Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent - Jn 6:1-15

 

   Lent 4

                                                                                                            Jn 6:1-15

                                                                                                            3/15/26

 

            “Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.”  This statement just shows up in our text this morning. In the previous chapter, Jesus had been in Jerusalem. But in the first verse of the Gospel lesson we learn that he is no longer there.  Instead we are told, “After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.”  Our Lord was once again back in the north at the Sea of Galilee.

            We learn that a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that Christ was doing on the sick.  Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. That’s when John announces, “Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.”

            Jesus isn’t in Jerusalem for the Passover as he was in chapter two. So John isn’t saying this to explain where Jesus is at. Instead he goes out of his way to announce that these events took place as the Passover was approaching. This information shapes our understanding of the way the people react to Jesus. More importantly, they inform the way that we understand Jesus’ miracle and what he says afterwards.

            The Passover was the remembrance of how God had delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. Yahweh commanded the Israelites to select a lamb and kill it. They marked their houses with the blood of the lamb, then then ate it in a meal with unleavened bread.

            God told them that he would pass through Egypt that night and would kill all the firstborn in the land. But he promised, “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” He commanded that in the future Israel would continue to celebrate the Passover meal – they would kill and eat the Passover lamb – in remembrance of God’s rescue.

            God delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery as he had promised. The Passover became an annual remembrance and celebration of God’s saving action. By the time of Jesus, what had been Israel was now under Roman rule in both direct and indirect forms. The Passover became an occasion that made people hope that God would once again act to rescue them from foreign domination. Because of this it was a highly charged and dangerous time, and the Roman governor brought extra troops to Jerusalem. This is the reason that Pontius Pilate was in city when Jesus was crucified.

            We learn in our text that when Jesus lifted up his eyes he saw a large crowd that was coming to him. He asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” The wording in our text emphasizes the source of the bread. John tells us that Jesus said this to test Philip because he already knew what he was going to do.

            Our Lord’s words in John’s Gospel point in the direction of the source, for it would be Jesus. But Philip’s answer instead focused on the prohibitive cost. He answered, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” A denarius was a day’s wage. Philip was saying that a large sum of money would scarcely provide the crowd with a small amount.” He was thinking in terms of the challenge, and not the Lord Jesus who was present with them.

            Andrew reported on what they did have. He said, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”  And then Jesus went to work. He had the people sit down in the grass. It was a crowd of five thousand men, not counting women and children.

Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. He did so with the fish as well, as much as they wanted.  The bread and fish never ran out. In fact when everyone had eaten their fill Christ told the disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”  When they did so, they filled twelve baskets with the leftovers.

The great crowd was following Jesus because they had seen the signs that he was doing – the miracles as he healed the sick. At the end of our text, John tells us, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” It was the time of the Passover when the Jews thought about God’s rescue in the past, and how they hoped he would do it again. This miracle made the people think that Jesus was a prophet figure of God’s end time salvation. He was the One would deliver them from Roman rule.

The Lord knew what they were thinking.  He perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king. But our Lord had not entered the world to be this kind of Savior. And so Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

“Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.” John is telling us to think about this miracle in light of the Passover. This comes out in the discussion that follows in the rest of this chapter.

The next day Jesus had gone to Capernaum. The crows sought him out there and he said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  Our Lord said they were seeking him because they wanted a free meal. Then he added, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

The crowd challenged Jesus as they said, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”  Jesus had just worked the sign of feeding more than five thousand people. But they asked for something more. They referred to the events of our Old Testament lesson in which Moses announced that God would give Israel manna.

But Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  When they asked him to give them this bread Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

            The Jews grumbled that Jesus said he was the bread that came down from heaven. After all, this was Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother they had known. So Jesus said to them, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

            Christ said he was the bread that gives life. He was the bread that had come down from heaven. And he said that the bread he would give for the life of the world was his flesh.

This word flesh is important for us in two ways. First, it is reminder in John’s Gospel about who Jesus is. In the first chapter we learn that Jesus is the Word. He is the second person of the Trinity who was with God in beginning, and is God. Then John tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Sent by the Father, the Son came down from heaven as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He became true man living our world, without ceasing to be true God, the Creator of the cosmos.

And second, it points us to the connection with the Passover. The Passover lamb was slain, and its blood was used to mark the houses of the Israelites. This blood caused God’s wrath to pass over the Israelites so that they were spared. And then the Israelites ate the lamb – they ate its flesh in the Passover meal.

You too were threatened by God’s wrath. Paul told the Ephesians and Colossians that because of sin, the wrath of God comes upon the son of disobedience. He told the Romans, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

In thought, word, and deed your sins against God and against your neighbor deserved God’s wrath and judgment. But God sent his Son into the world in order to save you. God gave him in order to rescue you from his wrath.

When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John’s Gospel makes quite clear what kind of lamb this was. It is the Passover lamb. When God instituted the Passover meal he told Moses, “It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.” On Good Friday when the soldiers were breaking the legs of the thieves on the cross so they would die quickly, they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead. So instead they plunged a spear into his side to make sure this was so. John says, “For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”

Jesus was the Passover lamb who died on the cross so that the wrath of God now passes over you. But Christ also said that he gave his flesh for the life of the world. Buried before sundown on Friday, Jesus rose from the dead on Easter.  By his resurrection he has defeated death and begun the resurrection life that will be ours. As Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

Now we receive this forgiveness and life through faith in Christ. As Jesus says in this chapter, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”  We have it by faith. And then our Lord gives us the means of his saving work that is to be the object of our faith as we trust his word and promise.

In this chapter Jesus says, “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

Jesus is the true Passover lamb who offered himself on the cross. The Passover lamb of the Old Testament pointed forward to him. And at his last Passover meal with the disciples, on the night when he was betrayed, he transformed the meal into one that is done in remembrance of him.

Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of the Altar as he took bread and said, “Take and eat, this is my body.” He took a cup of wine and said, “Drink of it all of you, this is my blood.” The Lord who is still true God and true man works the miracle of giving his true body and blood. He was sacrificed on the cross so that so that God’s wrath passes over us. Here in the Sacrament he gives into your mouth the very body given into death and the very blood shed to accomplish this. He says that this saving work is true for you.

Through the body and blood of Christ you know that you have forgiveness.  And at the same time this is also the body and blood of the risen Lord.  In our text, John mentions that the Sea of Galilee was also known as the Sea of Tiberius.  The only other time this name occurs is in chapter twenty one when the seven disciples meet the risen Lord by the lake. Here again, Jesus feeds them with bread and fish.

In the Sacrament you receive the body and blood of the risen Lord into your body.  Through this gift the Christ provides the guarantee that your body will be raised and transformed to be like his. As our Lord said, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

“Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.”  Jesus’ miracle of feeding the crowed is a sign. It is a sign that reveals Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. By his death he has caused the wrath of God against sin to pass over us. Through faith in Christ the crucified and risen Lord we have forgiveness and salvation. In the Sacrament Jesus feeds us with his true body and blood in order to deliver this. He provides the pledge that our bodies will be raised to be like his.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the third mid-week Lent service - Table of Duties: To Husbands; To Wives

 

Mid-Lent 3

                                                                                      To Husbands;

To Wives

                                                                                       3/11/26

 

            I am hopeful that the madness is beginning to wane. Ten years ago the dogma of transgenderism was reaching ascendancy. To assert that men and women are inherently different meant that you would be lambasted by popular culture. J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, was brutally attacked by celebrities because she would not back down from this truth.

            But during the last five years a shift has begun to take place, and I think it is largely due to sports. As boys started playing in girls’ sports they dominated in a way that couldn’t be ignored. They did because by the time you get into high school young men are bigger, stronger, and faster than young women. It was clearly unfair, and this started making an impression on people.

            Men and women are different.  They are because we were created to be different.  God created Adam.  And then he said, “It is not good for man to be alone.  I will create a helper corresponding to him.”  Now it is clear from these words that man needs woman.  And it is also certain that they are not the same, because the woman corresponds to the man in the ways needed to serve as a helper to him.  And the ultimate proof that they are not the same is that the one flesh union of man and woman is necessary to produce the intended outcome of marriage – a child.

            God’s Word describes an ordering to the creation of man and woman; husband and wife.  St. Paul states it very clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 when he says, “For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.”  Woman was created from man. Woman was created for man, as the helper corresponding to him; the one without whom things are not very good.  The world may not like to hear this, but Christ’s apostle says that this is a fact grounded in creation itself.

            These facts of creation - this ordering of creation – then determine how husband and wife relate in marriage.  Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.”

        The statement, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord,” is the first verse listed in the Small Catechism under the heading “To Wives.”  The subject of submission also appears in the second verse listed from 1 Peter 3: “They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear."

           In the language of headship and submission we learn that God’s ordering means that husbands are to lead.  He is indeed the head of the house.  And at the same time, a husband would be foolish not to involve fully the wisdom of his wife – the helper who corresponds to him - as decisions are made about the family.  In particular, the husband bears the responsibility of leading in spiritual matters as he sees that his family attends the Divine Service, and prays and reads Scripture at home.

            Now in the language of submission, the world hears the assertion of inequality – that women are of less worth and value.  Yet the exact same language is used of the relation between God the Father and God the Son at the Last Day.  St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15: “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”  And of course, we confess that the Father and the Son are coequal.

            For Paul, submission does not mean a relationship where one side gives and gives, and the other side takes and takes. This is not about the man controlling the woman to get what the man wants – not even in something as basic and foundational to marriage as sex.  Indeed Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, “The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” 

            Man and woman have both been created in the image of God – God who is ordered as the persons of the Holy Trinity.  Man and woman have both been redeemed by the events that we are preparing during Lent to remember again.  Jesus died on the cross to give himself as the ransom for men and women.  In his resurrection he has begun the resurrection of the body that he will share with both of them.  In Christ we are the same – we are united as God’s people.  In fact Paul wrote in Galatians chapter 3, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

            In Christ there is neither male nor female.  Indeed, our Lord said that in the resurrection men and women will not live in marriage.  But until our Lord returns, we live in the created orderings God has provided. And we live in them as God directs us in his word. For when we do, we are living in harmony with the way God made things to work.

            The problem is not the ordering of marriage. The problem is sin.  After the Fall God said to Eve, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”  Women find themselves drawn to men who act in self-serving ways.  Women also strive against men, competing for the headship that contradicts their own creation.  Men act in ways that abuse their position of headship as they take advantage of women.

            Husbands and wives act in selfish ways that put themselves before their spouse.  Men take headship to mean that they get what they want – whatever is best for them. Women strive to be in charge in marriage – to get what they want.  Guided by the lie of feminism they think they should be “equal” – meaning that they should live like men and disparage those things that are uniquely the gift of being a woman in motherhood. Men buy the same lie, and go right along with it as they fail in their own responsibilities of being a husband.

            When we see the ways we fail to live in God’s ordering of marriage and confess our sin, in Christ we have forgiveness. And it is in Christ that we find that we find the ability to live in God’s design for marriage. The Spirit of Christ who has regenerated us and given us faith, moves us to live the life of faith in our marriage.

            In particular, it is in verses addressed to husbands that we see the difference Christ makes for marriage.  The Table of Duties lists “To Husbands” first, and rightly so.  Man has been created for headship in marriage and family.  And the conduct of this headship is modeled after Christ.  Peter goes on to say in chapter 3, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

            Yes, his wife is physically weaker. But the husband is to live in a way that reflects the knowledge of what God has done for both of them in Christ, and of the gift he has received from God in his wife – the helper corresponding to him.  He is to honor his wife and recognize the unique status they share together – that they are co-heirs of God’s saving grace.

            In the second verse under “To Husbands” Paul says, “Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.”  The apostle tells husbands to love their wives and not to be embittered toward them – not to be a jerk. The Greco-Roman world had descriptions of how husbands were live in marriage. What is notable is that the instruction to love the wife does not appear in any of them.  This is uniquely a Christian focus that flows from God’s love in Christ for us.

            And in Ephesians 5, after the brief statement to wives, Paul goes on to spend the rest of the chapter addressing husbands and how they are to treat their wives. He says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.” The sacrificial love of Jesus Christ for the Church is the pattern that is to guide the husband’s behavior.

            And then Paul shifts and expresses it in a different way as he writes, “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”  Joined together as one flesh before God, the husband views his wife as his own body. He cares for and cherishes her, just as Christ does the Church, which is his body.

            Men and women and different. Thank God we are!  In marriage God joins husband and wife together as one flesh.  They are ordered in marriage in a way that reflects God’s creation of Adam and Eve - the first husband and wife.  Uniquely distinct from one another, husband and wife each are needed for marriage and family to be the blessing God has given.  By the work of the Spirit they live in Christ, as they seek the good of one other.   

 

Mark's thoughts: Parents, do you want your children to grow up to be Christians?

Parents,

 

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:17-18).

 

Do we believe these words from Scripture? God’s word is absolutely clear in teaching us that those who believe in Jesus as the crucified and risen Lord will have salvation and eternal life. Those who do not believe in Jesus will receive damnation as the eternal judgment against sin. If we believe this then there will be nothing we will want more for our children than that they continue in the life of faith as Christians when they are grown up.  We will want to act in ways that help them to become faithful believers as adults.

 

God’s word teaches that he has commanded you to raise your children in the faith: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:3). Foundational to this life in Christ is the reception of the Means of Grace each Sunday in the Divine Service. Through these gifts the Holy Spirit delivers forgiveness and strengthens faith. As the explanation to the Third Commandment states, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”

 

Your actions are teaching your children what really matters in life and will play a large role in determining the pattern of life they will follow as adults. Your children should be learning to assume: “On Sunday we go to church. This is what our family does.” A Sunday without the Divine Service should seem strange.

 

If on any given Sunday you are just as likely not to attend church (or more likely not to attend as several Sundays run together), you are teaching your child how not to be a Christian. Recognize that our culture has changed. When my parents were growing up, being a Christian was viewed as a positive thing by the world. When I was growing up, being a Christian was viewed as a neutral thing. In the world where your children are growing up, being a Christian is now viewed as a negative thing. This increasing secular nature means that the culture leads people away from practicing the faith. In our world, sporadic attendance at the Divine Service teaches children that it is not important, and trains them not to attend when they grow up. The culture will make sure they end up that way.

 

To raise children “in the instruction of the Lord,” they need to learn what is in the Scriptures.  How is this happening in your family? As pastors teach Catechesis, they find that youth do not know basic biblical accounts. They do not because Scripture was not read at home, and they did not attend Sunday school with any regularity.

 

And so, I return to the point with which I began in citing the passage from the Gospel of John: Do we believe these words from Scripture? If we do, then there is nothing more important than having our children grow up to be practicing Christians.  In the seeking this goal there are three things you can do to be faithful in your vocation as a Chrisian parent:

 

 

1. Bring them to the Divine Service each Sunday.

2. Bring them to Sunday school each Sunday.

3. See that Scripture and the Small Catechism are read in your home each day.

 

Please contact your pastor if you have any questions about how the last of these can be done, and about spiritual formation in your family life.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent - Lk 11:14-28

 

   Lent 3

                                                                                                            Lk 11:14-28

                                                                                                            3/8/26

 

            By all accounts, Iran was a formidable opponent. It had a strong military.  Iran had invested billions of dollars into this. It had produced thousands of ballistic missiles and drones that were capable of showering destruction on the entire Middle East. It possessed mobile launchers that past experience indicated were very difficult to detect and destroy. It had deployed submarines and ships, along with small attack boats that were capable of sinking shipping and closing the Straights of Hormuz.

            Iran could hit every country in the region with an overwhelming barrage of missiles and drones. And at the same time it had made itself very difficult to attack. It had built deep bunkers to protect its command and control systems, along with the missiles.  Most importantly it had acquired Russian S-400 anti-aircraft systems, which Russia said were the best in the world, and were considered by many to be a significant threat. Then on top of that, at the beginning of this year they added Chinese HQ-9B anti-aircraft systems that the Chinese said could detect and shoot down stealth aircraft.

            Iran was strong. But it has quickly become clear that the United States and Israel are far stronger. With incredible ease the forces of these two nations have completely dismantled Iran’s air defenses and are now able to bomb whatever they want, whenever they want. They have used massive bunker busters to take out protected targets. They have been able to detect when mobile launchers send up a missile, and then immediately destroy the launcher. And those Chinees radars? Actually, some people say they have performed quite well. When they blow up, you know that an F-35 fighter is in the area.

            In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus describes how a strong man who is armed seems secure, until someone stronger comes along and disarms him. We learn that the spiritual reality of our world is one of conflict between the devil and God. We are warned that the devil is a powerful opponent. And we receive the good news that Jesus Christ has overcome the devil and made us his own.

            In our text we learn that Jesus cast out a demon who was causing a man to be mute. When the demon had been cast out the man was able to speak and the people who were there marveled. However, some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.”  Beelzebul, like Beliar, was another name that Jews used for the devil.  These critics were saying that Jesus was able to cast out demons because he was in fact on the devil’s side. They said that Jesus himself was demonic.

            Our Lord responded by saying that this was just dumb. He said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.”  Christ pointed out that no kingdom chooses to fight against itself. To do so would mean its own destruction. The devil wasn’t going to cast out his own demons, and thereby lose his power and control.

            What Jesus was doing in casting out demons was instead the work of God overcoming the devil.  He said, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”  Our Lord’s words reflect our Old Testament lesson this morning. There we learn that the magicians of Egypt were able to replicate the first two plagues that God used Moses to bring upon Egypt. They were able to turn water into blood, and bring forth frogs. But when Yahweh had Moses bring gnats upon the land, the magicians were not able to this. They knew that this was something beyond their power and said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”

            Jesus said that since he was casting out demons by the power of God, it demonstrated that the kingdom of God – the reign of God – had come upon them. God’s saving power was present in Jesus to overcome the devil. Christ said, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.”  The devil was strong and armed. There was no doubt about it. But Jesus was stronger and he was freeing people from the devil’s power.

            Our text today reminds us about an important truth. The world that we live in is a spiritual battle ground.  It is the scene of a war.  In this war the devil fights against God as he seeks to maintain control over people and take them to destruction with himself. 

            It has been this way since the devil tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God. By this action they lost the image of God – the ability to know God as he wants to be known, and to live perfectly according to his will. Instead, the devil became the lord of all who been conceived and born ever since. Sinful fallen people, produce more sinful fallen people under the devil’s power. And all who are under the power of the devil and sin now die, because sin brings death.

            That’s not a pleasant description. It’s not what people want to hear.  But it is what God has revealed in his word. St Paul told the Ephesians, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

            Paul told the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” The natural person – the person as conceived and born – does not get God. He simply can’t.

He can’t because he is sinful fallen nature for whom the devil is lord. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  No parent has ever sat a child down and said, “Today I am going to teach you how to be jealous,” or “Today I am going to teach you how to be angry.” We don’t because it is already there inside them, ready to show itself in ever greater ways. As the baptismal rite says: “The Word of God also teaches us that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as his own. We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting damnation.”

But God has delivered us. He promised that he would send a descendant of Eve who would defeat the devil. In the fullness of time he sent forth his Son who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. True God and true man, Jesus Christ was presence of God’s saving reign in this world.

Jesus was the stronger man who had come to overcome the armed strong man. The demons knew exactly who Jesus was. One demon exclaimed, “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are— the Holy One of God.”

In his ministry, Jesus was the presence of God’s reign that was overcoming Satan, sin, and death.  We see this clearly as he casts out demons such as in our text. There are certainly reasons to be believe that demon possession continues in our day. But Jesus seems to run into people who are demon possessed all the time, and that is certainly not our experience. A likely explanation for this is that since Jesus was the presence God’s end time reign, the devil threw all of his forces at him. They were there in such plentiful and obvious ways because Jesus the Son of God was there.

Jesus was the presence of the end time saving reign of God. Sinners who sin must be condemned. That fact is a reflection of who God is as the just and holy One. And so God sent his Son in the flesh in order to receive the judgment against our sin. Paul told the Romans that, “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” Through this God freed us from sin and its power. Paul told the Galatians that Jesus Christ “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.”

The sin of Adam brought death to all. But on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead in the resurrection life that has overcome death.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

            This forgiveness and life are now received through faith in Jesus Christ. But conceived and born in fallen sinfulness, this is not something of which we are capable. And so through his Spirit the Lord Jesus gives new life. We are born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. And in order to bring faith and salvation to all – even to the newly born sinner – Christ has included water in his command and combined it with this word. Through baptism we are born again of water and the Spirit. Baptism is the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit. It is the action of God by which the sinful, fallen infant becomes the forgiven child of God in Christ.

            No matter whether it is the infant who is baptized, or the adult who is called to faith through the Gospel and is baptized into Christ, the result is that a person whom the devil ruled as lord has been wrenched away from him to be a child of God.  Now, for that person, Jesus is Lord.

            But here’s the thing about the devil – he is not a gracious loser. Instead, he is a determined enemy who never ceases in his efforts to reclaim spiritual control over a person. Paul warned the Ephesians, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

            He has been doing this for a long time, and he is very good at it. He knows that the best way to regain control is to convince people that he is not a problem – that there is in fact no spiritual war going on. He wants people to be oblivious to the spiritual aspect of life, and instead to focus on this world. He wants people to set their attention on getting more stuff, on their career, on their sports and their entertainment.  He wants them so busy pursuing these things that they don’t have time or attention for anything else.

            It is the word in the Means of Grace that created faith. It is the word in the Means of Grace that sustains faith.  And so he wants you to think about everything else other than the Means of Grace. Where there is almost no interaction with Scripture at home, this is good. Where attendance at the Divine Service begins to take second place, this is even better. He wants to separate you from Christ, and the way to do that is to separate you from the Means of Grace.  He wants you to starve yourself of the Spirit’s work, so that the way of faith in Jesus becomes less and less, and the way of the world in your life grows more and more.

            The devil is playing for keeps, because in this struggle there are no points for second place. It is all or nothing: faith or unbelief; forgiveness or judgment; life or death; salvation or damnation.  You are either on Jesus’s side or the devil’s. As Christ says in our text, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

            Peter warned, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The apostle warns us about this reality. And our response is therefore to focus on the Means of Grace – to hold on to them and use them. This means reading Scripture during the week, and even attending Bible class – by the way, we have it on Wednesday morning and not just Sunday. It means making baptism a part of our daily spiritual life as we return to the promises God has given about this Sacrament. It means attending the Divine Service each week to hear God’s word proclaimed, and to receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ as our Lord comes to us in the Sacrament of the Altar.

            When you were baptized, you became part of the Body of Christ, the Church. The life of faith is meant to be lived as part of that Body. It is lived in the community of the faithful. You are supported in the walk of faith by being with other Christians.  So choose to spend time with Christians. Make the life of this congregation an important part of your personal and family life. Together we keep each other focused on the true nature of the spiritual struggle that exists. We point each other to Christ, and his Word and Sacraments.  We encourage each other to walk in the ways of the Lord, instead of those of the world.  Together we continue in the way of faith in Jesus that leads to resurrection and eternal life.