Third Sunday in Lent (1891)

Christ now executes His work through his Christendom. "What I on earth have done and taught/Guide all your life and teaching", etc.1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me...", etc.2 "The fact is that the Christian church carries forward its office even further than Christ did. He preached in only a small corner of the Jewish homeland, driving out Satan, converting but few through His preaching. The Christian church, in contrast, is spread throughout the world and pursues its office of preaching and administering the sacraments with the help of the Lord Christ, who is the church's Head and sits at the right hand of God, punishing the devil and his wicked works continuously, now at this place, tomorrow at another."3 Even the work that our Gospel today reports, etc. Luke 11:14-28 The expulsion of the devil - a work that still continually happens in Christendom; let me show you, 1. how certain this truth is, a. the means by which the Lord still does this work are the means of grace, in which He has put the once accomplished salvation from the devil's power: . the Word; "The Holy Spirit accompanies the Word, to enlighten, kindle faith, cleanse, and free people from the devil's power and rule"4; . through baptism; "Every child that comes into this world is born into the kingdom of the devil, the lord of death, who exercises his sway through sin's tyranny. But upon Christ's command we bring a child to holy baptism, speak the words of promise which He commanded, and the child is born anew into God's kingdom; and the devil must yield and get out. God's grace, through Christ, is spoken by God to the child, inasmuch as he or she is baptized into Christ's death"5; . through absolution; "When a person whom the devil has greatly overwhelmed and seared with many accusations comes to me with heavy heart and troubled conscience seeking comfort and instruction, I have the mandate, as does every Christian, to comfort my brother and pronounce God's grace, for Christ's sake, upon him. The devil must yield, not to me, a poor and wretched sinner, but to the Word which the Lord Christ left us upon earth"6; . through the holy Supper; "When your conscience is weak and terrified, therefore, and you are unable to grasp tightly enough the comfort that God graciously wants you to have, the forgiveness of sins, then know that Christ has given the Lord's
LSB 556:10. John 14:12. 3 Luther's House Postil for Lent 3, Vol. 1, page 331. 4 ibid, p. 330. 5 ibid, p. 330. 6 ibid, p. 330-331.
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Supper, His true body and blood to eat and to drink, so that you have no reason further to doubt that His body was given for your sins and His blood poured out for your transgressions. Where such faith and trust are present, there it is impossible for the devil to dwell and hold sway"7; b. the people are preachers and in general pious Christians who administer and make use of these means of grace, i.e. people who Satan first himself has brought down; the Lord used these people in order to mock the proud enemy; "We must thank God from the bottom of our hearts for such grace, given us by our dear Lord Christ, to empower us poor mortals to drive out such a great and evil spirit."8; 2. to what end this truth should serve us, a. that we thank the Lord that He has given us this power, b. that we persevere patiently in the struggle; "That we will gladly suffer for the sake of hope, that we know that we cast him out not only here but on the last day will judge and condemn in eternity and into the abyss of hell."9 c. that we highly and greatly value the means of grace and diligently use them; "We should never speak in a derogatory or careless way about God's Word and the Holy Sacraments, as still commonly happens, and especially by philosophers."10 G.

ibid, p. 331. ibid, p. 332. 9 ibid, found in the Erlangen Ausgabe and not in the English translation from the St. Louis Edition. 10 ibid, p. 332 with additions from the Erlangen Ausgabe.
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