10.30.2011 How to Live Like Jesus - The Theology of Spiritual Warfare

SermonAudio

Turn to 1 Cor 15 – we’ll play this a little by ear this morning…
1 Cor. 15: 12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even found [to be] false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
As we think of today – our hope goes beyond this life. If we are only thinking of this life, we have missed it in our faith. We believe in Christ because we know we will go through eternity with Him. As Jeff prayed – Bill is with Jesus and someday we will all be joined together. We will be very physical people in heaven and earth – with new incorruptible bodies…
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
Christ has been raised from the dead – proved through the changed lives He lives in!
21 For since by a man [came] death, by a man also [came] the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, 24 then [comes] the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28 And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all.
Really, we are – what this passage tells us – we are victorious! He has conquered everything! Death will be done away with in time.
I was planning to speak on the Theology of Spiritual Warfare. We face an enemy. The final enemy is death. We know that in all of this – Jesus is victorious – we have hope in this world – in every circumstance, sorrow and grief.
Theology of Spiritual Warfare – that sounds lofty – and Spiritual Warfare sounds exciting – the tendency is to want to get to the how-tos – and all that will come – but I want to say first – and this comes true today as we think of Bill and Jemma – What we believe counts – our theology matters – what we believe is critical. That is why we have this Christianity – that Christ died on the cross for our sins to bring us back to God. We try to turn it into having better lives, better families, better relationships – but it is so much more than all of that. If we are only hoping for how it helps in this world… - and that is what the church often promotes – and that is good – but it is beyond this earthly life.
Theology matters because it determines our application – always. What you believe controls how you act. Belief always comes before action – and not the other way around. Belief before action – to act properly – we need to act properly.
We are looking at the life of Jesus – and there is always the confrontation with Satan – in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 – but we will focus on Matthew.
To best understand it – we need to look at the context:
Matthew 3: 16 And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, [and] coming upon Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
God the Father is inaugurating Jesus’ ministry. Like a coronation – Jesus is being declared to be the son of God – the Messiah, the King – and as King – His kingdom is breaking in. It is all beginning now – this ministry of the Messiah is starting. The Spirit descends upon Jesus. Then we go to chapter 4:
Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
So the Spirit descends on Jesus – and leads Him to the wilderness. This is a key place – significant meaning. “to be tempted by the devil” – the spiritual battle begins here. When Adam and Eve fell – Satan became the ruler of this world – he has been pulling people away from God. – getting people trapped and turning away from God. God, all along, from the beginning – had this plan. Though the first man, Adam, rejected God’s way – there is another Man who was sent to destroy this enemy of God. When Christ came to earth – well, there were these battles going on throughout the Old Testament – God was building His family - but often His people would turn away. But God was patient with this world – but now this time has come – God became Man – and He entered this world to do battle – He is a warrior – a King – a warrior king – and we see that this battle is engaged in the wilderness. Shots are starting to be fired! The wilderness, for Israel, was a place of testing – and they failed over and over again – but Jesus is victorious in the test. Almost all of God’s great people in the Bible have a time of great testing in their lives. Moses – 40 years in the desert – 40 days on the mountain fasting. Elijah – 40 days of fasting. Joseph – 13 years in and out of prison, sold as a slave… God’s people have gone through testing and preparation. This is a life of testing – where we will enter wildernesses where nothing is growing and nothing is working – barren. Jesus’ wilderness was like a dessert – a place with no provision – there was nothing there. We will go through wildernesses – and we are in good company – it is not unusual – it is to be expected. We live in a fallen world. We must expect it.
Peter – do not be surprised when you go through a fiery ordeal that comes upon you for your testing.
If you are thinking – I am a Christian, so I won’t go through that – you are not thinking Biblically!
Do not be surprised by the wilderness times in life!
I think – we see that Jesus went through it in every way.
Jesus is famished – and the tempter came and said to him… so in His most weak and vulnerable times in his life – I am sure humanly speaking that He was as weak as ever…
Matt. 4: 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." 4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'"
IF – like we use – ‘if it doesn’t rain today…’ – You’re saying ‘maybe, maybe not’ – but it also has the meaning – Since – I don’t know why they translate it IF – the devil is not questioning the validity of the sonship of Jesus – he is challenging the NATURE of his sonship. It is not whether, but what kind of son He will be.
With Israel – and all of us – we aren’t always the kind of children we are supposed to be. But he is testing to see if He will be God’s faithful and obedient son.
He comes at Him with a simple temptation – seeing if God is going to doubt God’s care and provision . He hasn’t eaten for 40 days… He is the Messiah – He could command the rocks to become bread to fill His stomach.
This is kind of a weird test – but it is the test that we have – do we believe that God will take care of us? It is not an issue of food, but of trust. When the wilderness of life hits us – do we trust God in this circumstance. That is the hard part. With Israel – when they didn’t have food, they didn’t trust; they grumbled, complained. Moses hammered the rock with His stick. But Jesus was the faithful servant – the faithful Son – the faithful Israel.
Will Jesus be self-reliant or God reliant? Will He use His power for self-centered of God’s purposes.
Any time you turn from God, sin, disobey, you are relying on yourself – not on God. In any area you struggle, it is because of self-reliance – and you are not trusting God in that circumstance. And you turn to something else.
But Jesus answers simply – Man does not live by bread alone – I don’t need to trust in Myself, I can trust in God.
Jesus was fully HUMAN – having to rely on full trust in the Father and the Spirit. All miracles and power He exhibited were done in full reliance on the Spirit.
We CAN live – because of what He did – AS HE LIVED.
Because He was tempted as we are – He is able to help us when we are tempted. How was He tempted? In every way we are as a human. He fully trusted God in each circumstance through life.
Even though He was God – He emptied Himself by becoming a servant – living as a human – that He might win a complete battle – that God, through a human, might destroy the enemy. That is the bigger picture of what is happening here. It is not about brad – it is about trusting God – control vs. faith.
5 Then the devil ^took Him into the holy city; and he had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and ^said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'He will give His angels charge concerning You'; and 'On [their] hands they will bear You up, Lest You strike Your foot against a stone.'" 7 Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
The first temptation is a temptation to doubt God’s care – But Jesus passes the test and affirms His faith.
The second one – what kind of temptation is this? Throw yourself down?! What Satan is doing – trying to get Jesus to prove His faith. But Jesus says – you shall not test God. But Satan is trying to get Jesus to get God to prove Himself to him. We do this – we demand – but He is showing what it means to be a beloved Son – who doesn’t demand God to prove Himself but submits Himself to the Father.
For us, we demand God to act in our way – we expect God to act in the way we would like Him to act – and we base how we relate to Him on how He acts in our lives – and if we are not happy with the way He is acting – when you are struggling – that is what you are doing – you are testing God.
Do not put God on the spot by doing something reckless in the name of faith.
8 Again, the devil ^took Him to a very high mountain, and ^showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, "All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me." 10 Then Jesus ^said to him, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'" 11 Then the devil ^left Him; and behold, angels came and [began] to minister to Him.
The first test – to doubt God’s care.
Second test – would He test God?
Third – the ultimate purpose – will He forsake God and worship Satan? That is the ultimate goal. Jesus was the king and the kingdom was His – but the temptation was for the wrong kingdom at the wrong time. He is trying to get Jesus to receive the kingdom without the cross – to bypass the suffering.
Jesus wins this battle – but at the garden and the cross, Jesus won the victory completely – and that is what Satan wanted to stop. Because of the cross – we have hope – we have victory.
For whatever you struggle with – fear and anxiety – some addiction – bitterness – unforgiveness – you can go through the list of things we get caught and trapped in and we can’t seem to win this spiritual battle – what this tells us – that victory has been won at the cross. We have the victory – it is, because of what Christ has done – it is possible to live life victoriously! You have – in His death – His life – His resurrection – the capability to change, to receive the victory from Him.
That is really the HOPE we need to leave with today – that Jesus has already won the battle! He has won the battle for you – for your fear, your self-esteem, pain, brokenness, addiction, and failure.
And theology matters – because you can do all the proper application – quote scripture, pray, have accountability – I’ve seen so many people who have accountability make progress because they don’t have a correct theology – they don’t believe the victory has already been won!
Lord, we ask You to help us to learn to be victorious. Help us to understand that You have won the victory. Thank You Lord, that You have conquered Satan, the enemy – you’ve conquered death! We thank You for that. That is there for us to receive – your victory is to be imparted to us – and in You we have the victory – Sin and death will be swallowed up – thank You –in Your name we pray.