It’s literally Halloween. It’s October 31st and tonight many kids around the country will be donning their costumes and heading out to trick-or-treat. And tomorrow, after parents sift through that candy finding what they want, while these children are recovering from a candy coma, those parents will send those comatose students to school with a wave of the hand, saying “Have fun teachers!”
Now wherever you stand on Halloween, its history, and the question of how Christians should approach this secular holiday, none of those things are what we’re going to cover today. The reason for this is because there is something that is more pressing that we need to talk about. And being that Halloween lands on a Sunday, and a Sunday where we are transitioning from one sermon series to the next, that more pressing issue fits perfectly today. That’s God’s divine work right there.
No one can deny that Halloween carries with it a lot of demonic imagery. Witches, vampires, zombies, demons all walk around on Halloween in both cute child friendly costumes, and grotesque adult alternatives. But the underlying sense of this modern secular holiday is the demonic. Movies that come out in October are horrific, bloody, scary depictions of serial killers, ghosts, and other evil things. For most people that dress up in these kinds of costumes, that’s all are, costumes. But there’s more going on here than that.
Charles Baudelaire (boo-lair) wrote a story entitled “Le Figaro,” that appeared in a Paris newspaper in 1864. In it he penned these words, “One of the artifices of Satan is, to induce men to believe that he does not exist: another, perhaps equally fatal, is to make them fancy that he is obliged to stand quietly by, and not to meddle with them, if they get into true silence (https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/03/20/devil/).”
For most of the world, Satan is a myth, to cast away with other ancient stories. For some, he’s seen as a mythical figure who was the first true rebel, a trait to be idolized. But a disciple of Jesus should recognize who Satan truly is. Jesus, as recorded in John 8:44 says of Satan, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
John the Apostle writes in Revelation 12:9, “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”
Whereas the world tends to dismiss Satan, and thereby falling into his trap, the Scriptures take his presence as not only a reality, but as a dastardly enemy of God who opposes the people of God. We who are disciples of Jesus must take this being as seriously as God’s Word says we should.
For it was another time when Jesus himself brought up Satan’s work. As record in Luke 22, it was the night of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples, before he went to the cross. Jesus ate with his disciples, he used the bread and wine to illustrate his going to the cross to sacrifice himself for them, and then those disciples got into an argument about who would be the greatest. After Jesus resolved this dispute, he turned his attention to Simon Peter and said to him, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter denied that he would ever turn away from Jesus, but he did, and later on in his life he would write these words in his first letter, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (5:8b).” Peter experienced the lion, he felt it’s teeth as it devoured him to deny Jesus, and so he wrote to the church to, “Be alert and of sober mind…Resist him, standing firm in the faith (5:8a & 9a)…”
And so, as Jesus’ disciples we must take seriously the presence and work of Satan and his demonic allies. We must be alert and standing firm in our faith so that we may not be sifted as Peter and the other Apostles were. Halloween, if it does nothing else for the believer, should challenge us to renew our steadfastness in Christ Jesus, standing firm against the work of Satan.
But the question is how? How are we, who are Jesus’ disciples, to stand firm against this specific enemy of God? Turn with me to the book of Galatians chapter 5, starting in verse 13. Though, this verse doesn’t explicitly call us to stand against Satan, it calls us to stand against works that are ungodly, and rooted in Satan’s own rebellion. Pauls writes,
5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
6:1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
Paul uses the Greek word sarx, which is translated as flesh, over and over again. Here that word is speaking of the carnality of our sin. The desire to rebel against God, to seek our own kingdom above his, to embrace all pleasure in an unhealthy and ungodly way. It’s our desire for sin that Paul is speaking of here. To counter act that sinful desire that battles with the Spirit of God (v.17), Paul gives us a simple alternative, “But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
As Paul states, by keeping the command of loving our neighbor as ourselves, we fulfill all of God’s law. The humble acts of caring for others is an antibiotic against the work of Satan. Because if we look at the acts of the flesh that Paul lists, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like,” what is sin but self over another? Sin at its base is saying to God, I am god and you are not. This is the exact opposite of what God designed us to be. In fact, if you walked through the last section of our Matthew series in chapters 11 and 12, we spent three weeks going over the understanding that God is God and we are not. Sin is placing myself over God, and by doing so, over everyone else, which is exactly the work of Satan. Satan desires that God would be diminished.
I might say my intentions are good, but no matter what we do, there is an underlying want to gratify myself. And what happens when we don’t get recognized, when our idea isn’t picked, or we are called out for something that we obviously did? We gossip, we slander, we lash out, we lie.
But what does God call us to? To bear his fruit. The fruit that comes through repentance of sin, and acceptance of Jesus’ work on our behalf, and a life of following God. And as the Spirit works in us, that battle with our flesh rages. God is pruning the sinful habits, that were forgiven on the cross, out of our lives. And one of the greatest ways this is accomplished is through the humble service to each other.
What did Jesus say to Peter when he told him that Satan was trying to sift the disciples? “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter was going to fall, but Jesus called him to serve the others.
Serving others and walking humble with them, is how you and I will stand against Satan as a community of believers. His desire is to breakdown the body of the Church, so he may proclaim a victory over God. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:18 that he will build his church , “…and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Gates are a defensive structure, Satan was crushed at the cross, and now he is fighting like a corned animal against the final victory of Jesus over all things. We, as Jesus’ disciples, must stand with each other. We must serve each other. We must humble walk with each other. We cannot give up on each other. And we must restore each other, through encouragement and pointing each other back to Christ.
If we fail to do so, the devil will have flesh to gnaw on. Our congregation will be split, our witness will be shattered, and our God will not be glorified. It is not in the bright good times that we reflect Jesus the brightest, but in the dark bad times; that’s when our light shines the greatest.
Halloween is a time for us as disciples, to take seriously the work of Satan and how we can easily fall for his works. Therefore we must stand together, facing the storms of this world arm in arm, standing upon Christ and his Word. We must be bound in love with each other to face the enemy as a cohesive unit.
My challenge for you this week then, is this, our God has overcome. He sits enthroned over all things. There is nothing out of his control, and we are taken through things not because we desire them, but because God is working all things our for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).
You will be challenged this week to turn on your brother or sister in the faith. Through a word of gossip, a side glance, a betrayal, a slander, a slight, or an outright argument. So choose now, a way to serve that person before it happens. In fact, as we sing the next song write down two ways to serve someone who you might come into conflict with this week. A conflict that Satan has worked his schemes to bring about brokenness between the people of God.
One way could be an encouraging note. Another is a prayer to not fall for the trap. One could agree with the true statements that someone says, even in anger and vile. We must seek God to find the ways in which to respond, not in our flesh, which is what Satan desires, but in the Spirit as our Risen Lord desires.
Let us seek the unbreakable bonds of love between the people fo God, through the Spirit of God, by the power of Christ’s sacrifice, and for the glory of our Father in heaven. Amen.
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