Jesus and Demons #3 - Mark 1 & 15 - Temptations and Accusations
Most people like Jesus. They may not know much about Him but what they do know is usually good. He was a kind man who did good things. I do agree that He is good but I think He was, is, much, much, more than that.
If you read about Jesus in the bible you will find that he has regular confrontations with people who are
not good and with demons who are evil. What can we learn from Jesus therefore about evil and about demons?
In the two previous talks on Mark I reflected on the existence of evil and how we should approach the issue of demons as people who live in a scientific, materialistic, post-enlightenment culture. I believe that the bible shows us that there is a spiritual dimension to our existence and that this spiritual dimension has both good (which comes from God) and evil (which comes from Satan). In fact I think of evil as that which opposes God and His goodness.
When Jesus steps foot on the dusty earth of Palestine, He was, is, the embodiment of good, He is the Son of God. As he walks and talks and lives He encounters evil every step of the way.
Every day of our lives we also live, knowingly or unknowingly, within a spiritual realm where good and evil are calling us to walk their paths. What can we learn from Jesus about discerning the work of the enemy and dealing with it?
The gospel of Mark bookends Jesus’ ministry with two major encounters with the enemy from which we can learn much.
Mark 1:9-13
Jesus spends 40 days in the desert being tempted by Satan. He got tempted despite being commissioned by His heavenly Father – we too, get tempted.
Mark 15:1-5
Jesus’ trial before Pilate when He is accused of many things. The sinless man was accused, how much more will be accused.
The word for devil in Greek is diabolos, which means to lie and slander. He leads us toward betrayal, violence, pain, hate and loss. There is nothing funny or sympathetic about Satan or evil.
And the enemy has schemes and devices by which to turn us away from the beauty and fulfilment of knowing our creator God. These schemes rest on lies and distortion.
If you have an open piano and sing into it, one of the strings will particularly vibrate to your voice. That’s what the enemy does, he sings into our piano and identifies which string vibrates and then plays it. He knows your weaknesses and flaws and will play you.
Temptations and Accusations
There are two main schemes he employs: to tempt and to accuse. I want to look at what temptations and accusation look like. Then I will explain why they work. And we will finish with the strategy you need to adopt to dismantle his devices.
In Mark 1 we see Jesus being subject to extreme
temptation. Vulnerable, weak, alone, hungry. “If you do this, I will give you this” says Satan. He tempts Jesus with wealth and power and control but Jesus resists.
In Mark 15 Jesus is
accused of many things, not directly by Satan but by his mouthpieces – which is often his way of course. The charges orientate around the accusation, “Who do you think you are?”
Temptations
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.
The nature of temptation goes something like this: "Why don’t you just do this, it’s not such a big deal and even if it is wrong, forgiveness is easy".
Do you know what is going on when the enemy tries this on you? He is trying to stand between you and a Holy God. He is minimising the demands of our creator God for holiness and nudging you to think of yourself as somehow more significant, more important that you are. My life is important; I should be able to do what I like. It is all about me. My pleasures, my enjoyment, my greed, desires and lust. The core sin with which he tempts us - is pride.
Some examples (from Baxter, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices):
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Show the bait and hide the hook
He presents the golden cup but hides the poison. He offers short-term pleasure but hides the long-term pain. This is what he did to Jesus, offering him the riches of the world in exchange for worship of Satan. This is what he did with Eve, just eat, enjoy the sweet taste and have your eyes opened to good and evil.
Just a few minutes watching that porn channel ignoring the way it will pollute your mind forever. Shopping for that retail therapy kick and ignoring the credit card bill that will ping in your inbox a month later.
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Rationalise sin as a virtue
The temptation is gilded over with something that looks shiny and attractive: I am not greedy, just thrifty; I am not an alcoholic, just sociable: I am not proud, just neat and tidy; I am not coveting stuff, just being good at business.
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Compare the sin of leaders, they do this so - so can I
King David lusted after Bathsheba but wrote great worship songs so it can’t be too bad to indulge in lust. Peter denied Jesus on Passover night but went on to be a big cheese in the early church. Our politicians can fiddle their expenses so it is OK for me too. If big name evangelists can have affairs then no one is going to worry about me. The enemy hides the true outworking of this – the pain and anguish experienced, the humiliation suffered, the long slow road to restoration – if ever it is achieved.
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Over-stress the mercy of God
You need not be so fearful of sin, not so unwilling to sin: for God is a God full of mercy, a God that delights in mercy, a God that never wearies of showing mercy … why then should you make such a matter of sin? I can just repent and cry for mercy and I will be forgiven.
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Bad people have great lives
The Russian oligarchs with their yachts, the neighbour who never does anything for anyone but has a big car and lovely holidays, the guy at work who stabs people in the back and has managed to get the best promotion, the larger than life character at the club who seems to sleep around at will with impunity. Whilst the rest of us sigh and weep and groan and never enjoy the sunshine of prosperity.
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Bitterness over suffering
I have had a hard time and so I deserve a little sin, some whinging and weakness and denial of God. It is a just reward, a modest compensation for … my illness, my loss, my poverty, my hurt, my unfilled hopes and desires.
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Odious comparisons
Mafia hit-man – loves his mother but kills people. I know sex is a weakness but just look at how much money I give to church. I know I tend to gossip but I give loads of time to working with the kids. I know I drink too much but just look at the responsibility I carry in helping people at work. So I break the speed limit on the motorway, I drive very carefully near schools.
These are just some of the enemy’s schemes for using temptation.
Accusations
Revelation 12:10 The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night.
A characteristic of Satan is that he accuses us all the time. Some of the time he is described as standing in a heavenly court room bringing charge after charge (this is the setting for Job). Some of the time he is in our face, pointing a finger. A cosmic version of those people on Twitter who spread innuendo and rumour.
When the enemy accuses you, when you sense that cruel pointing finger, and sometimes the words are in the mouths of people around us, he is again trying to get between you and God but this time he is not trying to hide God’s holiness but God’s grace from you.
He is saying, “Look what you have done. It’s too late now, no hope for you. God is angry with you and punishment is on its way.”
We forget God’s love and grace and live in fear and guilt.
Here are some examples of the enemy’s devices:
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He causes us to look more at our sin than our Saviour. We focus on our disease and forget the remedy. We muse upon our debts oblivious to the price that has been paid.
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He lets us settle to the belief that what we have done is so bad and so deeply buried that the damage can’t be undone. As though that thing becomes our identity, that’s just the way it is. You are just an angry person, you are just an adulterer.
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our troubles are a just punishment. I deserve this – I have done wrong and therefore I need to be punished. And as I am being punished I might as well carry on sinning.
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You can’t be a real Christian. The sort of thing you are struggling with is only experienced by wicked people. Real Christians don’t have that trouble.
These are all lies of the enemy.
When the accusations were made against Jesus they were the same, “How dare you think of yourself as the Son of God, the King of the Jews?” “Who do you think you are?”
And when the enemy accuses us he says just the same, who do you think you are? You are nobody, just a failure. You have fallen short of a Holy God and so you might as well just give up.
Two strategies of the enemy, temptation and accusation: one to hide the Holiness of God and tempt you into pride and doing what you feel like. The other, the opposite, is to hide the Love of God and accuse you of guilt and failure, leaving you in fear.
The first is characterised as alluring, enticing, seductive. The latter feels awful, you are offensive, guilty, at fault, to be blamed and held to account.
And by both strategies the enemy means to steer us away from God – either by massaging our pride and tempting us to go with our own desires when they take us away from a Holy God or by laying landmines in our fields of hope, accusing us of having blown any chance of knowing God’s mercy.
That’s how temptation and accusation work – how do we resist?
Resistance
Jesus resisted the enemy in the desert. He did not give into temptation because he knew that God’s call on His life was much higher and better than any tawdry enticements from the enemy.
He did not rise to the accusations before Pilate because he knew that He was wholly loved by God and secure in His relationship with His Father.
When
tempted we must know enough of our guilt to halt the enemy’s progress. When
accused our guilt must be tempered with the forgiveness of God.
If you believe you can be saved by your achievements or your performance you will either be full of pride at doing well or feel terrible at your failure.
But as a Christian, understanding the gospel, you know that you cannot behave your way into God’s favour but that by receiving His mercy and grace through Jesus you can resist the enemy’s strategy to tempt and accuse.
You can hold the balance between an awareness of a Holy God calling you to a pure and wholesome life and a merciful God extending His forgiveness to you when you fall.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Remedies with which to resist
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Pray - Jesus taught us to pray - “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”
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Know yourself – which string reverberates when the enemy sings his siren song? What does he use on you? We usually specialise in our sin – it is pretty obvious when we think about it. Is your battle with pornography or greed or gossip or alcohol or anger or violence or dodgy humour or fear? Recognise and own your area of weakness.
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Accountability – find someone you can talk with, maybe your housegroup leader or a close friend. Give them permission to check up on you. Pray through the issue. Take practical steps:
Porn – filter on lap top and TV and phone
Alcohol – go on the wagon, empty your house of booze
Crude humour – tell people to call you on it
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The Gospel – understand the gospel and use it to resist the enemy just as Jesus did.
God is Holy and we are not. It is serious, so serious Jesus died a tortuous death for my sin so that I can be allowed back into God’s presence. It is very important to resist temptation, it does matter and with God’s help you can be free.
On the other hand, the Father is endlessly merciful and we can rejoice that we are His beloved children, the lies and accusations have no grounds because Jesus’ sacrifice has paid the price.
When you are tempted, you recognise the sin and that Jesus has died to save you, so you call on Him and thus demolish the strategy of the enemy to
tempt you.
When you are accused, you remember that you are absolutely loved by God, “Charge my sin to the account of my redeemer” and thus is demolished the strategy of the enemy to
accuse you.
Conclusion
Jesus was sinless, though tempted and accused He never lost sight of His Father’s call to holiness and he always trusted in God’s mercy. But God’s great mission is to restore us to Himself and to do that Jesus suffered and died in our place, cut off from His loving Father, taking the punishment and thus giving us the means by which to resist the enemy and come into God’s presence again.
May the enemy have no grip in your life as you hear the Lord’s invitation to living holy, good and wholesome lives.
May you receive His endless mercy and forgiveness for your sin.
May you know His freedom and power in your life.
May you approach His throne without fear.
Hebrews 4:15-16 For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
David Flowers, 11/11/2012