Our next
encounter is:
Then they brought him a
demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he
could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, “Could
this be the Son of David?” But when the
Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of
demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
Jesus knew their
thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will
be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not
stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How
then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by
whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your
judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then
the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or again, how can anyone enter a
strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the
strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with
me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be
forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone
who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who
speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or
in the age to come.
Make a tree good and its fruit
will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is
recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are
evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full
of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and
an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I
tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for
every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be
acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt. 12:22-37 NIV)
Here is
another opportunity for Satan to snarl at Jesus. This time, Jesus takes the Pharisees (and
Satan) head-on. He demolishes their
logic and then reminds them that their words are eternally dangerous. The people
are at least open to Jesus being the “Son of David.” But when the Pharisees hear their question,
they are furious. Anger and jealousy are
open doors for Satan and he jeers at Jesus through the leaders.
One aspect
of Jesus’ mission is to “bind the strong man.”
We can derived a quick profile of Satan from these verses: Satan is strong, but he can be bound; he is not
invincible. The strong man has possessions, us, but they
can be “carried off;” we can be redeemed. His house is here on earth, but he can be
“plundered;” he can and will be conquered.
Jesus cares
enough about the Pharisees to warn them of their serious transgression of
attributing the things of God to Satan. His words
are a warning to us as well: What we
store up in our heart will play out in the things we say and do. Good fruit comes from good trees. Good words and kind deeds come from a heart
so enriched with Jesus’ love and mercy that it can’t help it. Jesus
doesn’t excuse the Pharisees’ words. He
takes a no-nonsense approach with Satan and with them. Whatever you store up will tumble out. Words
matter and show the state of our heart.
Nourish your heart with the good things of God: prayer and time in His
Word. Then when Satan comes a-calling,
you will see him for what he is: a liar
and a deceiver who uses your fear, doubt and anger to incite you to attack
others and likewise, for them to attack you.
Next
encounter:
"When an impure spirit comes out of a person,
it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will
return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied,
swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than
itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person
is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation." (Matt. 12:43-45
NIV)
Satan loves
a clean (serving God based on my works), orderly (pride driven) but empty (no
love) house. The
context here is the leaders have asked Jesus for a sign. He says that like Jonah, he will be confined
in the earth for three days, but will emerge victorious. (Matt. 12:40). That is the greatest sign of all: the Son of
Man conquering death itself. Jesus will not perform a sign on demand. He made that clear to Satan when He refused
to jump from the Temple at Satan’s suggestion in the wilderness. But even
with the change of tone in the leaders (they are no longer accusing Him of
being in league with Satan) they still have impure motives. They may look clean and put in order. In other words, they look spiritually respectable,
but they are empty, for they have no love.
That is
the key here. Satan loves an empty soul.
Even a good person—someone whose house looks in order to us—is in danger
of Satan using and filling. Nature hates
a vacuum, and so does the spiritual world.
Our souls are containers, either filled with God or the deceiver. I know
this sounds harsh. How could a good
person who does not commit any egregious sins be serving Satan? Jesus is condemning the unbelief of His
generation in the surrounding verses. They
are asking for a sign, which seems to be harmless enough. But it is still unbelief. A sign, not their love, will supposedly
enable them to follow Jesus. That is
what makes unbelief so dangerous: If we
don’t accept and serve Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we default to the world
and its values. Satan is the “prince of
this world.” So whether we know it or not, our empty soul will be filled. We will serve either Jesus or Satan. A soul
that serves God with pride-filled works and no love results in emptiness. A soul
that ignores God results in emptiness.
We choose
Who or who will fill our soul. Jesus, in
previous verses, says we are either with Him or against Him. Again, we choose: either unbelief or belief. Satan
cheers us on towards unbelief and emptiness.
Why? So he can gain entry and influence
our lives.
Our next
encounter is:
When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus
and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has
seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into
the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
“You unbelieving and perverse
generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long
shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon,
and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private
and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
He replied, “Because you have so little faith.
Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can
say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing
will be impossible for you.” (Matt. 17:14-21 NIV)
Jesus wants us to be ready to act on our belief in
Him. Acting on our belief is another
word for faith. Remember the armor and
specifically the Shield of Faith? Satan
puts on a grand show through this poor boy:
falling into fire or water would terrify anyone. The screams alone would send shivers down
anyone’s spine. And that is precisely
the point: Satan wants to appear utterly
invincible. The disciples bought that lie
this time. Their fear along with being
stunned by such a display caused them to recoil. Satan then capitalized on their fear and
encouraged them to see themselves as powerless.
With their Shield of Faith down, here came the
dart of You Can’t Do This! It worked.
That’s why Jesus had to remind them once again of the power of having faith
in Him. Satan’s tactic of seeming to be
more powerful than Jesus is a favorite of his; Jesus reminded His disciples
that Satan is a liar.
If Satan condemns your faith as powerless, guess
what? It’s a lie! Faith in Jesus is the most powerful force in the
universe, not Satan, despite his displays to the contrary.
Our next encounter comes in the form of a
parable:
The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for
me.”
Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart
from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I
was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did
not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in
prison and you did not look after me.”
They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you
hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and
did not help you?”
He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did
not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” Then they will go away to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life. (Matt. 25:40-6 NIV)
Spiritual warfare is not always an encounter with overt
evil. Spiritual warfare is also about
how you are going to serve the One you love.
Loving Christ without serving others is like “unsalty” salt. It is utterly useless: "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness,
how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown
out." (Luke 14:34-35)
The ones who need Christ the most are the ones whom
the world quickly passes by. All the
folks mentioned here in this parable—the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the
naked, the sick, the prisoner—have a steady satanic whisper in their ears: God
doesn’t care about you. That whisper is a lie. We are to prove that by how we treat and care
for others in Jesus’ name. The Kingdom
of God is marked by our compassion and love for one another: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another;
as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:34-5)
In fact, love is the only law in the Kingdom of God: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the
law of Christ." (Gal. 6:2)
We will continue to survey Jesus’ encounters with the enemy next time in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.
Excerpted from S.T.A.N.D. Spiritually Trained And Not Defeated: Our Position in Christ, Our Mission in Christ A Handbook on Spiritual Warfare. Buy it on Amazon.
Excerpted from S.T.A.N.D. Spiritually Trained And Not Defeated: Our Position in Christ, Our Mission in Christ A Handbook on Spiritual Warfare. Buy it on Amazon.
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