was sent by the church at Philippi to be one who helps the needs of Paul.

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But again, that's the ordinary kind of apostle, right? There's also the extraordinary type.

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And the extraordinary types are those, well, the one who sent them is none other than Jesus himself.

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Let me give you an example of this that we have in scripture. We'll give you kind of two places to look. If you remember

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Paul's letter to the Galatians, the churches in Galatia, where the heresy of Judaizing had taken root, and the

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Judaizers came in and said, that apostle Paul, man, he's just an apostle.

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He's not really an apostle. He's not like Peter, James, and John. That apostle

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Paul, well, you remember, he was murdering Christians. He's really not like the other apostles, right?

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So, Paul begins his letter to the churches in Galatia with this sentence, Galatians 1 .1.

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Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the

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Father. Who sent Paul? Jesus did, right?

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Who sent Titus? Well, the church sent Titus. You see the difference? Now, Paul actually makes these distinctions quite clear in 1

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Corinthians 15, verses 3 through 10. We'll kind of take a look at this real quick and note something important.

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Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 through 10, I delivered to you as of first importance what

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I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, that he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve.

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A little bit of a note here, all right? Remember in our first reading from the book of Acts, Matthias is chosen to fill the vacant office left vacant by Judas, right?

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How many of Jesus' twelve did Jesus appear to after his resurrection?

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Well, if you do the math, Judas is dead, eleven. But notice it says here that, well, Jesus appeared to the twelve.

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Who's number twelve? Answer, Matthias. Although we don't hear of him ever again in scripture, except in Acts chapter one, when

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Paul writes this in the year 50 A .D., he considers Matthias to be one of the twelve.

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So it's fascinating to note that. So Jesus appeared to Peter, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

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Then he appeared to James, and then all the other apostles. No, other apostles would be the ordinary kind, not the twelve.

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And last of all, as to one untimely born, well, Jesus appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.

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But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain. So notice,

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Paul makes these distinctions regarding ordinary apostles versus, well, those apostles sent by Christ himself.

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Now, you're thinking, wait a second here. Pastor Roseborough, I know how to do math. And again,

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I must reiterate, math is evil. I know how to do math, and if you add up the names of the twelve apostles and you throw

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Paul at the end, then you get 13 names. Yeah, I know, it's kind of weird how that works, isn't it?

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When you count up the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, how many names do you have? Thirteen.

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How is that possible? Well, remember Joseph? Joseph was split into two tribes, the half -tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh.

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And so it's kind of a weird thing that happens here. In the Old Testament, there's 12 tribes, 13 names.

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In the New Testament, there's 12 apostles and 13 names. Weird how that works.

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But that's how that works, because there are 13 that Christ sent. Interesting to note that, okay?

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So, all of that, let's look again at our first reading from Acts 15, kind of note something important here about apostles, and then we'll see the important stuff that Jesus gets to.

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Acts 1, verse 15. In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of persons was in all about 120.

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Quick note here, Jesus did not leave a megachurch. It's actually important to note that.

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Jesus, when it came to discipleship, was about quality. Quantity?

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Well, not very impressive by any standards, right? Jesus spent three years traipsing about the

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Judean countryside, preaching, teaching, healing people, and at the very end, the total number of believers in Him, 120?

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Right? So don't let a small church fool you, right? All right, he says this.

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So Peter stands up, he says, Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas.

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Oh, that's right. David prophesied about Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. He was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.

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Note here, there were some people who were actually baptized by Judas, right? Now, this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness.

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That would be the 30 pieces of silver that were given to him to betray Christ. And falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and his bowels gushed out, and all the junior high kids said,

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So it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the field was called in their own language,

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Akadalma, that is the field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, May his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it and let another take his, and the

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Greek word is actually here in the ESV, correctly translated also from the

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Hebrew, let another take his office. Yes, there are offices in Christ's church.

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So we had a vacant office, and it had to be filled. So one of the men who has accompanied us during all the time that the

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Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.

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So two qualifications for the apostleship, they had to be filled, that vacant office, somebody who was there, eyewitness, ear witness to Jesus' preaching, teaching, ministry from the time of his baptism till his resurrection.

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They have to be there for the whole time and be a witness to the resurrection. But the third qualification, by the way, is not specifically mentioned by name, but it's right there.

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This has to be one whom Christ has chosen. And we read, So they put forward two,

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Joseph called Barsabbas, who was called Justice, and Matthias. So they prayed, and they said,

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You, Lord, you know the hearts of all, show which one of these you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which

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Judas had turned aside to go to his own place. So they prayed, believing that Jesus is going to choose one of these two men to fill the vacant office.

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How are they so confident? Well, there's a prophecy regarding Judas in the Psalms. They know that this is what they must do.

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Since Jesus has now ascended to heaven, their prayers go to him. They know that he hears them, and he's going to answer by way of casting lots.

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You can say, throwing the dice. So they threw the dice. Comes up Matthias, right?

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Jesus chooses Matthias through the casting of lots. And even the apostle

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Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 recognizes that Matthias is one of the 12.

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Right? Chosen by Christ himself. Strange way to be chosen, yet that's how it worked.

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So they cast lots, fell on Matthias. He was now numbered with the 11 apostles, now filling out the number 12.

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But there were 13 names. I know, it's weird how that works. So, why is this important?

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Everything you ever needed to know that you didn't know that you needed to know about apostles, right? Well, why is this important? Well, let's come back.

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Now, we'll do a little bit of work here. In John chapter 10, Jesus tells the parable of the sheep where he says, my sheep hear my voice.

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Right? My sheep hear my voice. I'm the good shepherd. And he says that his sheep hear his voice. Well, the question is, have any of you actually heard

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Jesus' audible voice? Any of you had Starbucks with Jesus? No? Every time

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I invite him to Starbucks, he just never shows up, right? None of you have. Well, how then are you to hear the voice of Jesus if you're one of his sheep?

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It's a decent question, is it not? Now, don't get stumped on this. The answer is through the ones he sent, his apostles.

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Jesus says in John 13, 20, Amen, Amen. I say to you, whoever receives the one

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I send, receives me. Whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me.

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Okay. So, how do we receive the ones Jesus sent? I'll explain a little bit more.

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Luke 10, 16 says this of the disciples. The one who hears you, you disciples of mine, hears me.

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The one who rejects you, rejects me. And the one who rejects me, rejects him who sent me.

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Ah, now this is starting to get important, right? The way you hear the voice of Jesus is not him whispering in your ear, the still small voice that the prophet heard, right?

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No. The way you hear the voice of Jesus is through the ones he sent.

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The ones who hears the apostles, hears Jesus. The ones who hear

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Jesus, hears the Father. See how it goes all the way up the chain of command even within the

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Trinity. And so now we come back to our text from the Gospel of John. Jesus prays,

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I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me.

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How? Through their word. Now, a little bit of a note here.

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We don't think this way. I'm reading from the Gospel of John who wrote this.

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John did. John was one of the guys Jesus sent. And so I'm hearing and you are hearing

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Jesus' exact prayer through what John is writing.

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In other words, if you really want to get technical, you know who's discipling you today? John is.

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You can't see him. But he's here today discipling you through the

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Gospel that he wrote. Because he's one of the guys that Jesus sent. You receive him by receiving the words that he gives regarding Jesus.

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You hear Jesus through him. And by hearing Jesus through him, you also are hearing none other than God the

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Father as well. Fascinating how that all works. Which, by the way, all then plays into this wonderful doctrine that we

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Lutherans like to trumpet, and that is sola scriptura. Where else can you go to hear

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Jesus' voice? To hear his words? You can go no other place than to the apostolic teaching in your

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New Testament. Right? Jesus sends the prophets of the Old Testament to tell everyone he's coming.

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He sends the apostles, the ones he sent, to tell us that he has come. And to tell us what he has done for us.

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And now, with all of this, we see that, what is it that John is telling us?

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Jesus is praying for you. He's praying for me. Let's pay attention to what Jesus prays for us.

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It says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, just as you,

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Father, are in me, and I in you, and they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

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And this is an important prayer. And why? Why? Because sin separates us from God.

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But sin also separates us from each other. Paul writes, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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That's me, and that's you. But not only do we fall short of the glory of God, sin divides us, separates us from each other.

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I mean, if you want an example of that, just look how well politics is a unifying factor in the

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United States. Right? We all know what it's like come

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Thanksgiving when this relative's a Democrat and that one's a Republican. And the rule is not being enforced that says no politics, no religion at the

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Thanksgiving table. We've all been there. We've all experienced it. Did you feel united after that experience?

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Or divided? Right? And politics is just one way in which we are divided from each other.

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Look at the strained relationships that occur when people decide to chase after sin.

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Look at the angst that it creates in godly parents. Look at your own sin and how it's strained relationships that you've had over the years of your life.

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Friendships, literally destroyed. Family relationships, totally strained.

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All of this is a result of sin. But notice what Jesus' prayer is for us. It's that we be one, that we be united.

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I often wonder if hell itself involves complete separation, not only from God, we know that, but also from others.

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I wonder if the sufferings of hell are experienced in complete seclusion and isolation from others who are also in hell.

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That would make sense. It would make sense. Because I get the feeling that as people go from bad to worse in their sufferings in hell, they wouldn't even be able to get along with another soul there.

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So hell itself has to be so wide that everybody has their own space and nobody bumps into each other.

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Totally isolating. But see, the cross, the forgiveness of sins, reunites us with God.

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And because of mercy and forgiveness, it makes it possible for us, even in this life, to begin experiencing the unity and oneness that we will experience on that great day when

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Christ returns in glory and we become inhabitants of the new Jerusalem. And on that day, everybody will be a

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Lutheran. Just thought I'd put that in there. So Jesus continues to pray.

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And this is fascinating. He says, Father, I desire that they also whom

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You have given Me... That's us. That's us. Listen to this. That they may be with Me where I am.

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In this prayer, Jesus says He desires that you be with Him.

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And He says this, I want them to see My glory that you have given Me because you love Me for the foundation of the world.

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In other words, Jesus wills. He desires for you and for Me to be with Him. He loves us and He wants us to see

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Him in His glory. If you think about that, that's some really good news.

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And the reason why is because when we sin, when we screw up, when we do that thing we know we ought not to do, what ends up happening?

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You feel guilty. You feel the twinges of God's wrath, maybe even a little bit more than that.

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And you should. Because the law says guilty, guilty, guilty.

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It cannot save you. It condemns you. And you feel that condemnation when your conscience bears witness that what you've done is wrong.

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And as a result of that, you are tempted to say, God ain't going to be happy when

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He sees me. Jesus is not going to have any kind words for me when

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I stand before Him. But here Jesus prays for you and He says that He desires for you to be where He is.

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He desires for you to see His glory. And that is only possible because Christ has gone to the cross.

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And all of your sins have been washed away. He continues,

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O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You, and these know that You have sent

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Me. Jesus is sent by the Father and He sends His apostles. I make known to them

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Your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them and I in them.

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Glimpses of the kingdom to come is the unity of the saints.

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No more bickering. No more fighting. No more separating. What exactly is the love with which

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Jesus loved us, by the way? How did Jesus love us?

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Well, Jesus' apostles, ones that He sent, tell us that Christ went to the cross.

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The question is why did He go to the cross? One of the answers given by those He sent is this, that we were all born in slavery to sin, slavery to death, slavery to the devil, and incapable of freeing ourselves.

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And make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, sin is slavery.

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It is not freedom. And you know this experientially.

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You know this. Paul says in Galatians 4, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world, but when the fullness of time had come,

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God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.

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What is redemption? What is it? It's a very important word, by the way.

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You know, when I was a kid, we used to redeem blue chip stamps. Does anyone remember those?

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You can redeem them for, like, Chinese -made merchandise. And at the time, that was not a good thing.

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Just saying, those things would break pretty quick. Redemption here is not talking about the thing that we talk about when we talk about blue chip stamps.

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Redemption is a slave term. It's a slave term. You have to go back to the 19th century.

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Alright? All of us were born, if you would, Africans.

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But not Africans born in Africa. We were born or hauled off to America. Chains on our hands and our feet.

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Big shackle on our necks. Some good scars on our backs from the crack of the whip.

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Incapable of saving ourselves. Of freeing ourselves. Christ comes into our situation and says,

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I'll buy that one. And that one's you. But it's more than that.

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Because God is not, and Christ is not the kind of person that says,

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I'll just be a kinder master to you. I won't beat you as much. Instead, not only does

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He purchase you, He redeems you. And the redemption here is not the price of paying for a slave.

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It's the price of paying for that slave's freedom. And having then been set free,

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He says, come to my home. Come to my home. He feeds you.

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He clothes you. Gives you your own room. And then writes you into the will.

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And He always refers to you as son or daughter. And never treats you any different than any of His biological children because you are now

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His son or daughter. That's what redemption is. Right?

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So when we talk about slavery and freedom, let's keep our categories right. Jesus was born under the law to redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters.

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And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying,

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Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave. You're not. You are not a slave.

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You are a son and a daughter. And if a child of God, then you are an heir through God.

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And this is good news. Now, Paul then in chapter 5 gives us a very stern warning.

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And here's what he says. Starting in verse 13. You were called to freedom.

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You were called to freedom, brothers. Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

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But through love, serve one another. Paul is literally saying here, you've been set free.

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You've been redeemed. You've been adopted. You're in the will. Don't go back to slavery.

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That's what he's saying. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. Love your neighbor as yourself.

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That's what freedom looks like. And what is sin? It's serving yourself to the detriment of your own neighbor.

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It's the ultimate selfishness. Paul says, walk by the Spirit then and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

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For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. The desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. These are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want.

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But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. And then he says this, now the works of the flesh, they are self -evident.

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And here they are. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife.

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And by the way, sexual immorality, pretty simple. If you want to just boil it down, anything other than sexual relations between a man and a woman in marriage is sexual immorality.

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Enmity, strife. These are often caused by a breaking of the Eighth Commandment.

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Lying and gossiping against our neighbor. Divisions, rivalries, anger, dissensions, envy, drunkenness, orgies.

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That's slavery. That's not freedom. And Paul says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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And we even heard this in the book of Revelation today. We heard from Revelation 22.

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Christ Himself reiterates this fact. And why is it?

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Because we've been set free. Why would we live as slaves anymore? Why?

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That doesn't make sense. So this is why we warn people to repent and to be forgiven and walk in true repentance.

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To walk in freedom. So you, brothers and sisters, you have been purchased off the slave block.

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Your chains have been removed from your hands, your feet, and your neck. You've been purchased by God Himself, redeemed, written into the will, and He now calls you son and daughter.

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You are the children of God and you are heirs of the coming kingdom. All of this is yours now.

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This is the result, by the way, of the message preached to you by the ones whom

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Jesus sent. Today you have heard John preach. You have heard Paul preach.

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And in hearing Paul and John, you have heard Christ. By hearing Christ, you have heard the

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Father. You have heard of your sin. You've heard of slavery. And you've heard of Christ's redemption and setting you free and adopting you.

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And you also have heard the stern warning to continue to walk in freedom and no longer live as slaves so that we do not miss out on the inheritance and that glorious new

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Jerusalem that is coming down. And yet there are some who have squandered this gift by refusing to live as free, instead returning back to Egypt and living as slaves.

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Let us pray that Christ continues to sustain us in the faith and the gifts that He has given us so that we will not, well, walk away from such a great inheritance, only to be slaves again.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. 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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