2nd Wednesday in Lent Service

I would like to welcome you to the Kongsvinger Lutheran Church for our midweek Lenten service for this week.

We'll be following the order of Vespers on page 229 in the Lutheran service book. The psalm for today is

Psalm 32. We'll be using psalm tone F as in Frankenstein, F as in Frankenstein, and then the assigned hymn for the night will be 419 and the closing hymn will be 421.

If you are physically present here at Kongsvinger, please rise. O Lord open my lips, make haste

O God to deliver me. Psalm 32,

Psalm 32. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, blessed is the man against whom the

Lord counts no iniquity. For when

I kept silent my bones wasted away. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.

I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity.

Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

You are a hiding place for me, you preserve me from trouble.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding. Many are the sorrows of the wicked.

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice O righteous. Glory be to the

Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

Amen. You may be seated. The hymn is 419. Please rise for the reading of the

Gospel. The Holy Gospel according to the Gospel of John, chapter 18, verses 1 through 11.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.

Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.

So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the

Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them,

Whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them,

I am. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them,

I am, they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, Whom do you seek?

They said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I told you that I am.

So if you seek me, let these men go. This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken of,

Those whom you gave me I have lost, not one. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the priest's servant and cut off his right ear.

The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword back in its sheath.

Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? O Lord, have mercy on us.

Deliver me, O Lord, my God, For you are the God of my salvation.

In you, O Lord, do I put my trust. Leave me not,

O Lord, my God. Deliver me,

O Lord, my God, For you are the God of my salvation.

You may be seated. In the name of Jesus.

So this Lenten season for our midweek meditations, we're going to be working our way through the passion account found in the

Gospel of John. And one of the things I lament is that when it comes to Holy Week, we have

Passion Sunday slash Palm Sunday. They kind of get squished together now. And you get this really long reading of the passion of Christ from the

Gospel of Luke. And then on Good Friday, you have the reading of the passion of Christ kind of broken up into pieces in the

Good Friday and the Tanabray service. And unfortunately, the way both of those services work out, you never really get to slow down and kind of chunk out the pieces and work your way through them.

And so myself and a few other pastors, I've noticed that this is kind of a common theme this year, have decided they're going to work their way through the

Gospel of John chapter 18 and 19, and we'll kind of work this out over the next few weeks.

So you'll note for context's sake that Christ has already had his last meal with his disciples.

He's instituted the Lord's Supper. He's outed Judas as his betrayer. He's gone to the

Garden of Gethsemane, and he's prayed and said, Lord, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me, but not my,

I will be done, but your will be done. And the disciples have fallen asleep and proven themselves worthless when it comes to things like this.

I love the fact that the Gospels do not portray the disciples in a positive light.

We see them as weak sinners just like the rest of us. I feel like I'm in good company with these fellows, right?

And so you'll note that what happens now, there's a little bit of work that we have to do in picking up something from the

Old Testament. And you know me, I like to go back and we like to read texts in their entirety and kind of sort this out.

So in order to pick up some of the context and some of the deeper meaning of this passage, we're going to go all the way back to the

Book of Exodus. And Moses is in Midian. He's now got a wife. He has a father -in -law named

Jethro. He's keeping his father -in -law's sheep. And Moses is on the run.

He's actually a fugitive, a murder fugitive. In fact, the post office is in Egypt at this time.

They had a drawing of Moses' face. If you've seen this call, this fellow, call this number and let us know if you've seen him.

Because he murdered an Egyptian taskmaster and hid his body. And that's the reason why he's fled.

So we catch up Moses many years later, 40 years later. And Moses is kind of doing menial work.

He's gone from the palace to keeping sheep. And it says this in chapter 3, starting at verse 1.

Moses was keeping the flock of his father -in -law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

That's another name for Mount Sinai, by the way. And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame, fire, out of the midst of a bush.

He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush. So we know who's talking.

God is talking. The text is very clear who's doing the talking here. Moses, or in Hebrew, Moshe, Moshe.

And he said to him, here I am. Then he said, do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

By the way, this is not an argument that God is Japanese, I'm just saying. But he requires you to take your feet off, or your sandals off, when you are on holy ground.

And then God begins the discourse. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the

God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And upon hearing these words, Moses hid his face. He was afraid to look at God.

Smart man, because Moses is a sinner like the rest of us. So then Yahweh said,

I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.

I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the

Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold the cry of the people of Israel has come to me.

And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. And it's important to note in the types and shadows that this oppression that the

Israelites were suffering in slavery in Egypt is designed on purpose to show that we are oppressed under the taskmasters of the demonic forces as a result of man's fall into sin.

Egypt is a stand -in for the demonic world, if you would, the world under the dominion of darkness.

And God is going to exodus us and bring us to a true land, give us an inheritance in a land flowing with milk and honey, in a land where there is no sin, where there is no death, where there is no pain.

And so you'll note that these themes work out very well. The exodus of the Old Testament is a type and shadow of the very exodus work that Jesus is doing in setting us free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil, and leading us to a very good place.

So come, God says to Moses, I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?

And God said, But I will be with you. And this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you.

When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. And if you're beginning to sense that Moses isn't keen on this assignment,

I like to point out that those people who believe in the purpose -driven doctrines, here God has revealed

Moses' God -given destiny, his dream destiny thingy and his purpose, and Moses is all,

I'm not really, I'm not into this, I'm just not feeling the vibe here, God. This is, send somebody else.

He legitimately says that. But at this point, Moses isn't quite protesting to that level.

And so Moses said to God, All right. So if I come to the people of Israel, and I say to them,

The God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they ask me, What is his name? Which legitimately is a good question.

What is God's name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who

I am. He said, Say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you.

What a name. I am the one who exists. God also said to Moses, Say this to the people of Israel.

Yahweh, which is kind of the noun version of that, Yahweh, Yahweh said,

Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He has sent me to you.

This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

I am. And here's where we're going to note something. A very interesting feature of the

Gospel of John. And I was thinking about this earlier. I've been doing a stint kind of imbibing and working on rebuking and correcting skeptical scholars.

My other job that I have. And in working that out, if you're familiar with how skeptical scholars work, skeptical scholars hate the

Gospel of John. I mean, with a passion, they hate this Gospel. And they always are attacking it, saying it can't possibly be an eyewitness account of Jesus' life.

And it came late. We don't even know if John wrote it. And all this kind of stuff.

And one of the things that they like to point out is that the Gospel of John is not like the three synoptic

Gospels. In fact, when you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they pretty much tell similar stories, or almost the same exact stories, but just with slightly different angles that they're working.

John comes out of nowhere, and he's got particular signs that he wants to demonstrate regarding Christ's life.

And his theology is really interesting, because I would like to kind of put it this way.

Have you guys ever had a good crockpot meal? I mean, don't get me wrong.

There's nothing wrong with a good hamburger. And if you were to think about it, I kind of think that the three synoptic

Gospels are like really good gourmet hamburgers, but they're served on the quick. We've got to get this information out.

Here's a hamburger, here's some french fries and a pickle. You're going to love this. And it's like the best stuff ever.

But John's Gospel has the luxury of decades of New Testament theology and reexamining the

Old Testament in light of Christ and seeing it through the lens that Christ is the center of everything.

And so John goes back, and he has that mature New Testament theology that then shows up here, where he's been able to go back and kind of ruminate through these other things that Jesus said that legitimately needed to be said.

And by the power of the Holy Spirit, he had that gift of that recall. And he brings us things that other guys don't make the connections overtly, but they do make those connections.

And one of the features in the Gospel of John is you have what scholars call the seven

I am statements, or ego, a me in Greek. And I would note, my Greek students know full well that ego, a me is quite a statement.

Let me explain what I mean by that. You've heard of Lego, my ego. You've heard of somebody being an egotist.

An egotist is somebody who's stuck on themselves. So the Greek word ego means

I. That's I. I am I. And a me means I am.

And it's really rare that you would have somebody say I, I am.

If I were to say to you, are you driving home tonight? And you would say, I am. You would just say, a me.

And if I were to ask you, are you driving home tonight? And you said, ego, a me. Okay, okay.

I get what you're saying here. That's a stronger statement. And so when Jesus makes these

I am statements in the Gospel of John, he uses the phrase ego, a me.

And they're not exclusive to the Gospel of John. But let me give you an example of where it shows up in the

Gospel of Matthew. Remember when Jesus sent his disciples away in a boat across the

Sea of Galilee and he was going to dismiss the crowd after he had basically fed the 5 ,000, right?

Turned the loaves and the fishes and fed the whole multitude. And so Jesus stayed behind. And then they were heading back towards Capernaum and fighting against the wind and the waves and all this kind of stuff, but the tempest that had come up on the sea was terrible.

And they were having a hard time staying afloat. And there's Jesus walking on the water.

And we learn from another Gospel his intent was to actually pass by them. He had no intention of getting into the boat but meeting them on the shore when they got there.

And so they see Jesus walking on the water and they scream out, It's a ghost!

And Jesus' response in the Gospel of Matthew in the Greek is, Fear not, ego eimi,

I am. And it's really wonderful in the Greek, but in the English translations you miss all of that.

Jesus basically says, Don't fear, I am. And he's invoking that divine name from Exodus chapter 3 that tells us that he is saying,

Do not fear because I am your God. That's the point of it. And so making those connections is important.

So in the Gospel of John, the seven I am statements that are notable and these are statements where not

Jesus doesn't say ego eimi, but he says ego eimi and then there's a blank.

And he says, I am something. So in the Gospel of John chapter 6 verse 35 says,

Ego eimi, I am the bread of life, Jesus says. And then in 8 -12 he says,

Ego eimi, I am the light of the world. Ego eimi, in 10 -7,

I am the door. And then in 10 -11 -14, Ego eimi, I am the good shepherd.

And then in 11 -25, right before he raises Lazarus from the dead, Jesus says, I am, ego eimi, the resurrection and the life.

And then in John 14 -6, oh, that exclusive statement that Jesus says,

I am the way, the truth, and the life, ego eimi, and no one comes to the

Father except through me. You'll note that Jesus wasn't an ecumenicist. He wasn't one of these guys who basically said, it doesn't matter what religion you believe or whatever, all roads lead to God kind of thing.

No, Jesus was very clear. No one gets to the Father except through him. And then in John chapter 15 verse 1,

Jesus says, I am the true vine. And in our

Gospel text for tonight, Jesus doesn't make those kinds of I am statements, but there are three times that the text itself says that Jesus said ego eimi.

And it's important for us to understand what's going on here because this is an underlying theme for us as we consider

Christ's passion, his suffering, and his death for the forgiveness of our sins.

I loved our opening hymn tonight because it's so soberly using that Welsh hymn tune, right?

I can't even pronounce it. If you look at the bottom of the Ellis Beatle, it's Abersmouth of the...

The Welsh, they speak in tongues. If you've ever been to Wales and you've looked at the signs on the road, good luck reading them, at least in Welsh.

But all of that being said, that great Welsh hymn that we sung, it had all of the passion of Christ, his suffering, his bleeding, his death.

And in this penitential season of Lent, we must consider his sufferings. We must consider his pain.

We must consider the bloody details. But most importantly, John here teaches us to always remember who

Jesus is as he is suffering for us. And the great restraint, the self -restraint that Christ shows when he decides to go to the cross.

Because remember this, although we're here looking at Jesus' arrest and the details of his arrest, remember what

Jesus said. He lays down his life willingly.

No one takes his life from him. He lays it down of his own accord.

And Scripture says it was for the joy set before him that Christ endured the cross, despising its shame, so that we can be forgiven and pardoned.

But in the midst of all of this, we have to remember who Jesus is and the great self -restraint that he exerted as he went to the cross.

And here our text then says, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook

Kidron, where there was a garden. Have you noticed that in the Passion account, gardens get mentioned a few times?

And I hear this and I just sit there and go, this can't possibly be a coinkidink, right?

This is something that is on purpose. You'll note that Jesus, after his death, he's buried in a garden tomb, right?

All invoking the Garden of Eden. There's something going on here. New creation stuff is teeming, at least on the theme level.

And so there was a garden with which he and his disciples entered. And now Judas, who had betrayed him, he knew the place where Jesus often met there with his disciples.

So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the

Pharisees, holy smokes, the Pharisees had their own military? And they went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

It's kind of invoked like Frankenstein or something like that, the villagers wanting to kill the monsters kind of thing.

And then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, and listen to those words again. Jesus knowing all that would happen to him.

He's going into this with his eyes wide open. He knows full well what he's going to experience.

And yet he doesn't turn away from it. He is so set on saving us and the great joy that he will have in reconciling us to God and eventually seeing each and every one of us face to face and saying to us, well done, good and faithful servant, because he is the one who's forgiven us.

His death has atoned for God's wrath and made it so that we can be forgiven and pardoned and reconciled.

Knowing full well everything that would happen to him, Jesus stepped forward and he said to them, whom do you seek?

They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, Ego eimi,

I am. And something interesting happens.

Legitimately interesting. Judas, who had betrayed him, was standing with them. And when

Jesus said to them, ego eimi, they drew back and they fell to the ground.

What is going on here? Jesus just bowled a strike with his breath.

Right? And the reality is this. That first ego eimi is for us so that we know full well who

Jesus is. Knowing exactly what it is that he would experience, he now reminds us who he is.

It's a wink, if you would. It's Aslan basically looking at Lucy and Susan as he's getting ready to go and be sacrificed.

Knowing that he, at any time, could have pounced on the witch and brought her to a wicked end.

But he didn't. He showed great restraint, even to the point of being sacrificed. Same with Christ.

Here we get a hint. Ah, the great I Am, the one who spoke from the burning bush.

He's on the field. But he's not here to destroy these men. He's there to be arrested by them.

And so he bowls a strike, knocks them all over. And I cannot help but think that had to be really kind of terrifying, especially if you were holding a torch that night.

You get blown over by Jesus and you're knocked down to the ground. You've got a torch up against your chest. And you're, ah!

And so these guys have to quickly scramble, get back onto their feet. And one has to wonder the great trepidation that they had after they'd dusted themselves off and put themselves back into some kind of a reasonable order here.

And so Jesus starts again. He asks them again, Whom do you seek?

They said, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus now restraints all of his power.

There isn't a sign or even a flash or a hint of it. I told you that I am. I told you, a go a me.

So if you seek me, let these men go. I cannot help but think of our upcoming Old Testament and Gospel text for the second

Sunday in Lent. They're wonderful. Legitimately wonderful. I was teaching at Emmanuel Lutheran on Sunday afternoon.

And we were working through the Old Testament text where Jacob wrestles with God. A nighttime wrestling match.

And who came out the victor? Jacob. And so I asked the people at Emmanuel, I said, how?

What's going on here? Why did Jacob win? Straight question.

And Michelle answered. Michelle Skalsky. She says, because Jesus wanted him to win.

It's a great answer. Why?

Why did these men arrest Jesus? Why were they even allowed to?

Christ had the power and the word to knock them to the ground. He could have beckoned to a legion of angels who would have immediately come to his rescue.

Why is he letting evil win? Because he wants it to.

Because only in laying down his life, in restraining himself, and becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, that's the only way to save us.

And I'm so thankful for the opportunity to preach through this text this slow.

To get these details as we consider our Lenten penitence this year.

I told you, ego eimi, I am. So if you seek these men, you let them go. This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken.

Of those whom you gave me, I have lost not one. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cut off his right ear.

The servant's name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, put your sword back into its sheath.

Not only does he show restraint by not using his divine power, Christ stands down to Peter, who is carrying a sword.

Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? And indeed,

Jesus does. He drinks to the dregs the full fury of the wine of God's wrath, so that you and I can be forgiven and pardoned.

It's a beautiful thing when we consider it. So this, our first of midweek services, let us consider the great restraint that our

God showed, so that we can be forgiven. Rather than using his divine power to save himself, he restrained himself so that you and I can be forgiven.

In the name of Jesus, amen. We rise for the

Magnificat. Let my prayer rise before you as incense, lifting up my head.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen. The Lord be with you.

Direct us, O Lord, in all of our doings with your most gracious favor and further us with your continual help that in all of our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy name and finally, by your mercy, obtain eternal salvation through Jesus Christ our

Lord. Amen. O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works, give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in the peace and quietness through Jesus Christ, your

Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen. Let us bless the Lord, the grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the

Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.