Delivered from the Hand of Our Enemies

The Gospel Reading from Luke 1 and the Song of Mary

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern, Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our readings tonight are taken from the gospel of Luke chapter 1. In those days, Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country, to a town in Judah.

She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant for behold from now on all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

And then Mary remained with her for about three months and returned to her home. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her.

And they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him Zechariah after his father. But his mother answered no, he shall be called John. And they said to her well none of your relatives is called by this name.

And they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote his name as John. And they all wondered and immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke blessing God.

And fear came on all their neighbors and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying what then will this child be for the hand of the Lord was with him.

And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and he prophesied saying blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people. And has raised up a horn of salvation for us.

In the house of his servant David. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old that we should be saved from our enemies. And from the hand of all who hate us. To show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.

The oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us. That we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear. In holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you oh child will be called the prophet of the most high for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.

To give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins. Because of the tender mercy of our God whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high. To give light to those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death.

To guide our feet into the way of peace. In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

The Christian Life as Warfare Against the World, Satan, and the Flesh

Have you noticed that being a Christian can be a dangerous and dicey thing? I say this because uh, we would be foolish to think that we do not have enemies. And when you list out our enemies, it's vital that you remember one very important enemy.

But let's take a look at the unholy trinity, shall we? The world. Yep, the world has it out for us. Have you noticed that in many places around the world that Christians are not permitted to publicly worship and praise Christ?

To speak the truth of the gospel to their neighbors to call them to repentance and faith in Jesus. In fact to quote Ahmed the dead terrorist, you do that. Many people will say I kill you, right? That's how that goes.

But then there's another enemy that we're all very familiar with and that is Satan himself. Satan and his demons. Yep, they have it out for us. And wherever a church exists, Satan and his hordes lay siege to that church.

And they send in people and operatives on the inside. They attack it from the outside. And the uh, let's just say the suffering and the persecution never seems to end. In fact, that's always how this works out.

But then we have this other enemy and here's the thing. That enemy isn't out there. It's not beyond behind a tree on the horizon. No, this the enemy is your own sinful flesh. Which wages war against the spirit, uh, the Holy Spirit within you and the new person that you are made in Christ.

In fact, Paul says that your old man wars against against the spirit in you so that you do not do the things that you want to do. Yeah, that war is real. And so you'll note we have enemies and we need to be very careful regarding our enemies, but I want you to consider this.

That you'll note then that all of these enemies seek to disrupt, seek to bring to an end. To somehow take away our ability to freely worship God in an unfettered manner. If Satan were bound completely and all of his hordes taken off of the earth and there were no satanic influences, the world would still be there.

To.

To keep you from worshiping Christ and speaking the truth. And if the world were bound up and all of a sudden decided that it was going to go the right direction, which I don't think, I don't think I can point to a time when that has happened in human history.

But, uh, if the world decided it was going to head in the right direction, alas, don't worry. Your sinful flesh is going to wage war in an even more aggressive manner to keep you.

From.

Hearing and believing the truth. To keep you from worshiping God in an unfettered manner. So you'll note the life of the Christian here on this planet under these circumstances, under the curse, the life of a Christian is one of warfare.

Religious Leaders, False Teachers, and the Need for Biblical Orthodoxy

In fact, Jesus even says to the religious leaders of his day, in chapter chapter 23 of Matthew, he calls down woes on them. Same in Luke 11. Listen, listen to what Jesus says about the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the people who, well, had kind of snuck in and taken over the synagogues.

Woe to you! You build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them and you build their tombs. Therefore, also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.

Yes, I tell you it will be required of this generation.

Oh, wow!

So you'll note that being a religious leader in the visible church, okay, is no guarantee that you're on Jesus's side. In fact, Satan's agents, they always masquerade as angels of light. They are wolves in sheep's clothing and the one thing they want to get rid of and, well, that is the gospel.

They want to get rid of it altogether and they are going to persecute and hound and drive out any who would stand for biblical orthodox truth and a true Christ-centered confession of faith. Oh, man, and believe me, your sinful nature will conspire with them because he doesn't want to hear that at all, your old Adam.

And so you'll note then this last midweek service in Advent, you'll note that I'm not going to be taking a look at the message of the Christmas angels when they shouted out and sang glory to God in the highest peace to his people on earth because the baby hasn't been born yet.

It's just a little bit early. So we have to deal with the fact that we're still in a penitential season. And so I'm going to call an audible. I can do that as a pastor because there's no assigned readings for midweek services, but I'm going to call an audible because I said I was going to be doing a sermon series on the Christmas angels.

But the Greek word for angel is angelos. And I would note that that doesn't necessarily mean a heavenly being. An angelos can also be a messenger. When Jesus has the apostle John writing letters to the seven churches, right?

To the angel of the church of Smyrna, right? To the angel of the church of Ephesus, right? God, Jesus isn't having John write to to angelic beings of the spiritual world. He's having him write to pastors.

Mary and Zechariah as Messengers Filled with the Holy Spirit

And so you'll note that in our final look at the Christmas angels, we have two messengers to consider. One is none other than the Virgin Mary. And the second is Zechariah. And listen to what they are saying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Both of them are uttering things given to them by God, the Holy Spirit, that were so important that they were set to memory. They were written down for us. And when Luke consulted the eyewitnesses, the eyewitness who gave him this information, and it could only have been Mary herself, that she had put this so deep in her memory that she would never forget it so that we can continue to hear it.

So we consider then when Mary shows up to help her cousin Elizabeth, who's six months pregnant, and she's an old lady. Okay, old ladies need help, period. Pregnant old ladies, doubly so. I would note that probably being pregnant in your old age cannot possibly be an easy thing.

I remember when my wife was pregnant with our three kids, she was in her 20s. And each and every time afterwards, I thought, oh my goodness, that was the most horrible thing ever. I can't believe we decided to do this three times, right?

But alas, you know, it wasn't even easy for a woman in her 20s. Can you imagine a woman well past the age of bearing children? So Mary shows up, and just like the angel promised Zechariah when the angel appeared to him in the temple while he was offering up the incense offering at the time of prayer, that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb.

Apparently, the Holy Spirit can spill over because now his mother, Elizabeth, as soon as she comes in contact, she herself is filled with the Holy Spirit and gives a message. And we hear then she says these important words.

In fact, you can almost say Elizabeth is another one of these messengers. Filled with the Holy Spirit, she exclaims, blessed are you among women. Blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

The Incarnation, Mary the Theotokos, and the Hypostatic Union

Now, here's where we have to do a little bit of theology, and it gets a little bit uncomfortable. But alas, we've got to do this, and we've got to do it right. We've got to rightly divide the word of truth.

For a Jewish woman to say the mother of my Lord, you see, Jesus is both God and man. He's not two people. He's one who comes together in one hypostasis. He is the God man. He has a divine nature and a human nature.

And just like we have a body and a soul that come together that makes the one person that you are, the one person that I am. So the two natures of Christ, his divine nature, second person of the Holy Trinity, and his human nature come together to create the one person, Jesus Christ.

And he is both God and man. And here Elizabeth shouts out that Mary is the mother of her Lord. Let me put it another way. Mary is the mother of God. Now, those are words that make everyone go... Are you Roman Catholic?

No. No, we're not. But here's the thing. By virtue of the fact of the incarnation, and God and man, divine nature and human nature coming together to make Christ, you can say things about God that you couldn't say before he was incarnate.

God now becomes hungry. God has a mommy. God can die. That's all part of the mystery of the incarnation. So note this. It is heresy. And the church has always recognized this. It is heresy. It's called the Nestorian heresy.

When you take the two natures of Christ, and you do not bring them together in one person, the Nestorian heresy would basically take the human nature and the divine nature and basically apply glue to one side and then smash them together.

And so you've got plywood. No, no, that's not how the incarnation works. And that's not how the hypostatic union works. So it is absolutely true that Jesus is Elizabeth's... Well, how do I put... The mother of Elizabeth's Lord.

And as a Jewish woman, that can only mean one thing, God. Yep. Same, same. And so we can literally, legitimately, as the church has always confessed, we can say that Mary is the Theotokos, that she's the mother of God.

But when you say that and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. And here's the thing, that same blessing comes to us because all who believe that Jesus Christ has bled and died for their sins.

Those people are also blessed because God has fulfilled what he has spoken through the prophets, through Elizabeth, through Mary and others, that he has sent us a savior. And that's what you need. That's what I need.

Mary's Magnificat, Human Pride, and God's Mercy for the Lowly

We don't need, by the way. You'll notice that Jesus wasn't any good at those TED Talks. Okay. Jesus isn't a motivational speaker. In fact, if Jesus were alive today, most people would say, what on earth is this man getting on about?

Because what was he talking about, talking in these parables like that? That doesn't make a good TED Talk. Come on, Jesus. Don't you understand? We want wisdom. We want the wisdom of the world. We want to learn how to make our lives better.

We want some kind of a moment that basically feels like our brain has been expanded. Jesus comes along and he says things like, well, the kingdom of heaven, it's like a sower who went out to sow seed.

And he's through it everywhere. Some on the path, some on the rocky soil, some on the weedy soil, some in the middle of good soil. And people sit there and go, say what? In fact, you'll note that the vision casting leaders in the mega churches, they claim that the reason why Jesus was talking in parables is because he was the greatest communicator ever.

And the thing is, is that they've never read the biblical text clearly because it said that Jesus said these things so that they wouldn't understand. What good is that? Well, that's to fulfill the prophecy.

Ever hearing, never perceiving, always seeing, but not understanding. Yeah. Huh? We need a TED Talk, Jesus. Well, that's not why he's here. Right? But then Mary, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, then she gives us a message and listen carefully to it because she's going to talk about humbleness and poverty.

And here, you're going to note that this is a woman who knows poverty. Again, I would remind you, after Christ is born and he's presented in the temple, Mary and Joseph couldn't even afford the proper sacrifice.

They went with the poverty one because they know a thing or two about poverty. And here's the thing, poverty is a result of the fall. And you'll note, it is absolutely true that there are many people who make a lot of money exploiting and manipulating the system in order to take advantage of others and to oppress them so that they are rich off the backs of the poor.

That's always how it happens. Okay? And that's happening to this day. If you think that that's not active in the world today, get your head out of the sand. Many people who are wealthy, they haven't gotten their wealth in upright, positive, moral ways.

Oftentimes, they've gotten wealthy by cutting corners and doing shoddy work or taking advantage of others. Keep that in mind. So Mary now, one of our Christmas angels, she's a messenger. Listen to what she says.

My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit, it rejoices in God, my savior. Ooh, look at that. Mary needs a savior. Alas, there goes the immaculate conception out the window, right? Mary was a sinner like you and like me, and she is rejoicing in God, her savior.

For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, now all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And you're going to note here that Mary is the exact opposite of Kim Kardashian.

All right? She is the polar opposite of any Hollywood starlet or any beautiful influencer on Instagram. She's nothing like that at all. In fact, if you were to take photographs of her at this time and post them on Instagram, she would look like any other poverty stricken girl living in tough, mean circumstances.

And by the world's standards, listen to me when I say this, by the world's standards, Mary is nothing. Have you noticed that we human beings, because of sin, we look at somebody's financial situation and we determine somebody's worth based upon how much money they bring in.

And if they're not bringing home the bacon, they ain't worth nothing. How many marriages have ended in divorce because, well, one of the, one of the members of the marriage became, well, dissatisfied with having to scrape out a living, having to work hard, not having a large savings account and things like this.

And so they've left for greener pastures. You see, by the world's standard, Mary doesn't fit any of this. But note here, God doesn't look for Kim Kardashian. Who is it that now is the one who's going to carry Christ in her womb?

A humble, poor, lowly girl from nowhere. He is, he who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. Listen to the words of Mary.

That's right. God's mercy is for all who fear him. It doesn't matter what generation you live in. I know we're 20 centuries on, almost 2000 years since Christ walked the earth and we're getting ready.

We're just, we're within reach of the 2000th anniversary of his crucifixion. It's close. It's nearby. But note here, God's mercy is for us as much as it was for her, as much as it was for every generation of humanity.

And it is only for those who fear him. God has shown strength with his arm. And note then that God, by doing what he has done, choosing to do what he has done, he has scattered the proud and the imaginations of their hearts.

And isn't that always how the proud are? The imaginations, the thoughts of their hearts are never in line with God and never in line with the truth, never in line with what is good, right and holy. And so God comes and he just completely shatters all of this.

Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians that the wisdom of God was to show the foolishness of the wisdom of the world. Because in God's wisdom, he didn't choose what was wise in the eyes of the world. He chose what is lowly, poor and despised to shame the wisdom of the wise.

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones. He's exalted those of humble estate. He's filled the hungry with good things. But the rich, he sent empty away. He has helped to serve in Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

Zechariah’s Prophecy, Salvation from Enemies, and Forgiveness of Sins

What a great message that Mary has brought to us. She also is one of the Christmas angels, messengers. But Zechariah also, remember a few weeks ago, we talked about Zechariah and Zechariah's, well, struggle that he had in believing the words of the angel.

And as a result of it, he lost his voice for a little bit. And then when the son was born, he finally did exactly what the angel commanded. And you'll note that once his tongue was loosed, when he said his name is John, then by the power of the Holy Spirit, he too now gives us an important message.

And here's where we got to pay attention because this message really is sharp, sharp against our enemies. And remember, we have three, Satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh. Here's what Zechariah says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.

And here's the thing, we in the 21st century have a hard time kind of grasping just how weighty those words are. God himself has visited and redeemed his people. It's a big deal. If you want to kind of get a glimpse of how powerful this is, you can kind of get at it via analogy.

If you've read the chronicles of Narnia, right? It's always a big deal in Narnia when Aslan shows up and Aslan visits and Aslan redeems and Aslan conquers and Aslan is up to something, right? And always, and again, in Narnia, when Aslan is on the move, that's the words that they use, he's on the move.

Aslan really, and when Aslan shows up, you know, people will say, what's he like? What's he like? Because we haven't, we've never seen him, but we've only heard. But here's the deal. God himself, he has tabernacled among us.

God himself has taken on human flesh. He has visited earth. He was one of us. He has redeemed us, his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant, David. In fact, Jesus is going to reign on the throne of David forever.

Just as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. This sounds good. I like this idea of being saved. Not only that, note here, salvation, we are saved from the wrath of God.

But note, another theme of salvation is being saved from our enemies, being saved from Satan, being saved from the world, being saved from our own sinful flesh and the hand of all who hate us. Finally, being able to worship God unfettered by any of our enemies, to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear.

What a great idea. Could you imagine, even for a minute, being able to worship God without any fear at all? No fear of reprisal, no fear of persecution, no fear of suffering, no fear of being canceled, no fear of your own sinful flesh going, what are you doing?

But truly being able to serve God without fetter, without fear, without enemy. That's a promise that we have, and it will come to pass. In his holiness and righteousness before him, all of our days, we might serve him without fear.

And you child, John, you will be called the prophet of the most high, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.

Oh, it's right there, even before the birth of Christ. Ah, the message of John the Baptist, giving knowledge of salvation. How? There's only one way to be saved, brothers and sisters, that's in Jesus Christ.

And you must be forgiven. If you are not forgiven, you have no share in Christ's kingdom. If you think you do not need to be forgiven of anything, you are woefully delusional. It says in scripture, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have no sin, we make God out to be a liar. And so note here, there is salvation only through Jesus Christ, the one who humbled himself, was born of the virgin, lived in abject poverty, in a zip code that was so poor that, I mean, it makes today's projects in the United States seem like luxury living, right?

This Jesus, he humbled himself and was obedient all the way to death on a cross and he was obedient for you, keeping God's law perfectly so that he can be your spotless Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sin of the world and he does this.

He carries your sin to the cross and he suffers the wrath of God in your place on a Friday morning on into the afternoon in the early evening, all so that you can be forgiven. In him, there is rich and plentiful forgiveness.

Repent, trust in this one whom God has sent, this one who was well declared by angels from heaven, declared by angels on earth, Elizabeth, Mary, and Zechariah. And note here in John the Baptist, true salvation is only in the forgiveness of our sins and because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high.

What a beautiful picture. Note the reason why God has sent his son is because of God's great tender mercy. God takes no joy when a sinner perishes. There's nothing to be joyful about. There's joy among the angels when one sinner repents.

So note God in his tender mercy has sent Christ to save us, to deliver us from all of our enemies, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet ultimately in the way of peace.

You'll note that there is no real peace here on planet earth. Even when there is no war going on, there still is conflict. And all of this because of our fall into sin. So brothers and sisters, let us, this last midweek service in Advent, consider these messages, messages, messages, messages from these angels.

And let us again recognize that we do have great enemies. And one of them is within us. That's our old sinful Adam. And let us pray that God would grant us true peace and that he would give us true deliverance from all of our enemies, Satan, the world, and our sinful flesh, so that we may finally on that great day when we see him face to face, worship him without fear, without enemies, without conflict, without persecution, without being canceled.

In the name of Jesus, amen. If you would like to support the.

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