Though this morning’s sermon text contains some rather intriguing elements (miraculous handkerchiefs, traveling demon hunters, and wisecracking evil spirits), one theme is clearly threaded throughout both the passage and this morning’s service: God’s greatness. We will hear twice from 1 John that “He who is in you is greater than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). In the first half of the service, the psalms remind us that “the Lord is most high over all the earth; He is exalted far above all gods” (Psalm 97:9), that He is “mightier by far than noise of many waters is and great sea billows are” (Psalm 93:4), and that “Almighty power the Lord maintains, exalted over all He reigns” (Psalm 95:3-4). We read that He does “extraordinary miracles” (Acts 19:11) and that His Word will “increase and prevail mightily” (Acts 19:20), and we respond by blessing and adoring our “supreme King” and proclaiming His “sovereign power” (God, My King, Thy Might Confessing). In the second half of the service, we acknowledge the inadequacy of our own abilities in comparison to God’s, confessing that “no strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through,” and declaring that “nothing but the blood of Jesus” can make us whole and clean (Not What My Hands Have Done; Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus). The world around us contains many foes, both spiritual and physical. Instead of trusting in our own power, let us take to heart the words of our final hymn (How Great Thou Art), bowing in “humble adoration” before the God who displays His greatness by setting the universe in place and by sending His Son to die for His people.
—Henry C. Haffner
