Oculi - Third Sunday in Lent
Hymns: 262, 261, 370, 428
Luke 11:14-28 —
“Undoubtedly then Has Come upon You-all the Kingdom of God”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Gospel reading for this Sunday of Oculi is Luke 11:14-28:
And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Introduction
Oculi, “Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord.” If only we would learn the meaning of this declaration from the Psalms. How often we imagine repentance to be about looking to ourselves and our actions and failures and our need to change our ways. But on this day of Oculi, we learn that true repentance is hearing the call of the Lord to have our hearts and ears and eyes turned toward Him and His gracious and loving countenance. When God works this for us, we behold the greatest of the signs and wonders. When the Lord comes through the power of the Gospel so as to overthrow the devil and to take back from that wicked one those whom he has enslaved through deception and ungodliness, then we see that undoubtedly has come upon us the kingdom of God.
I. Undoubtedly then Has Come upon You-all the Kingdom of God
And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
This is astounding! Jesus rescued a man from the power of the devil, casting out a demon that stole away from the man his power of speech, and the people were bewildered and some even began to accuse Jesus of casting out devils by the power of the devil. Some others began to demand of Jesus a sign from heaven. What an asinine response! What greater sign from heaven could one provide than to cast out demons? To this asininity the Lord Jesus presented the clear reasoning of the facts and concluded, saying, “undoubtedly then has come upon you-all the kingdom of God!”
How does this fit together in this account provided by St. Luke? From the very beginning of the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit has recorded for us, we learn that God created the cosmos for a place in which to place the ones whom He created in His own likeness and image. Those who were created in the image of God were deceived and led out of the way of God, becoming separated by the devil from God’s holiness and everlasting life. But God came to those who fell into the darkness of death and restored them with the promise of the one who would be born of woman and would conquer the head of the serpent, that is, Satan.
Those who observed the miracle of this exorcism that the Lord Jesus performed were well acquainted with this promise recorded by Moses. Yet they were entirely blinded to the fact that Jesus was the promised one of whom Moses wrote. They observed what can only be done by the power of God’s Word, and deliberately ignored what stands written, and chose instead to accuse Jesus of working in Beelzebub, that is, in the name and power of Beelzebub, a name of a god of the Ekronites, a name that had come to be used for the devil.
Why would anyone do this? Blind ignorance is at least one reason. When people do not know how to explain with certainty what they do not understand, they make up answers for themselves. Many Christians have done similarly with many issues, including this one. When religious assumptions are made based upon what one has been taught or based upon preconceived notions, when these presumptions are challenged, people jump to the conclusion that this is from the devil. Even when something good is done, even when miracles are performed, it is counted as of the devil. Sometimes this can come from partially correct presumptions. For example, when Moses performed the miracles before Pharaoh, the Egyptian sorcerers imitated these miracles. Many such imitations have been made throughout history. Thus when people see a miracle performed, they sometimes presume that it is an imitation.
But in this case, there was no question regarding the genuineness of the miracle. Everyone knew this man had been made dumb through being demonized. When Jesus cast out the demon, everyone knew that the demon had departed and that the man became able to speak. But they were unwilling to receive Jesus for who He is. After all, this would leave them having to admit all that Jesus had said concerning them and their hypocrisy and their need to be changed in thought, word, and deed. This they would not allow. Thus, they turned to seeking some way of discrediting Jesus. They accused Him of working in the power of Beelzebub.
But by this, their hypocrisy was manifested. Jesus pointed this out in an undeniable manner. He first demonstrated the ludicrousness of the idea that the devil would work against himself. Then, he put their false accusation back upon them, saying, “And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges.” How could they answer this?
Then Jesus brought forth the real substance of the matter, saying, “But if in finger of God I cast out the demons, undoubtedly then has come upon you-all the kingdom of God!”
What is Jesus saying by this? What really is the heart of this issue? Is seems that Jesus is making a distinction between Himself and all others. While through Moses, Elijah, and the other prophets the kingdom of God certainly was preached and the kingdom of God most certainly did come upon the people, in the person of Jesus something more was transpiring. The Lord Jesus expounds this understanding in what follows.
II. But When the Stronger than He Having Come Should Conquer Him
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
The Lord Jesus holds before us two strong ones. Sadly, our translations commonly insert a man into this, but the Lord Jesus simply says “the strong” and “the stronger.” This can be understood two ways. First is the person who tabernacles in the body that was given at conception. This one is at peace until a demon comes and overpowers that person, dividing the spoils amongst the legions of the devil. The person who was trusting in the strength of his own emotional and mental and physical and spiritual strength is stripped of all of his weaponry and his body becomes the possession of the demon and becomes part of the devil’s kingdom.
But the second and more important understanding is that the devil is the strong one who has taken possession of the world by his own powers of deception and spiritual powers as well as even powers over elements of the cosmos. This strong one rules and all that he has conquered remains in peace or stillness like buried treasure until the stronger one comes and conquers him. That stronger one is the Woman’s Seed, who has come from heaven so that indeed the Kingdom of God has come upon the world. The promise of the coming of the kingdom of God is the promise of the coming of Jesus through the ordained means. He was born of the virgin and carried out His ministry among the Jews. He continues to come through the preaching of the Word and through the Sacraments. Wherever Jesus is present through these means of grace, the kingdom of God comes. This is what He teaches us to pray in the Our Father.
Through the means of grace Jesus comes and drives out the demons. The demons cannot remain where Jesus rules. The devil flees from the presence of Jesus. Where Jesus is the kingdom of God has come. The stronger one comes and drives out the strong one. Possession of the tabernacle is restored to the owners, that is, the Holy Trinity and the person for whom the tabernacle was created.
III. He Not Being with Me Against Me Is
Thus the Lord Jesus continues expounding, saying, “He not being with Me against Me is, and he not synagoging with Me scatters.”
This is why we are told that “also we should consider one another into incitement of agape and good works, not forsaking the synagoging ourselves.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
If we are not being with Jesus we are against Him and if we are not synagoging or congregating with Him we scatter and do not continue being with Him. This is why the existence of more and more divisions are being observed within those claiming to be in Christ. People continue to trust in their own armor rather than the armor of God, that is, Christ. Many still gather together, but not with Jesus, but into gatherings of their own making. The synagogues of Jesus are those that are gathered into the unadulterated administration of the means of grace. Whenever anything else is mingled with the means of grace so that the means of grace themselves are compromised and diminished, this is no longer a gathering into the name of Jesus and He is not present with them. Rather than gathering with Jesus they scatter. Rather than being with Jesus in the one true body of Christ, they divide into many bodies saying “Here is Christ” and “There He is.” (Matthew 24:23)
The Lord Jesus tells us who is really gathering those who gather in this way. He says:
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
This is not the way for those in whom Jesus has poured His Spirit and in whom Jesus continues to live and rule and work His gracious promises, gathering them into His name to receive His pure and holy means of grace. These true saints recognize one another and gather to one another. How do they know one another? They know one another in accord with that to which they gather or congregate. As St. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 11, the men examine their households to be certain that they all are aware of their need to receive Jesus and then they carefully discern the body of the Lord to be certain that they and those entrusted to them are being gathered into a congregation that is truly administering the bread and the wine in accord with the command and promises of Jesus. They mark and avoid those that cause doctrinal divisions and flee to those tiny congregations that the Holy Spirit gathers into the name of Jesus.
Those who refuse to heed the warnings of the Holy Spirit are like those to whom the devils return, being worse off than at first, for now they gather to the deception of their own armor and their own gatherings, which only pretend to be gathering with Jesus. And so no warnings no matter how strong or how powerful even phase them. They continue in their false sense of security, counting fellowship and friendship and tolerance as equal to and even superior to communion and purity and remission of sins. Luke records this with the example of the woman at the end of today’s text:
And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
How often congregations and church bodies have born the Lord Jesus to the world only to forsake the Word of God in the end. Many mothers and fathers and families have followed this same sad path of beginning with the Lord and ending against Him. But the Lord Jesus holds before us the blessed state of those who keep or guard the Word of God so that they continue being with Jesus, gathered with Him not by mere tradition and outward appearance, but truly united with Him in His body through the means of grace that He has ordained. This is the promise that cannot fail. This is the promise to which we cling.
Conclusion
Truly the gracious will of God is held before us this day that we hear and have our eyes ever toward the Lord. When we honestly examine ourselves we find only despair. When we hear the calling of the Lord our eyes and ears and hearts and minds and spirits are turned to Him so that we hear the gentle, loving, and gracious calling of our Heavenly Father to gather with Jesus and receive Him for our redemption and salvation and sanctification. In Him the justification that God has declared is ours. If we turn aside to anything else we lose this gracious declaration. But in Jesus, gathered with Him, we do not scatter but remain steadfastly enjoined into His Holy Communion. Our eyes remain fixed upon Him so that we look to no other source of hope or consolation. All of our addictions and other forms of demonic possession are cast out, having no place to abide in us or in our lives. Jesus comes to us in the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit and He establishes permanent residence within us. He calls us to be gathered with Him in His body regularly to be fed with the preaching of the Word and with His very body and blood of unity and forgiveness and holiness and life. While others demand signs from heaven, gathered to Him in His means of grace we receive the signs that He sends from heaven. These are the sure and undeniable signs of His grace, mercy, and peace. These are the absolute guarantee of His love and compassion toward us and the reconciliation that He works for us and among us. These shall keep us united in Christ Jesus no matter what things we may face in our lives. These shall keep us unmoved in the one true faith until that great and mighty day when He comes in the fullness of His glory to say those amazing words that shall take us by surprise even though we have trustingly clung to them all of our lives, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.” We do hear these astounding words every time that the Holy Spirit gathers us, and we shall finally hear them on that great day, having been kept safe together with Jesus until that day. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus forever. Amen.
Oculi - Third Sunday in Lent
Hymns: 262, 261, 370, 428
( omit Gloria, responses before & after the Gospel reading, and other ascriptions of praise during Lent. )
The Introit (Ps. 25:15,16,1,2)
P: Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord;C: for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
P: Turn Thee unto me and have mercy upon me;
C: for I am desolate and afflicted.
P: Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul;
C: O my God, I trust in Thee; let me not be ashamed.
(The “Gloria in Excelsis” is omitted during the Penitential Season of Lent)
The Collect
We beseech Thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of Thy humble servants and stretch forth the right hand of Thy majesty to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.
The First Lesson 2 Samuel 22:1-7
And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: And he said, The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence. I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.
The Gradual (Ps. 91:1-2,4,11-12)
P: Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail; let the heathen be judged in Thy sight.C: When mine enemies are turned back; they shall fall and perish at Thy presence.
P: Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens.
C: Have mercy upon us, O Lord have mercy upon us.
The Epistle Ephesians 5:1-9
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth).
The SENTENCE for the Season (Philippians 2:8)
P: Christ has humbled himself, and become obedient unto death:C: even the death of the cross.
The Holy Gospel St. Luke 11:14-28
And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Luke 11:14-28 —
“Undoubtedly then Has Come upon You-all the Kingdom of God”
Introduction
I. Undoubtedly then Has Come upon You-all the Kingdom of God
II. But When the Stronger than He Having Come Should Conquer Him
III. He Not Being with Me Against Me Is
Conclusion
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