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Let us pray. Blessed Lord, who has given us all holy scripture for our learning,

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grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest

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them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy word we may embrace and ever hold

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fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which thou hast given us in our

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Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost,

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ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Today we're observing the commemoration of Joshua, and so in the name of the

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second Joshua, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Commemorating saints typically

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looks at in the Lutheran Church what God did for them and how they received it in

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faith and also to strengthen our own faith. But not all saints are created

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equal, not in the Bible. Some saints are given us to show what God did not

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for them but through them. So this is what makes commemorating Elijah difficult

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for example. Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. There they are, here he comes.

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What's she doing? Picking up sticks to make a fire for one last meal? Elijah,

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I'll take that. It's been a drought three and a half years, there they are in Mount

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Carmel. Elijah wants to make a point about the sacrifice, about the fire

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that's going to come down from heaven, so he gets a lot of water. You can imagine

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it's a drought, all that water. Ahaziah falls through, you know, falls, hurts

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himself, seeks a prophet not of the Lord. Well Elijah puts a stop to that. So the

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king wants Elijah, sends a captain of 50 men, man of God. If I'm a man of God, may fire

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come down from heaven and consume you and bang. And then there's a way he

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leaves the scene. Chariots of fire. Yeah, no. With Elijah we should remember what

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God did through him. It's that way with Joshua as well. Joshua as I'm sure most

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of you know is a type of Christ. In other words, seeing Jesus, one can look back

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into the Old Testament and see Jesus prefigured. He goes first of all just to

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his name. Joshua wasn't his given name, he was Hosea, but Moses gave him the name

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Joshua. Yahweh saves. And Jesus Christ our Lord, he was given a name, the same name

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through the angel. Joshua was appointed to lead Israel so that they would not be

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like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus comes, preaches and teaches the kingdom, heals

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and casts out demons. And what does he see? Israel, harassed, oppressed like sheep

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without a shepherd. Joshua did not accomplish his mission by his own power,

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but he received the Holy Spirit. He received the Holy Spirit to go and lead

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Israel into the promised land, to take the promised land for God's people. Jesus

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received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, quoting Isaiah the

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Prophet. He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, deliverance to

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the captive, recovery of sight to the blind.

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Now Jesus, Jesus shows us something about what God had been doing before.

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Types work that way. Jesus did things, Jesus said things, Jesus accomplished

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things that were not apparent when he lived and when he died and even when he

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rose again. But when he rose again, it was apparent that Jesus was who he said,

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which is the fulfillment of all God's promises to Israel, that he was the one

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come to redeem Israel, as they were talking about on the road to Emmaus, that

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he was the one to come and bring God's rule and reign over all things. And so

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while it wasn't apparent when he was alive, even into his death, and once he

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rose again, once he was believed upon as Israel's Messiah, as the Lord, as the Son

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of God, what did Christians do but look back and see how Jesus fulfilled all in

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the Old Testament? And what this does is, looking that way, when you look back, you

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look forward into Jesus and what he did and what he will do, you get a clearer,

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fuller picture of Jesus. This would be Jesus as the Lamb of God, for example.

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John said that of Jesus when he hit the scene, but it wasn't apparent how Jesus

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was the Lamb of God through his ministry into his death, but only after he rises

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again. When Jesus is cleansing the temple, this is John chapter 2, he said,

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destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it again. They thought he was

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talking about the temple. No, he was talking about himself and his body, and

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John makes the point that this was not understood until he rose from the dead.

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No, they could see the tabernacle and the temple, but they only appreciated it, they

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only rejoiced in it, they only saw the whole picture after he rises. But what

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was done in the Old Testament, what was said in the Old Testament, who lived in

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the Old Testament, those things were not only recapitulated and consummated in

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Jesus, they gave a fuller, richer portrait of Jesus. And so like Joshua,

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he is how Yahweh saves. Like Joshua, Jesus is the one with the Spirit, the one who

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comes to redeem. But the move from Scripture, the gospel, the move from the

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written word to the spoken word, the move from what was once put down to

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something for you, actually lies in the difference. In the reading we have, Joshua

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is told to be careful to keep all the commands, to observe the book of the law.

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When Jesus came, he didn't do that. He acted like he was above the law. The law

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prohibited you from touching a leper, he had no problem doing that, or touching a

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corpse, no problem doing that. Working on the Sabbath, Jesus had no problem doing

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that. Jesus declared all foods clean. Jesus acted like he was above the law.

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The people of Israel would not have that and he was put to death, but Jesus really

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was above the law. As Paul says in Galatians, God sent forth his Son, born of

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a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. And that's what he

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did through his life and his death and his resurrection. And in doing away with

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the law, as Paul teaches in Ephesians, he brought down the dividing law of

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hostility between Jew and Gentile, between Israel and the nations. Things

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would be different now. There would be hope, salvation, eternal life for any and

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all who would call on the name of the Lord, any and all who would believe in

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the second Joshua. The first Joshua was Israel's Redeemer. The second Joshua came

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as Israel's Redeemer. He came to his own and his own received him not. But he rose

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from the dead and had repentance for the forgiveness of sins preached in his name

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to all nations. He sent his apostles out to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the

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ends of the earth. And that's what's happened. The blessed hope of eternal life

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therefore is for you. For any and all who believe on Jesus as Lord, as the Son of

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God, eternal life is yours. For any and all of you, no matter what you have done

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or who you have been, through Jesus Christ you are forgiven. No matter what

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you face and who you are, in life and in death, in righteousness and in

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unrighteousness, know Jesus is yours. The second Joshua, the greater Joshua, Jesus

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Christ our Lord, your Lord, your Savior, your Redeemer. And we commemorate Joshua

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best by believing on and proclaiming the second Joshua, even Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Amen