“I Watched Satan Fall!”

A sermon based upon Luke 10: 1-12; 17-20

By Rev. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

September 29, 2019

What does it mean to be a Christian?   More precisely, what does it mean to follow Jesus Christ?  It sounds like a simple question demanding just an easy answer. 

Well, part of the answer, if you’re asking, is that it’s not easy.  It can be easy to like Jesus or to appreciate that Jesus suffered and died a terrible death.  It can be easy to understand that Jesus came to be a savior for his people, was rejected by them and should be accepted by us, but to actually follow Jesus, to imitate Him, or to obey his commands? That’s certainly not as easy as some try to make it.

Consider how the last chapter concludes.  In Luke 9:57–62, as Jesus was walking along on the road, someone came up to Jesus all dreamy-eyed, treating Jesus like a movie star, saying:  “I will follow You wherever You go!”  Jesus told him, it’s not that easy: “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”  That’s hard, who could live like that?

Jesus then turned and called another person to “Follow me!”.  That person answered yes, “Lord, but first let I’ve got to bury my father.”  Jesus answered: “Let the dead bury their own dead?”  That sounds even harder to do.  Who could just walk away from a parent like that? 

Another person is invited and he says yes, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.” Jesus makes it even hard for him, “If you put your hand to the plow and then look back, you’re not fit for the kingdom…!”  Ouch!  Jesus even makes it sound cruel and mean.   It sounds like Jesus told his disciples elsewhere: “I assure you: It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven!  ….It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  The disciples couldn’t believe their ears. “Then who can be saved?” They asked in astonishment (Matthew 19:23–25, HCSB). 

Jesus certainly isn’t making it easy to grow a church, to gain recruits, or get results.   The army surely doesn’t make recruits this way.  All you’ve got to do is sign up.  They say, they’ll make it easy for you.   Of course, it’s not easy.  Basic training and military life can be hard.  It can get you killed too.  But they sure make it look easy.  You can be a hero too.  That’s what they tell you, but what don’t tell you, at least not up front, is that the truth.  At least Jesus tells the truth, but he’ll get a lot fewer recruits.  He says it will be hard…. Who wants hard?  We’d rather have “an easy button” like the commercial says.  But Jesus seems to make hard for us. 

I’M SENDING YOU OUT….AMONG WOLVES (v.3)

It even sounds like Jesus doesn’t want many people to follow him.  However, this isn’t what ‘hard’ is about.   “Hard” isn’t just about hard, but hard is about true.  “Hard” is about honest.  Hard is about real.  In the ancient world, and in our world too, this is how real, good, and smart works.  If you are trying to get a good job, you have to get prepared for a long application process.  If you want to go to a good college, you’d better get ready to ‘jump through a lot of hoops.  If you want become a professional or reach a certain level of credibility to have credentials, it will take some struggle, real sacrifice, and a lot of dedication.  It will pay off, and it can be worth it, but anything worth anything will also be hard.

In the ancient world, master teachers often screened very carefully their ‘would-be followers’.  A certain guru, a wise teacher lived up in the mountains in an isolated cabin.  A would-be disciple knocked on his door.  The wise man opens the door and asks: “What do you want?”  “I want to be your disciple.”  He slams the door in his face.  The person goes back a second day.  “I want to be your disciple.”  The wise man spits at him and closes the door.  The third day, “I want to be your disciple.”  And the wise man hits him with a stick and closes the door.  Finally, the wise man listens. “I want to be your disciple.”  “Now I know you are sincere; come in.”

It wasn’t just Jesus who did this, but other Rabbis did this, carefully screen their applicates, just like colleges and universities still do today.  There is an old story about a fellow who wanted to become a Monk.  He went to the Abbot, the head Monk, and explained how he wanted to become a Monk. 

“Well, it means seven years of living is silence, after which you get two word.”  

“Yes”. 

After seven years of total silence, the Abbot called him in and said, “You no can say two words. 

“Cold breakfast.” 

“Are you going to stay?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it means you will have to live seven more years in silence and then two words.”

Seven years passed in total silence.  The Abbot called him in,” You can now have your two words.”  He said,  “Hard bed.”

“Are you going to stay?”

“Yes.”

Seven more years, after which he called him in and said, “You now have two words.”

“I quit.” 

And the Abbot said, “Well, it’s just as well.  You’ve done nothing but complain the whole time you’ve been here.”

It could be easy for any of us to complain about being or becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, but Jesus tells us up front.  “It’s going to be hard!”  It’s rewarding.  It’s redeeming.  It can even be saving, but it’s going to get hard.  Like in our text today, Jesus told his disciples from day one.  “The harvest is abundant.”  But “the workers are few”.  “Now….I’m sending you out like lambs among wolves.”  It’s going to be hard, and it can be dangerous too.  Are you sure you want to do this?  Are you sure you a ready to do this?

Interestingly, there are a lot of people who answer the call, accept the mission, even when it seems impossible, or exactly because they love the Lord and they yearn for the challenge.  In fact, some people don’t like a ‘mealy mouthed, watered down, anybody can do it, there’s nothing to it, invitation.  Most young people finally get tired of ski trip after ski trip, vacation after vacation at the same place, doing the same thing.  Many people understand that the God of Heaven and Earth, would expect something from us, and from them, and that being Christian should cost something, if it is indeed, worth something.   “When Christ calls a person, he calls that person to come and die, not come and dine!”   “If anyone will come after me, let him take up his cross…  If you lose your life for my sake, you’ll find it.”  That’s how Jesus really put it.  It’s sounds hard, because it is hard.   It’s not easy to be Christian. 

There was a time when Jesus, the Jew became a Christian, when he left the carpenter shop opened the scroll and announced that he was called to preach good news.   If you understand the Bible correctly, you can also see that it took a long time for this Jewish understanding of God to become a Christian understanding of God.  That took a long-time-coming because it was also a ‘hard-time’ in coming.  It wasn’t easy for Israel to accept the Christian view of God, just like it’s not easy today for people to live and follow the Christian view of God.  It’s hard, but it’s not impossible.  “With God, all things are possible!”  Jesus said.  And here, in today’s text, Jesus is extending an invitation for his disciples to answer the gospel call, to accept the terms, and then to ‘go’ and something that can be hard; very hard.

THE KINGDOM…HAS COME NEAR

          If it’s that’s hard, why would anyone ever chance it, dare it, or accept it.  Why? Jesus accepted not just a baptism by water, but also a ‘baptism by fire’.    ‘You will be baptized with the baptism I’m being baptized with’, he informed his own disciples.   ‘A servant is no better than his master,’ he also reminded them.   But before all this was sealed, the devil gave Jesus several alternatives.  Remember how Luke tells it.   Jesus was in the desert with nothing to eat, and the devil said, “If you are God’s son, tell this stone to become bread.”   When that didn’t work,  the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world.  “I’ll give you…all this (worldly) authority.”  “Worship me, and it will all be yours.”  When that also didn’t work,  the devil came a third time, taking him to Jerusalem, standing on top of the temple, saying, ‘Throw yourself down, and the angels will protect you,’ you’ll not get hurt, not even stump your toe, that is, “If you are really God’s Son”, then you can prove it.  You can take another route.  You can do this another way.  You can push the ‘easy button’, if you are really are somebody; if you really are who you say you are.

Isn’t that still what the tempter whisper’s in ears of the human heart?   When those wealthy movie stars made money and though they were somebody, they heard that whisper in their ears, that they could have everything, and that their kids deserved to have the best too, so they thought they could manipulate, validate, and escalate the process of getting their own children in the most elite schools, skipping the whole process.  They thought what most people had to do the hard way, they could an easier way, because they were better, deserving, and able.  

In a similar way, there are many out there who think they can have their ‘cake’ and ‘eat it too’, because they can live as a Christian any way they want.   They can get Baptized the way they want to get baptized.  They can join the church or answer the call whenever or however they wish.   They can choose to be Christian they way they want to be a Christian, not necessarily the way the gospel and the master demands, but the way that they choose, wish, or want.   Once, a famous preacher was at a conference preaching from the New Testament book of James, where not only says, you have to be a ‘doer’ of the word and ‘not a hearer only’ and that your faith must be at work in how you live your live, not just how you believe in your heart.  He was specifically speaking from the text where it says that so much that is wrong in this world comes from wrongly place ‘desires’ (1:14) or wrongly motivated ‘passions’ (4:1).  In other words, James was explaining that we desire the wrong things when we want and ask for things, just so we have pleasure (James 4:3).  

The preacher went on to explain how in the ancient world, self-control, and constraint was one of the great virtues.  He added in his sermon, “Just because you can afford it, doesn’t mean you really can afford it.”  “Having money, the wherewithal, the skill or the freedom, is not a green light, to have anything and everything, as long as one hungry child is in the world.  You cannot afford spend all that extra on yourself when there are needs like this.  It might be OK in some kinds of churches, and in some kinds of Christianity, but it’s not something Jesus affords in the ‘way’ that started on a cross.  What kind of life where those movie stars really buying when they tried to pay their kids way, all the way?  What kind of Christianity are people buying, when they give, just as long as they get something in return?  What kind of life will you have, when you come to the end, and you stand before God, and he asked, “What did you do?”  “Well, I had a nice life.  We’ll I drove nice cars, had big house, took some nice trips, and of course, ‘we got to shop!” (Fred Craddock, Collected Sermons, p. 162).

The Christian invitation to life is to a life that is more than just ‘having’ and ‘getting’, because life must be more, if it is it is a life worth having lived.  Jesus is inviting, not just his disciples, but in Luke’s text particularly, Jesus is seeking to find more who will follow him and life for him in this way, because the message he’s preaching and the mission he’s sending to risk themselves for, is a life than can be lived by anyone, maybe even possibly by everyone.  For here, in Luke’s version of this story, we find that that seventy-two disciples were being called and sent out to preach and invite, because Luke implies this is message is intended for anyone. 

This isn’t just about preaching and missionaries, and it’s also not just about “God’s Kingdom” coming near, here, and now, for you; for us, in this world and for this world.  It’s not a message about us, but it’s a mission and a message for us, because it is about God’s way, God’s purposes, and God’s rule in this world.   We can’t have a full life without finding God’s purpose, and we can’t discover God’s purpose, until we meet head on the fact of human healing that is needed in our world, just like those disciples were called to face it head on in their world.  What you can’t honestly ignore about God’s message and mission, is that any kind of true church or kingdom work is directly related to answering human need, and living beyond our own wants, and living into  and for God’s greater purposes, demands, and responsibilities for our lives.

Wasn’t it because this message and mission was so urgent, that Jesus told his disciples, ‘Don’t take a money bag’, suit case, or even extra shoes with you with, and don’t even wave at anybody along the road.’   Jesus was trying to tell them, and us that this is God’s mission, that is not about what you have, but it’s about what they need, really need.   What is that?   Well, Jesus told them, “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘ Peace, Shalom to this household.’  ‘Eat and drink whatever they offer…  Don’t take advantage of people, but tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near.   If they don’t accept you or your message, go on to the next place.  Things are urgent.  Their needs are urgent.  Life is short.  The kingdom is near, right now, and it might not be so close to tomorrow. (Lk. 10:4-11 CSB17)

Now, of course, explaining what God’s kingdom means takes some translation today.  Not everyone is wanting God nor seeking God’s kingdom, which means having allow God’s truth to rule their lives.  Again, I told you about the fellow who went around, door to door, telling people, “You need to get ready for the judgement day!”  “Well, when is it?, one man asked.  “It could be today, and it might be tomorrow!”  “When you determine which day that is, you can come back and tell my wife, for she’ll surely want to be there both days.”   We certainly can’t go around talking about God like this, now can we?

REJOICE…YOUR NAMES ARE WRITTEN IN HEAVEN!

What we can go around talking about is not only a wish for ‘peace’, even having or making “Peace with God,” as Billy Graham, once put it.  For you see, the Word says that God has already made peace, and wishes us peace, so what is there left for us to hear or for us to do?

          Well, what is left is to ‘see’ what Jesus saw when he ‘watched Satan fall’ and to know what might mean you to learn to how to ‘rejoice because ‘your names are written in heaven.’   I realize it’s a rather strange way to end this conversation, but the truth that Jesus wants to disciples to learn, even by taking Christ’s message, and going out on God’s mission, is as much about what it will do for us, as it will do for them.

          I might as well tell you one more story Fred Craddock since his sermon inspired this one.  In his sermon, he told about an elderly lady who come up after the message and wanted to talk.  Like many people, she didn’t come up to talk because she wanted to ‘do something’ but she wanted to ‘talk about something’.  And what she wanted to talk about was about her, not about God.  

          She said, “I’m in the process of finishing our home, our retirement home.”

          And Pastor Craddock answered, “Yes?”

          “My husband and I have been planning this house for some time and it’s about finished.”

          “Where is it?”

          “It’s right on the edge of Pittsburg in the suburbs.”

          “Nice home, I take it?”  The pastor implied.

          “Yes, it’s costing about 1.4 million.”

          She went on to describe her retirement home.  Six bathrooms is what stuck out, but you can imagine what all went with that.  The pastor then asked, “How many people are going to live in your house?”

          “Well, it was to be for my husband and me, but he died last year.”

          “I’m sorry, and you are still going to live in that 1.4 million dollar house all by yourself?”

          She answered, “Well, my husband made a lot of money.”  I can still afford that house.

          But could she really afford it?  Could the needs of the world around us afford it?  Can the call, the mission, the message, and the meaning of the gospel that is for everyone afford it?   Jesus said, “Don’t even carry your wallet”  She’s still going to hold on to that house?  I guess, since the Kingdom is slow in coming, or since the Kingdom is already come and gone, she might as well get to stay in her house.

          It’s hard to hold on to everything be ‘on a mission from God!’ isn’t it?   When all those Americans came to visit and go on mission with us in Germany, they would always bring so much luggage.  They would end up carrying it around everywhere they went.  And they couldn’t go far.  People where watching everything they were carrying with them too.  The method did have an impact on their mission and their message too, but they still had to carry all that access luggage. 

          What they didn’t really get, and what’s hard for us all, which is part of what is still hard about the gospel, is the joy we find when finally discover that the trip was not about what we had, or what we took back with us, but what the great joy was that when we go and when we return, that we realize how the joy was who we got to know, what we did, what we saw, and what was changed in us.  You can’t put that put that in your suitcase and bring it back with you and put it on your desk, when you return from going on God’s mission, but you can carry it around with you in your heart for the rest of life.  And you can keep it with you, not because you remember it all, or you remember everyone you helped, but you know it because of you are different, and you know where your name shows up in everything that matters.  

When you have learned and you keep on living, based upon not just what, but who matters to God, Satan falls again, and you rejoice more and more, not because of what you got, but the fullest life is always about ‘who’ we are, and who we can still become.  Answering with ‘who’ needs ‘who’, is always what matters most to God.  Amen.