The devil is real. Demons are real. We are in the middle of a great spiritual war. Pay attention these next few weeks: in the Gospel readings we will hear all about the spiritual war that the Son of God enters into for us. This spiritual war is the sort of thing pictured in very terrifying ways in St. John’s Revelation. The devil and his demons are warring against God and His angels, and you, friends, are in the middle of it. You are the prize.

We can’t see all these things going on, for the most part, but they are really happening. We don’t see these things as they’re pictured in Revelation, but we certainly can feel them. We are tempted by the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. We are tempted and we sometimes give in. But today’s Gospel story of our Lord Jesus Christ’s temptation in the wilderness by the devil encourages us. In Jesus, the temptations of the devil are overcome.

It’s in the devil’s nature to tempt, to lie, to deceive. He can’t help it; it’s just what he does. Jesus tells us that the devil is the father of lies, and a murderer from the beginning. He prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Dangerously for us the devil disguises himself as an angel of light. It brings to mind that wonderful line from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, about whether a character is a servant of the dark lord or of the good: “I think one the servants of the enemy would seem fairer and feel fouler…”

The devil just cannot help but tempt Jesus. Even though the devil cannot possibly win – and I think he knows it – he still has to confront our Lord. In fact this is the will of God, that Jesus His Son would be tempted by the devil, for the Spirit led Jesus up ”into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

He tempts Jesus, but it’s a losing battle. It’s in the devil’s nature to tempt to sin, but it’s in Jesus Christ’s nature that He cannot sin. His divine nature is perfectly righteous and holy. Jesus is the new Adam, the perfect man, truly and perfectly in the image of God, and He’s just plain going to do what His Father in heaven wills Him to do.

So Jesus meets the devil’s temptations. He hears them and then you can almost hear him chuckling, sort of confidently smirking as He announces to the devil that none of these things remotely entice Him. Jesus confronts each of the Devil’s lies and temptations with the truth. The truth of God’s Word.

He has no need for stones to become bread because the Father has given Him the very best nourishment there is: the Word of God. He has no need to throw Himself down to prove that God will care for Him because the Father has already declared to Him that He is His beloved Son. And besides there is a perfectly good set of stairs to get down from the temple. He has no need for all the kingdoms and power of the world because He has willingly laid aside His divine power and authority in order to come and save His highest creation from their Sin.

Thanks be to God, ”we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Now it’s in our fallen nature to be tempted, to give in to temptation, to even think that being tempted and giving into temptation is exciting. We sang about it this morning: “All mankind fell in Adam’s fall / one common Sin infects us all… From hearts depraved, to evil prone / Flow thoughts and deeds of sin alone; / God’s image lost, the darkened soul / Seeks not nor finds it’s heav’nly goal.”

I want to introduce you to a term that we use to describe this nature of ours: concupiscence. This is the tendency to sin, the ability to sin. You know how when the temptations come and the thought of being a little naughty excites you, how it makes you want to give in to that temptation? That’s concupiscence at work. And even if you finally don’t give in, it’s still reckoned to you as sin. Because you wanted to. Because you were able to. Our fallen nature is that deep. It puts us firmly in the devil’s camp.

But, dear Christians, your new nature is given to you by your baptism into Christ, apprehended by faith. And it’s in your new nature to resist temptation, to fight sin, to cling to God’s Word and to your precious Jesus, to say ”Man shall not live by bread alone” or ”you shall not put the Lord your God to the test” or ”be gone, Satan for I do not belong to you any longer. I belong to Christ and He is my Lord. He has paid for me with His precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. He has shown me that you are nothing but a liar and deceiver who seeks only to murder and destroy. Your false and enticing words do not convince me because God’s Word is truth and it has shown me that in His love for me He gave His Son into my flesh and into my suffering and death. And now He has clothed me in Christ. I am His child. I am baptized into Christ! I’m a child of paradise, not of hell. Be gone!”

At the end of the story, Matthew calmly reports that the devil left Jesus. He’s almost nonchalant about it. But this is big news. Comforting news. News that encourages and strengthens us in this world where the devil and demons would rage against us.

The devil left Him. The devil left Jesus. With only a Word. And if the devil left Jesus then the devil has left us and there is no one left to accuse us.

+INJ+

Lent is a season of repentance, and the Scripture readings for Ash Wednesday properly prepare us for this season. Tonight I want especially to talk with you about how God is calling us to repentance, and then teaches us to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

The prophet Joel in our Old Testament reading is prophesying about The Day of the Lord. This is that great and terrible Day when the Lord comes in judgment at the End of the age. The first part of chapter 2, just before our reading tonight is quite terrifying, describing a great and terrible army that comes to lay waste to Zion. And in the end, when the Lord comes, ”who can endure it?” Joel asks.

God’s wrath over sin is indeed a terrible and frightening thing. We put these ashes on our heads on Ash Wednesday as a mark and reminder of that terrible wrath. Some of the worst words I have to pronounce as a pastor, I pronounce on Ash Wednesday: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I speak them to young and old alike. Every cute infant, every sweet grandma returns to dust. Every one of us is afflicted and cursed in the same way: sin courses through our veins, it’s in our DNA. We are under the judgment of God.

Therefore we put on ashes. We wear ashes just like Job in his repentance and mourning. We cover ourselves like the king of Nineveh, faced with our great sin and having heard of the wrath of God against it. Like Jeremiah in his Lamentations we grind our teeth and cower in the ash heap because of the Holy and Righteous One who is both our creator and the one who stands in judgment over us.

None escape the Day of the Lord. Indeed, ”who can endure it?”

But see here how the Lord is not interested in leaving us in our ashes and terror. He calls us to repentance. Now, repentance is not being sorry because it turns out the Lord is well aware of just how rebellious you are against Him, just how dark and sinful your heart really is. That’s like being sorry because you got caught; because Mom knows about what happened at school even though you really hoped she wouldn’t find out and she’s standing there at the door with a stern look on her face when you get off the bus.

No, repentance is to mourn, to weep, to know that you are broken and that you can’t do anything about it. It’s to acknowledge that you have no hope before the Lord whatsoever in and of yourself. It’s to know that you heart is so rebellious, so dark, so dead, so wicked, that every thought, word, and deed is against God. That is what it is to put on ashes; to repent.

Look how the Lord doesn’t leave us in terror, but rather lovingly and kindly comes and bids us to get up from our ashes and be washed clean. ”Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” ”He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.”

”Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”

God does not desire the death of a sinner, but that the sinner should turn from his ways and live. To repent is to weep bitterly over your death; and to then turn. And look how when you turn God has given you a wonderful person to behold. You don’t turn and behold the terror of the glory of God, but instead you behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the one who has faced that mighty terror of God in your place. This is why even though we hear those terrible words and think on the immensity of our sin and put on ashes this night, we put them on in the shape of a cross. For upon a cross Jesus, the Lord of glory, bought us, with His lifeblood as the price. Our walk through Lent is a walk with Jesus to His cross, that we would remember that there on that cross we also died. There in that tomb we also lay. And in your baptism you have been put into that death and tomb: “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

And that brings us to the other main focus of Lent. We focus on repentance and faith in Christ, but we also focus on the good works, the fruits of repentance and faith, that Christ would have us do. And during Lent there are three specifically, as we heard from Jesus in Matthew 6.

Notice what Jesus teaches us to be doing here: ”When you give to the needy…” ”When you pray…” ”When you fast…” Jesus doesn’t say “if” but instead He presumes that this is what we are doing. In this Lenten season we ought to give attention to these things. He doesn’t tell us exactly how we should be giving or praying or fasting, but He does expect that we His people will be doing so.

The traditional disciplines of Lent are almsgiving, special devotion to prayer, and fasting.

Almsgiving during Lent is extra giving to the needs of the poor. This could be something like making special donations to one of the local mercy organizations. It could be making sure that the food pantry here is always stocked and cared for. Or you might spend some time during Lent serving a meal at a local shelter.

Fasting is giving something up, usually food. You could forego a meal like lunch once or twice a week (though make sure you drink plenty of water). Or maybe you’ll not go out to eat during Lent, and use that money instead for almsgiving. Maybe you’ll stop watching TV in your household for Lent and instead spend it playing games with family and neighbors.

This training is good for us. It’s not about taking on these disciplines to an extreme. But these things train us. If we can’t discipline ourselves to give up eating out for a few weeks, how will we discipline ourselves if God lays on us a great cross or discipline?

We Lutherans have kept up pretty well the special devotion to prayer: this is where these special midweek services during Lent come from. It’s also good for you to use this opportunity to devote your household to the Word of God. Use the Blue Sheet. Pray the Litany. It’s in Lutheran Service Book if you have it. If not, I have copies of it on the table in the narthex.

Most importantly, though, during Lent we keep our eyes and hearts fixed on Jesus. We come to hear Him. We come to receive His Supper. He is our help, our shield, our Savior. In His death you are dead to sin. In His resurrection you are alive forevermore.

+INJ+

If we look at the back of the dollar bill, we see the slogan “In God We Trust” printed there. The history of this phrase on our United States currency is drawn out and complicated. It hasn’t always been there; in fact, the phrase was first added on a two-cent coin in 1864.

The motivations for adding the phrase don’t have much to do with Christ’s teaching in our Gospel reading. I bring the phrase up, however, because it is a very good reminder to us. ”You cannot serve God and money,” Jesus says. ”No one can serve two masters.”

Now we nod along to this: of course nobody can serve two masters. Fact is, though, that in our modern life we have gotten very much used to serving two masters, or more. It’s hard for us to place ourselves within this picture that Jesus is painting. We must place ourselves in the world of Jesus, during His three years of teaching. In Israel and Palestine, especially as a slave or servant, you could not serve two masters. If you tried, you could be sure that one of those masters would demand too much of you, and you could not meet the obligations owed to the other. It’s not unlike attempting to work two full-time jobs; it’s nigh impossible, one of the employers is not going to get good, full work from you. ”No one can serve two masters.”

Again, notice what Jesus is saying here. He’s not saying it’s hard to serve two masters. He’s not saying that most people can’t do it, but you might be that special one who can pull it off. No, Jesus teaches us that it’s impossible to serve two masters. If you serve money, you will hate God. You will despise Him and all of His good gifts like His Word and Sacraments. You will care little for His good and gracious will for you and for the good works that He has prepared for you to do.

Worry is related to this. That’s why Jesus says, ”Therefore…” and teaches us why we ought not to be anxious. Why do we worry? Deep down, it’s because in our weakness we don’t think God will truly take care of us and provide for us. We truly believe that God is absent. Now this is a great temptation: how many times does someone get sick or undergo a great personal struggle or tragedy and lose faith, walk away from God? And the flipside is a great temptation, too: how many times do we believe that we’ll be truly taken care of, truly happy, truly content and satisfied, if we just had that Nintendo Switch, or $100,000 in the bank, or if we just made a six-figure income.

We have a 1st Commandment problem. Jesus is teaching us about the 1st Commandment today, about having a God. Now it’s worth reviewing the 1st Commandment at this point. Pull out your Lutheran Service Book, turn to page 321, and let’s do the old confirmation examination routine here. I’ll ask you What is the First Commandment? and What does this mean?, and you all will respond together out loud. The Small Catechism contains for us the teachings of the Christian Faith, and we can never delve too deeply into those teachings; we can never study the Small Catechism too much. In these Scriptural teachings is found eternal life in Christ.

So let’s devote ourselves to this: What is the 1st Commandment? ”You shall have no other gods.” What does this mean? ”We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”

What does it look like to fear, love, and trust in something other than God? To worry; to serve money, or power; to trust in man or in princes for all good instead of taking refuge in the Lord.

Luther puts it this way (and bear with me, this is an extended quote, but it is well worth hearing Dr. Luther preach this to us): ”Many a person thinks that he has God and everything in abundance when he has money and possessions. He trusts in them and boasts about them with such firmness and assurance as to care for no one. Such a person has a god by the name of “Mammon” (i.e. money and possessions), on which he sets all his heart. This is the most common idol on earth. He who has money and possessions feels secure and is joyful and undismayed as though he were sitting in the midst of Paradise. On the other hand, he who has no money doubts and is despondent, as though he knew of no God. For very few people can be found who are of good cheer and who neither mourn nor complain if they lack Mammon. This care and desire for money sticks and clings to our nature, right up to the grave.

”So, too, whoever trusts and boasts that he has great skill, prudence, power, favor, friendship, and honor also has a god. But it is not the true and only God. This truth reappears when you notice how arrogant, secure, and proud people are because of such possessions, and how despondent they are when the possessions no longer exist or are withdrawn. Therefore, I repeat that the chief explanation of this point is that to “have a god” is to have something in which the heart entirely trusts.”

But, you think, I really do need money to care for my family, to pay for my medicine, to have my house, to even once in a while get some time off and away for rest and refreshment. Yes, of course you do. It is not the money, or the stuff, or your abilities which are the problem here. It is your serving them; It is your worry that perhaps tomorrow they will not be there, or there will not be enough of them. This is when our hearts begin to be devoted to serving Mammon and not God; when our love gets directed towards ourselves and not toward our neighbor.

”Therefore,” Jesus says…And when there’s a “therefore”, we know that whatever follows is building upon or delving further into what was just taught. ”Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.”

You have no need to worry. You are made in the image of God, you are the pinnacle of His creation. Only after you were made did God say that creation was ”very good.”

You have no need to worry. Jesus has taught you to pray “give us this day our daily bread,” with the confidence that Your Father in heaven will give to you all that you need to support this body and life. Jesus says, ”And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you…If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

You have no need to worry. You are worth far more than the birds, and God provides all that they need. The grass is clothed in splendor by God, but it is merely alive today and tomorrow thrown into the oven. Yet God has made you to live forever with Him. Food, drink, clothing, shelter, even far less essential things like books, ice cream, chocolate: ”Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” Or at least He knows that even some of them, while eternally silly, are nevertheless wonderful and delightful gifts in this world. ”All these things will be added to you.”

You have no need to worry. Take heart. Have courage. ”Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Come to Divine Service and be fed with the bread and wine of Christ’s body and blood. Come to Sunday School and Scripture Study for dessert. Serve your neighbor. Fill your homes with the Word of God and prayer. Play baseball and soccer and softball and hockey, but not in place of coming to Church. Mow your lawns and sit on your decks. Enjoy your swimming pools. Feast on fried chicken in a bit. Rejoice in one another’s company.

You have no need to worry. Christ is alive. Death is conquered and dead. Satan’s head is crushed. You are baptized and are heirs of God’s eternal kingdom.

You have no need to worry.

+INJ+