He Crosses Back To Set More Captives Free

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 Mark chapter 6 verses 45 through 56.

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Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat to go before him to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd.

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And after he had taken leave of them he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came the boat was out on the sea and he was alone on the land.

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And he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them.

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And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost and they cried out for they saw him and were terrified.

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But immediately he spoke to them and said, take heart I am do not be afraid.

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And he got into the boat with them the wind ceased and they were utterly astounded for they did not understand about the loaves but their hearts were hardened.

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When they had crossed over they came to the land at Gennesaret and moored on the shore.

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And when they got out of the boat the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard that he was.

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And wherever he came in villages, cities, countryside they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.

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And as many as touched it were made well. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

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God admit I'm excited about this text. There's something going on in this text that I want you all to see and once you see it you cannot unsee it.

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Now let me read to you the first two verses from Isaiah chapter 61. This will set the theme for our gospel text today.

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Here's what it says. The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

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He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the

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Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn.

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The freedom for the captives, the release of the prisoners is a major theme of Scripture and it is no coincidence that last week's gospel text had a lot of callbacks if you would.

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Data points that connected perfectly with the book of Exodus. This week's gospel text also has important callbacks to the book of Exodus.

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But let me run some of these book of Exodus themes or data points to you in their chronological order as they appear in the book of Exodus.

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You have the Lord appearing to Moses in the burning bush and commissioning him to go to Pharaoh to say let my people go.

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After suffering 400 plus years in slavery, God was now making good his promise to release them from slavery and now he was in the ultimate showdown with the ultimate false

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God King who is visible on the planet Pharaoh of Egypt. So think of it this way, this is a type and shadow battle between the true

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God and Satan. Pharaoh himself is a stand -in for Satan. The man that God chose for the assignment,

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Moses, well he was a little dodgy. I mean he was a murderer. He was on the run from Egypt, right?

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40 years as a fugitive. In fact they still had his photograph on the post office walls in all of Egypt.

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And so this is the guy that God calls and Moses is not keen on the assignment, even going so far as to say

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God please send someone else. But the Lord prevails upon Moses, prevails upon him and there

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Moses with the sandals off his feet, standing on holy ground in front of the burning bush, hearing the voice of God, says, when they ask me who should

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I say sent me, what is your name? The Lord speaks from the bush and says my name is

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I Am. Tell them I Am has sent you. And then from there begins the ultimate showdown.

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Ten plagues culminating in the Passover lamb being sacrificed, the children of Israel being saved by the blood of the lamb over the doorposts of their houses.

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Now marched out into the wilderness heading towards their inheritance in the promised land and well remember there's the whole crossing of the

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Red Sea. We'll talk about that more in a minute. They finally cross the Red Sea.

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First order of business on the other side of the Red Sea is that God begins to feed them manna in the wilderness.

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And so you're going to note something here. Manna in the wilderness and Red Sea. The way it goes is

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Red Sea, manna in the wilderness. Our gospel text has the call back from Exodus starting with the, well the feeding of the 5 ,000, the food miracle in the wilderness.

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And this miracle harkens back to the Red Sea. So note something.

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The details of last week's gospel text and this week's gospel text are calling back to the book of Exodus but in reverse order.

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And that's important. And you'll see why. Have you ever wondered why is it that when

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Jesus was walking on the water it says in Matthew and in Mark that he intended to just walk on by them?

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Have you ever found that to be like really disturbing? I have. But when you see what's really going on you'll begin to get an idea as to what's going on there and what was motivating

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Jesus. Now to help us out we've got to go back into Exodus. We're going to go to Exodus 14 and we're going to review if you would some of the details as we re -examine the story of the crossing of the

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Red Sea. So the children of Israel have marched out. They're at the Red Sea and we will pick up the story where Pharaoh's army shows up.

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And see what happens. Exodus 14 verse 10. Pharaoh drew near.

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The people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly.

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And the people of Israel cried out to Yahweh and they said to Moses and now here comes the interesting grumbling.

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Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away? That there are no graves?

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That you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

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Is this not what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians for it would have been better for us to serve the

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Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people, fear not stand firm and see the salvation of Yahweh.

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Moses knows that it's the Lord who has set them free from slavery in Egypt and he knows that this battle belongs to God.

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He said so stand firm you'll see the salvation of Yahweh which he will work for you today.

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For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. And Yahweh will fight for you.

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You have only to be silent. So then Yahweh said to Moses, why do you cry out to me?

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Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Have you noticed that God has this really strange things that he does sometimes?

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He asked people to do stuff that just like is beyond difficult. Last week's gospel text

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Jesus said to the disciples who are bringing it up that all these people were hungry this ginormous crowd and Jesus said you feed them.

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What do you mean? We feed them. And then you think of Jesus in our gospel text telling the disciples to cross the

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Sea of Galilee at night with the wind against them. And he was watching the whole time and didn't lift a finger to help them.

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Alright so you're gonna know that God has this tendency to kind of like push us into things or push his disciples and even push the children of Israel and Moses to do stuff that is like beyond difficult.

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All of this is to demonstrate that his strength is made perfect in our weakness if you would.

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So Lord says why do you cry out to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff.

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Stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. There's Moses making the physical sign of the cross with his actual body and his outstretched arms.

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So the people of Israel may go through the sea and hear the important words. On dry ground.

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We're gonna hear this several times. On dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all of his hosts his chariots and his horsemen and the

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Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh his chariots and his horsemen so after his huddle with God knowing what the play is this is the strangest play ever right this is even more weird than the

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Hail Mary pass with three flea flickers so then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel and there was the cloud and the darkness and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night so then

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Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night so think of it this way which direction is that wind blowing if the sea is in front of us and we're the children of Israel the sea is coming from behind us and it's blowing open the

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Red Sea so when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea they are crossing on dry ground with the wind at their backs that's an important detail so keep that in mind the waters were divided the people of Israel went in the midst of the sea on dry ground there we go again on dry ground the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left the

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Egyptians pursued and went in after them in the midst of the sea all Pharaoh's horses his chariots and his horsemen and in the morning watch

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Yahweh in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces through the

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Egyptian forces into a panic clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily and the

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Egyptians said let us flee from before Israel for Yahweh fights for them against the

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Egyptians and then Yahweh said to Moses stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the

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Egyptians upon their chariots upon their horsemen so Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared and as the

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Egyptians fled into it the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea the waters return and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the host of Pharaoh that followed them into the sea not one of them remained but the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea there it is again on dry ground through the sea the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left that's

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Yahweh saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore

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Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians of the people feared the

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Lord and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses and then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to Yahweh saying

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I will sing to Yahweh for he has triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider he is thrown into the sea

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Yahweh is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation this is my

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God and I will praise him my father's God and I will exalt him the

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Lord is a man of war the Lord Yahweh is his name Pharaoh's chariots and his host he is cast into the sea his chosen officers were sunk in the

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Red Sea the floods covered them they went down into the depths like a stone your right hand

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Oh Lord glorious and power your right hand Oh Lord shatters the enemy and so we see this beautiful theme now in Scripture of God the great liberator

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God the one who emancipates the slaves emancipates the slaves from slavery in Egypt but all of that is type and shadow so return with me with our gospel text we've already noted that things are kind of going backwards in order the callbacks to Exodus are in reverse and that's important mark 644 immediately

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Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd and after he had taken leave of them he went on the mountain to pray which

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I think in some way kind of harkens back to Mount Sinai but that might be pushing it just a little too much it's fascinating that important things always happen at the top of mountains in Scripture this is a pinnacle moment and that's not a pun that's intentional so there's

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Jesus on the top of the mountain praying and he can see that his disciples are making headway terribly so the boat was out on the sea he was alone on the land he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them now if my understanding of this text is correct the wind has to be against them so think of it this way this is

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Jesus reenacting if you would the Red Sea in part not in it in the destruction of Pharaoh but in the aftermath afterwards going then against the wind going across the sea walking on the sea as if he's walking on dry ground that's kind of his point he's crossing the sea again against the wind to go and liberate more slaves that's the point so we see an evening came the boat was out on the sea he was alone on the land he saw that they were making headway painfully about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea he meant to pass by them he wasn't going across the

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Sea of Galilee in order to help the disciples he was going across the

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Sea of Galilee to help the people on the other side of the sea the wind being against him him walking on the sea like it's dry ground all hearkens back to the

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Exodus Jesus isn't done with his rescue mission Jesus isn't finished setting the captives free there's more that need to be set free and this is kind of an important little detail this gospel the gospel of Mark we learn from church history is intimately connected with with the

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Apostle Peter in fact we know that these this gospel mark this is the preaching notes of Peter when he would go and tell people about Jesus this was his script this was the story that he told and you're going to note something in Peters retelling of this account he leaves out a very interesting detail him getting out of the boat and nearly drowning right which is appropriate to appropriate not only is an embarrassing detail but it's a detail that kind of distracts from what

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Jesus is doing and you're going to note that our gospel text doesn't end with the Jesus getting into the boat it continues

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Peters point is not that he got out of the boat which is why he doesn't mention it there's something bigger going on these callbacks to Exodus are huge and he doesn't want people to miss it the wind being against them that's on purpose to show us what's going on so that you connect the two events together you can see what

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Jesus is up to so Jesus going to pass by them it's because he wasn't going out on the water just to help them anyway that was not the point the point was

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Jesus needed to get back to the other side of the sea because he's on a rescue mission now that the first group has gone through the sea it's time to go find the rest of the slaves and set them free as well so he meant to pass by them but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost and they cried out for they all saw him and were terrified and immediately

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Jesus spoke to them and said take heart and here's the other callback to Exodus a go a me

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I am Jesus says that he uses the name of God that was given to Moses and he uses it for himself take heart

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I am another callback to Exodus do not be afraid so he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased they were utterly astounded they still did not understand about the lows their hearts were hardened they didn't quite get it yet but when they had crossed over they came to the land of Gennesaret and they moored to the shore and when they got out of the boat the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard that he was and whenever he came in villages cities or countryside they lay the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment and listen to the words and as many as touched it were sold so there's that play on words again as many as touched it were saved huh so now we see what's going on Jesus is walking on the

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Sea of Galilee as on dry ground in order to invoke to have us go back and study that story of the crossing of the

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Red Sea again and we can see the direction he's heading once God got Israel across he's going back you think of it this way it's kind of like those great war stories it was a recent war movie a

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World War two movie about a guy who was a pacifist who ended up in a fighting unit you know in in the

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Pacific Rim in the Pacific theater and this is the guy who although he had no weapon he went back into the battle over and over and over and over again to save the lives of the wounded and we recognize this theme but that is exactly what

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Jesus is doing I'm going back there's more slaves that need to be set free he's going back to save you to save me to save your family to save your relatives to save everybody that he can as many people as he can pick up he's gonna drag them back across the sea into freedom that's why he's walking on the water that's why he had no intention to get in the boat his focus is on his mission

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I've got more to save and you can see it when he lands he's undoing the dominion of darkness it's because of our slavery to sin in the devil that we all grow old and we die it's because of our slavery to sin in the devil that we experience sickness and disease that our relationships are torn apart that this world is a mixture of good and misery and Jesus here he lands and he's breaking all of it all of the captives now are being set free and are being saved and I love this little detail that even as many touch the fringe of his garment where did they learn to do that that woman with the issue of blood for 12 years who we don't even know her name the word now had spread about how she was released from her scourge and now people believing and trusting in Jesus when he shows up they want to touch the hem of his garment as well those sit

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CEO's and as many do are saved now consider this they touch just the hem of his garment but when we have the

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Lord's Supper we don't touch the hem of his garment we touch him himself he comes to us in body in blood broken and shed for the forgiveness of our sins and as many as touch him are saved

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Jesus the great liberator Jesus the one who has set us free set us free from the dominion of darkness set us free from that tyrant the devil set us free from our own folly and sin this is why

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Paul writes in Romans 8 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the

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Spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death for God is done with the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the

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Spirit Paul says in Galatians 5 1 it is for freedom the

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Christ has set us free so stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery and we see as we work through the book of Exodus there's always these grumblers among the people of Israel oh we had it better in Egypt oh we ate food for free that we had onions and leeks and meat pots it was the best thing ever that slavery was and they're always trying to get people's hearts and minds to think back to when they were slaves but see that's what the devil whispers in our hearts that's what our own sinful flesh does as well don't you love slavery come on let's go back to Egypt let's go back and be under the dominion of the devil this is why

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Paul writes in Romans 6 what shall we say then are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound consider

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Jesus's words in John 8 amen amen I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin the slave does not remain in the house forever it's the

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Son who remains so if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed so are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound you may as well return back to Egypt well by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ we were baptized into his death you see all of these water themes have to do with liberation and see you were joined with Christ in the waters of your baptism you were buried with him you were raised with him you're already dead you're no longer a slave because Jesus came across the sea and found you and dragged you to the other side do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that justice

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Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life for if we have been united with him in a death like his and we have we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin this is what this text is about this is

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Jesus the liberator freeing us so that we are no longer enslaved to sin

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I think I cannot end the sermon with any better words than the words from our epistle text

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Paul writing says it's for this reason I now bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he might grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ might dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have the strength to comprehend with all the

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Saints what is the breath and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God in fact

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I would say knowing why Jesus was crossing that sea just makes me understand that the great love of Christ for us miserable sinners is so much broader longer higher and deeper than I have ever comprehended

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Jesus truly was on a rescue mission and he still is and we have joined him in that rescue mission in the

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Commission that he's given the church to go and make disciples of all nations to baptize in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to set the captives free it's like the ultimate eternal game of freeze tag and we are the ones who've been unfrozen and we bring

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Jesus to them and God unfreezes them Christ sets them free so that they can join us in this wonderful game of liberation and it just shows the love of Christ so now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power that is a work within us to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

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Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Ave. NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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