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“Deliver Us from the Evil One”
Praying The Lord’s Prayer, Part
9
Matthew 6:13b
Lord, Teach Us to Pray
Good Friday, 2003
I must admit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy has me enthralled. It is filled with the classic battle of good vs. evil—in all its huge, mythic, epic splendor: the struggle against the evil one, Sauron, the temptations of everyone to take hold of the One Ring that offers ultimate power over everything, the gruesome battle scenes against the demonic Orcs, and that little hobbit, Frodo Baggins, carrying the terrible burden to rid the world of the evil of Suaron and his ring.
It is a story that reverberates with many of us, especially those of us who yearn to fight the good fight—to go into battles against the evil that we see. It is the reason many backed the war in Iraq—to combat and defeat evil. It is the reason we as men here at Vanguard Church have been getting together on Saturday mornings every other week—to explore what it means to properly be a man and to fight in the cosmic battle, to be a warrior against evil. As we have talked the last several weeks, favorite movies were brought
up—Gladiator, Last of the Mohicans, The Matrix, Rocky, Star Wars, The Lord of the
Rings—movies that have heroes who were willing to risk it all for the sake of the good, and who come through in the end and save the day from the evil that threatens everything. On my own, I am reading
The Hobbit, and each night I am reading to my son Trey the C. S. Lewis classic,
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first in the Chronicles of Narnia
fantasy series of books, which tells of the great lion Aslan and his eventual triumph over the evil white witch that has enslaved all of Narnia in a terrible curse in which it is always winter but never Christmas.
All of these stories reverberate with us because they reflect the larger, true, supernatural story—some implicitly, some more directly analogous (like in the Narnia series, where Aslan clearly is the Christ figure). We are drawn to the stories of good triumphing over evil because it is what is spiritually what is going on in us and all around us: Good defeating evil; the hero conquering the villain; the excitement of those who look like they might be defeated overcoming the oppressor.
It is what good stories are made of, because it is THE STORY. It is not just relegated to the pages of good books or to the screen of our cineplexes or television screens; it is the heart-felt reality of what we are made for. We are meant to be on the winning side of the battle against the evil one. We are to rally around and follow the one who won the battle over the evil one, and thus win our own battle as well.
It is the story of the cross.
John Stott, in one of the greatest books ever written in Christianity, The Cross of Christ, explains this best:
“Victory, conquest, triumph, overcoming—this is the vocabulary of those first followers of the risen Lord. For if they spoke of victory, they knew they owed it to the victorious Jesus.”
Of course, anyone who would look at Jesus pummeled and bloodied, skewered onto the cross, would not think of it as a symbol of victory but of defeat. It seems more a victory for the evil one—the power of evil to destroy the good.
Yet it is the Christian claim that the reality was the opposite of the appearance. What looked like the defeat of goodness by evil was in fact the defeat of evil by goodness! By allowing himself to be overcome, Jesus
overcame. The victim was the victor.
Stott writes that the cross of Jesus Christ is in fact a “cosmic drama in which God in Christ does battle with the powers of evil and gains the victory over them.” “…by his death Jesus saved us not only from sin and guilt, but from death and the devil, in fact all evil powers, as well.”
So, sit back and listen to the epic story of good vs. evil, of Christ overcoming and defeating the devil, and of your being delivered from the evil one.
(I am indebted to John Stott’s analysis in The Cross of Christ for this basic outline.)
1. The Battle Predicted.
A long time ago, in a land far away, there was the beginning of the human race. In this beautiful garden dwelt the first man and woman, living in perfect harmony with God and his creation. Then came the Serpent, the Evil One, enticing the two of them into giving into their pride and to no longer trust in their loving God and Father. They gave into the temptation and the result was a breach of trust—their relationship with God was severely damaged. Now, God could have washed his hands of the matter and let the human race go—to pursue their silly little affairs without realizing their part in the larger, epic story.
But instead, right there in Genesis 3, right there in the very chapter recording the fall of the human race, God says these words to the Evil One:
“From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15, NLT)
There in that verse, at the beginning of this giant book we call The Bible, we have the prediction: Eve’s offspring will be Satan’s enemy, but then the plural offspring focuses down to a single man: “HE will crush YOUR head, and YOU will strike HIS heel.”
This one man will engage in battle with Satan. In this coming battle, the devil will strike a blow (striking Eve’s offspring’s “heel”) and Eve’s offspring will crush the head of the Serpent, the devil. Both blows in the battle are lethal—to get bit in the heel by the deadly Serpent will kill; and to crush the head of the snake will be a decisive death blow. No doubt, this will be a war to the death!
The battle, though it will be fought by many over the years, boils down to a battle between a single man and that original Serpent.
Who is that man? Who is that hero? And how will he triumph?
That is who the WHOLE BIBLE points us to. There is a single man, a Messiah, a Deliverer, the Chosen One, the
Ultimate Hero, who will fight an awesome and awful battle of cosmic proportions. And the fight will cost him his very own life! He will be struck on the heel by this terrible Serpent. But through that sacrifice, the head of the Evil One will be crushed.
2. The Battle Begun.
The next stage of the story finds us looking into a stable at a baby lying in a manger. This is the birth of the Chosen One who will defeat the enemy—and the enemy knows it. Look at the lengths that the devil goes to eliminate the threat:
-Herod murders all the first-born boys at the time of the birth of Jesus.
-When Jesus is grown and starts his ministry, he first goes into the wilderness, where Satan tempts him to avoid the way of the cross.
-As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the crowd tries to force Jesus into a political/military Kingship to resolve their oppression from evil.
-Even Peter contradicts Jesus’ resolve to go to the cross, to which Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23)
-And, ultimately, Satan tries to take Jesus out through the betrayal of Judas, whom Satan actually ‘entered’ (according to John 13:27).
But Jesus was determined to fulfill his mission—he was going to go to that battle and fight that fight. And as we read in the Gospels, as that great battle neared we see God’s kingdom advancing and Satan’s kingdom retreating—demons being exorcised, sicknesses healed, nature itself yielding to the rule of the Christ.
Jesus said it best:
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.” (Luke 11:21-22)
The “strong man” is Satan, but someone stronger is about to attack—Jesus himself. And as the great liberating force, Jesus will liberate those who have been held captive to the strong man. That attack, that “overpowering” occurred in the next stage of the story.
3. The Battle Engaged and Won.
Look at what the Bible says about Good Friday:
“Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)
The CROSS is the Battle Ground. It was at the death of Jesus Christ that we have the great battle between good and evil—and the power of evil was routed! It was by his death that Jesus was able to CRUSH the HEAD of SATAN!
That is the truth of the power of the cross.
We recently looked at the power of God to forgive us our debts—the written code against us because of our sins—by what Jesus did on the cross. Look again at that passage in Colossians:
“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. In this way, God disarmed the evil rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross of Christ.”
(Colossians 2:13-15)
Look at the awesome, supernatural, epic story of what Jesus did there on the cross!
We were in dire straights—“dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.” We were captives to the evil one.
But “THEN!” “Then God made you alive in Christ. He forgave all our sins.”
And look at the battle motif that is brought out in verse 15. By Jesus Christ’s
“victory over them on the cross,” God “disarmed the evil
rulers”—their Weapons of Mass Destruction, so to speak, were taken from them. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, Satan and his minions were stripped of their dignity and might.
And “He shamed them publicly”—you can almost picture the procession in which the conquered evil-doers are paraded from their war-crimes trials to their just punishment—heads down, rightfully shamed for their wrong-doing.
All of this is vivid imagery—we are to understand that Jesus did an amazing thing spiritually at the cross. It was there that the battle was engaged and won. It was upon the cross that the devil was beaten decisively and completely.
How did Jesus do that? By resisting the temptations to avoid the cross; by obeying the will of His Father completely and going through with dying the most gruesome death anyone could ever die. By giving love instead of retaliation in the face of his trials. By not being overcome by evil, but by overcoming evil with good (as we are commanded to do in Romans 12:21). Jesus could have called legions of angels to his defense, he could have come down off the cross at any time, he could have summoned a lightning bolt to reduce Pilate to a smoking cinder…But instead of resorting to raw power to defeat evil, he took the way of the cross—where the real power was found. And it was there that the real battle took place. It was there that the Serpent finally got to strike Jesus’ heel (so to speak), and took his life. But it was in dying that sacrificial death that Jesus was able to crush the Serpent’s head.
It was not until the next stage in the story that we knew that the victory was won.
4. The Victory Confirmed.
Get this straight! As Stott writes, “We are not to regard the cross as defeat and the resurrection as victory. Rather, the cross was the victory won, and the resurrection the victory endorsed, proclaimed and demonstrated.”
Easter would mean nothing if it were not for Good Friday.
“But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
(Acts 2:24)
The resurrection confirmed that the victory had been won! Jesus was raised to the throne over which he now reigns over all the evil powers in this world.
And now that the victory is confirmed by the resurrection, that victory needs to be proclaimed to all people so that they can be liberated.
5. The Victory Proclaimed.
The church was brought into existence by Jesus for the primary purpose, in the power of the Spirit, to proclaim to everyone in the world that Jesus Christ was crucified for their liberation from evil and to tell people to turn from their old way of living under bondage and to instead believe in and follow Jesus, the liberator of their souls!
“In every true conversion there is a turning not only from sin to Christ, but ‘from darkness to light’, ‘from the power of Satan to God’, and ‘from idols to serve the living and true God’; there is also a rescue ‘from the dominion of darkness…into the kingdom of the Son God loves.’ So every Christian conversion involves a power encounter in which the devil is obliged to relax his hold on somebody’s life and the superior power of Christ is demonstrated.” (Stott, p. 236)
Sounds like the makings of a great movie, kind of like The Lord of the Rings! Only this is THE REAL STORY! This is the epic, mysterious, supernatural story of The Lord of the Cross!
Have you experienced this incredible conversion? Have you heard the proclamation of victory won by the Messiah on the Cross and trusted that for your own victory over the evil one?
This is the day of salvation—of deliverance—for those who will humble themselves enough to believe and to trust in the loving God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Take a moment and reflect—have I grasped this awesome story of what God has been doing for the deliverance of the world from the Evil One? Am I willing to set aside my doubts and my pride and trust the hero of the story—Jesus Christ?
6. The Victory Completed.
But we know that even though the war is won, the enemy is still resisting. He is not going to admit defeat easily. He is still there, fighting against the offspring of Eve—you and me.
Just as an illustration, look at where we are in the war with Iraq now. While it is true that the war is essentially over, the fighting is not over. Right now, we are in that period of the “Already” and the “Not Yet.” The Regime of Saddam Hussein has been overcome—the war is already over. But there is continued resistance in the land—it is not yet concluded. We now wait for the time when the victory will reach its final conclusion.
That illustration should help you understand where we are in this period of the overarching, epic biblical story of the battle between Jesus and Satan. We are in that time of the “Already” and the “Not Yet.” The Evil One was defeated on the cross of Christ, but he has not yet been completely relinquished. He is still fighting. He is still causing strife for the offspring of Eve.
But there will come a time when Jesus will return to this earth and some incredible things will happen. On that day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).
Christ’s victory over the devil will be completed—as the Apostle John got a glimpse of the future in the book of Revelation:
“And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur…”
(Revelation 20:10)
“Then the end will come, when he [Jesus] hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
(1 Corinthians 15:24-26)
Jesus is reigning right now, even while all his enemies are being placed under his feet. That is the power that you and I have in this interim time until the return of Christ.
7. Our Victory Experienced in Each Day.
Since we are now followers of Jesus, we have the power within us to overcome the evil one each day.
We can pray that section of the Lord’s Prayer and know that (since it was taught to us by The LORD HIMSELF!) it will be answered.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
(Matthew 6:13)
When we pray this prayer, we are very clear: We can NEVER overcome our temptations in our own power. We CANNOT deliver ourselves from the evil one.
When we pray this prayer, we admit that temptation is dangerously deceptive and powerful and we are yielding to God for our deliverance from the grasp of the evil one.
When we pray this prayer, we are looking directly at this date on our calendar—Good Friday. For it was on that first Good Friday that the battle was won, and it is tapping into THAT victory that we find victory in today’s continued skirmishes with the evil one.
When we pray that prayer, we can rest assured of the promises of Scripture to the redeemed in Christ:
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
While we need to “flee the evil desires of youth” (that is, our temptations), we are not commanded to flee the devil. We are commanded to RESIST him, so that he flees from US!
We do not have the power by ourselves to force him to flee, but we can say with power, “In the name of Jesus Christ, whom I have yielded my entire life to, and who defeated you at the cross, I stand firm. And YOU, SATAN, must FLEE!”
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