The Festival of St. Michael and All Angels – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Matthew 18:1-10 “The Greatest, Heavenly Protection”
September 28, 2025 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God. We Thank you for sending your Son to drive the prince of darkness from this world. As the devil looks to attack us day and night, never ceasing to fire his flaming darts, protect us with your holy angels while we sleep and while awake. And may we never forget how children’s angels always see your gracious and protecting face. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 18th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who sends His holy angels to be near us and protect us from the old evil foe, dear fellow redeemed:
How do you know if you are properly protected? Are you protected because you have cameras around your house? Are you protected because you can carry a firearm per the second amendment? Are you secure because your country has a great army? Now these certainly look like they are great ways of protection, but we do know that earthly protection is not fool proof. What looks like a simple argument has the information for you to see how great the spiritual war battle is that is taking place for your soul. It can be easy to look at what is happening in the world and say that we can see it all happening, but the spiritual fighting is something you do not want to see. Imagine if you could see every single demonic attack trying to get you to spend eternity in hell with them and their leader? The world might look very grim, but you have the greatest, heavenly protection. God’s angels actively protect you from harm with His only Son winning the war for you.
Even though we only hear about the heavenly messengers who protect you in the last verses of our text, it is in the beginning where we see how important it is that we have angels around us. Jesus’ disciples have watched, getting a firsthand glimpse of the spiritual warfare that is around Christ and His followers, and instead of having that be their focus, they wonder which one of them has good leadership qualities in this fight. And in their wondering of course, like any brothers, has turned into fighting. At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” This is an easy question to ask. They see how worldly kingdoms lay out all of their rules. They are on the bottom, the religious leaders are above them, and the Roman government is at the top. Seeing this, it only makes sense that God would have some kind of order of operations like this. And if they are the direct followers of the guy who will rule over all things, then it looks like they will be important people in heaven. Better yet, wouldn’t it be easier if one of them was just named the most important?
These sound like they should be very valid points of conversation. And as we are hearing on the news, is there anything wrong with a little bit of argument among one another? Of course, there is a problem if we are having arguments with one another. The disciples should know who the battle is set against. Well, just like their enemies, they are vying for positions of power and authority. The devil is currently winning this skirmish and now looks to use Jesus’ own followers as a temptation. Who will Jesus pick as the greatest in heaven? Who is worthy to be the greatest? The disciples are about to find out a hard truth of the hierarchy of the kingdom of heaven. Now, they will have importance, but the importance they will have is not based on anything earthly. If Jesus wants to have a strong kingdom like an earthly one, the disciples don’t cut it when Jesus has thousands upon thousands of angels who will gladly and fearfully protect the Son of God and carry out His good and perfect will. I bet you never thought there was so much to look at with the simple question, who is the greatest in the kingdom?
Now Jesus doesn’t go directly to the heavenly hosts. And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Wait a minute. In heaven, you have all the heavenly hosts. There are the prophets who have gone to heaven, the Apostles who have gone to heaven, the church Fathers, all these great men and Jesus put a child in the midst of them. When we were children, one of the first things we couldn’t wait for was to grow up. And as we are now fully grown and happy to be fully grown, we have had days when we wished we were young again to avoid responsibilities. I’m sure we can look back on things we did in our childhood and know we are happy to not have to live some of those days or events. With the world, it does look better to not be so childish and yet, Jesus says this is what the greatest in the kingdom looks like.
Now if you catch it, you see it’s not about being a child, but about being humble like a child. A humility which can be very hard to imitate. As Jesus tells this to His disciples, He tells us also, there needs to be an attitude change. Our society very much wants us to be a “self above all” society. If we do this “self above all,” the reality is we will forget about our neighbors. This is exactly what our spiritual enemy wants. His evil darts work hard to raise our pride above our humility, and we don’t realize how many times he has beaten us in those skirmishes. Jesus teaches how we must watch out for even our smallest neighbors. “Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” As we heard how we should remove limbs and it would be better off to die because of sin, we now see how under siege we are. We constantly need to look for spiritual protection and as we hear from Christ, this can’t be done on our end.
It would take some time for the Apostles to understand it, but St. Paul would write to the church who the clear enemy is. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). The disciples weren’t going to go and combat the world with swords, spears, or club. The enemy wasn’t their neighbor as the sinful world trains to see. The enemy is the spiritual and only spiritual weapon, the Word made flesh defeats all his attacks. While this enemy tries to spread darkness, the light of the world cannot be overcome. And it certainly wasn’t. The light burned bright as Jesus was lifted up on the cross, driving the prince of darkness away. As Jesus stands in the way of the accuser, the angels of heaven defend this truth by keeping him and his followers at bay.
This great, heavenly protection does not take place in the spiritual realm only. The disciples witnessed Jesus’ miracles destroy sins schemes. As He tells mankind how all of these body parts cause the people to sin against God, the perfect protector, healed bodies from disease and paralysis. God’s will continue to reveal His divine mercy from above. And while we may not see a miracle of healing, we know that the miracle of divine protection is constantly at work around us. Jesus told His disciples how Satan had asked Him to be able to sift them like wheat. Not only did Jesus pray for them, but it is in these scenarios where the angels of the Lord add to the protection of God’s people. The world tirelessly worked against Jesus’ power, hoping to win and strike a blow, but Jesus never failed in His work and continues to point out through Word and Sacraments the victory found over all spiritual evil.
The victory that you have because Christ’s work in the world, provides you with the courage and fortitude to stand against the devil and his schemes. Those dreaded darts that continuously fly at you cannot destroy you and should not overwhelm you. To give you more relief, Jesus reveals to you that His many, many helpers are not sitting idly by. These little ones in the world who need the most protection have the greatest, heavenly protection. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” This is so great to imagine our little family members surrounded by the heavenly host that go directly to the Father for their orders. And now that you have grown all up, these protections, thankfully, haven’t left you. There are still angels watching over you so that your feet do not stumble. They are trained for combat and until you are called to your heavenly home, they will never stop or give up.
While they maintain their humility to help you, it can be easy for pride to try and poke its way in as the chief sin. The divine helpers sent down from above do not help you improve your kingdom’s rank. The humility of a child comes with a price. It means the world will see you as something separate. And this is exactly how it looked for your greatest and heavenly protection. It looked at His humility as something to be rivaled and extinguished. But it was God’s will for your protection to be extinguished on the cross. It was His will to redeem you, and it is His will for His fierce warriors to protect you with this message of truth. It is a message that may see your life cut down early. Yet, it defends your soul from the one who looks to take it. It points out how you have many dangers to lose your limbs because of the transgressions you may commit. And as your enemies look to hold your mistakes over you, you see the shield of faith standing firm in front of you a heavenly and divine defense. The spiritual realm and the battles that are witnessed will feel grim, but as children of God, the heavenly hosts defend you. Pointing you always to why they do it as you celebrate with them in your Savior’s death on the cross, which is your greatest, heavenly protection. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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