And war broke out in heaven....
We know of war. We hear of wars and rumors of wars. Hezbollah,
Hamas and Israel. Ukraine and
Russia. Or in other times, Iraq,
Vietnam, Korea, Germany and Japan.
We see our nation and others fighting over things that
matter and things that don't. Some of you have even fought in wars, in foreign
lands. Maybe you're against war in general or against a particular war. Maybe
you wonder, war, what is it good for?
But the war that broke out in heaven – is like no other war
that would ever be. Michael the archangel and his angels fought with the
dragon, that great serpent of old, and all his evil angels.
We don't know how long this war lasted, or if, even, that's
a question that makes sense. Revelation uses pictures and symbols to express
heavenly and spiritual realities, that are in many cases, timeless, eternal.
But though they are spiritual, they are just as real.
So in this war of the heavens, we don't know what tactics
and strategies were used, or many other things. But we know what's most
important: who wins. The good guys. Michael and the angels. They cast the
Dragon – aka the Devil, Satan, the Ancient Serpent – they cast him and his
fallen angels out of heaven – there is no place for them in God's presence any
longer – and they fell.
In rage, smoldering at their defeat and humiliation, the
Devil seeks to do what damage he can in what little time he has left. If he
can't get to the Lord of Heaven himself, he will set his sights on those
created in God's image. And so he roars and prowls and looks to devour even
you, and you, and me. The Devil is real, and he is dangerous. He is our most
powerful enemy. He is far smarter than you. He knows God's Word far better...
Luther even called the Devil a Doctor of Theology. But his wicked knowledge is
all geared toward one purpose – to do you harm. To destroy your life, to see
you suffer and die. And ultimately, if it were possible, to steal you away, to
lead you astray, even gently if he has to, from the Christian faith and from
your Lord.
This is the most insidious way that he devours. His
slithering question, “Did God really say...?” continues to be asked today. It
is asked in the public square when Christian teaching is ridiculed and
marginalized. It is asked in church bodies that dance to the Devil's pied-piper
tune and plot a course away from God's word and into heresy and damnation. And
the Devil's question is asked and answered when you reach for whatever
forbidden fruit hangs in front of you – and you decide you know better and want
to be like God. Oh Lord, deliver us from this evil, we pray!
But just as our foe was cast out of Heaven, so will he one
day be cast into the lake of fire. Just as he fell like lightning from heaven,
so does he fall in defeat to the same weapons of warfare used by Michael and
the angels. “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony”. It seems the angels, too, use the same weapons given to us,
Christians. The blood of the Lamb and the testimony, the word of God.
The word. It's the way Jesus himself defeated the tempter in
the wilderness. His refrain: It is
written. It is written. It is written. The word that created and recreates. The
same word which bespeaks us righteous. The same word cried out, “Father forgive
them” and which forgives you, even today. The same word that will be spoken
over your grave, “Death, where is thy victory, Death where is thy sting?”. The
same word which will be spoken at the trumpet call of God when Christ returns
with all his angels and brings all things to fulfillment. The word of God. That
word of God that was made flesh in Christ.
And the other “weapon” by which they overcame - The blood of
the Lamb. It's the way Jesus himself defeated the Foe on our behalf, at the
cross. There and then the Accuser lost any sins to accuse, because Jesus took
them all away. The blood of the Lamb. “His blood be on us and on our children”
the murderous crowd seethed. And bitter and blessed irony, His blood is upon
us, to save us. The blood of the Lamb, by the water of baptism, douses the
doorposts of your heart - to mark you – so that the destroyer would pass over
this one. Jesus was destroyed in your place. His blood shed in exchange for
yours. His defeat – your victory.
But the blood of Jesus doesn't just stop at the cross. The
blood of Jesus by which we overcome the Dragon and all his forces of evil is
also for us today. The blood once shed, the body once broken – dead, but now
alive forever – that same body and blood are here for you in on the altar, in
the bread and wine, by the promise of the Lamb himself. Here, he breaks and
hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, and saves us by his grace,
delivering us from evil. Here in this holy meal you receive the victorious
Christ, and are united with him and with his victory.
Likewise the testimony by which they overcame – the same
word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ in particular, is preached from this
pulpit, read at that lectern, sung in this sanctuary, prayed at this altar.
This word, this sharp, two-edged sword, not only kills our old Adam and revives
our own Spirit, but the same proclamation of Christ disarms and destroys the
foe and his accusations. It is the one little word that can fell him.
So God sends his holy angels, who once cast Satan from
heaven, to watch over us even here and now. In a sense the war still continues,
as we struggle not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of
evil. Thanks be to God for our allies in this fight, those messengers from on
high who watch over and defend the children of God at his command. Why
shouldn't the Lord God, who spared not even his own Son for our salvation, not
also give us even more? Why shouldn't he who feeds us and quenches us with
Christ's body and blood, and speaks to us his word of promise, not also keep us
by his firstborn sons of light?
Therefore rejoice, oh heavens, and you who dwell in them!
And can't we count ourselves among the inhabitants of heaven? Certainly our
citizenship is there. Surely our destination is with the Lord. Even now, we are
strangers and sojourners on this earth. We are in it, but not of it. One day we, too, will take our place in the
company of heaven, with angels and archangels.
One day our voices will join with all the saints, and the angelic choir
in eternal praise around the throne of God.
For salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and
the power of His Christ have come.. to us. Like the angels, we too overcome by
the blood of the Lamb and by the testimony. And we too see the accusations of
Satan fall to nothing, for in Christ, your sins are no more. Battle over.
Victory won. Eternity secure. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
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