Sunday 03/09/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Let Jesus deal with the Devil”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
New Testament Scripture Lesson: Romans 5:12-19
Gospel Lesson: Mathew 4:1-11
Brothers and sisters,
welcome on this First Sunday in Lent, and also this Girl Scout Sunday. On this
Sunday we continue moving forward through this season of Holy Lent, and on this
day we also honor all those women past and present that have been in or
involved with Girl Scouting.
This morning
though, I want to talk a little bit about evil. In fact, has anyone here ever
been in the presence of evil? Have you ever been in one of those situations
where the hair on the back of your neck stood up, and you just knew that evil
was all around you? Perhaps you have met a person or seen something where you
just saw pure evil?
In such an
instance though, what do we do about this evil? Do we run and hide? Do we fight
the evil? Do we think that we can defeat pure evil all by ourselves?
For
some of us, we might have had a time in our lives where we feel like that we took
on pure evil, and that maybe we won a couple of battles against this evil. Often
for many of us though, we find that evil can overtake us. That despite our best
efforts, that we just cannot defeat evil on our own. If this is true then, do
we have a way of defeating evil?
What
I would say to you this morning, is that the one thing that can defeat
darkness, the one thing that can defeat evil, the one thing that can put the
devil in his place, is Jesus Christ. So with this said, I will be talking about
this morning how we should “Let Jesus deal with the Devil,” as we should not
seek to take on evil or the devil all by ourselves. For we are only flesh and
blood, but Jesus is the living God, who has overcome all evil.
In
our scripture readings and our gospel readings for this morning, we see various
examples of evil. For example, in our reading from the book of Genesis from this
morning, it talks about how “The LORD God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to till it and keep it”. God then tells Adam or “man” as it is translated
from the Hebrew, that he can “freely eat of every tree of the garden,” except
for the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.
Yet
pure evil, the devil himself, who came in the form of a “serpent” or a “snake,”
said to Adam’s wife Eve, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the
garden’?” Then Eve said, “We may eat of the fruit of trees in the garden; but
God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of
the garden, nor touch it, or you shall die.’ When Eve said this though, the
crafty and evil “serpent,” the devil said, “You will not die; for God knows
that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing of good and evil”. Instead of calling upon God though, and instead of
asking God to defend her from the evil one, Eve took the fruit and ate. After
all, the fruit looked tasty, and Eve thought that it would make her wise. The
scripture says that speaking of the fruit, “she also gave some to her husband,
who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew
that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for
themselves.”
God
of course figured out in no time, that both Adam and Eve had taken on the
devil, the “serpent” all on their own, and as a result, the devil overcame them.
You see brothers and sisters, even from the very beginning, if the devil came
after any human, we did not possess the power to defeat this pure evil all by
ourselves. When evil and the devil comes after us, we must “Let Jesus deal with
the Devil”.
For
as much as we would like to think that we can outwit, outfox, or overcome the
devil, we cannot. The devil is more powerful than any of us, and in order to
defeat evil and to be protected from evil, we need Jesus, the only one who has
ever fully overcome the devil.
This
fall of humankind that started so long ago with Adam and Eve occurred, because
we did not “Let God deal with the Devil”. You see whenever we take on pure evil
we cannot defeat it on our own, and as a result, we need Jesus Christ.
In
the times in my life that I have felt the presence of pure evil, sometimes I wanted
to fight back, or even think that I could outwit or outdo the devil. Yet, when
I called upon Jesus Christ, then and only then did I have the power and the
authority to cast out evil, doubt, and darkness.
In
the Apostle Paul’s Epistle or letter to the Romans reading from this morning,
Paul talked about how “sin came into the world through one man, and death came
through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned”. The Apostle
Paul here is speaking of the original sin of Adam, then Paul said, “Yet death
exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like
the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come”.
You
see the Apostle Paul is saying here, that sin and giving into evil began with
Adam and Eve, but it has pervaded us since that time. That all of the prophets,
even the mighty Moses himself, had sin. You see instead of being able to defeat
evil and defeat darkness on our own, the prophets of old could not fully
overcome sin evil on their own.
So
we see a cycle here then of sin, of succumbing to evil, going all of the way
back to Adam and Eve. Yet the Apostle Paul then says, “But the free gift is not
like the trespass. For if the many died through one man’s trespass, much more
surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one, Jesus
Christ, abounded for the many.”
You
see brothers and sisters, when evil tempts us, when the devil is looking at us
squarely in the eyes, this is when we call upon Lord Jesus. For Lord Jesus
overcame the devil, overcame darkness, and through him all evil is dissolved
and pushed back.
In
fact, I remember reading a quote once, from the founder of Lutheran Church,
Martin Luther. Luther said about the devil, “The devil is God’s devil,” meaning
that the devil and evil is more powerful than us as humans, but not more
powerful than Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus in union with God and the Holy Spirit is
the ultimate form of love, truth, and power.
Another
good quote that I recently put on my Facebook page from a man named Tom King is, “It is when we
are at our darkest hour, when we can see no evidence that God loves us or that
he is even there to listen to our prayers, much less answer them...and yet, we
still obey. It is then that the devil is reminded that his cause
is lost.”
So the Apostle Paul reminds us in this Epistle or letter that
the “abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness” comes only through
Jesus Christ. That through Jesus we will have constant forgiveness if we repent,
and through Jesus we will have the power to overcome the evils of this world.
Given this,
the Apostle is telling us that Adam and Eve’s sin and actions lead to death,
but Jesus’s saving grace, death, and resurrection leads to life and is the only
thing that can fully overcome the sins and the evils of this world. So brothers
and sisters, “Let Jesus deal with the Devil” in your life.
We have a very
interesting gospel reading from the gospel according to Mathew for this morning.
In this gospel reading, it says that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Once again brothers and sisters, how
many times have we all felt “tempted” by the devil.
So Jesus is in
the wilderness for 40-days and nights of fasting, and as you can imagine after
40-days and nights of fasting, as the gospel reading says, “he was famished”.
Then the devil or the “tempter” as he is referred to in this gospel reading came
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become
loaves of bread.” Yet Jesus Christ the Lord said, “It is written, ‘One does not
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”.
The gospel
then says, “Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the
pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angles concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot
against a stone”.
Then Jesus
responded to the devil by saying, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord
your God to the test”. So brothers and sisters, “Let Jesus deal with the devil”.
The gospel
goes on to say, “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed
him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All
these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me”. Then, “Jesus said
to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve him only”.
The gospel
reading then concludes by saying that, “Then the devil left him, and suddenly
angels came and waited on him”.
I would like to close with a story
called “Satan’s Garage Sale,” with author listed as unknown. Here is how the
story goes: “Once upon a time, Satan was having a
garage sale. There, standing in little groups were all of his bright, shiny
trinkets. Here were tools that make it easy to tear others down for use as
stepping stones. And over there were some lenses for magnifying one’s own
importance, which, if you looked through them the other way, you could also use
to belittle others, or even one’s self. Against the wall was the usual
assortment of gardening implements guaranteed to help your pride grow by leaps
and bounds: the rake of scorn, the shovel of jealousy for digging a pit for
your neighbor, the tools of gossip and backbiting, of selfishness and apathy.
All of these were pleasing to the eye and came complete with fabulous promises
and guarantees of prosperity. Prices, of course, were steep; but not to worry!
Free credit was extended to one and all. “Take it home, use it, and you won’t
have to pay until later!” old Satan cried, as he hawked his wares.”
“The visitor, as he
browsed, noticed two well worn, non-descript tools standing in one corner. Not
being nearly as tempting as the other items, he found it curious that these two
tools had price tags higher than any other. When he asked why, Satan just
laughed and said, “Well, that’s because I use them so much. If they weren’t so
plain looking, people might see them for what they were.” Satan pointed to the
two tools, saying, “You see, that one’s Doubt and that one’s Discouragement —
and those will work when nothing else will.”
Brothers and sisters, we serve a Lord that
overcame all evil, all darkness, all sin, and stood toe to toe with the devil
himself, and defeated him. Jesus Christ is the only one who has ever overcome
the devil, and if we feel that the devil or any form of evil is seeking to
attack us, then we must say, “Let Jesus deal with the devil”. For when we feel
the presence of evil, then we need to call upon Lord Jesus, the one in whom the
devil trembles and flees. Amen.
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