All Means All, Not Some
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Date: All Saint’s Day
Text: Matthew 5:1-12
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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 in 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. Matthew, the fifth chapter.
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- Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened
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- His mouth, and He taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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- Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
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- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
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- Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.
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- And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
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- Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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- This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, here's some of the lyrics from the hymn we just sang.
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- O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, fight as the saints who nobly fought of old.
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- And win with them the victor's crown of gold, alleluia, alleluia. And when the fight is fierce and the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song.
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- And hearts are brave, and again, arms are strong, alleluia, alleluia.
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- And then, you'll note, these themes of military action, you can find it in our hymnity, but most importantly, you can find it in our words, in the words of scripture.
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- Scripture is clear that each and every one of us, we are to put on the full armor of God, and yes, that's women and men alike.
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- But you'll note, there's kind of a thing we do, and that is that the traditions here in the states, our traditions around the world are a little different when it comes to burying people.
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- I recently had the privilege of doing the internment service for Walter Kemet. And Walter is in a military cemetery, and he was buried with full military honors.
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- And it's always awesome to watch a military funeral. It's actually quite impressive.
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- Especially when you have the honor guard come out, and these guys, they spit polish everything. You can see your face in the reflection of the brass on their uniforms.
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- You can see your reflection in their shoes perfectly. And they've got all their medals and their awards, and everyone's decked out perfectly.
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- And after the service of the word, then the military guys come out and they fold the flag, and then there's the 21 -gun salute.
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- And have any of you been able to stand or sit through one of those without flinching with every single volley?
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- It just is designed to hit you right in the chest. And of course, the last bit of it is the playing of taps.
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- But I bring this all to your attention to remind you of something, and that is that here on All Saints Day, we recognize all saints.
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- I'm going to put the emphasis on all. But those who have gone before us, each and every one who has died in the faith, their grave is a military grave.
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- A military grave of the army of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And everybody who is a penitent believer in Jesus Christ and has received from Jesus, the
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- King, full pardon and reconciliation for their sins by virtue of Him bleeding and dying for their sins.
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- It is important for us to recognize that each and every one of us, we were born dead in trespasses and sins.
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- We were born on the wrong side. If you were to put it in military terms, in history that we might understand, nobody
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- I know likes the Nazis, and with good reason. But we were all born, if you would, spiritual
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- Nazis. We were born fighting for the wrong guy. Hitler is kind of a stand -in for the devil, and each and every one of us, we were under his sway.
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- And each and every one of us, by the grace of God, has been brought into his kingdom. And now we are belligerents in a fight that has been lasting for millennia.
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- You know, if you think about the wars of human history, sometimes they stretch out a little bit, you know, five, ten, fifty years, not much longer than that, maybe a couple of them a hundred years long or whatever.
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- The Hundred Years War, you hear of things like this. But have you ever stopped to think that the fight against God, started by Satan, which we've all participated in, that has been going on for millennia.
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- And at the end of the day, when we all rise, we are described in our hymnology and scripture as being a great host, a great army that Christ has raised up.
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- But the army that Christ raises up on the last day, that great host, they beat their swords into plowshares, and they become an army of eternal peace, something to look forward to.
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- So, as we work our way through our text today, and boy, do these all work together wonderfully,
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- I would like to remind you all that each and every person who is a baptized, penitent believer in Jesus Christ, you are a saint.
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- I know that there's this talk of saints as if somehow saints are people who aspire really hard to climb the ladder of righteousness, and at some point they go from being a mere sinful human being to being a saint, right?
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- This is just not true. That is works righteousness on steroids. And you'll note that this is the way
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- Rome talks. How do they know who the saints are? Well, first of all, you have to be somebody notable in their religion.
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- Then you have to die a blessed death, and then people need to start praying to you, and if you can verify three miracles that you've performed post -mortem, then they assume that you have attained a state of sinless perfection in this lifetime, and therefore you were able to circumvent purgatory and go straight into the presence of Christ.
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- And you'll note when you believe something like this, and we all kind of tacitly do, when you believe something like this, you take away the glorious gospel and the good news that we have in Jesus Christ.
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- Listen, Christ died for the ungodly. I say this regularly. You qualify, and I qualify.
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- That being the case, the Greek word for saint is hagios. My Greek students pay attention here.
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- Nominative plural, hagioi. That right? Hagioi. What's a hagioi? Well, we translate it as saint, and it doesn't really do us any favors when we translate it, because the hagioi are the holy ones.
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- They have been made holy. I recognize myself,
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- I ain't holy. We confess today, humbling ourselves, that we are sinful and unclean, that we have sinned against God in thought, word, deed, by what we've done and by what we've left undone, and rightfully so.
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- And you heard from Christ, I got to be his representative, but you heard from Christ that your sins are forgiven today, and you'll note that Jesus takes his bride and he washes her clean.
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- He is the one who makes her holy, and he does it out of his great love and mercy for his bride, and you are that bride.
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- And so you'll note, when we talk about all saints, we begin with the idea that we all are saints, and I know that you are sinners.
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- That's the thing about this lifetime, the world of paradoxes, of light and darkness, of good and evil, and even within yourself, well, there's the new person that you are in Christ, the saint that Christ has made you, and you still have your sinful
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- Adam, the sinner that your father and my father have made us.
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- But let's take a look behind the veil, shall we? Let's take a look at our first reading in the book of Revelation, and you'll note, this is what awaits all of us.
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- If Christ tarries, this is where you and I are headed. This is where Isla Lind is today.
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- This is where Arlen Stengram is at this moment, Peggy Sandberg, and other notable members of this congregation.
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- You'll note, I've done more funerals than I've done marriages. We need to fix this, okay. If my marriage rate isn't on par with my funeral rate, then the congregation's kind of on shaky ground, so you young kids,
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- I don't know what you're waiting for, but you need to work on this. Okay. That's the second time
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- I've done that recently, all right? Why? Because this is reality,
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- Sarah. This is reality. I'm a realist, all right?
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- But let's take a look at our first reading from Revelation chapter seven, and note what it says.
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- After this, the Apostle John says, I looked, and behold, there was a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and people's languages, standing before the throne, before the
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- Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our
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- God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. What a great beginning here in our epistle text, or at least our second reading.
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- Boy, is this just really good, and the reason why is because we can see the theme here.
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- Salvation belongs to our God, and indeed it does, and Christ freely gives salvation to everyone who believes.
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- You do not have to earn the salvation it has given to you, and you'll note that over and again in Scripture, our sin is described in terms of defilement.
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- Our sin is described in terms of defilement that mucks up and just causes our clothes to be stained with filth and muck, right?
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- You guys remember the princess bride? The queen of filth, the queen of garbage, right? Great line, right?
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- The thing is that each and every one of us, because of our sin, we have defiled ourselves.
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- We have stained our clothes. We have mucked them up with sinful, smelly, icky yuck.
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- There's a picture in the book of Zechariah, in Zechariah chapter 3. The high priest at the time that Zechariah wrote was a fellow by the name of Joshua, and Joshua, well, we don't know what he did, but in Joshua chapter 3, we are privy to a conversation, a happening that took place in the heavens, and Satan and Joshua and Jesus himself there as the angel of the
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- Lord were all present, and here's how this is described. Then he, the angel, showed me
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- Joshua the high priest. He was standing before the angel of Yahweh, that's Jesus, and Satan standing at his right hand, accusing him, and isn't that how the devil operates?
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- I don't know what it is that you see in this guy, Jesus. He's a complete sinner, complete loser. Did you not hear what he just said?
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- Did you not see what he just did? He's guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, right? And is
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- Satan wrong when he accuses us? Not even close. He's absolutely right.
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- He knows the law very well. He's the worst attorney in all of eternity, and this is the other reason why attorneys are evil, but that being said, the
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- Lord said to Satan, Yahweh rebuke you, oh Satan. It says
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- God's sitting there going, yeah, I know he's guilty, big whoop, right? The Lord then, the
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- Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, may he rebuke you, and then he says of Joshua, is this not a brand plucked from the fire?
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- That's each and every one of us, because of our sin and our rebellion and participation in the dominion of darkness, we are all heading to hell, but God has had mercy on us, and he describes those whom he saves as brands plucked from the fire.
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- Now Joshua, it says, was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. I've done this myself.
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- And the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him, and to him he said, behold,
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- I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head, they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the
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- Lord was there standing by. It's a beautiful picture of our salvation, and in our first reading today, here we see this multitude of people from every tribe, nation, and language that you cannot count, that you cannot number, all clothed in white robes.
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- How many brands has Christ himself plucked from the fires of hell?
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- You can't even number them, it's that big of a number of people. And you can see then, all the angels then were standing around the throne, having heard this exaltation that salvation belongs to our
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- God, and the angels then were standing around the throne, the elders and the four living creatures, on hearing this, they fell on their faces before the throne, and they worshipped
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- God, and they worshipped God with their lips, and in their proclamation, affirming that salvation belongs to our
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- God, they said amen, blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our
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- God forever and ever, amen, mm, now that's worship.
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- Then one of the elders addressed me, the apostle John, saying, who are these who are clothed in white robes, where have they come?
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- I love this answer, because John doesn't know, and this is kind of a standard operating procedure, when you read the prophet
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- Zechariah, or some of the other minor prophets, God will show them a vision, what do you see here, Zechariah? I have no idea,
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- Lord, what is it? That's kind of the answer, so he sees this great multitude, he's asked, who are they, he says, sir, you know, right, you know, so he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation, that's you and I, they've washed their robes, made them white in the blood of the lamb, ah, yes, a baptismal reference, if you would,
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- I always like to think that when we baptize, right, the unseen element is the blood of Christ, it's the active ingredient, the detergent, if you would, you bring a sinful person to the waters of baptism, and it's the blood of Christ that cleanses them, that makes them holy, that makes them pure and spotless, and Jesus doesn't leave you naked in your sin, he clothes you with his own righteousness, mm, beautiful picture, therefore, these are the ones before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence, they shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat,
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- I always think this is good news, because my wife would affirm this, I don't like putting on sunscreen, it's always like a chore for me, and I don't like other people applying it to me, either, it's embarrassing, right, so when we used to live in Southern California, and we would go to the beach often,
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- I would self -apply sunscreen, with varying results, is the best way
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- I could put it, because there's like a section in my back that I could never really quite get to, and there were times when that section burned, but it was always some piece of abstract art, you know, written in lobster red, you know, and my wife would say, why didn't you just let me put sunscreen on you, because, just because, it's one of my things, okay, that's how this works, so in the new earth, the sun shall not strike them anymore, amen, no sunscreen, the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes, ah, this is where those who've gone before us, who've died in the faith, this is where they are now, and the joys that they experience are unspeakable, and these joys are yours, they are yours because Christ has given them to you as a gift, you do not need to earn this, don't even try, salvation belongs to our
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- God, and he is the one who has given it to you, now, we cannot talk about all saints without also recognizing that all means all, it doesn't mean some,
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- I know the Calvinists, they do this weird thing, right, it says that, how does it go, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are saved, this is how they talk, but then you take them to a text, like, for God so loved the world that whosoever believes in him shall have eternal life, and he said the whosoever, that's like everybody, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's just some people, it's not whosoever, it's just some, well, it says all who believe, they're saved, no, no, no, no, no, only some, okay, now, it's true that people end up in hell, but the thing is, is that when scripture talks about Christ bleeding and dying for the sins of the entire world, that means he died for everybody, and God is the one who gives us this gift, so if you are here today because you want to hear the word of God, because you've humbled yourself, and by being here, you recognize you need
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- God, note this, then, that Christ is here for you to forgive you of all of your sins, and we who have been united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, we are presently saints now, hence our second reading, see what kind of love the
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- Father that he's given to us, that we should be called the children of God, and I cannot read these words without thinking that John wrote them under the inspiration of the
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- Holy Spirit as if there's some kind of really neat gospel irony in it, you know, see what kind of love the
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- Father that he's given to us, that we, we, look around, that we should be called the children of God, I look at the folks here at Kong's Finger today, and well, it's a motley crew, it's a motley crew,
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- I, you know, I've hung out with you guys, I know, I can assure you,
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- I can swear on the Bible, you're all sinners, you know, can you believe this, that God has so loved us, us, that we should be called the children of God, but that's kind of the point, and so John says, and so we are.
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- You see, the reason why the world doesn't know us, and they really don't, is that they don't know
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- God. See, beloved, we are God's children now, you do not have to aspire to become a child of God if you trust in Christ, you are his child now, and what we will be, which hasn't really shown up yet, you get a foretaste of it in the resurrection of Christ, but what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when
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- Jesus appears, we'll be just like him, we will see him as he is, for everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
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- So a good way to think of it then, is this, that all saints, saints before us, who've gone into heaven, saints who are here present now, we all commune together, we believe in the communion of the saints.
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- I remember back when I was being confirmed as a Lutheran, you know, I was raised in Nazarene, and the church that we were confirmed in was one of these urban cathedrals with a high
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- A -frame ceiling, right, and a gloriously huge sanctuary, and our pastor took us out into the sanctuary when we were talking about the communion of the saints, and he says,
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- I think of the communion of the saints this way, and he pointed up to like some huge rafter way, way up, you know, in the
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- A -frame, he says that when we gather for the divine service, that's where the angels are sitting, right, those who've gone before us, this is where they are, because we all worship together with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name, our liturgy says.
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- So that being the case, you'll note, we all are united in one body, and everyone who is in Christ has not perished, they are alive as alive gets, even though physically they're not with us, and our fate is the same as their fate, the glorious victory of when we will all be raised from the dead, and so you saints today hearing these texts, note that you who are in Christ, you are blessed, you have a great eternal hope, and the reason for this is simple, is because Jesus himself has humbled himself perfectly for you, and he himself bore your sin, your iniquity, your filth, and he bled and died in your place in order to give to you eternal life, and he makes you his saints, you do not have to strive for this, he has reconciled you to God, he has paid your debt in full, and redeemed you, and set you free, and it is his good pleasure to give you the kingdom of God, all as a gift, because of what he has done, he's the great victor who's conquered for us, and so is it any wonder then that Jesus's inaugural sermon, which is our gospel text, his inaugural sermon, the sermon on the mount, does not begin with condemnations, it doesn't begin with,
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- I cannot believe that I had to come all the way down here from heaven in order to teach you guys a lesson, so that you can finally get your act together, and so that you can finally do what you need to do, in order to that you can finally become children of God, all right, let me show you how it's done, this is not what
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- Jesus did, and thankfully that's the case, because you know that sounds more like my mother scolding me, because I haven't cleaned my room yet again, which
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- I was never really good at in the first place, okay, this is why I got a wife, okay, joke, it's a joke, long live the patriarchy, all right,
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- I knew that one, but all of that being said, what
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- Jesus does say to all who believe in him, he says these words, blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied, back in the day when
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- I was attending a very legalistic church, these words of Christ, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, they were always preached as if they were a to -do list, do these things, then you will be blessed, if you follow the program, if you do the thing, if you don't dance, drink, smoke or chew, if you give 10 % of the gross income that you earn, every single, this is, by the way, you're not required to do that, you give, then you will be blessed, right, but that's not what
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- Christ is saying, he is saying that you are blessed now and he says what the blessing will be for you in the future, let me explain, blessed are the poor in spirit, have you ever sat down and tried to cogitate, what on earth does that even mean, what is somebody who is poor in spirit and how is it that they are so blessed, ah, well this is the person who recognizes that they don't have anything to offer
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- God for their salvation, they've given up, they basically said, listen, if I have to be this good in order to get to heaven,
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- I'm so far down in the basement, I can't even reach up to here, I got nothing, that's the person who speaks honestly about themselves, the person who speaks dishonestly about themselves, they see the standard, which by the way is perfect,
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- Christ says be perfect as I am perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect and that person says, all right, cool, hold my beer,
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- I think I can do this, it ain't gonna work, instead the person who sees the standard looks at their own lives and says,
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- I'm in deep trouble here, I've got nothing, that's the one who recognizes that he is spiritually bankrupt, poor beyond all reason, that's the person who is blessed because he comes to Christ empty -handed and he says,
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- I have really, really messed this whole thing up, the life that you have given me is one that I have squandered on myself, in my own sinful indulgences, in my own sinful passions, in my own selfishness,
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- I haven't loved God nor have I given him thought, I haven't even come close to loving my neighbor as myself and as a result of it,
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- Lord, I've got nothing, please have mercy on me, that's the one who's spiritually poor and you'll note
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- Christ declares that one to be blessed, blessed are those who mourn, now we all mourn, we recently mourned the passing of Isla Lind and the mourning that Christ is talking about here is not that kind of mourning, although it's closely akin to it, it's the mourning very similar to what
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- I just described for those who are poor in spirit, it's a person who laments their own sinfulness, they lament the fact that they have been a complete screw -up despite the fact, putting on pretenses that they've got their act together, right, this is the person who says,
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- Lord, please, I have really, really, really fallen so short, I lament my sin and I'm sorry, this is the one, the tax collector in the temple who couldn't even look up to heaven, who beat his breast and said,
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- Lord, have mercy on me, I'm a sinner, this is the one who, that's the mourning here that Christ is referring to that shall be comforted and you'll note this is a list of all the things that the saints are and do, everybody who's a true believer in Christ, we know all of this very well, blessed are the meek, ah,
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- Christ was perfectly meek for us by humbling himself and being found in the form of a man, of a child of men, right,
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- Christ himself became a servant and a slave for us all and he's the one who calls us to meekly, humbly confess our sins and when we do, we hear these blessed words of Christ that we will inherit the earth itself, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be satisfied, blessed are the merciful, those who have been forgiven and because they are forgiven, they forgive, they shall receive mercy and blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
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- God. I remember coming out of legalism, reading this again and saying, well, blessed are the pure in heart, that can't possibly be applying to me, that's the one that stood out because I know what comes out of my heart, in fact, you don't really want to go in there, it's dark and there's spiders, it's really gross and it smells bad too but all of that being said, you're going to note this, the scriptures describe those who are dead in trespasses and sins as those who have, well, they have a heart of stone but everyone who is truly in Christ, Christ has removed their heart of stone, the scripture says, and has given them a heart of flesh and all of this out of his great mercy and you'll note then that who you are in Christ, the new person that Christ has made you, you are truly pure in heart, hungering and thirsting for righteousness too, do
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- I hunger and thirst for it enough? I would note, I think that hunger may be filled today when we have the
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- Lord's Supper right, because there again, we are assured of the forgiveness of our sins and the righteousness of Christ that is given us by grace through faith and then blessed are the peacemakers, these are the ones who having been forgiven by Christ, go and tell their friends and neighbors,
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- Jesus has bled and died for you as well, come be reconciled to God, be forgiven for Christ's sake, you see this is the ministry of reconciliation that Paul writes about in 2nd
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- Corinthians 5, those peacemakers and we're all those by the way, we are called now the sons of God and when you talk about Jesus, when you tell the truth, you can't earn your salvation, it's all a gift, it's by grace through faith and that salvation is found in no one else other than in Jesus Christ, the world will accuse you of all kinds of evil, they will call you arrogant, they will slander you, they will say all kinds of wickedness against you, don't believe me, just start teaching some of the exclusive claims of Jesus on certain social media platforms and see what happens, right?
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- It's always interesting when I have a friend of mine who's in the ministry who has contacted me and says, well
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- I'm in Facebook jail again, what'd you do this time? I posted a link to my sermon, oh, all right, talk to Matt Richard out in Minot, okay, he's been in Facebook jail a few times but thankfully,
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- Facebook that, you know, when you get put in Facebook jail, it's not for life, you know, it used to be on Twitter, if you get in Twitter jail, it's for life, they ban you for life, you know, but Facebook jail, they meet it out, you know, one sentence at a time, one sentence at a time, so he was only in Facebook jail for 30 days but that was his fourth or fifth time and all he did was post a link to his sermon, keep that in mind, it's kind of a fascinating thing, so what does
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- Jesus say about those? Blessed are you, those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, theirs is the kingdom of heaven and blessed are you when others revile you in persecution, utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
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- Rejoice, be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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- So brothers and sisters, all saints, all means all, you are in Christ, you are forgiven, your future is wonderful, the outlook is perfect, the outlook is face to face with God rejoicing and worshiping
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- God in his presence with those who have gone before us and the new earth, the raising of our bodies, all of this given us as a gift because of the great love and mercy of Christ, all means all.
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- So what do we do today? Well, I remind you that those of us who are still breathing, we're still at war, we're still in the fight and at the moment we must continue to wage the good fight of faith, to preach the word, tell people of the good forgiveness of Christ that there is in Jesus and to be persecuted if necessary and die if needed and that will eventually all give way.
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- You will either die and join the saints who've gone before us or Christ will return someday, but the white, the warfare continues and let us pray then that Christ gives us the strength to carry on, to keep this faith, this wonderful gift that he has given us so that when we do expire and pass away that we can be buried with the full military honors that go for those who die in faith in Christ.
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- 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 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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- All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.