"When the Devil Attacks" or "Two Little Words"
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
At
this point in Jesus’ ministry nobody really knows who He is. Remember last week, the congregation in
Nazareth was about to throw Him over a cliff for claiming that He was the one
of whom Isaiah prophesied? His
townspeople don’t get Him, His disciples don’t get Him, even His family thinks
He’s nuts. But there are those who know
all about Jesus. There are those who
know exactly why Jesus is there, they know exactly what He’s going to do. Whereas the people of Nazareth almost throw
Jesus off the cliff for claiming to be the Anointed One, in our text for this
morning, a confession is made; a true confession that comes from the lips of
demons. “And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean
demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Ha!
What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are- the Holy One of
God.” And after Jesus heals Peter’s
mother-in-law, “Demons came out of many,
crying, ‘You are the Son of God!”
In
our text for this morning, we see a distinction that, as Christians, we should
note well; the confession of fact and the confession of faith.
There is no better
theologian that the devil. He knows the
Scriptures inside and out. He knows who
Jesus is and what He has come to do. The
demons in our text cry out, “You are the Son of God. You are the Holy One.” But their confession doesn’t flow from faith,
but from their knowledge.
Jesus
says, in Matthew 7, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the
Kingdom of Heaven.” Thus the demons in
the text. They know God’s Word, they
know who Jesus is, they know… But, dear friends in Christ, knowledge doesn’t
equal trust. The demons who make the
correct confession about Jesus are still bound for hell because there are two little
words in their confession that they didn’t say, that they can’t say, they're unable to say. Two little words on which faith rises or
falls, “For me".... " For me”
“Jesus is the Holy
One of God for me. He died on the cross
for my sins, was raised again for my justification. He did it all for me.” That’s the child-like trust of which Jesus
speaks when He says “whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a little
child shall surly not enter it.” A
simple trust that Jesus is for you.
The
demons in the text could confess the Nicene Creed in and out. They could go down the line that Jesus is
very God of Very God, begotten, not made, one substance with the Father, was
crucified and died. They could say the
entire Creed without hesitation, except for the first two words. “I believe.”
When we say, “I believe,” we’re not just saying that I know these things
are historically true, but that Jesus was begotten not made, when He was
crucified and died, and rose again, He did it for me. I believe, I trust.
There
are many who confess a historical Jesus.
No one who looks at the historical evidence can really deny that there
was a many named Jesus. But here’s the
difference: like the demons, many of these people don’t trust that what Christ
has done on the cross, He has done it for them.
A lot of people say nice things about Jesus: “He’s the Holy One,” “He’s
the Son of God,” even, “He’s the Savior,” but not the Savior who dies on the
cross for all of their sins, who bleeds to purchase them from sin, death, and
the devil.
When
the devil attacks, he attacks these two little words, “For me.” He’ll do all he can to steal your faith, your
belief, your trust in the crucified Christ, while maintaining in your mind some
sort of head knowledge Jesus, like the demons confess in the text; or even a
false Jesus. Like Indiana Jones, who
replaces the golden idol that sits on a weighted stand with a bag of dirt so
not to set off the booby trap, what the devil steals he replaces with his
lies. He never leaves a void, but
replaces the faith he takes with something false.
But
we’re given to trust. A child may not
know much about his father, where he came from, his background, his job, but he
trusts that his father will provide, will be there… for him.
What about you? Has the devil attacked you with his
lies? Has he sought to draw you away
from Christ? Have you ever had the thought, “There’s no way Christ could
forgive a sinner as big as myself. Jesus
is for someone else but not for me?” Do
the whispers of the devil remind you of your sins that you can have no
rest?
Beloved
in the Lord, fear not. For Jesus, who by
His authority, preaches good news to the poor also proclaims good news to
you. The lies that the devil has
whispered in your ears are just that, lies.
This Jesus who casts out demons, who heals the sick, who lives, who
dies, who rises again, He does it for you.
That the sins that weigh you down are lifted off of you and placed on
Him. For the times you question your
faith, for the times the devil attacks, He comes with His balm of His Gospel
and speaks tenderly to you, “Your sins I have covered, your faith I sustain by
my Word.”
So,
we’re given to not have faith in our faith, and speak of it as if it can be
measured. But we have a Lord who dies on
the cross for you. That’s where we
center our gaze, on that cross. And
while beholding our Jesus on the cross of Calvary, while looking at the dead
body of our Lord, who bears your sins, your griefs, your shame, your doubt,
think of these words and hold fast to them always, “For me…He did if for
me.” All the lies of the devil, all his
attacks can’t compare to these little words, “Christ died on the cross for
me.”
We
can boldly confess in the creed, “I believe,” that all that Christ lived,
suffered, and died for, He did it for you.
We can boldly confess, “You are the Holy One who dies on the cross for
me.” “You are the Son of God who was
rasied from the dead for me.”
And
the more you learn of Christ, the more you’ll realize that we’re nothing and
Christ is everything. The more you hear
His Word, the more you receive His gifts, you’ll rely all the more on His gifts
of forgiveness that He gives to you through His Gospel that’s preached,
distributed into your mouths and splashed over your heads.
We
confess the Jesus who, not only lived on the earth 2,000 years ago, but the
Jesus who lives, dies, and continues to live at the right hand of the Father
for the world and for you. Our confession is not only one of fact and
knowledge, but of faith and trust that all our Lord does, He does it for you. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life
everlasting. Amen.
