Easter 7 The Sunday after the Ascension May 28, 2017
Easter 7
John 15:26—16:4
May 28, 2017
“It’s a Trap”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“I have said these things to keep you from falling away.” The Greek word there for “falling away” is a really important word in the Bible. It could be translated to keep you from “stumbling/being offended/going astray”. We get the English word “scandal” from it. It’s Greek skandalon. Jesus doesn’t want you to be “scandalized”. To fall away.
Some Greek dictionaries say that the root of this word comes from a device in animal traps. The skandalon, they say, is the little triggering device in the trap where you set the bait. You know the little mouse traps, right? You set the little piece of cheese or a little bit of peanut butter on the skandalon, and then when the mouse tries to eat it the trap flips.
So Jesus has told us these things to keep us from falling away, that is, from being trapped and losing faith. In this case Jesus is like a mother mouse teaching her little youngsters to beware of those deadly traps with the cheese and peanut butter. Jesus doesn’t want you getting trapped in the devil’s snares and falling away from the faith. He doesn’t want you to fall away from Him. Ever, ever, ever.
This word also takes another meaning in the Scriptures of a rock that is thrown into your path that trips you and makes you fall. We have this expression, “throwing a wrench in the gears” which is a similar idea. Jamming up the process. Jesus says that He Himself is a stumbling block (this same Greek word) to those who would gain heaven by their own works. But He’s telling you and I that we must be aware of the rocks, the wrenches, the traps that Satan will throw in our path to trip us and make us stumble from following Jesus.
So…what are these traps that we little mice need to be aware of? What are the rocks we need to watch out for? There are many. There are many sufferings, there are many temptations, and there are many sins that can trap us, trip us, and make us fall away from Jesus. We’ll talk about a few of those in a minute. But the main one that Jesus talks about in chapter 15 is that the world will hate you. And this is a really hard one for us.
First, let me give you His words so you know what I mean. Jesus says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” You are different. You might as well just accept it and get on with it. You, as a Christian, are different.
Oh, but we don’t like to be different. We’d rather just fit in. We’d rather be like everybody else. We’d rather be in harmony with the rest of the world and our culture. But we’re not. We’re different. We’re not “of the world”, as Jesus says, which is to say that our cares and virtues are not the same as the world’s. Because of this, there will be times where the world will hate us. This fact alone has caused many, many Christians to fall away. To be trapped. To stumble and go astray.
This is the devil’s trap, you see. And Jesus is telling you to watch out for it. Yes, the world isn’t always going to like you. I know that’s hard for us to accept. But how many Christians have fallen away from Jesus simply because the world has convinced them that Christians are weird? The world says that the Church is out of touch, out of date, stuck in old traditions, you name it. The world has said, “We hate your Church’s stupid rules and liturgies and customs and antiquated beliefs. We hate your Church’s teachings on sexuality. We hate your Church’s teachings on marriage. We hate your Church’s teaching on sin.”
Satan’s got that trap all baited and ready for us. And we walk right into it and say, “Oh man, we must be wrong if the world doesn’t like what we’re saying.” And we begin to question these teachings of Jesus and question if we really need to go to Church and question if the Church really knows anything about anything. And…we fall away. How many times have we seen it happen?
It’s happening right now in droves amongst our young people. You’ve heard the statistics, right? How many children who are confirmed in the Church don’t come back in high school and college? It’s astounding. And a lot of it is simply because they get out in the world and the world says, “We hate all that stuff you learned in Church.”
The world will hate us. If you’re a young person in here today, a high schooler, a college student, one of our students just confirmed not long ago—please hear me. There will be times that the world will not like you at all, even hate you, simply because you’re a Christian and you believe God’s Word in the Scriptures. It will happen. If any of us can’t accept that, then we too will walk into Satan’s trap. And we will fall away from Jesus. The world will hate us simply because the world hates Jesus. Why? Because the world is full of sinners like us. Because we sinners love ourselves too much and we love sin more than we love Jesus. It’s as simple as that. And Jesus is a threat to all of us sinners who would like to have everything our way. So our natural reaction is to hate Him. And for those of us who do turn and believe in Him, you can count that the world will hate us also.
But don’t walk into this trap. Don’t fall away, dear Christians. Jesus has told you all of this beforehand so that when these things happen, you’ll be ready for them. Yes, there will be plenty of times the world hates you for being a Christian. Yes, there’ll be plenty of times the world says that you’re dumb and hateful for believing the Bible. That’s okay. It just means that the devil is working really hard. But you don’t need to be afraid. You have Jesus. He is the truth. You’re not on the wrong side.
And you have something, Christians, so much stronger than the world’s hatred. You have the love of Jesus. You know what else Jesus says in John chapter 15, right before He talks about the world hating us? He says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” Jesus talks about love.
Jesus’ love is stronger than any trap the devil sets for you. It’s stronger than any hatred the world can throw at you. Jesus loves you, friends. He laid down His life for His friends. And you are His friend. We are all His friends. We have Jesus and we have each other.
You know that 10 of these disciples that Jesus was talking to were all killed for their faith in Jesus? Judas committed suicide, of course. And John died of old age. But the other ten were all martyred. The world hated them. But it was okay. Because they had the love of Jesus. And they laid down their life for their friends. For you and me even. So that we, too, wouldn’t fall away but would remain steadfast in Jesus.
Don’t fall away, friends. I’m begging you. These are traps that Satan sets to kill your soul. Don’t fall away.
Listen to Peter in the Epistle. “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” As you face all of Satan’s traps, Peter tells you to keep loving earnestly. Funny…that’s what Jesus said too?! Hmmm…
Love covers sins. Hatred doesn’t. The world tries to cover up its sins with righteous hatred. Doesn’t work. You can’t cover sins with hatred. Or anger. You can’t cover sins with anything but love. The love of Jesus flowing to us in His Word and Sacraments. There’s the solution to sin. There’s the solution to hatred. Love.
Keep yourself in the love of Jesus—which means keep yourself in His Word and in the Lord’s Supper and talking to Him in prayer—and you will be able to keep from falling away from Jesus. Don’t fall away, friends. Keep in the love of Jesus.
With a little bit of time left this morning, we’ll talk about a few other traps that the devil is setting for you. One special trap today is busyness. We must be aware of this trap. When we’re too busy, then we have no time to think of the more long-term, more important, more complex things of life. Don’t fall away from Jesus because of the trap of busyness. Clear out your schedule. Very few things should be more important on Sunday morning than Church and Bible Study. Very few things on your daily schedule should be more important than prayer and devotions. If you have no time for devotions, prayer, or Church—then other things are taking God’s place. Repent and clear out your schedule. Don’t fall away.
Another trap is the individualism of our culture. Everything is about “me”. We think the goal of life is to be entertained non-stop. If something doesn’t make us feel good, it must be wrong. And so the devil sets the trap. Church is boring and doesn’t make me feel good—therefore it must be wrong. Church isn’t really all about me—it’s about Jesus and about others—therefore it doesn’t appeal to me. So we fall away. Don’t get trapped in this snare of me, me, me.
Another trap the devil is setting is this lie that everything should go right because we’re Christians. That’s a lie and a deadly trap for the soul. If you think all Christians are perfect and everything goes perfectly for them—you’ve been trapped. Instead, all Christians are sinners and we will all face much adversity in this life. That’s where we connect to Jesus. In our suffering, we are side by side with our Savior Jesus. Our lives will not be perfect. They will be lives of sin and forgiveness. Lives of repentance. That’s what Jesus has called us to.
Satan has many traps. Jesus is our mother mouse warning us about them. Why? Because Jesus doesn’t want you to fall away. Jesus doesn’t want to lose you. Jesus loves you. He is the Truth. Anything or anyone that tells you otherwise is a trap of the devil. Let the world hate us—it doesn’t matter. Because Jesus love covers everything. Love covers a multitude of sins. Don’t fall away from Jesus’ love. In His name. Amen.