In the Name of Jesus

You’re walking through the forest at nighttime, and darkness is all around. The flashlight in your hand may brighten the path in front of you, but it does little to calm your fears of what lies in the darkness beyond its little beam. Is it your imagination, or are there pairs of eyes glowing in the dark, looking right at you? Is your imagination making you hear things, or was that a growl?! Soon, you’re sure you hear the footsteps of something sneaking up behind you. And all of a sudden, you feel like a mouse in a dark room full of cats. Run! Get to safety as fast as you can!

Now this might sound like you’re starring in a horror movie. But whether you figure it’s lions, or tigers, or bears (oh, my!) that are after you, or maybe even aliens, this is actually real life I’m talking about. There’s a real life predator coming after you, a real-life enemy, and he’s scary. His name is Satan or the devil.

St. Peter warns us in our epistle reading for today, in chapter 5 verse 8: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” And let me assure you, this enemy is more deadly than any alien, lion, tiger, or bear. This enemy isn’t just out to hurt your body, but to bring even your soul down to destruction and eternal torment in hell. And he’s after you.

That’s the bad news. But instead of dwelling on the scariness of our situation, I have some good news for you. And not just good news—it’s great news! Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, has defeated the devil and his allies, sin and death. By taking our sins upon Himself and dying our death in our place, Jesus destroyed the power of the devil over us, who used to be the wicked master who ruled over us. And destroying the power of sin, death, and the devil, Jesus now is risen from death and has ascended into heaven. And by His ascension into heaven, Jesus has cast down the devil from his place in heaven (remember, he was an angel of God).

So Christ has won the victory and the devil is defeated. So what’s the problem? How can he still be any threat to us? The problem for us is that, on his way down to destruction, Satan seeks to take as many people as possible with him. He won’t give up until he has robbed God of everything he can possibly take. He especially wants to take all those whom Jesus died to save. And so, as Peter says, he “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” And trust me, he has the power to devour!

The big danger for us is that Satan is invisible, and his attacks are very subtle and sneaky. I suppose that’s why there are many people in the world, even many Christians, who don’t even believe the devil exists. And that’s just fine with the devil. If people don’t even believe he exists, they won’t be on their guard against his attacks. We can’t see Satan’s attacks, just like we can’t see God’s angels fighting for us and protecting us, but both good angels and evil angels, which we call demons or devils, are very real. Just because we can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. But not only is the devil and all his demons invisible to us, but he also uses all his power and trickery to prowl around sneakily and attack a person unawares.

In what ways does the devil attack a person, and especially a Christian? Well, remember that his goal is to take as many people with him to destruction as he can. He will attack your faith and try to get you to give up on God. He will fan the flames of guilt, depression, grief, greed, gossip, and all kinds of sins and temptations in our lives to distract us from God or get us to question God’s goodness. “Why did God let this happen to me? Doesn’t He care for me?” “Why doesn’t God seem to be answering my prayer?” “Why is God allowing me to suffer?” “Why did God take the one I love away from me?” And with all these questions, the devil plants the seeds in our hearts so that we begin to question whether God really loves us or has our best interest in mind. If we’re not putting our trust in God, then the devil is succeeding in pulling us away from the Lord.

Satan’s attacks are fierce and ruthless. But we have strong defenses. The first and most important defense we have is the shield called Faith. Faith means that you are confident and certain that you have a Savior in Jesus Christ. Faith is when you can say, “I know that Jesus died on the cross to take away all my sins and to die my death for me. He has defeated the devil’s power over me, and now I belong to Jesus. Sin and death have no power over me, either. Jesus rose from the dead in victory, and now He gives me his victory over death, too. And now Jesus has gone on ahead of me into heaven to prepare a place for me, and He’s coming back soon to bring me home to be with Him forever.” That’s faith—knowing for certain that these things that are invisible to your eyes are very real and true in your life. Faith is having a relationship with your Savior who is alive and with you every day. That walking with Jesus and trusting in Him becomes a shield for you which the devil can never penetrate. That’s why he’s trying so hard to get you to lay down your shield of faith.

I’ve also mentioned some other defenses we have against the devil. God send His angels to fight for us and to protect us. Every time we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we’re praying that the Lord would protect us by His holy angels from the attacks of Satan and help us to stand firm in faith in Christ.

Did you notice I mentioned another one of our defenses against the devil? Prayer—praying that God’s kingdom would come among us and be at work in us. How does God’s kingdom come? When we hear God’s holy Word and then by faith live holy lives according to His Word.

The power of God’s Word is the strongest weapon we have against the devil. Not only did God create the heavens and the earth with the power of His word, but with a Word He can command the devil and drive Him away. At the end of our service today we’ll be singing, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and in the third stanza we sing, “This world’s prince (that’s the devil) may still, scowl fierce as he will. He can harm us none; he’s judged, the deed is done. One little word can fell him.” Satan knows he’s defeated by Christ, so the one little word, the name of Jesus, can conquer the devil again in our little battles against him.

Jesus has given us a special gift to help us, and that is the gift of His Holy Spirit, who reminds us of the things that Jesus said and taught, gives us and strengthens our faith in Christ, and helps us to stand firm in the battle against the devil. There are so many gifts that Jesus has given us that are weapons and defenses against the power of the devil!

Christ has given us all these gifts—faith, prayer, His powerful Word, and His Spirit as a Helper—because He has enlisted us to join Him in the continuing fight against the devil. Satan is going to continue to prowl around and attack everyone he can until Jesus comes again and throws him down once and for all to his destruction. But in the meantime, the fight rages on. Peter also reminds us in our 1 Peter reading today that we share in Christ’s sufferings as long as we’re in this world. But we know that we have the victory already through Christ, so we are willing to endure the short time of suffering we must go through. God’s Word and Prayer are our weapons. Faith is our shield.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is protecting us every step of the way as we journey through this world. The enemy, Satan, is powerful and sneaky, but he’s already lost the war and is going to his destruction. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! He is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!

To God Alone Be Glory