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About Jesus Steve Sweetman The Politics Of God And The Bible Part 7 Satan
Visits Jesus Soon
after Jesus was anointed King of the Jews at His baptism He went into
the desert to prepare Himself for the days ahead by praying and fasting.
Unlike most national leaders, He didn't head off to Jerusalem
to be a guest on a popular talk show, or meet with other national
leaders. Instead, He had a
run in with satan who was figuring out what was going on.
Satan had to stop Jesus before things got out of hand, at least from
his point of view. There
are two things I'd like to point out concerning Jesus' interaction with
satan. The first is that in
each temptation satan had Scripture to back his point of view. Jesus
would then refute what satan said with another Scripture.
This was a battle over the proper understanding of the Bible, or
in this case, the Old Testament.
Most
nations have some kind of constitution or
document that sets forth how their nation should exist.
For example, the American Constitution is the foundation of
American society. Like the
battle between Jesus and satan over the original intent of the Old
Testament, the battle rages on in the courts, the halls of congress, and
the media, over the original intent of the American Constitution.
It's an ever-present tendency to redefine the original intension
of any document and make it mean something different than what it was
originally intended to mean. This is what was taking place between Jesus
and satan. This is also what
is taking place in the church today. Although many people fail to
recognize it, many church leaders are rethinking the original intent of
the Bible. What is known as
the "post-modern church" is doing just that.
I refuse to call a church a church when it has tampered with the
constitutional authority the church is based on. Despite
these attempts to redefine, update, and make the Bible mean something
different than what it was originally meant to mean, the Bible stands as
the constitutional authority for the Kingdom
of The second thing I'd like to point out concerning the
temptation of Jesus is found in Matthew 4:8.
Satan showed Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world and their
splendor". He offered
Jesus these kingdoms as if they belonged to him. In one sense of the
word the nations of the world did belong to satan.
He's called the prince of this world. (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11) Jesus
refused satan's offer. He
would not worship satan. Besides,
all these kingdoms would eventually be His anyway, along with their
splendor. (Revelation 21:24) The
Bible states God's will and plans for both the kingdom of men and the The
Invisible If
you study the New Testament you will notice that there are two aspects
to the While
on earth, Jesus demonstrated the reality of the invisible Soon
after Jesus was tested by satan in the desert He returned to I
lived in a suburb of Washington D. C. when Ronald Reagan gave his first
inaugural speech as President of the United States. It was one exciting and
exhilarating day. An actor
becomes President of the It
is extremely interesting to note that when Jesus read from Isaiah 61, He
stopped reading right in the middle of a sentence.
The last words Jesus read were, "to proclaim the year of the
Lord's favour". The
rest of the sentence that Jesus didn't read says, "and the day of
vengeance of our God". Why
didn't Jesus read the whole sentence?
Why didn't He read about God's vengeance?
The answer to this question tells us the nature of Jesus' earthly
ministry. His three year
earthly ministry was a demonstration of God's love, grace, and favour to
Israel, and ultimately to the world. As
John 3:17 states, "God did not send His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him".
Jesus didn't come to judge and condemn.
He will do that when He returns to earth a second time.
That's why Jesus didn't finish the sentence. Thy
Kingdom Come How
many times have we prayed what we've called "the Lord's
prayer"? De we
understand what we pray? Many
don't. The disciples were
told to pray, "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven". (Matthew 6:10) What
does this request mean? There
are two aspects to the
Jesus
prayed, "your kingdom come". Has God's kingdom fully come to
earth? The next phrase helps
answer this question. "Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven". God's will is
being done right now in heaven, but it isn't being done on earth.
That's why we are to make this request to God.
So, when we pray "thy kingdom come", we're asking God
to end this present age and have Jesus set up the visible Kingdom
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