The Good News of the Kingdom 4 Epiphany C Luke 4: 31-44

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear continued celebrators of the Epiphany.

After last week’s Gospel reading –concluding, as it did, with the whole of the Nazareth synagogue attendees trying to throw Jesus over the edge of the village cliff –now with this morning’s reading, which continues the same chapter four of St. Luke’s Gospel, and shows Jesus using authority and power of the forces of darkness, we can feel a little bit better about things and maybe think Jesus ministry is back on track.

But we shouldn’t be fooled.  Dark forces lurk behind the scenes, even if they make themselves apparent by crying-out who Jesus is.  And there is so much of this in world today.

About ten years ago, when I was still working for Synod at Concordia Historical Institute, I went into a large near-by grocery store to pick-up something.  While waiting in the check-out line there was a man ahead of me who all of a sudden when he saw me shouted, “I can’t be in line with him!” and stormed out.  I had no idea who the guy was.

The checker apologized to me, and I told her it wasn’t her problem. I told this story to a friend whose wife also worked at the store as a checker, and he told her.  The next day he told me that his wife knew of  the man.  He was from Jamaica or Haiti, and the workers there knew him as being deep into voodoo.  He was probably demon possessed.  The thing is –I was in a shirt and tie at the time.  I was not dressed as a clergyman.

The Apostle Paul says:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12 ESV)

We don’t deny that there is an invisible realm of darkness.  We confess in the creeds that God made heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible.  Within the invisible dwell good and evil angels.  The good angels are confirmed in their bliss –they can not fall. And minister to us at God’s command. The writer of Hebrew’s asks, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14)

These are the holy angels.  Someday in heaven we will see them.  Right now we worship God with them, only they are not visible to us.

The fallen angels, or demons –followed their leader the devil against God and were expelled from heaven.  They work against God and try to ruin God’s work and especially destroy men’s lives and souls.  They are condemned to eternal destruction in hell which will come on the last day.  In the mean time they have limited power. The Apostle Peter writes, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

 Now we might wonder why so many references to demon possession and demonic activity in the Bible.  We might be tempted to think that what were considered demons in those days were just psychological problems, or anxieties and depression.  That today people’s demon’s are substance abuse, pornography, a sickness or disease –or even religion.

But the demons Jesus confronted in people were real.  And we notice that in the case of demonic possession Jesus uses both his authority and power to get them out.  The demons will never listen to the preached Word of God.  But the power of God added to it makes them have to obey.

 We are in the season of Epiphany. Christ came to do defeat Satan and free us from his power. The devil is real and there are really demons.

The devil is an imitator –a poor one, at best –but always trying to be God and copy God and over throw him.  While on earth, Christ, the God-man, lived, walked, ate, drank –and lived among us.  The incarnation was God become human. 

In Epiphany this is made manifest to us. We sing: God in man, made manifest.  I believe that so many demonic possessions are recorded in the Bible not because they don’t happen today, but because the demons tried to imitate the incarnation –and they were more active in this regard until defeated by Jesus on the cross.

We enjoy benefits of Jesus’ death already of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  We also know that the devils know they are defeated.  Their time is short.  Certainly they are very active and sin increases around us, but we as God’s people are shielded from much of this and there is a limit to what God allows the devil. In a Christian home there is safety from the devil that we see and hear about in the homes and lives of may people.

Yet we need to be careful. The devil comes in where he is invited. Jesus told the parable once,

“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.  Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.” (Luke 11:24-26)

 

Either the Holy Spirit, or another spirit will reside. They come by invitation.  By the company kept –the music one listened to, the media, the mind altering substances such as drugs –and even alcohol, and witchcraft. Even by a fascination with the demonic supernatural.

 So do these things need to unreasonably frighten us? No. Jesus also says, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe;  but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. (Luke 11:20-22)

With these words our Lord predicted his storming of the gates of hell and conquering the devil in his death and resurrection.

When Luther was head to stand before the emperor at the imperial assembly in Worms, where he expected to be declared an outlaw and killed, he commented that even if all the roof tiles in the city were demons, he would still go into there –trusting God

Luther also wrote this stanza to A Mighty Fortress is our God, (we’ve all sung it many times and recognize it)

“Though devils all the world should fill, All eager to devour us. We tremble not, we fear no ill, They shall not overpower us. This world’s prince may still Scowl fierce as he will, He can harm us none, He’s judged; the deed is done; One little word can fell him.”

The baptized Christian does not need to fear these things.

Another good hymn stanza –a nice prayer when we afraid of these things and want to be comforted is the stanza from the hymn in our Lutheran Service Book “God’s Own child I gladly say it,” a hymn written over 300 years ago,

Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized in to Christ! Drop your ugly accusation, I am not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I’ve traveled, All your might has come unraveled, And, against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me!

We also read in 1 Peter chapter 3,

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,  who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (1 Peter 3:18 – 22)

This verse tells us a number of things:

First, that Jesus died on the cross for us who are unrighteous. Second, that he descended into hell, declaring his victory over sin, death and the devil. Third, that Baptism saves us and connects us to this victory of Christ’s in His resurrection.  And finally, that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, ruling over all things to the benefit of the church.

I began this sermon with reference to last week’s Gospel Lesson, and Jesus preaching in the synagogue –the verses that just precede this morning’s Lesson.

There he read from Isaiah,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Today we hear how it was that the captives were made free.  Not in a temporal sense, or from some social problem, but from power of Satan.  And we, too, who are now enjoying the Epiphany warmth and light, have been freed.  We are free from all that would harm and destroy us eternally in this life and in the life to come.  Repenting of our sins, we have the assurance of forgiveness.  Trusting in Christ’s Word we have the hope of a brighter future of eternal life in heaven.  This, then, is the Kingdom, that Jesus brought to people as he preached in the Judea so long ago. Amen