SATAN’S EFFORT TO KEEP JESUS FROM FULFILLING HIS MISSION
(I Tim. 5:15)
Overview of I Tim. 4:1-5:16
4:1-2 How False Teaching Enters the Church
4:3-5 Common Grace
4:6 Word of God in Life of the Believer
4:7a Godliness – Divine / Human Role
4:7b Train Yourself to be Godly
4:7c Spiritual Disciplines (The Word of God)
4:7d Spiritual Disciplines (Devotions, Worship)
4.7e Spiritual Disciplines (Church Attendance, Journaling, Practicing Presence of God)
4:8-9 Why Godliness Has Great Value
4:10 Putting Our Hope in the Living God
4:12 Setting an Example for Believers
4:13 What a Christian Worship Service Looked Like in the First Century
4:14 Neglecting the Spiritual Gift God has Given Us
4:15-16 Getting Home Before Dark
5:1-2 So, How Should We Describe the Church?
5:3-16 God’s Tilt Towards the Disenfranchised
5:3-16 Sorting Out those Worthy of Relief – A Biblical Approach to Social Welfare
5:3-16 The Biblical Rationale for Providing for Relatives
5:5-16 The Tale of Two Widows – A Biblical Approach to Pleasure
5:9-10 The Good Works of a New Testament Woman
5:11-14 The Younger Widows – Breaking Celibacy Vows
5:11-14 The Younger Widows – Gossiping False Teaching
5:15 Satan’s Effort to Keep Jesus from Fulfilling His Mission
3Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. 5The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. 6But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. 7Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. 8If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
9No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, 10and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
11 As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. 12Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. 13Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. 14So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. 15Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.
16If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.
INTRODUCTION:
ILLUSTRATION: Geoffrey Bull, a British Brethren missionary in China in around 1948 was captured by the communists. They took him on a long journey and stopped an evening in a Chinese Inn. Late in the evening the guards told him to go below into the stable (the stable was under the inn) and feed the horses. He went down a dark stairway with a small lamp in his hand and stepped into inches of manure and urine which covered the stable floor. He went ahead and fed the animals and in the midst of walking through manure in a dark stable late in the evening in China realized in was Christmas Eve. And he realized he was in a stable, an oriental stable, dark, dirty and smelly and realized that this was similar to the stable Christ was born into.
One of the most disturbing things about Christmas is that we have made it so quaint, so sentimental, so clean and neat and precise, so marketable, so beautiful, so pleasant …. that we fail to see the “humiliation” of the incarnation.
Christ was born into more than an oriental stable. He was born into a sewer which we call “The World.”
And His goal was to move from one location in the sewer (Bethlehem) to another location in the sewer (Calvary). At Christmas Bethlehem is treated as His destination …. But Bethlehem was only a stop-over. The goal was Calvary.
Getting from heaven to Bethlehem was much easier for the Son of God then getting from Bethlehem to Calvary. The main reason it was so difficult was because Satan was totally opposed to Christ reaching Calvary.
Satan is always opposed to the work of God and as I Tim. 5:15 states, is still seeking followers from within the church.
Although Satan is not omniscient he does have somewhat of an understanding of God’s plans and intentions:
After the Fall of Adam and Eve into sin God said to Satan: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel”(Gen. 3:15).
“The Reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the Devil’s work” (I John 3:8).
“He (the Devil) is filled with fury because he knows his time is short” (Rev. 12:12.)
PROPOSITION: By looking at some of the obstacles He had to overcome to get from Bethlehem to Calvary we will develop a much greater appreciation of the incarnation and humiliation of Christ.
QUESTION: What were some of the (Satanic??) obstacles that Jesus had to overcome on His journey from the cradle to the cross.
I. THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING AN ILLEGITIMATE CHILD
“…Joseph had in mind to divorce her quietly” (Mt. 1:19).
II. THE DANGER OF INFANT MORTALITY
No room in an inn, which wouldn’t have been too clean, so a stable, which was certainly filthy. Infant mortality according to Jewish scholarship was around 30%. We know that Satan was intent on destroying Jesus before He reached the Cross. Could one of his stratagems been to have him born in a stable.
III. ATTEMPTED MURDER BY HEROD THE GREAT
Herod killed his wife, sons etc and arrested and held 200-300 Jewish leaders in custody to be killed the day of his death so that the Jewish people would mourn … since no one would have mourned on the day of his death.
The Magi sought out Herod to find where Jesus was to be born; they did not tell Herod where he was born as requested. Herod retaliated by sending soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all male children two and under.
13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” 14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi (Matthew 2:13-16).
IV. TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS (Lk. 4:1-13)
1. Turn stone into bread (similar to temptation of Eve when she saw that ‘the tree was good for food’ (Gen. 3:6).
2. The suggestion that Jesus bow down and worship Satan to gain something, was similar to Eve being tempted to disobey that she might gain divine knowledge.
3. Jesus was tempted to believe God for a miracle if he threw himself down from the temple.
Falling in any one of these areas would have made Jesus like any other human and destroyed Him and all possibilities of redemption.
V. EFFORT TO DESTROY JESUS IN NAZARETH
28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way (Lk. 4:28-30)
VI. CLASS HIM AMONG THE INSANE
When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind, lost his senses, insane, crazy, getting carried away with himself, deranged) (Mk. 3:21).
VII. DISCREDIT HIS MINISTRY BY CALLING IT SATANIC
And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons” (Mark 3:22).
VIII. MAKE HIM A KING BY FORCE
After the feeding of the 5,000 …
Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (John 6:15).
IX. ATTEMPTED STONING
When he told the crowd that He existed before Abraham:
At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds (John 8:59).
After He claimed that He was one with the Father:
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone Him … again they tried to seize him but he escaped their grasp (John 10:31,39).
X. PETER SOUGHT TO DISUADE JESUS FROM THE CROSS
21From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Peter was a “stumbling block” (dangerous trap, hindrance) for the Lord and was set up by Satan.
XI. JESUS SHRANK FROM THE HORROR OF THE CROSS
40On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:40-44).
XII. PETER TRIED TO SAVE JESUS FROM THE CROSS
Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51With that, one of Jesus’ companions (Peter, John 18:10) reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? (Mt. 26:51-53)
XIII. PILATE TRIED TO RELEASE JESUS
Pilate: Don’t you realize that I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given you from above” (John 19:10-11).
Pilate asked them, ”Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” (Mt. 27:17)
Pilate’s wife, “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him” (Mt. 27:19.
XIV. CROWD MOCKED HIM TO SAVE HIMSELF.
35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen On.” (Luke 23:35).
XV. THIEF CHALLENGED HIM TO SAVE HIMSELF
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Lk. 23:39).
CONCLUSION:
1. Never separate the cradle from the cross. The cradle was only a stop-over for Christ on the way to Calvary.
2. Getting to Bethlehem, getting to Calvary was much more difficult. Being born in a smelly, foul oriental stable was only the first obstacle Christ had to overcome on His way to Calvary.
3. The humiliation of Bethlehem (He who held the whole world in his hands now being held in the hands of a 15 year old peasant girl) began in Bethlehem but culminated in Calvary.
6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:6-8).
4. The missing verses of “Silent Night” best capture the meaning of Christmas:
Did you know that Josef Mohr wrote his famous six-verse poem when he was 24 years old, around 1816? Or that well over 300 translations of that hymn now exist? Or that it is sung in over 120 languages? Did you know that Josef was an illegitimate child? He was born to a poor young Austrian lady named Anna Schoiber who was forsaken by her lover. His father left Anna to join the army and took no responsibility for his offspring. Did you know that when young Josef sensed a calling to the priesthood he faced a major obstacle? Church rules were adamant – an illegitimate child could not enter the priesthood. Only prayer, pleading, persistence and a special dispensation granted by the pope allowed him to be ordained as a priest.
Most hymn books today contain only verses 1, 6 and 2 – and in that order. The following is a fairly accurate though not literal word for word translation of verses 3, 4 and 5 of Josef’s original poem. These ‘forgotten’ verses radiate with great truths. Though he did not know the love of an earthly father, Josef certainly reveled in the love of the heavenly Father.
Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love’s pure light;
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.
“Silent night! Holy night!
Wondrous grace from heaven’s height;
Salvation’s message brought to the earth,
As it welcomes our dear Savior’s birth.
Jesus has come in the flesh.
Jesus has come in the flesh.
Silent night! Holy night!
The Father’s love – what glorious sight!
Revealed in Jesus, whose arms open wide;
Just like a brother He comes to our side.
Jesus embraces the world!
Jesus embraces the world!
Silent night! Holy night!
The eternal plan is brought to light.
Wrath is averted, God’s mercy displayed,
The hope of the ages no longer delayed.
Salvation has come to the world!
Salvation has come to the world!” .
Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!
Silent night, holy night
Wondrous star, lend thy light;
With the angels let us sing,
Alleluia to our King;
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!