‘The devil… the prowde spirite … cannot endure to be mocked.” Saint Thomas More

          Those who remember the old Flip Wilson TV show will recall one of Flip’s characters, Geraldine (Flip in women’s clothing), who was mischievous and prone to doing naughty things. When called out, she would always say in a lilting voice, “the devil made me do it.” It was funny and Flip also featured the Reverend Leroy of the Church of What’s Happening Now opposing Satan and his works. In one episode, Reverend Leroy confronted the Devil himself (played by Bobby Darin) and defeated the old serpent handily.

          Well, at this time of Halloween we see evidence of devils and demons and lots of attention paid to the world of sinister spirits. Maybe too much attention, at least too much if it masks the reality of Satan at work today. For the Devil is an active spirit, Saint Peter warned us, like a roaring lion seeking to bring down Christ’s followers (1 Peter 5:8-9). The same man Jesus warned Satan could sift him like wheat (Lk 22:31-34) later proclaimed such a warning to us.
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          When tempted in the desert, Jesus confronted and defeated Satan (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13), despite Satan’s attempts to confound the Lord with citations to the Bible.

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

In our small group we have been studying Genesis chapters 1-3. We have seen how Satan was permitted to be active even in the Garden of Eden, to lure Eve and Adam into willful disobedience to God, with disastrous consequences to mankind. Eve’s answer to God’s question, “What is this that you have done?” was, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Gen 3:13). In other words, the Devil made me do it.

          But there are some important things to remember about Satan, even as we acknowledge that he is active in our world and wishes us only evil things.
Consider,

1. Satan is a fallen angel (Jude 1:6), a created being not a deity, with only the capabilities and power God permits him to exercise. Satan has none of the attributes of God himself. He is not a god in opposition to God Almighty. He is more a direct opponent of the faithful angels and is in no way equal to God.
2.  Therefore, though Satan can move about the earth he is only able to be in one place working his mischief. For example, when Satan presents himself to God and obtains permission to trouble Job, he has been walking over the earth looking for trouble. He can only do what God suffers him to do. See Job 1:6-12, 2:1-10.
3. Satan has been defeated by Jesus, as foreshadowed from the beginning in Genesis 3. Though given license for a time to exercise limited power on earth, Satan will be completely defeated when Christ returns. See, e.g., Rev. 12:9, 20:2.
4. Thus, if we belong to Jesus, we have no need to fear Satan in any ultimate sense, even as we have to be on guard against his pernicious influence in our lives, his efforts to draw us into sinful deeds or to take away our confidence and joy in the Lord. Satan loves to whisper in a believer’s ear to undermine our hope. When we fail, Satan is at hand eager to tell us we’re no good, we’re not really Christians, we’re not really children of God. Don’t listen!
5. In popular literature and entertainment, Satan is often depicted as suave, sophisticate, appealing, wanting us to have the fun and pleasures God denies. This was essentially the appeal to Eve and Adam. Satan’s point of attack is on the truth of God, the trustworthiness of what God says (the Bible). We see this all the time. We see it in churches today that repudiate the clear teachings of scripture in favor of the mood of the culture today.
6. Satan always lies. As Jesus declared, Satan was a liar from the beginning (Jn 8:44).
7. Our attitude toward Satan needs to be balanced, not letting him terrify us or giving him too much sway, while also recognizing his reality and his menace. We defeat him in part by denying him the dignity and pride he wants, which well may have motivated him to lead a rebellion of angels against God.
8. We need to resist the devil. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) We need to put on the whole armor of God. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:10-13).

Pay no attention to the popular writers and entertainment merchants who like to glorify evil, and to depict Satan as powerful and able to defeat Christians (and Christian pastors and clergy, especially). Jesus has defeated Satan, and if we cling to Jesus, Satan has no power over us.

• Book of Common Prayer (p. 76) – We find four scripture verses that we call the “comfortable words.”
• Comfortable is not talking about material comfort, having a nice house, having the things we want. The sense of “comfortable” we have today is a 19th century usage.
• Derivation is mid-14th Century, "affording mental or spiritual comfort," from Anglo-French and Old French confortable "comforting; pleasant, agreeable," from conforter "to comfort, solace,” even from Latin to strengthen.
• Comfortable is “comfort” and “able.” Comfort in that sense talks about peace, assurance, security, freedom from guilt.
• First comes the statement by Jesus that all are who are heavy laden should come to him and he will give them rest. In context it says this (11:28-30):

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (ESV).

• We are weighed down by our sense of guilt, inadequacy, insufficient righteousness, and poor performance in the face of the holiness of God and his perfection.
• How do we know that is our burden? Every human being who has ever lived has felt that burden, however it may be expressed (see, e.g., Rom 1:18-32). Even the pagans understood, perhaps better than people today, that their lives, their conduct, their actions, their behavior, would not be considered righteous under the scrutiny of divine authority. They had no doubt that some thing, some one, some person or persons, some god or gods, ruled over them and had authority over them, and ultimately would hold them accountable. That is why they made sacrifices to whatever deities they worshiped. This is what Paul spoke to when he addressed the philosophers in Athens (Acts 17:22-34).
• This is what John Bunyan wrote about in The Pilgrim’s Progress:  

I dreamed, and behold I saw a man [Pilgrim] clothed in rags standing in a certain place, with his face [turned away] from his own house, a book in his hand [the Bible], and a great burden on his back [his sense of guilt]. I looked and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled: and not being able to contain himself any longer, he broke out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I do?” (written during a 12-year imprisonment for preaching without a license, 1660-1672).

• In the second verse Jesus says is that God loved the world, his creation, so much that he took steps to breach the gulf between us and him caused by mankind’s rebellion. He acted where we were impotent. He forgave us and took the initiative with us and for us by joining with us in a unique and inscrutable way through the incarnation. He so loved the world that he gave his only son, that is he gave something most precious, so that those who place their trust and faith in the son, in Christ Jesus, would not die forever but would have eternal life. There is tremendous power, hope, and joy in those few direct and simple words Jesus spoke.

        And though Archbishop Cranmer gave us these “comfortable words” in John 3:16, there are sobering words that follow and that really show us just how wonderful the “comfortable” words are (Jn 3:16-21):
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (ESV)

• And then we have one of the many statements from Saint Paul, in which he tells us the statement he is making is trustworthy and should be embraced by all of us. That statement is that Christ Jesus came to earth not to judge sinners, but to save sinners. The time for judgment will come in the future. But that was not Jesus purpose or function in coming to the earth. As he said when he read from Isaiah he had come to proclaim freedom, liberation from the yoke of the law.      
•  
• And finally, what could be more comforting, more “comfortable,” than what John the apostle wrote when he said if we sin, he might as well have said when we sin, we have an advocate with the father. We have a defense attorney when we stand in the dock. And that defense attorney is the perfect advocate, truly the only one who could be our advocate in that circumstance, Jesus Christ the righteous.

        And he doesn’t only defend us, he rescues us because, as John said, he is the propitiation for our sins. Now that’s a big word probably not seen much today except in the Bible. But it is a word pregnant with meaning and power. Some Bible translations call it something other than propitiation, something like sacrifice of redemption. And that’s a good way to put it. God is reconciled to us not by anything we do, or could do, but by the atonement, the propitiation, performed by Christ Jesus the righteous.

1. And when we put our faith and trust in Christ Jesus, that sacrifice, that propitiation, is transferred to our side of the ledger and we are redeemed. We are justified. God justifies us, not because of anything we do or possess, but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The vocabulary of the Bible talks about a declaration by God at the last judgment that we are acquitted because of Jesus (e.g., Rom 2:13, 3:30).     

• This is why the prophecy of Isaiah speaks of God’s people being “comforted” by the arrival of the Messiah:
• 40 1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  2  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.


• When we are called to the Lord’s Supper, the Prayer Book (75) contains these words, “Draw near with faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort.”

THE COMFORTABLE WORDS ARE WORDS GIVEN TO REASSURE US, TO STRENGTHEN US, TO GIVE US CONFIDENCE IN THE SALVATION WE HAVE THROUGH CHRIST JESUS, AND THROUGH HIM ALONE.

Why is there air?
Why are you here today? How can you be here, or anywhere?

Answer: Only because God creates and sustains his creation, and that includes you and me. Jesus was active in the creation and in sustaining what was made (John 1)

Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in [or by] him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, ...—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in [by] him all things hold together.

Hebrews
1:3 He [Jesus]is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,...10 And, “In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

So, what does this mean for us?
Do you live a life of practical atheism? Or do you live a life filled with the knowledge of God’s sustaining you and blessing you?

Col 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Col 3:23 Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men,

1 Cor 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Remember:
God created everything and he created you and me.
We belong to God.
That has significance in every minute of our daily life. God will never forget us and will sustain us if we follow him.
Is 49:15-16

 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.
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Jesus Does Everything Well
31 Again, leaving the region of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hand on him. 33 So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting, he touched his tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”). 35 Immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly. 36 He ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.
37 They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (CSB)

Why does Mark (and Mark alone) give us this miracle?
            The important thing, of course, is that one Gospel writer does record this miracle. Doubtless Jesus worked many miraculous “signs and wonders” not recorded in the Gospels. But this one does echo both Old Testament prophecy and the response Jesus gives to John the Baptist when John, in prison, starts to wonder whether Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah.

John the Baptist’s Doubt
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matt 11:2-6, ESV)

Why would that answer be meaningful to John the Baptist?
Isiaih 35: 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. (ESV)

Jesus’s miracles do at least 4 things:

1. Show his pity and mercy on those suffering, his compassion
2. Show his divine ability and power
3. Show his divine authority, validate his truth
4. Fulfill prophecy 

Jesus’s Miracles are performed in various ways. 

1. Sometimes by his words (e.g., calming the storm),
2. Sometimes at a distance (e.g., the Centurion’s servant),
3. Sometimes by touch (e.g., the raising of the widow’s son, the woman with the hemorrhage),
4. Sometimes with mud or spit (e.g., the man born blind, or this miracle).

What’s the point for us?

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” (Jn 3:1-2)
The miracle accounts help us to have confidence that Jesus is indeed divine, the son of God, a teacher with authority, and the one (and only one) who can save us by his own perfect righteousness applied to you and to me.

Jesus does what only God could do:
The Lord said to him [Moses], “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person deaf or mute, seeing or blind? I it not I, the Lord”? (Ex 4:11, CSB)

And this makes all the difference. Why is it so important that Jesus worked miracles, especially the greatest miracle of his Resurrection? A noted scholar on miracles of Jesus, Prof. Habermas explains,[1]
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Like other examples of religious or political faith, the disciples believed and followed their leader's teachings. But unlike all others, the disciples had more than just their beliefs - they had seen the resurrected Jesus. This is a critical distinction; Their faith was true precisely because of the resurrection…. unlike the world faiths, which rest on certain beliefs being true, the disciples had both heard unique teachings and seen the resurrected Jesus. Jesus was the only founder of a major world religion who had miracles reported of him in reliable sources within a few decades. But most of all he confirmed his message by rising from the dead.


[1] Gary R. Habermas, “Is The Transformation of Jesus’ Disciples Different From Other Religious Transformations?” in If God Made the Universe, Who Made God? (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2012), 173.

Do Beetles Have A Conscience?
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        Why is it, I wonder, that all people in all cultures have a sense of right and wrong, a sense of virtue, of moral obligation or duty? Only human beings have this sense, this conscience. Can the universal fact of human morality result from purely natural, mechanical, or chemical processes that produce such a phenomenon? Or to put it another way, if there is no God, and if this present reality is nothing more than biochemical and mechanical processes at work, would moral obligations make any sense?

          In the Darwinian model of reality, we are animal creatures whose only imperative is to live and reproduce (without purpose or teleology).  Our success in passing along our genes to one generation and to another and another is the only thing that matters. How can this explain the morality felt by all human beings? Where do we get this sense of virtue and our satisfaction from virtuous acts?

            I am briefly suggesting that our best explanation for this is theism. There are four aspects of moral reality to consider: moral facts, moral knowledge, moral transformation, and moral rationality (virtue and happiness fit together).

            What I am suggesting is that we begin by agreeing that people have a moral sense, and that they see things in terms of “right and wrong.” Generally, people respect virtue and are favorable toward virtuous actions. Yes, certain people, from a defective, antisocial personality, don’t see that, or don’t see it in a way most people would consider healthy and moral.  Those are exceptions. But as a rule, people are revulsed by suffering (even animal suffering). They have pity on those in distress, they come to the aid of people in trouble, they believe we ought not to lie, cheat, or steal, and they take their promises seriously.

          Most people do not fall into the cynicism and nihilism of Nietzsche and others like him in the world (remember, Nietzsche went insane). But if this world is it, and if we are nothing better than reptilian, there is no explanation for this. There is no reason for any animal, even the “human animal,” to have morals, to be virtuous, or to subordinate self-interest to any other cause. There would be no rational explanation for Horatius at the Bridge, the soldier who is willing to fall on a hand grenade, the person who risks his life to save a drowning stranger, the family that shares its meager food with others, or, yes, the neighbor who donates a kidney to a dying man. These things are what we mean by moral facts that call for an explanation, which I suggest naturalism cannot provide.

            On the second prong of the thought process, moral knowledge, how do we know anything about morality in the first place? Where does moral knowledge come from?  We have the fact of moral understanding as noted above, things we “know deep down.” We know of no purely naturalistic, biochemical or mechanical process that would produce such knowledge. Yes, our parents, teachers, and others impart these things to us. But if we look back far enough some original human beings first obtained this knowledge that is passed down the generations.  It is hard to see any nontheistic explanation for that.

            What about the process of moral transformation, that is, the sense we all have that we want and need to be better and do better and attain a state of moral uprightness, even moral perfection? Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography writes of his youthful attempt to live a morally perfect life.  He tried.  But soon things intruded. He felt the pull of impulses and desires that warred against his resolve, and he soon concluded he could not do it, at least not of his own will power and strength. I am not perfect and have never met a perfect person, yet I feel the desire to “be good” and more than good. If we are mere biochemical amalgamations there would be no reason for us to care about this. There’s no reason to think beetles care about this.

          But if we are beings made in the image of a creator and sustainer God, that would be a reasonable explanation for the pull of conscience. What we are looking for here is how to make sense of these phenomena. Human beings are valuable because they are made in the image of God, and our sense of right and wrong affirms this consciously or otherwise.

            Lastly, what about moral rationality, happiness, joy, and peace? That is, does virtue cohere with happiness and fulfillment? Sometimes the “right” thing and the desired thing will come into conflict. We want to steal that cookie, we want to cheat on our taxes, we want to tell a lie to escape shame or punishment, we want to seduce our neighbor’s attractive wife. Leaving aside the possible secular and legal repercussions of following such desires, what would make sense of foregoing giving in to the desire unless it would be our greater happiness, our better satisfaction, at knowing we did the right thing? The ancient philosophers taught that virtue produced satisfaction. From a naturalistic point of view, when the tension arises between caring about ourselves and caring about others, there is no reason not to indulge ourselves. But if there is a God, a good and loving God who assures the ultimate happiness and joy of those who do right, then it makes perfect sense.

            So, the cumulative weight of these moral considerations, I would humbly suggest, really gives us something to think about. It calls for serious reflection on the sources and reasons for our moral imperatives. For me such considerations lead to the conclusion the Christian God who creates us in his image, sustains us and draws us to himself makes the best explanation of these facts.  That in turn leads us to consider what that God says to us about being reconciled to him, in the face of our failure or inability to live up to the moral standards we perceive. The answer, the only answer, is, through faith in Jesus Christ and the sure hope of an eternal future in which we are transformed.
 

          During our worship service there is a place in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 76) that provides four scripture verses that we call the “comfortable words.” As the name implies, these words are there to comfort us, to ease our distress, to give us confidence and assurance. Why do we need that? How does a “comfortable word” provide it?

          First comes the statement by Jesus that all are who are heavy laden should come to him and he will give them rest. In context it says this (11:28-30):

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (ESV)

What is Jesus talking about? He is talking to all of us. We are all heavy laden and wearied. By what? Does he mean by our jobs? Our schoolwork? The pressures of life? Illness? No, not those things, but spiritual things.

          We are weighed down by our sense of guilt, inadequacy, insufficient righteousness, and poor performance in the face of the holiness of God and his perfection. How do we know that is our burden? Every human being who has ever lived has felt that burden, however it may be expressed (see, e.g., Rom 1:18-32). Even the pagans understood, perhaps better than people today, that their lives, their conduct, their actions, their behavior, would not be considered righteous under the scrutiny of divine authority. They had no doubt that some thing, some one, some person or persons, some god or gods, ruled over them and had authority over them, and ultimately would hold them accountable. That is why they made sacrifices to whatever deities they worshiped. This is what Paul spoke to when he addressed the philosophers in Athens (Acts 17:22-34, page 926).

This is what John Bunyan wrote about in The Pilgrim’s Progress:

I dreamed, and behold I saw a man [Pilgrim] clothed in rags standing in a certain place, with his face [turned away] from his own house, a book in his hand [the Bible], and a great burden on his back [his sense of guilt]. I looked and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled: and not being able to contain himself any longer, he broke out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I do?”

          In the second comfortable words verse Jesus says is that God loved the world, his creation, so much that he took steps to breach the gulf between us and him caused by mankind’s rebellion. He acted where we were impotent. He forgave us and took the initiative with us and for us by joining with us in a unique and inscrutable way through the incarnation. He so loved the world that he gave his only son, that is he gave something most precious, so that those who place their trust and faith in the son, in Christ Jesus, would not die forever but would have eternal life. There is tremendous power, hope, and joy in those few direct and simple words Jesus spoke.

          And though Archbishop Cranmer gave us these “comfortable words” in 1549 from John 3:16, there are sobering words that follow and that really show us just how wonderful the “comfortable” words are (Jn 3:16-21):

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (ESV)

          And then we have one of the many statements from Saint Paul, in which he tells us the statement he is making is trustworthy and should be embraced by all of us. That statement is that Christ Jesus came to earth not to judge sinners, but to save sinners. The time for judgment will come in the future. But that was not Jesus purpose or function in coming to the earth. As he said when he read from Isaiah he had come to proclaim freedom, liberation from the yoke of the law.       

And finally, what could be more comforting, more “comfortable,” than what John the apostle wrote when he said if we sin, he might as well have said when we sin, we have an advocate with the father. We have a defense attorney when we stand in the dock. And that defense attorney is the perfect advocate, truly the only one who could be our advocate in that circumstance, Jesus Christ the righteous.

          And he doesn’t only defend us, he rescues us because, as John said, he is the propitiation for our sins. Now that’s a big word probably not seen much today except in the Bible. But it is a word pregnant with meaning and power. Some Bible translations call it something other than propitiation, something like sacrifice of redemption. And that’s a good way to put it. God is reconciled to us not by anything we do, or could do, but by the atonement, the propitiation, performed by Christ Jesus the righteous.

          And when we put our faith and trust in Christ Jesus, that sacrifice, that propitiation, is transferred to our side of the ledger and we are redeemed. We are justified. God justifies us, not because of anything we do or possess, but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The vocabulary of the Bible talks about a declaration by God at the last judgment that we are acquitted because of Jesus (e.g., Rom 2:13, 3:30, pp. 940, 941). 
​       
          So that’s why we call these brief but pithy statements from the Bible comfortable words. Aren’t they comforting, friends, for people like you and me?