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The Bright and Morning Star

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:16-17).

Someone in my congregation printed and posted signs on a door into the building. He meant to say "do no not let Satan in the building" but he left out a letter and it read "Don't let Stan in the building." It did bring up the question; how would we know if Satan or his children were in the building? In the book Art of War, by Sun Tzu, it is written that victory comes when we know ourselves and our enemy. This sound strategic advice proven throughout the centuries is good for Christians, victory comes as we know our identity in Christ and as we know our enemy. The Bible tells us that we have three enemies and Satan is one. He has been given many names, one is Lucifer, which comes from the Latin translation of helel from Hebrew (Isaiah 14:12). In Hebrew helel means a shining one but is often translated as morning star which is what Jesus is referred to. Lucifer is also a proper name that was common until the 4th century when the Latin Vulgate applied the name to Satan. To add to the confusion lucifer also means "light bearer" and this name has been given to Satan. The true nature of Satan is that he is a masquerader of light. Morning star and light bearer are both names given to Satan but Jesus is the true bearer of light and he is the bright and morning star (John 8:12; 2 Peter 1:19, Rev.22:16).

Satan is a beautiful created being (Ezekiel 28), who is cast out of heaven because he wanted to be as God. He is the son of perdition, the great betrayer as he enters Judas to betray Jesus. He is the great thief who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy our souls. He is the tempter, deceiver, ruler and god of this world, and the great dragon. In Revelation 12 we see the great dragon Satan cast out of heaven, some believe a future event, more likely representing the victory we have through Christ. The Gospels of Luke and John mention Jesus speaking twice of Satan's fall from heaven. "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning", first spoken when the seventy disciples return as a testimony and witness of his power (Luke 10:18). Jesus speaks the second time of him after he predicts his own death "now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out" (John 12:31), his death is the blood sacrifice for all sin and Jesus is the Lamb of God. These two events recorded in the Gospels coincide with the events in Revelation 12, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death". TETELESTAI!

 To really see Satan and his children all we have to do is look at his true name, he is the devil or diabolos. Diabolos is the root of the English word devil, which is borrowed from an early Germanic borrowing of Latin diabolus, which is the Greek word diábolos. Devil means slanderer; a false accuser; unjustly criticizing to hurt and condemn to sever a relationship; literally someone who "casts through," i.e. making charges that bring down (destroy). Can we see Satan in the building? Pretenders of light, accusers, slanderers... Satan condemns, while there is no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1). Satan brings deathly sorrow while God gives true repentance without regret (2 Corinthians 7:10). Satan is not equal to God but the adversary of God, he is the accuser of the brethren who he seeks to destroy, and his sons are the "enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy" (1 Peter 5:8; Acts 13:10). Satan is a murderer and a liar from the beginning and there is no truth in him (John 8:44). No, Satan can not disguise himself as the truth, the truth is not in him and as Jesus said, "every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand" (Matthew 12:22). Satan deceives people by keeping them in darkness, he creates division. "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8). 

Satan is not an angel of light but disguises himself as one, "And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). We get a picture of who Satan is and how we can see his children "in the building", tare among the wheat. It is obvious, but we are told by Jesus we can not remove the tare as the roots are intertwined. However we can use the Word, as Jesus did against Satan. The word and the spirit is our offensive weapon. It tells us to love one another and to be in unity with each other, this is a great weapon against an accuser (John 13:35,17:20-23). Satan knows it and tries to make us an ineffective church. "By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother" (1 John 3:10). Righteousness and loving your brother is of God and being of God is abiding in him and abiding in him is drawing near to him and drawing near to him will cause the devil to flee. Godly Love is a true sign of who is righteous. 

How can we properly judge as only God knows our hearts? Only Godly discernment can. It seems Christians are quick to unjustly criticize and judge, we forget to look at the plank in our eye, to judge ourselves first, so we do not hear or see Jesus writing on the ground, we throw our stone. Maybe it is because we fear that we too might fall or that we are protecting ourselves and others from unrighteousness and sin. A misapplication of Psalm 1 perhaps, but Jesus had to deal with this in his time as the Pharisees questioned, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:13-17). That which we do not know or understand we seem to attack. Maybe we are afraid. Maybe we are having trouble discerning good from evil, we label the prostitutes evil and the gossipers good. We forget the humanity of Jesus, how he was tempted by Satan, how he overcame, and how he ate with sinners. There are many people hurting in the shadow of our steeple, will we show them the hope in us or tuck it away? Jesus is the true bearer of light and we should be a light, if he lives in us, into the darkness.

Casting Crowns - Does Anybody Hear Her



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