Maybe the devil as an invention of religion to scare people into giving more money. Or maybe the devil is an invention of parents to scare children into going to bed. Or, perhaps the devil is real. Either way, how would you know?
After all, our modern picture of Satan as a half-goat man in a red suit with a pitchfork comes from a messy collection of sources, ranging from Greek mythology to Dante’s Inferno. So it’s difficult to decide what you believe about the devil when you aren’t sure what you’re supposed to be considering about him in the first place.
And then that brings up questions like:
Is the devil responsible for all the bad things I do?
Is he omnipresent?
And is the devil really why my car broke down?
Fortunately, it’s a whole lot easier to consider what you do and don’t believe about the devil by stripping away the centuries of hearsay and simply looking at what Jesus says about the devil.
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– When Jesus talked about the Devil,
that’s not what he was talking about.
(upbeat music)
Hey everybody, it’s Chris Paavola
welcome to What Jesus Says About
where Jesus speaks for himself.
So you can respond for yourself.
Every September and October
Halloween stores like this pop-up
and then, come Halloween,
you’re gonna see people
running around in all sorts of costumes.
Including costumes that look
something like this guy here.
This picture of the Devil that we have
is interesting, is kind of
a comic book, satirized,
kind of a caricature of the Devil
with a red suit and all this stuff.
– Flanders!
You’re the Devil?
– It’s always the one you least suspect.
– So what I’d like to do today
is kinda break from
the normal a little bit
and take a look at what
Jesus says about the Devil
and what kind of titles
he ascribes to him.
And actually, when you look at it,
Jesus says six things about the Devil
and we’re gonna look at them.
So here are: Six Names
Jesus Uses for the Devil.
Why’s it gotta be six?
(eerie music)
Number six and it’s the word that,
you know, most people would
use, is the word Devil.
And actually what’s so interesting
is the word devil is actually a Greek word
that means something like
“slanderer” or “accuser”
but Jesus used–
(creepy laughing)
Yeah that’s terrifying.
But Jesus only used the
word devil four times.
The word more often that Jesus
would associate with the Devil himself
was our fifth term.
Number five, Satan.
Here we go, this is like
a Devil kit right here.
So like when Jesus would use this term,
it would often be with a
certain amount of, like,
anger in his voice.
He would say things like,
“Get behind me Satan!”
Or, “Away from me Satan, you do not
have a mind the things of God!”
So anyway, that’s number five Satan.
(eerie music)
Hey look, it’s a message: Smoking kills.
The next term that Jesus
uses to describe the Devil
is this-it’s kind of an interesting term
and he uses it three times-it’s
the prince of this world.
So he’s sitting with
his disciples one time
and he’s talking with them and he says
“The Prince of this World
has no power over me.”
And he’s not only describing Satan,
he’s also describing himself.
Jesus says he’s the prince of this world
but Jesus has a kingdom
that’s not of this world
and Satan’s power is
limited but Jesus claims
his power is eternal.
Vote now, is the “Nightmare
Before Christmas”
a Halloween or Christmas movie?
It’s totally Christmas.
The next term that Jesus
uses to describe the Devil
is this phrase called the evil one.
And he uses this term
like two or three times,
Let’s say three-ish.
Here we go, here’s a little
costume and you, too,
can be the Devil.
Anyway, one time Jesus is
sitting with his students
and he prays and he says
“Father my prayer is not that
“you would take them out of this world
“but that you would protect
them from the Evil One.”
And this is an interesting phrase because
evil here is not so much scary
but evil is not safe.
Evil is this idea of rebellion
and chaos and anarchy.
It’s death instead of life,
it’s hate instead of kindness.
And according to Jesus, leading the charge
for all of this evil is the Evil One.
We’ve got ninja stars,
we’ve got bows, we’ve got swords.
Where’s a pitchfork?
I can’t find a pitchfork…
We have automatic weapons.
The next phrase that Jesus
uses to describe the Devil
is kind of an interesting one.
It’s actually where Jesus
gives us our most detailed
description of the Devil according to him
and it’s actually when he’s talking
to a group of, ironically,
religious leaders and he tells them
“You belong to your father,
“the Devil, and you want
“to carry out your father’s desires.
“He was a murderer from the beginning,
“not holding on to the truth,
“for there is no truth in him.
“When he lies,
“he speaks his native tongue,
“because he is a liar
and the Father of Lies.”
It’s pretty harsh, right?
Not quite the genteel picture of Jesus
that we always get where he’s just kind of
blue eyed staring off in the distance
passively going through life.
– Behold a beam is in thine own eye.
Thou hypocrite first, cast out the beam
out of thine own eye.
– But in this description,
Jesus is hearkening back to
this idea of the Garden of Eden
and we’ll get to that later on
but also what he would
describe as his own temptation
in the desert by the Devil.
But every time the Devil spoke,
he was always just perverting
and twisting the truth
just a little bit and
lies are never obvious,
they’re never overt, they’re enticing
and they’re subtle, they’re deceiving.
It wouldn’t be deception
if it wasn’t deceiving.
(maniacal laughing)
I mean who buys that for their yard?
If you bought that for your yard,
leave a comment below.
And finally, the term that Jesus uses
to describe the Devil
is the term the Enemy.
And so there’s this one time that Jesus
sends out his disciples on a mission
and they go out and they come back
and they’re all excited
because demons submit to them.
And we’ll get to the idea of demons
in some other video.
But in response to all those celebrations,
Jesus tells them
“I have given you authority to overcome
“all the power of the enemy.”
And here Jesus is very clear
that there are two sides.
If Jesus is your King,
you’re on his side and in his kingdom.
And there is a rebellion led by the Enemy.
And either you’re with
him or you’re against him.
So there you go,
there’s the six terms and titles
Jesus used to describe the Devil.
No red suits, no pitchforks.
And yet for Jesus the Devil is real,
he’s not a cartoon character.
But he’s also limited in his power.
He’s an individual.
He’s bent on destruction,
he’s a liar and his lies
are very deceiving and very enticing.
Be careful.
But according to Jesus,
greater is the one who is with you
than the one who is against you.
So I gotta ask,
does what Jesus say about the Devil
make you more or less afraid of him
or make you think he’s more or less real?
Leave your comments below,
look forward to seeing what you gotta say.
I’m gonna go shopping
for some costumes now
and we’ll see you soon, buh-bye.
(beep)
(laughs)
Now that’s funny.