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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, all three of the texts will be referred to throughout the sermon. You may be seated.
From the very moment when you began to reflect on your salvation in Christ, that you are Christ’s child, almost at the self-same time were you very aware that you are not alone. And begin to grow in the realization of Satan and the demons. If you came to faith as an infant or a child, you do not hardly remember a time when you did not know about your Lord Jesus, but at the self-same time you knew about your great enemy, the evil one, the dragon, Satan himself.
What we know from Scripture is some point in time, in the first six days of creation, before Adam and Eve were created on that sixth day. Sometime before that moment when Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day were the angels created. Perfect creatures. Because they were created not by God just to serve Himself. Scripture declares that they were also created by God to serve also you, the crown jewel of God’s creatures. We confess that very clearly in the Nicene Creed, as we believe in things visible and things invisible, which are those angels.
Now the second mystery we do not know either. Sometime after the seventh day of creation, and sometime before we read about Satan coming to Eve in the form of a serpent to deceive her, did Satan appear? And others get kicked out of heaven by Michael and his angels, as we read about in the reading from Revelation. But one thing we know for sure, as we began in the sermon, we know the reality of Satan and the reality of Christ.
And the struggle that you and I have is that Satan can only appeal to you through the things of man and the mind of man. And God only appeals to you through the things of God and His revelation to you. And the two are juxtaposed one to the other.
Satan is called the accuser. He accuses you before God day and night. He doesn’t sleep like you and me. He accuses you before God. And you know what he does? He helps you. He helps you beat up yourself with your guilt and shame. Somehow thinking that by allowing him to encourage you to beat up yourself, you somehow make it right with God who sees you squirm and struggle. And so somehow that makes God much more merciful toward you and me. That’s the mind of man, not of God. Those are things of man, not of God.
God declares you righteous in His sight. He has claimed you since you were an infant and says, listen to my declaration of who you are. Do not listen to the accusation of what Satan says. And therein lies your struggle and my struggle. The things of God and the mind of God or the things of man and the mind of man.
Now Satan loves to use two tools. The first is pride. That’s what got him kicked out of heaven. Not humility, but pride. And when he was sent to the earth by Michael and his angels, the only thing he has is this world, which you and I know what will happen to this world. It will all be destroyed. And so besides pride, the other thing with which he tempts you and me is the idolatry of worldly success, worldly acclaim.
Let’s make this very, very clear. Peter, Peter the Apostle who wrote in his epistle these words, This is the same Peter who struggled with Satan many times. And by God’s grace, he made sure that he recorded it for your sake and for my sake in the Gospels. Peter was very blessed by God, but Peter was sifted by Satan many times. Not because God was some megalomaniac who wished to just kind of put his power upon Peter, but he wanted to save Peter from Peter. He wanted to save Peter from himself as he wants to save you from yourself and me from myself.
So Jesus asked the disciples, who do people say that I am? And they replied, remember, some say Moses, some say Elijah, some say John the Baptist. Jesus then asks them personally, who do you say that I am? Peter is the only one who says this. You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Listen to what Jesus says to Peter. Peter! Peter! This was revealed to you not by man, but by God.
And then a few moments later, Jesus tells them that he would be rejected, that he would suffer, that he would die, and he would rise again. And what does Peter say then? Lord, no, let this not happen. Then what does Jesus say to Peter? He actually calls Peter Satan. I’ve been called Satan by my Lord. Have you? Because you had in mind the things of men and not the things of God? Because that’s what Jesus said to Peter. After he said, get behind me, Satan, he said, you have in mind the things of man, not the things of God. That’s your and my struggle. Unbelievers don’t struggle with this. Satan has them in his back pocket. You, on the other hand, struggle with it.
Because Satan was exercised out of you by your baptism. Every time you hear the word of God, Satan falls like lightning from the sky. Every time you nurse at this altar, Satan falls like lightning from the sky as you trust in his promises. And not in your worldly wisdom and not in your worldly wealth or success or acclaim. This is not the struggle of an unbeliever. Because unbelieving is the most common form of demonic possession. Unbelief is the most common form of demonic possession, which means belief is the most common form of godly possession. That the Holy Spirit dwells within you, and you are God’s child, and He is your God.
So here’s Peter being called Satan. A believer. A believer. Because there never is a time when we aren’t struggling with the things of man. That is Satan’s continual battle.
Now Daniel, in his great text, talks about this time in which we live, the end times. As we await our Lord to return, that Christians not just here but around the world suffer because of our faith in Christ Jesus. But we struggle with that suffering because everything in our life, according to our reason, is to do things to avoid suffering. One of the things in Peter’s life that was very interesting, it’s only in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says to Peter, I’ve prayed, Peter, for you. The Lord is going to sift you. And when you return, strengthen your brothers.
Jesus was telling Peter He was going to allow Peter to be tempted by Satan. God allows you to be tempted by Satan. Not because He wants to see you fall, but because He wants to keep you from falling away eternally. Just like Peter, who made the great confession of faith and then a moment later made a great confession of Satan. That’s your and my life in Christ. We are the sinner saint at the self-same time, are we not? And does not come out of our mouth praise and honor to God and defaming of our neighbor and our God?
And that God allows in our life so that we repent because the tools of the Holy Spirit that He uses, which are counter to pride and the idolatry of earthly success, the tools that the Holy Spirit uses that only He can do is to crush your heart that you repent and to bind it up with forgiveness that only He can give you. And to give you the faith that cries, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. That is the tools of the Holy Spirit that He uses through this word being proclaimed and read and sung.
That He used at the beginning of your faith life and development in your baptism. And that He feeds you with His flesh and blood, with the bread and wine. These are His tools that He brings to you that causes Satan to fall like lightning.
When the 72 returned, and you heard that in the Gospel reading, they came back and they were ecstatic. Lord, all the demons we have power over. We heal people. Did you listen to what Jesus said to them? He acknowledges, I gave you this power. Yes, indeed. Nevertheless, do not rejoice that you have power over these demons. What did he say for them to rejoice over? Rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. It’s not about you. It’s about him. It’s not about what you do. It’s about what he did.
It’s not about your disciplined life, your wise choices, because God will always point out to you the unwise, the undisciplined. Relax so that you repent and receive again. Christ is the conqueror. And in Revelation 7, it talked about they shall conquer Him by two things: the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. The blood of the Lamb you eat and drink. The word of the testimony you hear and you digest.
On the altar is a very ancient symbol, and I don’t want you ever to forget this symbol that’s on your altar. Remember. It’s in red with gold mosaic in the middle of the red. It’s smack in the middle of the altar right above the kneeler. And in gold is a cross. In the upper left-hand corner are the letters IC with a line above them. It’s the first and the last letter of the Greek word Iesus, Jesus. In the upper right-hand corner are the letters X and C with a line above it. It is the first and last letter of the Greek word Christos. We get the word Christ from. Underneath it are four letters, N-I-K-A. It is the Greek word Nika. And the Greek word Nika means conqueror.
Every time you come up to your altar, you see Jesus Christ the Conqueror, the one who conquered Satan for me, the one who conquered me for Himself, the one who inherited death so that I would have life and conquer death with His resurrection. Jesus Christ the Conqueror. The victory is ours that He gives to us.
And then, He gives the church the strangest gift. You are the church, and He’s given you this gift, forgiveness to give to others. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And when you forgive, when God gives you the strength to forgive, Satan falls like lightning. When you receive His forgiveness and one of your brother or sister’s forgiveness, Satan falls like lightning. Amen.
These are the things of God, not the things of man. This is to have in mind the things of God that have been revealed to you and things that are not revealed to you by man that we should shove aside. You have conquered by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony that says, Jesus is Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
