{"id":7077,"date":"2026-04-03T20:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=7077"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:13:13","slug":"deliver-us-from-the-evil-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/deliver-us-from-the-evil-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Deliver Us from the Evil One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Good Friday| John 18-19| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| April 3, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Deliver Us from the Evil One: Good Friday 2026\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/7fPM16wyQ09EuLkFeDaJTR?si=53e92c3737c14413&amp;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Seventh Petition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>But deliver us from evil.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>What does this mean?<\/em>&nbsp;We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The seventh petition of the Lord\u2019s Prayer is a summary of the first six petitions. It is also a petition directly against Satan. In the Greek, the petition literally says, \u201cBut deliver us from the evil one.\u201d The evil one is Satan. We pray against Satan by praying every petition of the Lord\u2019s Prayer, because Satan is opposed to everything we ask for in the Lord\u2019s Prayer. And in the passion of Christ on the cross, we see our Lord secure every request we make in the Lord\u2019s Prayer, thus defeating Satan and delivering us from his power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We pray, \u201cHallowed be Thy name.\u201d Jesus says in John 12 as He approaches the hour of His passion, \u201cNow My soul is troubled. And what shall I say? \u2018Father, save Me from this hour\u2019? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.\u201d The Father responded from heaven, \u201cI have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.\u201d To which Jesus said, \u201cNow is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.\u201d He said this to show what type of death He was going to die. (John 12:27-33) So, we see God\u2019s name glorified in Jesus\u2019 crucifixion. And through the preaching of the cross, God\u2019s name is made holy among all peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThy Kingdom come.\u201d Jesus said to Pilate, \u201cMy kingdom is not from this world.\u201d (John 18:36) Yet Jesus reigns as king from the cross, by which He drives out Satan\u2019s kingdom. As Jesus told His disciples the night before, if He does not go to the Father by way of the cross, the Holy Spirit will not come to them (John 16:7). But since Jesus has established His reign on earth by His death on the cross, He sends the Holy Spirit to comfort us by His cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThy will be done.\u201d The good and gracious will of God is shown in no greater way than Christ suffering and dying for our sins while we were still sinners. The prophet Isaiah prophesies, \u201cIt was the will of the LORD to crush Him.\u201d (Isaiah 53:10) And Jesus prayed in the garden, \u201cNot my will, but your will be done,\u201d (Matthew 26:39) before He went to the cross to fulfill His Father\u2019s will. God reveals His will to us in the passion of Christ, and so we pray according to that passion, which thwarts the devil\u2019s will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGive us this day our daily bread.\u201d Even this petition is made certain by the cross. St. Paul assures us in Romas 8, \u201cHe who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?\u201d And so, Satan, who would prevent us from receiving anything good and desires our starvation and death, is defeated by the cross of Christ, which shows our God\u2019s desire to give us all good things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cForgive us our trespasses.\u201d This of course, is why Christ died, to win for us forgiveness of our sins and to cancel the debt that stood against us. St. Paul writes, \u201cAnd you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.\u201d (Colossians 2:13-14) In Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses (Ephesians 1:7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd lead us not into temptation.\u201d As we learned last night, Christ\u2019s cross not only gives us certainty of the forgiveness of sins, but also strength to resist temptation, as the Apostle to the Hebrews writes, \u201cFor because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.\u201d (Hebrews 2:18)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And finally, to sum it all up, we pray, \u201cDeliver us from the evil one.\u201d And this was Scripture\u2019s first declared purpose of Christ\u2019s cross. Way back in Genesis 3:15, while the newly fallen Adam and Eve were still in the Paradise of Eden, God spoke the Gospel of the cross for the first time to the evil one, \u201cI will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.\u201d For this reason, we glorify God in the proper preface for Holy Week by confessing, \u201cthat the serpent who overcame by the tree of the garden might likewise by the tree of the cross be overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus is the seed of the woman. In His crucifixion, His heel was bruised by Satan. That is, Satan enticed Judas and the leaders of the Jews and cowardly Pilate to betray, slander, and crucify Jesus. Yet, this ultimately resulted for Christ to be but a bruised heel. Yet, by it, Christ crushed the head of Satan, handing him utter defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus is the seed of the woman, a descendant of Eve herself. That means He shares in our flesh and blood. The Apostle to the Hebrews states, \u201cSince therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise&nbsp;partook of the same things, that&nbsp;through death He might&nbsp;destroy&nbsp;the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.\u201d (Hebrews 2:14) The devil had power over death, because the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Satan\u2019s power is found in his temptations to sin and his accusations against us for our sin. Yet, Jesus redeemed us from sin, death, and the power of the devil with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. That is, He condemned sin in His own human flesh. And because He shares in our flesh and blood, He was able to suffer the consequences of sin for us all. St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, \u201cOne has died for all; therefore, all have died.\u201d (vs. 14) Therefore, Satan is stripped of the power of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we pray, \u201cDeliver us from evil,\u201d we pray that God would grant us a blessed end and graciously take us from this valley of sorrows to Himself in heaven.\u201d Did Jesus have a blessed end? On the one hand, He suffered the most ignoble death imaginable. There has never been a more evil death than the one Christ died when He bore the punishment for every sin. Yet, on the other hand, Christ died the most blessed death, because He was able to declare in truth, \u201cIt is finished,\u201d and commend His spirit to His Father in heaven. What was finished? Everything required of Him in Scripture to atone for our sins, from God\u2019s first proclamation of the Gospel in Genesis 3:15, to the directions for the Passover Lamb that not one bone would be broken, to David\u2019s prophecy that they will pierce His hands and feet and cast lots for His clothing, to Zechariah\u2019s prophecy that they will look on Him whom they have pierced. Jesus finished everything required to pay for the sins of the whole world, so that no sinner should be in doubt that Christ has won forgiveness for him. It was the most evil death in history as Satan came to devour his prey, yet it was the most blessed death in history, because it took away death from everyone and devoured Satan in turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It reminds me of a joke about Chuck Norris, the martial arts master and actor who recently died. Chuck Norris was once bitten by a venomous snake while on a hike. And after three days of intense agony, the snake died. Well, Christ was bitten by the deadliest of venomous snakes, Satan Himself, yet it is Satan who is defeated. Jesus rose from the dead after three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, can you have a blessed end? Yes! You find certainty of your blessed end in Christ\u2019s blessed end on the cross. When God created Eve out of Adam\u2019s rib, Adam said, \u201cThis at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of a man.\u201d And Moses concluded, \u201cTherefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.\u201d Yet, St. Paul says that that same passage refers to Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5:31-32). How so? Because when Christ, the second Adam from heaven bowed His head in rest on the cross, and a soldier pierced His side, blood and water poured out from which God formed Christ\u2019s bride, the Holy Christian Church, the mother of all who live eternally (Genesis 3:20; Galatians 4:26). The bride of Christ is formed through Baptism and is nourished by the Sacrament of Christ\u2019s body and blood. Both Sacraments pour from Christ\u2019s side on the cross. And so, Christ Jesus says of us, His Bride, \u201cThis at last is bone of My bones, and flesh of My flesh.\u201d Through faith in Christ, we are one flesh with Him. So, His death is our death, for He died for all. His accomplishment is our accomplishment, for our head has said, \u201cIt is finished.\u201d And when He cried, \u201cFather, into Your hands I commit my Spirit,\u201d (Luke 23:46) He prepared a place for our souls to rest as well, until we join Him in His resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Christ\u2019s passion on the cross, we see our every prayer answered. We see our deliverance from the power of the evil one. We see our blessed end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be Thou my consolation,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My Shield when I must die;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remind me of Thy passion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When my last hour draws nigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Upon Thy cross shall dwell,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My heart by faith enfold Thee,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who dieth thus dies well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And when I am departing,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O part not Thou from me;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When mortal pangs are darting,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Come, Lord, and set me free:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And when my heart must languish<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amidst the final throe,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Release me from mine anguish<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By Thine own pain and woe. (Bernard of Clairvaux, Paul Gerhardt, ELH 334:8-9)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Good Friday| John 18-19| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| April 3, 2026 The Seventh Petition But deliver us from evil. What does this mean?&nbsp;We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/deliver-us-from-the-evil-one\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,8,17,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-friday","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermonsbyrevjamespreus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7081,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077\/revisions\/7081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}