Confronting the Prince of Darkness - Part A

In a confrontation, Jesus, the light of the world, confronts the prince of darkness in this classic text of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Now, over the years, I've discovered a lot of people don't believe in the devil, really.

They say they do sort of, but they really don't. Believe it or not, the devil, the prince of darkness, is very real. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip begins a message showing you how Jesus confronted Satan. But first... Hi, this is Pastor Skip, and we have prepared a package about seeing this life through the eyes of eternity.

Here are the details you'll need to receive this resource. Hell. Here's what C.S. Lewis said about this subject.

C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain, these words, There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and especially of our Lord's own words.

It has always been held by Christendom, and it has the support of reason. Ecclesiastes says God has put eternity in our heart. To help you understand what awaits both believers and unbelievers in eternity, we've put together an exciting resource called the Eternity Package, featuring Skip's booklet, Hell, No, Don't Go, and seven of his strongest teachings about eternity, including the truth about hell and what most people don't know about heaven. This powerful new resource package is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to support the broadcast ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig. So get your copy of the Hell, No, Don't Go booklet and the Eternity Package on CD or as a digital download today when you give a gift of $50 or more.

Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. This eternity package is some of the most powerful information for you and to give to family and friends. See, if there is no hell, then the Bible's a book of myths. If there is no hell, then Jesus was just a misguided soul. If there is no hell, then the crucifixion was pointless. There's no significance in dying to save us from what? If there's no hell, then you should sin as much as you possibly can, because it's not sin. It's just fun, right? It's just all about you getting pleasure in this life, sucking it like an orange, dry at every drop of enjoyment you can. So get your copy of the Hell, No, Don't Go booklet and the Eternity Package on CD or as a digital download today when you give a gift of $50 or more.

Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. All right, we're turning to Luke 4 as we begin today's lesson. So back in 1961, there was a band called The Tokens. You probably are not familiar with that name, but you are familiar with a song they wrote. They probably had no idea this song would be as famous as it became.

Here's some of the lyrics. See if you remember this. In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. Near the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight.

Near the village, the quiet village, the lion sleeps tonight. Not much to the song. And then the best part of the song is this. A weam away, weam away, weam away. And they just kind of sing that over and over again.

And everybody still remembers that. What happens when the lion isn't sleeping? What about when the lion's on the prowl, on the move, ready to pounce on its prey? That's essentially what Peter announced in his epistle in the New Testament. He said, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

That's a very, very weighty statement. Imagine if you went to the zoo and over the PA system you heard an announcement, ladies and gentlemen, we regret to inform you that our lion has escaped from the enclosure today and is roaming around the zoo. By the way, ladies and gentlemen, he hasn't eaten yet, so please be cautious.

You'd be so cautious you'd leave the zoo. In the chapter we have in front of us, Luke chapter 4, Satan, the lion roaming around like a roaring lion, meets the lion tamer or the greater lion, if you will, the lion of the tribe of Judah. In a confrontation, Jesus, the light of the world, confronts the prince of darkness in this classic text of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Now, over the years, I've discovered a lot of people don't believe in the devil, really. They say they do, sort of, but they really don't. They don't believe he's a real, literal personality, maybe a symbol of evil, maybe representative of bad stuff that happens, but not a real actual actual person. I understand why people would have trouble with that if they are not believers in Scripture or born again, but what troubles me is that a poll was done, I think it was by Barna or Barna Research Group or Gallup, and they looked at people who claim to be born again Christians. And the poll said 32 percent think that the devil is just a symbol of evil, not a living being.

32 percent. Another 11 percent somewhat agree with that statement, and 5 percent don't know. So, if you add it all up, you have 48 percent of people who say they're born again Christians who think the devil is symbolic or they just don't know.

I just want to tell you that I think the biggest mistake a person can make is when they have an enemy that exists, but they deny that enemy exists. And I guess the question is, how much stock do you place in what Jesus said? Do you place much weight in what his words were? When he referred to the devil, he called the devil a him, a he. He said in Luke chapter 10, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

It sure doesn't sound like he's thinking it's a symbol of evil, but a real person, a real entity. You should know that ever since Satan fell, and that's recorded, by the way, in Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28, ever since Satan fell, he's tried to wage war on God, to some extent, on the plan of God. And because that has been true, we would expect that once the Messiah comes to the earth that there would be some kind of confrontation that takes place in this sphere called the earth, and we have that confrontation before us. You should also know that Jesus has always been Satan's number one target ever since a promise was given to the devil in Genesis chapter 3 that the seed of the woman would eventually be born and would crush the head of the serpent.

Ever since then, the war was waged. But he also attacks people, and we would say if Jesus is Satan's number one target, then what does he care about people? It's called collateral damage. So Satan knows his fate. He knows that he will never have what he originally wanted. He'll never be able to overthrow heaven. So he can only cause collateral damage. He can only accuse people who are saved. He can only keep people who are unsaved, unsaved. Distract them, deceive them, and keep them out of heaven. Jesus said in John 10, the thief, a reference to the devil, the thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. He tries to plunge the world into disarray, disorder, rebellion, chaos.

He's done a pretty good job. What I want to show you in Luke chapter 4, and we're going to look at verse 1 down to about verse 13, I want to go kind of quickly so we can cover all the material, is I want to give you five words to describe the nature of this confrontation, five adjectives that will help you understand temptation and how it works. And here's the first word, tactical.

The devil is tactical. In verse 1, it says, then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, that is the Jordan River after his baptism, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Now if you're just to read that verse, you think it's a peaceful story, it's going to be a peaceful story. Jesus going to the desert for a little R&R, you might think going to Phoenix or Palm Springs, Diet Coke by the pool, all is good, and it doesn't last long. The point is this, Satan in his approach is tactical, and often he will attack after a time of blessing, after a time of joy.

So I want you to go back with me to see this. Go back to chapter 3, and what we are looking at is an event that happens immediately before the temptation in the wilderness. And that happens to be in chapter 3, verse 21. Verse 21 and 22 of chapter 3 happen immediately before chapter 4, the rest of chapter 3 is just a genealogy.

Luke is catching you up on his background. So in chapter 3, verse 21, it says, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized, and while he prayed, the heaven was opened. And get this, the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, you are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased. Then chapter 4 happens. So immediately before this, heaven is opened. So now hell is opened.

And that's the relationship I want you to see. That's the spiritual principle. The action of God invites the reaction of the devil. The action of God invites the reaction of the devil. You know this principle, bright lights attract nasty bugs.

You turn on a light in the summertime on your porch, you wait a little while, and there's all sorts of activity going on around that light. So the more you do business with God, the more likely you are to do business with the devil. Nothing promotes the activity of Satan as much as the proximity of a child of God to God.

You can see that here. In verse 1 of Luke 4, then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returning from the Jordan, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil. And in those days, he ate nothing.

And afterwards, when they had ended, he was hungry. So you notice the language, filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and tempted by the devil. I find this to be a pattern, not just here, but also in other parts of Scripture. For example, as soon as the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt, that's when Pharaoh chased them, pursued them to destroy them.

As soon as Hezekiah held a Passover in Jerusalem, a renewal back to God, Sennacherib the Assyrian surrounded the city to destroy it. As soon as the disciples of Christ saw the transfiguration of their Lord, they went down the mountain, and there was a demonized kid. And his father said, your disciples were unable to cast him out.

Challenged. Something else, I think it's noteworthy. It seems, as I read not only this account, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke's account, all of them, that Jesus goes out to the wilderness specifically to pray to His Father, to be prepared for the next three years. This is the beginning of His earthly ministry.

So to prepare for what is inevitable, the sacrifice on the cross, He gets alone with the Father to pray, to fast, to seek His Father's will. And Satan attacks Him. Have you noticed that whenever you want to have quiet time, things you never thought of come to your mind?

Things you'd forgotten about, and you get these weird phone calls and distractions. It's like, it's almost you think that the devil doesn't want you to have it. Yep, that's true. He hates us to draw near to God, because that's where the power is. You've all heard of Murphy's law, right? If anything bad can happen, it will happen. Did you know there's, I'm gonna call it Lucifer's law?

Lucifer's law. Anything that Satan can ruin, he will ruin. So anytime you decide to move closer to God, that's a good thing. And you shouldn't worry about that and go, okay, well then I'll just stay carnal.

No, you want to be close to God, because greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. God got you covered. But just know that when you do that, that is gonna shake things up a bit in the kingdom of darkness. I say good.

I'm up for a good fight, especially when I know I'm on the winning side. But J. C. Ryle said this, nowhere perhaps is the devil so active as in church. That's an unnerving statement.

But think about it. First of all, I'm convinced the devil doesn't want you to go to church. I think he'll put things in your mind like, it's windy today, or it's cold today, or there's snow coming, or there's a good football game on, or whatever it might be. He doesn't want you to get fed. He doesn't want you to get encouraged.

He doesn't want you to worship corporately. And then once you get to church, if God gives you anything and uplifts your spirit and you walk away better for it, then that blessing that God has given you, Satan wants to steal it as soon as you leave the building. You get in your car and get out on Albuquerque streets, and the chances that you will have your joy stolen are pretty high.

A lot of other things go missing around the town, and so you'll have drivers that'll cut in front of you and move into your parking space when you want to park. You know the routine. I have a question before we move on. Why was Jesus tempted? This is a good question. I get asked this a lot. If Jesus was the perfect, sinless Son of God, if Jesus never sinned, if Jesus, in fact, couldn't sin—the Bible's pretty clear on that—then why is He tempted?

Let me give you three quick reasons why. Number one, to validate the Father's approval. To validate the Father's approval. The Father has just said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. In other words, my Son, Jesus, has never said, thought, or done anything that has ever displeased me.

He's perfect. He's sinless. To validate the approval, to show it was deserved approval, He confronts darkness head-on in chapter 4.

That's number one. Number two, to demonstrate His messianic credentials. To show that He is the Promised One, the long-anticipated One.

And finally, number three, to indicate the tactics of the enemy. To expose Satan. To show people like us what kind of temptations we can expect and how to overcome them.

Now, a word about that. The temptations we read about in this chapter are unique to Jesus, specifically. Nobody else gets tempted like this. Nobody else could be tempted like this. We can't be tempted to turn stone into bread.

You know why? Because we can't turn stone into bread. It's never a temptation for us.

Yeah, I think I need to turn this stone like into a Big Mac. You can't do it. Not a temptation, not a temptation.

You can't do it. Not a temptation. Likewise, none of us could ever be tempted to imagine that we are going to rule the kingdoms of the world. Not a temptation to us. We would never be tempted to jump 450 feet off of a precipice and expect a safe landing. These things don't tempt us.

They were given specifically to Jesus because of who He is, but though they are unique to Him specifically, they are common categorically. Categorically. That is, Satan will suggest that we can trust the love of God, the plan of God, the protection of God. And we're going to look at that. So that's the first word, tactical. This is a tactical temptation.

Second adjective, second word, is vulnerable. Jesus is in a very particular kind of state as He is being tempted. It says in verse 2, being tempted for 40 days by the devil, and in those days He ate nothing. And afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him, if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. So we notice He ate nothing, and afterward He is now hungry. Satan is taking advantage of a weakened physical state. Jesus was more vulnerable.

Yes, He was God in human flesh, but He was in human flesh nonetheless. By the way, fasting in the Bible, what does that mean? Well, why do people fast?

And people say, to lose weight. Well, in the Bible, it was a little bit different. In the Bible, it's not a sanctified diet. In the Bible, fasting isn't some means of twisting God's arm so you can get from God what you've always wanted, but maybe God thought you weren't serious, but now He does because you're fasting. No, in the Bible, people fasted as a sign of mourning for the dead, as a sign of personal repentance or national repentance, and as a sign of dependence on God. So it says Jesus fasted for 40 days. That's a long period of time.

Very few people have been ever able to do that. Now, I've read and I've been told that when you stop eating for a short period of time, you actually speed up your metabolism, and when you hold off eating for a long period of time, you reverse that. It slows down your metabolism, and you can go for a long period of time without eating. What happens is you start out very hungry, and then you lose your appetite, which is helpful if you're trying to fast. You lose your appetite, but then eventually it comes back.

Your body starts feeding on itself, and when your hunger after a long, prolonged fast begins to return, that's an indication that you are starving to death, and if you don't eat soon, you will die. Jesus was in that condition. Satan comes and attacks him in that condition. Verse 3, he says, if you are the Son of God, it's best to see this as a statement of affirmation, not supposition. A better translation is this, since you are the Son of God.

It's first-class conditional in the Greek, since you are the Son of God, or because you are the Son of God. The Wiest translation of the New Testament, Kenneth Wiest, a Greek scholar, said, in view of the fact that you are the Son of God, Satan is not questioning the identity of Jesus. By the way, the devil never questioned the deity of Christ, ever. No demon ever questioned the deity of Christ. In fact, in this chapter, chapter 4, verse 34, the demons say, let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth?

Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Every demon in hell knows exactly who Jesus is, that he is God in human flesh. Satan never questions the deity of Christ.

Only liberals do. Only liberal theologians do that. Satan knows better. So, when Satan says, command these stones, be made bread, it's not a slam on Jesus' identity. Satan is questioning God the Father's provision, his love. It's a slam on his love. Hey, since you're the Son of God, why didn't your Father feed you?

Why would he let you stay out in this God-forsaken desert without any food for this long of time? Where is the love? That's Skip Heitzig with a message from the series, Darkroom. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskipp.com. Now, here's Skip with an invitation for you to join he and Lenya Heitzig on a Holy Land tour next year. Hey, our 2024 Israel tour is coming up.

This is Pastor Skip, and we still have space on this trip that Lenya and I are hosting. We will be touring Israel from May 1st through May 12th. I hope that you'll join us firsthand to see some incredible sights like the Sea of Galilee.

I'm sure you've always wanted to see that. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the Garden Tomb, the place many people believe is where Jesus rose from the dead. The final deadline for registration is December 31st, so there's still time to take action and join Lenya and I for the trip of a lifetime. Find full Israel information at connectwithskipp.com. We'd love to partner with you to help share God's life-changing truth with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. You can play a vital role in this work today with a gift to support this life-changing ministry. This year, Pastor Skip wants to expand the reach of the ministry into all major U.S. cities. Visit connectwithskipp.com slash donate to give generously and share God's love with others. That's connectwithskipp.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for changing lives. Tomorrow, Skip wraps up his series, Dark Room, with the conclusion of his message, Confronting the Prince of Darkness, and challenges you to wait for God's timing. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.