“We have an enemy”
(Foreword - I wrote this in March 2019, almost five years ago. After I finished this weeks’ sermon on the Armor of God – Eph 6:11-24 – I decided this might be a nice way to whet our appetite for Sunday. I don’t believe I’ve updated anything except this brief note. -Pastor Matt, 2-16-24)
“We have an enemy, and he would like nothing more than for us to be discouraged.” One of our elders said that to me as I was driving home from the hospitable two years ago. It was about this time of year, when everyone seemed to have be recovering a cold, when several members (including one whom I had just visited) were dealing with conditions that would ultimately claim their lives. I was trying to make sense of why the world seemed to be falling apart. Some of it was my overreaction. Some of it was my missing the obvious.
We have an enemy. It’s a simple truth that is so easy to forget. I’ll confess that I don’t particularly like talking about Satan. There are reasons, and some of them are selfish. For starters, whenever I preach about Satan (and I’ve done it two out of the last three Sundays), I have the weirdest, strangest, most difficult weeks you can imagine. Sometimes, I’m discouraged. Sometimes, I’m angry. Sometimes, I get sick. Sometimes, it’s just weird.
Paul talks about how he and the Corinthians are not unaware of the Devil’s schemes at one point (2 Cor. 2:11), and it’s one of those passages that reminds me that Paul was much smarter than me. I often feel very unaware of the Devil’s schemes, at least when it comes to the particulars. But more and more, I am finding freedom in simply acknowledging the fact that Satan is real and that he might be behind some of the struggles I’m facing. Is he still under God’s control? Yes. But he is powerful, and he has a vested interest in thwarting all the efforts of the church and individual Christians. There are times when I simply ask myself, “How would Satan want me to respond to this news?” just so I can do the opposite.
We have an enemy. And we need to pray regularly for God to deliver us from all his evil schemes. As I said, I don’t like talking about this stuff. It simply invites more attacks from Satan, I’m convinced. I also fear that it makes me sound like a hyper-spiritual preacher who might be off his rocker. Oh well, I guess that’s a risk I’m going to have to embrace. The alternative (just not talking about Satan) would imply either that 1) Satan is not currently active in this world, or 2) that I don’t need any protection from him. I think both are false. Peter reminds us: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Peter knew this first hand. Before Simon Peter (he went by both names, it seems) denied Jesus three times, Jesus told him: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32)
I haven’t done an in-depth study on Satan before. I’m kind of scared to do one, in some ways. But I know a few things. I know that he exists. I know that we have an enemy. I know that he wants to thwart God’s purposes. I know that he has many different tricks. Some of that is because he’s smart and strategic, and some of that might because he’s fighting a losing battle and he’s simply flailing around trying to inflict as much damage as he can. (It reminds me of a quote from The Dark Knight where Alfred the Butler tries to help Bruce Wayne make sense of the Joker’s scatter-shot plans. “Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money,” Alfred says. “They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”) But in the end, it’s ultimately Satan who will burn (Rev 20:10).
We would be foolish to forget that we have an enemy. But we need not overreact, either. When Peter writes about that roaring lion, he has some comfort in store, as well. In the following verses he writes, “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:9-11)
Our enemy also has an enemy. And in this case, the enemy of my enemy is definitely my friend, a friend who sticks closer than a brother, during every attack from our enemy, until our enemy can no longer attack us ever again.