We Are Not Called to Change the World

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

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

00:18

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

00:25

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 13th chapter.

00:32

Jesus went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.

00:37

And someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? And he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow door.

00:45

For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying,

00:55

Lord, open to us, then he will answer you, I do not know where you come from. Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets.

01:04

But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.

01:10

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.

01:20

And the people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

01:27

And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

01:32

This is the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. In the name of Jesus.

01:41

Early June of 1986, yes, I remember that day well, and that makes me old.

01:49

In early June of 86, I sat in Pasadena Nazarene Church for our graduation commencement ceremony.

02:01

Barb was in the crowd too, but her name at that point was Barbara Johnson. It wasn't Barbara Rose, bro, yet.

02:07

And we sat as our commencement speaker told us that we, because we had been trained in the word of God, because we were

02:20

Christians, that we had graduated from a Christian institution, that we were being sent out by God to change the world.

02:32

And I've got to admit, I believed it. And to my shame, I say

02:37

I believed it. The reason I say that is because I cannot think of a more arrogant thing to think about yourself. Clearly the world has some serious problems, and I assure you

02:47

I am not the solution to the world's problems. You are not the solution to the world's problems.

02:57

That being the case, let's consider soberly our gospel text and let's try to weave in, shall we, our epistle and our

03:07

Old Testament readings into this and see if we can make some sense of this narratively. And I will remind you all that from time to time, scripture gospel lessons have a lack of gospel in them.

03:19

And so we'll do what we can to weave the gospel into our sermon, but we'll have to engage in some pulling from extra -biblical texts to do so.

03:29

So here's the text. Jesus went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.

03:37

Now it's not good pastoral sermon form to preach the gospel first, but I would remind you that that sentence right there reminds us of what the text said a few weeks back when it said that Jesus had set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem, to go to the cross, to bleed and to die for our sins.

03:56

So let's put a little gospel stake down in the sermon, shall we? And now it says, someone.

04:02

It doesn't say who. If it was one of his disciples, then it may have said one of his disciples.

04:08

But in this case, it says, someone said to Jesus, Lord, will those who are saved be few?

04:15

And Jesus' answer kind of points us to the idea that the fellow who was saying this, kind of like when

04:23

I was an 18 -year -old, I thought I was going to change the world, that the person asking this question of Christ has got some major issues and has got a completely false view of himself or herself in asking this question because Jesus, you'll note that he doesn't sit there and say, all right, let me lay this out for you.

04:41

I've got an Excel spreadsheet, and what I've done here is I've tabulated on one column or row.

04:47

I don't know how it all works in Excel, but I'll be told later. All those who are damned, and then the other column is all those who are saved.

04:57

And if we pull up the pie chart in Microsoft Excel, we can see that the ratio of those who are saved is this versus that.

05:05

And so here's the answer to your question. Jesus will not engage in any kind of mathematical ratio calculations at this point.

05:15

And you'll note that the person asking the question, based on Jesus' answer, it may be safe, and we've got to be careful here, it may be safe to assume the person asking the question seemed to think that they were on the inside track.

05:30

Oh, Lord, Lord, listen, I know I'm saved because I think you're a swell guy. And being a swell guy, you and me, we're tight, so I know

05:39

I'm already in the good category. So I just want to answer the question, will those who are saved be few?

05:45

Because it doesn't seem like you have that many people following you around, Jesus, and of course I am, so you and me, we got this all sorted out.

05:53

So you can give me the inside skinny. Jesus has none of that, none of it.

06:00

So he says, many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. So strive to enter through the narrow door.

06:08

Forget about everybody else for a second. Forget about them. Forget about the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the

06:14

Democrats, the Republicans. Forget about them. And let's focus back on you.

06:20

Strive to enter through the narrow door. And I would remind you that in the

06:28

Gospel of John, Jesus himself says, I am the door.

06:35

Strive to enter through me. Many, I tell you, will seek and they will not be able.

06:42

When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying,

06:48

Lord, open to us. Then he will answer you. I don't know where you come from. Then they will begin to say, and listen to what happens next.

06:57

This sounds a lot like church. We ate and drank in your presence. Sounds like an allusion to the

07:04

Lord's Supper. And you taught in our streets. We heard your word at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church.

07:12

And he'll say, I don't know you. I don't know where you come from. Well, Norway, of course.

07:22

I put that part in. Yeah. I don't know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.

07:34

And here's the thing. Our old Adam hears these words. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.

07:39

And we sit there and go, aha! I've solved the problem here. I know how to get in on the last day, how to get right with Jesus.

07:46

I'm just going to reduce my workers of evil quotient. And so this year,

07:52

Jesus, listen, I mean it this time. This year when January rolls around, I'm making that commitment.

07:58

And I'm really going to do it this time. I'm super serious, Lord. In fact, you won't even recognize me by this time next year because of how amazing

08:08

I'm going to polish myself up. I mean, you're going to hardly recognize me at all. I'm going to kiss babies.

08:16

I'm going to feed the poor. I'm going to go to church more. I might even consider like giving five more dollars every week when the trade goes around.

08:25

Oh, Jesus, I'm telling you. But do you not understand that when you bargain with Christ like this, that you are already admitting that you are an evildoer, that you are a worker of evil?

08:35

And do you think that somehow bargaining with him, I'm going to reduce the level of evil that I engage in, that that's somehow going to give you street creds with Jesus on the last day?

08:47

You are fooling yourself. That's not how this works.

08:55

And so now we're stuck. What do we have to bargain with? How do we get in on this banquet, this feast that's going to be at the last day where all the nations come pouring in?

09:08

How do I make sure I'm not the guy on the outside knocking, hey, hey, Jesus, could you let me in?

09:16

Well, pay attention to what comes next. Jesus notes then that those who are outside, the ones he says to depart from me, he gives an allusion to hell itself.

09:28

In that place there will be weeping, and there will be gnashing of teeth. Listen to what he says next.

09:34

When you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.

09:43

Now wait a second. I've read the Bible. I don't know if you've noticed this, but if the

09:49

Bible were to actually be made into a movie without any bits censored, it would probably have a greater than G rating, greater than PG rating.

10:00

There are parts of the Bible that are like, whoa, I can't believe that said that. And some of those parts involve

10:08

Abraham, Isaac, oh, and especially Jacob. You remember

10:13

Abraham. I mean, he's held up as the man of righteousness, of the man of faith, right? But here's the thing.

10:20

On two occasions, not once, twice, he told his wife to straight out lie about their marital status so that he wouldn't be killed because apparently

10:29

Sarah was hot. And so he was afraid that men would kill him in order to get her. And so he said, you just tell them

10:35

I'm your brother. And on two occasions, if God had not intervened,

10:42

Sarah would have been sexually defiled by men because of this great plan that Abraham had.

10:49

That doesn't sound like somebody who's got great moral character to me. I think risking the defilement of your wife falls into the category of worker of evil.

11:01

And then let me remind you that God seemed to hasten, not hasten, but delay in fulfilling his promise that from Abraham, his descendants would be as many as the sands and the sea.

11:15

And his wife went to the hot flashes and the menopause thing. And so she came to him and said, listen, clearly

11:21

I'm not gonna be the one that's gonna give you a son. So I have this great idea. Sleep with our servant,

11:27

Hagar. And what did Abraham do? Yeah, I'm up for that. And then

11:36

I would remind you Isaac also told his wife to lie about their marital status. And then we can talk about Jacob.

11:44

Oh boy, this is a deceiver extraordinaire. This is a fellow who deceived his own father, played make -believe, dressed up in goat's hair in order to fool his father whose eyes were already gone that he was his brother in order to get his birthright.

12:02

I don't know, that deception, lying, things like that, that doesn't exactly fall into the category as clean as the wind -driven snow.

12:12

So how is it that these three workers of evil are the featured guests at Jesus' wedding feast of the

12:22

Lamb? How come they are, but what about me? Well, and that's the point.

12:34

All of them believed. They trusted the

12:39

Word of God for their deliverance, for their salvation, and they were every bit as sinful and workers of evil as I am and as you are.

12:49

And so because they believed and trusted God, God credited them, their belief, as righteousness.

12:59

This is what the Scriptures teach. See Romans 4 for more details.

13:05

And in the same way, then, we learn that although we all are workers of evil, and like daily, and you'll note we began the service yet again with a confession of sin and absolution.

13:23

And one time somebody asked me, how long am I going to keep that up? And I said, until you stop sinning every day.

13:30

All right? So the point is that we confessed our sins, but we heard the absolution, that our sins are forgiven.

13:39

And that's where the Gospel comes into play, that although we are sinners, although Paul was the chief of sinners,

13:45

God had mercy on him, and God by faith has mercy and pardons and forgives us.

13:52

So we'll note, then, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob notorious sinners are among those featured guests at this great feast that is described here by Jesus.

14:02

And those on the outside, then, are those whose sins are remembered because they persisted in sin and unbelief, which is complete and utter foolishness.

14:18

I don't know if you've noticed, but the Gospel is like the best thing ever. Real sinners like me, like you, are truly forgiven and pardoned, and their sins are cast as far as the east is from the west.

14:31

I have no idea what that distance is. Find them you cannot. That's a

14:37

Yoda -speak way of saying it, but you get the idea. They're out there somewhere, but God doesn't remember them anymore.

14:44

And this is good news for us because the way we get to this feast is by confessing that we are sinners.

14:56

And receiving the forgiveness of sins, and like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, trusting the

15:02

Word of God, that we are pardoned, that we have an inheritance that will soon be revealed.

15:09

And then it goes on. So people will come from the east, the west, the north, and the south, and they will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.

15:18

Now, I did note, I checked the Greek on this, it does not say that people will come from the north, but I think north is included in north.

15:28

So just saying. You need to know that. Now behold, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.

15:36

Now I want you to consider this then, that Christ is making it very clear that everybody who's at that feast, they will be there from every nation on the earth.

15:46

They will come from the north, the south, the east, and the west, and they will all be there because they are forgiven.

15:52

They have received salvation as a gift. But I don't know if you've noticed, this life is hard.

16:00

And I don't mean kind of hard. I mean legitimately, like horribly hard.

16:07

Now remember, I foolishly believed that I was going to change the world after graduating from high school, that the world's problems were going to be solved by me because I was the solution.

16:16

Just a mere two years and two months after my graduation, my wife and I stood before God and our family, and we made vows to each other.

16:28

And the vows went something along the lines of, you know, through thick and thin, through richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others till death do us part.

16:38

And of course, I believed, because I was the world's solution to its problems, that my marriage was going to be a cakewalk.

16:46

It was going to be just so, we were going to live, you know, happily ever after, because after all,

16:52

I'm Prince Charming, right? And well, I found out really quick after the honeymoon that I was an idiot.

17:02

Complete moron to believe that, because here's the thing. I wasn't the solution.

17:08

I was the primary problem in our marriage. And believe me, as the head of our family, the buck stops with me, and the blame falls on me, in the same way that the blame for the fall and the sin falls on Adam, not on Eve.

17:24

And you know what happened? My wife and I did this a lot. And of course,

17:30

I wanted to blame her, and so rather than our marriage being blissful, happily ever after, it's the same as everybody else's marriage.

17:40

It's difficult. It requires me to die to myself, to confess my shortcomings, to ask my wife to forgive me.

17:51

Marriage is a great humbler, and you're going to note something here. This then falls into what we have heard in our

17:58

Epistle text, talking about discipline, coming back to this idea that life is difficult.

18:05

It's supposed to be, if you were a Christian, and you'll note that the struggles and the difficulties, the suffering that we go through, it has a purpose.

18:15

And that purpose is not to terrify us. If we pay close attention to this text, the purpose of that is to comfort us.

18:23

You have to run it through the Gospel, not the law. So then, here's what the inspired author of Hebrews says.

18:31

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

18:38

I love the hyperbole there. It's just, yeah, no. Oh, no, I'm not going to sin. Oh, I'm bleeding.

18:44

No, it doesn't work that way, right? And have you forgotten the exhortation, listen to this, that addresses you then as sons.

18:53

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the

18:58

Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the

19:04

Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son whom

19:10

He receives. So those difficulties that we experience in our lives, those challenges, the ones that make us sit there and go, man, here

19:19

I thought I was all great. Now I'm realizing that I'm really messed up. All of those circumstances, those are proof that you are already the children of God because God is disciplining you.

19:33

The Holy Spirit through these circumstances is chastening you, humbling you, removing from you all of your delusions of grandeur and driving you down to your knees where you need to be.

19:47

You see, it is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. And then the inspired author points us out something that actually makes a lot of sense.

19:57

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? Unless, of course, he has a complete lout for a father, right?

20:05

We know this. We know this. We've experienced this. This is something we can relate to.

20:11

So if you're left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and you're not sons. So look at the difficulties that you are going through.

20:20

Those circumstances that are humbling you and making you realize you're not as strong or as holy as you thought you were, well, note then, this is your heavenly

20:30

Father treating you as a son and basically saying, son, it's time for you to come to grips with what's really going on here and I'm going to help you through it.

20:39

And of course, our heavenly Father doesn't say things like, it's going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you.

20:48

Except for that cross thing. Except for that cross thing. It did hurt him more than it hurt us.

20:55

That's the point. He took our sin upon himself. In other words, the gospel tells us that this discipline, although it's unpleasant, is nothing in comparison to what

21:06

Christ went through in order to save us and to make us children of God. So if you were without discipline, then you're illegitimate children.

21:14

Besides this, we all have had earthly fathers. They disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the

21:20

Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines,

21:27

God disciplines us for our good so that we may share in his holiness. And now, listen to these words.

21:33

For the moment, all discipline seems painful. I must take issue with the author of Hebrews here.

21:39

It actually doesn't seem painful to me. It really is. And if you're honest with yourself, it more than seems painful.

21:47

It legitimately is painful. And it's painful rather than pleasant.

21:54

Listen to the words then, but later, later, this yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

22:01

Have you ever noticed that when God knocks you down, humbles you, works that sin out of you, makes you see the truth about yourself, that you go from being anxious ridden to actually having the true peace that comes from the gospel.

22:21

Sin is slavery. Sin is anxiety. Sin is striving after the wind.

22:29

And Christ has bled and died for those sins, and God our Father now is disciplining us so that we learn not to seek and to chase after that sin.

22:38

Instead, he disciplines us so that he then produces in us the peaceful fruit of righteousness by those who have been trained by it.

22:47

So because of this, therefore, lift your drooping hands. Strengthen your weak knees, talking about prayer.

22:54

Make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the

23:06

Lord. And by the way, the holiness with which we need in order to see the Lord is not our own, but the holiness that is given to us by grace through faith.

23:17

It's Christ's. So see to it then that no one fails to listen, listen to the word, obtain the grace of God.

23:25

That's where our focus is. Make sure that nobody fails to obtain it because it is so richly given here and around the world in the preached gospel, in the sacraments, in baptism, in the

23:36

Lord's Supper. Make sure that nobody fails to obtain the grace of God and that no root of bitterness then springs up and causes trouble and by it may become defiled.

23:47

And then he reminds us just a little bit later that we have not come to what may be touched talking about Mount Sinai, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and tempest and goes on to describe the earthquake and the sounds of the trumpet and the terrifying experience of Mount Sinai when

24:02

God said, Thou shalt not. Instead, we have come to Mount Zion, the holy mountain of God where there is mercy, where there is grace, where there is forgiveness.

24:21

And the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

24:34

And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. We've come to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel because the sprinkled blood of Jesus says,

24:45

You are forgiven. You are pardoned. You are free.

24:52

So keep that in mind. So the difficulties that we go through in this life as Christians, they are not proof that God hates us.

25:05

The difficulties we go through are proof that God loves us. So look at your difficulties and your struggles then in that light to assure you that you are already

25:16

His children, that you are already forgiven. But now, something a little bit practical.

25:22

How then, do we get through this life as difficult as it is? And the answer is found in our

25:29

Old Testament text, but I have to back up into the context just a little bit. You'll note, over and again, we are admonished by Scripture to keep our eyes not on the here and the now and the circumstances and the discipline of God that we find ourselves in, but keep our eyes focused on what is to come.

25:49

It's as if that future hope gets us through the difficulties and the darkness that we experience here and now.

25:57

So Isaiah writes in Isaiah 65, verse 17, the Lord says, I create new heavens.

26:03

I create a new earth. The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

26:09

And I gotta do Napoleon Dynamite here and just go, yes, because this life is difficult.

26:18

And the struggles and the pain and the suffering that we've been made to go through, I don't want to remember a lick of it.

26:25

And the good news is you won't because what is coming is that great. The ultimate turnaround. The complete flipping of the script where we go from no longer, we go from being actually symbol and symbol justus epicator simultaneously just and sinner at the same time to no longer being that, but to being perfectly righteous and holy no longer having a sinful nature on the day when he makes the new heavens and the new earth and raises us from the dead.

26:54

So be glad, rejoice forever in that which I create. Behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness.

27:02

I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people and no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping.

27:09

Remember what Christ said about hell. In that place there will be weeping and there will be gnashing of teeth, but we are assured because we are in Christ, because we have been forgiven, because we have been pardoned and have freely been given this gift that there is a day coming when in the new earth we will never hear the sound of weeping.

27:30

Note the contrast. Nor will there be the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not fill out his days.

27:43

They shall build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit.

27:49

They shall not plant and another eat. For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

28:00

They shall not labor in vain, nor bear children for calamity.

28:07

Or as the Hebrew says, the king of terror. It's a great picture.

28:13

For they shall all be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord and their descendants with him.

28:21

So you'll note then, Jesus' terrifying words to the fellow who asked the question, will those who are saved be few?

28:31

That his answer is one that humbles the hearer. But we are assured by the gospel that we are already the sons of God.

28:41

The difficulty that you experience now in this life is proof that you are also children of God.

28:49

You have been absolved. You have been forgiven. You have heard the absolution. Last week we had the body and blood of Christ.

28:56

And so note then that this new heavens and new earth is not something we have to strive to get in by our works.

29:03

It is something that we are given because Jesus is the door. And so take comfort in what is coming.

29:11

Keep your eyes on that which is coming because the suffering we go through is for just a short amount of time.

29:22

And the darkness will give way to the light of Christ's dawning when he returns in glory and makes the world new again.

29:29

Makes you and I new again. And all of this again is received by grace through faith.

29:36

In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to donate you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

29:57

Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again that address is

30:04

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

30:11

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

30:18

All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.