The Devil's Destroyer

Father, I pray that you would help me to faithfully communicate your word. Father, I pray for those who listen. I pray that you would apply your word to our hearts, that you would give us faith, hope, joy, and peace. In Jesus' name, amen. ESPN posted an article last week entitled, That Time the Saints Used a Voodoo Priestess to End Superdome Curse. This reflected on an event during the 2000 playoffs just before the Saints played the Rams. Priestess Ava K. Jones performed a voodoo ceremony, complete with a snake, voodoo doll, and an army of drummers and dancers in an effort to rid the Superdome of evil spirits in hopes that the Saints' 33 years of winlessness in the playoffs might finally come to an end. The Saints had, after all, constructed the Superdome over top of an old cemetery. And as their team president said, no one ever wanted to admit that the problem may be the caliber of the football team. So it had to be something else. He continued, so we leaned into it, and we worked with so-and-so, and he found us a voodoo priestess, and lo and behold, we won. So the saints did win the game, but rather transparently, at least from the perspective of the saint's office, this whole thing was little more than a publicity stunt. And even now, about 20 years later, ESPN publishes this article, not because the author believes that any real curse was lifted, but just to relive, at least in the public eye, the sheer hilarity of the spectacle, and perhaps also to enjoy stoking a little extra superstitious curiosity in the hearts of Americans. Now, I bring this example up because I think it illustrates something of our culture's attitude toward the spiritual, and especially the demonic. The fact is, this is not something many Americans take very seriously. I mean, most of us don't actually believe that any kind of curse or evil spirit is determining the outcome of NFL games. In fact, such notions seem so laughable to many of us that we view the Saints saga as nothing more than tame, ironic comedy. But at the same time, many Americans are a bit superstitious. We like the thrill of ghost stories and the intrigue of otherworldly powers. And of course, part of what makes the voodoo ritual in the Superdome such a spectacle is the fact that we all know that some people really believe it. And we know that for them, this is only more fodder to confirm their superstitious theories. And even if we don't believe it ourselves, we like the sense of mystery that tales like this create. But biblically speaking, What I think all this really points to is the widespread underestimation of the true power of the evil one. And I don't just mean underestimation on the part of atheists who consider the very plausibility of a personal devil to be laughable, but also by superstitious Americans, and even by people like this voodoo priestess herself. Because even if we don't deny the devil's existence, The very fact that anyone would think that evil spirits would concern themselves with sports scores or could be placated by something like a voodoo ritual only goes to show how far from a truly biblical conception we've strayed. You see, according to scripture, the devil is not merely mischievous, but diabolically evil. He's not able to be manipulated or placated. He's cunning and sinister and easily able to manipulate us even when we think we're manipulating him or even if we don't believe in him at all. He's far more calculating than any criminal mastermind we have ever encountered in history or fiction. And he commands a vast army of spiritual forces that we know next to nothing about. In fact, scripture tells us that he so powerfully influences the affairs of this world that he's the prince of the power of the air, and the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, the one according to whom the course of this world flows, and according to whom we all either once walked or still walk. Scripture calls him the tempter, who tempted Adam and Eve in the beginning. And remember how quickly they succumbed to his temptation, even though they were created with all the dignity of an uncorrupted human nature and all the security of a garden rich with the abundant blessing of God. The evil one is also called the adversary, since he stands continually against all God's good purposes. even using a man like Peter, who was one of Jesus' own disciples and who had outwardly good intentions to do it. Remember when Jesus foretold of his sufferings and death and how Peter said, oh, these things will never happen to you. And Jesus responded, get behind me, Satan. And then later, Peter would swear to Jesus that even if everyone else forsook him, I will not. And Jesus says, no, you will deny me three times before morning. And in that same passage, Jesus mentions to Peter, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. The evil one is also called the accuser or slanderer. And remember how he also entered Judas, influencing him to betray his own master, Jesus, for a few silver coins. and then accusing him with such despairing guilt that Judas committed suicide by hanging himself in the field of blood. You see, the Bible presents Satan as a being of incredible cunning, power, and wickedness. And in this short survey, we've only scratched the surface of that here. So whether you're here this evening as an unbeliever or as a Christian, What we need to realize is that there are real spiritual forces of wickedness in high places, which intend our harm. And they do not care whether you recognize or believe in them. They don't care whether you're rich or poor. They don't care what religion you profess to believe. And they don't care whether you are a criminal lowlife or someone just trying to be a good moral person. All they really care about is blinding your eyes to spiritual truth and preventing you from knowing and glorifying your creator. And friends, the degree of success that the devil has had in doing so is evident, first of all, in the depravity of the world all around us. Just look around at the horrid evils, the stench of wars and genocides and oppression. The plethora of atrocities we read about on the news every day, from school shootings, to murders, to rapes, to child abuse. And even in our own personal experiences of broken homes and marriages, duplicitous friends, slanderous backstabbings, and on and on and on. And yet, more striking than all of those things put together, is a reality so pervasive that we forget, we almost forget to even notice it. And it's the universal reign of death itself. It's the fact that we, a people created in the image of God and for eternal life with God, have been brought so completely under the condemnation of death that it reigns universal over all of us. and each and every death testifies to the apparent success of the evil one. Because this is the outworking of his scheme, whereby he used temptation and deception to lead our first parents into sin and us with them, so that God's good world might be corrupted and God's glory might be tarnished. And friends, it's against that backdrop that we can more fully appreciate the true glory of the coming of Jesus Christ. And so I'd like you to look with me at Hebrews chapter two, verses 14 and 15. I think that's on page 1002 in the Pew Bible. And here scripture provides one of a number of different summaries. of the purpose of Jesus's coming. And these summaries emphasize different aspects of it, and they are mutually informing. But I want to pay special attention tonight to what Hebrews 2, verses 14 and 15 tells us about the reason why Jesus came. It says this, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. In other words, Jesus came, partaking of flesh and blood, becoming incarnate, in order that through death he might destroy the devil and set us free from fear and slavery. Now I want to break this down around four basic observations from the text. And the first is this. The devil has the power of death. Now, it's important to be clear that the devil is in no way equal but opposite to God. God alone is the eternal creator. The devil is a temporal creature. Therefore, in an ultimate sense, the power of life and death belong to God alone. As God says in Deuteronomy chapter 32, I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. And also remember, as we read earlier, that it was God who threatened death in the first place when he told Adam and Eve, you shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day of your eating, you shall surely die. And so death is preeminently God's judgment on man for sin, not something the devil has any direct control over. Also, the devil should not be viewed as having the power of death in the sense of being the one to whom the dead belong or the one who inflicts punishment in hell. Jesus himself said that hell is the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So hell is not the devil's domain. Hell is a place prepared by God for the devil and his angels where the devil will be punished. And where all others who are punished there are punished not by the devil, but alongside of him. So in what sense then does the devil have the power of death? Well, I think the best way to picture this is that the devil uses death like a weapon against us. Death is the trap into which the devil led our first parents in the garden. And it's the trap in which he continues leading every one of us by deception and temptation to sin. but it's also like a great looming threat which the devil holds over our heads and terrifies us with by accusation upon accusation. You see, the devil has the power of death because we really are guilty in the sight of God and he knows it. He loves to remind us of our guilt. He loves to terrify us with our sense of guilt. And he longs to use that truth to drive us to despair. And even though he himself is even guiltier than we are, he boldly threatens us with it, because he knows that in order for God to justly punish him, God must also punish us, since we've followed the devil and aligned ourselves with him. Therefore, it appears that the devil's destruction means ours as well. Now this brings us to our second point, which is that the fear of death enslaves us. As Hebrews chapter two, verse 15 continues, not only does the devil have the power of death, but through the fear of death, we're held subject to lifelong slavery. And I think this is really just a fleshing out of how it is that the devil uses death like a weapon against us. We feel that, we feel what to some degree is a proper sense of guilt and shame for our sin, but instead of that leading us to God in repentance and reliance on his mercy, the devil uses it against us to make us run from God, hide from God, and even at times think that the devil is our ally, when all the while he's really making us slaves to himself. To illustrate this, I'd like to mention an article from Psychology Today called Psychological Tactics Used by Human Traffickers. This article listed seven common manipulation tactics used by traffickers, none of which involved outward restraint or physical abuse, yet they still managed to keep women trapped in the system. They did things like dehumanize them, convincing them of their worthlessness. They instilled fear in them, even threatening to call the police as if the women were the ones to fear the authorities. They worked to sow deep seeds of mistrust of others in these women so that they would find it impossible to trust that anyone would actually help them. and they would always keep them in their presence to build a sense of dependence, all the while constantly holding out the false hope that one day everything will be better. And friends, as chilling as that is, that provides something of a sketch of what the devil does to us. He tells us that we're worthless, that our sin utterly defines us. He reminds us that we have much to be afraid of. That the sword of God's justice hangs over our heads and that it's the goodness of God to punish our sin. So how can we ever go to God as unclean sinners? Don't we need the darkness to protect us? He makes us think that our best solution is to just hide our sin in the dark, to pretend it's not there and hope that somehow if we can just forget about it, God will too. But of course, all along, he's really just entangling us deeper and deeper in sin and luring us into greater and greater captivity to himself. And friends, this is why the third observation from this text is so wonderful. Number three, Jesus came in order to destroy the devil. As verse 14 says, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. And as we saw all the way back in Genesis 3.15, from the very time that the devil first led Adam and Eve into sin, God promised that a child would be born who would crush the serpent's head. And all through the Old Testament, we see child after child born, leader after leader arise. And with every one, we should be thinking, could this be the one? Will the power of the devil finally be broken? And yet again and again through the whole Old Testament, every single one fails. And yet the whole way, God continues to promise with greater and greater clarity that one will arise to reverse the curse, to crush the devil's head, and to save his people from their sins. And this is the one whom the author of Hebrews is proclaiming to us. In chapter one, he explains that one like no other has now come. One who is greater than the angels. One who is the very son of God himself, the brightness of his father's glory and the exact imprint of his nature. And now in chapter two, verse 14, he declares that he has become like us, taking on flesh so that he might destroy the devil. Friends, in Jesus Christ, it's as if our captain is taking the field. He comes as the new Adam, our new representative, our mighty champion. a champion far greater than David, stepping forward on behalf of Israel to slay Goliath. Jesus comes as our champion to destroy the devil. And where Adam succumbed to temptation in the garden, we see Jesus resisting temptation in the wilderness. Where the result of Adam's failure was a world full of demonic oppression, Jesus comes casting out demons and declaring, the kingdom of God has come upon you. But most importantly of all, as the author of Hebrews draws our attention to, Jesus destroys the devil, not primarily by his life, but by his death. He partook of flesh and blood so that through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death. You see, in his death, Christ became not only our representative, but our substitute. And through his death, he, the God-man, laying down his perfect, sinless, righteous life, he made it possible for God to destroy the devil without destroying us. Because he bore the full penalty of our sin so that we would not have to. And now, for all who are in Christ, the devil's accusations no longer stick. As Martin Luther said, so when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this, I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, son of God, and where he is, there I shall be also. Friends, the sting of death has been removed because there's no judgment left for us to face. Jesus paid it all on the cross. And not only that, but through the cross, all of Satan's lies are exposed for what they are in the light of the cross. Satan says, your sins have separated you too far from God. Run from God, hide from him, and don't dare draw near because the sword of his justice will find you out. The cross says, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? What then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Satan says you're worthless. Your sins have so defined you that you have nothing to live for and no hope of redemption. The cross says you who were originally created in the image of God, God intends to restore. You now stand redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, no longer as a stranger or an alien or an enemy, but as a beloved child of God. And Satan says, fear death and do everything you possibly can to escape it. The cross says, behold, death has lost its sting. Jesus died and furthermore is also risen and he has the keys of death and Hades. You see that the death which once hung over our heads as a sign of our condemnation, Now in Christ, God has made death the means of our salvation. And our own death will mean nothing but passing into greater life. And that brings us to our fourth and final observation from the text, which is that through Jesus's death, we're set free. Verse 15, Christ became flesh in order to destroy the one who had the power of death, that is the devil, and to deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Oh friends, Jesus Christ was born to set us free. Free from the fear of death, free from the chains of guilt, free from bondage to sin, free from hiding in darkness, free from deception, free from shame, and free from every other form of satanic bondage. Because brothers and sisters, when you truly come into relationship with Christ, you have peace with God. You have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and you have this certain hope of eternal life. Death itself has been swallowed up in victory. It is no longer a terrifying end, but a door to greater and fuller life. That's why the Apostle Paul can say things like, for to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. And yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. And so brothers and sisters, let us rejoice that we have a savior who has been born unto us to deliver us from the devil, to deliver us from death, to deliver us from sin, and to bring us to God, that we may have peace and joy and life in his name. And if you're here this evening, and you don't truly know the Lord Jesus Christ, and you haven't really experienced this salvation that he has come to bring. Friend, I would plead with you to receive him by personally trusting him. My prayer for you is that you would have the experience of the hymn writer even tonight. He says, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. No condemnation, now I dread. Jesus, and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we rejoice tonight that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been born. That like us, he partook of flesh and blood. That unlike us, He has resisted the devil's temptations and deceptions, and that for us, he died the death that we all deserve to die, so that in him, we might be raised up to life eternal, that we might not fear death, that we might be set free from the chains of the evil one. God, we rejoice in Christ, and we pray these things in his name, amen.