"You Are The Son of God"

​4th Sunday after Epiphany – C                                                           LSB #’s 395:1-2, 6; 849, 541
Text – Luke 4:41a
 
And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” 
 
YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD
 
 
If you hadn’t just heard the sermon text, you’d probably guess that the words of the title were spoken by someone who is a child of God.   If you’ve been in the church a while you know we are conditioned to think of demons as unbelievers, even monsters in our worst nightmares.   I am not here to dispute that in any way.   Demons are pure evil. 
What I do want to highlight, however, is that even the demons know who Jesus is.  Church attendance has been declining dramatically across our nation.  People are drifting away from an active, daily faith & trust in Jesus as Lord & as Savior.  They’re becoming more interested in supernatural phenomenon like ghosts, UFO’s, horoscopes, witches & aliens. 
Those things can be just harmless fun, but if anything going on there is truly supernatural it is not from God.   The only other supernatural realm is that of Satan.   The Gospel lesson makes it clear that the demons know who Jesus is, & they know what He came to do.     Do you?     If you do know who Jesus is, what makes you different from the demons? 
Luke wrote his gospel in order to educate us about that difference.  Twenty-three verses before the sermon text, he wrote of Jesus quoting Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives… to set at liberty those who are oppressed.”  (4:18 ESV)    Do you want to be set free from your sins that so oppress you? 
If you do, that is one thing that makes you different from the demons.   They have no desire to be set free from their sin.  They live for being contentious, to stir up suffering & death.  As Jesus described Satan, He said, “The thief comes only to steal & kill & destroy.”  (John 10:10a ESV)   King David described his enemies this way: “For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.”  (Psalm 5:9 ESV)    Do those words describe your heart?    Certainly there are times when evil burns within, but as children of God those times eventually bring sadness & weeping rather than excitement & glee.   By the Holy Spirit’s power, children of God react differently to sin than demons do. 
As St. Paul wrote to the church at Rome: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?   By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?”  (6:1b-2 ESV)    Paul is saying that children of God do not live for sin as the demons do.  Yet, in the next chapter, he honestly admits that he still struggles in trying not to sin:
“I want to do what is good, but I don’t.   I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”  (7:19 NLT)   “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”  (7:21 ESV)    Demons do not struggle with sin in that way, even though they know who Jesus is, & what He has come to do. 
If you know who Jesus is, what else makes you different from the demons?     Children of God don’t just believe in Jesus, they actively seek to build their entire life upon Him.  Their relationship with Jesus is not just built upon an occasional prayer now & then.  Their relationship with Jesus is not only built upon Sunday morning church services. 
The demons have known from their creation that Jesus was the Son of God, but refused to build their existence upon Him as the foundation for life.   They rebelled against Him not as Savior, but as Lord.  They refused His lordship for all of eternity in one fell swoop.  In His death & resurrection, Jesus offered Himself as our Lord, but also as our Savior. 
Though we were born into sin & death, the Holy Spirit sent Jesus “to proclaim liberty to the captives… to set at liberty those who are oppressed,” as Jesus quoted from Isaiah.   You & I are among those captives.  We are among those oppressed by sin & death.  You experience those effects every day.  You know very well the suffering that goes on in this life.   Since you have heard the good news of liberty that Jesus proclaimed to the captives, life & death lie before you, literally.     Upon which foundation are you building? 
The point of today’s section of the Gospel of Luke is to lay the foundation of God’s kingdom – here on earth, & for eternity in heaven.   You know what that foundation is.  It’s the answer to every children’s message.   Jesus   is the cornerstone of the heavenly kingdom,   & He died for you out of love for you, so that you might join Him in paradise! 
In the reading from Luke this morning, Jesus rebuked the demon, “‘Be silent & come out of him!’  And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.”  (4:35 ESV)  Four verses later, Jesus, “…stood over [Simon’s mother-in-law] & rebuked the fever, & it left her, & immediately she rose & began to serve them.”  (4:39 ESV)
In V. 40, “…all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to [Jesus], & He laid His hands on every one of them & healed them.”  (4:40 ESV)    Jesus performs these miracles to reveal that paradise has already arrived in Him.   In His Son, God has already begun to fulfill His promise to bring His children into the ultimate Promised Land. 
But it’s obvious to everyone that sin is still rampant in our world.  Paradise has arrived but it is far from complete.  There are still an unending number of dangers threatening you every day.  That’s why, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus shares this, so that we stay alert:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, & cast out demons in your name, & do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”  (7:21-23 ESV)  
 
Frightening words to hear, but immediately Jesus goes on to explain the reality of life in this fallen world, which He has now invaded in order to bring paradise:
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine & does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, & the floods came, & the winds blew & beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.   And everyone who hears these words of mine & does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, & the floods came, & the winds blew & beat against that house,   & it fell,   & great was the fall of it.”  (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV) 
 
 Since you have heard the good news of liberty that Jesus proclaimed to the captives, life & death lie before you, literally.   Upon which foundation are you building?   Are you building your daily life upon the rock,    or upon sand?   So you know who Jesus is!   Even the demons know that.    Are you building your life upon Jesus? 
God knows it’s not easy!   His Son lived it out for you.  The great apostle Paul confessed, “…when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  …Wretched man that I am!   Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  (Romans 7:21, 24 ESV)   Jesus has rescued everyone & proclaimed that liberty to the captives – you & me. 
We have been set free, but if we use that freedom to build our lives upon sand Jesus told us what will come of it – great will be the fall!  Demon possession is only one nightmarish example.   Rather, Jesus has set us free   that you & I might build our house, our very lives, upon the Rock which is our Lord & Savior. 
When we do that it makes us different from the demons.   They knew who Jesus was & still chose to build their lives upon sand.  Eternity in hell will be the result come Judgment Day.  Though Satan & his demons still wage war against us, in the OT lesson, God promised Jeremiah: 
“They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.”  (1:19 ESV)    With Jesus, the end-time kingly reign of the holy God broke into human history ahead of the Last Day.  Jesus reveals that to us as He casts out demons, heals the sick, & preaches the good news of the kingdom. 
Now the Holy Spirit is working in us to build our lives upon the foundation of Jesus
Christ.  Through His word & sacraments, by faith, we enjoy the benefits of God’s victorious rule.  As we build our lives upon His foundation, we reveal to others with faith that our knowledge of Jesus as the Son of God is different from the knowledge of the demons.  Luke wrote his gospel in order to educate us about that difference.
One day Jesus will return in glory & remove far away from us Satan & sickness & death.  The promise is sure, because Jesus demonstrated by His miracles that our heavenly future has already begun.  Simply believing that is what makes us so different from the demons.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Praise the One who breaks the darkness with a liberating light; praise the One who frees the prisoners, turning blindness into sight, praise the One who preached the Gospel, healing every dread disease, calming storms, & feeding thousands with the very Bread of peace.    Let us praise the Word Incarnate, Christ, who suffered in our place.   Jesus died & rose victorious that we may know God by grace.   Let us sing for joy & gladness, seeing what our God has done; let us praise the true Redeemer, praise the One who makes us one.  Amen.  LSB 849:1, 3.