In Jesus Holy Name May 27, 2007
Text: Matthew 6:13 Easter VII - Redeemer
“Deliver Us from the Evil One”
6th in the Series: “Prayer: Connecting to Our Father”
(read text)
The words in Matthew that we just shared are a correct translation of the Greek text. When you and I pray: “deliver us from the evil one”, we are admitting that this life is a struggle with an evil spiritual enemy who opposes us and the work of Christ in our midst.
The Lord’s Prayer recognizes evil as a deadly fact. Josh McDowell in his book “Understanding the Occult” writes: According two the bible there is a supernatural warfare going on. ‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness…against the spiritual forces of wickedness… (Eph. 6:12) This ongoing battle is between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. The apostle John gives one of the reasons for Jesus coming to earth: “The son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil.” (I John 3:8) (read) (Also read Mark 1:21ff)
Unfortunately many Christians do not stop to consider that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. Part of the problem is that we live in a culture that seeks to fictionalize the existence of the “Evil One.”
According to the Barna Research Group 60% of Americans do not believe Satan to be a living being…. The modern world view has made it socially dangerous to admit belief in demonic spiritual powers, but Jesus had no problem talking & confronting Satan’s activity in the world. Our culture resolutely refuses to believe in the real existence of evil while our newspapers are filled with a flood of immorality, violence, drug abuse, slavery, and behaviors that destroy human life.
As eastern and New Age religions take a firmer hold on the American soul there is a growing body of people who believe in demonic powers…and so we see the rise of the Church of Satan. The U.S. Army even has a chaplain for the Church of Satan. Muslins and Hindus have no problem believing in the reality of an evil spiritual force. Anglican Michael Green observes. “It would be broadly true to say that disbelief in the devil is a characteristic only of materialistic Western Christendom.”
The bible tells us that there “was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon … and the great dragon was hurled down to earth, that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan who leads the world astray.” (Rev. 12:9)
The purpose of the devil is to make us scorn and despise both the Word and works of God. His desire is to tear us away from the worship and love of God and draw us to unbelief, drive us to despair, atheism and other sins.
In the beginning, mankind was originally given authority over the Creation. God said: “let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth.” God’s grant of authority and dominion over the earth to mankind was a bona fide gift. His world is ruled by law and the laws of nature.
When Adam and Eve “fumbled the gift” and lost it by giving in to Satan’s temptation, they lost their legal rights and Satan now holds people in his grip of the fear of death.
The arrival of Jesus, the visible presence of the invisible God is how God the Father chose to reverse the curse of sin and death. Jesus was an authentic member of the human race, born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit, he lived a perfectly moral life and never sinned. (Col. 1:15 & Heb. 4:14,15)
Satan’s plan and strategy was to persuade or compel Jesus to disobey God the Father and Creator. The destiny of the world hung in the balance.
From Bethlehem to Calvary the spiritual war raged. Satan sought the death of Jesus, as an infant in Bethlehem, using Herod the Great to carry out his plan. In the wilderness Satan tempted Jesus three times, the third temptation was a blatant offer of power. (read Matthew 4:8-11)
Jesus was keenly aware of the spiritual battle that He was engaged in on earth as he accomplished the will of the Father. Satan was offering Jesus a short cut to glory. Jesus overcame the temptation with the “word of God.”
Through the influence of Satan the Pharisees and Scribes constantly challenged Jesus’ authority. Matthew chapter 12 records this event. “the people brought to Jesus a demon possessed man who was both blind and mute and Jesus healed him. (read the text – Matthew 12:25-29)
In the Garden of Gethsemane Satan came to dissuade Jesus from the cross. Even when Jesus was hanging on the cross Satan, through the Pharisees encouraged Jesus to “come down” and they tempted him by saying they would believe. But that was not God’s plan to redeem human beings. Jesus offered his perfect life as a sacrifice for our sin. God accepted his sacrifice. On the cross where Jesus died, God transferred to Jesus all our sin and gave to us all of his perfect obedience. It was a gift to humanity by a God of love.
“God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8) Now, by placing our faith and trust in Jesus we can stand before a holy and righteous eternal judge, without blemish, without spot, without sin.”
It is the death and resurrection of Jesus from the grave that makes these words true. Satan knows he was defeated by the cross and the resurrection; but he still carries on guerrilla warfare against the Church and those who claim the name Christian.
Because of this unending guerrilla warfare Jesus teaches us to pray for his protection. We pray: “Lord, do not allow temptation to come our way….and deliver us from the daily attacks of the Evil One.
James 1:13 reads: “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire is dragged away and enticed.” God does allow trials but he never tempts us to do evil….that is against his nature.
So, what does it mean when we pray this phrase: “lead us not into temptation”?
When we pray, “lead us not into temptation” we are asking God to “give us power and strength to resist, even though the trial or tribulation is now removed. To feel temptation is quite a different thing from consenting and yielding to it. Luther expands these words with this phrase, which I find quite helpful. “Dear Father, You have commanded me to pray, let me not fall because of temptation.” But deliver me from the Evil One. For if we do not call up on God to protect and support us we would not be safe from Satan for a single hour.
Satan is the adversary of God. Satan was a created being, one who disguises himself as an “angel of light”. Satan and other demonic forces are not equal to God, nor can they exercise any power over any of us that we do not allow.
God is good and he does promise to save us from the temptations of this world. His Holy Spirit indwells in every believer. God has given the Christian the example of Jesus, regarding the way we can defeat Satan’s evil influence. 1) Just as Jesus used the word of God in the wilderness so, we too are admonished to use the word of God. James wrote: “therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Our best defense against the devil is a right relationship with God. Commit your heart to God. The Psalmist wrote:
“Let those who love the Lord hate evil.
For he guards the lives of his faithful ones.” Ps. 97:10
Jesus warned us: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” Paul tells us: “Put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against our adversary the devil.”
The belt of truth. It is truth that holds all that we believe in place. Since Satan depends on deception to maintain his power …our first line of defense is to know the truth. Jesus died and rose from the grave… He empowers us with the gifts of His Spirit.
The breastplate of righteousness. It is righteousness that protects us in our relationship with God and one another.
The shield of faith. The Roman soldiers shield was of sufficient size that he could take shelter behind it, from the arrow of the enemy. Faith in the word of God is sufficient to quench the arrows of Satan.
The helmet of Salvation. It is the knowledge that we are saved provides protection from Satan’s two edged sword of discouragement and doubt.
Jesus invites us to pray to God our heavenly father. When we pray the “Lord’s Prayer” we are asking that his will be done in our midst. We are asking that his name be kept holy and not dishonored. We acknowledge that we are totally dependent on him for he is the provider of our daily bread. We are challenged to imitate Jesus when we offer forgiveness to others because we have been forgiven. When we pray: “lead us not into temptation”, we are simply asking that he will direct our path away from the daily temptations that Satan places in our path to divert us from walking a path that honors God. We pray that Satan’s activity would be bound and have not influence in our lives or those for whom we pray.
