Star Wars - The Real Deal

Star Wars

January 3, 2016

Isaiah 14:9-16

9 The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming;

it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you— all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones— all those who were kings over the nations.

10 They will all respond, they will say to you,

“You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.”

11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you.

12 How you have fallen from heaven, 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 the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. 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 realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. 16 Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate:

“Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble?”

Last week Julie and I caved in to the cultural phenomena that is sweeping our nation. We went to “Star Wars” (part seven). Neither one of us thought it lived up to the hype. It certainly didn’t justify the packed crowds and all the excitement – in my opinion. But a few things caught my attention.

I remember when the first Star Wars came out. It generated the same kind of sensationalism – and rightly so. The special effects were mind blowing. Those things that looked like flying motorcycle flying through the trees – wow! The space ships flying at warp speed through space was just awesome. We were all amazed at how they could do that. Were there really machines that could do that kind of thing? We didn’t know. Remember those big walking robots with the people up in the head making them walk and fight? MINDBLOWING!

That was seven movies back. There was no cutting edge technology and amazing special effects for this one. They had to bring back the original Hans Solo and Princess Leya to generate enthusiasm among the faithful fans and excitement at the box office. So I was a little disappointed. I enjoyed the date and spending time with my favorite girl – but the movie was average at best.

But, ya know, God can use the simplest and silliest things to teach us. And “Star Wars” had a few spiritual lessons in it. I was reminded of some spiritual truths. Some were pretty obvious. I’m sure you picked up on some. But there were four things I want to bring to your attention this morning. Here’s the first one. 1. We are at war. Sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we forget that there is a war going on among the stars right now – and we are the prize.

Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Luke 10:18

Jesus is the only one on earth who could say such a thing. Maybe some of the angels could say they saw Satan fall from heaven – but, certainly no human could. But God revealed to John that Satan didn’t go alone. John wrote,

“A great 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. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth…” Revelation 12:1-4

Do you understand that the ‘women’ represents the Church – the Bride of Christ? I won’t go into all the symbolism here but I want you to notice that the dragon swept a third of the ‘stars’ or ‘angels’ from heaven and flung them to earth. I believe those are Satan’s demons. They are here on earth. Some of us have experience literal confrontation with them at times. You don’t want anything to do with the ‘dark side’. It is evil and frightening. But I say this to let you know we are at war. We have an enemy. And he is evil.

That brings me to the second point. First, we are at war; Secondly, we have an enemy who is out to destroy us. Jesus said,