How old was Jesus when He started His public ministry (Luke 3:23)? About _____________ years old. In Chapter 1 we saw that the devil attacked Jesus (by using King Herod) as soon as He was born. When Jesus was older and had begun His public ministry, do you think Satan will continued to wage war against Jesus? What happened to Jesus right after He was baptized by John the Baptist (Mark 1:9-13)? _________________________________________________________________________________
Today, Jesus is no longer on the earth and Satan cannot attack Him any longer. Today the devil seeks to attack those who have Christ living in them (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27). Unsaved people are called "children of the _____________ (1 John 3:10). Does Satan attack unsaved people? ______ Why or why not (compare Matthew 12:25-26)? [Usually you do not attack someone who is on your same team!]
Does Satan want his children (unsaved people) to be saved and become children of God (Luke 8:12)? ______
As we read Matthew 4:1-11 we find Christ and Satan in the arena (a place where a contest takes place and where there is a winner and a loser after the contest is over). According to Matthew 4:11, who went away defeated? _______________________ Who won the contest? _____________________________
How did Jesus defeat Satan? How can I defeat Satan and come out as a winner and not as a loser? Is the devil stronger and more powerful than I am? _____ Is the devil smarter than I am? _______ (Compare Ezekiel 28:12 – "full of W__________________________ " which describes Satan before he fell into sin.) If I were to face the devil by myself, who would win? _____________________________ Is Satan stronger, smarter and greater than God (1 John 4:4)? _____ If God were to face the devil by Himself, who would win? _________ The believer needs to remember that the living God lives in him, and Satan is no match for the power and presence of God in the believing heart.
A little girl was once asked, "If Satan were to come to your house and knock at your door, what would you do?" She answered, "I would not open the door myself. When Satan knocks at my door, I will send the Lord Jesus to the door, and when the devil sees Him, he will run away! He is my Saviour and the One who protects me." She understood that she was no match for the devil, but she knew that her Saviour would not have a problem with the devil.
How did Jesus defeat Satan? Did He use His supernatural powers as the Son of God? Did He grab the devil, and with one mighty fling hurl him beyond the moon? _________ If Christ had used His power as God to defeat the devil, then this would be very bad news to every believer who also must resist Satan’s attacks:
It’s great that Jesus won the victory over Satan, but it’s too bad that there is no hope for me. After all, I’m not God, and I don’t have any supernatural powers, so how could I ever defeat the devil? Certainly, I’m no match for Satan!
This is not what the Bible teaches. The Lord Jesus did not use His supernatural and divine powers to defeat the devil. Rather, He faced Satan as a man (compare what Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "man shall not live...), and this is good news to every believer! We can win the victory in the same way that Jesus won the victory! We can battle Satan just as Christ did! We can do exactly what He did! Yes, the temptation of Christ proved that man, walking in the Spirit (depending fully upon God for strength and victory), using and relying upon the Word of God, is more than a match for Satan!
In James 4:7 God tells the believer to "_________________ the devil."
The word "resist" means to "stand against." God never tells us to be afraid of the devil. Who is the One we should fear (Matthew 10:28; 1 Peter 2:17)? _______ God never tells us to run away from the devil. God wants us to stand against the devil and he will run away from us. James 4:7 says, "resist the ________________ and he will _________ (run away) from you." Did the devil run away from Christ (Matthew 4:11)? ______
Read Ephesians 6:11,13,14. Do you find the word "stand" in these verses? Does God want us to run from our enemy Satan? ____
See Genesis 3:1-6 (and compare 1 Tim. 2:14; 2 Cor. 11:3).
Let's look at two examples:
1) Matthew 16:21-23
2) Luke 22:31-32,39-46,54-62
Satan tries to tempt us in the daily things of life. God has made it possible for us to defeat him. What happens when a child of God (a believer) forgets God? What happens when a person forgets that God is above and over the believer and He is the One who is in charge (He is Lord)? What happens when the believer does not believe what God says? What happens when a child of God does not rest down upon God’s Word as he should? God's Word is meant to support the believer and hold him up, giving the believer solid ground to stand upon and to firmly plant his feet.
Apply what you have learned in this chapter to these situations which you may face:
1) "I’m too tired to go to prayer meeting tonight!"
2) "I read the Bible in Sunday School and I read it with my family each evening, so I really don’t need to have devotions or read the Bible on my own."
3) "Since I’m going to heaven and God has promised me eternal life, it doesn’t matter how I live."
4) "I know God wants me to keep my mind on the right things, but I want to watch this television program anyway, and this is the one night my parents are not home to turn it off."
5) "I’m not doing very well on this spelling test, so to get a good grade I will need to look at Susan’s paper and see how she spelled some of these words."
6) "When the teacher is in the room I am going to be a model student and do everything right, but when she leaves, I’m going to really have a good time with my friends."
7) "Come on, Dad, drive faster. Won’t God keep us safe even if we go above the speed limit?"
8) "It’s too hard to listen to all of the Sunday morning message. I’m going to daydream instead and think about other things."
9) Some of the early Christians had to decide whether to confess Christ as their Saviour and Lord and be killed or to acknowledge Caesar as Lord and live. Do you think Satan tried to tempt them to deny the Lord? Can God be trusted even in a life and death situation?
10) How does 1 Corinthians 10:13 fit in with what you have learned in this chapter?
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