The Temptation of Christ (Part 3)

Appreciate that very much, Luke and Megan, and the work that went into putting that together.

Obviously, I've not ever done anything like that from a standpoint of putting video together in that fashion, but I imagine it's not something that is simple. I imagine it takes quite a bit of work to get that synced and make sure that everything works in the way that it should. So thank you guys for putting that together and for making those things available for us to continue utilizing as we have need and as we have situations that come up that require it. Well, brethren, we're going to have opportunity today to continue taking a look at the series that we have been looking at and working on here over the past few messages as we've talked a little bit about the temptation of Christ. It's outlined for us in Luke 4 and Matthew 4. But in the last message in the series, we took a look at the first temptation of Jesus Christ as it was outlined in Luke's Gospel account. Now, our Messiah physically weakened as a result of the time that he spent in the Judean wilderness, you know, kind of hungry and weak from the physical effects of lack of food. We talked a little bit about what the body does as time goes on after not having food for a long period of time. But not only that, and brethren, I think it's important we keep in mind and we talked about that this was a period with which Luke records that during this time frame, Jesus Christ was submitted to temptation from Satan. And so not only is he hungry, not only is he weak, he's got that gnawing voice that is trying to get him to break God's law, that is trying to get him to yield himself to his humanity as opposed to the calling that God has given him.

Now, Satan, we recognize, knows all too well our human proclivities, and we, as we explored in the last message, he lashed out first at Christ's most pressing need. He lashed out in his need for physical sustenance in the hopes of getting Christ to kind of trigger him to act in a very human way, to take the stones littering the wilderness there in Judea and turn them into bread.

And we recognize, kind of as we discussed a little bit in the last message, this is something that is fully in Christ's power. We know later in Christ's ministry he ultimately turned water into wine.

We recognize that there were a number of miracles that Christ did. This is something that was fully in Christ's power and something he absolutely could have done to satisfy his intense physical need in that moment. But we also recognize that Christ showed strength, he showed poise, and he showed a great deal of resolve as he resisted Satan's advance. Instead, what we saw was that Christ quoted Scripture to Satan. He had the presence of mind to be able to draw Satan's attention as well as the attention of the readers and those who would read it down through time, including us, back to a specific location in Scripture, and that was Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3.

And you can jot that down in your notes if you'd like. We won't necessarily turn there. We went there in the last message, but I want to read to you once again that what he said. He said, So he humbled you, speaking here of God, allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word. And you'll notice words in italics there, everything, essentially, that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Now, this particular passage, as we kind of analyzed, it's part of a recounting of Israel's history by Moses, and it's referring to the challenges that Israel faced in the wilderness due to the desires of their hearts.

And so, as Christ is referencing Satan to this, as he's referencing those who are hearing it to this, he is referencing them to these challenges and a recognition of the challenges that Israel faced due to yielding to the desires of their hearts over the word of their God. And we talked also about how those that would be listening to this story at the time of Christ's recounting of it, and those that read it later in the Gospel accounts, these are individuals that, as a result of educational reforms that were instituted by Ezra after the exile, had gone through a process of learning the Torah. You know, they started about age six, and from about age six to age 12, worked through their entire study was Torah. It was the first five books of the Bible, essentially, and they had many of them had the Torah memorized in its entirety by age 12. In fact, I came across, as I was doing some research on this, I came across a quote that I had to laugh at because it said that essentially you would get the kids at six, and you had them until 12, and then it said, during those six years, stuff them full of Torah like you stuff an ox with straw. Just get them going, get them studying the Torah, and that they would understand those things. And then at the end of that time frame, they would graduate into fully functioning members of society with the Barmitsvah and the Barmitsvah that was there in Jewish culture. So as this was quoted by Christ, these individuals are going to be automatically recognizing the location. And because of the way people memorize things, they're going to be thinking about the passage that came before it and the passage that came after it. Because as you lace those things together, that's that thread of memorization that helps you remember where one ends and the next begins, in particular, because keep in mind, these quotes, you know, these chapters and verses didn't take place until much, much later. So these were all one big thought. We examined one of those events that Israel dealt with that kind of, you know, resulted in them yielding to their own desires over the Word of their God, and that was their complaint regarding the miracle that God provided them and their desire for meat. Remember, God provided manna miraculously, and they were upset with that.

They were sick of it. They wanted quail, or they wanted meat, I should say, not necessarily quail.

And God gave them quail. He gave them 15 miles of quail in either direction of their camp, up to a height of about three feet. And as a result of Israel's desires, that quail was to last 30 days. They went out and for that night, all day and all night, the following day, and then all day and all night after that, basically captured and killed quail, such that the lease collected, I think, 475 pounds, roughly, of quail. We know that God's wrath against Israel was kindled.

We know that Israel, at that point, they weren't satisfied with the good that their God had done.

They weren't satisfied with his care. They weren't satisfied with his providence. They wanted more.

Israel wanted what they wanted, not what God provided. And we talked in the last message about how this desires... it's not just found in food. Mankind desires a great deal of things. Mankind desires adultery. Desires fornication, idolatry. Sometimes they desire hatred and contention, anger, and outbursts of wrath, jealousy, selfish desires, dissensions, heresies, drunkenness, and revel reason, as we saw in Galatians 5. The list goes on. And in each of these circumstances, Satan is, as he did to Christ, holding that stone out to each and every one of us, and telling us we can have what we want. With a word, it can become our greatest need and our greatest desire in that moment. You want jealousy? You can have it. You want that fight? You can have it. All you have to do is say the word and it's yours. Whatever our lust of the flesh may be, that it is ours if we want it badly enough. And Christ's response was to Satan that man does not live by bread alone. No, man lives by the words that proceed from the mouth of God, not the desires of our hearts, instead forming ourselves to God's will for us, ultimately to the words and to the thoughts and things that we see in this book. Now, as we talked last time, for whatever reason, the order of temptations is different between Matthew and Luke. It may have to do with Jewish versus Gentile thought. It may have... it could be anything, really. But for the sake of the series, we're going to use the outline that we see in the book of Luke. So let's go ahead and turn over to Luke 4. Luke 4, and we'll go ahead and begin today as we begin to analyze this second temptation that was put before Jesus Christ. Luke 4, and we'll go ahead and analyze here this second temptation that was put before Christ. And before we do that, I want to give just a bit of a caveat.

You know, the topics that we're going to discuss today, they're challenging topics.

And they're challenging topics in that it begins to ask some very difficult questions about the intersection point between the authority that we have in ourselves and the authority that others have over us. And because we're human and because we really don't like to be told what to do, you know, we sometimes get rankled by those things. And so as we look at this today, and as we consider this today, I hope that it comes across in the vein that it is intended. And I hope that it comes across in an analysis and a real examination of our lives and where we are with these things as we kind of consider what was offered to Christ and how that impacts us ultimately with regards to our lives today. Luke 4, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 5 of Luke 4.

Luke 4 and verse 5, moving into this second temptation, it says, Then the devil, taking him up onto a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Taking him up on this high mountain, it showed him all these kingdoms.

The devil said to him, All this authority I will give you, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Now, did Satan have the authority to do that?

Absolutely, he did, temporarily at that time. That is his authority until Christ returned, and until the kingdoms of man are given to God, and until all authority is done away.

At that point, when Satan tempted Christ in this fashion, absolutely it was his to give.

So Satan, we see, takes Christ to the top of a high mountain, seemingly envisioned, and he showed him all of the kingdoms of the world in that time. And so, I found it kind of interesting. I did some digging just to find out who would have been the kingdoms of the world at that time. You know, who? Obviously the Romans, right? We know the Romans were there. But interestingly enough, the Mayan Empire was flourishing at that point in time in the early first century. Native American tribes in North America. You had the Han Dynasty of China that was, you know, kind of rising at that time. You had tribes that were known as the Yayoi in Japan that became ultimately the Japanese Empire. You had Aboriginal people of Australia that were in these tribes and bands. You had an empire in West Africa that was massive, the empire of Mali, the kingdom of Mali. And then there were all these other empires and kingdoms and tribes of the world that was in that moment. But essentially, Satan takes Christ to the top of this mountain. He tells him to take a look at it, and then he says, you know what? It's all yours. All the authority, all the power, all the glory. It's yours. The title of the second split today is The Temptation of Christ, Part 3. And in it, we're going to analyze the concept. The subtitle here is Power and Authority. And so with the time that we have left, I'd like to take a look at these concepts and how they ultimately relate to Christ's response and ultimately to our lives today. So how do we intersect with these concepts of power and authority in our lives today based on the response that we see from Christ? It's interesting to kind of consider what power and authority are. There have been a number of studies over the years that relate to this concept, and I think largely as scientists try to understand the desire that humanity has for authority and power, and they're exercising that power and authority on other groups of people both in positive and negative ways. And I think this has been kind of a big area of study in recent years as people understand, you know, minority issues and other things and how power affects those things. But the Greek word that's used here in this passage in Luke 4 to describe the concept of authority is the Greek word exusia. E-X-O-U-S-I-A, and it's a word that is translated in a lot of different ways. It's kind of a utilitarian word in many ways, but contextually here when we talk about this particular passage, it is relating to the power or control or authority that someone has over something else. Now in doing some digging on this, sociologically, power and authority are considered to be two different things.

Power is the ability that an entity or an individual has to control or direct others while authority is related to the influence that comes from perceived legitimacy. Okay, and so those are two different things. While you have to have power for authority, you can have power without authority. You can have an entity that has no legitimacy, but absolutely controls through brute force and control without any influence.

Okay, and so those two things are kind of different. You do need power to have authority, but you can have power without authority. There's a 2016 study that I found in the Atlantic that was really interesting, and they did some work on trying to understand exactly what it is that mankind's desire for power is boiled down into. And they found that it essentially boiled down to two different focuses for that power. Either the power was desired to control others, or two, the power was control or the power was desired to control one's own self. And so as the study went on, it was an interesting study the way they set it up, but as the study went on, the results seemed to show, and significantly so, like big percentage difference here, like 20% to, you know, or, you know, upper 20% to like 70% in the data, showed that individuals actually care less about their influence and control over others. But the power and the authority that was desired by mankind in this study illustrated that they wanted that power to obtain autonomy. And interestingly, they found once that autonomy was present, that that person's desire for power over others wanes. The author of the study writes, it says, power as autonomy is a form of power that allows one person to ignore and resist the influence of others, and thus to shape one's own destiny. And so the study showed that this power over one's own life, over their own choices, we might, you know, analogously say to be the captain of their own vessel, or the author of their own story, that power was significantly more desired than the power or the influence that they might have over someone else. And I guess, you know, think about anecdotally our own lives in the U.S. today. Isn't that kind of what we want, too? You know, we don't want people to tell us how we can live. We want liberty, we want freedom in order to make our own choices.

And I think if you were to poll most Americans, the vast majority of Americans couldn't tell, couldn't care less about telling other people how to live their lives. Most folks, I think, just want to be left alone to live theirs as they see fit. That autonomy. Have that ability to live their life as they see fit. There are, of course, a small percentage who feel that everyone else should live the way they think they should, but by and large, most folks just want to be left alone to make their own choices and to have autonomy over their own lives. Now, we go back to Satan's temptation. In some ways, Satan's offer to Christ is an offer of both things. Not only would he have power and authority and control over the kingdoms of this world, ruling them, but in many ways he would also have control of the narrative, of his own story, so to speak.

He wouldn't have to go through the painful death of crucifixion to obtain that which was already promised. He would have the autonomy and the independence and the ability to dictate his own path. He would have everything that was already promised without the pain and without the suffering.

But without the atoning blood for our forgiveness as well. Before Jesus Christ was a path forward that allowed him to be the author of his own story. To have autonomy, or to, in some ways, at least have an illusion of autonomy, because you'll notice that that offer came with a caveat.

Verse 7, Satan said, all these things you can have under what condition? If you worship me.

You can have all these things. You can have the autonomy. You can have the control.

But it comes at a price. It comes at worshiping me. Now, thankfully, thankfully, our Savior, thankfully our Messiah, didn't desire this easier path. He didn't desire the control over those kingdoms more than he desired to see God's plan fulfilled. And to take the place as our Passover.

His response to Satan is recorded in verse 8. Look for in verse 8, he says, Jesus answered and said to him, Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Now, Christ tells Satan, Look, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

No, thank you. You know, I will serve only my God. Remember how we talked in the first message and kind of in the introductory message as to how Christ's experience in the wilderness is analogous to the 40 years that Israel spent in the wilderness wandering. And this scriptural reference harkens back to a time in their wanderings as well, with Christ once again succeeding where Israel failed. Let's go ahead and turn back to Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6, and we'll see one of the references to which Christ is pointing. Deuteronomy 6, and we'll have a chance to see one of those references. Deuteronomy 6, and we'll pick it up in verse 1, and if you want to pop a bookmark in here, we're going to bounce from this spot to another spot here shortly. But Deuteronomy 6 and verse 1 says, Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess.

He says that you may fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey. We see the Shema here, the hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. It says you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up.

It says you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates.

And Moses here is reviewing the statutes and the judgments, the commandments that God instructed them to keep and to observe when they crossed into the land, and ultimately for the purpose of learning to fear the Lord. Same reason that we go to the feast. We go to the feast each year to learn to fear the Lord, to understand His will for us, to understand how He wants us to live, and how He wants us to proceed, and what He has planned for us. These were things, these statutes and judgments and commandments, were things that were to be taught diligently to their children and to be ultimately kept in the forefront of their minds. Verse 10, it says, So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things which you did not fill, hewn out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant. He says, When you have eaten and are full.

Verse 12, Then beware, lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Verse 13, this is the passage that Christ was referencing, You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you. For the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you, and destroy you from the face of the earth.

Moses here tells Israel that when God blesses you with the land that He swore to their fathers, the cities that they didn't build, and the wells they didn't dig, and the vineyards and the olive trees they didn't plant, that once they've eaten and are full, once they are content and they are satisfied, He says, beware. He says, beware that you don't forget the Lord that brought you out of the land of Egypt.

He says, verse 13, again, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. But again, when this passage is referenced, those who memorized the Torah as kids, those who were gathered and hearing these things, immediately would have gone to what came after. What comes after it? Verse 14, you shall not go after other gods. You shall not go after the gods of the people who are around you, lest the anger of the Lord be aroused and destroy you from the face of the earth.

Again, Christ referencing a place in the wanderings in which He was successful and where Israel failed. Deuteronomy 10, verse 12, if you want to leave a bookmark here, it's just a couple pages over, but Deuteronomy 10, beginning in verse 12, is another location that is referenced, same phrasing from the phrase that Christ quoted to Satan.

Deuteronomy 10 in verse 12 says, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statues which I command you today for your good. Indeed, heaven and the highest of heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.

The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as it is to this day. Verse 16, therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.

Therefore, he says, verse 19, love the stranger, for you are strangers in the land of Egypt. Verse 20, you shall fear the Lord your God, this is the quote that Christ had, you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast and take oaths in His name. He is your praise, He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Verse 22, your fathers went down to Egypt with 70 people, 70 persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in the multitudes. You know, we recognize, as we look over Israel's history, that Israel struggled in many, many ways with the foreign gods of the land.

You know, it wasn't just during the time of the wilderness wanderings, it was throughout their nation's history. You know, just from the beginning of God bringing them out of Egypt, we see times where they fell into worship of false gods through old habits. You know, such as the time in the wilderness with the golden calf and Aaron building this golden calf for them. You know, Egypt, where they had come from, was full of gods that you could see, gods you could touch, bow down before, very tangible things.

And for them, as they came out of that environment, they desired something that was more tangible and would physically represent God. They wanted to worship Him as they saw fit, not as He saw fit, not as He commanded them.

There were also times in Israel's wanderings where they were enticed by the locals to join in the worship of their gods, such as the incident in Pior, where the Moabites lured the Israelites into worshiping their gods through food and sexual enticement. But again, Israel, looking at how those individuals worshiped their gods, determined, you know what? That looks appetizing. That looks wonderful. I want to do that, choosing again to worship how they desired, not how God instructed.

We see, as time goes on, they cross into the Promised Land, they intermarry with the pagans that remain in the land, led to years of idolatry, as Israel put the worship of foreign gods above the one true God. And this pattern, you know, outside of even Israel, this pattern repeats itself throughout human history. And in some ways, brethren, I think if we're honest with ourselves, you look at modern society, really it's no different. Remember, we're dealing with the same playbook here. It's different people, you know, different time period, but it's the same playbook. Let's go ahead and pop back over to Deuteronomy 6 real quick. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 14, once again, I want to draw your attention to this because this is important. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 13 reads, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him, and shall take oaths in his name.

Immediately following, you shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people who are all around you.

Again, this would have been connected in the minds of those who heard it, and naturally, those that heard it during Christ time or during the time shortly following Christ time would have been considering the society that was around them at that time, and ultimately, the gods that were worshipped in the Roman Empire. Now Rome, much like Egypt, was full of false gods.

I've heard it described by some that it was like the 7-11 of gods. You know, you could get whatever you wanted, wherever you wanted, however you wanted. It was like a convenience store of idolatry in many ways. You know, you have, looking back in those areas, you look at Asia Minor, you look at a number of those locations. You've got temples to false gods that are dotting the countrysides. They're up on the hills. Some of them dominated the scenery. You know, we talked about some of the things at Pergamos up at the top of that hill. We talked about some of the different things that were in various places. These temples were built with marble and precious stones, and they're beautiful buildings. Some of them still stand. Some of them are tourist attractions 2,000 years later.

And we don't worship these false gods in that sense today. But what does idolatry look like?

In our modern society? What do the gods of this world around us look like in today's society?

Because remember, in verse 14, God said, do not go after the gods of the world around you.

So what are they? I'd like to read a snippet from an article on idolatry on the ECG website. It's written by Mr. John Labichinaire, and I felt like he tackled this particular concept really, really well. He writes, and I quote, in today's western world, most people would likely agree that the former worship of fictitious deities represented by wood or stone idols was absurd. But does that mean that idolatry is a long-forgotten problem of past ages and has little or nothing to do with contemporary society? It says we need to first understand the definition of idolatry, which is the paying of divine honors to any created thing. Worship in the form of idealism or abstractions or mental qualities. That's Unger's Bible dictionaries definition. Also, the Bible itself defines idolatry as covetousness, which is setting one's heart and mind on anything other than the Creator and His perfect living laws. Author Tim Keller wrote, What is an idol? It's anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything that you seek to give you only what God can give. And that is from his book, Counterfeit Gods, by again author Tim Keller. Mr. Lebischenaire goes on, he says, So although idolatry may not often resemble its ancient predecessors, it actually occurs today in many other ways. What comprises idolatry now? What can come before God in one's life? It could be materialism and attainment of wealth and riches. Consider also the desire for status and power and control, as we talked about today. What about achievement, work, politics, and patriotism?

These two can absorb a person's utter devotion. Also, what about recreation and entertainment, including pop culture and celebrities and music and hobbies and sports? He says, Let's not forget television, the internet, smartphones, movies, books, tobacco, food, drinking, drugs. He's making quite the exhaustive list. Additionally, he says, what about relationships, including one's family, wife, husband, girlfriend, or children, girlfriend, boyfriend, or even one's self as an idol? He says, Besides these, we could add image and physical appearance and sex. He says, Not only that, Moreover, consider religion, including its many traditional long-held doctrines and beliefs.

In this regard, even though various profession Christian churches purport to obey God, he says they actually teach and promote doctrines and practices not found in the Bible. As Christ said in Mark 7, verse 7, In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

So, he says, When God said, You shall have no other gods before Me, Exodus 20, verse 3, He wasn't just describing fictional deities that seem ridiculous to many people today. Rather, He was telling us that an idol can be anything that usurps His place as Creator, Ruler, and Sustainer in our lives. A person can become so absorbed in the daily world of activities that he or she leaves no room for God and for His Word. He goes on to write, Richard Keys wrote, Rather than look to the Creator and have to deal with His Lordship, we orient our lives toward creation, where we can be more free to control and shape our lives in our desired directions. An idol is something within creation that is inflated to function as a substitute for God. All sorts of things are potential idols, depending only on our attitudes and our actions toward them. Christ, through these references that we see outlined in His temptation account, to having no other gods except the one true God, is absolutely pointing to this lesson. It is pointing to this idea that there are a lot of different things that we can worship and a lot of different things that we can put before God. But there's another aspect to this that He's pointing to as well. If you look at what Satan's trying to do here with Christ in this temptation, at its core, what is he trying to do? Ultimately, Satan is encouraging Christ to do the same thing that he did. To take a look at God's plan, to see how God's plan was to transpire, and to conclude and decide, you know what? I know better. I can determine what is best for me, and you know what? This isn't it. It would be much better if I did this or this, but not this.

In some ways, Satan is encouraging Christ to set himself up as God, as the decider of his destiny, as the one who is in control, so to speak, of his ship. Turn over to Isaiah 14.

Again, as we consider this temptation that was put before Christ, Isaiah 14, and we consider not just the temptation that was put before Christ, but the mindset of the mindset and the attitude of the tempter. The mindset and the attitude of the tempter, the one who is trying to get him to trip up. Isaiah 14 and verse 13, we can see that this is the attitude behind the being who is attempting to tempt Christ. Isaiah 14, and we'll break into the account here in verse 13, speaking here of Lucifer and of Satan. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Verse 15 says, yet you shall be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit. What did Satan want? And what did he want?

Satan wanted to be like God, or we might even say wanted to be God. He wanted to be worshiped. He wanted to be exalted. He wanted to be the master of his own destiny. He didn't like the looks of the plan that God had provided, or mankind would rise above the angels. Is that the reason he rebelled? It's not certain, possible, speculatively, but as a result of wanting to be the one in charge of his own path, he rebelled against God and against the plan that God put forth. And ultimately, that prideful, rebellious spirit is the same prideful, rebellious spirit that Satan has put into the minds of humanity throughout the millennia. That mindset has been put into the minds of humanity throughout the centuries, throughout the millennia. C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, and some of you are familiar with C.S. Lewis's work, he wrote in Mere Christianity, he said, what Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could be their own masters, invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside of God, apart from God.

And he writes that out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history.

Money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empire, slavery. He says the long, terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

He says the reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us. He invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol. It's made to run on gas, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on himself. He himself is the fuel that our spirits were designed to burn, or the food that our spirits were designed to feed on.

And he says there is no other. Satan, in this prideful, rebellious spirit that Satan has, was encouraging Christ to take the same steps that he took, to set himself up as God, and it's the same encouragement that's been given to humanity for millennia. To know God's will, to know God's plan, but to forsake it for their own desire.

Brethren, do we do the same? Do we do the same? I recognize authority and power, it's a challenging subject. It's not one that people enjoy talking about because it requires us to ask some really hard questions. It requires us to ask who has authority over me? Who has the right and the God-given authority to instruct me on what I should do? And usually the natural next question is, wait a minute, if that's the case, then does that mean that I actually have to follow through?

So what does the Bible say about authority? And what does the Bible say about power?

We know that God, of course, has the authority to govern our behavior. We know that God and Christ both have the authority to govern our behavior. And I don't think you would find anyone that would argue the contrary of that. But is that it? Is that the extent of the individuals that can govern our behavior or that can instruct us in a certain way that we then can either decide one way or the other if we're going to follow? If you are a husband, are you under authority?

If you're a wife, are you under authority? Those of you who are children, are you under authority?

What does Ephesians 5 say? What does Ephesians 5 say? Do the governments of this world have the authority to govern your behavior? What is Romans 13? 1-2 say. Romans 13, 1-2.

Does the church have the authority to govern your behavior? Do I, as a pastor, have the authority to govern your behavior? To instruct you in such a way? What does Hebrews 13, 7-17 say? Hebrews 13, 7-17. You know, all of these, they're challenging questions and they're tough questions because there are times in which the instructions that we might be provided from these sources that have authority over us in some way may go against our personal desires.

They may go against what we personally want. And when we find ourselves in that place, we find ourselves in a very, very difficult spot. We find ourselves in a place in which a decision has to be made as to whether or not the authority in that situation is over us or not. Now in the church, you know, the Church of God, we've always taught that we are to comply with anything that comes from these authorities that doesn't directly conflict with the law of God. You know, if a government goes and tells you to kill someone, that conflicts with God's law. That is not something that would be acceptable for us to comply with. Let's go to 1 Peter 2, verse 13. Not every instruction from our government is so cut and dry. Not every instruction from authorities in our lives are so cut and dry. 1 Peter 2 and verse 13, we'll see Peter's words here in his general epistle written to, you know, the folks that are in Asia Minor as well as the folks that are throughout that section of the Mediterranean. 1 Peter, and we'll pick it up in chapter 2 and verse 13. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 13 says, therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

As free, verse 16, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice or for wickedness, as some translations say, but as bondservants of God, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Some want to point out that this only applies when the rulers are good, that because the rulers of our society today are are evil, then we have the obligation then to rebel against their leadership, even if their instructions do not directly contradict Scripture.

Do we? Is that what your Bible says?

Turn with me please to Titus 3. Titus 3, you know, the apostle Paul likely wrote this letter to Titus in the mid-60s AD, likely 64 to 65 AD, kind of in between the letters, first letter to Timothy and the second letter to Timothy. Mid-60s AD Nero was emperor of Rome at this time, and he was arguably one of the most despotic Roman emperors that ever held the throne. This was a man who was a sadist, history shows that he enjoyed the pain of other people. He was a really evil man, and ultimately he was a man that would have Paul's head shortly after this letter to Titus was written. Within the next 18 months, Paul would be dead after this was written by order of Nero. Titus 3 and verse 1, says, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This, he says in verse 8, is a faithful saying. And these things I want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works, maintain good deeds. These things are good and profitable to men. And then Peter gets into the importance of avoiding dissension, avoiding quarrels, avoiding divisive speech, divisive topics. You know, Paul Brethren wrote this about a Roman system that existed under an absolute tyrant. It's been interesting of late to see kind of how we intersect as Christians with authority and how we intersect in various ways.

And it's been interesting to see the rise of people in society around us who are taking pride in their rebelliousness. Individuals who have decided to rebel against the authority of the government in their lives regarding COVID-19 mandates such as masks, the authority of social media platforms, or kind of rebelling against the authority, so to speak, of social media platforms, and the standard which they agreed to when they signed up to use the service.

Individuals who are rebelling against the institution of authority as ordained by God in marriage, rebelling against the authority of the church, rebelling against anything and everything. You know, there's a movie back in the day, Rebel Without a Cause. I don't have a reason, I'm just rebellious.

I'm just looking for something to rebel against. But this rebellion can take the place of everything and anything except that which they personally believe to be true and right. They're proud of their rebelliousness. And in some cases, I've seen go as far as claiming religious authority for doing so. You know, brethren, the irony of that is that in their rebellion, they're rebelling against the very instructions that God provided through His servants to us.

Places like 1 Peter 2, Titus 3, Romans 13, Hebrews 13. And in doing so, brethren, rebelling against the very God who inspired it. The issue is this. Rebellion at its core disrespects all sources of authority. In fact, the definition I found online said it's the unwillingness to be ruled by any other source but self. Satan is the author of rebellion. He's the original rebel. It's his nature, it's the fruit of his work, and it's the temptation for personal power and authority that is one of the primary methods by which he turns people against all forms of authority in their lives. Satan offered Christ this opportunity to be the captain of his own vessel, to determine his own path, to make his own choices, to have autonomy. Now, all that would have been required for him to do that was to bow before Satan and to acknowledge him in the place of God.

But, brethren, Christ's response for us is beautiful. It's recorded for us in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 13, or at least the responses referencing Deuteronomy 6 and verse 13 and Deuteronomy 10, and he pointed Satan right back to the issues that Israel faced in the wilderness when they did that very thing, when they rebelled against God and they sought after other gods. And in doing that, and in directing them to that, he directs them toward the chastening that they received.

He also suggests and brings up the concept of the importance of maintaining that focus and not putting themselves into the place of God or putting other gods into his place either.

You know, as we consider these things, brethren, as we consider kind of how we intersect with these things going forward, as society shifts and as we enter these, you know, these last days, as we kind of consider how we interact with these things, brethren, I'm going to take the opportunity again this next week to fast for clarity, for understanding as to how we interact with authority in this way, how this impacts my life, how it impacts our own lives, and ultimately my own response for this. And I invite you to join me once again. I want to be clear I'm not declaring a fast. I'm not calling a fast. I'm simply inviting you this coming week to do the same, to really prayerfully consider how these sorts of things may be impacting our relationships with one another, our relationships with the body, our relationship with God, and to really consider that as we think about how we best navigate these issues going forward as we see this day approaching.

The reality is, you know, this isn't the peak of the difficulties. This is only the beginning.

This is only the beginning. And so understanding the proper, you know, connection and intersection point that we have with authority in our lives is critical. It's absolutely critical, and I would invite you to join me this coming week in fasting for clarity and in a path forward in that regard as we see the day approaching. All right, brethren, we have opportunity