Tag Archives: The devil

MARK’S GOSPEL… THE PREPARATION -4

Bible Study, ,

To do His work efficiently and effectively, the Servant of the Lord needed training and equipment, and He needed to choose to whose authority He would bow. No servant is thrown into an important task without knowing what to do.

Luke 2:51-52 NLT
[51] Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. [52] Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

His training lasted for 30 years under the watchful eye of His heavenly Father. Mark said nothing about those years but the Father did…. In His verbal and audible affirmation at His Son’s baptism, the Father owned His Son with love and pleasure.

Mark 1:11 NIV
[11] “And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

To fulfill His commission, Jesus needed a motive and a modus operandi.

There couid be no greater preparation for so enormous a task than the Father’s threefold blessing…providing His Son with the motivation to carry out His mission faithfully with the Father’s approval. No matter how difficult the task, how much opposition He faced, and how severe the temptation to compromise, quit, or act on His own, Jesus never faltered in His purpose because the Father trusted Him and accompanied Him throughout every moment of His journey. Even though His human companions would forsake Him, He was assured that the Father would never abandon Him.

John 16:32 NIV
[32] “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”

Without this assurance, Jesus could easily have given up and gone home…but He did not! Knowing that He was not alone, that He was loved, affirmed, and trusted to finish what He came to do, He endured the suffering and the cross for the reward the Father had promised Him.

His motive was clear. Love and loyalty to the Father would steady and steer Him though every obstacle, both His own humanity and the ferocious opposition of He enemies, to and through the cross, to ultimate victory.

His modus operandi was equally tested and determined before He ever set out on His public ministry. Without this pre-planned and tested method, He would have been driven by circumstances rather than by principles.

The test was severe. He was pitted against His most lethal adversary to defend His most sacred relationship, in the most unforgiving terrain, during His most vulnerable human condition, to test His unwavering commitment to unity with His Father.

The first Adam’s test was child’s play, in the most comfortable and conducive of environments, the Garden of Eden, compared with what Jesus, the last Adam, was up against…and he failed. Jesus, was tested, at the limit of His endurance after forty days of deprivation…and He passed the test with flying colours!

So, what was the test?

Under what authority, would He do the work the Father had assigned Him? Whose word would He obey?

Again, the first Adam was given the same option…whose word would he follow? He chose to follow the deceiver, and the outcome was chaos. Jesus, the last Adam, was offered the same choice.

First test…

Matthew 4:3 NIV
[3] “The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Since you are the Son of God, test YOUR word to see if it works.

How real was this test?

Satan started with the physical, the “flesh”, Jesus’ weakest point at that moment. He was starving…forty days without food! “Check the power of your own word.” How easy it would have been to do a little miracle with no one watching…

… but what was the real issue?

Whose word will you heed, Jesus, mine or God’s? To do the little thing, the obscure, unimportant thing like making a little bread to ease your hunger without the Father’s approval, or to do the big thing, protect your unity with the Father despite gnawing hunger, no matter the cost!

The bottom line…who is in charge…who is Lord? Whose word counts? Satan’s word or God’s word?

Jesus made His choice.

Matthew 4:4 NIV
[4] “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

” It is written… ” How simple yet how decisive!

Second test…

Matthew 4:5-6 NIV
[5] “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. [6] “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

With what defiance the devil mimiced Jesus’ stance! “So… It is written! Now test it. You have chosen God’s Word, now use it!”

Luke 4:12 NIV
[12] Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Satan taunted, “You test God’s Word.” What arrogance! Jesus responded, “It is not my place to test God’s Word but to obey it!” What humility!

Third test…

Luke 4:5-7 NLT
[5] Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. [6] “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. [7] I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”

Satan threw down the gauntlet. “I will give you everything you want if you give me what I want most…worship.” So, that’s what these tests were really about. “If you do what I say, you will show me who is really Lord and who will take ownership of the universe.”

The first Adam conceded to the devil his God-given right to manage the earth. Jesus, the last Adam, did not!

Luke 4:8 NIV
[8] “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”

Armed with His victory, His modus operandi… to do the Father’s will no matter what the cost… Jesus returned from forty gruelling days in the wilderness, as Luke records, “… In the power of the Holy Spirit,” to function under divine protection, divine authority, and divine power, to usher in God’s kingdom and to make possible the reconciliation of God and man by His own blood.

THE GREATEST WAR EVER WAGED

Christian Life, ,

What, do you think, is the greatest war ever waged? Great wars of the past? Napoleonic wars? The two great World Wars? Russia versus Ukraine? The IDF versus Hamas? The war of Armageddon yet to come?

No, not by a long shot! The greatest wars ever fought in the world are the outcome of the greatest war… within.

‭James‬ ‭4:1‭-‬3‬ ‭NLT‬
[1] “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? [2] You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. [3] And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”

Every war ever fought on earth is the outcome of the war that rages in us, the self against God’s Spirit. Adam’s choice to follow the self lost the war for all mankind from then on. We, until we submit our lives to Jesus through faith in His death, will continue to lose the war.

‭Galatians‬ ‭5:16‭-‬18‬ ‭NLT‬
[16] “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. [17] The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. [18] But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.”

In many streams of the church today, there are subtle ways in which spiritual leaders feed the self in themselves and in us. They elevate themselves by adopting titles, and others, for example, by encouraging competition through spiritual gifts.
They promote discontent by teaching the “prosperity” gospel; they foster doubt when expectations are not met instead of building faith in a faithful God… and much more.

Instead of preaching Jesus, as the all-sufficient Saviour, they focus on experience as the test of true spirituality. Faith becomes “faith for…”
whatever we want rather than “faith in…” a sovereign and faithful Saviour.

And so, the war inside keeps waging and is often lost to our greatest enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. This world and what it offers is the lure instead of godliness and the world to come.

The discipline of suffering and hardship becomes “the devil is attacking me, stealing from me,” instead of “God is disciplining me so that I may share in His holiness.”

‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:10‭-‬11‬ ‭NLT‬
[10] “For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. [11] No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”

God’s love and sovereignty are traded for a cosmic war, with us as the prize, and no assurance that God will win.

For those who have committed themselves to a faithful Creator who is sovereign in all things and who works, in all things, for our good, the war has already been won.

‭Romans‬ ‭8:37‬ ‭NLT‬
[37] “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

‭Colossians‬ ‭2:13‭-‬15‬ ‭NLT‬
[13] “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. [14] He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭2:14‬ ‭NLT‬
[14]” But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.”

‭1 John‬ ‭5:4‭-‬5‬ ‭NLT‬
[4] “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. [5] And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Victory begins in the deepest recesses of our hearts when we make the choices that initiate our victory against the world, the flesh and the devil.

‭1 John‬ ‭2:15‭-‬17‬ ‭NLT‬
[15]”Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. [16] For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. [17] And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

So, the Apostle Paul exhorts us to be overcomers through the victory Jesus won for us on the cross. If we do this, we can be sure that we are not part of a warring world that persistently fights to satisfy its own selfish desires.

‭Romans‬ ‭6:4‬ ‭NLT‬
[4] For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives….
[6] We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. [7] For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin….
[10] When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. [11] So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus….
[13] Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
[16] Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living….
[18] Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

When we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ’s authority and power, we are no longer involved in the wars that are tearing the world apart. We are in the company of Jesus, who won the war to end all wars and is coming again as the Prince of Peace to establish His reign of eternal peace.

‭Isaiah‬ ‭9:6‭-‬7‬ ‭NLT‬
[6] “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [7] His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!”