Jesu Juva

“No Ifs, Ands, or Buts”

Text: Revelation 12:7-12; Psalm 91; Luke 10:17-20; Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

War in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and his angels.

I don’t know what that means, really. How do angels fight each other? Does their war look like our wars? What weapons do they use? I don’t think I really want to know. I’m just glad the good guys won.

But unlike our wars, angels don’t die. We see the horrid pictures from Ukraine and Israel, the destruction, the devastation, the mourners. Not so in this war. The great dragon and his angels did not die but were thrown down to the earth. And not in sadness, but in great wrath. They were like a stirred up hornets nest that gets knocked down - swarming, looking now for men and women to sting with their evil venom. No wonder John heard the voice in heaven say, woe to you, O earth and sea. Woe to us who now endure their wrath.

Thank goodness we’re not alone! We’d stand no chance. Stirred up hornets are bad, but how much worse a foe we cannot see, and more powerful and crafty than us. But as we heard in the Introit today: He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. God’s good and faithful angels are not in heaven celebrating their victory or relaxing that the foe has been cast out. No, our Father commands them to come here, where the evil angels were cast down, to guard us, to continue the fight here. Imagine how mad that must make satan and his angels! Bad enough they got thrown down from heaven. Only to continue to be opposed. To continue to lose! Making them only want to fight harder. They couldn’t topple God, they couldn’t defeat their good brothers. So now they’re after the low hanging fruit: the Church and Christians here on earth.

So what does this fight here that continues look like? What are the weapons in this war?

Well, we have a few examples in the Scriptures. The first one in the very beginning of creation, when the devil when on the attack against Adam and Eve. His weapon was his words. For his target was not Adam and Eve’s physical life, but their spiritual life. And how do you attack and kill a spiritual life? You remove it from its source of life. And if the source of spiritual life is faith, then that’s what you attack. Undermine their faith in God as their good and loving Father, and their trust in His Word. And that’s what we hear him do. Did God really say? Sting them with doubt. Get them to rely on their own reasoning instead of God’s Word. Convince them to believe that what seems good to them must be good, even if God said it isn’t. Do that, and now he’s got them on the road to spiritual death, of trying to find life apart from their heavenly Father.

There’s the story of Job. The devil stung Job over and over, inflicting all kinds of physical hardship and harm against Job, but the goal was for all that to affect his faith and spiritual life - that he curse God and die. The devil also attacked Jesus in the wilderness . . . with words. If you are the Son of God . . . He even tried to use God’s Word in going after Jesus, though what he did reminds me of the political commercials we hear today: use the words of your opponent out of context, or just enough to twist them for your own purpose, even if that’s not really what they said. ‘Cuz it doesn’t matter. All that matters is sting them with doubt, and chip away at faith and belief, that they look for life apart from their heavenly Father.

And I think the devil has a favorite word that he uses to do that - especially today - to achieve these ends with us. Did you even think about that? If you had to come up with the devil’s favorite word, what would you pick? I think it’s the word BUT. Yes, God said that BUT . . . Of course you shouldn’t do that BUT . . . You know you shouldn’t say that BUT . . . Yes, God defined marriage this way, BUT those two people love each other! How can we say no to them? Yes, all life is important and valuable, BUT that person is suffering a whole lot, BUT that baby isn’t wanted, BUT that person is saying things I disagree with. I know I should forgive BUT . . . I know I shouldn’t gossip BUT . . . I know I should love my spouse BUT . . . All those BUTS aren’t just wrong thoughts, words, and deeds, but wrong faith. That’s what God said isn’t right, or isn’t good enough, which means my heavenly Father isn’t right, isn’t good enough, isn’t trustworthy, isn’t true. The devil’s ifs, ands, and buts lead us away from life to death.

So in this battle now being waged here on earth, you fight fire with fire - you fight words with words. And we heard that today, in John’s vision, that they have conquered the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Victory comes by the Word and the blood, or, if you will, by the Word and Sacrament. The devil wants wiggle room. The devil wants loopholes, doubts, uncertainty. The devil wants to make the clear unclear, to lead us astray. And so against that our weapon is the sure and certain, clear and steadfast Word of God. What God said is true, good, and reliable. Period. That’s how Jesus fended off the devil’s attacks. That how Adam should have done so. And it’s how we can.

And the blood of the Sacraments heals us when we are wounded in the battle. The blood that washes us, that absolves us, that feeds us, strengthens our faith and revives the life of God in us. When we baptize here, when we confess our sins, when we come to the altar, these are not peaceful things! This is the front lines of the battle for your soul, for your spiritual life. And the devil knows it. That’s why he wants to keep you away from these, for he knows how damaging they are to him and his cause. Now, how is he trying to do that with you? Maybe by making you too busy. Maybe by stirring up controversy. Maybe by making these gifts seem insignificant, or boring, and other things more important and exciting . . .

Maybe if we could really see what’s going on here . . . like the disciples in the Holy Gospel we heard. Jesus had sent them out with His authority, and they returned with amazement, reporting to Jesus, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name! Maybe if we got to see that! You know, some demons writhing on the ground here, or flying away, screaming . . .

But just because we cannot see that, doesn’t make it not true, doesn’t mean it’s not happening! And maybe it’s better that we don’t see that, just like we weren’t given a glimpse of the war in heaven.

Instead, when the disciples pointed this out to Jesus, so filled with excitement that Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name! Jesus points them to something even greater than that. He says: don’t get so worked up about that. Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

You see, we like the spectacular. The fast and flashy video games. The sensational stuff on the news. Satan being cast down from heaven. Big crowds, miracles, stuff like that. Stuff that’ll really bring ‘em in! Jesus points to a book. Now compare this! 100,000 people filling a stadium, cheering for their team . . . and people in a library filled with books. Jesus! Look at that! We want that! And Jesus says: look at this! This is greater. That your name is written in the book, as Daniel said.

And to continue with Daniel for a moment . . . there shall be trouble, he was told. Maybe we haven’t even seen the worst of it yet. But your people shall be delivered, he is promised. And there will be life and righteousness, forever and ever. The trouble will end, the life will not. When Daniel wrote that, God’s people had seen some trouble. They were living in Babylon. The Temple had been destroyed. Jerusalem had been destroyed. Their nation was no more. Gone. It seemed like the bad guys were winning. The hornets were swarming, with no end in sight.

When Jesus’ disciples came back to Him that day and said, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name! they saw hope. Cracks. The beginning of their deliverance. A deliverance that would be completed not in a grand show of power for all the world to see - not yet. It was a deliverance witnessed by just a couple of women, in a garden, on a quiet and peaceful Sunday morning. A few days before that, it was all hornets! The swarm all mercilessly attacking Jesus, all on Him who couldn’t swat them away for His hands and feet were nailed down. Until they took Him down. Until He died an ugly death. Because it was not enough for Jesus to just deliver us from the devil and his angels - He came to deliver us from enemies even greater: sin and death. And for that, He had to die Himself. And then the victory was an empty tomb.

And because of that, not only are the demons subject to Jesus’ name, so is sin and so is death. So we baptize in Jesus’ name, and with that water your name is written in the book in blood. We absolve in Jesus’ name, and your sins are cast down. We feast in Jesus’ name, His table, His food, His Body and Blood - and the Bread of Life gives you everlasting life. And when Jesus returns - on that day when there will be a great and mighty show for all the world to see - the heavens that the devil and his angels were kicked OUT of, you will be ushered INTO. And so in one of our hymns we sing, Lord, let us last Thine angels come, to Abram’s bosom bear me home (LSB #708 v. 3).

The war in heaven was a great victory, no doubt. But it was the fight waged on the cross that was even greater. So that’s what the devil doesn’t want you to see, doesn’t want you to believe, doesn’t want you to receive. Don’t eat that food, from the tree of life! Look at this fruit! Doesn’t it look good? You’ll love it! Oh, I know, God said don’t do that, say that. BUT . . . your life will be better, happier, richer! Trust me. Would I lead you astray? I’m on your side . . .

Don’t click on those words! They kind of sound like that email or text you got recently, from that “Nigerian prince” or that “poor widow” with millions of dollars that they want to give to you! Don’t they sound like that? Put your phone down, close the computer, and read and hear and receive the Word of truth, the words of life. God’s Word with no ifs, ands, or especially no buts! Only truth, only life, only Jesus.

And one day you’ll see. One day those angels will come for you, to bear you home. The angels who won the war in heaven, who proclaimed Jesus’ birth, who announced His victory at the grave, and the angels and archangels who join us here. They don’t save you, they can’t. But they serve the one who can, and did. The one wrote your name in the heavenly book in His own blood.

So today we remember and thank God for the angels. But as the angels are always reminding people in the Bible who saw them, don’t thank them! Don’t worship them! They’re just doing their job. Thank the Lord who won the war, and even better, gives that victory to you.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.