What Is Satan Up to Anyway?

I saw this video earlier this week.  I can't get the tune and words out of my head.  I don't think that we as a church have given enough consideration to the attacks of Satan, especially in his subtle lies.  Check out what Scripture has to say about his work in the CHURCH!

II Corinthians 11:12-15, "And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds."

Look specifically at who are called the servants of Satan.  Not demons in this verse.  Not the world.  Satan's servants claim to be apostles of Christ!  Satan places his servants in the local church community to spread his lies and masquerade as men and women full of knowledge.  They intimidate and impress with their appearance of having something that everyone else is missing.  They place special demands on the body that only the "real" christians can understand.  These servants of Satan can call themselves preachers, apostles, house church leaders, prophets, misunderstood, devout, and all kinds of other terms. They could be leaders or they may just be a part of the visible community.  Listen to what Paul says to the church at Colossae in Colossians 2:16-19, 23:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

How do we spot these servants of Satan?  Well are they connected to the head, that is Christ?  Do they spend more time talking about the fundamental elementary truths of the Gospel or more time giving convincing arguments and visions?  The subtlety of Satan is tremendous.  If we overlook it, we will be duped by it.  Don't ever think that just because someone leads a church, is in a church, or sounds spiritual means that they are.  Examine them thoroughly.  If they don't lead you to the truth of the Gospel, that for God's glory Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected, so we might move from death to life, then they are not from God.  And if they are not from God, they are certainly not neutral.

God's Glory Is His Power, Presence, and Praise

Glory is a strange word.  It has very little real significance in our every day usage.  I do not hear it very often in every day talk, so when I come to the scripture and see it everywhere it creates a conflict for me.  Several years ago in my personal study of John, I realized that Glory was more than an abstract concept, it was vital to understanding what Jesus was all about (John 1:14).  If we do not rightly understand the Glory of God we do not rightly understand Jesus or why He came.

Romans 1:23 informs us that the problem with man is that we have exchanged God's glory for images of man, birds, animals, and creeping things.  So at our core is a Glory problem, or as it is stated in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (fall short = lack).  We do not possess what we should about God, namely His glory.  And our fallen nature stems from this lack of Glory.  But what is this Glory?  Well Romans 1:20 says that His eternal power and divine nature should have been clearly perceived.  Trace the word Glory in the OT and when it refers to God, it was either a display of His power in miraculous ways or a manifestation of His presence to the people.  God's Glory is His power and presence on display!

What makes this even more amazing is that Jesus, called the Glory of God, is also described as being the power and presence of God on display.  Colossians 1:15-20 tells us that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus and that all of Creation came about and is sustained through Him.  Look at Hebrews 1:3, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."  Jesus is the radiance of God's glory, the imprint of His nature, and upholds the universe by the word of His power!  Glory is Power and Presence on display!

But God's Glory revealed demands acknowledgment.  This is the other use of the word Glory.  We give glory to God when we recognize His Glory.  By glory we mean praise.  In giving praise to God we are not giving Him something that He does not already possess, like a Christmas present.  Rather we are recognizing a truth that already exists.  We are joining with all creation to declare the mighty deeds of God (Psalm 19:1).  In fact, the only saving response to our recognition of the revelation of God's is to give praise to Him (Ephesians 1:11-14).  The Glory of God on display in Jesus moves us to give Glory to Him.

Pray For Your Family!

Some of you know my family or are my family so you'll understand how powerful these words are.  This was written in a Wednesday email by my Aunt Pat who lives in Texas.  Please pray great prayers for your families today!

Good morning! "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it"! Easy to say, very hard to do most of the time. We take on so much stuff of this world that we tend to forget that God is the Creator and Designer. He made all things and He is in control of all things. We hit rough spots and hard times and we try to take over because we don't like the way He is doing things, but we just have to step back and trust HIM. He knew you before you were even formed! He knows the number of hairs on your head! How awesome is that! He changes not! You must open your hands and empty yourself to Him! Give Him every detail of your life. As a parent, I know that is hard to do, but I can tell you that when I turned my children over to God and said "they are Yours, and I can not carry the burden any more", He took over and although there have been some rough spots from where I sit, I think my children have become pretty good adults. I know that Granny gave us to God on a daily basis. Both she and Daddy prayed for their family daily. I will never forget some of the sweetest things I ever heard from my sweet Daddy. Toward the end of his life, when I would call home, I would be talking to Mother and could hear Daddy in the background talking and saying names of family members. I asked her what he was talking about and she said, "oh, he's just praying." What a comfort. So, parents, pray for your children. Give them to God and trust Him!

Resurrection Implications

Does the resurrection of Jesus from the dead have any implications other than to verify the story of Jesus?  Yes!  It has implications for all of creation and it has special immediate implications for those who believe in it.

For All Creation


Romans 8 makes it very clear that all of creation is eagerly awaiting the day when God will make everything right at the revealing of His children (Romans 8:19-22).  All of the world - fish, animals, birds, plants, people, and on and on - are fully aware that we live in a world of futility.  That no matter how much we accumulate, no matter how good we are, no matter how long we live, we all end the same way, in death.  Death is the unmistakable sign of destruction for all of us.  It points to the fact that something in this life is seriously off, that it all must either be a sad, twisted joke or that it's all very broken and needs fixing.

And this is the power of the resurrection for all creation!  For Jesus to actually raise from the dead means that death no longer carries with it the same power.  It shows that death is defeatable, that it is all in fact broken but someone is fixing it.  And that someone is Jesus.  His victory over death signals to all the world that in fact something is being done and it gives power to His promise that He will return to finalize the change.  So for now, the implications for all creation of Jesus' resurrection is that He will make all things new (Revelation 21:5).

For Those Who Believe In It


But Romans 8 has something in particular to say to those who believe and trust in the power of the resurrection.  Paul states in Romans 8 that based on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 8:11) we no longer should trust in the things of our flesh but in the gift of the Holy Spirit.  But what does that mean?  It means that we have been saved to something much bigger than just existing as people that go to work, watch sports, eat food, and raise families.  It means that we have been saved to begin a new life of joining God on His mission of reconciliation.  Look at Paul unpack this in II Corinthians 5:14-21

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

The implications for those of us that believe is that we are new creations!  We have a mission to live.  We don't just exist in this world, we live with a purpose.  We join God in making all things new.  By the death and resurrection of Jesus we are declared to be the righteousness of God.  This gives us hope that we can actually see victory over futility in the world around us and that we have a message of hope to proclaim to the oppressed.

So if we claim to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, are we living like it?  Or are we content to say that we know that Jesus died for me and that's good enough?  Because if we end with the death of Jesus for our sins, we are not preaching the full Gospel.  Jesus also conquered death which tells us that death has no hold on those who have faith.  Trust in the power of His resurrection and get on board with God's mission of reconciliation in the world!

Celebrations, Cathedrals, and Cells

I am so thankful to those who have gone before us in the faith.  Men like Peter, Paul, John, Augustine, Justin Martyr, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and on and on.  Throughout every generation God has raised up men to call His people to follow after Him.  Even more amazing is the continuity of the message, that Jesus died for our sin and was resurrected so that we might move from death to life.  Glory to God for His unchanging nature and sovereign will!

But there is a great need in our day for repentance and reformation as well.  We have certainly not arrived at the final coming of the New Jerusalem and eagerly await our Bridegroom's arrival.  But until He comes, we continue to be purified as His bride.  And in that purification is the need for a reformation of church structure.

All around the world the reformation has already begun.  Churches in Asia, eastern Europe, Africa, and South America have already discovered the power of being gathered together by God's Holy Spirit.  My prayer is that God will continue to bring about this reformation of church structure to His Church in America.

One author, Wolfgang Simson, has referred to what I am talking about as "Cathedral style meetings".  I do not agree with all that Mr. Simson has to say, but on this point I find his analysis intriguing.  What we see in the New Testament and early church history are two distinct meetings in the church family.  There was an organic movement happening in the homes of the people.  This was the natural start of the church in Acts 2 and continuing on.  But also the church was gathered together in large groups for worship and teaching on a regular basis.  They often found themselves in synagogues, schools, amphitheaters, and the temple courts.  But each gathering had separate purposes, with the home based movement being the foundational gathering of the church.

With the rising of the Roman Catholic Church a new phenomena was begun, Cathedrals.  Cathedrals sought to bring together the large "Celebrations" and the small "Cells" into one meeting.  This structure has persisted to this day creating churches that are building, clergy, and program centered or as I say "centralized."  But the church is a movement of God scattered by the power of the Holy Spirit to advance the good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection!  The church is a messy, decentralized movement of believers witnessing about the Glory of God to the world in which we live.

I am not advocating the abandonment of all our buildings, structures, and responsibilities.  I AM advocating the rediscovering of a balance between celebration and cell.  Not a cathedral with a good small group program, but a true rediscovery of the necessary balance between the church gathered and scattered.  Many churches have already identified this necessary reform and have acted accordingly.  My prayer for us at Round Lake is that we will as well.  And in all things, may God be glorified through His people in whatever form He gathers them together!