Villains in the Bible: The Devil | October 18, 2026

For this penultimate entry in the “Villains in the Bible” series (from Church Anew), our villain for the week is…[drumroll, please]…Satan. The devil. The Father of Lies. The tempter. Evil incarnate. 

Grace to you and peace in the name of the One who was, who is, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

There’s something dangerous about starting a sermon on Satan by talking about the Brewers, but I’m going to try it anyway. How many of you watched a Brewers game this week?

I’ve watched every game of the postseason last year and this year, but I feel like a bit of a fraud as a fan—maybe not a fraud, but the definition of a fair-weather fan because I really only care about the Brewers when they’re in the playoffs. I’m much more of a Packers fan.

But after watching the Brewers lose four games in a row to the Dodgers last year, I’m glad they get a rematch this year. There’s something especially gratifying about beating the team that eliminated you last time.

Today’s story of Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness is a rematch, right? Four weeks ago, we heard about the serpent tempting Adam and Eve, questioning them, poking at their identity, trying to convince them they were lacking something. And it worked!

Eve and then Adam bought what the serpent was selling. They ate the forbidden fruit. They couldn’t quite bring themselves to trust that what God had given them was enough; they wanted something more. Genesis doesn’t say the serpent was Satan, but whether or not the devil was directly involved in that story, the playbook is the same. Satan is the tempter. In John 8, Jesus calls Satan “the father of lies.”

Now, thousands of years after that first sin in the Garden of Eden, thousands of years after the first time humans chose to strike out on their own rather than trusting God for life, Satan encounters Jesus in the wilderness for a rematch.

There are some key differences, though. Adam and Eve were living in paradise, in the garden of Eden, surrounded by tremendous abundance when the serpent showed up. Jesus, on the other hand, is at his lowest. He’s out in the wilderness—some translations say the desert, but definitely not a nice garden—and he’s been fasting for forty days and forty nights. Satan shows up when Jesus is famished. Starving. Physically weak. Jesus is 100% fully human, a real person, one of us, and he’s feeling every bit of the human need for food. Making loaves of bread is a great first temptation.

But the biggest difference between the original temptation in the garden and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is that Jesus succeeds where Adam and Eve failed. The tempter’s playbook doesn’t work on him. Adam and Eve allowed the serpent to twist their understanding of who God is from “generous giver to stingy withholder.” But Jesus remains faithful. He knows who God is.

So why does Jesus succeed? We need to go back a little bit, right before Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. In Matthew chapter three, we meet John the Baptist, a prophet out in the wilderness calling people to repentance, calling them to confess their sins and be baptized. At the end of chapter three, Jesus comes from Galilee to John at the Jordan River to be baptized by him. Not because he needs forgiveness or has anything to repent of, but, he says, “To fulfill all righteousness.”

Verse 16: “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from the heavens said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”

Chapter four, verse one (which we just heard): “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil.”

Jesus has just been told who he is. In baptism, his identity has been confirmed. He is God’s Son, the beloved, with whom God is well pleased. That sense of identity, that knowledge of who he is, his trust in what God says about him gets him through the villain’s temptations.

The tempter attacks his identity. His first line is, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” If you are the Son of God. Did God really say…? Do you actually believe God says you are beloved?

Jesus answers, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” He’s saying, “Sure, bread is important”—especially after forty days of not eating!—“but life comes from trusting in what God says.” Life is a gift from God, not something we create for ourselves.

In baptism, we drown, we die to ourselves, and God raises us to new life. We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it; eternal life is all God’s work.

Same thing for the second temptation: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” Let the angels catch you. “Make a scene. Let everyone see.” Pastor Derek Tronsgard writes, “This is the temptation to spectacle – to secure his identity through performance and acclaim rather than resting in what God has already declared. It’s the temptation to need the crowd’s validation more than God’s. Again Jesus answers with Scripture, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ He doesn’t need to prove anything. The voice at the baptism was enough.”

In the third temptation, the devil offers Jesus ultimate worldly power, all the kingdoms of the earth and their glory. I’m not so sure those are actually the devil’s to offer, but those are the stakes he puts up. “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

What does it mean to worship? Worship means to give praise, to honor, to pay homage. It’s treating God the only way we can when we recognize who we are and who God is and what God has done for us. And only God is worthy of our worship, because only God is our source of life. Anything else is idolatry.

But we’re always tempted to treat ourselves as the ones in charge. We’re always tempted to believe we’re the ones responsible for life. Eat of the forbidden fruit, and you will be like God.

Jesus refuses. Jesus keeps God in the proper place. “‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.” God provided for him. Life given as a gift.

My challenge with this story—and maybe you have the same problem with it—my challenge is that I am not Jesus. Of course Jesus didn’t give into the villain’s temptation; of course he’s strong in his identity; he’s the Son of God! He’s Jesus!

But the story still works as a model for us, a playbook to follow, because Jesus’ faith here is rooted in word and sacrament. In baptism, we too are claimed as God’s beloved children. We don’t get the audible voice from heaven, but the Holy Spirit is still speaking through water and word. You are claimed forever in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The promise of baptism is for you.

And in this rematch, everything Jesus says is anchored in the Word of God. Over and over, he quotes Scripture to parry the devil’s attacks. As Tronsgard says, this story is not about Jesus “winning a Bible trivia contest. He’s not out-arguing the Devil with clever proof texts. He is anchoring himself to what God has already said – to the reality that exists prior to and independent of anything the Devil is offering or threatening…The word of God is not primarily a rulebook or a moral guide. It is a declaration of reality. It tells us who God is, who we are, and what God has already done.”

When we are tempted, when we are tested, we have God’s word as our strength. As Psalm 119 says, “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my misery. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.”

I’m not sure I have quite the same confidence as the Psalmist that I’ll never forget God’s Word, God’s precepts. I can do my best to be anchored in the word of God, and I don’t always get it right. But Jesus is more than a model for us to follow; he is God with us.

Paul writes in Romans, “For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.”

In the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, God does what we can’t do. Jesus wins the rematch. We have the promise of baptism, a moment in time when God claimed you and washed you clean. God’s promise does not fail. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.

May that good news, that truth from God’s word, that Gospel promise sustain you in your times of trial and temptation. Amen