Satan's dirty work: 'I'll come do it myself!'

Only a few times in Scripture do you read about Satan’s direct assault on a person. In the crucifixion of Christ, Satan got personally involved by “entering” Judas. 

In the Book of Job, Satan asks God for permission to attack Job. 

In the Book of Acts, Satan assaults the Little Flock and by the book’s end he attacks Paul directly.

Satan was personally involved in getting his human thugs to go to Thessalonica and stop Paul’s preaching just as the Apostle to the Gentiles was seeing “a great multitude” of pagans turn from their idols to worship God.

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As Luke reports on the wild scene that unfolded around a Jewish synagogue, “And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
[5] But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.”

“When it talks about ‘lewd fellows of the baser sort,’ there was a criminal underworld. ‘Lewd’ is their character, and ‘baser sort’ is their reputation," explains Richard Jordan.

"When it says they had ‘taken security’ against Paul, that means they took out a kind of peace bond. When people are fighting and someone’s being threatened, you go to court and get a bond on that person, where if they come within 100 yards of you or whatever, and that’s why Paul says, ‘Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.’

“The way Satan hindered him is he got the unbelievers to get the authorities involved and there was a court injunction then against Paul as the government turned against him.

“So Satan literally used the powers of the government at Thessalonica (actually the Roman government because he’s talking about accusing him of things against Caesar—an appeal to a higher authority) to stop Paul from coming back. Paul understood what was going on and he understood who was behind it. It was the Adversary.”

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When Jesus Christ arrives on the scene and says to John the Baptist, "I need to be baptized," and then goes down through the water and out into the wilderness where He’s tempted by the devil, He is, in essence, repeating the history of Israel.

“Israel goes into the water at the Red Sea and then out into the wilderness where they are tempted but they fail. Christ comes and says, ‘I’m the true vine; I’m the true nation.’ Satan offers Him all the kingdoms of this world if He’ll just follow him and what does Christ do? He doesn’t go for it.

“So Satan goes back and now there’s a contest in the land between Christ and Satan. Christ gets up from there and goes into the cities, and Matthew 4 says He heals the sick, cleanses the leper, throws out the demons, raises the dead, and that the fame of Him went out throughout the land. He shows and preaches, ‘The kingdom is here.’ He says, ‘If I, by the Spirit of God, cast out the devils, then the kingdom of God is come.’

“First it was just the temptation. Then there’s a WAR that begins to rumble in the land. Luke 11 says, [21] When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
[22] But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.

“You see how it describes what Satan is here? He’s a strongman who calls in all his armor; all the unclean spirits and demonic activity. He’s got all these demons from all over the planet and he calls them all back in and says, ‘Hey guys, let’s get all the forces back here because HERE’S where the battle is!’

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“I showed you how there were more demons in the land of Palestine then there were Jews to fill. Mary Magdalene had seven in her! That Maniac of Gadara had legions. A Roman legion is 2,000. I mean, ‘Gee whiz, no wonder the guy was buggy!’

“If you study the things that Maniac of Gadara did in Mark 5 and compare it with the comparative passages in Isaiah, you’ll see that all the things he was doing—living in the mountains, living among the tombs, cutting himself—were the activity of Baal worship; of the devils. He was up there worshipping, controlling, doing the will of the Adversary.

“So Christ came along and now there’s a bigger threat. Finally, Satan says, ‘If I have to, if my minions won’t do it for me, I’ll come and do it myself!’

“What does it say about Judas? Satan himself entered into Judas. Satan says, ‘All right, I’ll go do it myself!’

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“There’s this building of the contest and the fury builds and finally there’s that power of the hour of darkness at Calvary where Christ literally provokes, ‘Where are you?! I thought you wanted to argue about this?! C’mon! Come stand near. Pour it on!’

“Christ provokes the Adversary to a frenzy of bloodlust rage in which, blinded by the rage of self-serving, of sin, he does the very thing that turns out to be his undoing.

“Christ bruised the heel of His Adversary and literally, in the prophetic Scripture, the picture is of Satan laying prostrate on the ground at the feet of Christ and Christ going, ‘Stomp! You’re dead, sucker!’

“That’s why Christ can say in Matthew 28, ‘All power in heaven and in earth is given unto me.’ In Luke 4, Satan claimed all that for himself and Christ didn’t argue about it. But after the resurrection, He says, ‘It’s mine. I won the right to it.’

“He goes away as a royal exile ready to come back and take up the reigns, pouring out His wrath. The execution of the prophetic program, or of what we’re a part of, destroys the plan in all its intricacies and it’s all done because of the strategic victory that was won at Calvary when He becomes the Redeemer."