A Peek at the Wedding Dress

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. Mark, chapter 9, verses 2 -10.

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After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone.

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There He was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.

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And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.

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Let us put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He did not know what to say.

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They were so frightened. Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud.

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This is my Son whom I love. Listen to Him. Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

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As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the

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Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what rising from the dead meant.

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In the name of Jesus. After six days, Jesus took

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Peter and James and John with Him and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone. Important things happen on mountains, by the way.

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There He was transfigured before them, His clothes dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.

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This is our text. A little confession. I'm one of those guys who sheds tears at weddings.

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Now, I understand that this means that some of you will be seeing me after the service and ask me to hand in my man card.

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I get it. Yeah, I know. Saying this publicly is not something you're supposed to do as a dude.

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I get it. But let me continue. I can tell you exactly at what moment in the wedding ceremony that I struggled to hold back the tears.

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And that is the moment when the bride comes to the doors of the church sanctuary. It doesn't matter how common or ordinary looking that woman is on any given day of the week.

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On her wedding day, she is transformed and she is radiant, beautiful, elegant.

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You can even describe her as royal. The white flowing wedding gown, the jewelry, the veil.

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I hate to say it, it gets me every time. Now, the reason for this is actually easy to explain.

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And the reason for it is this. Every single wedding, in a very real way, is a dress rehearsal for the great wedding feast of the

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Lamb. That awesome and amazing day when Jesus will finally be united with his bride, the church, forever.

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And they will live, literally, happily ever after. Ah, all the stories, all the children's stories, they're true.

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So in our gospel text this morning, Mark describes Jesus' transfiguration by describing

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Jesus' clothes. As clothes, and by the way, clothes in scripture, they have very important meanings.

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In fact, you can almost say there's a theology in the Bible, a theology of clothing. Think of it this way.

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Nowadays, when a bride is planning her wedding day, it is very common for her to spend a lot of time fussing over which dress she will wear.

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They even have reality TV shows that, well, depict this. Sometimes the person getting married is a little bit, how should we say, high -strung, right?

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You know, the word bridezilla comes to mind. But, anyway, I digress.

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So, like I was saying, a bride who's planning her wedding day, very common for her to spend a lot of time fussing over which dress she will wear.

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Will she be wearing a Yolan Chris? By the way, yes, there are designer dresses, right? Will she be wearing an

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Anna Campbell or a Jasmine Couture? Or will she be wearing a Vera Wang? By the way,

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I have a particular place in my heart for Vera Wang's bridal dresses. They are amazing. Again, I know the guys here are going to want me to turn in my man card, so I get it.

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Now, each of these wedding dress designers, they have a signature look and style, and each is elegant and beautiful in their own ways.

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But on that great day, we will not be wearing a Vera Wang. We will be dressed in a

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Jesus. And this kills me.

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It kills me. We will be dressed in a Jesus. And our Gospel text this morning gives us a sneak peek at what we will be wearing.

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Think back with me, if you would, for a moment, to the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve had rebelled against God and had eaten the fruit that they had been told not to eat, what did they do to cover their nakedness and their shame?

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They clothed themselves with fig leaves. But Genesis 3 .21, an off -skipped verse, or one that is not really highly noted, says this,

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God, the Lord, made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and he clothed them.

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Yeah, that's right. God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins. And these were costly clothes because an innocent animal had to die in order to cover their nakedness and their shame.

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Does that sound familiar? Now, Luke 15 is another passage that gives us a little bit of this theology of clothing.

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And it's that famous story, the parable of the prodigal son. Let me read a portion of it for you from Luke 15.

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Jesus said, There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property that is coming to me.

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That's a polite way of putting it. Kind of reading between the lines. It's, Dad, I'm really upset that you're not dead yet.

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Would you give me your share of the inheritance, or my share of the inheritance? This tells you how much he really loves his father.

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And father, rather than giving him the backhand of fellowship, which is what he deserved, he ends up dividing his property between them.

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So not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country.

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And there he squandered his property in reckless living. The details of this reckless living are not given in Scripture.

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We don't know if he was partying, spending it all on booze and drugs, maybe prostitutes.

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Reckless living kind of implies all of that. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country.

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He began to be in need, so he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs, unclean animals.

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This is not anything a good Jewish boy would want to be doing. So there he is feeding pigs, reduced to nothing, servitude if you would.

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So he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. No one gave him anything.

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But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger?

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I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

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Truer words could never have been spoken. But he wants to cut a deal with his dad, so he says,

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So treat me as one of your hired servants. This is what he rehearsed in his mind as he's getting ready to go visit his father.

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So then he rose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him from far off, knew it was his son.

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His father saw him, felt compassion, and he ran, and he embraced him, and he kissed him.

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And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

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There's the confession of sin, and it's true. And now the father cuts him off.

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There's not going to be any deal -making here. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe.

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There it is, that theology of clothing again. Bring quickly the best robe.

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Here this son who has squandered his father's inheritance on reckless living, probably covered in mud and pig poop, the first thing the father says is bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, for this my son was dead, and he is now alive again.

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He was lost, and now he's found. So then they began to celebrate. Now in a very real way, the prodigal son is you.

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It's me. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but now you are alive again in Christ.

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You were lost, and now you are found. You had soiled your robes with sin and iniquity, and Christ has taken away your filthy robes from you, and has dressed you in the best robe.

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Isaiah 61 .10 says this, I will rejoice greatly in the

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Lord. My soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation.

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He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

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Zechariah 3, not a very popular passage, few read it, talking about the high priest at the time when the

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Jews returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. It says this about the high priest Joshua, it says this,

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Then he showed me, that's the Lord showed me, Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the

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Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And that's what Satan does, he accuses us of our sins.

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And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, O Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, he rebuke you.

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Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.

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And the angel said to those who were standing before him, Remove the filthy garments from him.

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And to him he said, Behold, I have taken away your iniquity from you.

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I will clothe you with pure vestments. And this is all of us, all of us.

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Satan stands there accusing us of our sins, and he's right in all of his accusations. But you see, you, like Joshua, are a brand plucked from the fire.

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You, like Joshua, have had your filthy clothes removed from you, and given pure white vestments. You ask,

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When did this happen? Well, it's real simple. Paul in Galatians chapter 3 verse 27 says this,

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For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ.

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Let me say that again. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ.

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In other words, at that baptismal font, when you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ.

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And you think back to that tradition where parents would bring their children. It doesn't matter if it was a boy or a girl.

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Bring them to be baptized. What were they wearing? Those white baptismal gowns, right?

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All of that hinting at them being clothed with Christ. Revelation chapter 7 says this,

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Then one of the elders addressed me saying, Who are these clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?

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And I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me,

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These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the

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Lamb. In other words, Christians, all is forgiven.

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That's what God wants me to tell you, that all is forgiven. Your filthy robes have been taken from you in the waters of your baptism, and you are now clothed with the very righteousness of Christ.

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And the robes that you are wearing are dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world can bleach them, because they have been bleached in the blood of the

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Lamb. In your baptism you have put on Christ and the dazzling white wedding gown that he has won for you on the cross.

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And when we partake here of the Lord's Supper at this altar, we are getting a sneak peek and a little foretaste of the wedding feast that is to come.

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Well, how can this be, you might ask? Well, it's simple. Think back to our text. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus there is flanked by Moses and Elijah, we read this morning.

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Yes, the Law and the Prophets represented in full. And a great voice comes from heaven and says,

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Listen to Jesus, after the other two disappear. But see, there we got a peek of Jesus' glory.

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But when Jesus' greater glory was on display for all the world to see, Jesus was hanging naked and bleeding and flanked by two thieves on a cross, on the slopes, not of the

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Mount of Transfiguration, but on the slopes of Mount Moriah. And Isaiah tells us what this was all about.

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It says this in chapter 53, He, Jesus, was pierced for our transgressions.

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He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

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And with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His own way.

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And here's what it says, The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. In other words, all of your sin, all of your filthy garments, all of those times when you have not loved

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God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, when you have despised the hearing of His word, when you have failed to pray as you ought, when you have not honored those in authority over you, when you have coveted, when you have lied, when you have been sexually immoral, when you have stolen, when you have toned down someone's character with your words of slander and gossip, all of those sins show that rather than being a worthy bride, you have instead acted like a whore.

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And that's the reality of the situation. But you see, Scripture says that God demonstrates

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His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins.

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And so, Jesus, He takes all of your sin. Every time you have fallen short of God's standard,

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He takes the punishment upon Himself so that He is punished rather than His bride, so that He takes those filthy garments and accounts for every one of our transgressions so that we can be clothed in His dazzling white righteousness.

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The animal skins that God used to clothe Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were very costly, but there are no clothes more costly than the garment of salvation which

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Christ clothes His church with. It was not an innocent animal that died to purchase these clothes.

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Instead, it was the very Son of God. And this is what

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God's love looks like. All of your iniquity is bled for. All of your sin is died for.

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The only word we hear from God is, All is forgiven, repent, be forgiven, live, and get ready for the marriage feast of the

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Lamb. When you appear before Him, you will not be in filthy robes. You will be literally dressed in the dazzling white garment of Christ, which no one can bleach as white as it truly is.

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Dazzling, sparkled, bedecked, more amazing and beautiful than any bride that you had ever seen at any wedding.

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Because like I said, every wedding is in reality a dress rehearsal for the great marriage feast of the

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Lamb. In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to And again, that address is 470th

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

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