Sermons 2025

Text: Luke 10:17-20
Theme: Rejoicing

Outline:
1.    Rejoicing over Satan’s defeat
2.    Rejoicing over Angels
3.    Rejoicing over Jesus, that we are written in heaven
 

Sermon
 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
 

My dear beloved flock, the text for our mediation today is the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke, the tenth chapter, verses seventeen through twenty.
 

Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Today we celebrate a special feast day. A feast day is the day when we celebrate and honor someone. Today, we are celebrating Saint Michael and all the angels. What does an angel do? An angel protects you. It is why one of the angels is called Michael. He is a really strong angel called an archangel. The angels fight battles that we cannot see. Spiritual warfare happens and we may not even realize that Michael is fighting with the angels to protect us from harm. God loves us so much, and he commands his angels to protect believers. How can we join the angels and the disciples in rejoicing in the work 

that God gave them to do? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    Rejoicing over Satan’s defeat
 

As we gather today for the feast of Saint Michael, our text really does not say a lot about angels. The only angel it mentions is Satan falling like lighting from heaven. It seems a bit of an odd text for this feast day. Yet, it has much to tell us about angels, what they do, and how we can rejoice with them. 

Just before our text, seventy-two disciples had been sent by our Lord to go out two by two to all of the surrounding towns and villages. They went out proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was coming. They healed the sick and proclaimed the gospel as they went. They probably didn’t think about it at the time, but when Jesus gave them the authority to heal the sick, that included the authority to heal those physically and spiritually sick from demon-possession. It’s probably better that they didn’t think about it beforehand, because they might have been reluctant to go if they knew they were going to be dealing personally with demons and fighting directly on the front lines. But having dealt with them, and having driven them out, they were filled with joy: “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!“ 

Jesus rejoices in the disciples rejoicing. He confirms that as they went about their ministry, the enemy’s kingdom was toppled. “I saw Satan fall like lighting from heaven.”  Satan falling points to one of the jobs of Saint Michael and all the angelic host, make war against Satan for our defense and protection. Which is another cause to rejoice.

2.    Rejoicing over Angels

Saint Michael and the angelic host make war against Satan, to the point that Satan, and all who followed, were kicked out of heaven and imprisoned in Hell. This is a fight that was not even close. Satan knows that he was defeated. He will never win, yet he keeps trying over and over to drag down to Hell with him more and more people.

We could think of it like a football match today. Two teams going head to head, battling it out for supremacy. The score is not even close, 40-0. The losing team keeps sending a running back. He runs the football up the middle, only to get clobbered by a linebacker out of nowhere. Then replay is shown from multiple angles, and one of the announcers would remark, “Man, he just keeps getting clobbered. Why does he keep getting back up? He’s going to be have to be taken off the field on a stretcher soon!” 

Something similar happens to the devil in a very real way. He is defeated, not by sword or force of might, but purely by the Word of God. Consider when Saint Michael and Satan in Jude are fighting over the body of Moses. Michael simply states, “The Lord rebuke you.” Satan flees defeated. 

The same still happens today. Angels stand with the pastors God has placed in His church. God’s angels do battle with the devil’s forces through the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, wielded by pastoral soldiers. Just as Gandalf and his fellow wizards, who in Tolkien’s mythology were god-like figures with supernatural power. Yet, they were forbidden to engage the enemy Sauron in direct conflict, and match power with power. In order to fight, they were required to support the humble efforts of mortal men, elves, and hobbits. Similarly, the angels are forbidden to use their mighty power in open battle, but are placed by God into the service of His church.

When the gospel is shared and people believe it. Then and there the power and influence of the devil is overcome. When we listen attentively to the gospel and take it to heart in faith, whether here or at home, whenever another baby is baptized and brought from the devil’s kingdom into the family of God, whenever we receive our Savior’s body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, whenever God’s Word takes root in the heart of another through a Christian’s conversation, Michael and the angels advance, and the devil moans, “Oh no, not again!” Down he goes, like lightning from heaven. Thud, he lands. Thud, he loses.

This is not the only thing that angels do. Yes, they protect us from Satan. But they have other jobs as well. One of their jobs is to rejoice and worship God. They are continually in the presence of the Lord, giving Him the honor and glory due to His holy name. As His people, we are late for the grand celebration. The angels have been worshiping since the very moment of their creation. As the Psalmist says, “When the foundations of the earth were laid, the morning stars sang together. We might call to mind the angelic Host worshiping the Lord in Isaiah’s vision in chapter six or announcing the Birth of Jesus to the shepherds ending in a wonderous songs of praise. We are indeed late, but they welcome us in and deign to join our meagre words and praises with theirs. As we state in the Proper Preface, we worship with Angels, archangels, and all the Host of Heaven, joining in unending praise. Join them in singing the praises of God in the Gloria and the great feast of victory of the Lamb. We cry with them, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, Heaven and earth are full of your glory.” 

There is an even greater cause for rejoicing than driving the devil and his demons far away through God’s word and sacraments, so that he falls like lightning from heaven again and again. There’s a greater reason we join with them in unceasing praise.

3.    Rejoicing over Jesus, that we are written in heaven

What is that greater reason? As our Lord says, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” That is the cause of intense rejoicing. 

We rejoice that the very Word of God became flesh in Jesus Christ, that our names would be written in heaven. Because of Jesus, we have been saved. Saved, not by a mighty display of power and authority through a myriad of angels, but saved by meekness and humility in a small, tiny infant who was laid in a manger. If Jesus had wished to use the way of power, He could simply have called on His Father to send twelve legions of angels against His enemies (Mt. 26:53). 

Jesus defeated every single one of the assaults of Satan with the Word of God, which proceeded like a sharp, two-edged sword from His mouth (Rev. 1:16). Jesus defeated the devil by seeming to be defeated Himself, by suffering and dying, by shedding not the enemy’s blood but His own blood upon the Cross of Calvary, for us men and for our salvation. Through this seeming defeat Jesus caught the devil entirely off guard. The devil, who was rejoicing to see his foe laid in a tomb, was suddenly struck silent by the glorious appearance of the resurrected Lord in His prison.  

Jesus descended into Hell that He might declare that He has indeed fulfilled the promise given in Genesis 3:15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring[e] and her offspring; he shall bruise your head,  and you shall bruise his heel.”  Jesus heel was brused upon the cross but the head of Satan has been crushed. That is why Jesus makes the reference in our text. He has tread upon the serpents and scorpions heads. Because of the work of Jesus, sin, death, Satan, and Hell have been eternally defeated. Because of Jesus and His death and resurrection, your sins, my sins are forgiven. Your name, my name, the names of all believers are written in heaven.

Dear beloved flock, rejoice! Rejoice in the work of the holy angels for your protection and good. Join with them in praise unending of the Lamb who was slain, slain that we are His forever and ever.  Until the day when we join the angelic host in endless praise forever at the great marriage feast of the lamb which has no end.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.