Fourth Sunday after Epiphany – Sunday, 31st January 2021

The Bible passage this week, the week beginning Sunday, 31^st January, is the account of Jesus driving out an evil spirit. Many Christians today do not seem to believe in Satan or, at least, do not believe he has any influence through his evil spirits.  This is strange because Jesus certainly believed in the power of Satan.  In addition, Satan seems to be more active in our lives when we start to promote the kingdom of God and this is why, in the Bible passage, Jesus had come to his attention.  What about us?  Have we ever come under attack for what we have done to promote God’s kingdom?  There is a challenge for us all here.  If we have lived our entire Christian life and never had our finances, career or family ‘attacked’, perhaps we need to ask ourselves, is Satan interested in us?  This is precisely what the apostles meant when they urged us to rejoice in our sufferings.  Rejoice because Satan has taken notice of you and therefore you must be doing something right!  At the same time, we must be fearless towards Satan.  Jesus, by His death and resurrection has defeated Satan.  As a result, in Christ, we have nothing to fear.  Yes, there may be skirmishes still going on, but the war is won and, with the authority of Jesus, we will prevail.  In one of the earliest books in the New Testament, the author tells us to resist Satan in the sure knowledge that he will ‘run away’ from us and leave us alone.  Once this happens we can continue to promote the kingdom of God and to annoy Satan in just the same way that Jesus did by casting out his evil spirits.