Recently I visited our brothers and sisters in Palanga, Lithuania (see picture), where the Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Church invited me to lead two conferences on spiritual warfare. Why is that necessary? Our Savior grows His Kingdom around the globe through Word and Sacrament. And yet Satan is always trying to hinder this process. How can the devil still do this? After all, Jesus Christ has defeated him! Perhaps the following illustration is helpful. Your favorite football team has crushed the opponent 1,000 to 0—just as Jesus defeated Satan on the cross and in the empty tomb. You think the game is over, but to your surprise, the referee announces that play will continue for another 15 minutes. How will the opposing team react? They will fight their hardest to score at least one touchdown— their consolation prize, if you will. That is comparable to the period in which we now find ourselves—at a certain point between Jesus’ Ascension and return at the Last Day. The outcome is clear. Jesus won. Yet our illustration demonstrates that even though Christ defeated Satan, the evil one still wants to get back at Jesus by destroying or at least afflicting the next best thing: Christians. The devil attacks us by leveraging our sinful flesh, the sinful world, and on very rare occasions, he even might accost us personally—through demons. Our best protection against Satan and his forces of evil is to be baptized, to stay away from the devil’s environment, and to remain connected to Christ by receiving the Lord’s Supper every week and reading our Bible frequently, ideally every day. “Put on the *whole* armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil,” Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:11. That is how Jesus protects you, regardless of whether you are from the United States, Germany, Lithuania, Iran, Afghanistan, or wherever. And praise Jesus for His victory over Satan!
The Tiews in Germany 