Christ in you keeps Satan out.

Sermon for Lent 3 (Oculi), March 15, 2020

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Luke 11:14-28  ¹⁴ Jesus drove out a demon, which was mute.  After the demon had gone out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed.  ¹⁵ But some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”  ¹⁶ Others were testing him by demanding of him a sign from heaven.  ¹⁷ But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is destroyed.  And a house divided against itself falls.  ¹⁸ If Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?  You say that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.  ¹⁹ But if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out?  So they will be your judges.  ²⁰ Yet if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.  ²¹ “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.  ²² But when someone stronger attacks him and defeats him, he takes away that man’s full armor, in which he had trusted, and divides up his plunder.  ²³ “The one who is not with me is against me.  The one who does not gather with me scatters.  ²⁴ When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, but does not find any.  Then it says, ‘I will return to my house, the one I left.’  ²⁵ When it returns, it finds the house swept and put in order.  ²⁶ Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and dwell there.  The last condition of that man becomes worse than the first.”  ²⁷ While he was saying these things, a woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”  ²⁸ But he said, “Even more blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” (EHV)

Christ in you keeps Satan out.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            The world is in turmoil, and many people are in panic mode, because a new virus has emerged that is spreading with some speed, and there remains a lot we don’t know about how to stop it, how to keep people safe from it, or how to keep it away from us.  Now, because it is so new, and many have died of the illness, wise, legitimate precautions are being taken.  That being said, as troublesome and new as this COVID-19 virus is, you have to wonder why people are so alarmed by it, when so few are concerned about an insidious disease that infects and kills one hundred percent of all people.

When Adam and Eve decided to disobey their Creator, as they listened to the devious serpent weave his web of lies, they allowed Satan to infect them with the incurable disease of sin.  Their sin put the whole world under a curse, and their infection of sin has been passed down throughout history causing death to every person ever.  This deadly infection has allowed the devil to infest every home, in every state on earth, but today, I have good news for you: Christ in you keeps Satan out.

Dear friends, I am in no way trying to mock the concern people have about this new illness, but the fact of the matter is, we are all destined to die because of sin.  The curse of sin causes all kinds of stress and hardship, but one we don’t think much about anymore is demon possession.  I’m not saying it can’t happen anymore, but it does seem to have been a special threat during Jesus’ earthly ministry.  We suspect that the devil was doing everything in his power to challenge Jesus.

Of course, the exorcism spoken of here in our text, and several others in the Scriptures, show us the power of our Savior over the demons.  They simply are no match for the Son of God.  Thus, the more pertinent points of this text are not that Jesus was able to drive out the demon, though we certainly do appreciate that.  Rather, this account shows us the divide between the kingdom of God and that of Satan.  I suspect that many people today would assume that they belong to the kingdom of heaven, yet their citizenship there is in grave danger.  Jesus said, “The one who is not with me is against me.  The one who does not gather with me scatters.” 

There is a sharp dividing line between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth.  Many assume there is a vast middle ground wherein we can do what we want and live in any way we might desire, but Jesus doesn’t offer that option.  We either walk with Christ, or we are His enemy, and that should scare the pants off a lot of politicians and ordinary citizens who claim to be Christian but advocate for anarchy, immoral lifestyles, and the murder of infants, among other grievous sins.

We sometimes look back at earlier cultures and think they were so idolatrous and lost, but how lost are we when we assume God’s marriage instructions aren’t important, or His command not to slander is just a cost of getting elected to office, or cheating a neighbor is just a cost of doing business?  How lost are we when lust and greed can be used to influence how we spend our money?  I dare say that if these questions haven’t bothered you at all, you may want to spend a little more time in front of the mirror of God’s law.

The mute man in our text was defenseless against the demons.  Perhaps he was never instructed in God’s Word.  Maybe he dabbled in the demonic arts and lost.  Or perhaps, he was simply allowed to be demon possessed so that God could help and instruct us by this case.

Jesus’ opponents accused Him of driving out the demon by the power of the devil.  Jesus easily brushed that accusation aside for it is illogical and impossible, because the devil would never conquer himself.  Furthermore, Jesus teaches that the devil is a powerful enemy who guards those under his control as a greedy man tries to keep his hoard of gold for himself.  The devil doesn’t want God to have any of us.  Thankfully, that is not the end of the story.

Jesus said, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.  But when someone stronger attacks him and defeats him, he takes away that man’s full armor, in which he had trusted, and divides up his plunder.  The one who is not with me is against me.”  Jesus pictures Himself here as the stronger man who steals away the treasures the devil had possessed.  Those treasures being fought over by the two kingdoms were all of us and all people everywhere.

Of course, we know that the devil had no right to possess us.  He had in fact kidnapped us from God in the first place, but all of us were born into his kingdom of sin.  The Jews who accused Jesus of driving out demons by the power of demons were stuck under the devil’s control, but they didn’t even realize it, because it seemed natural to them, as it does to us until the Lord intervenes. 

In order that we might be rescued from the kingdom of sin, we needed someone strong to save us.  That stronger Man is Jesus, both true Man and true God.  God’s Son entered our world armed with perfect holiness, perfect obedience, and perfect trust in His Father in heaven.  Jesus destroyed the devil’s reign by taking away his ability to accuse us of sin.  By living a perfectly holy life as a Man, Jesus satisfied the law in our place.  Then carrying our sins and the sins of the whole world to the cross, Jesus applied the penalty of the law to Himself, suffering what we deserved, so that we could be set free from the devil’s control.  Christ’s resurrection proves His victory.

From that time forward, our Lord takes away the devil’s power by the Means of Grace, the Gospel in Word and Sacrament.  Throughout history, God had been rescuing people by the promise of a Savior.  The Jewish people had God’s promise.  Jesus was warning His accusers, here, that they were in grave danger when they rejected Him because the demonic forces had returned to their hearts and were controlling their thoughts and actions.

The devil is armed with lies, half-truths, and accusations.  Jesus overpowers Satan in our lives with grace and truth, with His holy life and sacrifice on the cross.  As the water and Word of Baptism is applied to a soul formerly lost under the devil’s control, the things the devil uses to possess us are swept away, and we are washed clean and given new life.

While the victory is won for us, there remains danger as long as we dwell on earth.  You and I can’t keep Satan away alone.  Worse yet, even after the devil has been driven out of our spiritual houses, as was the case when we were baptized into the Christian faith, if that clean house is not defended and filled by someone more powerful than the devil, we are susceptible to the demon’s return, and Jesus warns: when the devil returns to the home he had once occupied, he often comes back with more demons and greater evil.  Experience tells us this is true, for when a Christian loses his faith in Christ Jesus, he is often very hard to reach again with the Word of God—the only thing that can save him.

Now, many people seek safety in what they do.  And yes, for earthly dangers, there is much we can do to help keep ourselves safe.  We can listen to the experts when they tell us how to prevent this new virus from entering our bodies.  We can take all the reasonable precautions.  Yet, our spiritual lives can’t be protected by washing our hands for an extra twenty seconds or by keeping ourselves away from everyone else. 

In order to enjoy the eternal lives Christ has prepared for us, we need Him to be continually guarding our homes and our hearts.  For this, God gives us the Word and Sacraments.  He invites us to bring our sins to Jesus, to repent and be cleansed by the proclamation of His forgiveness.  God has given His Word in readily accessible form so that even if we can’t gather in this house, we can read and study the precious truths of Scripture to keep Satan at bay.

Dear friends, with Jesus living in you, you are a member of God’s kingdom.  By faith, God has entered in, swept your house clean, and put everything in order, so that you can be welcomed into His mansions above whenever your time here on earth might end.  That’s why we gather before the altar of our Lord each Sunday, and many Wednesday evenings.  If ever you can’t be here but need the assurance of God’s Word, I or another pastor will come to you with the promise of forgiveness and salvation.  Jesus doesn’t want you to be defenseless, so He offers you His body and blood as a medicine to strengthen your faith in Him and your confidence in the forgiveness He won for you and offers daily.  No matter what this world might throw against us, we have a Savior who threw the devil out.  Be assured, and have no fear; “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it,” for Christ in you keeps Satan out.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.