Conquering Babylon; Luke 4:5-8

Delivered during the Sunday morning worship service, 9/5/2021. As we continue to study the temptations of Jesus, we turn to satan's ostentatious display of the kingdoms of the world and his audacious offer to give them to Jesus if He will bow down and worship him. As John does in the book of Revelation, we will lump all these kingdoms together under the representative title of "Babylon". After considering in what sense the devil has the right to claim these kingdoms as his own, we will realize that the glitter and "glory" of these kingdoms were of little concern to Jesus-- but the people who lived in them were! After establishing this, we will recognize just how evil satan's offer really was and why it was a real temptation for our Lord. But Jesus' response will teach the church today a powerful lesson-- that a kingdom built with the tools and weapons of the enemy will still be "Babylon" and belong to the enemy. Ultimately we will realize it is only with the tools and weapons of the Kingdom that we can ever hope to conquer Babylon!