"Two Battles: The Battle from Without" (Sermon on Matthew 10:34-42)

Over today and next Sunday I want to talk to you about “Two Battles.” These are two battles every Christian is called upon to fight, from the time we are baptized till the day we die. There is no opting out. You are engaged in these battles whether you realize it or not. So the thing to do is to fight them well, and that means we need help. For on our own we would not be strong enough to prevail.

What are these two battles? Simply put, they are, first, “The Battle from Without,” that is, the world attacking us Christians, and second, “The Battle Within,” our own sinful flesh fighting against the new persons we are in Christ. These two battles, the conflict from without and the conflict from within--these are inescapable for every single Christian.

What called this to my attention is that, in looking over and thinking about the lessons for these few weeks that we’re in, I noticed that the Gospel readings from Matthew 10 have as their theme the attacks the world makes against the disciples of Jesus. Meanwhile, the Epistle readings from Romans 6 and 7 focus more on the internal conflict within the Christian, the battle of the new man versus the Old Adam. So this got me thinking about these two tracks, if you will, as an ongoing two-front war that we all are engaged in. At times one battle is raging more furiously than the other, and therefore weighing upon us more heavily, but there is no escaping either one.

So today we’ll take up the external battle first, and then next week, the battle within. The battle from without is the one Jesus has been talking about in Matthew 10, namely, the world attacking the church. We have been hearing Jesus alert us ahead of time of the attacks the church as a whole and we as individual Christians will face: We are like sheep in the midst of wolves. Men will deliver Christians over to courts. Brother will deliver brother over to death. We will be hated by all because we bear the name of Christ. Persecution, being maligned--these are the kinds of things we have heard Jesus warning us about the last couple of weeks.

Now today Jesus takes it further: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Jesus says here that the inevitable result of his coming--not the primary purpose, mind you, but the inevitable fallout--one result or consequence of his coming will be conflict. Not peace, but a sword. The dividing lines will fall along the border of faith and unbelief, between receiving Jesus and rejecting him. Those who receive Jesus will also receive his disciples. Those who reject the Christ will also reject his Christians.

And this division and rejection can happen even within families: “For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” Even among those close to us there may be persons who do not receive Christ but instead reject him--and thus reject us. This is a tough thing to deal with. People close to us in family relation may be far away from us when it comes to faith. This puts a strain and a rift between us. Those who ought to be near and dear ones become instead cool and detached and distant--and sometimes downright hostile. And the division is really the result of Christ--or I should say, their scorning of Christ.

Family members push us away. Friends avoid us and talk behind our back. The world ridicules and mocks us Christians. Let’s hope this is not because we have been Class-A jerks but rather because we have been consistent in our faith and witness and our stand on the word of God.

Let me give you an example. The world right now wants us to be accepting of homosexuality. The word of God, on the other hand, clearly condemns homosexuality as sin. So where will we take our stand, with the world or with the Word? This weekend in St. Louis there is a big event called “PrideFest.” It is a celebration of homosexuality--something which people ought to be ashamed of but which now has become a source of pride. The so-called “gay” lifestyle is openly approved of and promoted by the city of St. Louis and the area TV, radio, and newspaper outlets.

Now the fact that homosexuality is a sin does not mean that we do not try to reach out to homosexuals and bring them to repentance and to faith in Christ for forgiveness. No, that’s what we want to do. And a group of Christians associated with our own Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has tried to do just that, peacefully handing out flyers with a Christian message at a previous PrideFest. But for that they were threatened with arrest. The case went to court, and fortunately this past week the judge sided with the First Amendment and allowed the Christians to distribute flyers this weekend. But the very fact that it went this far shows the hostility in our culture against God’s Word of both Law and Gospel. By the way, it’s even worse in Canada. There you can be hauled before a human rights tribunal if you make a disparaging remark about homosexuality.

And there are other issues on which the world will attack the church. Abortion comes to mind. Being pro-life is not politically correct. Living together outside of marriage is undoubtedly more commonplace in our community. It is so prevalent, it seems like it’s the rule rather than the exception any more. But again, God’s Word calls this despising of marriage a sin. So if we then do not go along with the culture and do not approve of cohabitation, we may find ourselves at odds with friends and neighbors and even members of our own family.

These examples of taking a stand against homosexuality or abortion or cohabitation--these are just in the area of God’s Law, morality, matters of right and wrong. But now if we come to the Gospel, there too we can run into a buzz-saw of opposition simply for being a consistent Christian. Because Christians sometimes talk about--surprise!--Christ. And lots of people don’t want to hear about Jesus. It strikes too close to home. People are reminded of their need for a Savior, and that bothers them. They’re reminded of their sins and the reality of death and judgment and eternity and their need for repentance and forgiveness. No, that’s too much! Keep Jesus away from me! Christians, go away! Shut up! You’re threatening my self-security.

This is the same reason why people stay away from church. They don’t want Jesus to get too close. Keep God at arm’s length, keep him boxed up in a little box I can control and look at on a shelf. People are afraid of God getting too close and messing with their lives--they hate God, actually, and so they lash out at Christians and pastors and at the church.

Now what to do about all this? First of all, repent. Yes, we who would call the world to repentance, we need to repent ourselves. For we have more than a little bit of the world inside each one of us. There is that worldling inside each one of us wanting to assert him or herself. Yeah, there’s that guy inside of me who doesn’t want God getting to close and messing with my life. I’d rather keep God in a box sitting on the shelf. This is where the outside forces have an agent working on the inside. We are the world--too much so, I’m afraid. So repent.

And while we’re at it, let’s repent of those times we have been Class-A jerks about our witnessing or our moral stands. Maybe we have been obnoxious about it, unnecessarily. There’s a way to be firm and consistent without being obnoxious, but it’s also easy to cross over that line and become the stereotypical cartoon Christian. God help us to keep the right balance.

Then that’s another thing. Pray for God’s help. I think we forget this all too often. I know I do. God has promised to hear our prayers when we call on him for strength and help. So let’s take him up on his promise! He will help us to be strong and faithful Christians in the face of persecution, the world’s mockery, and the potential loss of family and friends’ affection.

Repent of your worldliness. Repent of your jerkiness. Pray for God’s help. And then--and this may sound odd--love Jesus. Yes, love Jesus more than you love your friends and family. This is not to say you should not love your family and friends. Just love Jesus more. Don’t let the pressure from friends or family members get in the way of your following Jesus. Don’t let them pull you away from coming to church and hearing his word. Then things are out of whack, if that is the case. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Now finally--and this is the most important thing I have to say to you today--here is why we do love Jesus, and love him more than anyone or anything else: Because he is our Savior. He is our life. Our life was forfeit, it was a mess, it was a loss, a dead end, headed for destruction. That self-life we were holding on to--we may not be gay, but we were having a “PrideFest” all our own--that defiant lostness pervaded each one of us lost and condemned sinners. But Jesus came, the Son of God from heaven, abasing himself, and taking all the scorn and rejection the world had to offer. And he suffered all this for you, for us, for the whole human family. For there was no other way for all the sin and hatred of God to be taken away than for God himself, God’s Son, to take it on his holy shoulders and carry it to the cross. Jesus took his cross, and it was the salvation of the world.

Homosexuals, abortionists, shacker-uppers--as well as proud and respectable church members who have a dark side they like to keep hidden--this Jesus died for all of you, took all of your sins on himself and paid the price, the big price you owe. All is forgiven. Come home. New life, a new mind, new strength to follow Jesus, new hope, the sure hope of the resurrection and everlasting life--all these are yours in Christ. Yes, Jesus is the Savior of the world--the very world that continues to attack him and his Christians.

And so you, dear Christians, don’t be afraid when the world attacks. Expect it. Ask for God’s help and strength to stand. Don’t be afraid to fight the battle from without. For your Savior Jesus has already won this battle for you. Find your life--your real life, your new life, your eternal life--in him.

Matthew 10:34-42 (ESV)

[Jesus said:] “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

The Troubled Soul: God's Word and Our Feelings

I heard this sermon last month in May in Louisville KY. The pastor argues that we are not only supposed to pray to God but also preach to ourselves from the bible. That the reason for much our unhappiness is that we do not preach to our souls from the bible. Rather what's happening is that our souls are constantly talking to us. (We may pray to God but we don't address our souls directly as the psalmist does in Psalm 42.) The pastor mentions that the purpose of worship is for the congregation to both preach to their souls and to pray to God in song.

we have more than a little bit of the world inside each one of us. There is that worldling inside each one of us wanting to assert him or herself. Yeah, there’s that guy inside of me who doesn’t want God getting to close and messing with my lif

Daily drown the old Adam!

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