Blood Bought Treasure

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. Matthew chapter 13, verses 44 through 52.

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The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in the field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy he went and sold all that he had and he bought that field.

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Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything that he had and bought it.

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Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and it caught all kinds of fish.

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And when it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets but threw the bad away.

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This will be how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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Have you understood all these things, Jesus asked? Yes, they replied.

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He said to them, therefore, every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.

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In the name of Jesus. Have you ever heard of the word eucatastrophe?

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You think, oh no, there he goes, he's throwing out some highfalutin words. It's quite a word actually, eucatastrophe.

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J .R .R. Tolkien is the author of the Lord of the Rings, he's the one who coined the word and according to Tolkien, eucatastrophe is that sudden joyous turn in a story.

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Eucatastrophe denies universal final defeat and gives a fleeting glimpse of joy, a joy that is beyond the walls of the world and it's poignant as grief.

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Now the parables from today's gospel reading are radical and may best be understood through the lens of eucatastrophe.

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Now I'll explain so just don't panic. So let me kind of work this out here. When you watch the news and read the newspaper every day, you are left with a sense that the world is a dark and evil place.

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Daily, our eyes consume images and stories of wars, death, pestilence, murder, scandal.

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Over and again we see that human life is cheap. From those whose lives are lost in random accidents to those who are gunned down in gas station robberies and drive -by shootings to those who lose their lives because they were too close to a

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Muslim boy who strapped explosives onto his body in order to barter himself for Allah.

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Or those who lost their lives because their passenger jet was shot down. Life is cheap and we've all wondered at times if we're going to be next, right?

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So then you look at your own life and you see that it is anything but blissful.

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You sin daily and that sin takes a toll. It strains your relationships with others and their sins strain their relationship with you.

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Turmoil, loneliness, and an abject sense of meaningless oftentimes crash upon the shores of our minds.

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Let's face it. This life is dark. It's mean and it's hard for many of us.

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Yeah. And for many of us, our life is already half -spent or more. This is the plight we find ourselves in.

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And if you're not convinced of that, look in the mirror and you're going to find your body doesn't work the way that it should.

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Illnesses rock you at regular intervals and each one seems a bit worse than the one that preceded it.

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And when you see the headstones in the church graveyard, have you ever wondered where yours will be?

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I haven't been here that long and I'm wondering, will there be a headstone with my name on it someday there?

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Born as slaves to sin, slaves to death, slaves to the devil. Our lot in life is toil, taxes, suffering, and then finally death.

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The sun is on the horizon and despite the fact that some poor fools can try to convince themselves that they're looking at a sunrise, we all know that we're looking at a sunset.

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In any minute now, the sun will disappear and there will only be darkness and the cold of death.

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And so into all of this comes a story from Jesus about a man who sold everything.

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I mean, who does that? He sold everything in order to buy a field with hidden treasure in it.

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And then he also tells a story about a merchant who finds an exquisite perfect pearl and sells everything in order that he can purchase this perfect pearl.

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In fact, these parables are like opera music being played on loudspeakers over a demilitarized zone.

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These stories come to us out of left field and we're left blinking with bewilderment. It's like receiving a certified letter informing you that your rich uncle has died and left you the entire estate and all the while you had no idea that you even had an uncle, yet alone that he was rich, right?

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So consider the radical nature of these parables. Who do you know who would sell everything in order to possess a hidden treasure or a single pearl?

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Yet that is exactly what Jesus has done for us. In fact, it's unthinkable. It's over the top.

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It's truly radical when you think about it. Love is his motivation and we can barely comprehend a love like that.

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A love that is willing to forsake all in order to save, rescue, and purchase us.

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Philippians puts it this way. Jesus, who being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.

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Instead, he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man.

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He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

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And he did this for you. And he did this for me. Romans says it this way.

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You see, at just the right time, when we were powerless,

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Christ died for the ungodly. That's us.

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When we were powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die.

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But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners,

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Christ died for us. The prophet

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Isaiah says this. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the

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Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground.

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He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

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He was despised and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hid their faces.

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He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely, he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

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Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted.

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But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

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The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.

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All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the

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Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

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He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is silent. So he did not open his mouth by oppression and judgment.

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He was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people.

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He was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

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Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days.

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And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Why? Because in all of that suffering and affliction, he was purchasing and redeeming us from slavery to sin.

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Right. So he will prosper. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of light and be satisfied by his knowledge.

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My righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors.

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For he bore the sin of many and he made intercession for the transgressors.

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That's you and that's me. Yes, this begs the question, why?

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Why? Why would Jesus do this for us? Well, you are a people who are holy to the

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Lord, your God. The Lord, your God, has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people.

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The Lord has chosen each and every one of you to be his treasured possession. It's what our

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Old Testament text says, does it not? Now, the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more affluent, likable or successful than others, but it was because the

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Lord loved you that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the hand of the devil, from slavery to the devil, power of the devil.

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He saved you through a mighty hand and how did he do this? By bringing you to penitent faith in Christ, the forgiveness of your sins, washing away your sins in the waters of your baptism, feeding you with his body and blood here at this table, right?

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Yeah, it's dark out there, it is dark out there, but, and here's the eucatastrophe part, it's really dark out there, but, remember, but always kind of erases the thing in front of it, right?

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It's dark out there, but we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him and we love him because he first loved us.

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You are in Christ and all things, even your own death, will work together for good, because you, you've been called according to God's purpose.

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For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those he predestined, you and me, he also called and those he called, he also justified, justified.

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He's declared us righteous in Christ and those whom he's declared righteous, he will also glorify.

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So what then shall we say in response to all of this, this gratuitous, unmerited, over -the -top love for sinners like you and like me?

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If God is for us, who can be against us? Do you get it?

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He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?

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Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? No one can, not even the devil.

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It is God who declares righteous and he's done that to you. So who is it that condemns?

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There's no one. Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised to life, he's seated at the right hand of God the

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Father and he is now interceding for us and against you, because of what

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Christ has done for you and continues to do for you, right? So who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

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Who can do such a thing? No. Shall trouble? Nope. Hardship?

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Not even close. Persecution? You've got to be kidding me. Famine, nakedness, danger or sword?

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Ha! As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long and we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

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No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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Right? I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. Nothing. So let us then fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, the joy of losing everything in order to purchase and redeem us as his treasure, he endured the cross, scorning its shame.

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Or as the words of our sermon hymn said, let me close with these again. Oh, love, how deep, how broad, how high, beyond all thought and fantasy, that God, the

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Son of God, should take our mortal frame for mortal's sake. He sent no angel to our race of higher or of lower place, but he wore the robe of human frame and to this world himself he came.

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And for us, baptized, for us he bore his holy fast and he hungered sore.

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For us, temptation sharp he knew and for us, the tempter he overthrew. For us, he prayed, for us, he taught.

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For us, his daily works he wrought. By words and signs and actions thus, still seeking not himself, but seeking us.

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For us, he was by wicked men betrayed. For us, in a crown of thorns, he was arrayed.

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He bore the shameful cross and death, and for us, he gave his dying breath.

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For us, he rose from death again. For us, he went on high to reign. For us, he sent his spirit here to guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.

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Therefore, all glory be to God, our Lord, for love so deep, so high, so broad.

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The Trinity whom we adore, forever and forevermore. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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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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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 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.