How To Face Satan Series

Which is Suffering? Is it the Judgment of God or the Jaws of the lion? The answer is: it’s both. It was both in the life of Job (cf. Job 1:12, 21; 2:7, 10), and it was both in the life of Paul. Paul says his “thorn in the flesh” was given to him to keep him humble (implied, by God). But he calls it a “messenger of Satan” (2 Corinthians 12:7). If God is sovereign over all things, including Satan, which He is, then God has a different design than Satan does. When Christians suffer, the devil’s design is destructive pain. But God’s design — in the very same suffering — is constructive purification and holiness and power. The devil aims to devour while God aims to empower and purify and prepare for glory.

Again, you ask, “Is this just a Game?” A few minutes ago, I asked, “Is Jesus stronger than the devil?” And I answered my question by saying that Jesus is at least ten million times stronger than the devil. As Revelation 2:10 points out, God tests us as the devil attempts to destroy us. There are a thousand things that God is doing every time something painful happens to you. Most of these you do not know or understand. Job, Joseph, and Esther did not know what God was doing in their losses. But there is always one thing you can know God is doing when pain comes into your life. This is something you can settle with God ahead of time. He is always testing you. If the test leads to your death, as it did for some of the Christians in Smyrna, Jesus wants you to know something ahead of time.

“You will receive the crown of life.” That means he will raise you from the dead and will crown you with the kind of everlasting joy in His presence that will make up for your loses ten-thousand-fold. Passing the test means loving God to the very end. Loss and pain are coming into your life, but Jesus is infinitely stronger than the devil. So even if the devil is causing it, as he did in Smyrna, Jesus is letting it happen. One of those reasons is always testing, namely, the testing of our faith and our love for him.

Conclusion:

Notice the apparent contradiction in the following verses: “Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.” (Luke 22:3-6).

In order that Jesus might be crucified, Jesus preplanned that Satan would enter Judas in order for Judas to betray Jesus. We know of Jesus’ preplanning because the OT predicts Judas’ betrayal. Nevertheless, Jesus came to destroy something. “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). In order for Jesus to destroy the works of the devil, which is sin, Jesus used the devil’s work against him in his own destruction. The night Jesus was arrested, satanic power was in full force (Luke 22:31). And Jesus spoke into that situation one of His most controlling (sovereign) words: He said to those who came to arrest him in the dark, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:52-53).