Easter Sunday
April 8, 2007
Morning Worship
Text: Luke 24:1-8
Subject: The Conflict between Jesus and satan
Title: The Ultimate Fighter: Part 3 in the Conflict Series
I want to begin this morning by talking about a feud that started towards the end of the Civil War in West Virginia and Kentucky. It began in January of 1865 when Harmon McCoy, who had joined the Union army, was found murdered, presumably by a group of men led by William Anderson Hatfield.
This is the beginning of decades of violence and conflict that we have fondly come to know as the Hatfield and McCoy Feud. The violence escalated years later over a sow and her pigs. The McCoys claimed that since the pig was on their property it must be their hog. The Hatfields countered the claim – because they could – and the matter was taken to court. The McCoys lost their claim in court because of the testimony of Bill Staton who was later murdered by two McCoy brothers.
The feud later intensified when Roseanna McCoy began an Affair with Johnse Hatfield. Johnse later abandoned Roseanna and married her cousin. This only stirred the fires of hatred. Two years later Ellison Hatfield was brutally murdered by three of Roseanna’s brothers who in turn were murdered as the vendetta reaches epidemic proportions. Eventually eight men were tried in West Virginia for the murders. Seven were given life sentences and the eighth was hanged in public, even though it was against the law, as a sign to the warring families to stop it. Both sides agreed to end the fighting in 1891.
Why am I telling you the story of the Hatfields and McCoys on Easter Morning? I just wanted to get you primed for battle as I describe to you am even greater conflict that has been taking place for longer than we can imagine. It is the feud between a righteous Savior and a prideful angel – between Jesus and satan.
As I have shared with you in my last two sermons there is conflict going on in us and around us. But the conflict has its basis in the battle between good and evil.
Let’s look at how the fight has escalated.
I. THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLES. Isaiah 14:12-15
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.£
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit.
The greatest conflict of all began with the pride of a created being who wanted to be greater than the One who created him. And Jesus was right there when it happened. Luke 10:17-19, “17The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 18He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you…” Don’t you think that satan is smart enough to realize that there is nothing more that he can do to God. He gave it his best shot and nothing came of it – except that he lost his place of authority in heaven. So his next option is to oppress the children of God. Job 1:6-12, “6 One day the angels£ came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
9“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. The story from Job sets the pattern of how the enemy operates against all who belong to God. Satan brought sin into the world when Adam sinned in the garden. That sin brought death and destruction, and satan continues to fight against God by attacking His servants.
II. THE CONTINUATION OF TROUBLES. Do you know that satan knows the Bible? As the prophets began to speak from God the prophecies concerning a Messiah, the very Son of God, coming to earth to save people from satan’s work – sin – don’t you think he took notice? He was ready to defeat God’s plan from the very beginning.
A. At the birth of Jesus - 1A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
B. At the temptation of Jesus. Luke 4, “3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to..” “9If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” satan was trying to convince Jesus to circumvent the cross
C. In the ministry of Jesus. Matthew 16, “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!”
23Jesus 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.” John 13:2, “2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.
D. At the death of Jesus. As Jesus was tried and falsely convicted I don’t have any doubt that satan was involved in every aspect administering as much injustice as he could muster. With the religious leaders… with the Roman soldiers… with the crowd… “crucify Him…” I’m sure that satan thought that if he couldn’t defeat God personally, he would defeat Him by defeating His Son.
III. THE CONCLUSION OF TROUBLES. We know the rest of the story. What satan saw as God’s defeat turned out to be the greatest victory for mankind. Luke 24, “1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen…” John 14, “1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, £I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
So is the conflict over? Hardly! Satan continues to waver between trying to defeat the Almighty God and taking out his wrath on God’s people. The greatest feud of all time continues daily in the battles that take place in the inner man until you are saved, and that battle that continues to rage against you – from the world – until Jesus returns.
Let me ask – do you sense the conflict inside of you? Do you know that all is not right between you and God? Jesus made a way for that inner conflict to be turn into inner peace. And that’s by simply relinquishing your life into His control and trusting in Him and Him alone to save you. Yes, that requires the painful admission that you aren’t good enough to earn your way to heaven. Yes, it means confessing that you are a sinner. And yes, it requires asking Jesus to be the Lord of your life.
Does all the bad go away then? Unfortunately no! When you accept the victory of the cross and the resurrection satan blows his stack and he will come after you to try to bring you back to his way of thinking. He knows that he cannot win over God, but he will make life as miserable as we allow him to. But as we place our faith totally in the risen Savior the conflict is no longer ours, but His.
“We are overcomers by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our Testimony.”
“We’ve had our garments washed clean by the blood of the Lamb.”
“We’re headed for a wedding party”
We Win!
