September 29, 2024 – St. Michael and All Angels Text:  Revelation 12:7-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

Satan that sneaky little devil is quite the liar.  He has way of convincing people in our world that he is not real.  If he doesn’t exist, he can work his evil schemes more effectively under the radar.  

The Scriptures reveal Satan for who he truly is.  From his fruit tree trickery in the Garden to his boastful tempting in the desert with Jesus.  It is the work of Jesus in overcoming Satan and the forces of evil that come to a climax in our text.  The joyous message is that this great accuser of mankind, Satan, is no longer in heaven to bring accusations against us.  This text unveils the truth . . . 

“CONQUERED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB”

As a competitor one line I never like hearing is:  “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, only how you play the game.”  Then why am I out there?  That line is much easier to swallow if you are the victor.  If we lose, we don’t like it.  We may give our best and still walk away with head down.  “It is just not fair.”  We may be right.

The struggle for many is that the battles they fight so often are battles they must fight alone.  Even the people of God feel this way at times.  The power of the enemy can be so strong, we can be so weak.  Victory often goes to those who oppose God and His truth.

Look at the world around you.  What do you see?  You see sin, death, and Satan seeming to win battle after battle.  We have unending conflicts between countries.  Hatred and violence toward others.  Political upheaval.  The Lord mocked and ridiculed by many voices.  No sense of right and wrong.  The sound of a broken world is deafening.

Let’s break through the noise.  Satan’s rebellion and removal from heaven is one of those mysteries that God tells us very little.  We do know Satan led a substantial rebellion of angels after creation and before the fall of Adam and Eve.  Our text is a place where this becomes clearer.  Revelation makes it clear that after Satan’s fall he still had access to the presence of God for some time.  His primary activity was to bring accusations before God as our text states, “The accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” (v. 10)  Not a pretty scene.  Satan reminding God of the sins of mankind day and night.

The good news trumpeted by our text is that this kind of Satanic activity is no longer effective.  Satan has been defeated, cast out of heaven, thrown down to earth.  “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.  And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (v. 7-9)  Alrighty then, let’s cheer.  Michael and the good angels defeated this wily serpent and his minions.  We win!  We win!  Yes!

Who should get the credit for this conquering victory?  The text is clear:  “They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb.” (v. 11a)  Jesus the unblemished, perfect sacrifice whose blood makes payment for all sins of mankind.  Christ as Advocate interceded for us.  Paul writes:  “Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Rom. 8:34)  The source of this victory in heaven, then, is the blood of the Lamb.

We all know people who like to pump iron.  They lift weights to build up muscle in their bodies.  They want to be stronger than the next person.  Was this Michael’s secret?  Did the archangel pump more iron in heaven than Satan had in hell?

No.  The key battle in the war against Satan was not one angel, Michael, confronting another angel, Satan.  It was the Lord Jesus Christ confronting Satan and all the forces of evil as the sacrificial Lamb whose blood was pumped out on the cross as payment for our sin.  Michael and his angels are not an independent militia who had pumped more iron in the gym than Satan and the evil angels.  They are the army of the Lamb enforcing the victory of the Lamb by casting Satan out of heaven.

We do not fight alone.  The great evil has been overcome.  Thank God for this victory in heaven, won by Christ on the cross and carried out by Michael and the angelic hosts.  Feels good to win, doesn’t it?  Conquered by the Blood of the Lamb.

Amen.

September 22, 2024   Text:  Jeremiah 11:18-20

Dear Friends in Christ,

To what are you committed?  What commitments have you made in life?  

Dr. Paul Farmer grew up impoverished in an old bus his father, mother and four siblings lived in.  Paul was intelligent with a photographic memory.  He graduated from Duke and then Harvard with a medical degree and PhD.

His accomplishments are numerous.  He dedicated his career to find ways to combat major health problems among the poorest of the poor.  He started his work in Haiti, but it soon stretched around the globe.  He became a world-renowned expert on the subject and by his mid-forties a best-selling book was written about him.

In February of 2022, Dr. Farmer died of a heart attack while working on a health project in Rwanda.  He was 62.  The public health community said they had lost a “giant.”  Farmer spent his whole career committed to the cause of improving healthcare for the poor around the world.  He was all in for the cause.

The prophet Jeremiah is committed to the cause of which God has called him.  He is to make known the Word of God to the people of Judah.  He is to call Judah to repent of their idolatry.   Can we be like Jeremiah . . .

“COMMITTED TO THE LORD’S CAUSE”

Jeremiah is the weeping prophet.  He cries a lot because his family and hometown are plotting against him.  He will suffer hardship and persecution.  Jeremiah gets just a taste of the betrayal that would happen to Jesus.  Like the Lord God, Jeremiah was trying to bring salvation to the people, yet the more he did so, the more infuriated toward him they became.

Have you ever been betrayed by family or friends.  Are there those who pull away from you because you are trying to share the Gospel with them?  Do you have a certain challenge currently that you are up against?

God knew the scheming of the people before Jeremiah did.  He revealed it directly to Jeremiah.  God knows the troubles and challenges we face, even before we do.  We can feel like Jeremiah, lost and confused; a lamb led to the slaughter. 

Jeremiah was not married and had no direct descendants.  The people still wanted him annihilated, “his name be remembered no more.”  They hated Jeremiah, but their real hatred was toward God.   Everything about God had to be eliminated.  It looks overwhelming to Jeremiah, so he takes it to the Lord.  

Things don’t look good for this prophet.  But he does not waver in his commitment.  I understand that.  I have been called a “commitment-phobe” in my life.  I got that from my parents.  You say you are going to do something, you do it.  At times it does not make life easy.  How do you see yourselves?  Committed like Jeremiah or a little more wishy-washy about what you should be doing?  Being committed means sacrifice.  Being committed can mean suffering.  In being committed you need to see the difference it is going to make.

Jeremiah saw that.  He trusts in the righteousness of the Lord of hosts.  God cared about Jeremiah.  God cares about what is happening in our world and what is happening in our individual lives.  Jeremiah saw people becoming angrier and angrier.  We see that same tone around us.  People can lose it over the silliest things.  

The townspeople of Anathoth, the hometown of Jeremiah are losing it.  They are plotting to kill the guy, and Jeremiah still wants to work to save these people.  That is commitment.  I have been reading a book of Christian martyrs over the years and their commitment to the Gospel always stands out.  I appreciate the groundwork they have laid.  But I also tend to notice that maybe there was a better avenue not as dangerous.  A way to stay alive and continue the work.  

That is Jeremiah’s story.  The Lord brought justice.  The vengeance of the Lord was a fair retribution against those who had fallen away from God.  Jeremiah put his trust in the lasting and final justice God would provide in the coming Messiah, the Savior, who would take away the sin of the world.  We can have that same trust in the perfect life, atoning death, and victorious rising again of Jesus Christ.  Like Jeremiah, we can commit our cause to the way of the Lord.  We know that the Lord is our strength and shield.  It gives us confidence just like Jeremiah.

Jeremiah would cover the reigns of the last five kings of Judah.  He would continue to stay committed by denouncing the policies and idolatries of his nation.  Can we do the same?  Remember this:  God is faithful, God is just, God is caring.  It strengthens us to stay committed to the Lord’s cause.

Amen.