May 20, 2018 Chris Dolson Series: Invisible Realm Message: Satan Main Idea: Satan deceives us into going the wrong direction. Obedience to the word of God can set us free. Purpose: To teach that Satan is a real evil being, and we should be aware of his deceptive ways. Text: John 8:31-47 I. Introduction My talk today is on Satan. When I say that, I know there are different kinds of reactions in the room. - Some will say, This should be interesting. I don t believe that I ve ever gone to a church where the message was about Satan. - Some will say, This is weird. You don t mean to tell me that you believe in a literal being called Satan? Isn t Satan really more like a metaphor for evil? It is pretty common that Christians would doubt the existence of Satan. - Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan is not a living being but is a symbol of evil. Survey by the Barna Group, 2009 - To be fair to the 40% of Christians who said they don t believe in Satan, perhaps they were thinking of someone who lives in Hell, runs around with a pitchfork, and has a long red tail. - I don t believe in a being like that either, and for many of us when we hear the word Satan we are thinking of someone like that. There are a lot of myths out there about Satan. If we read the bible, we get a completely different picture, especially if we read the New Testament. - The reality of Satan is hard to deny. - Every author of a New Testament book affirms his reality and activity. - The word Satan occurs 29 times in the gospels; in 25 of those cases, Jesus is the one speaking. - If you say you believe in Jesus and what he taught, you are going to believe in a literal being called Satan. It is clear in the Bible from the beginning to the end that there is a real being who is the chief antagonist in the invisible realm. - He s the leader of a whole army of beings that are opposed to God and his plan. - This person goes by many names; perhaps the most popular is the name Satan. II. Who is Satan? Satan is one of the few words in English that has a Hebrew origin. adversary (satan) means שׂ ט ן - - If we were transported back to the days when the Old Testament was written, it would be one of the very few words that would recognize. In Hebrew, Satan is both a noun and verb. - It can mean adversary or it can refer to the act of actually opposing someone or something. - Many times in the Old Testament the term Satan is not referring to the evil being we think of. It is referring to someone who is an adversary or someone who is opposed to someone else. The term Satan is not a technical name for this evil being. Satan can refer to human adversaries or other supernatural adversaries. + 1 Samuel 29:4 Human adversary: David. To whom: Philistines + 2 Samuel 19:22 Human adversary: Abishai. To whom: David The term is also used like this when speaking of a supernatural being who is an adversary. + Numbers 22:22 Supernatural adversary: Angel of the Lord. To whom: Israel. 1
+ Job 1:7 Supernatural adversary: Angelic Adversary. To whom: Job. The term Satan can be confusing in the Hebrew bible. The term refers to both human and supernatural adversaries, and sometimes the Angel of the Lord is referred to as Satan. - If we just had the Old Testament and we were studying this being, it would be difficult, and our understanding of who this being is would be hard to grasp. - When we turn to the New Testament, it seems that we have a clarification on who Satan is and what he is really about. When Jesus arrives, the understanding of the invisible realm and who is doing what in the invisible realm just gets a little clearer. - In the New Testament, all of the authors speak about him, and they give him a variety of names: Tempter (Matthew 4:3), Beelzebub (Matthew 12:24), Enemy (Matthew 13:39), Evil One (Matthew 13:19), Adversary (1 Peter 5:8), Deceiver (Revelation 12:9), Great Dragon (Revelation 12:3), Father of Lies (John 8:44), Murderer (John 8:44). All these verses are in the New Testament, but the most popular name for Satan in the New Testament is: The Devil. Διάβολος (Diabolos) = Devil (slanderer) - The Devil is the New Testament name for Satan. He is called the Devil only in the New Testament. - The term devil does not occur in the Old Testament. - It is like the writers of the New Testament know that the word satan can be confusing, so they get clear and give him the name: The Devil. - This is also the preferred term that Jesus uses for Satan (e.g. John 8:31). III. The Devil is a Liar The context for this section is opposition. - People (the religious elite) are beginning to be more organized in their opposition to Jesus. - Many people are believing in him; but many people are opposing him. John 8:31 47 There is a whole sermon or series of sermons in that passage. A couple of things: - In a passage like this, you really get the idea that there are these two different realms. These two realms are like parallel dimensions. Jesus is saying: I m from this other realm. God sent me from this other invisible realm, and I am telling you about things that I have seen in the presence of God in that realm. (John 8:38, 42) Jesus is from another place; he is talking about the relationship he has with God in that invisible realm. - Because he s from this invisible realm, he is very familiar with the beings in that other realm. The religious leaders who claim to know God remind Jesus of beings he knows from that other realm. The people who are opposing him remind him of the Devil; someone he knows. He calls them children of the Devil. (John 8:43 44) Jesus is saying: If they were really from God, like they claim (John 8:41), they would recognize him. - But they don t recognize him, because their father is not God; their father is the devil. - And when they speak, all they speak is lies, because their father is the father of lies. Jesus is pulling back the veil between the two realms. He is talking about the way things really are. - Jesus is basically saying: I m from God, and you are from the Devil. Don t give me any of that stuff about you being the legitimate children of God. Your father is really the Devil. - Jesus is very familiar with both realms and with the Devil who he calls the father of lies. Satan is many things, but Jesus is saying that the chief character quality of Satan that leads to all the evil things that he does is that he is a deceiver. He is a deceiver from the very beginning. - This would cause the reader or listener to go back to the very beginning and to remember the narrative of Adam and Eve and what happened in the Garden of Eden. 2
The First Deception is like a Case Study of Deception. - Genesis 3:1 6 Satan is not identified as Satan in this passage. - We know from what Jesus said and a couple of other verses in the New Testament (Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2) that the words that come from the serpent have their origin from the Devil. - Eve doesn t know that. Eve is deceived. Adam is silent. Adam was the one God spoke to about the tree. Eve hadn t been created yet (Genesis 2). The responsibility for the sin falls on Adam according to the New Testament writers, but Eve is the one who is deceived. - The Devil deceived Eve with the same pattern he uses today. It is a clever plan, and it works. He gets her to question God s word. Did God really say? He gets her to begin to doubt God s goodness. Genesis 3:4-5 He s insinuating that there are things that God is not telling them. God knows that if you do this you will be like Him. God doesn t want that. God is not good. God s not telling you the whole story. God s keeping you from being happy and fulfilled. Once we doubt God s goodness and start to believe that we ll be happier in life if we can get our own way, we ve fallen into a trap. - Jesus says: He is a liar. He is a deceiver. Once we say, I ll be happier in life; I ll be fulfilled in life; I ll experience freedom in life if I can get my own way. Then we have been deceived. - The liar comes and gets us to question the goodness of God for giving us ridiculous commands. - He plants in our minds: You ll be happier, fulfilled, and free if you get your own way. - But it only leads to slavery slavery to sin. The Deceiver s Plan: - Question God s Word. - Question God s Goodness. - Get people to believe: I ll be happier if I get my own way. But this only leads to slavery to sin. It is a trap. Jesus has another plan (John 8:31 32). Satan is a great deceiver. He s really convinced people into believing some things that are misleading. VI. Deceptions that are working for Satan Deception 1: Satan lives in Hell Hell is his domain. This is where he tortures people. - This is simply not true. Hell is not Satan s domain or headquarters. Hell was created for the devil and his angels as a place of punishment. It is not his domain. (Matthew 25:41) - Satan is: the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4); the prince of this world (John 16:11); the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Ephesians 2:2); The whole world is under the control of the Evil One (1 John 5:19). - Satan doesn t live in Hell. He is a part of the invisible realm that runs parallel to this visible realm. Satan regularly interacts with this world all the time. He is quite free to roam about. Deception 2: Satan s deeds are obviously evil. - This is also not true. The apostle Paul was running into opposition in the church at Corinth. - People in the church were convincing others in the church that Paul s gospel wasn t the right gospel, that Paul was not saying the right things about Jesus. - Paul responds: 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. - Paul is talking about people who had come into Corinth preaching about Jesus and doing good things, but they were not preaching about the same Jesus that Paul was preaching about. They did good things, but they were really false apostles. Paul is warning the believers to be aware of Satan s tactics: Satan can masquerade as someone who is doing good things for the community and for people. He is a deceiver. 3
It is very clear in the New Testament that we are in a warfare and that we can resist him. Christ is Stronger than Satan - James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. - 1 John 4:4 the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. - Romans 8:38 39 Satan is a creature, a very powerful creature, but he is a creature none the less. As a creature, he is no match for the creator. Between Satan and Jesus, Jesus wins every time. V. Conclusion: It doesn t always feel like Jesus is winning. A message like this can lead one to believe that all of this stuff about the invisible world and Satan is a feeble attempt by Christians to explain all of the evil in the world: Oh. It s Satan s fault. - The Bible doesn t teach that. We have our own issues of sin that have nothing to do with Satan. This message was not about us; it was about Satan. If we really believe what the Bible says about Satan, we will begin to grasp that Satan is extremely brilliant and is really an active adversary against all things that have to do with God. - C.S. Lewis famously said that Christians fall into two traps when it comes to thinking about Satan: They either don t think about him at all, or they think about him too much. - If you would like to read a little book that will help you appreciate the evil beings in the invisible realm, I can t recommend enough: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis I think we are naïve about this invisible world and the reality of evil beings especially Satan. - We tend to think of ourselves as educated people, and we tend to favor intellectual rigor and reasoned arguments. - In our rush to try to make an intellectual case for everything, we often negate the spiritual world. There is a very powerful spiritual being who is opposed to everything that we stand for here at Blackhawk Church. He hates Christ, the Cross, Grace, Love, Unity, Justice. - In discussions at Blackhawk about the divided world we live in, you almost never hear anyone say the word Satan. It is like if we said it, people in the church would think that we are being weird. Some people think about Satan all the time. I believe at Blackhawk we don t think about him enough. - It is like there are whole bunch of verses that we just don t want to consider at all. - As a pastor, this bothers me. It frustrates me, and it concerns me. Satan is a big deal. - We should be constantly aware of him, his presence, and his hatred for the church. Martin Luther had the same concern for the church in his day. He was so concerned that he wrote A Mighty Fortress is our God, a hymn that for many years became a rallying cry for the church. - Luther wrote this hymn about 500 years ago. It has been translated from German into English about 80 different times. - In most of our venues at Blackhawk, we don t sing the English version that is most popular today because no one talks this way anymore. - We didn t just invent Christianity in the 21 st century. We stand on the shoulders of millions of Christians who have lived in different centuries and different cultures. - The words of this song remind us of the Germany Luther lived in and all the opposition he faced. He was constantly threatened physically. Most of his life he lived in great danger. People were out to kill Luther in the name of Christ. Europe in his day was completely divided. There was great hostility and division everywhere. As a Christian living in the United States today we can t appreciate the pressure he was under. Luther wrote these words in a period of great division and turmoil. I think these words can apply to us today: A Mighty Fortress is our God 4
by Martin Luther A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing: For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; His craft and pow r are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God s own choosing: Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same, And He must win the battle. And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us; The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. That word above all earthly pow rs, no thanks to them, abideth; The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth; Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; The body they may kill: God s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever. 5