One of the watchwords of the twentieth century, especially the last ten years seems to be: have fun but don't get caught. So called safe sex is being banded around in our communities, schools and class rooms. Provided you use certain precautions you will be safe. Yes probably safe from pregnancy and aids. But casual sex is unsafe anyway because of the long term emotional damage it inflicts. Similarly, breaking the speed limit is OK provided you have got a radar detector or something that can mask your licence plate when the speed camera start to operate. But who are we fooling when excessive speed is one of the biggest killers on the road. Paul writing to Timothy had this to say: But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents...ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasures rather than the lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power ! What a fitting description of our generation, what a summary of what we see reported on the television and our newspapers.
The community in Foxton is reeling with
indignation at the brutal slaying of its 80 year old doctor and the raping of
his equally old sister, and its anger is directed and quite rightly against the
two young men who have been accused of such heartless brutalities. But the bottom line is as a community as a
society as a nation we cannot be absolved from blame for allowing the
attitudes, values, life style and eventual action of these young men to
progress to the point that it did.
What went wrong ? It is hard to be specific, but I believe as a
generation we have believed a lie.....and this lie is as old as this world the
same lie that Satan told to Eve : look what you are missing out Don't believe
in the constraint God is placing on you.
He is trying to cheat you out of the best you can get. Be free ! indulge yourselves. Worry about it
later. You will be all right. And with that we have thrown away all
constraints. Everything is OK provided
you are not caught. Don't let your
parents, your husband, your wife, your teacher, your boss or the IRD know what
you are doing. Cover up with some excuses
when they find out. Nobody else will
know.
It was reported that someone played a practical
joke once and sent 100 confidential telegrams (it will probably fax nowadays)
to the top executive of the day with the short curt message: Fly! All is
discovered ! To his amusement, 80 of
them left town the next day.
What is happening ? I believe this is part of the continuing
strategy Satan is using to overthrow all respect for godly values and authority
in our homes, in our schools and in our sciety.
If there is a vacuum of authority or even confusion of what is the
recognised authority, then we have anarchy, and chaos and disaster. Something
behind the tragedy in Somalia, Yugoslavia, and nearly in Russia.
The scriptures frequently talk about the
rulers, authorities, powers of evil of this dark world and spiritual forces of
evil in the heavenly realm. They exist
partly because of the rebellion of Satan against God, but partly because men
and women down through the ages have given them the authority to rule their
lives as they reject the rule of God .
How does the Christian fight back ?
First we must recognise we ourselves are
powerless against these heavenly powers and authorities.
Secondly we must recognise that Jesus has all authority.
First we must recognise we ourselves are
powerless against these heavenly powers and authorities.Secondly we must recognise that Jesus has all authority.
In Matt. 28:18
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me....;therefore go and make disciples of all nations...... When Jesus died on the cross he took all the grounds of accusation and control and power from these authorities; virtually robbing them of any hold they have over us.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me....;therefore go and make disciples of all nations...... When Jesus died on the cross he took all the grounds of accusation and control and power from these authorities; virtually robbing them of any hold they have over us.
We read this in Colossians 2:13
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
That is the good news. The heavenly powers and authorities have no
power over us as long as we do not yield ourselves to them and give back to
them the power that Jesus has taken away from them.
Someone has once said that if a stranger
comes to your home and sat down in your lounge and drank your coffee and watch
your television and you did nothing, then he will continue to be able to do
so. But the moment your recognise that
he has taken over your home and you do not like it, you can tell him to go and
he must, otherwise he becomes a trespassers and the police can be called to
evict him.
In the same way as long as we allow the
work of the enemy to continue in our lives, by the way we live, the books we
read, the video or TV or Films we watch, the music we listen to , the negative
and unforgiving spirit we harbour against others, the anger and hatred we build
up against those in our family and elsewhere, the lie and deceit we use to hide and protect ourselves from wrong
doing, then he will continue to defeat us and drive us to despair. And sooner or later, he will destroy us and
those that we love...... But if we own
Jesus as Lord, and give him the authority over our lives in every compartment,
we can give marching orders to the Enemy and he must go or bear consequence of
the full power and might of the king of kings and lord of lords. For most of us, we do need a lot of help and
support and prayer of our friends and our pastors as we take steps to get rid
of those unwanted guests, but we alone must exercise our will to give them the
marching orders.
Thirdly we must recognise that all earthly
authorities are established by God and we need to be submitted to these
authorities : 1 Peter 2:13 submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every
authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority,
or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend
those who do right....but authorities are not restricted to civil and political
authorities, because Peter went on to talk about slaves being submitted to
their masters 1 Peter 2:18, wives submitted to their husbands,1 Peter 3:1 and
in the same vein, young men submitted to those who are older.
In almost identical kind of exhortation,
Paul also ask children to be obedient to their parents. Often we feel that we
are lowering our status when we submit to a higher authority than us. We must fight for our rights; we must be
liberated, set free to do our own thing.
But this is not God's way. God
has instituted authorities to protect us, to bless us. And if we are to be under God's authority, we
must also learn to submit to those authorities he has appointed over us.
The centurion who begged Jesus to come to
heal his servant was not ashamed to confess that he was a man under
authority (Matt. 8:5ff) By the very fact that he was under
authority he was able to exercise that delegated authority over his soldiers.
In the same way, I am a teacher in my school, and I am under the authority of
the principal and therefore I have delegated authority over the students. The policeman have authority over us because
they are in turn under the authority of the police commissioner. The moment the police steps out from under
that authority, they no longer can enforce the law.
All of us are entrusted with some authority
somewhere, either at work, or at home and we have a God given responsibility to
bless and protect those under our care.
We are not to use our power and authority to gratify our egos but to
bring God's rule and his power and his blessing to those under our care. As parents we have a wonderful privilege to
bless our children and to train them up in a secure but disciplined frame work,
laying down clear guidelines and be consistent to carry it out. It is the first and most important place that
children learn to respect authority. And
I believe much of the break down in society began in the chaos and rebellion in
the home. At school I am continually having to deal with children who have
absolutely no respect for authority and who would deny what they are doing and
answer back when spoken to. For them it
was probably the normal pattern of behaviour.
Finally we need to learn to exercise that
authority that Jesus has given to every disciple of his.
Matt. 10:1 When he sent out his 12 disciples he gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness......To heal every disease and sickness. Wow! What authority!
Matt. 10:1 When he sent out his 12 disciples he gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness......To heal every disease and sickness. Wow! What authority!
Outline:
1. Break down in authority in the world
2. Recognition of the Authority of Jesus
1. Break down in authority in the world
2. Recognition of the Authority of Jesus
3.
Our delegated authority : in my name
4.
How to exercise that authority: submission to Jesus, his Word and his Spirit be responsible for those under our authority respect those in authority deny authority of those who usurp Jesus' authority speak from position of authority.
5. Footnote: authority or power ?
5. Footnote: authority or power ?
(Preached at LHB 10/10/93)
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