Lent 1 C
Jesus 3 Satan 0
St. Luke 4:1-13
14 February 2016 – Redeemer
The Devil was undefeated. He was winning a billion to none. There wasn’t a man, woman, or child on earth that he had not beaten with temptation. Adam and Eve sinned. Cain and Abel sinned. Noah, Abraham, Joseph sinners. Mary the mother of our Lord sinned. John the Baptist a sinner.
In today’s Gospel reading the Devil suffers his first loss in the history of mankind and that’s good news for you, because the One who beat him did not win for Himself, He won for you. For us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected.
But before we get to the Devil’s demise it is good, right, and salutary that we know how the Devil works. It’s always helpful to know the enemy’s battle plans and God has given them to us in His own Word. (Note: The following summary is adapted from Doxology brothers – Kleinig & Wolfmueller.)
The Devil attacks God’s people in three fronts – faith, love, and hope. The front door attack is where Satan gets us to believe false doctrine or doubt our faith. The Devil is the father of all lies. He told Adam and Eve God was holding out on them. He tells them sinning will be to their advantage. Perhaps his greatest lie today is that God’s chief goal is your pleasure and that if you’re not having pleasure then there’s a problem with God or a problem with you. Since the Devil knows we think highly of ourselves – we’ll probably blame God and start looking for a god more to our liking. Instead of believing in the God revealed in His Word, we believe in a god of our own imagination – a god who gives us what we desire. Once we create our own gods the Devil wins and we lose.
If the Devil cannot enter the front door, he’ll sneak around to the back door. Instead of going after your faith the Devil goes after your love. The Devil gets someone else to sin against us. Your father treats you in anger. Your husband neglects you. Your pastor says an unkind or thoughtless word. Satan especially delights in getting someone whom God has placed in authority over you to sin against you. You’re hurt and the devil tempts you to stew in that sin, to simmer in anger until you boil over in hatred. Soon every wrong deed that person ever did is magnified and like pieces of debris in a tornado they join the destructive storm of sin until you hate the person you are to love. Satan’s great delight and victory is when you speak the unspeakable to that other person, directly or indirectly – God damn you! You have just prayed that God would not save them. Devil wins – you lose.
Attack number three is when Satan can’t get in the front door or the back door so he comes in through the window. Here Satan uses your suffering against you. “The Bible teaches us to expect suffering. We don’t.” (Doxology Paper – Wolfmueller). Sometimes our own sin leads to suffering as we pay the consequence for our rebellion against God’s law – a DUI might cost us our job and that might lead to a bankruptcy. Sometimes we suffer because of the brokenness of the world and our bodies – through no fault of your own cancer visits your body, depression dwells in your soul, a child dies before a parent. Satan doesn’t miss the opportunity. If he can’t get your faith or love he goes after your hope. “God has forgotten you. God doesn’t care about you. God doesn’t love you. The darkness will never end. Death is the only answer. There’s no life ahead for you,” thus says Lord Liar the Devil. Through the window of doubt and despair the Devil steals your hope. He wins. You lose again.
But today the Devil loses, big time, every time, and the One who beats Satan today has come into the world to put Satan under His feet once and for all. As I said earlier, this champion does not come for His own victory; He comes for you. He comes to win you – with the truth that your faith can cling to, with the love that will never let you go, and with the hope that endures forever.
Satan attacks Jesus in the same way that he attacks us. He goes to our weakest point. Jesus has fasted for forty days and nights. He has had a season of Lent after His baptism. He is hungry. The devil goes after His stomach, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” I’m surprised that Jesus didn’t call the Devil’s bluff, “What do you mean ‘if’ I am the Son of God? Where have you been? Did you miss my birth to a Virgin? Where were you when I was baptized? Didn’t you hear the Father ‘You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.’ Satan there is no ‘If’ you are the Son of God” … I am the Son of God.” But that wasn’t Jesus’ answer. Jesus gives the Devil God’s Word, “Man does not live by bread alone.” Man can live without bread. Man cannot live if God does not give Him life. Jesus will live the life His Father gave Him even if that means He dies. Jesus keeps faith in His Father, trusting His Father’s Word – Jesus 1. Satan 0.
The Devil never met a man he couldn’t beat so he doesn’t leave Jesus alone. Now the temptation is to power. Who doesn’t want to rule the world? Who doesn’t want authority over others? Who doesn’t imagine that I could fix things in Washington (better than any candidate from either party)? To Jesus the Devil offers the kingdoms of the earth – all authority, all glory, just bend the knee to Lord Satan and you’ve got it all. Once again, I’m surprised Jesus doesn’t say, “It’s already mine. I’ve come to win it back. Wherever I go, wherever faith believes in me, my Kingdom spreads and wins. When My work is finished, all things Satan, including you, will be under my feet.” But no, Jesus once again simply preaches God’s Word to Satan, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Jesus loves His Father (and loves you) more than He loves Himself. He worships God alone. Jesus 2 – Satan nothing.
Satan is not stupid. Jesus has been winning with God’s Word so Satan uses God’s Word to tempt. He takes Jesus to the top of the temple and twists God’s Word, “If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’” But Satan leaves out four little words from the end of that verse- “in all your ways.” God the Father has given Jesus the way to go – the way was suffering, death, and the cross, not throwing Himself down from the temple to prove something. Jesus does not depart from God’s way – “You shall not put God to the test.” Jesus has come not to secure His place, but to secure yours for all eternity. This is the way He must go to give you hope. Jesus knows His Father will watch Him in all His ways – even the way of suffering and death, even through hell and the cross. Jesus 3- Satan zip, nada, nothing.
For you. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan for you. He was tempted for you. He beat Satan for you. When you were baptized into the name of Jesus and given faith in Jesus – you were given everything Jesus did, including His perfect record against Satan, sin, and death. They all lost. He won for you.
So when Satan knocks on the front door of faith, tempting you to believe that God is holding out on you, tell him, “Satan, God didn’t spare His own son, but gave Him up for me, so I have faith and do not doubt that He will graciously give me all I need.” When Satan tries to sneak in the back door against love, slam the door of God’s Word in his face, “God made His Son to be a curse for me so that I could be blessed with love and forgiveness. I will not hate. I will not damn.” When that Thief of Life tries to break in through the window of doubt, defend yourself with God’s mighty word, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Satan is going to come after you this week. Do not be afraid. Jesus beat him for you. Jesus has you. You have God’s Word on it. So hear God’s Word, believe God’s Word, pray it, confess it and pummel Satan with it. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
13 February 2016 anno Domini