Sermon 9-1-24

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the Second Lesson for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, Ephesians 6:10-20.

Cosmic Powers

Here’s part of what Rabbi Shaul of Tarsus — known to Christians as Saint Paul — had to say about his experience as a Christian evangelist: 2 Corinthians 10:23-27, “23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”

Why was this? What caused this? Was it because he was a very disagreeable character? That can’t be the reason because many people also were converted by his message. He began Christian congregations all over the place. This wouldn’t have happened if he was a bad actor. So, why the constant persecution?

Of course, there was only one reason for it: Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus suffered the most severe persecution of all. He not only was betrayed by His own people and crucified by Gentile Romans, but upon the cross He bore the wrath of Almighty God as atoning payment for all the human rebellion and sin that was, is and will be.

So, what’s all the riot and commotion about that surrounds Jesus of Nazareth to this day? The cause goes all the way back to the creation of human beings and what has transpired since. But it all comes down to this one question: who will be God of this creation?

There’s only one obvious answer to that question. Whoever created this creation is its God. However, our experience is that the Creator hides Himself from us behind the creation itself. Therefore, we humans are permitted to debate whether there is a Creator at all. We’re also permitted to rail against a Creator because of the suffering this life brings. Why doesn’t this Creator show Himself?

He has. Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the God who usually hides Himself come in person. He said things like this in John 10:30, “‘I and the Father are one.’” However, He was not believed. Most remarkably, He was not believed by the leadership of a people who had been prepared for generations to receive just such a Messiah. Why was that?

It goes back to the choice the first two humans were given by their Creator. In the Garden of Eden there was a tree called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve were given a command by Yahweh not to eat of its fruit.

Well, if this fruit was so dangerous, what was it doing in the garden to begin with? There are multiple reasons. First, Yahweh’s command about the tree continually reminded Adam and Eve that they were not autonomous creatures. While they were created in the Image of God, nevertheless, they were not gods. Nor were they their own creators. They owed their existence entirely to their Creator.

Second, the tree made it clear that Adam and Eve were not the playthings of their Creator. They had real capacity to love their Creator by obeying Him. Through the tree, Yahweh gave them real freedom to separate themselves from Him. For love is not love unless the parties in a relationship are free to walk away from one another. If the parties are not free to walk away, the relationship is slavery or some similar thing. The one thing it is not is love.

So, we come to the question of why Adam and Eve chose to walk away from their Creator. When Yahweh asked Eve why she had done this, she complained in Genesis 3:13, “. . . ‘The serpent deceived me. . . .’” Yahweh did not object to this explanation. So it was true. Eve had been deceived by a bad actor.

Who was this serpent, this “Nachash” in the Hebrew? Scripture isn’t entirely clear. However, in New Testament theology the Serpent is usually associated with Satan. But, one thing is clear in the interaction of Eve and the Serpent, the Serpent is a creature also made in the Image of God, but who had chosen to separate himself from Yahweh over the question of who will be God. He deceived Eve into making the same choice he had made.

There are huge consequences as a result of the choice made in Eden. First, and primary is physical death. But until we die we are faced with the other consequences of who will be God. 

When Yahweh created, He made trillions of choices concerning His creation. All things interact and behave in certain ways. Indeed, the task of science is to discover these interactions and behaviors. However, when Yahweh created beings in His own Image, He endowed us with the power to imagine a reality different from the reality He created for us. Indeed, at about age six human children ask the question dreaded by parents: “why?” Why are things this way and not some other way? That’s the power of imagination coming online for us. As a result we’ll either be satisfied with what exists, or we won’t. 

More importantly, at the adult level, being satisfied with our Creator becomes tremendously important. For, all of this life, and especially life beyond death, depends on our willingness to have Yahweh as our Creator God.

However, Adam and Eve’s Original Sin turned us against our Creator. So, if we will not have Yahweh, who, then, will be God? Any created being that denies its Creator has become its own God by default. And that’s what inheriting Adam’s Original Sin has done to all of us. It has made each of us our own God. And as a god, we’re free to imagine reality any way we want. We’re free to define good and evil for ourselves. And we’re free to act on our own definitions.

There’s only one problem. All this God-playing leads to much evil on earth. It leads to much evil in our lives. And most importantly, it separates us from our Creator God. If we die playing God, we’ll be exiled from our Creator and His righteousness forever — cast as totally unrighteous ones into the place of unrighteousness: hell.

Now, there’s good news and bad news in hell. The good news is that we’ll forever be totally free to play God without any restraint from Yahweh. The bad news is that playing God completely severed from Yahweh’s righteousness will be nothing but hell.

But there’s much better news. Despite our rebellion, Yahweh, our Creator, has refused to abandon us. His love is His everlasting commitment to humanity. Therefore, in the greatest commitment of all Yahweh sent His only begotten Son into the world to reclaim humanity for Himself. 

And this is what all the trouble is about. As sinners and rebels, we don’t want to be reclaimed. We will viciously ridicule and even persecute any fool with the nerve to preach that Yahweh has a mind to reclaim us and call us His own. We’ll viciously ridicule and even persecute any fool who preaches that Yahweh even exists and that Jesus exists. The Apostle Paul was up against this kind of thing at the beginning of the Christian era.

We’ve looked at this many times before, but it’s important. At the beginning of the Christian era, what was the world’s religious situation, and how did it get that way? When Jesus arrived on earth, every nation under heaven except Israel no longer worshipped Yahweh as the only true God and the Creator of everything that exists. Every nation worshipped multiple idols of wood stone and metal — idols that they had created with their own hands. Only Israel worshipped Yahweh.

Now, for the first thousand years of its existence, Israel had also fallen prey to the worship of idols — in particular the idols of the nations that surrounded Israel. The prophets were sent to turn Israel back to Yahweh. So, it’s from the prophets that we see verses like Jeremiah 2:5, “This is what the LORD says: ‘What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.’”

From this statement a question arises. If these idols were worthless, why did all the world make idols. Doing so makes no sense. But it does make sense if there were hidden powers driving the nations to idolatry. Saint Paul gives us the solution to the puzzle in 1Corinthians 10:19-21, “19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” The Greek word translated “demon” not only means a demon in the sense that we would use the term, it can also mean a divine power, a deity, a god.

So behind every worthless idol is a being of power who is normally unseen in the physical world. This being of power has also been created by Yahweh. But this being of power has rebelled against Yahweh. And this being of power is capable of influencing human rebellion against Yahweh — such as leading humans to create worthless statues to worship instead of the living God. And such a being of power is capable of causing humans to do wicked things in their worship. The ancient texts of the pagan nations tell us the wicked things they did to serve their gods.

Christian theology understood all this very well prior to the so-called Enlightenment. But with the Enlightenment came the idea that the world is primarily physical instead of spiritual. If there is a spiritual realm, it doesn’t amount to much. If there is a God, He is distant. The Enlightenment worldview is the one we grew up in. That’s why the spiritual realm seems so unreal and fuzzy to many.

However, the bizarre things going on in our culture right now are beginning to change minds. If you remember, back on July 4th weekend, I reported on an interview between Tucker Carlson and a Podcaster named Shawn Ryan. In the course of the interview both men agreed that the current political, social and philosophical trends of the West are sheer madness — even a suicidal madness that will destroy the West from within. 

Both men agreed that normal human thinking, intellectual trends and behavior cannot fully account for this madness. Therefore, they both spoke of how they had begun to look into the supernatural encounters recorded in history for an explanation. This led to both men being converted not only to Christianity, but they’ve begun to adopt the Christian worldview that was common before the Enlightenment — namely, that there are malevolent beings from a hidden, transcendent realm who have a tremendous impact on our world.

Indeed, this is what Saint Paul tells us. If anyone should know, it would be him because of all the things that happened to him as he brought the Good News of the Gospel to both Jew and Gentile. So, let’s see what the Apostle says in today’s Second Lesson. Ephesians 6:10-12, “10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 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.” In other words, the human struggle on this planet involves powerful beings that we can’t see. However, we can see their handiwork. Paul could see it in the practices of the pagan religions he was working against. He could see it in the persecution he had to endure. He knew the mindset of persecutors because he was once a persecutor of Christ himself.

However, Six hundred years before Jesus, Isaiah prophesied that when Messiah would come, He would overthrow the gods by gathering the Gentile nations to Himself. We see this in Isaiah 49:5-7. In addition, here’s Jeremiah 16:19, “O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, ‘Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good.’”

Therefore, almost three hundred years after the Gospel of Jesus Christ started to be preached in the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity and made it the official religion of the empire. So, it was just as the prophets had predicted. The Gentiles rallied to Messiah Jesus. This was the beginning of what became known as Christendom.

Now, the baptism of the empire’s populace into Christianity resulted in the largest exorcism of demons in history. Today, you can go to any of the cities that were once in the empire and you’ll see all the temples of the gods lying in complete ruins.

As we’ve noted in weeks past, the adoption of Christianity by the empire resulted in the first sexual revolution. It also resulted in a tremendous social revolution. Slavery gradually disappeared. Fighting to the death in Gladiator contests ceased to be valid public entertainment. The sexual exploitation of children disappeared. 

So, as long as Christianity remained the worldview of the leaders of the European nations the gods and goddesses were forced into exile. But, then came the so-called Enlightenment. Pagan Greek and Roman thinking again came into fashion among the upper classes. Christianity supposedly became a drag on scientific and social development — even though Christianity is the reason science, business and society developed in Europe as it did nowhere else on the planet. But now, after nearly 400 years of “enlightenment” here we are where the leaders of Western society, even including Church leaders, have re-embraced the ways of the ancient gods.

In 2022 Christian author, Jonathan Cahn, published a work titled “Return of the Gods.” His thesis is that the gods — in particular the ones the ancients named Baal, Ashteroth and Molech — are presently vying for control of the once Christian, United States of America. The smashing of the Judeo-Christian values, ethics and worldview that we have undergone in the last hundred years, especially the last sixty, has made this possible. In particular, Cahn claims to be able to draw parallels between ancient pagan religious practices and contemporary militant homosexuality, militant abortion (aka child sacrifice), militant prostitution (aka the hookup culture and feminism), militant pornography, militant transgenderism, as well as what’s still hiding in the background, militant pedophilia.

Four years ago, scholar, Dr. Paul Kengor published a book, titled “The Devil and Karl Marx.” His research into Marx’s poetry and plays reveals a man who had sold himself to evil. For instance, Marx wrote in an 1837 poem: “Thus heaven I forfeited I know it full well, my soul once true to God is chosen for hell.”

Every school girl enamored of Marxism’s supposed championing of the poor and downtrodden needs to open her eyes to the incomprehensible hundred million deaths that Marxism is directly responsible for in the last hundred years. Everywhere the Marxist utopian dream has been put into practice, it has abysmally failed. Yet, the heart of every young Marxist knows for sure that if only he or she could put “real Marxism” into practice it would succeed in making heaven on earth. And that’s also the belief of all the old Marxists like Obama, Sanders, Harris, Walz and the like. Hasn’t the last hundred years taught anyone that Marxism is a fatal delusion straight from the demonic corner of the spiritual realm? Can’t anyone see that a system that uses militant social experimentation to reward incompetence so that populations are crushed into grinding poverty while their elite masters flourish, and that must use militant police state terrorism to quell any rebellion against the experiment is a system straight from hell? Doesn’t anyone listen to Saint Paul anymore about the principalities and powers behind the scene?

It’s time to wake up to spiritual realities. We’re back to where Saint Paul was. Christianity is no longer protected by government. The gods and goddesses are seeking to regain their control over human society.

However, the good news is that God’s Word doesn’t lie. Jesus has come. The Gentile nations will continue to rally to the Jewish Messiah. And even if we’re locked in a struggle with principalities and powers, St. Paul says in 2Corinthians 10:3-5, “3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. . . .” Those are encouraging words.

And in this morning’s Second Lesson the Apostle spoke the Word of the Lord that we have wondrous gifts from our Savior with which to make a stand in life: namely Yahweh’s Truth, Messiah’s Righteousness, the Holy Spirit breathed Gospel, Holy Spirit given Faith able to quench flaming darts from the evil one, the joy of anticipated Salvation, the very Word of God and the Power of Prayer.

Like the Apostle, it may be that chains and suffering await us. Nevertheless, the mystery of the Gospel will be revealed on the Day of Judgment. In the meantime, only catechization in the things of Christ and putting on the Armor of God will enable us to stand justified in Messiah Jesus. Therefore, take the time to learn the faith and exercise it. Make this your aim. For, if Yahweh rescues the West from its current madness, new believers will need to know and live God’s Truth. The Lord wants it so they can learn from seasoned disciples of Jesus like you. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.