24-Karat Faith

Texts: 1 Peter 1:3-16; Mark 6:6b-7, 12-29 5:21-43

WHEN I WAS IN FIFTH GRADE I decided when I was grown up I’d go to Africa and be a missionary. I imagined myself suffering hardship in the jungle, facing down a fearsome witch doctor, maybe being taken captive by cannibals (I’d been watching too many cartoons) and being in danger for my life, all in defense of the faith. Oh, yes, it seemed really romantic and exciting, the idea of suffering and maybe even dying for the cause of Jesus Christ.

But one evening I was up in my bedroom contemplating this. And I got into one of those silly poses kids do, and slipped and knocked my nose with my knee. Hard. Good golly, that hurt! It hurt so bad I could hardly stand it.

And that was the end of my missionary ambitions. I figured, if I could hardly deal with the pain of my own knee hitting my nose, how could I remain faithful if those cannibals started poking me with their spears?

Now that I’m grown I can laugh at my childish ideas about foreign missions. But today’s Scriptures bring out my real error, and it wasn’t just my ignorance about Africa and its people. My real mistake was focussing on my potential sufferings and my potential glory, instead of on the suffering and glory of my Lord Jesus Christ. I was thinking how I would win the victory over evil forces in this world, instead of rejoicing over the great salvation my Savior and God had already won for me.

I doubt that I’m alone. That’s how a lot of us picture of facing persecution for the faith. We imagine how we’re going to successfully stand up against it-- or maybe we dread how we might fail. We see ourselves as heros in the war against the world and the devil-- or we hope Jesus will let us stay behind the lines and not get into the fighting at all. But as Mark and Peter both remind us, in the war of God vs. Satan and good vs. evil, the true focus isn’t on us and what we will do, it’s on Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. Yes, we will benefit from what He has done. We will receive praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. But our victory will be ours only because first it is His.

But perhaps you think this has nothing to do with you. Maybe you’re sure you’ll never face persecution for the sake of Jesus Christ at all. I suppose, compared to what our brothers and sisters in Muslim and Communist countries are going through, we have nothing to complain of. But Christian persecution isn’t only having somebody put a knife to your throat and yelling, "Deny Jesus Christ or I kill you!" The spiritual battle against us is much more subtle than that, and if we don’t recognize our little skirmishes and cling to Christ and His benefits in them, we’ll certainly fail when more severe tests come our way. If you belong to Jesus Christ you face persecution for His sake every day, and the battle isn’t merely against the world and the devil, it’s against our own fears and desires as well.

The Apostle Peter notes in verse 6 of our reading that now on this earth we may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. The implication is that if we haven’t already, we soon will. This word "all kinds" in the Greek literally means "many colored." Some griefs and troubles are screaming red like fire, some are pale gray like ash. They are all part of our warfare against this world, the Devil, and our own indwelling sin. We don’t like them, we aren’t called to go after them, but God in His sovereign will allows them as the means to test and purify our faith in Him, so it will come through like pure, 24-karat gold.

Persecution for Christ’s sake is inevitable, since we’ve been born again, we’re new creatures, and what we are will always be at war with what we used to be. Don’t imagine that your part in the battle will always be clear cut and dramatic. For then you won’t recognise a trial of faith when it comes.

We see how trivial, how pedestrian the battle can be in our reading from Mark’s gospel, where he tells us about the martyrdom of John the Baptist. This is the man Jesus Himself called the greatest of those born of woman, and the culmination of the Law and the prophets. If anybody, you’d think John would go to his death in some glorious spiritual last stand.

But no. John is beheaded and his head served up like some exotic dish because of the everyday earthly lust and spite of one woman, Herodias, an amateur dance performance by her daughter Salome, and the lust, pride, and political fear of Herodias’ brother-in-law and unlawful husband, King Herod. Herod had put John away in prison so he couldn’t go around the countryside reminding the people of how he, Herod, was violating God’s law in running off with his brother’s wife. But he had no desire to torture or execute John for his message. Mark tells us Herod feared John, he was puzzled at him, but he liked to listen to him. We have no reason to believe that John in prison did not keep on proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand, that the Messiah had arrived, and that people should repent and obey the law of God. Being in prison was a form of persecution, of course. But from Herod’s point of view, he wasn’t standing against the Jewish faith when he imprisoned John; no, it was simply the best thing he could do politically. And when it came time for John to die, there was no crisis, John did nothing specific to make Herod behead him, it was just one more of those everyday situations when human selfishness wanted its way and nothing was going to stop it.

It’s the same with us, disciples of Jesus Christ who bear His name. Your struggles and trials as a Christian will most likely not be spectacular. Those who oppose you may not have any idea they’re causing you to suffer for Christ’s sake at all. But you should be aware of it. Think of those times when you feel pressure to compromise what is right because your boss thinks it’s good for business. Think of situations where a little voice inside tells you to give God the glory for something good that had happened to you, but you hear your own voice taking credit for it yourself, because you don’t want to seem "too religious." Call to mind those times when popular opinion on certain political and moral issues goes against the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures, and you’re ridiculed or called a bigot when you stand up for what you know to be the truth. These are the trials of your faith in Christ, allowed so it will come out more pure than 24-karat gold.

Think, too, of those times when pressure from other people isn’t involved at all, when the grief is in your own situation. Some of you may be struggling with financial hardship at this time, even unemployment or impending bankruptcy. You may have learned that you or someone you love is facing a deadly or painful chronic disease. How is your faith in Jesus Christ? Does this trial make you rely on Him and His faithfulness all the more? Does it make you search out the depths of His love for you and move you to love and trust Him for all you are and all you will have? Or does your trouble cause you to doubt Christ and His benefits-- or even, sometimes, to forget Him altogether?

These kinds of grief seem so ordinary and earthbound, hardly anything to do with being a Christian at all! But these everyday trials are the beginning of the refinement process for your faith, and if your faith turns out to be only 2-karat gold or no gold at all, where will you be when the ultimate trials come?

And they will come. Already our Congress is contemplating legislation that would make it hate speech for Christians to stand up for Biblical moral principles. Already in countries like Great Britain and Canada Muslim sharia law is allowed to hold sway in some areas, and Muslim leaders declare it’s their goal that sharia be in force throughout the world.

What shall we do about it? Expect the government to rescue us? Certainly, whatever we can do as citizens we should do, just as St. Paul appealed to his Roman citizenship whenever the time was right. But we must never expect the United States government or any other human institution to stand between us and the persecutions that will come because we bear the name of Jesus Christ. They will come, they must come, "so that your faith-- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

It is Christ who brings us through the fire and Christ alone. His heavenly Father and ours has given us new birth into a living hope in Him, through Christ’s resurrection from the dead. This hope is not like the earthly wishing that says, "I hope it rains before my flowers die" or "I hope I get a new job before I start missing mortgage payments." This hope is in the person and work of the deathless Son of God. It teaches us to look beyond our earthly troubles to the sure and solid inheritance He has won and preserves in heaven for us.

Our brother Peter reminds us that no matter what happens, in this life we are shielded through God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Individually we have already been saved and justified through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and when our Lord comes in glory and takes us to Himself, His work of salvation will be perfected in us and in all creation and the total victory will be His.

Even now we see the evidence of that coming victory. We see it when the Spirit of Christ in us enables us to do things we thought we never could and certainly never could without His aid. We see it when we find ourselves coming to the assistance of someone we have feared, not through compulsion but out of Christian love. Maybe you’ve taken a stand for Christ and you were nervous about it, but then you found it wasn’t so hard after all, and you found yourself caring about the person you were speaking to and wanting them to know Jesus and receive His heavenly inheritance, too. Maybe you said No to that business compromise or refused to be depressed by the current economic situation, because the Holy Spirit had filled you with the inexpressible joy He gives in Jesus Christ. This is the power of Jesus Christ working in you.

Jesus’ apostles witnessed the first fruits of Christ’s victory over sin and Satan when Jesus sent them out in His name to preach repentance, to heal, and to drive out demons. His power in them was so great that King Herod thought John the Baptist had been raised from the dead. Herod thought that when John’s headless body was buried, the Baptist and the power that was in him were dead and gone. But the power of God manifest in Jesus Christ our Lord can never die. Our hope in Him is living and sure, and our inheritance in Him can never perish, spoil, or fade.

24-karat faith trusts totally in Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. God our loving heavenly Father permits griefs and trials and persecutions in our lives , to prove to us and the world that our faith is not in ourselves or our own boldness, not in human systems or governments, but in Christ alone. 24-karat faith maintains us in an attitude of obedience to God, focussed on Him and His will, confiding only in Him.

To this goal, Peter admonishes us to prepare our minds for action. Be sure that grief and trials will come to you, some because you belong to Jesus, some simply because of your human condition. Meet them as one who belongs to your faithful God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Study God’s word; know what He has done for your ancestors in the faith, so you also may be ready to meet trouble honorably and courageously in the strength Jesus gives. Set your hope on the grace He gives you even now, grace that will be fulfilled when He is revealed in glory. Through Him you can renounce the ways of Herod, Herodias, and Salome-- through Him you can stop being impelled and hemmed in by your fears and desires and instead live free in the holiness of Almighty God.

It was easy for me to give up my grade-school dream of being a Christian missionary because it really wasn’t about Christ at all. The truth was that I’d recently started at a new school, some of the kids were picking on me, and I figured that if I was going to suffer persecution, I may as well do it in a good cause. But now I understand that my mission field back then wasn’t someday in Africa, it was right there, right then, on that school playground.

And now my mission field and yours is wherever we are and in whatever situation we might be. Our field of battle is wherever the world, the devil, and our own sin set themselves up against the Kingdom of God. Our faith will come through the fire like 24-karat gold, because Jesus who died and rose again empowers us, protects us, and keeps our heavenly inheritance secure for us. Trust in Him like Peter, believe in Him like John, for He is your risen Lord and your gracious, living Hope.

To Him be all glory, honor, and praise, with God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit, now and forever, amen.

The Battle Is the Lord's*

Texts: 1 Samuel 14:47; 1 Timothy 6:12a; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6:12; Hebrews 3:12, 12:1a & 2; 1 John 2:14b; 2 Timothy 2:22

TOBY, I WANT TO READ YOU something from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It’s from Part Two, the place where Faramir, Captain of Gondor, takes Frodo and Sam into protective custody in the Forest of Ithilien. Faramir is expressing his hopes for future of Gondor and its capital city, Minas Tirith, even as the Dark Lord Sauron prepares to make total war against the Free Peoples of Middle Earth. He says:

For myself, I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens . . . War must be, while we defend ourselves against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Numenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.**

Toby, these past few months, I’ve come to know you as a warrior for the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ and His holy Church. So I charge you, as St. Paul charged Timothy, "Fight the good fight of the faith." Defend your flock against the destroyer who would devour all. Make war against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And as you do, fight not for the excitement of battle, struggle not for your own glory and honor, but for the glory and praise of Jesus Christ and the building up of His City on earth.

Toby, I charge you to fight the good fight against the world and everything in our culture that stands opposed to Jesus Christ and His Church. Bind to your heart as a breastplate the words of 2 Corinthians 10, where St. Paul says, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Fearlessly, constantly preach Christ and Him crucified. With all your skill, wield the double-edged sword of the word of God, so your people and your peers may see how it judges and reveals the thoughts and attitudes of man. And remember, you are in the world but not of it. Exercise godly discernment. Fight against the temptation to take sides for or against an issue according to human factions and understandings. Make war on our culture’s sinful tendency to identify Jesus Christ with any human cause or commonwealth, however noble or great. Struggle against the world for the world’s own sake, boldly proclaiming the Gospel of peace through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I charge you to strengthen your congregation to fight with you. Arm them with wisdom and grace in the Holy Spirit, that they may prevail against the destroyer who would devour all. Especially in the present economic distress, train them to base their confidence not in material things, but on the Rock of Refuge that is Christ alone. In your war together against the world, I charge you to guard them and yourself against earthly pride. There must be no lording it over other sinners in need of God’s grace, and no thought that the victory is up to you. Remember always: He is the Lamb victorious, Christ the Son of God. In this faith, I charge you to fight, for the battle is the Lord’s.

Toby, I charge you to make war on those attitudes and proclivities that would undermine the Church and her calling to exalt Jesus Christ, especially here at Jefferson Center, in Beaver-Butler Presbytery, and in the Presbyterian Church (USA). When you engage in conflicts with those who live as enemies of the Gospel, do not let it become personal. For as Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Make war against legalism, libertinism, and laziness in doctrine and practice. Take your stand against cowardice and covetousness in pulpit and pew. Defend the weak, rescue the perishing, build up the saints in the virtues of our Lord Jesus Christ, love both the loveable and the unlovely as Christ has loved you. Lift high the Cross, bow low at the feet of Him who hung on it, and live in hope of the resurrection He has promised all His saints. For, for the joy set before Him our Lord endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Fight in hope for His Church, for the battle is the Lord’s.

And Toby, I charge you to fight against yourself, against your own sin of mind, flesh, and will that so easily entangles. In your personal life, be strong and overcome the evil one by the word of God that lives in you. Flee to it, cling to it, make the word of God your stronghold and high tower, for by it you will find sure refuge in Jesus Christ, the living Word. Be a loving and faithful husband to your wife, and a gentle, just, and strong father to your children. Make war on the temptation to put them second, third, last after your duties and obligations to the church. Be a loyal friend to your colleagues in ministry, as we build one another up in our common faith. Be accountable to others, for without companionship in the Lord, you will surely fall. Again as St. Paul advises Timothy, "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." In all you do, lift up the love of Christ as your banner. Before that blood-marked standard the forces of the devil flee, for the battle is the Lord’s.

Toby, I charge you to make of yourself a sharp and shining sword in the hand of the Lord, reforged from brokenness in the fires of the Holy Spirit, ready to be unsheathed by your King. And remember, it is not you who wield Jesus Christ; no, your Captain the Son of God wields you.

Toby, I return you to the passage from Tolkien I opened with. I charge you to look beyond this noble fiction to the marvellous reality we are promised in Jesus Christ. As you fight the good fight, may your every desire be for the day when the white-clad company of the saints will stand like trees blossoming in the court of the King of kings, and the Lamb of God be crowned with many crowns, and the New Jerusalem descend in peace from heaven. Fight such that the Church may be full of light, high and fair, the beautiful and queenly bride of Christ her Savior. As you defend her against the destroyer who would devour all things, love not the battle for its own sake, or your skill in spiritual combat for your own glory. Before God and this company I charge you: Love earnestly the City of the children of God, the Church of Jesus Christ; and above all, love the Lord who rules in her. Love Him for the living memory of what He has done, for His eternal Sonship with the Father, and for His wisdom, light, and love as He justifies us, sanctifies us, and glorifies us by His grace. Fear Him, pledge your best allegiance to Him; in all your warfare, trust utterly in Him. And in Him, with Him, and through Him, this same Jesus Christ will give you the victory, for the battle is the Lord’s.

_____________________________________
*Charge to the Pastor, preached at the installation of the Rev. Toby Brown, Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church, Saxonburg, Pennsylvania

**J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Part Two: The Two Towers, Ballantine Books, New York, 1965, p. 355

The War Within

Text: Romans 7:15-8:11

PLEASE PERMIT ME TO begin with something personal. About four weeks ago, I noticed that my body was doing something it shouldn’t have been. So I went on the Internet to look it up. The websites said the symptom could mean anything from a minor infection to cancer, and that you should see a doctor as soon as possible to find out. I got in for an appointment by the end of that week, I was examined, and they sent me to the Medical Center to undergo a certain test. I got that taken care of on July 1st. Then I settled down to wait for the results.

But we all know good and well that "settled down" isn’t the term you use when the diagnosis might possibly be cancer. Of all possible common diseases, it’s the one that seems to strike the most horror into us, the one we live in most fear of getting.

How come? Maybe partly because cancer isn’t like an infection or an injury, where some foreign thing attacks your body from outside, it’s your body attacking itself. You also have that with lupus and other autoimmune diseases. But somehow with cancer, the treachery seems worse. With autoimmune diseases, it’s as if the Army were to launch a military coup. But with cancer, it’s as if whole groups of civilians, whole streets full of your neighbors, suddenly rose up and started making war on the rest of you. It’s your own perverted cells taking over your healthy cells and making them traitors just like themselves. To fight cancer, in a way you have to make war on yourself, from the outside. And without aggressive treatment, the outcome for your body is defeat and death.

That’s a nasty thing to think of. It’s an even nastier thing to experience-- as I’m sure many of you know firsthand. You won’t blame me when I say I haven’t had an easy time of it since that test on the 1st. And that I won’t rest easy until I’ve got the results of the follow-up biopsy I’m to do in the next couple weeks-- assuming that cancer is not in the diagnosis.

It’s not nice, or comfortable, or pleasant to be talking about cancer on a Sunday morning. But it’s a good metaphor for the terrible reality St. Paul gives us in the 7th chapter of his letter to the Romans. Cancer is a civil war within. It pits your own body against itself. But sin is even worse. Sin is also a cancer; it’s a war against every human being’s body, mind, and soul.

Now, many good and thoughtful Bible scholars believe Paul is talking here about how things were with him before Jesus got hold of him and made him a Christian. Other good and thoughtful scholars say No, Paul is talking about the struggles of the Christian life. I can’t claim to be a scholar of any kind, but having looked at this passage for many years, I have to agree with the second group, the ones who say it’s about trying to live up to our holy calling in Christ after Jesus has saved us. To use good solid Church language, it’s about sanctification, not justification.

For look at what our brother Paul says: He says he wants to do good. He says he hates evil. The unjustified person can’t truly say that. People who don’t belong to Christ know they should do good, they say they want to do good, but their goodness stops when it’s hard, or inconvenient, or when others stop rewarding them for it, or if it’ll lose them money. The "goodness" of an unbeliever isn’t about being good for Goodness’ own sake or being good for God's sake, it’s about feeling good about themselves. The unsaved man has no concept of how deep and wide and humanly-unattainable true Goodness even is.

And unless he’s living in a war zone or some crime-filled neighborhood, an unsaved person has no real sense of the evilness of Evil. In fact, people who live where vice is the everyday way of life often get used to it. It’s like evil is inconvenient, but it’s how it is. Your neighbor may be a drug dealer who shoots up other drug dealers, but he’s your neighbor and far as you’re concerned, he’s a nice guy. Or even if he’s not, you respect him for how tough he is.

But God forbid we should go thinking that attitude only belongs to "Those People." We are all "Those People." We all wink at sin in ourselves and people we know. We’re all riddled with the cancer that is rebellion against God . . . until the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, comes to conquer sin in us and give us health and peace for the first time in our lives. Jesus comes like Dr. Christiaan Barnard and transplants into us a new heart, a heart that beats with the goodness that is Christ’s alone. And that’s when we begin to understand just how sinful sin really is.

But we Christians are in a strange situation on this earth: We’re hybrid creatures. We’re living with the heart of Christ and also with our old sinful heart of the flesh; we have Christ’s new nature in us, and our old human nature. But unlike in a hybrid car, say, those two natures don’t pull together. They pull apart. They’re at war with one another. They’re like cancer versus healthy cells. Jesus saves us, and like Paul we begin to delight in the law of God in our inmost selves. But there’s also a law of sin in us that pulls us to do what we ought not do. This law in our members, as Paul calls it, is like a cancer that wants to take over everything we are, until we go down into death.

But there’s this term, "the flesh." Maybe if we could just transcend our physical bodies and be more spiiiiiritual, maybe we could live up to our calling in Christ?

That idea’s been around for centuries, that our minds and spirits are good, they’re just dragged down by our evil bodies. But this idea is a mistake. Worse than that, it’s a heresy.

Matter is not bad in itself. God created it. Jesus Christ Himself rose from the dead in a material body. When Paul uses the word "flesh" in this passage he’s speaking of what we are by birth as sinful human beings--body, mind, and spirit. Nothing we have in ourselves will go to make us able to live up to the Law of God that we see in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can try to cure ourselves by trying hard to be good. We can work till we drop to win the victory on our own. But it’d be useless. As Paul says in verse 18, "Nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh." Have you ever noticed-- it’s hard even to repent without sinning. And so with Paul we cry out, "Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

Who, indeed?

It used to seem odd to me that Paul says that in verse 24, then immediately says, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Was Paul giving thanks for the mess he was in? For the mess all God’s people on this earth are in?

But no. This is like a big red stop sign. Like a bolt of lightning. Like the world’s loudest coach’s whistle. It says, "Stop! Time out! Look over here and see what you need to see!"

And what we need to see is Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Jesus Christ and His power. Jesus Christ and His completed work. We can tie ourselves in knots worrying about how we just can’t seem to to live the Victorious, Holy Christian Life-- when the solution, the cure, the victory is right there in us all the time. Jesus Christ died to save us-- does He not now live to make us holy and whole? Jesus Christ lives in us-- does He not now work in us to please His heavenly Father and ours? There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

Think of some sin you’ve committed lately. Some hurtful word you’ve said. Some foolish act you did. Some neglect of something you should’ve done, that hurt someone else very much. Yes, it was a sin. Yes, you were guilty, just as I am guilty of sins I can think of. But there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

How can this be? It can be because in Christ the Law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. As it says in verse 3, God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh-- though with Jesus, the flesh was not sinful, but pure and innocent as God intended from the first-- so that by the death of the flesh of Christ, sin might be condemned and dealt with. Our sin is condemned, but you and I are not-- because we are in Christ Jesus.

Since we are in Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus is in us, through the ministry of His Holy Spirit. That means Jesus Himself is living His sinless life in us, doing His Father’s perfect will, making us into the grown-up, healthy children of God He’s redeemed us to be. He doesn’t save us then leave us on our own! He sends us His Spirit and calls us to walk in Him: and walking in the Spirit is to live in the reality of Christ in us.

We hurt ourselves so much by thinking this walk is something we try hard to do. Like it’s one more burden laid on us that we can’t carry. No, living according to the Spirit is simply trusting that whatever God wants us to do to please Him, Jesus Christ has already done in us. It’s accepting the forgiveness He won for us on the cross and not flogging ourselves over past sins He’s already wiped away! It’s stopping ourselves whenever we want to take over or be in control and saying humbly and simply, "Lord Jesus, do Your will in me and through me, and I praise You for it."

I’m finally learning that the most fleshly thing I can do in my life is think I’m in control of things I’m not in control of. You know what I am in control of? Saying, "Lord Jesus, help me!" and getting out of His way.

Living in the flesh, on the other hand-- it’s what happens whenever we think we can do anything without our Lord, even the best things in the world. It’s using Jesus as our Example, and not submitting to Him as our Savior and Redeemer. Fleshly living is asking, "What would Jesus do?" then effectively telling Him to stand back, because, by gum, we’re gonna do it!

But life in the Spirit doesn’t work that way. Life in the Spirit is asking, "What has Jesus done?" and letting the finished work of your Savior grow to completion in you.

He has promised to make that happen. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Whatever is happening in your life, He’s there to take over your fears, your cares, your temptations, your trials. He has already taken away your sins, and as Paul goes on to say farther on in this chapter, in all things you are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you. Jesus is the Great Physician whose boundless eternal life pushes back and totally cures the cancer of sin in your life and mine. The Holy Spirit dwelling in you is the guarantee. For as it says in verse 11, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you."

Nothing good or healthy may dwell in our sinful flesh; that is, our fallen human nature. But everything good and healthy and wholesome dwells in the crucified and risen flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our old and new natures may be at war within us, but allegiance to Christ alone brings us victory and peace.

At the end of this service, we’ll sing the hymn "O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee." As you sing it, remember that your Master Jesus is the One serving the lowly and bearing the strain. He is the One moving the slow of heart to His ways. He, Jesus, is the Guide who brings the wayward home-- He is the One who works in you and through you and for you. Walk with Him in the power of His Spirit! To you He gives the hope and peace, the health and joy of His presence within. In Christ and Christ alone our sin has been cancelled, our hearts are cured, and the war within us will be gloriously won.

Remembering the Last War

Texts: Revelation 12:7-12; Luke 1:1-3; 17-24

TOMORROW, AMERICA WILL BE CELEBRATING Memorial Day. I remember as a small child going up to a cemetery in a small town in eastern Kansas and decorating the graves of dead relatives with peonies from our yard. Peonies in mayonnaise jars for the departed Zickefooses: that’s what Memorial Day meant to me.

But then I grew older, and I learned that Memorial Day used be called "Decoration Day," and it was the day to honor the soldiers who’d died fighting the Civil War. And that later, after World War I, it was the time to remember the service of any deceased veteran who’d served in any of America’s wars. And that eventually, it was called "Memorial Day." And even though we take time on the last Monday in May to think of all our loved ones who have gone before, the day is fundamentally about remembering those who have served in our armed forces, especially for those who died in combat.

It’s a fine and noble thing to remember our war dead. It’s a grim and difficult thing to think about war. But this Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I want you to think about and remember war, the last war.

No, I’m not talking about Desert Storm. Or about the conflict in the Balkans, or Viet Nam, or Korea, or World War II. I’m talking about the last war, the final war that will be fought on this earth, the war that’s ongoing now, the war you and I and every human being are all in.

This is the war of wars. Its theater isn’t just the Middle East-- Iraq or Afghanistan-- it’s being fought everywhere believers in Jesus Christ are confronting and being confronted by our old enemy, the Devil. The weapons in this war are not guns and missiles and supersonic jets and tanks, they are the Word of God and the Cross of Christ. And the stakes are not land and resources or even human lives and freedoms in this world; at stake in this war is the everlasting destiny of God’s church and His own divine name and glory.

We get frustrated and angry with our leaders when a war lasts more than a couple of years. But the war we need to remember today has been going on since before the beginning of time and it will not end until sin, death, and Satan are finally defeated and all things are put under Jesus’ feet.

In Isaiah we learn that Satan was once the most beautiful and glorious of the angels, Lucifer, the son of the dawn. But he wasn’t content with that. He said in his heart,

"I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars [that is, the angels] of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, . . .
I will make myself like the Most High."

This was Satan's first shot in his war of rebellion against Almighty God.

In Genesis we see his tactics. He attacks God by tempting Eve and Adam to sin against God’s command not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In Job we see that even though he’s lost his home in heaven, Satan still can appear in the council meetings of the angels of God and accuse God’s people of wrongdoing, wrong speaking, and wrong motives.

In fact, that’s what the word "Satan" means. He’s like a nasty prosecuting attorney who’ll say anything and twist your words any which way to force the judge to declare you guilty and condemn you to death. His accusations are one more weapon he uses in his rebellious war against God and His saints.

We’re in this war, right now. Every human being is on one side or the other. The tragic thing is, ever since our First Parents said Yes to Satan and No to the Lord God, all of us are born into Satan’s army. The Holy Spirit, speaking in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, says that the default nature of man is to

"[Follow] the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."

Our Lord Jesus Himself, as recorded by the Apostle John, frankly states that those who reject Him as Messiah and King are not children of His Father in heaven. No, they are children of their father, the devil, and they want to carry out their father’s desire. They fight on Satan's side.

The odds in this cosmic war seem awfully stacked against Almighty God! Not only are all of us born in rebellion against Him, not only do we all naturally pledge allegiance to Satan, but as Ephesians says, naturally we’re spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We couldn’t switch over to God’s side even if we wanted to! And in our natural human nature, we don’t want to!

But don’t forget: Satan’s war against God is a rebellion, not a civil war. Most civil wars involve some sort of rebellion; that is, as brother fights against brother there’s generally a sense in which one side is defending the constituted government and the other side wants to overthrow or change it. But rebellions always involve the subjects of a government fighting against the government’s leaders and authorities with the idea of becoming the leaders and authorities in their place.

That’s what Satan is doing and has been doing from before the start of human history. Satan is not equal with God. He’s only one of God’s created angels, and he’s a fallen, debased angel at that. God is the one who is all-powerful and all-sufficient. Almighty God is the sovereign of the universe; He has the wisdom, strength, and authority to see that His will is done. God can make a way where there is no way, and He can win battles and wars that we think are totally lost.

And He wins them with the strangest of weapons. St. Paul says in First Corinthians that "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

At the cross-- when Jesus the Son of God was hanging there dying and Satan and all the demonic forces thought they’d won, they’d won!-- it’s there that Almighty God was breaking their power forever. At the cross, where perfect Goodness was mocked and humiliated, it’s there that the rebellion of Evil was put down forevermore. At the cross, where our Lord offered up His body to be broken and pierced for the sins of mankind, God was bringing His chosen ones to His side.

The people of that time might have thought, "Oh, just another criminal gone to be crucified." Crucifixion was a common, if horrible, form of execution in the Roman world. But God proved His victory over Satan by raising His Son Jesus Christ from the dead. He poured out His Holy Spirit to bring convict us of our rebellion and sin and to confirm to us the life-giving power of the death our Savior died.

And so, by the preaching of the cross, God raises up in this world soldiers for His holy cause, sealing them for service by the power of His Holy Spirit. God is not alone in His warfare against that old serpent, the Devil. His army includes all the holy angels. And it includes you and me, all those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and made holy by His righteousness alone.

We see this in our Scripture readings today. The language of the book of Revelation is metaphor and symbolism, and it’s wise not to be too absolute with how to interpret it. But some things are very clear. If you back up in chapter 12, it describes what led up to the war in heaven in our reading. Verse 5 speaks of the birth of a male child, "who will rule the nations with an iron scepter." This refers back to Psalm 2, and designates Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. After the coming of Christ, everything is different. After Christ’s death and glorious resurrection, the Devil-- called the dragon in this passage-- no longer has any place in heaven. No longer can he stand in the council of the Most High and accuse the saints of God day and night. It doesn’t matter if you were an Old Testament saint looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, or a New Testament saint-- and brothers and sisters, that includes us-- who lives after the cross, God isn’t listening to Satan any more. The devil can chatter all he wants about our shortcomings and our failures to live up to the measure of Christ. But he’s firing blanks. He’s wasting his own time.

For us who believe in Jesus Christ, Satan is a defeated enemy. As the Scripture says, we have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

But let’s be very clear about what the Scripture means by "testimony." Some folks think it means telling people stories about themselves, where Jesus is the means whereby they got a happier, healthier, more prosperous life. No! The testimony that overcomes Satan is our witness to Jesus Christ and what He did to bring us from death to life. It’s the truth about how the blood of the Lamb washed away our rebellion and replaced it with His perfect obedience. We can’t fight the powers of darkness by showing people our higher bank balance or our perfectly-raised children! We can’t even do it by claiming what nice people we’ve become, now that Jesus is in our hearts. No, the only way to spike the Devil’s guns is to remind him and all his angels of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. We fight our part in the great war by constantly saying, "Yes, I am a sinner-- saved by grace. Jesus took the punishment I deserved and made me acceptable to God. There is now no condemnation for me. Satan, you cannot bring any charge against me. Jesus has paid the whole penalty and set me free."

We stand only on our Lord’s total faithfulness and we’re strong only in His strength. The Scripture speaks of the martyrs, who "did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." Christian martyrs around the world even today are able to give up this earthly life, because they know that Jesus Christ their crucified and risen Lord is able to give them the resurrection life He has promised.

Verse 10 says, "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom or our God, and the authority of his Christ." Jesus, shortly before He ascended into heaven, told His disciples that "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Satan’s ultimate power is broken.

But the war is not over. The Devil has been cast down to earth, and he’s determined to make life as miserable for God’s people and for humanity in general, as long as he can.

You may remember, or maybe you’ve heard, about the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June of 1944. Historians are agreed that that was when the tide of World War II turned against the Nazis and their power was effectively broken. But it wasn’t the end of the damage they would do. In the Battle of the Bulge, the following December and January, over 19,000 American troops would be killed. And even more would die before Germany finally surrendered in May of 1945.

It is the same way with our enemy Satan, and will be up to the time when death and Satan and hell with be thrown for good and all into the lake of fire. He’s going to keep on fighting against us, because he knows his time is short.

He’ll fight against you by confusing you on what being a Christian is all about. He’ll get you thinking that it’s about having "your best life now" or about being nice to other people. He’ll try to make you embarrassed by talk of sin. He’ll whisper that it’s offensive to believe that we all deserve the wrath of God and the blood of Jesus is the only thing that can turn it away. He’ll make you go through persecution, financial trouble, or emotional and physical pain because you belong to Jesus.

Or he’ll be even more subtle than that. He’ll try to get you to be proud of your spirituality or your good deeds. Or he’ll try to make you into one of those people who goes around "sacrificing" themselves for others, whether the others want to be sacrificed for or not. He’ll even allow you to think you’ve got special power in yourself over him, if by doing that he can corrupt your relationship with God.

In the tenth chapter of the gospel according to St. Luke, seventy-two disciples return from preaching the kingdom and they’re joyful, because "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!"

It’s an innocent joy, but Jesus does not want them or us to put our focus there. Rather, He says, "Rejoice because your names are written in heaven." We did not write them there, He did, by the blood of His cross. He has given us power to trample on all the power of the enemy, but the power is not our own, it is His. We are like little children totally dependant on the strength and provision of our wise Father, and for that Jesus thanks the God of heaven and earth.

And we should thank Him, too. For by that we know that whatever Satan may throw against us, he will lose. The Father has given us to Christ the Son, and no one, not even the Devil himself, can snatch us out of His hand.

We are all in a war, of good vs. evil, life vs. death. God our Father has chosen to fight it with an army composed of holy angels, little children, and most of all, a Lamb that was slain. When you remember that war, remember most of all that it is the blood of that Lamb that guarantees us the victory. Trust in Christ’s perfect death. Accept the salvation He has won for you. And rejoice in hope, for by Him, with Him, and in Him alone, Satan is defeated and your name is written in heaven. Alleluia, amen!