SPECIAL DAYS: Labor Day Sunday

September 5, 2004 - Lesson: Matthew 16.13-18

SERMON TITLE: Victors In the Midst of Strife

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INTRODUCTION:

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
Text: Henry Van Dyke
Music: Ludwig van Beethoven; Arr. by Edward Hodges
Tune: HYMN TO JOY, Meter: 87.87 D

1. Joyful, joyful, we adore thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
hearts unfold like flowers before thee,
opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!

2. All thy works with joy surround thee,
earth and heaven reflect thy rays,
stars and angels sing around thee,
center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
flowery meadow, flashing sea,
chanting bird and flowing fountain,
call us to rejoice in thee.

3. Thou art giving and forgiving,
ever blessing, ever blest,
well-spring of the joy of living,
ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our brother,
all who live in love are thine;
teach us how to love each other,
lift us to the joy divine.

4. Mortals, join the mighty chorus
which the morning stars began;
love divine is reigning o'er us,
binding all within its span.
Ever singing, march we onward,
victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music leads us sunward,
in the triumph song of life.

  1. In his poem, Hymn of Joy, Henry Van Dyke catches the triumphal nature of Christianity.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!
Ever singing, march we onward,
victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music leads us sunward,
in the triumph song of life.

    1. Immortal gladness.

    2. Joyful music leads us sunward.

    3. In the triumph song of life.

    4. Victors in the midst of strife.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Victors in the face of the gates of Hades.

    1. The words of Jesus are a statement of fact and a promise.

      1. Figuratively speaking, Satan holds the gates of death.

        1. In Luke 4:6-7 (NRSVA), the second temptation of Jesus, the devil says to Jesus: 6..."To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."

      2. In Matthew 12:22-29 (NRSVA) Jesus heals a demoniac.

        1. The Pharisees accused Jesus of the cure using the power of Beelzebub.

        2. Beginning with verse 25 we read: 25He knew what they were thinking and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 27If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. 29Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his property, without first tying up the strong man? Then indeed the house can be plundered.

        3. Jesus is the one entering the strong man's house to plunder the diseased and the dead for the kingdom of God.

        4. It was not possible for Satan to hold Christ with the cords of death.

        5. Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost makes this abundantly clear when he says in Acts 2:24 (NRSVA): 24But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

      3. Because Christ died and was raised, we also live with the potential promise of immortality.

        1. It is not possible for Satan to hold any who have faith in Christ.

        2. This is why the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:23 (NRSVA): 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    2. We can count on it.

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  1. We have to deal with the gates of Hades.

    1. The gates of Hades can be understood two ways.

      1. The gates of Hades can be understood to be the entrance to the abode of the dead.

        1. It can be a really scary place.

  1. Amos fleeing Bible Study when talking about death and dying issues.

  2. Sending out the Last Rites Forms and only receiving 3 back.

  3. No Refills (1)

A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor's office.

"Is it true," she wanted to know, "that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," the doctor told her.

There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, "I'm wondering, then, just how serious is my condition. This prescription is marked 'NO REFILLS'."

  1. Peter J. Gomes, writing in, The Good Book (2) says:

The Victorians, we are told, loved death and feared sex, and hence they embraced a culture of death and mourning, and constructed strong taboos against sex. We, on the other hand, love sex and fear death, and our taboos are of a different sort. We delight in sexuality, we pander to the sensual, and we have made Calvin Klein a very wealthy man. Death is not something we want to understand or to know; death is somehow unfair, and in this country it is culturally unconstitutional, violating our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, when death intrudes, particularly among the young, we respond in terror, anger and fear.

        1. Is Peter Gomes right, We respond in terror, anger and fear?

      1. We have to be willing to accept the brief and often painful nature of life.

        1. So Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning," (Genesis 47:9, NASB-U).

        2. "For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again" (2 Samuel 14:14, NASB-U).

        1. "For we are sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope," (1 Chronicles 29:15, NASB-U).

        1. "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away," (James 4:14, NASB-U).

        2. For, "All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off...," (1 Peter 1:24, NASB-U)

      1. Sounds pretty temporary to me.

        1. Can you accept it?

        2. Can you live with it?

        3. Does the brevity of life drive you towards the one who promises life, beyond life?

        4. Obviously it should!

    1. The gates of Hades can be understood as the city gates where the councils of the elders ruled the lives and the conduct of the residents.

      1. The "gates" may represent the evil designs planned by the powers of hell to overthrow the Church

An executive was visiting France. From her hotel room in Paris, she made a long-distance call to London.

Because hotel charges are so unpredictable, when the call was completed she asked the operator about the charges and was informed that they amounted to $38.49 in U.S. currency.

The businesswoman became quite upset and stated, "Where I come from we can call to hell and back for 38 dollars and 49 cents."

Whereupon the operator replied: "Yes, but where you come from it's a local call."

      1. It includes the wiles and connivance of the devil and his angels.

      2. Hades being taken, not as the abode of the dead, but as the realm of Satan.

      3. Neither malignant spirits, nor their allies, such as sin, persecution, heresy, shall be able to wreck the eternal building which Christ was founding.

    1. This is what Jesus Christ is proclaiming when he exclaims: "On this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it."

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  1. No matter how brief or lengthy life is, we can be victorious.

    1. Margaret Craven in her book I Heard the Owl Call My Name (3) writes:

A bishop visited a young priest serving a tribe of Native Americans in British Columbia. The bishop knew and loved this tribe, and enjoyed their feasting and dancing. At the end of his visit he tried to describe his feelings to the priest.

"Always when I leave the village," the bishop said slowly, "I try to define what it means to me, why it sends me back to the world refreshed and confident. Always I fail. It is so simple, it is difficult. When I try to put it into words, it comes out one of those unctuous, over-pious platitudes at which bishops are expected to excel."

They both laughed.

"But when I reach here and see the great scar where the inlet side [of the river] shows its bones, for a moment I know."

"What, my lord?" [asked the priest].

"That for me it has always been easier here, where only the fundamentals count, to learn what every man must learn in this world."

"And that, my lord?"

"Enough of the meaning of life to be ready to die."

    1. Listen to the thoughts of Henri Nouwen reflecting on his fiftieth birthday. (4)

Within a few years (five, 10, 20, or 30) I will no longer be on this earth. The thought of this does not frighten me but fills me with a quiet peace. I am a small part of life, a human being in the midst of thousands of other human beings. It is good to be young, to grow old and to die. It is good to live with others and to die with others. God became flesh to share with us in this simple living and dying and thus made it good. I can feel today that it is good to be and especially to be one of many. What counts are not the special and unique accomplishments in life that make me different from others, but the basic experiences of sadness and joy, pain and healing, which make me part of humanity. The time is indeed growing short for me, but that knowledge sets me free to prevent mourning from depressing me and joy from exciting me. Mourning and joy can now both deepen my quiet desire for the day when I realize that the many kisses and embraces I received today were simple incarnation; of the eternal embrace of the Lord himself.

    1. We also can live victorious, for to live victorious is:

      1. Exciting,

      2. Joyful,

      3. Exhilarating,

      4. Powerful

      5. Hopeful,

      6. Confidence Building

      7. Forward Looking.

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CONCLUSION

  1. In his poem, Hymn of Joy, Henry Van Dyke catches the triumphal nature of Christianity.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!
Ever singing, march we onward,
victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music leads us sunward,
in the triumph song of life.

  1. This same song of triumph is found in the wonderful song, Faith Is the Victory, by John H. Yates

1.
Encamped along the hills of light,
Ye Christian soldiers, rise,
And press the battle ere the night
Shall veil the glowing skies.
Against the foe in vales below,
Let all our strength be hurled;
Faith is the victory, we know,
That overcomes the world.

Chorus:
Faith is the victory!
Faith is the victory!
Oh, glorious victory
That overcomes the world.

2.
His banner over us in love,
Our sword the Word of God;
We tread the road the saints above
With shouts of triumph trod.
By faith they, like whirlwind's breath,
Swept on o'er ev'ry field;
The faith by which they conquered death
Is still our shining shield.

Chorus:

3.
To him who overcomes the foe
White raiment shall be giv'n;
Before the angels he shall know
His name confessed in heav'n.
Then onward from the hills of light,
Our hearts with love aflame;
We'll vanquish all the hosts of night,
In Jesus' conq'ring name.

Chorus:

    1. We can celebrate the victory!

    2. We can accept the invincibility of Jesus and joins the ranks of his invincible followers!

    3. Then our victory in Jesus will sustain and empower us to live and die in faith.

    4. We can be victors in the midst of strife!

Amen!

1. Pastor Tim [posts@cybersaltlists.org]

2. Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1996), 212.

3. Margaret Craven, I Heard the Owl Call My Name (New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1973), 149-150.

4. Gracias! A Latin American Journal (San Francisco: Harper and Rowe, 1983), 120.

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