Category: Sermons

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What Makes a Man Clean?

What makes a person clean? What makes a person righteous, fit to stand in the presence of God (Psalm 24:3–4)?

There are times when we try to do this for ourselves. We invent ways to get right with God, and ways to make other people think the best of us. We want a life that other people can look at and think, “Ah, he has it figured out.” Whatever that looks like for you, sometimes it is material stuff. Other times we say, “No, no, it is not about material stuff. I want other people to see that I am at peace, that I have it together.” And so we project that image outward, while inside we are anxious and spun up about everything.

Jesus says it has to start from the inside out (Mark 7:20–23).

Jesus says He must make us clean. He must make us right.

The Problem Is Within

The Pharisees are always gathered around Him, and at different times He calls them a brood of vipers (Matthew 12:34) and whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27). He says, in effect, “You paint yourselves up on the outside. You look good. But inside you are spiritually dead to the things that actually give life” (Matthew 23:25–28; Ephesians 2:1).

And apart from Christ and His saving work, that is all our lives (John 15:5).

We cannot do this for ourselves. We wind up with lives of seeming outward cleanliness, but inward filth. And out of that heart come things that have to be painted over time and time again.

Jesus talks about them. He says there is lust, deceit, slander, pride, anger. These things get out into our lives, and they tear families apart. They ruin friendships, neighborhoods, churches. Jesus says it is the things that start in our heart and come out into our life that actually defile us. That is what sin is (Mark 7:21–23; Matthew 15:18–20).

Outward Things Cannot Save Us

Our temptation is always to make it about the things we can control.

We think, “If I set aside those foods, that makes me good.” And fasting, as the Catechism says, is fine outward training. We train our bodies so that our bellies are not the boss of us, and so that we live for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, trusting that all these things will be added unto us (Matthew 6:33).

But those are outward things. Those are things we can control, boxes we can check.

And Jesus says, yes, but if this is not made right, if Jesus is not the one sitting on the throne of our hearts, then what does any of it matter (Ephesians 3:17)?

The hatred still comes out.
The words that hurt still come out.
The words that bring death to those around us still come out (Proverbs 18:21).

They come out in the breaking of the Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:14). They come out, and marriages are torn apart, and lives are destroyed for a few moments of passion. They come out in pride that puffs us up and cuts down everyone else around us (Proverbs 16:18).

The Morning After

Then come those moments of clarity.

The morning after, when we can hear what we actually said, what seemed like the right thing in the moment, and we can hear how it would have sounded to everybody else. We can look back and think about what the night before actually cost.

And if we are dead inside, then all of that just leads to guilt and despair, to crying out, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1). And if there is no trust that the Lord will actually help and save, then you are stuck there.

Christ Tells the Truth and Cleanses Us

But Jesus came as someone willing to tell the truth about us and about our condition (John 2:24–25). He does not pretend when He looks at us and speaks about us. Thanks be to God that He does not.

We need someone who can look at us and tell us what is actually going on.

He sees our sin, and then He goes to the cross to save us from it (1 Peter 2:24).

He sees the things that defile us, the things He talks about, the things that come out of our heart and make a mess of our life, the things that make it hard even to look one another in the eye, let alone bear the thought of having God see all of us.

Jesus takes that.

He says: You need to be washed. You need to be cleansed. You need to be sanctified. You need to be justified (1 Corinthians 6:11).

And so He goes to the cross, and He opens His side for us, and pours out from His sacred heart the water and the blood that wash us and make us clean (John 19:34; 1 John 5:6). He frees our consciences from having to try to fix it on our own (Hebrews 9:14). And He returns us to His Word, the Word that kills the sin in us and makes us alive with Him before His Father (Romans 6:11; John 6:63).

A Lenten Practice of Repentance

Now this Lent we hear His words. We hear our lives being accurately diagnosed by our Savior. But we also have a Savior who loves us, who pays for us, and who does what is necessary to cleanse us. He kills our sins and gives us our life back (Romans 6:6–11).

So make this a practice in the remaining weeks of Lent:

Go through each of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1–17). Walk through each one. Consider your life. Stop and think about it. Confess each one specifically.

How have I not loved God with my whole heart (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37)?
How have I not kept His name holy (Exodus 20:7; Matthew 6:9)?
How have I not remembered the Sabbath Day (Exodus 20:8)?
And so on through the list.

And see, in your heart, where those things start.

If you notice, in all the explanations to the Commandments, they begin the same way: “We should fear and love God so that…” When we find ourselves doing the things we should not do, or failing to do the things we should do, it all traces back to the heart (Mark 7:21–23).

Create in Me a Clean Heart

Go through the Ten Commandments, and then make a point of praying a Bible verse that I know for sure each of you has memorized, because we sing it every week:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence,
And take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:10–11).

Ask God for that new heart as you confess your sins.

And then pray that with that new heart He would let you speak words that give life (Ephesians 4:29). Stop the gossip, the sarcasm, all the things that only wound. Look at your family life and say:

Lord, give me a heart that loves and honors my spouse (Ephesians 5:33).
Lord, give me a heart that does what You want me to do.
Lord, turn the hearts of fathers to their children (Malachi 4:6; Luke 1:17).
Lord, turn the hearts of children to their fathers and mothers (Malachi 4:6).

You want us to do these things, O Lord. Give us new hearts. Hearts washed clean from the inside out by the water and the blood (John 19:34). Give us Your life. Make us clean. Sanctify us. Justify us (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Amen.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Amen.

Jesus the Stronger Man: Hearing and Keeping the Word of God (Luke 11:14–28)

By Pastor

On March 9, 2026

In Sermons

Jesus the stronger man, who sets us free from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

God’s Word

God’s Word that serves as the foundation for our sermon this morning, is from the Gospel according to St. Luke, chapter 11 (Luke 11:14–28): Jesus casting a demon out of a mute man (Luke 11:14), Jesus teaching about the unclean spirit (Luke 11:24–26), and Jesus’ saying, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Blessed Is the Mother of Jesus

I suppose I can talk about Christmas a little bit today, because at the end of the reading someone cries out, in effect, “Blessed is Your mother. Blessed is the one who brought You into this world and sustained Your life. How blessed she must be to have a Son like You” (Luke 11:27).

And that is true.

I remember back in Advent, leading up to Christmas, we sang Savior of the Nations, Come a couple of times. One of the verses says:

“In her womb this truth was shown:
God was there upon His throne.”

There is the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 19:16), reigning from His throne even as a tiny baby in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:31; Luke 1:35).

Blessed indeed was she.

But Jesus teaches that there was an even greater blessedness in Mary before that, and along with that: she heard the Word of God and kept it (Luke 11:28). She believed the promise (Luke 1:45). And then, especially on that day of great trial, when the angel came and told her that she would bear the Son of God by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26–35), she said, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Let my life be according to Your Word, O Lord.

The Strong Man and His Palace

That brings us to the rest of the story.

After Jesus casts the demon out of the mute man (Luke 11:14), they accuse Him of driving out demons by Beelzebul (Luke 11:15). Then Jesus teaches them about Satan, the strong man fully armed who guards his own palace (Luke 11:21).

Think about what that palace is in this picture.

Jesus is talking about a demon dwelling in a man (Luke 11:14). He is talking about Satan taking up residence and claiming a palace and sitting on a throne (Luke 11:21). He is talking about the heart. He is talking about the place where God should rightly reign in our lives, and yet someone else is there.

The Many Ways Evil Afflicts

In the Gospels, sometimes it is dramatic and terrifying. A child is thrown into the fire or into the water (Mark 9:17–22). Sometimes it is wild and violent, like the man living among the tombs (Mark 5:1–5). Sometimes it is quieter, stranger, less outwardly spectacular, like this man who simply cannot speak (Luke 11:14).

There are all kinds of ways these things afflict people.

We may not often see the more dramatic forms in our own day, but something like this mute spirit is not hard to recognize. How often are there moments when thanks should be spoken to God, and yet we are silent? Moments when we should call upon Him in trouble, and we do not (Psalm 50:15)? Moments when someone near us is hurting and needs a word of truth, comfort, confession, or love, and yet we cannot seem to speak (Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 4:29)? Moments when God’s truth ought to be said in the world, and yet our mouths remain closed (Matthew 10:32; 1 Peter 3:15)?

This afflicts whole churches too. It afflicts whole communities. It harms not only us, but those around us.

Who Reigns in the Heart?

And the question Jesus’ words force upon us is this: who is reigning on that throne? Who claims this heart as a palace for his own (Luke 11:21)?

We tend to divide life up into compartments. We separate our “spiritual life” from the rest of life, as though Christ only gets one little piece of us. But St. James speaks about the mouth and says that with it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God (James 3:9). And that ought not to be (James 3:10). The tongue is a little spark, and it can set a great forest ablaze (James 3:5–6).

And it is not just the mouth.

You can ask yourself, from head to toe: how do I use this body, this life, that God has given me (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20)? Who is the one reigning in my life?

Think about those moments of temptation. Go back afterward, when you realize what has happened, and ask: where did that begin? When that anger burst out of me, who was reigning there (Galatians 5:19–21)? When I seized up and would not say the good and true thing that needed to be said, who was reigning there (James 4:17)? What temptations lay hold of me (James 1:14–15)? What desires try to claim control (Romans 6:12)? Who is there upon the throne?

Jesus the Stronger Man Who Has Come

But here is the good news:

Jesus does not merely diagnose the problem. He comes to break the power that evil has over us (1 John 3:8). He comes to break the grip that sin and death and the devil have over our lives (Hebrews 2:14–15).

We saw that in the Old Testament reading. God sends Moses to Pharaoh and says, “Let My people go” (Exodus 5:1). And God does not wait around to see whether Pharaoh feels like obeying. He lets His people go whether Pharaoh wants to or not (Exodus 12:29–32; Exodus 12:51).

So also here.

Jesus says, in effect: there is one stronger than the strong man (Luke 11:22). There is one stronger than the devil who sits in your heart and would keep you from God. “I will come. I will break those chains. I will come and set you free” (Luke 4:18; John 8:36).

“A stronger man comes upon him and overcomes him, and he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil” (Luke 11:22).

This is what Jesus has come to do.

This is the victory He wins. He tramples the serpent’s head for our sake (Genesis 3:15). He goes to the cross to pay for your sin (1 Peter 2:24; Colossians 2:13–14). He cries out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and that is your victory. That is your salvation (Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:57).

An Empty House Is Not Enough

Jesus also teaches us, though, that as long as we live in this world, the struggle remains. The devil still prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). The unclean spirit may go out for a time, and if the house is empty, that is a dangerous thing (Luke 11:24–26).

We all know what it is like to find things in our lives that we do not like about ourselves. We know something is wrong (Romans 7:15–20). We know it hurts us and it hurts others. And sometimes that realization gets us a little ways. We try to put things in order.

That is why every January we all make our little lists. “I do not want this in my life anymore. I want this to be better.” And sometimes we do improve a little, for a little while.

But how far does that get us?

How many weeks does that motivation last?

By February, so often it is gone. And sometimes things come back even worse than before (Luke 11:26; 2 Peter 2:20). We say, “I am not going to do this anymore,” but sheer willpower is a weak defense. An empty house is no safety (Luke 11:24–26). If it is only us trying to tidy ourselves up a bit, the old enemy returns and finds an easy place to dwell (Luke 11:25–26).

So we need more than self-improvement.

We need Christ.

We need Him to dwell with us every day (John 15:4–5; Ephesians 3:17).

Blessed Are Those Who Hear the Word

“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).

That is the answer. “In her womb this truth was shown: God was there upon His throne.” And now the Lord would be upon the throne of your heart also (Ephesians 3:17).

What is it to hear the Word of God and keep it (Luke 11:28)?

It is to be in God’s house to hear His Word (Romans 10:17; Psalm 122:1). It is to let your ears be open and your eyes attentive to His kingdom (Matthew 13:16). It is not to let your ears and eyes and heart remain empty, but to let them be filled with His Word (Colossians 3:16). Even the parts that are hard. Even the parts that make you uncomfortable (Hebrews 4:12). Because the things that make you uncomfortable are often the very things you most need to hear (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

He is the King (Psalm 47:7–8). His Word is good (Psalm 19:7–11).

So hear that Word. Believe that Word. Keep that Word (Luke 11:28; James 1:22).

Christ Reigns for You

Because the One who loves you does not come to you in disgust. He did not die for you because He hated you. He did not suffer in your place because He wanted to cast you away. No, the Father loved you (John 3:16). The Son loved you (Galatians 2:20). He loved you so much that He would not leave you in darkness (John 8:12; 1 Peter 2:9).

He sees the good for which God created you (Ephesians 2:10). He desires your life in the light of His presence forever (Revelation 22:3–5). And He is willing to suffer all things to bring you into that life (Hebrews 12:2).

So do not shut Him out (Hebrews 3:15).

He loves you.

And He wants what is best for you (Romans 8:32).

May He sit upon the throne of your heart (Ephesians 3:17). May He guard you and keep you all your days, making you His own (2 Timothy 1:12; Jude 24).