Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Quincy, IL
Rev. Larry D. Troxel
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 8:00 and 10:15 a.m.
“We Live in Dangerous Times”
(1 Peter 4:12–16; 5:6–11)
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
When teens and pre-teens go to a Christian summer camp, an evening activity that often is found
on the schedule is the game known as “Christians versus Romans.” Sometimes it has been
known as “underground church.” Resembling in some ways a game of hide and seek, the
game recreates in a mild way the very real conditions which existed during the first three centuries A.D.
In that era, Christianity was an illegal religion and being a Christian was considered to be treason.
Thousands of Christians met their deaths in horrible ways. Many more thousands suffered great injury
and loss. When the apostle Peter wrote about “the fiery trial” which was coming upon the
first recipients of his letter, and when he warned them that Satan was like a “roaring lion,”
Peter was aware personally how dangerous the situation was. In the year 64 A.D. he was crucified by order
of the Roman emperor Nero. A short while later, the apostle Paul was beheaded.
That was long ago, so long ago that many Christians have become complacent. Sadly, many Christians know
little or nothing of the history of Christianity. And today, most are unaware that more Christians died
in the twentieth century simply for being Christians than in the previous nineteen centuries combined.1
Nor do we give serious thought to the spiritual significance of the conflict between Christianity and the
fundamentalist Islamic movement that underlies the terrorism and warfare which so many see only in terms
of politics and culture.
Christians in the United States have lived in a setting of religious freedom for more than two centuries.
For that liberty I am profoundly thankful. May God graciously preserve it among us! But that liberty brings
with it a very real danger, the danger of thinking that all religious beliefs are equally valid, that there
is no such thing as objective truth, and that we really don’t need to be concerned with knowing the
details of what we believe and why we believe it. Many are willing to settle for a lowest-common-denominator
kind of Christianity that says as long as I believe in Jesus as my Savior, it really doesn’t matter
what else I believe. So we find people deciding where to worship and when to belong on the basis of the
entertainment value of so-called worship services, or on the basis of the personality of the preacher, or
on the basis of what kind of activities a certain church offers for one or more age groups. Doctrine? Truth?
Who cares about that? “As long as church is ‘fun’ and I don’t have to anything except
show up on Sunday, that’s where I will be,” people say. Sadly, that is the attitude of many who
call themselves Christian today.
We live in dangerous times, times made dangerous by complacency, times made dangerous by indifference, times
made dangerous by laziness, times made dangerous by … ignorance of what truly is important to the new
life we have received in Christ Jesus.
In many ways we resemble Eve in the Garden of Eden when she first encountered the tempter. She was not aware
of any danger. She had heard the Word of God and thought that she knew it. But the truth is that the tempter
had been studying Eve ever since God created her. And even though she was perfect, she also was vulnerable.
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that
the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her
husband who was with her, and he ate.”2 And the rest is history, a history
that has profoundly affected every moment and aspect of our lives.
Today we may not be facing the kind of fiery trial in the form of government-directed persecution of which
Peter warned his readers in the early decades of the Christian faith. The trials and temptations we face
often are more subtle, well-disguised, so that we are caught off-guard like Eve. So Peter’s warning
is one for us to take to heart. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around
like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”3
Remember that the old evil foe has been studying you throughout your life, learning where your spiritual
defenses are strong and where they are weak or non-existent. As he had studied and knew Eve, so he has
studied and knows about you what temptations will be most effective in luring you away from complete trust
in Christ Jesus and His Word.
One Christian writer has said: “Do you wonder why your life often is a struggle? Do you wonder why
your problems don’t just evaporate even though you go to church and pray? Do you groan because of the
carelessness, lovelessness, or recklessness of people in your family? Do you wonder why you still find
certain sins so fascinating even when you’ve been burned by them before? Well, says Peter, wake up
and realize what you’re up against in your life.”4 You and I are
daily at war with the old evil foe who has committed himself to separating us from our Savior and dragging
us off to hell.
What shall we do? Peter said: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at
the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. … Resist
[the devil], firm in your faith.”5
Because we live in such spiritually dangerous times, we dare not rely on our own wisdom, our own understanding,
our own resources to fight off the old evil foe and his assaults. Instead of relying on self and on what we
think we know of the Christian faith, we need the armor that we receive by being in God’s Word every day.
God’s Word must permeate our very being, as though we were soaking in it, soaking it up into every moment
and part of our lives. Then we will be able to resist the onslaughts of the old evil foe. For the power to
resist the devil does not lie in us. It lies in God’s Word.
This also calls for humility on our part, and humility is not something at which any of us are very good.
We like to think that we know what the Bible says. We like to think that we can tell the difference between
what is pleasing to God and what is not. But the more we study God’s Word, the more we realize how little
we really do know. The more we study God’s Word, the more we realize how powerless we are against temptation.
And with all the attractive influences of this sinful world that surrounds us, it is far easier to indulge our
desires and to ignore the Word of God.
Peter does have some marvelous promises for us that are saturated with the grace of God. “The God of
all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen,
and establish you.”6 Never does God leave us on our own to do battle against our old evil
foe. Never does God look away from us or forget about us. When we endure great tragedies and losses, when
we do give in to the temptations with which Satan lures us, even when we let down our guard, God is faithful.
Jesus has promised that no one, not even Satan, will be able to snatch us out of His hand.7
God in His grace for us may find it necessary to use some trying experience and significant loss to turn us
around and bring us back to Himself in true repentance and faith, but He has promised always to act toward
us in pure love to restore us and keep us a part of His eternal family.
Through His Word and through His Sacraments, He brings to us in a very personal way the restorative power
of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for us. Through His means of grace God gives us what we need
to live before Him in true Christian humility and saving faith, faith made strong by God the Holy Spirit
working in us. And because He cares for us so much, we commit into His hands our very selves, along with
all of our anxieties and cares, all our dreams, and all our joys.
Yes, we do live in dangerous times. We live under daily assault by foes more powerful than ourselves.
But through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, and reign, God has shown that He is for us.
And since He is for us, it really doesn’t matter who is against us.8
“To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”9