“Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”

—Matthew 18:10

Angels have long fascinated our culture. However, the sweet, chubby cherubs plastered all over Valentine’s Day merchandise aren’t an accurate representation of these heavenly beings.

Angels are mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. Scripture indicates that they were created for two purposes: to serve and glorify God and to minister to and protect human beings.

On Sunday, my husband preached a sermon in preparation for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, which is celebrated on September 29 each year. I want to share his words with you, as an encouraging reminder that Jesus has already defeated sin, death, and hell for us. Hallelujah!

In His love,

Amanda

xoxo

P.S. If you prefer to listen to the sermon, or want to listen as you read along, you can access the recording from my church’s Facebook page. The sermon begins around the 31-minute mark.

“The Spiritual War of Words”

Daniel 10:10–14; 12:1–3; Revelation 12:7–12; Luke 10:17–20

“Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.” So we pray in the morning and evening prayers from our Small Catechism. They’re beautiful prayers that send you out for the day and keep you in for the night with the truth that spiritual war is real. That not everything is what you see or measure. That you have a body and a soul that are so valuable that demons have their own designs for you. Designs even for the rulers of nations, for we hear that Michael the archangel came to the aid of Daniel’s heavenly visitor because the “prince of the kingdom of Persia” had withstood him; and just out of view of our reading, he also mentions the “prince of Greece” (Da 10:20). But these aren’t worldly princes. The “kings of Persia” are just what we might think. But Michael is “one of the chief princes,” meaning one of the chief angels. So the “prince of the kingdom of Persia” was a demon, a fallen angel, one who rebelled against God after creation, one who inspired the human kings of Persia to wickedness (cf. Jud 6; Eph 2:2). He’s a demon who entered the counsel of rulers so good might be hindered and evil aided and the truth of God silenced. Many call that ancient superstition… but we’ll take our stand with Daniel, who simply records the truth of God at the behest of God.

There’s an idea that God created the universe and set things in motion and then walked away as if He no longer has any interest in creation. But we know that’s false—God is very concerned with the world, even “uphold[ing] the universe by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3). And as little as we can say God is unconcerned with the world, we can say the same about demons. They want the world. They wanna take it. They wanna rule it so they can destroy it. When Satan showed Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, [he] said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours’” (Lk 4:5–7). The kingdoms of the world weren’t really Satan’s to give, but he tempted Jesus to forsake His Father and gain His glory by sidestepping the cross, which would doom every man to hell. God with His angels work to purify and edify; Satan with his angels work to defile and destroy. So when Jesus asked the possessed boy’s father, “‘How long has this [demonic attack] been happening to him?’ [The father] said, ‘From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him’” (Mk 9:21–22). That’s their goal: to destroy both body and soul. Because the demon might kill a body, but to grow despair to the point of losing faith in God is the greater destruction. So demons become princes of Persia and princes of Greece because they know that civil rulers are the fathers of nations whose authority can affect millions at a time. They can kill millions or—perhaps better yet—cast them into gulags where despair runs rampant so faith might be lost.

So demons love to inspire fathers of nations. They also love to inspire fathers of families. And they’ve been pretty successful, because before we talk about fathers leading their households to Christ, we gotta talk about getting fathers back into the household! Today, one in four children in America don’t have a father at home—that’s 18 million kids.[1] And they even have us believing that this is progress: believing that society’s better off if kids are raised by the government, believing that women are more empowered when they do it all themselves. Satan strikes at the father of a nation because the impact is broad and he strikes at the father of a family because the impact is deep. He strikes at fathers of families because family is where faith begins, and a father is the head: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4). Do we see the spiritual war at the level of nations? How about at the level of families? How about at the level of each one of you? Because the demons have designs, and they want nothing less than for you to lose faith so you might be destroyed, body and soul.

“Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.” That’s not some final-days battle yet to come. It already took place… and it ended in your favor! Jesus went to the cross, shedding His own blood in battle (cf. Jn 12:31)! He died for your sin such that your “accuser has been thrown down” and you “conquer him by the blood of the Lamb.” The death of Christ was the victory of Christ, and His victory is your victory through faith in His blood (cf. Rev 5:5; 1 Jn 5:4). It’s true that blood is still shed in the midst of spiritual war—the martyrs “love not their lives even unto death.” But the blood that avails all judgment has been shed—the blood of Christ—and “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come”—the authority that drives the devil away by simple words. Michael and his angels didn’t fight Satan with swords and spears—although I love our bulletin cover!—that kind of militaristic image helps remind you of the war that took place and the totality of the victory. But when the same Michael fought the devil for the body of Moses, he simply said, “The Lord rebuke you” (Jud 9). When Jesus fought the devil on behalf of all men, He simply said, “It is written” (Lk 4:4, 8, 10). When a pastor serves in the stead of Christ against the devil’s accusation, he simply says, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” When demons engage in spiritual warfare, Michael and his angels are there to surround you and rebuke them with the word of God, which you also voice in “the word of [your] testimony.” If there’s a sword to swing, it’s “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17; cf. Heb 4:12).

So even the seventy-two apostles returned and said, “the demons are subject to us in your name!” Did they perform exorcisms with a sword? Did they cut a man open by scalpel and extract the evil one? Or did they imitate our Lord Jesus and send demons packing with a word of rebuke and prayer (Lk 4:35; 9:42; Mk 9:29)? “Yes,” Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven when My word cast out demons. I saw Satan dethroned because sins were forgiven. And now nothing shall hurt you”—not in some absolute sense of having no trouble here on earth (cf. Rev 12:12), but in the truth that forgiveness by the blood of Christ is victory over your greatest enemy. That as great as it is that demons might be made “subject to you,” greater still is that “your names are written in heaven” through the death of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: “We thank You, our heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept us this night from all harm and danger; and we pray that You would keep us this day also from sin and every evil, that all our doings and life may please You. For into Your hands we commend ourselves, our bodies and souls, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with us, that the evil foe may have no power over us. Amen.”

[1] https://www.fatherhood.org/father-absence-statistic

Scripture quotations used in the sermon text taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Archangel Michael Overthrowing Lucifer, Francesco Maffei (circa 1656)

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