Protect Them from the Evil One

The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

In Jesus’ high-priestly prayer, he tells the Father: “I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:5).

John 17 features the longest-recorded prayer of Jesus in the Gospels. This comes after Jesus delivers final instructions to his disciples and before he is betrayed, arrested, and crucified. First, Jesus prays for himself (vv. 1-5), then for his disciples (vv. 6-19), and finally for all believers (vv. 20-26). This intercessory prayer is best known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer.

Jesus confirms he has finished his heaven-sent task with the disciples. He has revealed the Father’s name – that is, the very presence of God – to them (v. 6; cf. John 14:9). He has spoken to them the Father’s words (v. 8). And he has ensured that they received the words, understood them, and believed the Father sent Jesus (v. 8). 

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His Name is Called the Word of God

This is the 17th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com. 

In the previous column, we examined key features of the returning Christ that John reveals in Revelation 19:11-16. Now, we complete our review. 

7. His name is called the Word of God. 

In his Gospel account, John tells us of the person and work of Jesus as the Incarnate Word (John 1:1-18). He is eternal, divine, distinct from the Father and yet equal with him. He is the creator of everything. He added sinless humanity to his deity in the Incarnation and thus pitched his tent with sinful and fallen people. Though rejected by his own, he is the true source of light and life. And to those who trust in him, he grants the right to be God’s adopted children. He is God revealed in human flesh. 

And now, in Revelation 19, the Word of God again appears – not to create, suffer, or die, but to gloriously claim the prize he won through his sinless life and sacrificial death on the cross. He comes for us – the redeemed he has purchased with his own blood. He reverses the curse that Adam’s sin wrought on mankind and his environment. He judges the wicked, casts them out, purges the physical realm of sin and its stain, and creates new heavens and a new earth. Put simply, the Word restores Eden.

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Children of the Evil One

The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

In Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the wheat and weeds, he refers to unbelievers as “children of the evil one.”

Matthew 13:38

“… the field is the world; and the good seed ​— ​these are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one …”

Here, Jesus reveals the spiritual truths behind the parable of the wheat and weeds (Matt. 13:24-30). As in the parable of the sower, the Lord presents a farmer who has sown good seed in his field. But an enemy invades at night and plants weeds among the wheat. When the wheat matures and begins sprouting heads of grain, the weeds appear as well. 

The hired hands report their discovery to the farmer and ask whether they should pull out the weeds, but the farmer tells them:

“No. When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn” (Matt. 13:29-30).

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Deliver Us from the Evil One

The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

In two sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew, we learn more about Satan as the evil one.

Matthew 6:13 

“And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

This request comes at the close of the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps better called the Disciples’ Prayer. Several English translations render the final phrase “deliver us from evil” rather than “deliver us from the evil one.”6The Greek could mean either. While it’s possible that deliverance from evil in general is Jesus’ primary meaning, protection from the author of evil is a suitable request for disciples learning to pray. 

“Do not bring us into temptation” does not imply “don’t bring us to the place of temptation,” or even “don’t allow us to be tempted.” Jesus already endured temptation at the hands of the evil one after the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness following his baptism (Matt. 4:1). It cannot mean “don’t tempt us,” either, for God does not tempt us with evil (Jas. 1:13).

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King of kings and Lord of lords

This is the 16th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com. 

John’s vision of the returning Christ in Revelation 19:11-16 reveals marvelous truths about the Lord’s conquest of sin and his restoration of righteousness. John captures many details that show how Christ’s glorious return sets in motion his final battle with sin, thus paving the way for a restored Eden. We examine a few of these features in this column and the next one.

1. Jesus rides a white horse from heaven.

This is in stark contrast to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, in which the Son of Man rides a borrowed donkey. A horse is used for war; a donkey, for peace. A horse is a symbol of conquest; a donkey, a vehicle of humility. 

Jesus comes humbly the first time as the Suffering Servant, but he rides with the clouds of heaven victoriously as the conquering king in his return to earth. This illustrates that Jesus has won complete victory over Satan, sin, and death. The pristine Garden of Eden is about to be restored as the last Adam regains what the first Adam lost – dominion over the earth, and immortality.

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