The Gates of Hell AM Sermon 8/29/10

The Gates of Hell

There is a story told of a young black boy that grew up in the ghetto. This young boy had both parents but was very poor. His parents once scraped up enough money to buy him a new bicycle. Unfortunately that bicycle was stolen. The boy was enraged by the loss of his bicycle and went looking for the person that stole his bike. While looking for his bike he came upon a policeman. The policeman knew that this young boy was upset and would probably get beat up if he found the person that stole his bike. This policeman took this young boy under his wing and began to mentor him. He realized that this kid was in a rough neighborhood and needed to be able to defend himself if he were to make it. He took this boy to boxing lessons at a local gym and eventually that young boy grew up and became the heavyweight champion of the world known as Cassius Clay or Muhammad Ali.
This officer knew that this boy had to be prepared for what was ahead. Today I want to look at a time in the ministry of Jesus in which He had to prepare His disciples for what was ahead of them.
IN our story this morning we will encounter Jesus leaving the Sea of Galilee and traveling north to Caesarea Philippi. This would be an odd place for Jesus to travel and to understand this we need to lay down some background information.
We have to go back a 2000 years to the Canaanites. The area of Caesarea Philippi was once a place where the Canaanites practiced Baal worship and worshipped fertility gods. This area became world renowned for Baal worship and was considered evil by the Jews.

In the reign of King Jeroboam he built an altar here to Baal that angered God and lead the Israelites into apostasy.
Later on some 300 years before Christ Alexander the Great came through this area of Palestine and established the city of Paneus. Paneus would become Alexander’s center for the worship of the Greek god Pan. Pan is the god that was half man and half goat. He is always shown as having a goat’s face. This area would become the world headquarters for Pan worship. Pan would be adopted by many Roman legions as their god of choice and the one that they honored. Pan worship was evil, immoral, and was nothing like we could imagine. The Pan cult is where we get the words Pandamonium from and Panic. This type of worship was equated with wild and out of control behavior. Paneus was situated at the foot of Mount Hermon and it was here that the Jordan River started. The Jordan River sprang from a cave at the foot of Mount Hermon. The Greeks taught and believed that this cave was where Pan went back to the underworld. There was a large cliff that was near this cave and this cliff had many pagan idols carved into it.
In the time of Jesus Paneus was renamed and enlarged by Herod Philip. You may remember that the Herod of the times of baby Jesus was Herod the Great.
Herod the Great had three sons: Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip.
Herod the Great had already built a city on the Mediterranean coast called Caesarea to honor the Roman Caesar.
Now Philip wanted to honor Caesar by enlarging Paneus but also wanted to make a name for himself so he renamed Paneus – Caesarea Philippi.
Now Philip would add more evil to this place by building the first Temple to Caesar Augustus in the world. This Temple would be set to worship Caesar as a god.
Now in this place that Jesus is taking his young disciples you would find 14 idols to Baal and Asherah as well as the shrine to Pan and a Temple to Caesar Augustus.
This would be the last place that any Jew would want to go visit.
You could probably imagine the disciples parents telling them when they were young to stay away from Caesarea Philippi and now the Master is taking them there.
A few geographical names given to parts of Caesarea Philippi will help us make sense of this story. 1st of all the cave that the Jordan River sprang out of was called the Gates of Hell – or Gates of Hades- this is where the Greeks and Romans believed Pan would descend to the underworld from and come back.
It was in the winter that it was believed that Pan would return to the underworld through this cave and then the people would do unspeakable acts to bring the return of Pan in the Spring time.
This place just 28 miles north of Jesus home was the place believed by pagans where the underworld would be open to our world. This was the world headquarters for demon movement to and from Hell.
2nd the huge cliff with all of the pagan statues was called The Rock-
So if you were to go to Caesarea Philippi during the time of Jesus during the 1st century there were two geographical attractions that everyone knew and that was the Gates of Hell and the Rock.
So in our passage this morning we will witness Jesus take his apostles to this pagan location and give almost a type of graduation ceremony.

Matthew 16: 13-20
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

It is interesting that Jesus chooses this place to ask Simon Peter this important question.
Many people had ideas as to WHO Jesus was but Jesus wanted to know what Simon Peter believed about Him. Simon Peter’s response to Jesus is important because he is the leader of the group. He is probably the oldest of Jesus disciples because only He and Jesus had to pay the Temple tax. The others would look to Simon and his response to Jesus. I could imagine that they were in shock because of where they were. They were probably wondering what Jesus was trying to tell them.
There are two things that I want to focus on that you might find odd from this passage and that is the following:
1) The Church will be built upon the authority of the Apostles and their leadership.
2) The church will challenge the evil of the world. The church will not be a castle that is hiding from the world.

I) This passage shows us that the battle with Satan and the forces of darkness begins with a strong foundation of truth.
The church is built upon a foundation.
1st of all Jesus is the cornerstone of the Church. The Church is built upon an unmovable truth of Jesus Christ.
But Jesus prepared for His departure. He did not leave us here without direction but made provision for a foundation of truth to be laid. He gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and this passage goes back to the OT.
In Isaiah 22 we learn of an office of viceroy of Israel. In Isaiah we read of Shebna the steward of King Hezekiah and Shebna was evil and had to be replaced by Eliakim. This office is spoken of in the passage and the authority given by the king to this official.

Isaiah 22: 20-22
20 "Then it will come about in that day, That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 And I will clothe him with your tunic And tie your sash securely about him. I will entrust him with your authority, And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 "Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open.

In this passage we see the similarity in what is said to Eliakim and Peter. Peter will receive the keys to the kingdom of heaven and Eliakim will receive the keys to the kingdom of David. In the OT the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of David are used interchangeably.
There are times when both are used to mean the same thing.
Jesus is the true Davidic King and his viceroys or his people that will carry out his commands will be the Apostles.
We cannot overestimate how important the apostles were in the early Church and the growth of the Church.
Peter will literally take the keys entrusted to him and open up the way to the Church when he preaches the first sermon on Pentecost. Just 50 days after Jesus crucifixion we will witness Peter stand up and tell people how to be saved.
In Ephesians 2:20 we see that the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles.
In a sea of relativity and competing ideas the Church was birthed with apostolic authority. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3 that the apostles have the very words of Christ.
It will be the early Church that will look to the Apostle’s guidance to find an anchor in the storm.
For the Church to make it today in a world that has lost its path we must now more than ever turn to Apostolic authority.
How do we do this? How do we just like the earliest Christians turn to the Apostles? We must look to the Scriptures.
Our canonical books of the our NT were determined by their connection to an apostle. In other words, the first question that was used to help determine if a book should be in our NT was, “Was the book written by an apostle or sanctioned by an apostle?”
We must delve into our NT and turn to the Scripture for our answers.
In 1965 65 percent of Americans believed the Bible to be true and that it was the inspired word of God.
Today that number has dropped to 32 %. A loss of 30 percentage points in a little over 40 years. Why has this happened?
In 1992 Barna did a poll and found that 72 percent of young people between 18-30 did not believe in absolute truth in our country. We are living in a time when more and more people do not believe that there are certain non-negotiables when it comes to truth.
Something similar to this has happened in our nation’s history. America was founded originally by people fleeing Religious tyranny in Europe. Many came to be free to worship and some saw their work as bringing God’s just kingdom rule to this earth.
What you don’t hear that is in the early 1700’s many people had fallen away. Alcoholism was on the rise and church attendance was dropping.
In the mid 1700’s there came what was to be called the Great Awakening in which the Bible would take center stage. There was a call to return to Scriptural teaching and public teaching of the word. Christianity exploded in our country and right before our American Revolution some estimate that 85 percent of Americans regularly attended Church services.
This emphasis on the Bible fueled much of America’s desire for independence to form a country that could worship and practice Christianity as we please without outside governmental interference.
The only way this type of growth can happen again is the model we find in the Bible. We go back to the well spring. WE go back to the authoritative word that is attested to by Apostolic witness.
We get to know our Bibles and share that knowledge with others.
We quit compromising in our government institutions, schools, and businesses. We stand for a perfect standard of purity in doctrine and lifestyle.
We speak where the Scripture speaks and we only give godspeed to what can be proved in the Scripture.
We once again become the people of the book.

II) We have to wade into the fight
We cannot have a castle building mentality as Christians. We have to be willing to do whatever it takes to share the gospel with those that are lost and dying.
Jesus takes his apostles to Caesarea Philippi, the most pagan place you could go. He goes to a place that is well known for paganism to make his point.
This would have been unheard of in his time to go to such a place. Could you imagine what his disciples were thinking?
He tells them that they are taking the fight to Hell. We are not waiting in our cozy towns and awaiting Jesus to come and destroy the world, but we take up our cross and follow Him.
In the next passage after this in Matthew 16 – Jesus makes this point- going and facing evil will take some cross bearing. There will be pain. We will suffer some loss for the Cross of Christ.

John 15: 18-20
18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own ; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

Jesus makes it so perfectly clear that we are entering the battle zone. The hillside at Caesarea Philippi filled with pagan gods would be much like a pagan world that they would go into and teach the gospel. This rag-tag bunch would take the gospel even to the heart of this pagan empire and the world would never be the same again.
When you stand for what is right in a world that doesn’t want to hear the truth you are going to take criticism, pain, and you will suffer.
We are so blessed to live in a country that we can freely share our faith. It is not like that everywhere. Christians suffer for the cause of Christ everywhere in the world. One such place is our so called partner in our fight against terrorism, Pakistan. Not too long ago a young girl told a story of her family’s persecution in Pakistan. She tells of the story of a small and persecuted Christian community in a country that is officially Muslim.
She was poor and had to work for a rich Muslim boss. He tried repeatedly to convert her but she refused to convert to Islam. He beat her severly for this and her mother went to the man’s house to confront him about the beating.
This young girls mother asked the man for an explanation and he beat the mother also, poured gasoline on her and burned her to death. Stories like this happen everyday across the world. People so on fire for
Christ that they will die for that belief.
We are so blessed to have the change to be in a place that we can boldly proclaim the Word of God.
III. Are we willing to claim Christ? Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Son of the Living God and because of that he is declared to be a blessed man.
How many of us are willing to stand up and tell people that we believe in Jesus?
What about in company with non-believers? When bad jokes are told? Someone is cursing and taking his name in vain?
Someone is lost and they need to hear the truth that heals instead of a lie that kills?
One day we will meet risen Christ face to face. Will we be ashamed to look upon Him just like Peter was when Peter denied Him three times. The Scripture says that Jesus looked at Peter after Peter’s denial and Peter was crushed by what he had done.

Will we be ashamed because we are ashamed of Jesus. Are we willing to boldly proclaim the gospel just like many that came before us?

Jesus says
Matthew 10: 32-33
32 "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 "But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

Beneath Westminster Abbey is an old crypt which for centuries was used as the burial place of the early kings. It is related that one day some years ago a visitor who had wandered into this vault was locked in. He did not notice the doors swing together. The janitors were busy, and no one heard the muffled voice which began to cry from the crypt or the muffled blows which began to beat upon its oaken door. The afternoon passed away. What that imprisoned man suffered as it gradually grew upon him that he was buried alive, who can know?
At the usual hour the janitor made his evening round before closing the building for the night. The entombed man heard him as his footsteps came near, then retreated, came near again, then finally receding grew fainter and fainter, and died away at length in the distance. What imagination can conceive his agony! He redoubled his cries. He dashed his body wildly against the solid door.
Now he thought he heard the distant entrance doors creak on their hinges and the key pushed into the great iron lock. In a moment more the vast tomb would be closed for the night. Fortunately, before turning the key the janitor paused a moment and listened. He thought he heard dull blows, faint and far away -- a sound as of stifled, agonizing cries. He listened more intently. A horrible thought suggested itself to his mind: "Someone is locked in the crypt!" He hastened to the place, threw open the heavy oaken door, and held his lantern up to see. The buried man had fallen senseless upon the stone floor. He was rescued just in time to save his reason. How fearful to be locked in hell eternally!
We think that it would be horrible to be locked in that crypt and we think what a terrible feeling but what about those that will be locked in Hell for eternity?
I feel that Satan has lulled us into a slumber. Because of our great wealth and relatively tranquil lives it is easy to move into a castle mentality and not worry about this world.
Let us ask ourselves, If we saw that mountain full of pagan idols that day with Jesus what would have been our answer? Would we have taken up our cross?
Philip from Bethsaida – Imperial gate of Heiropolis. – He got it – He understood it. Peter – in Rome – he got it
We are in a battle, we are in a struggle that is more important that anything else we could imagine.
We cannot afford to be distracted any longer.
Our souls depend on it,
Our children’s souls depend on it
And I am sorry to say that our nation’s very existence may hang in the balance. Now is the time that we have to read the Bible the way it was written as a missionary document written to a church on the move for Christ.
We must look at our Gates of Hades and our Caesarea Philippis and be willing to take on the challenge.

We must go back to the strong hold of the Bible and its truth as God’s Living Word, and boldly Proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Holidays that Mean Much More AM Sermon 8/22/10

Our bibles are full of festivals and Holidays. Our Old Testaments and particularly the book of Leviticus has all kinds of rules for the holidays and how they were to be celebrated.
Jesus in explaining His ministry to the men on the road to Emmaus went to the OT to teach about his life and ministry.

Luke 24: 27
27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

All the Scriptures pointed forward to Christ and His coming. That means that the entire OT points forward to Jesus and His Ministry, Death, Burial, and Resurrection, and His Second Coming.
This morning I want to something that you might find odd but I want to preach the Gospel or Good News of Jesus from the Feasts of the Jews.
The Jews had Seven main feasts that are found in our canonical Old Testament books and can all be found in Leviticus. This morning I want to show you how all of these feasts have their fulfillment in Jesus and hopefully give you a greater appreciation of how God shaped history just for the coming of Jesus. These feasts found their fulfillment in Israel’s life but also looked forward to Jesus.

I.) Passover We all remember as children hearing the story of the 10th plague in Egypt of the death angel coming and killing the first born son of the home where the blood of the lamb was not applied to the doorposts.
1st Feast – Passover (Pesach) (Late March or Early April)- Feast that celebrates the liberation from Egypt and the passing over of the death angel with the 10th and final plague.
5 days before Passover- Choosing of the Lamb – Jesus enters Jerusalem- On the Jewish Month of Nisan on the 10th day, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on what many Christians call Palm Sunday. This was the day the Passover lambs were chosen.
5 days later the Lamb is killed – Jesus is crucified that day- Jesus was crucified on the day that Passover lambs were killed.

John 19:14 tells us that that as Jesus stood before Pilate; it was the day for the preparation of the Passover and it was about the 6th hour

1 Peter 1:18-19 “18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

“Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." [1 Cor. 5:7]

Application:
In the feast of Passover we find our true Passover lamb. Jesus was sinless and perfect. He was the unblemished lamb that was killed on our behalf.
In Isaiah 53 we learn that He was like a lamb led before the ones that would kill him without a word.
Passover tells us that Jesus the perfect Lamb of God died for our sins.

II. The second feast that we will look at is the Feast of Unleavened bread.
2nd Feast – Unleavened Bread – (Late March or Early April) Israelites plant grain in the ground and pray for God to bring the harvest. This would happen at the conclusion of Passover.
This feast began on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nisan and included two high Sabbaths and the Sabbath that Jesus was in the grave was a High Sabbath of rest and worship
On that feast Jesus was put into the grave just as the Jews planted the grain in the ground and prayed for a great harvest

John 12: 23-24 “23 And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone ; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Jesus makes it clear that part of His glorification is that He is to be planted in the ground like wheat. This is what this feast celebrated was the planting of wheat in the ground with a look forward to the harvest.
Jesus is the bread of life that comes down from Heaven and he will be planted in the tomb to be raised again and this raising will bring a great and glorious harvest of Christians.
Leaven to the Jews represented sin in that leaven would get into a whole lump and bring about a chemical change in that it was change the entire lump and make it unholy.
Sin in the camp was not tolerated in Moses’ time. God wanted his people to be holy and set apart.

Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 5:4-7
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

The leaven of sin can enter an assembly of a church, an individual, or a family and destroy it. Paul says to cast the immoral brother out of the assembly and that seems harsh to our modern ears but Paul knows how dangerous sin can be and what it can do to a flock.
Application:
Jesus is planted in the ground and is resurrected because of this going into the ground. This feast tells us that death is not final. There is something more.
Also, this feast tells us that because Jesus died for us we should now live holy lives and get rid of the leaven of sin. Sin has no place among God’s people and must be removed.

III. The next feast on the Jewish calendar was the feast of First-fruits.
3rd Feast – First fruits – (Late March or Early April) This feast celebrates the first fruits of the harvest in the Promised Land. They celebrated the Harvest that God brought forth.
This feast fell on the 17th day of Nisan and would fall on the first day after the High Sabbath that came after Passover. In other words it was the Sunday that came after the Friday that Jesus was crucified.
Jesus was the first fruits of those that rose from the dead. Jesus resurrection was an advanced sign of our resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:20,23
"But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept."..."For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming."

Jesus is the advanced sign of what is to come for all of us.
Application:
The gospel looks forward to the resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection looks forward to this time of when we will all be resurrected. Jesus is the harvest of the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead.

IV. Pentecost (Weeks) comes fifty days after the Passover Feast.
4th Feast – Pentecost (Weeks) (Mid to late May)– Celebration of the Law being given and late harvest – second harvest –
The Holy Spirit comes down on Pentecost and we compare this to Moses coming down after receiving the Law. When Moses comes down 3000 disobey, when Holy Spirit comes down 3000 obey.
The language used to describe the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles and the Upper Room would remind one of the description of Sinai and the fire and noise.
2nd harvest of those that obey – Jesus was the first fruits to come back from the dead but the Holy Spirit will come and make the new Christians at Pentecost the 2nd harvest that is to come.
Application:
Pentecost is about the giving of God’s Word and our obedience. God gives us His word and expects us to be obedient. Pentecost is the reversal of Israel’s disobedience. The Spirit has come as the down payment as to what is to come.
Our life in the Spirit begins now because of the work of Jesus on the cross. Pentecost= Obedience to Christ – God is putting it all back together again.
We as the Church are advanced signs to a lost and dying world that God is doing a mighty work and things are getting put back together again. We are beacons of obedience and hope something that people want to attach to and hope for.

THESE FOUR FEASTS MARK A TURNING POINT – THEY HAVE ALL BEEN FULFILLED BY PAST EVENTS BUT THE LAST THREE FEASTS ARE YET TO BE FULFILLED.
NOW WE WILL SHIFT TO HOW THESE FINAL FEASTS FIND THEIR FULFILLMENT IN FUTURE EVENTS OF HISTORY. GOD HAS BEEN FAITHFUL TO SUM UP ALL OF THESE OTHER FEASTS IN CHRIST AND WILL BE FAITHFUL TO THE SAME WITH THESE.

V. Feast of Trumpets- Jugdment
5th Feast – Trumpets (Rosh HaShahna) (Mid September) – Announcing Judgment and is announced with trumpet. Some scholars believe that there may be a connection with Jericho and Rosh HaShahna. The trumpet blasts echoed the judgment of the evil of the Canaanites and the beginning of the Conquest of the land. Rosh HaShahna ushered in a 10 day period of national repentance and purification looking forward to Yom Kippur. Rosh HaShahna was believed by some Rabbi’s to be the birth day of Adam and humanity. This day could possibly look forward to the rebirth of humanity in the New Heavens and the New Earth when God’s final judgment comes.
Second Coming of Christ will be announced with a Trumpet

I Corinthians 15: 51-52 “51 Behold, I tell you a mystery ; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet ; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

VI. The Day of Atonement – Day of Salvation
6th Feast – Yom Kippur- Day of Atonement (10 days after Rosh HaShahna) – Salvation- The High Priest would offer a propitiation on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant once per year. This would be the only time the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place of the Temple. This was the final day of the 10 days of repentance that began on Rosh Hashahna. Jews called this the Days of Awe because they believed that people’s lives were being decided in the law court of Heaven during this time. Your very eternal destiny hung in the balance.
The Hebrew writers ties in Yom Kippur with the Second Coming of Christ:

Hebrews 9: 24-28 “24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world ; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”

Jesus entered the true MOST HOLY PLACE of Heaven and offered an atonement for our sin. According to the book of Hebrews we find that the final atonement of salvation from sin will occur for those that eagerly await Him.
We will not actually receive this promised Salvation until He comes. The Yom Kippur for Christians happens at His coming and we are given final salvation.
Many people see only the present aspect of Salvation but there is a future aspect to this too. There is a sense that salvation is not culminated until we hear:
WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT!

VII. The last and final feast is the Feast of Tabernacles
7th Feast – Sukkot -Tabernacles-(5 days after Yom Kippur –early October) Promised land feast that celebrated the Land and the Inheritance and was a celebration. This was a joyous time that ended the time of Awe and Repentance. The Israelites would construct booths to stay in for seven days constructed of things like Palm branches.
The Christian fulfillment of this feast and time of celebration is the entering into Heaven –
The New Heavens and the New Earth. It will be a time of celebration, of resurrection, of victory. This will be the time of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Revelation 7 finds fulfillment to this feast in the people that overcome the tribulation that is to come for those that follow Jesus and persevere to the end.


Revelation 7:9-17 “9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands ; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, " Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures ; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, " Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen." 13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" 14 I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 "For this reason, they are before the throne of God ; and they serve Him day and night in His temple ; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. 16 "They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat ; 17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life ; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

In this passage we find the multitude holding Palm branches and also being TABERNACLED over by God. Also water is alluded to and this is a reference to the water ceremony from the pool of Siloam that marked the Feast of Tabernacles.
The lighting of the Temple Candlebras were a part of this feast that is a foreshadowing to the light of God’s presence.

Revelation 22: 5 “5 And there will no longer be any night ; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.”

Just as the pillar of fire illuminated the path of Israel in the Wilderness wandering, God will be our light in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Peter talks about the inheritance of the Christian as being Heaven.

1 Peter 1: 3-4 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,”

Conclusion:
IN these feasts we see the entire gospel and life of the Church wrapped up and fulfilled.
We learn that Jesus is the Lamb of God to take away our sins.
He died, was buried, and was resurrected as a first fruits for us to look forward to our own resurrection
The Spirit came and energized the start of the Church which is obedient to Christ and His Word
Christ will come again to Judge and Save, and there will be a great celebration.
In the ancient world there is a story that indicates a point I want to make. In 63 AD an earthquake leveled the city of Pompey. The earthquake was terrible and probably would have been a 9 on the richer scale. This earthquake was a warning of something to come. The Romans decided they would rebuild Pompey even greater. Public baths, gymnasium and a 20,000 seat theater. They rebuilt the entire city. Just seven years later at 1 pm the unthinkable happens.
Romans are there visiting Pompey maybe in the thousands, some sunning on the beach, others at work going through the normal walks of life. Many are taking a ciesta and are drinking wine in their villas, 70 gladiators are chained up in the theater getting ready for afternoon battle. Life is going on like normal and all the sudden a dormant volcano named Vesuvias erupts. It literally explodes and blows the top half of the mountain off. It had been dormant for years. The earthquake had been a natural warning sign of the seismic activity going on and the possible eruption to come. Pompey is frozen in time. People running for their lives are frozen in the lava and ash. One scene has a guard dog that was chained turned on its master and has already killed him out of fear. People have trampled one another in fear as they ran for their lives.
What do you take from this story? The entire Biblical Narrative is running to a conclusion.
WE are part of this story whether we want to admit or not. We are running a course that leads to a day of trumpet blasts, a day of destruction for those that are not prepared.



2 Peter 3: 3-4, and 10-13
3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming ? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat ! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
Peter tells us that it is much like those people at Pompey. They didn’t expect one day at 1pm to look up and have their entire world transformed into a time of terror and death.
The Lord’s Day is coming and we must be prepared. It can be a day of rejoicing or a day of destruction, horror, or eternal death.
This morning we have an opportunity to make a choice. Everyday we get up we make the choice to be converted to Christ by the life we live. We are to live in expectancy of His return. That is how this story ends, our King returns in Glory and in Him we will glorify and celebrate.
INVITATION

Crushing the Head of the Serpent AM Sermon 8/15/10

In churches around the globe you will hear many attributes of God described. You will hear that God is Merciful, God is Love, God is Faithful, and God is Truth
These are all accurate descriptions of God but there is one that we forget about and that is God as a Warrior.
This theme of God as a warrior is talked about in the OT as well as the NT but it is one that we don’t want to grapple with.
Many see the God of the OT as a vengeful God that called for warfare and bloodshed whereas the God of the NT is the God of Christ and is the God of love and mercy.
How do we reconcile this picture of God that calls for Harem warfare in the OT – Harem warfare is when one is told to destroy everything. How do we get our mind wrapped around this? How is this the same God as we find in the NT?
This question was grappled with in the NT times. Early in the history of the Church a heretic group called for dividing the God of the OT and NT into two different gods. They called the God of the OT the demiurge and the true God is the god of the NT. This is a false view and this morning I want to make a case that God’s role of a warrior continues to the NT times.
All of the OT was just a foreshadowing and looked forward to the true role of God as a warrior. God’s war is now more dangerous than ever.
This warfare of God is against Satan and the forces of darkness and it began in the Garden. Satan more than likely was an angel of God that fell from grace. He was an angel that rebelled. Some think he might have been put in charge of the garden and his jealousy over God’s new creatures drove him to trying to deceive them.
Whatever the reason was we know that God threw down the gauntlet with Satan in Genesis 3.
This passage is known as the Protoevangelion or the FIRST GOSPEL

Genesis 3: 14-15
14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field ; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life ; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed ; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

We know that God is predicting conflict and war between the descendants of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Ultimately this passage will find it fulfillment in Jesus.
Literally, Jesus was born of a woman- The Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus and Jesus did not have a fleshly father. He was literally the son of a woman only. Jesus would bring a crushing blow to Satan through the cross.
But I will propose this morning that through the wars and conflicts of Israel God gave us forewarning of the battle that is to come. These fleshly conflicts are put there to teach us a little about what is to come in the spiritual battle that Jesus is to bring.
I think this important to explore because many Christians don’t even realize that we are in a conflict now and it is more dangerous than any battle in the OT.
I heard about a fighter once who had only gone five rounds. He was already bloody and bruised. He fell into the ropes near his corner and the referee decided to give him a standing eight count. Standing there he turned and said to his manager, "Please throw in the towel!" And the manager said, "What do you mean throw in the towel? That guy hasn't laid a glove on you!" To which the fighter said, "Well, you need to start watching the referee because someone's beating the daylights out of me!"
We see the effects of sin on our World, we see sin crippling us in our walk with temptation after temptation. Just like this fighter we are being beaten up and there are people out there telling us to go on like normal because there is no fight going on.
To get a grip we must see God as a warrior and understand what that means for us.

I. God as Warrior for Israel

After God had victoriously rescued Israel from Egypt, Moses and the Israelites and praises to God:

Exodus 15: 2-3
2 "The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation ; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will extol Him. 3 "The LORD is a warrior ; The LORD is His name.

This song of praise clearly states that God is a warrior.
In the OT we see God go to war against Israel’s flesh and blood enemies.
God promises in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 28: 7
7 "The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways.

God promised Israel victory from all flesh and blood enemies.
We see this come true in the defeat of Jericho. Jericho was a very powerful city in the day of Joshua but we see Israel march around the walls seven times and the walls fall down.
God delivered this city into Israel’s hand. But soon after this we see at Ai Israel is defeated.
Ai was a city so small and weak that Israel could defeat them without God’s help. But they lose to Ai and are defeated because of the sin of Aachen. One Israelite had disobeyed and we see that God does not help them.
God’s help against Israel’s enemies comes with the condition of the holiness of God’s people. God calls Israel to be holy and He will be a warrior on the side of Israel.

II. Deborah and Barack –Foreshadow of the Battle to Come

To get a grip on this reality we need to turn back to the pages of the OT and look at two particular battles that foreshadow what we are dealing with.
The story is found in Judges chapter 4-
The historical setting is that Israel has now entered the Promised land with Joshua’s leadership and Joshua has died.
Israel is now lead by Judges that lead the people.
One of these judges is named Deborah.
Ehud the Judge has just died and Israel goes back into a cycle of sin. The book of Judges is all about Israel will be unfaithful, a neighbor will conquer them, they cry out to the Lord, the Lord sends a deliverer and they are delivered. And then the cycle starts all over again.
At this time in the Biblical narrative a king named Jabin of the Canaanites has taken over Israel. He has a commander named Sisera that is a great military leader.
The Canaanites have 900 chariots and seem invincible. A chariot in the ancient world is like a tank today in warfare. God raises up a new judge that is a prophetess named Deborah. Deborah takes God’s call to deliver Israel from Canaan. She calls on an Israeli military leader named Barack.
The irony of this story is that Deborah is ready to fight for the Lord and Barack is scared. Further irony is found in that Deborah’s name in Hebrew means Honeybee and Barack’s name means lightning bolt. In this story we have honeybee giving lightning bolt a pep talk.
Just as God promises, Israel defeats Sisera and the Canaanites and Sisera flees from Barack and the Israelite army.
It is here in the narrative that I would like to read to you the account of the Canaanite leader fleeing from the Israelites.

Judges 4: 17-22
17 Now Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18 Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid." And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19 He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink ; then she covered him. 20 He said to her, "Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, 'Is there anyone here ?' that you shall say, 'No.' " 21 But Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground ; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. 22 And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking." And he entered with her, and behold Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple.

There are some amazing facts about this text that you need to consider this morning and it goes back to God’s promise in Genesis 3:15
Remember that passage we read earlier that stated that the head of the serpent would be crushed by the seed of the woman.
Many Jews in Jesus time saw this passage as a type of that promise. In other words this story foreshadows the victory of Jesus.
You may wonder how so let’s consider some facts from Judges.
Sisera, the commander killed by Jael in this story name means Snake. Literally in Hebrew he is named a snake or serpent.
The woman Jael’s name means JEHOVAH IS GOD
SISERA SHOULD HAVE KNOWN HE WAS IN TROUBLE WHEN HE ENTERED THE TENT OF A WOMAN NAME JEHOVAH IS GOD.
So in this story your literally have a ‘Jehovah is God’ crushing the head of a Snake.
This story is looking forward to a greater battle that is to come. God’s ultimate purpose was to take the battle right to the source of the problem.
We further see the foreshadowing of the NT in Judges 5.
Judges 5 is the song of Deborah and Barack. They sing a song of jubilant victory and if you listen closely you will hear echoes of words spoken to someone in our New Testament.

Judges 5: 24-27
24 "Most blessed of women is Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite ; Most blessed is she of women in the tent. 25 "He asked for water and she gave him milk ; In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds. 26 "She reached out her hand for the tent peg, And her right hand for the workmen's hammer. Then she struck Sisera, she smashed his head ; And she shattered and pierced his temple. 27 "Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay ; Between her feet he bowed, he fell ; Where he bowed, there he fell dead.


It is fascinating to look at this passage and see where Sisera’s head is smashed but also the words spoken to Jael
Most Blessed of Women is Jael
We will hear this statement spoken to another woman. A woman to which this story is looking forward to.
In the story of Mary visiting Elizabeth, Elizabeth in the Greek text quotes the Septuagint translation of this work by telling Mary,

Luke 1: 42:
Blessed are you among women

In this passage we see that Mary is blessed because she will carry the seed of God – She is the woman that is prophesied about in Genesis 3:15.
Just as Jael crushed the head of the snake, the seed of Mary will bring a crushing blow against Satan.

III. War of the NT
The war that God waged against the flesh and blood enemies of Israel in the OT is now going against the very root of evil.
Our enemies are different now.

3 things that we can take from this idea of spiritual warfare:

1) Realizing that we are in a battle.
Just like the boxer that was told that the man had not laid a glove on him we must realize what we are up against.

Ephesians 6: 10 -12
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Paul makes it clear that this battle is being fought against the Devil and this fight is not against fleshly powers but are spiritual forces of darkness or wickedness.
This battle is far more serious and far more dangerous than any battle that took place in the OT.
Now this battle is going right to the source of evil and that is Satan.
Jesus’ healing and ministry were works to destroy Satan.
1 John tells us that Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan. That was his sole purpose in his ministry and life was to destroy the work of Satan. Satan has set up a kingdom that is in opposition to God and it is at war with God and the Gospel.
In Luke the 10th chapter we see this battle against Satan taking place in the lives of the Apostles. Jesus sends 72 disciples out to minister to the region of Galilee.
In this passage they have gone out as sheep among wolves, they are going into some of the most pagan regions of Galilee to minister and it will be dangerous work. They return in joy of what God has done.

Luke 10: 17-20
17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." 18 And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. 20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

The casting out of demons is a direct war taken against Satan, Jesus speaks of seeing Satan cast down because of their work. Whenever the Gospel is preached and people have their name recorded in Heaven it is defeating blow to Satan.
Some claim that this spiritual battle with Satan ended in the 1st century with the death of the last apostle but this is a false assumption. Paul predicts that the demonic will remain active after the first century.
In 1 Timothy 4 he makes this very clear.

1 Timothy 4:1
1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

The Holy Spirit told Paul that in later times, that means later in the future after Paul’s time, there will be a great apostasy or a falling away from truth. This tells us that when one battles against false teaching they are battling the demonic. It is the demonic forces of Satan that mislead people through false doctrine. People have always said that the most dangerous type of falsehood is one that is mixed with a little truth and this is true in our time as well.
We must remember that we are in this battle and this is real as any war of our time of Biblical times.
At stake is truth and the souls of people.

2) The cross of Jesus is the ultimate victory.
In the Garden we see Jesus tell Peter to put his sword away, this victory will be different. Jesus’ cross will be the method that God uses to disarm the evil forces of Satan.

Colossians 2: 14-15
14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him

Jesus disarmed these principalities and powers that we are up against by the power of His cross.
In the Greek Orthodox tradition, the day after Easter was devoted to telling jokes. . . .
They felt they were imitating the cosmic joke that God pulled on Satan in the Resurrection. Satan thought he had won, and was smug in his victory, smiling to himself, having the last word. So he thought. Then God raised Jesus from the dead, and life and salvation became the last words.
The cross of Christ is the power of God-

1 Corinthians 1: 18
18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

It is the cross that is victorious over Satan and it is no mystery that God has commanded us to take up our own cross and follow Jesus.

3) Enlisted for battle
In Philippians chapter 2 Paul calls Epaproditus his fellow Soldier
We are to have the stance of a soldier called to duty. Our Christian service takes precedence in every situation. Whether at work, at home or wherever we are we must see our service for Christ from a military point of view. deriliction of duty is something frowned upon for a soldier in service. We are soldiers in wartime, no less than Deborah, or Barack, or Joshua, King David – we are in God’s service against Satan.
Paul makes this clear in 2 Timothy 2

2 Timothy 2: 2-4
2 The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier

Conclusion: There is a story of a traveling Circus in Eastern Europe many years ago.
The story is told that right before the opening night of the circus a fire broke out outside the city and was raging in the forest and the winds were sweeping it toward the city. A clown from the circus was already dressed up for that night’s performance and quickly ran to the city to warn the townspeople.
The people saw the clown and did not take him serious. They thought he had lost his mind and just laughed off the guy and thought it was part of the act.
Eventually the city was engulfed in flames and many people were killed because they did not take the clown serious.
The same is true for our own day and time. People no longer take religion or Christianity serious. They see it as a type of joke and preachers as someone not to take serious. They are self-reliant and distracted by life and its pleasures and don’t see the fire raging.
The fire raging for us is the reality that Satan is like a roaring lion looking to devour us and will do whatever it takes to win the battle.
Paul warns us that we have to be like soldiers. We have to get rid of what is distracting us and get in the battle.
Are you in the battle this morning?
Do you take this spiritual battle serious?
Look at your life, your children, grandchildren, do they take it serious? Are winning this spiritual battle in our own lives, in our families lives?
Get in the battle.