Tag Archives: Overcome

Overcome By; Overcome With – Sermon on Romans 12:16-21 for the Third Sunday after Epiphany

Romans 12:16–21

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul assumes and presupposes that you are going to encounter evil. In v. 17 he writes, “Repay no one evil for evil.” You aren’t told, “If something evil happens to you, don’t turn around and do something evil in return.” The assumption of evil is even clearer in v. 21, “Do not be overcome (or ‘defeated’ or ‘conquered’) by evil, but overcome (‘defeat’ or ‘conquer’) evil with good.” Again, evil things are going to happen both to and around you. And those evil things are either going to overcome you, or you will overcome those evil things by doing good – which is the most Christlike thing you can do.

Imagine a cattle rancher taking care of his cows – feeding them, branding and tagging them, vaccinating them, checking if they’re healthy, whatever – what is he going to step in while he’s walking through that cattle pen? Without a doubt, he’s going to step in manure, cow pies, poop. It’s going to get all over his boots, maybe even on his pants and coat. It’s going to happen.

Now as he’s doing his work, suppose you’re watching him from the fence. Are you going to ask him, “How do you feel about stepping in that manure?” No! If you did, the rancher would probably say something along the lines of, “It just comes with the territory.” If you asked him, “How many piles do you step in each week?” he’d probably laugh because he doesn’t think about it in the moment or dwell on it afterward. He’s just used to it. He has enough experience with cows to know that he can’t teach them to do their business in a specific corner of the yard. It’s going to be scattered all over, and he’s going to periodically step in it.

And the rancher isn’t going to bother trying to get retribution on the cows. He isn’t going to spread his own feces around so the cows step in it. “See how they like it.” No! For one thing, the cows aren’t going to care, and it’d be too much work – very unpleasant work. The only thing a cattle rancher can do when he steps in manure is simply wipe it off before he gets in his truck or goes into his house or when his boots get heavy and caked with it. When he steps in it, he doesn’t dwell on it later. Instead, he just keeps walking.

Dear saints, you already know this, but sometimes it’s just helpful to plainly say it. This world is a cattle yard. This world is full of all sorts of stinky, smelly, steaming piles of evil. Generally, you don’t intentionallystomp around in it. Most of the time, you do your best to avoid it, but at some point, you’re going to get end up coming into contact with the manure of evil. It isn’t pleasant. You don’t like it, and you are right to not like it. But you also need to recognize and acknowledge that, when you end up caked in the manure of evil, it isn’t as though something strange is happening to you (1 Pet. 4:12). Everybody faces evil things. Everybody steps in the cow pies of evil. Everybody has bad days, weeks, months, years, and decades. Everybody. It’s part of life. It doesn’t matter how careful or careless you are. In a fallen and sinful world, you’re going to encounter evil.

This simple truth from Scripture is actually a great comfort. It helps us orient ourselves the right way. We’re going to step in the cow pies of evil. In a broken, fallen world, evil is going to happen to us. When we are confronted with evil, the best thing we can do is the unpleasant work of wiping it off and move on. Responding to evil by doing evil isn’t going to help. Neither is dwelling on it. Yes, learn from the evil things that have happened. Maybe, you don’t put yourself or others in a similar situation. But you have to do your best to scrape it off and move on.

I know many of you have encountered evil, horrific things. You’ve been neck deep in the manure of evil. You are right to weep about it, and as our text last week called for, I weep with you (Ro. 12:15). It stinks and is utterly rotten. But there also is a point at which you need to move on. You live and walk in the cattle pen of a sinful, evil, broken world.

Sin and evil throws creation out of order. No matter how small a sin is, it throws the whole, entire universe off-kilter. Remember, it only took one sin in the Garden of Eden to bring pain, strife, and death to all of creation. All sin, whether it’s your own sin or sins committed against you, sin brings chaos and disorder to creation. Still, you can’t fight sin and evil with more sin and evil of our own, just like you can’t save someone from drowning by giving them a cup of water. You have to get them out of the water they’re drowning in.

When we see sin and injustice, we naturally want to fix it. Since we are made in the image of God, we want to bring order and justice back into the world. That is what vengeance is. Now, vengeance isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We’ve gotten so used to the word ‘vengeance’ being used in a negative way that we think vengeance is always evil. That’s not the case. Yes, vengeance can be evil when you think it’s exclusively your job to dole it out. But remember God Himself says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” Paul there is quoting Dt. 32:35. The same verse gets quoted again in Heb. 10:30. Throughout the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testament, we hear that God promises execute vengeance on the wicked. All of Ps. 94, and many other places in the Psalms this is repeated. God is just. He will punish all sin and make creation right again. That is His job and His promise.

So, know these two things and get them drilled into your head: First, you will encounter sin and evil. And second, know that fixing sin is God’s dominion. He will do it. It’s not up to you. You aren’t God. 

Yes, there are times when you are God’s instrument to execute vengeance. Parents, you are to discipline your kids (Pro. 13:24; 23:13-14; 29:15; Heb. 12:9-10). That calling has been given to you by God. And, to maintain order in society, God has given us rulers who have the God-given task of punishing sin with vengeance. Paul goes into that next in Ro. 13. Those earthly authorities are put there by God to be a terror to bad conduct (Ro. 13:3-4; 1 Pet. 2:13-14). But, generally speaking, we are to leave room for God to bring vengeance against sin.

Again, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is what Christ has done for you. Jesus did not let Himself be overcome by evil. It sure looked like it as He died on the cross. It appeared that evil had defeated Christ. But it didn’t. Not even close. Jesus overcame our evil with good. Good Friday indeed – the goodest [sic.] of good, when all the evil of this world was overcome, conquered, defeated, and crushed by the goodness of Christ.

Dear saints, this text is calling us to do the hardest thing in this broken world – to overcome evil with good. In other words, this text is calling us to be like Christ. The only way to do that is to let the goodness of Christ overcome both you and the evil within you. And when evil things happen to you, remember that evil person is another one for whom Christ died. Let the love and mercy of Christ fill you and spill out to others as well. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Flight to Fight – Sermon on Matthew 2:13-23 for the Second Sunday of Christmas

Listen here.

Matthew 2:13-23

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, 
weeping and loud lamentation, 

     Rachel weeping for her children; 
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” 

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

We don’t always understand God’s ways. That’s the understatement of the year – young though it is. God’s ways and thoughts are too high and too wonderful for us to understand (Is. 55:8-9).

For example, take the Old Testament promises of the Messiah. When the wise men first came seeking Jesus because of the star, Herod asked the chief priests and scribes where the Christ was to be born (Mt. 2:1-6). The scholars told Herod that the Scriptures taught that Christ would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2). We also just heard that the Messiah would come out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1), and He would be called a Nazarene. Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazarene – no wonder people had a hard time recognizing that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Messiah. You can see how it would be hard to wrap your mind around all this without the Gospel of Matthew mapping out the fulfillment point by point.

While all of that fulfillment of Scripture could be its own sermon, that isn’t what we are going to focus on today. Instead, we are going to focus on how God’s ways and actions are so different from ours – especially when it comes to how God deals with evil.

The slaughter of the boys of Bethlehem who were two years old and under is one of the most horrific events in all of Scripture. Jesus is protected while those boys are killed. Their only “crime” is that they resemble Jesus in gender and age. We hear this and our minds are often filled with questions. “Couldn’t God have intervened?” “Why didn’t God warn all the fathers of Bethlehem in dreams?” “Why does Jesus get spared while the rest of the boys aren’t?” “Why couldn’t God just kill Herod and spare the baby boys?”

Whenever we stand face to face with evil, we ask the “why” questions. Many people use the presence of evil to argue that God is weak or doesn’t even exist. They will say that if there is a God, He certainly wouldn’t let things like this happen. If God is merciful and loving, if He is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (everywhere present), and omnipotent (all-powerful), why doesn’t God use all those “omnis” to do something about evil?

These questions have been something that humanity has wrestled with ever since the Fall into sin. Part of the reason we ask those questions is because we aren’t those “omnis” and could only deal with one evil at a time. And because we could only deal with one evil at a time, we would handle it only with punishment. But because God is all of those “omnis,” He can address evil with grace and forgiveness.

Also notice that those questions only focus on the evil of this world and spend no time considering if God has done something about evil – which He has. It’s like when a kid is having a rotten day and emphatically states, “Nothing good ever happens to me.” (I’ve been that kid.) You can try to point out the good things that have happened, but the kid dismisses all of those. And sure, if you don’t count anything good that happens in your life, it will be filled with badness and evil.

The whole book of Job deals the problem of evil and God’s goodness. I highly recommend you read Job, but when you do, know that Job’s three friends are all off base – they give wrong answers. And even Job can go a bit too far at times. But make sure listen to Job’s fourth friend, Elihu (Job 32-37). And especially listen to how God answers Job at the end of the book. Hopefully, this sermon will be a help to understand both the book Job and the goodness of God in the presence of evil. And to get to an answer to how there can be a good God when there is so much evil, you have to go back to the fact that God’s ways and thoughts are higher and more wonderful than ours.

First of all, when we consider evil in the light of God’s goodness, we have to remember that we cannot blame God for the evil in the world because God is not to blame. Secondly, and more importantly, God has addressed, overcome, and defeated evil, but not in the way we would expect. In fact, the infant Jesus being whisked away to Egypt was part of how God addressed the evil of this fallen world.

Jesus ran to Egypt to be God’s answer to all evil. One of the key verses to understanding all of this is Romans 12:21 which says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Hear that again, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is how the Gospel always works and how it has to work because you cannot force good into evil.

In His omnipotence, God had the power to wipe out sin right away when Adam and Eve fell. But He is not that kind of god. That kind of god would not be the God of the Bible. The God who created you is a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Ex. 34:6-7). So, to overcome the evil in this fallen, sinful world, God did something unimaginably good. And in His goodness, He came to earth to deal an eternal blow to all evil.

Jesus fled from Herod, not because He was allowing Herod to continue being an evil, bloodthirsty, power monger. Instead, Jesus came to save even wicked King Herod from his evil.

On His journey to and from Egypt, Jesus passed by Mt. Sinai where He gave the Law which condemned the sins of Herod and your sins. And Christ came to keep and fulfill that Law because you and the Herods of this world couldn’t keep it. Because of His love for you, Jesus fled from His homeland so that you and all sinners could return to yours. Jesus made Himself a sojourner and refugee so that you and all humanity could have an eternal home.

The flight to Egypt looks like weakness, but it is not. It shows Christ’s almighty power. Don’t forget that the humble, helpless Infant traveling through the wilderness is the Creator of heaven and earth. In His extreme humility, God came down to earth, to stand in your place, to fulfill the Law on your behalf, and to suffer and die with your evil and sin laid upon Himself. Without His humility, everyone would be eternally bound to our sin and evil. In other words, Jesus’ flight to Egypt is how God fights evil. He flees this evil in order to fight and defeat all evil for all time. Again, His ways are not our ways.

Whenever you see and experience evil, resist the temptation to focus and dwell on the evil. Instead, focus on Jesus. And in the context of this text, focus on that Child who is the object of God’s attention. Jesus is whisked off to Egypt to escape the sword of Herod. Christ couldn’t die by Herod’s sword; He had to die on the cross. Jesus is God’s Child, the promised Seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent and deal decisively with sin, death, and evil once for all.

Saving those baby boys of Bethlehem would have spared them and their mothers’ tears, but it would not have saved them or the world from sin and damnation. If we can discern anything at all about God’s plan and agenda, it’s that He’s committed to saving the entire world – not just bits and pieces of it. God isn’t content with saving just a handful of people here and there – He’s after the world, the entire cosmos. He created everything by His Word, He intends to redeem and save all people from their sins by Jesus, the Word made flesh.

Seeing how God delivers the world from evil by overcoming it with the good of Jesus dying and rising again, that stands as a call for us to follow His example. We are so quick to want to get back at those who have wronged us, but that is precisely why we are in the mess we are in today.

So, what do we do with the baby killing Herods who appear to become more and more emboldened? How do we defeat their evil designs? How do we join with God to overcome the evil of our day?

We do it with good. We love who persecute and slander us (Mt. 5:44; 1 Pet. 3:9). We love the sinners for whom Jesus died (Ro. 12:20; 1 Tim. 2:1-4). We pray for their conversion to the truth while we confess the saving truth to them. And as our Epistle text (1 Pet. 4:12-19) said when we suffer according to God’s will we entrust our souls to our faithful Creator while we do good (v. 19).

Just as the almighty God hid His power under the appearance of weakness while Jesus fled from Herod’s anger, God still today hides His almighty power under the humble forms that the Gospel takes among us. God’s Word is still powerful to save sinners and to usher them into Christ’s kingdom of grace.

And here and now, God brings the power of the Gospel to us sinners. Here, Christ feeds you with His Body and Blood to deliver to you the forgiveness He has won for you. And with this holy Sacrament, He strengthens you to go and do good to your neighbor even when it is difficult. So, come. Be fed, be forgiven, and be strengthened to overcome evil with the goodness that Christ pours into you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.