The Worship of Satan, Part 2

“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” (Matthew 4:9 NIV)

“I will give you,” might have hung in the air in Christ’s mind. It was not just an offer of cooperation, but a promise to return what was stolen in Eden. It would have been comical in other settings, the thief offering to make restitution by returning what he had stolen with conditions attached. Christ knew who had made it, and to whom it all truly belonged. Less than a century later the Apostle John received a revelation of weeping in the throne room of God for no one could be found worthy to open the scroll sealed with seven seals that the Father held in His hand.

In the revelation there was a dramatic pause, just long enough to ask the question, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” The scroll is unnamed in scripture but, by commentators it is often called “The Title Deed of the Nations” or “The Final Chapters of God’s Redemptive Story.” It is clear from the story that not anyone other than Christ could complete the redemptive story of taking the world back from Satan. In the Revelation we read:

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne… (Rev. 5:5–6 NIV)

Satan’s offer to “give” what God owned fell on deaf ears that day. Christ new that all of Satan’s offers only benefited Satan.

The second point of Satan’s “sermon” to Christ was for Him “to bow down” to Satan — it could also be translated “fall down.” Bowing or falling was an act of worship. Satan has no power to transform a human heart — he can only corrupt it. So for him the action always comes first. It is his method to get people to act a certain way until they think a certain way — where as with God it is the other way around. God changes the inner heart of the believer until we act in ways pleasing to Him.

But Satan’s method is different: act first, worship second. Only in this way, by addiction to certain actions, to ways of acting, and then later they become ways of thinking, can he secure the obedience of the nations. It is Satanic deception to convince us that there is spiritual power in material and physical things, in rituals and amulets and formulaic prayers.

The scripture says that “an idol is nothing at all in the world” (1 Cor. 8:4), and a “religious action,” such as kneeling or bowing, or even walking into a church, or a “Christian image,” be it a jeweled cross, the sign of the cross, or a blessed statue of Mary, or a ritual — whether Christian or pagan — has no spiritual power in and of itself alone. It has power if we will consider the meaning attached to the Lord’s Supper and Baptism — the only two rituals endorsed by God — but even they have no power in themselves alone.

How do we “bow down to Satan” today? We certainly worship Him when we delve into world without any discretion, when we go along with the world in values and activities without considering a Christian’s higher calling. Just because material things do not have the power to change us for the good, they do have the power to corrupt us further. A little bowing down, a little going along with the world, a little trying to fit in with the crowds, a little of this and we will find ourselves being dragged down to the next step of worship.

The third point was the heart worship. The world in Greek was proskuneo, which literally means “to kiss toward,” but it was the most common word for “worship” in the New Testament, and it was used by Christ in His response: “Worship the Lord your God.” To worship is to recognize the worth of something. To worship God requires an inner realization that comes by divine revelation. Satan will not be able to create in any soul anything like what God can — the convicting and transforming power of the Spirit that results in regeneration — so he simply uses deceptions, false bribes that appeal to our lusts, habit inducing addictions, until we worship him with dead and cynical souls.

God does just the opposite from Satan, in exactly the reverse order. Just look at John 3:16.

1. He begins with a reason for us to worship Him: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” We see His love and His compassion for us, His act of sacrifice for our sins, and He turns our hearts to love Him and value Him first. His Spirit shows us the needs of our hearts and convinces us that Christ is the answer to our need (John 16:8–11).
2. He tells us what we must do: “That whosoever believes in Him.” Belief is not possible without a divine work of God bringing us along this path. As the scripture says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). It does no good to “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” if you do not “believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9).
3. Then He tells us what He will do for us: “Shall not perish but have everlasting life.” I believe that before we come to want eternal life, we first want Jesus, and it is the reality of the love of God for us that is the greatest drawing factor to bring us to Christ. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day” (John 6:44 NIV).

To worship Satan is to give into what is cold, hard, alluring but empty, selfish but unfulfilling, and boring. To worship God is to be filled with life, love, joy, and peace. Jesus did not flinch in the slightest but cast Satan from His presence. “Away from me, Satan!” (Matt. 4:10).

In studying in my office this morning, I ran across the words of General Douglas MacArthur that were made on the Battleship Missouri in the signing of the treaty ending World War II. The impressed me as highly fitting for this study:

Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful. Military alliances, balances of power, Leagues of Nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past 2000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.

Tomorrow we will explore the meaning of these temptations and the complete victory of Christ over Satan. But as for now, let us take His example that the only Person in all the universe who is worth our complete worship and surrender is God. The greatest offer that God makes to us is Himself, that we might be reconciled to Him. Amen!