The Lutheran Hour
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"Surrounded"
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Text: Ephesians 6:12-13
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! On this Lord’s day, when we stand surrounded by enemies bent on our eternal and everlasting destruction, we rejoice in this victory proclamation of the angels. This day of resurrection remembrance, we proclaim Him who is engaged and conquered all sin, all devils and death itself. In the name of Jesus, I bring you greetings.
It was quiet in the Ardennes on Sunday, December 16, 1944. People were preparing for their first, free Christmas since the Nazis had been run out. It was then, hundreds of German artillery pieces, deploying an unprecedented destructive power, opened up on the American positions. Two hundred fifty thousand German soldiers marched in; a thousand tanks rolled in. Their goal: to take Bastogne, and then, if their luck held, reclaim Europe. By December 20, American troops, under the command of General A.C. McAuliffe, were surrounded. On the 22nd the Germans called for his surrender. History records his monosyllabic reply: “Nuts.”
But history almost ignored the words of a young soldier from the South. He was also in Bastogne. Being a relatively new replacement, you might expect him to be shaking in his boots. He wasn’t. He seemed so calm that one of his comrades, as they sat together before an open breakfast fire, asked him a question. For purposes of broadcasting, I have cleaned up the military language a bit. The conversation went something like, ‘You do know the Krauts have us completely surrounded, don’t you?’ “Eyuup. Them poor dirty dogs.” “What do you mean them poor dirty dogs? We’re the ones surrounded.” “Eyuup, but if’n I un’erstand cirrectly, this is the fust time in this war we kin ‘tack the enemy in any which way we wan’.” I like the lilt of his language. I like his style.
This week we remember the deaths of thousands of our brothers and sisters who died in the World Trade Center massacre. We recall our friends and family members who died in the Pentagon slaughter. We think upon the “Let’s Roll” crew who went down in Pennsylvania. We think upon young men and women whose lives and families have been interrupted as they have been deployed around the world in an attempt to terminate terrorism. They, with countless others, spend their hours searching and preventing the next assault. They will tell you, “We are surrounded. We can attack the enemy in just about any direction.” But the question needs to be asked, ‘Who is this enemy that surrounds us?’
Some of my listeners would contend the “enemy” consists of a few fanatics who smile at a stewardess one moment and slit her throat the next. Some of you will say the enemy is Islamic fundamentalists who feel their cause so right that they are justified, no, obligated, to snuff out the life and opinion of anyone who disagrees. As Christ’s people, redeemed by the Prince of Peace, we are astonished at anyone whose only remorse in butchery is that more lives can’t be terminated. Those who are guilty of such atrocities are appalling, but we dare not think they are the enemy that surrounds us.
Today we can attack the enemy in any direction. But who is the enemy? Tens of thousands of you today have to watch your spending more closely than you have in the past. Once financially secure you have seen, without having written a single check or spent a single dollar, your funds of self-sufficiency evaporate. There are others of you who have watched in wonderment as your career has gone from being secure to uncertain to non-existent. Others spend each day waiting to see if they are to report for work next week. You must be convinced that the enemy is made up of greedy and grasping CEO’s in our own nations’ biggest businesses. You must think the enemy is accounting companies with accountants that can’t count. Unprincipled and unrestrained, with inflated lies and false reports, they have raped the retirement of investors, stolen security from seniors and staff, sent the market meandering and built magnificent mansions upon the mausoleums of people’s trust. Their greed has crippled this country’s confidence, retarded fiscal recovery and dimmed the lights on tomorrow’s hope. Make no mistake about it. These are scoundrels and scalawags. But they are not the enemy that surrounds us.
Today we can attack the enemy in just about any direction. But who is the enemy? It is the same enemy that has planted hatred in the heart of his low-level lackey, Bin Laden. It is the same enemy that has created a cancer of conscience for businessmen and grafted greed into the place where their hearts should be. We can attack the enemy in any direction. Who is this enemy?
Centuries ago, Paul identified him to the Christians of Ephesus. They, too, had been surrounded. Followers of the deceptive deity, Diana, had begun to persecute them. So Christ’s followers might see the real enemy was far more than a man-made silver or gold statue, Paul, by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, wrote: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” That was their enemy. It is ours, as well.
The Ephesians encountered the same enemy that had been there when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. It was the same enemy that tried to surround and destroy the Savior at His Bethlehem birth. It is the same enemy that had lyingly tried to use Scripture to divert Jesus from His mission of salvation and divest Him of His Godhead on the Mount of Temptation. It is the same enemy that stripped Him of His friends in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is the enemy that accused Jesus with the Jew’s own self-righteous, religious leaders, denied Him a fair trial by His government and had the very people He had come to save screaming out for His crucifixion. This same enemy was there when Jesus, carrying our sins, was nailed to a cross.
Yet, contrary to all expectations on that dark day, the enemy, not Christ, was defeated. Having carried and atoned for our sins, Jesus, with His last breath, cries out, “It is finished.” This is not the cry of a victim. This is the shout of a victor. Those words sent Satan and his squadron of damned souls scurrying. Three days later, the angel’s announcement that “Jesus had risen” showed the world what the enemy already knew: Christ, for once, for all, had conquered the enemy. Although battles would be fought in the future, in each of our lives, the war had been won on the cruel cross of Calvary.
Because this is so, and it is so, countless Christians in subsequent centuries have been handed hope, been given grace, and been bolstered in body and soul. Because this is so, and it is so, God has repeatedly won the day in the lives of His people.
In the early months of the church, when unbelieving priests imprisoned Peter and the other apostles, the Angel of the Lord came to them in jail, freed them, and said, ‘Get to witnessing, boys.’ “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.” Christ conquered spiritual wickedness in high places.
Of course, you might think that was then. This is now. We live in the technological age. Such superstitions have no place in the modern mind. To that I can only say the tumbled twin towers of trade have confirmed it; the enemy has surrounded us. The Pentagon’s devastation has verified it; the greatest armies, the fastest planes, the largest Navy, the mightiest missiles cannot provide our populace permanent protection and peace against this enemy. Although our national forces might be invincible when sent against any earthly foe, they are ill equipped to wage a successful skirmish against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. To fight against this enemy, we need the Savior. The pilgrims of Plymouth Rock recognized that need. When supply ships from England had failed them and they were faced with drought and starvation, in a day of worship and prayer, they asked God to engage the enemy on their behalf. God heard them, sent rain, vanquished starvation, and saved the day.
Three decades before the Revolutionary War when the French built an Armada to ravage New England, the churches of New England recognized they were helpless. In a day of prayer they asked God to engage the enemy on their behalf. As they prayed the Lord heard them, sent a storm, destroyed the ships and saved the day.
In 1863, during the dark days of the Civil War, President Lincoln called a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. This, in part, is what he said. “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, who owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by a history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has grown, but we have forgotten God.” Lincoln called upon God to engage the enemy and the Union was preserved.
The Bible declares it. History verifies it. When a nation or an individual is surrounded by the enemy, the only hope is to call upon the Triune God and ask Him to confront the enemy and battle on our behalf. Last year you saw the hatred of the enemy. He snuffed out thousands of lives in New York and Washington. This year you have seen the insidious intent of the enemy as young people around the world strapped themselves to bombs with the goal of blowing up total strangers. This year you have seen the perversion of the enemy as one child after another has been abducted and murdered. This year the enemy has given our children nightmares and left you painfully pondering future prospects. You have seen the enemy that surrounds us. Now, see the Christ, the Commander that delivers us.
See Him, who with a perfect life, conquered sin. See Him, who with His faithfulness rebuffed every skirmish, every advancement the enemy made upon Him. See Him who died upon the cross and fought for us against the principalities and powers of darkness. See Him. He has fought and He has won for you the ultimate victory. No longer can sin condemn you. No longer can Satan claim you. No longer because of Jesus is the ultimate end of your life’s final battle in doubt. See Him. Jesus makes you free to live with Him in joy. See Him. Jesus makes you able to smile again. See Him and know because of Him, the principalities, the powers of darkness, are defeated.
Dear listeners, do not shut your eyes–not for another day or another moment. See Him and believe in Him. See Him and realize from the moment He takes command of your heart you need never fear no matter what catastrophe and calamity is visited upon the world. See Him and join your voice with that of the apostle Paul who wrote: “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Join with Paul who was glad to proclaim, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).
Do you hear that? Those words were spoken by the same Paul who had been shipwrecked, stoned, beaten and jailed. In spite of all that, he could write: “Nothing can separate us from God’s love; not principalities; not powers; not rulers of darkness; not the spiritually wicked. By Jesus’ blood, by the Spirit’s power, in the Father’s grace, we stand unseparated from the love of the Lord. To Christians wherever they may be, to different races and languages, to the young whose years have not yet earned the badge of bifocals or been graced with gray hair and beard, we say ‘see Jesus’ and then enlist in the cause of the Conqueror as He battles against the cause of darkness. To brothers and sisters in persecution, we say, ‘see Him.’ Your names may be unknown to us, but the Lord knows you, stands by you, and will take you through these battles and eventually accord you the final victory.
And to the special listeners who have not yet seen the Savior; to those who wake up each day and find themselves in the cold grip of a tentative tomorrow and cannot escape what appears to be a fearful future, God invites you to follow His Son, Jesus. See Him. He is not a General who sits in safety behind the back lines. See Him. This is not a General who gives orders without any personal commitment. See this General who loves you so much He was willing to give His life so you might be victorious. See Him. The newspapers, radio and television tell you to look at this crime, this act of hatred, this terrorist triumph created by the enemy. In contrast, Scripture says to see Jesus. Turn your eyes from the world’s evil and see Jesus stomp on sin, defeat death, and subdue Satan. He has won in the past. He wishes to win again, right now, in your life. If you want to see Him more clearly, listen to my friends at Lutheran Hour. They want nothing other than the opportunity to help you see the Savior. Before the end of the program contact them on the number they will provide.
Today, we are surrounded by the enemy. That can be scary. It is scary if you don’t know Jesus. If you know the Savior, you can say like the southern boy in Bastogne said, “Eyuup, I feel sorry for him.” You feel sorry because it means you are no longer at the enemy’s mercy. You are on the attack wherever he is. No matter from what direction he comes at you, you can attack those principalities, those powers of darkness, those rulers. They’ve lost, and in Jesus, we’ve won. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for September 8, 2002
ANNOUNCER: Pastor Ken Klaus is with us in the studio. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor Klaus, a listener asks, “Why should I go to church when I can be a Christian, by myself, at home?” Can she really do that?
KLAUS: That’s a question many Christians ask at one time or another. It deserves an answer. First, let’s say up front that you don’t have to go to church to be saved. The Bible says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). It doesn’t say, “Whoever believes, is baptized, and goes to church will be in heaven.”
ANNOUNCER: So, do we even agree with the premise of our listener’s question?
KLAUS: That’s another matter. Let me answer it this way. If someone fed you when you were starving and that same person gave you a retirement home, free and clear, and that same person was there every time you had a problem and saved your family from a burning building at the cost of his own physical well-being, would you be forced to say ‘thank you’ to that individual? Jesus did all that, and so much more. He took away our sins. He gives us answers to the deep questions of life and has given us a home in heaven. He did all of this at the cost of His own life. Nobody should be forced to say, “Thank you” for all of those things. It should come naturally. Part of that thankful spirit is expressed in regular corporate worship.
ANNOUNCER: But couldn’t she do that at home by herself?
KLAUS: Certainly she could. But the truth is, most people don’t. Nor do they do the other things the Lord asks His thankful, faithful people to do.
ANNOUNCER: What kinds of things?
KLAUS: Well, a couple of examples come to mind. First, when Jesus ascended into heaven, He said, “Go, teach, preach, and baptize.” Foreign missionary work doesn’t usually happen at home. That’s something that calls for a body of believers. Here’s another one. In the book of Hebrews we are told, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another” (Hebrews 10: 25). Maybe that’s why, when the Bible was describing the early church it said, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
ANNOUNCER: You mentioned “the breaking of bread.” That’s another thing Christians can’t do by themselves at home.
KLAUS: Yes. In His last meal with His disciples, Jesus instituted the Sacrament when He said, “Take and eat. Take and drink. This is My body and blood given for you.” You’re right, that doesn’t happen at home. It’s a gift that Christ shares with His Church. Even when the pastor brings the Sacrament to those who can’t leave home, he does this as an extension of the congregation.
ANNOUNCER: That would lead us to believe that Christianity is not a solitary pursuit.
KLAUS: Exactly. 1 John 1:3 says that Christianity is designed to stop loneliness and promote fellowship with God and with each other. What does that passage say? “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.”
ANNOUNCER: So we don’t go to church just for ourselves?
KLAUS: You’ve got it, Mark. St. Paul, when he was talking about gifts that God has given to us, assumed those gifts would be used to glorify Jesus and to benefit each other. There is very little “me” or “I” in his thinking. This is what he said in 1 Corinthians: “But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so there should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. The next Lutheran Hour message is titled, “A Foolish Moment.”