Calvary Road Baptist Church
“SATAN’S KNOWN ENCOUNTERS WITH CHRIST”
John 14.28-31
My rough estimate is that I have preached more than 7000 times since my call to the Gospel ministry. However, this will be the first time I have preached sermons from God’s Word dealing with Satan on consecutive Sundays.
To see how that came about, turn to John 14.28–31. In my most recent sermon, I focused on a phrase found in Revelation 12.10, which reads,
“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”
That message was a topical exposition related to the phrase in this verse, “the accuser of our brethren,” which, of course, is Satan.
At this time I wrap up a series of messages from John chapter 14, our Lord’s Upper Room discourse, and part of the greatest conversation recorded in God’s Word, which includes our Lord’s discussion with His remaining eleven apostles in John chapters 14-16 and His high priestly intercessory prayer contained in John chapter 17.
Let me summarize each of the four verses in the passage you turned to, beginning with verse 28:
“Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.”
The Master had previously told His disciples He would depart and return to them, my opinion being that the departure and return He refers to here will only be three days and nights, from the time of His burial until His resurrection. The second sentence challenges their love for Him, recognizing that although His eventual ascension to the Father’s right hand would mean He was no longer physically with them, since it was best for Him (and for them, really) they should rejoice that He will ascend to the Father on high. Verse 29:
“And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.”
What is it to believe? Believe is what faith does. But what is faith, a much-misunderstood concept these days? Hebrews 11.1 is key to understanding faith:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith is operative when you cannot see, just as it is operative when you cannot hear, feel, taste, or smell. This is because faith does not rely upon use of the five senses, but trusts God when we do not hear His audible voice, see His physical presence, feel His touch, smell His aroma, or see His image, to what He said He would do in His Word. So, you see, the Lord Jesus Christ had to depart to make it possible for His followers to live spiritually by faith rather than by their five senses. Verse 30:
“Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”
This is where the Lord Jesus Christ indicates that His conversations with them will shortly come to an end. Why so? The prince of this world is coming. That, of course, is Satan, our Lord’s arch enemy. Our arch enemy. What does our Lord tell His men about the arch-enemy? Let me paraphrase now and elaborate later in this sermon. The Lord tells His men by His words, “and hath nothing in me,” that Satan cannot touch Him. What Satan does is what Satan is permitted to do. Nothing more. Despite what they are about to see with their eyes and hear with their ears, our Lord is as much as telling His loyal followers, “I’ve got this.” Verse 31:
“But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.”
Two sentences here. He begins by telling His men why He is doing what He is about to do. First, as a demonstration of His love for His heavenly Father. Second, because He does what His Father has directed Him to do, perfect obedience. Spurgeon writes about His final remark, “Arise, let us go hence,”
“With unfaltering footsteps he advanced to his agony: he did not wait to be seized, he was a willing victim and went forward to take up his cross.”[1]
Of interest is the oft-overlooked phrase found in verse 31, “the prince of this world cometh.” This is one of those few times in the Word of God when we are informed of a known encounter between the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy one of Israel, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, and the arch enemy, Satan.
I set before you the seven places found in the Word of God where we, with some certainty, see the Lord Jesus Christ encountering Satan:
First, AT THE CREATION OF LUCIFER
Allow me to state my opinion, formed over more than 40 years of Bible study. Before I give my opinion, let me note that the Bible is not a record of everything that is. The Bible is a record of everything that God wants us to know. As well, be aware that the focus of the Bible is not on Satan or the angels. The focus of the Bible is on God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the human race, and sin and salvation.
Because the angels are not central to God’s revelation in Scripture, and because Lucifer is not the focus of attention in the Word of God (and he should not be), much of what we know about angels (both holy angels and fallen angels), and about Satan, is not prominently displayed in the Word of God. Prominent in the Bible is God’s creation of the physical universe and God’s creation of Adam and Eve and their fall into sin.
I do not have a chapter and verse that I can point to that provides me with information declaring when Lucifer (Satan’s original name) was created. Therefore, my working hypothesis is that Lucifer was the first being created by God, after which the rest of the host of angels were created, with these incorporeal beings existing before what is described in Genesis 1.1:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Therefore, I believe that Lucifer’s first conscious awareness, following his creation (and I believe him to be the first, the most beautiful, the most powerful, and the most intelligent of God’s creatures) was that he was in the presence of the eternal Son of the living God, who spoke him into existence.[2]
Next, AT THE CREATION OF CREATION
In support of my hypothesis that the myriad of angelic beings were all created by God, the Son, before He created the time–space–matter continuum, I would like for you to turn to Job 38.4-7 and follow along as I read:
4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
This passage is Hebrew poetry, and there is poetic license in the passage. In these verses, the LORD speaks to Job, challenging him by asking him, in so many words, “Who do you think you are to question Me?” However, God’s tactic with Job was to ask him where he was when He was creating the universe. Who is speaking in this passage? I believe a credible default presumption in the Old Testament is that when Jehovah speaks to any person, it is safe to presume it is the Second Person of the Godhead who speaks, the pre-incarnate Christ.
Notice, if you will, two phrases in verse 7. In the first phrase, we have the words “the morning stars sang together.” In the second phrase, we see “all the sons of God shouted for joy.” This Hebrew poetic parallelism is believed by most commentators to refer to the angelic host as “morning stars” and “the sons of God.” Why were they singing? Why were they shouting for joy? They had ringside seats to observe and cheer as Almighty God; specifically, the pre-incarnate Christ, spoke into existence the universe and all that is in it. The angels were the cheering section.
Included in that host of angels, of course, was the first angel created by the pre-incarnate Christ, Lucifer. What he may not have realized at the time, was that when the Lord Jesus Christ brought this planet into existence, He was forming Lucifer’s intended place of service to God. But Lucifer didn’t like that. He thought he deserved better. He could only imagine one as noble as he serving before the throne of God in glory.
This cheering section of the myriad of angels, then, was the second encounter we can be sure of when the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking the physical universe into existence, and Lucifer was nearby, looking on and cheering what he saw taking place.
Third, AT THE REBELLION AND FALL OF SATAN
Imagine Lucifer’s surprise when God directed him to his place of service in the seven-day-old universe. His assignment was earth, a small planet orbiting a tiny star, located at the edge of a remote galaxy, distant from the throne room of heaven. Lucifer did not like his assignment.
His reaction is found in Isaiah 14.12–16. Remembering the primary thrust of the Word of God, it is not a surprise to us that biblical prophecy is on occasion two-pronged in its approach. Such is the case in this passage, where the language of Isaiah’s prophecy is so framed as to apply to the Babylonian king primarily, and at the same time to shadow forth through him, the great final enemy:
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms.
More than 100 years later, the prophet Ezekiel, this time from Babylonian captivity, introduces a prophecy using the same two-pronged approach as the prophet Isaiah had employed. I begin reading from Ezekiel 28.11:
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
Ezekiel identifies Satan as the “anointed cherub” and as the “covering cherub,” a type of angel. He was in the Garden of Eden. But then he rebelled in his pride. Why do I think this occasion was one of those times when the pre-incarnate Christ arranged an encounter with Satan? Verse 17. It was the LORD who said to him,
“I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.”
Then there is Revelation 12.4:
“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.”
This is where we are finally informed how many of the holy angels followed Lucifer in his rebellion against God. It appears they were somehow convinced by Lucifer to join in his rebellion, they stormed the throne room of heaven, confronted the enthroned Majesty on high, at which point the archangel Michael (still loyal to God), was directed to cast him and his rebel band down, at which time Lucifer became Satan. This was the third occasion permitted by the Lord of glory in which Satan was in His presence.
Fourth, AT THE RECORD OF SATAN’S ACCOUNTABILITIES IN JOB
Turn to Job 1.6-12, where some Bible believers are shocked to learn that though he had been cast out for sin, Satan was held accountable by the LORD from time to time and seemed to have been summoned to give an account of his activities:
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Now turn to Job 2.1-7:
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
What is the takeaway from these two audiences, the pre-incarnate Christ had with Satan that so affected Job? There are two: First, the LORD is sovereign. Satan was, and is, utterly accountable to God and can only do what he is permitted to do. Second, Job did not know of Satan’s involvement in his life and did not need to know. His responsibility was entirely toward God. The same is true with us, though God has graciously provided us with knowledge of Satan and his activities that Job did not have.
Fifth, AT THE TEMPTATIONS OF CHRIST IN THE WILDERNESS
Brother Joe Doyel’s ministry at our Men’s Advance was so helpful for those of us who were there. Let me rehearse his insight into everyone’s temptations to sin. We turn to Matthew 4.1-11, which records Satan tempting Christ after His baptism by John the Baptist. Satan’s temptations took place on three fronts, for Christ then and for you and me in our lives:
First, there is the temptation to doubt the Word of God. We see the Devil doing this in Matthew 4.1-4:
1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Second, there is the temptation to deny the goodness of God. This is recorded in Matthew 4.5-7:
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Third, there is the temptation to defy the authority of God. This is found in Matthew 4.8-11:
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Though Brother Doyel correctly showed from this passage the three types of temptations that covers every person’s enticement to sin against God, my point in addressing this passage is to show to you the fifth known encounter with the Devil the Lord Jesus Christ permitted, once again demonstrating Satan’s impotence against the Savior. He is powerless against the Son of God! Sadly, he is very persuasive against the lost and so many of God’s children.
Sixth, AT SATAN’S RESISTANCE TO THE SAVIOR’S SUBSTITUTIONARY SACRIFICE
We now arrive at the statement our Lord made to His men before taking them to the Garden of Gethsemane to confront His arch-enemy, to take upon Himself the sins of others, and to pay the price for my sins on the cross of Calvary. Notice how obscure the Lord’s comment is, leaving it to us to discover the implications of what He said. John 14.30:
“for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”
What solemn words about the near future conflict, so calm, so weighty, so resolute, so almost triumphant, with which Christ imparts to His followers some of His own peace and assurance of victory when He is shortly attacked by His creature now turned against Him. What calm anticipation of His encounter with Satan, His unveiling of the secret and motive of what will be only His apparent defeat on the cross. How resolute is His advance to the conflict that culminates in total victory. Let us look at these three points:
First, there is His calm anticipation of the encounter:
“Hereafter I will not speak much with you: for the Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.”
Next, remember that when Satan tempted the Lord, “he departed from Him for a season.” This will be the second and more intense assault. In the wilderness, Satan dealt with desires to shake his Creator’s faith. From Gethsemane to Golgotha, the adversary will use sharper and more fatal weapons. This time his appeals will not be to any desire of enjoyment, or ease, or good, but pain and suffering and shame and death. He that previously resorted to persuasion now attempts to reach his goal through terror.
Place yourself with the Lord and His men when the “Prince of this world” (your ruler if you do not know Christ) “cometh.” Note His consciousness of absolute invulnerability against the assaults He anticipates. “He hath nothing in Me.” This is an assertion of His absolute freedom from sinfulness, and it involves the other assertion - that as He is free from sin, so He is not subject to that consequence of sin, which is death, as we know it. Thus, in calm anticipation, the Lord stands waiting for His enemy’s charge, knowing that all its force will be broken against the God-man’s immaculate purity and that He will rise from apparent defeat to victory for evermore.
Thus, though the Gospels do not report the encounter that takes place when the Devil brutally assaults our precious Lord, be sure that the most ferocious attack to ever occur did take place, and that what our Lord experienced in physical pain and suffering was more than matched by the vicious spiritual bombardment He was subjected to. Yet He won the victory! Incredible, then, that any intelligent creature would oppose Him, when the most powerful of creatures could not.
Would you like to know that the Christian life is? It is the life that is lived by undeserving sinners who have been brought from spiritual deadness to life and ultimate glory by God’s grace and mercy through faith in Christ, as the Savior’s crushing defeat of the Devil is repeatedly demonstrated in the lives of profoundly flawed and imperfect followers who are used by God to display the triumph of Christ over all opposition, by grace.
Finally, AT HIS FINAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE LORD OF GLORY
There is much confusion and speculation surrounding Satan’s final encounter with his Creator, my Lord Jesus Christ. Let me try to clear the air a bit.
The final encounter will not take place during the Tribulation. I am persuaded Revelation 12.7-17 records a future event that takes place midway through the 70th week of Daniel, which is a seven-year span that begins with the Rapture and concludes with the Second Coming of Christ:
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
This episode in Satan’s career features conflict with the archangel Michael, not the glorified Savior who is enthroned at the Father’s right hand.
Neither will the final encounter take place at the beginning of the Millennium. Revelation 19 records the Savior’s return in power and great glory, with Revelation 20.1-3 being a record of what happens to Satan at the outset of Christ’s millennial reign on earth:
1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Clearly, it is an unnamed holy angel who tends to the dispatch of Satan to confinement for a thousand years, not the King of kings.
Perhaps a final encounter will occur at the end of the Millennium. Revelation 20.7-10:
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Verse 10 might contain what is referred to as a divine passive, “was cast,” where the action is performed by the unnamed Lord Jesus Christ. If so, this is Satan’s final encounter with His creator, to Whom he owed so much, but whose futile rebellion landed him in the lake of fire forever.
Allow me to bring this together for your benefit. Satan is real. He is God’s arch-enemy and the most dangerous adversary you will ever face. However, he is not your primary concern and should not be thought of as your chief concern. He is only your worst enemy.
Does God allow the Devil to intrude into people’s lives from time to time? Yes. But we have seen from his encounters with the Savior that he is most severely outmatched by our Lord Jesus Christ.
You might think his repeated disastrous failures when rebelling against the Son of God would prove something to him. But, alas, he is insane, as are those who follow him, who reject the Gospel, who live their lives and try to raise their children apart from Christ.
Think for a moment about those who are not believers in Jesus Christ. If that is you, you are on the wrong side of a spiritual conflict that began days after the creation of this physical universe. This conflict has resulted in resounding defeat on every occasion in which the Savior permitted an encounter with Satan to occur.
Yet there are still those who, seeing the certainty of their eternal destruction with the Devil, continue to doubt the Word of God, continue to deny the goodness of God, and continue to defy the authority of God. Persuaded and manipulated by Satan on the battlefield of their minds (in their thought life), their irrational resistance to the claims of Christ in the Bible is inexplicable apart from sinful depravity.
Yet God is good. His mercy endures forever. And, from time to time, He reaches down and touches a life, convinces a sinner by His Spirit, and saves a soul through faith in His Son. Satan’s defeat becomes an individual’s victory when Christ’s victory becomes his own by faith.
We have seen that every encounter the Son of God has with the Devil results in a defeat for the Devil. The Bible shows that when Christians are attacked by the Devil, we can experience victory. Yet, the Bible shows that no one who is not a believer in Christ has any hope of success against Satan apart from turning to Christ.
In this panoramic view of Satan’s entire career, from his creation to his eventual demise, having caught a glimpse of his lofty expectations and his crushing defeat and ultimate doom.
What about you?
Will your entire existence be characterized by pride and rebellion, resulting in utter destruction, like the Devil?
Or will you turn to Christ and be saved from your sins?
My prayer is that you will turn from your sins and trust Christ.
__________
[1] Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon Devotional Commentary, (Bronson, MI: Online Publishing, Inc., 2002), bible@mail.com
[2] Colossians 1.16
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