The Battle Primeval - Till all the World is Gained

SERMON Dennis Evans 10-7-2018

“The Battle Primeval – Till all the World is Gained”

Scripture readings: Revelation 7:9-10; Matthew 8:5-13

Walking near Lower Crab Creek
North of Desert Aire/Mattawa WA September 2018

Both of the scripture readings I chose for you have more in common than you might think. Both Scriptures teach us about spiritual warfare; the ongoing battle between the Kingdom of Jesus and the kingdom of the Devil.

It’s an ongoing battle that we see, and fight within ourselves, and within our families and friendships. We see and fight the battle in the world around us in every nation, tribe, people, and language.

We may see and fight the same battle in the one holy church around the world, and maybe within these walls. We can see, in the centurion in Matthew’s gospel, how Jesus fights his spiritual warfare to beat us, and win us, and make us, and keep us his own. We are called to join him in this fight for ourselves, and for others, and for the world that God so loves and plans to save.

In the Apostle John’s Book of Revelation, the vision of the crowd that no one can count is a picture of the people of Jesus in all times and places.

The pictures of the first disciples are there. Our pictures are there. The pictures of Christians in North Korea, and China, and India are there. The pictures of our brothers and sisters in Latin America, and Africa, and Europe are there.

We all fight together for Jesus. We all fight for love. We fight to bring the Kingdom of Jesus for the healing and for the recreation of the world, wherever we are. We fight with Jesus against the kingdom of the Devil, who is already defeated, however much that dark kingdom refuses to admit it.

Jesus defeated the kingdom of Satan on the cross and in the resurrection, but the kingdom of darkness fights on until Jesus returns and mops them up. The Bible tells us that one of our greatest weaknesses in this warfare is that we don’t have the weapon of patience. Peter says this about the Lord’s tactics: “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

The patience of the Lord is so great, just on this planet, that people “from every nation, tribe, people, and language” will be liberated and come home. Our friends, Jim and Carolyn Mudge, along with groups like the Wycliffe Bible Translators, are still hard at work using the weapon of the Lord’s patience.

Jesus was patient. He waited patiently for someone to show up who would also show up the people who were so proud of their faith. The pagan centurion was ready for Jesus without knowing it.

The Romans had a myth about being descended from two boys, twin boys who were abandoned at birth and raised by a she-wolf. This she-wolf suckled them (nursed them) with her own milk, and so the Romans believed that they had wolf’s blood in their veins and they loved to be ruthless. They loved to watch people kill each other in their stadiums. But the Roman centurion, with his faith so hidden that even he didn’t really know about it, was more of a sheep in wolf’s clothing: not a real wolf at all.

Romans thought it was weak to see slaves as humans. The centurion called his sick and paralyzed slave “his boy”. Instead of Roman pride, he claimed to be unworthy of Jesus come to his house.

The bath of Jesus’ blood is filled with compassion and humility, because God became human to die for us in compassion and humility. This is his blood in which the uncounted crowd washes themselves.

How disgusting it sounds, to wash in a blood bath, but that is what Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is. It disgusts us, the thought of accepting our blame for some great hurt in another person’s life, or in our family. It even disgusts us to think of surrendering some bitterness, or anger, or hurt that we carry in our hearts. Even if it promises to make us whole,We will do anything but that, and the terms of surrender that we set by insisting on our “anything but that” has no humility or compassion in it.

The people dressed in white for victory are the ones who surrender so absolutely that they stop to wash in the blood that is their only hope for life. The Roman centurion was ready for that bath. He believed that Jesus would love his slave as much as he did. He believed that Jesus would do more for that slave than his owner could.

When we wash in the blood of Jesus, we may win the victory because we hardly notice our own hurts and wounds, because we are bloody already. So much has been done for us. So much has been given for us.

In the end, the victory will bring us a shepherd, someone who guides us to the living water, which means a life that is refreshed and renewed all the time. The victory will bring us someone who wipes our tears away. That will be our everlasting joy.

This is not only the reward of the victory that is promised to us in the future. It’s the victory that we have now.

We have a shepherd now, who leads us always. He’s the good shepherd. He always refreshes us. He always wipes our tears. Jesus does this now. Jesus does this now in his patience, and in ours.

The Lord’s Supper is one of those places where people of every nation, tribe, people, and language gather. Jesus and the Centurion represent nations, tribes, people, and languages who are enemies who have no reason to love each other. They have no understanding, no compassion, and no humility toward each other.

The Lord’s Table is a place where the haters and the fearful, the safe and the vulnerable, become friends. The Lord’s Table is a place where we become one in Jesus.