OPEN: (Played an ApologetiX CD featuring “The Devil Went Down to The Jordan” while showing the lyrics on the overhead projector)
The devil went down to the Jordan
He was lookin’ for a show to steal
He was in a bind cause Jesus came to find
The people willing to make it real.
And he came upon the Son of Man
Saw He had no vittles and was prayin’ to God
Then the devil jumped upon the chance to temp Him
Said “Boy let me tell ya it’s hot!”
“I guess you didn’t know it but I’m a vittle craver too
And kid I’m scare this desert air might get the best of you
Now you ain’t been eatin’ your vittles boy
But kid your dinner is due
So if you’re really God’s son, then turn these stones
To bread and I’ll butter it for you.
The Lord said “I am hungry, but that would be a sin
“Cause it ain’t by bread man’s gonna be fed
“But by the Word God’s given him.”
John the Baptist washed the Lord and there’s where it all starts
Cause Jesus left the Jordan and the devil hit Him hard
And if He wins we get to walk on heaven’s streets of gold
But if He sins, the devil gets your soul.
The devil took Him up in space and said “Christ start to throw
Yourself off of this temple top as I’m watchin’ from below
Cause I’m sure You know that God will bring
All His angels to assist
And then men would believe that You’re Him
If they saw You did something like this”
When the devil finished, Jesus said
“Well you’re temptin’ God, old son
And it’s written down in that book right there
That thing shouldn’t ever be don:
Shout from the mountain what God’s done
The devil ain’t a match for the rising Son
You can never tempt God, did you not know
Man doesn’t live by bread alone
Devil finally said “Jesus, if You’ll just worship me
Then I’ll give you gold that glitters
All these crowns, and all You see”
Jesus said “Devil, just turn on back
Cause I’m never gonna buy your scam
I love God too much, I’m gonna resist
I’d suggest you’d better scram!”
And we say - Shout from the mountain what God’s done
The devil ain’t a match for the rising Son
You can never tempt God, did you not know
Man doesn’t live by bread alone.
(Parody of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” performed by The Charlie Daniels Band and written by J.T. Crain Jr., W.J. DiGregoria, F.L. Edwards, C.F. Hayward, J.W. Marshal, and C. Daniels)
APPLY: Throughout Scripture we find Satan described as the deceiver:
· We find him disguised as a serpent in the Garden and tempting Eve to sin by his deception
· In 2 Corinthians 11:14 we’re told that “…Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
· Revelation 12:9 describes him as “the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.”
· And Jesus declared: “… the devil… was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44
And now, here Mt. 4 (as Jesus begins His ministry) we find Satan attempting the same approach. Three times Satan tempts Jesus, and each temptation is based upon deception aimed at getting Jesus to compromise… to accept a lesser goal than what He had set out to accomplish.
I. When C.S. Lewis sought to personify Satan in his “Tales Of Narnia” he chose to depict the power of evil in the form of a white witch
I got to thinking… why would he symbolize Satan’s power in the shape of a “white witch?”
In the world of the occult there are those who believe there are good witches and bad witches. Guess what color “good witches” are? That’s right – they’re white.
Those who accept the concept that witches can be good, use the color white because it depicts purity and goodness. It symbolizes cleansing power.
Even in Scripture white is a “GOOD” thing. For example: Isaiah 1:18 declares "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow….”
I believe Lewis’ choice of a “White Witch” to represent Satan was deliberate. I believe he was trying to declare that there was no such thing as a “good” witch. Wickedness is wickedness no matter what color you may paint it.
In fact, one of the basic tricks of Satan is to get you to believe that he is “good”. As 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us “…Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
In one part “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, Lewis wrote “it was part of (the witch’s) magic that she could make things look like what they aren’t.” p. 138
Deception is the chief weapon of Satan
· he used it on Adam and Eve
· he used it on the people of Israel
· he attempted to use it on Jesus in the desert
· AND he attempts to use it on the saved of the church
(pause…)
II. I found it interesting that Matthew 4 and Luke 4 both focused on the temptation by Satan
In both of those Gospels we’re told that this temptation followed one of the most significant events in Jesus’ life.
Jesus had just been baptized by John in the Jordan. A large crowd had gathered and Jesus had gone down into the water and was lowered into the river. And when He came out again, “the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Luke 3:22
And according to Luke 3:23 – this began Jesus’ ministry
And the first official act of His ministry was to be “…led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” (Matthew 4:1) Imagine! One of the first activities of Jesus’ ministry was to have a confrontation with Satan.
As I was preparing the sermon, I asked myself: why bother preaching about Satan? Aside from the fact that Satan is a central figure in the tales of Narnia why should I preach about him? And the answer to that question is this: many people don’t believe Satan exists.
According to a survey taken by the Barna organization back in 2001
“6 out of 10 Americans believe Satan is only a symbol and not real” (barna.org 2001)
Most people don’t believe Satan is real.
BUT he is real! Jesus believed in him and saw him as his ultimate enemy. In fact, Satan was the enemy Jesus came to conquer. Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us:
“Since the children have flesh and blood, (Jesus)… shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Satan is real… he is the enemy. But if Satan is real why don’t more people believe he exists?
Well… Satan is a deceiver. And one of his greatest deceptions is to get people like you and I to believe he is not a threat. If Satan can get us to believe he doesn’t exist… we won’t pay attention to the finer points of spiritual warfare.
ILLUS: I have seen churches that have forgotten that Satan is alive and well and intent on destroying us. And so – when someone in the church sins - they don’t bother with confronting them about their sin. The church leaders simply look the other way because they’re afraid they’ll offend someone. And so Satan gets into that church and damages it from within.
ILLUS: But on the other hand… there are other churches who don’t realize Satan’s objective is to destroy God’s people. And so when someone in the congregation sins they do Satan’s work for him. In their desire to be “righteous” and “holy” they may or may not “confront” the sinner, but they do everything they can to destroy him. They don’t want the offender to repent… they just want rid of him/ her. They don’t want to repair a broken soul. They simply desire to destroy. And thus they do Satan’s work for him.
AND then there is the most basic of Satanic damage. For if he can get a church to believe he doesn’t exist - he can get to fight something other than him. The Bible warns that: “… our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)
ILLUS: I have seen churches that have forgotten that their battle is against the powers of darkness… and so instead of fighting Satan they begin to fight with one another. They have struggled to gain control of a church so that their agenda can prevail. I’ve seen churches destroyed by preachers/ Elders/ church boards/ concerned members. They have come to believe that their basic service to God is to tear everything in apart in the church so they can get their own way. They aren’t driven by love of their brothers and sisters in Christ. They aren’t driven by a trust in God. They are simply committed to accomplishing their own will in their own way on their own time table. And thus they become unwitting agents for their ultimate enemy – Satan.
We need to understand who the enemy is. We need to understand his objectives, his motives, his methods. Because that’s the ONLY way we can win the fight for Jesus.
AND I PRAISE GOD – that this is a church that understands who the enemy is
· a church where sin is not overlooked
· a church where sinners can expect to be confronted/ disciplined… but not destroyed
· a church where we can feel safe because your Elders are men who love you and who trust God… and who know who Satan is.
III. Now, Satan is a deceiver… but he doesn’t need to use lies to accomplish his deception.
For example: Look at that 1st temptation: "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Matthew 4:3
· Satan tempts Jesus to make stones into bread
Was Jesus hungry? – YES He was! He’d been out in the desert for 40 days/ nights without a scrap of food. Have any of you ever missed any meals? (Well you haven’t missed many)! But when you missed those meals, did you ever get hungry? Imagine going 40 days and nights without a meal.
· Satan declared “If you are the Son of God…”
Was Jesus the Son of God? Of course He was. We’re told His name was to be called “Emmanuel” which meant “God with us.”
· Satan tempted Him to “tell these stones to become bread”
Could Jesus have turned those stones into bread? Well, of course He could have. Jesus formed everything that ever existed just by the power of His word.
You see, the deception of Satan in the desert wasn’t based upon lies. The deceptions of Satan had been based upon getting Jesus to focus on a lesser priority. And (of course) Jesus knew that… which is why He replied: "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" (Matthew 4:4)
Bread is good… but God’s Word is far better.
There are Good things in this world that people substitute for the Best things of God’s Kingdom.
ILLUS: Greg Ratliff (the preacher at a nearby congregation) shared an article with me this last Wednesday. How many of you know what day of the week December 25th is this year? That’s right – it’s coming on Sunday this year.
How many of you have heard there are churches closing this year for Christmas? It’s a fact. And these aren’t little churches out in the middle of nowhere. These are mega-churches. Congregations of 4000, 5000, 6000 and up.
In the article Greg shared with me, one of the congregations gave this rationale: It was such a large church (8,000 attendees as I remember) that they required something like 500 people just to make things run smoothly. This is a church committed to “excellence” and so they felt it would become burdensome to expect their usual workers to come and fulfill their duties that day. After all, it is Christmas and it would be inconvenient for them to be there.
Now (of course) there will be “Christians” across the nation who won’t need their congregation’s permission to skip worship on Dec. 25th… they just won’t show up. Why? Because family is important.
Is family good? Yes.
Is spending time with your family good? Yes
Is it good to give gifts to your loved ones? Yes
But is it AS good as worshipping Jesus on the day set aside to honor Him?…….
You see - the goal of Satan is to get us to accept the world’s “good” things as substitutes for God’s best things
CLOSE: Remember… Satan can succeed only if we forget who he is and what his motives are.
But we also need to remember who we are… and where our source of power comes from.
Remember that passage out of Ephesians 6 “… our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12
If you simply read that verse out of Ephesians 6 you might get the impression that the powers of darkness and evil inhabited the “heavenly realms”. But they don’t. WE DO.
Ephesians 2:6 tell us that when we became Christians “God raised us up with Christ and SEATED US WITH HIM IN THE HEAVENLY REALMS in Christ Jesus”.
‘
It’s us… not Satan and his minions that inhabit the heavenly realms!
Thus, Satan can’t whip us because we stand on higher ground.
Satan can’t defeat us because we are seated in the lap of God in the heavenly realms
He can deceive us…
…he can even hurt us a little.
But he can’t take us out because we have access to a greater power than he does
That’s what Satan forgot when he tried to take on Jesus. Revelation 12:4 tells us The dragon (or Satan) stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.”
He sought to destroy Jesus by Herod’s decree to kill all the boy children in Bethlehem
He sought to destroy Jesus in the desert by tricking Him into compromise
AND he believed he ultimately destroyed Jesus at the cross when the Son of God finally died
Lewis has an intriguing passage in his book that tells of the witch’s glee at killing her enemy Aslan (who was the image of Christ in his book):
“And now, who has won?
Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor?
Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out of hand then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die.” P. 155
But then, a few pages later, after Aslan had risen from the dead he tells one the girls in the book: “though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and darkness before Time dawned… she would have known that when a willing victim who has committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.” P. 163
It was in the cross that Jesus conquered death.
It was in the substitution of the Son of God – who knew no sin – for a people who had ALL sinned and fallen short of the glory of God… that Satan was destroyed.
Satan’s objective has always been to destroy Jesus and the hurt that which belongs to Him
But Jesus knew the “Deeper power” of God’s plan
The power that declared: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES:
The Land Of Narnia - Romans 8:19-8:25
Narnia and an Angel Of Light - Matthew 4:1-4:17
Royalty - Revelation 1:4-1:7
The Unsafe Savior - Luke 2:25-2:35
Looking For A New Beginning - Deuteronomy 34:1-34:12
