Revelation 12:7-10 ⁷ And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, ⁸ but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹ The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, "

Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Yesterday in confirmation, we started focusing on The Lord’s Prayer. At the end of the class, I have a time called “Stump the presenter.” This is a time for the kids to ask me any question that they want. One of them brought up the power of Satan, because I had touched on evil in my sermon. The Lord’s Prayer also contains a petition about evil. In talking about Satan, I mentioned that Satan cannot be as powerful as God. If he were, there would be two gods, one good one and one bad one. But as Christians, we only believe in one God.

That leaves the question still unanswered though. How much power does Satan have? Well, as we look at the theology of the Bible, what we see is that God’s most powerful angel is thought to be Michael, the archangel. The passage above shows us that Michael is the “commander” of God’s holy warriors. Since our theology tells us that Satan is most likely a fallen angel, at the most, Satan can only be as powerful as God’s most powerful angel. Therefore, Satan can only be equal or lesser than Michael. However, as we see above, it is easy for Michael and God’s army to beat Satan and the other fallen angels.

As we had our first Sunday in Lent yesterday, our focus was on the defeat of evil. What we can surmise is that not only is it easy for God to beat evil and Satan, but it is evil for those not as strong as God to beat Satan as well. To me, this is a comforting thought. As a human, I know I am a sinner and that I cannot do everything right all the time. But it does give me comfort that Satan can be beat by those that are not as strong as God. This gives me a glimmer of hope that I too, thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit and thanks to the ultimate defeater of death, will be able to overcome evil and Satan.

In our prayers this week: Buddy (still at Spart. Regional), Ann, Alma, Lori, The Varner’s and family, Gail and Linwood, Larry Cantrell. We also remember Chris, Michael, and Brenten who are serving our country overseas.

God's Peace,

 Pastor Judson