Pastoral Letter 153
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and Peace to you all.
Sadly, there was another strong earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, causing mor destruction and havoc in the area. Thousands of people are without shelter, food, clothing and necessities. Many are spending the cold nights in their cars, trying to find a safe place. It is so painful to see people on the streets and some finding shelters in churches and schools. Even we have some who have been in earthquake zone, who were visiting families and now have decided to stay with their families instead of returning home.
One year ago, on Friday 24 2023 Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation. The invasion has caused tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and started Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
It’s the 75th day of the Artsakh blockade and people are struggling in the cold winter to find the means to survive with heavy snow falling and all kinds of shortage.
Our hearts go out for the victims of the devastating earthquake, the people of Ukraine, the resilient people of Artsakh and those who are suffering.
Last Wednesday a small of group from the Lower North Shore Zone Uniting Churches came together in our church for Ash Wednesday Service to mark the start of 2023 Lent. The season of Lent is known as a time of self-examination, self-discipline, fasting and prayer. We had time to pray for the earthquake victims, suffering people of Ukraine and Artsakh. Let’s continue to pray seeking God’s help.
This Friday 3 March 10:30 am the World Day of Prayer will be held here, at St. Andrew’s. The program is prepared by the women of Taiwan. Everyone is welcomed.
Sunday 19 March we will join the Willoughby Armenian Evangelical Uniting Church for the AMAA Sunday bilingual Worship Service with overseas guests. I am glad to let you know that the following Sunday 26 March the guests will worship here at Longueville, with some people from the Armenian community.
If you will not be able to join us for worship tomorrow, please light a candle and worship with us from home following the attached Order of Service.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let me know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
Attached you will find three prayers for the earthquake that we are going to pray on Sunday.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the victims of the devastating earthquake of Türkiye and Syria.
- Pray for the people of Ukraine.
- Pray for the people of Artsakh, men, women, young, old and children.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who are unwell and struggling with different kinds of medical issues.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
- Pray for our church services and activities, as we are back to our normal programs.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
Temptation Vs. Temptation
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7 – Matthew 4:1-11
If we look around, we will see that we live in a fallen world, under the siege of the evil and the powers of darkness and in threat of temptations and attacks, which we face all the days of our lives. If we wish to live well, it is important that we try to understand how the evil operates and not be unaware of its tricks and scams. We must also learn how to overcome the temptations of the evil. To do this, we need to turn our attention to the word of God, who teaches us important truths and lessons to face our challenges.
We find in the Bible two significant and important temptations. The first temptation took place in the Garden of Eden, were Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil and how they fell.
The second temptation took place in the wilderness when the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), was tempted by the devil but was able to resist. Looking to Jesus’ temptation we can learn how to counter and overcome the temptations of the evil.
In order to do this, we should look into these two temptations and find that there are similarities and contrasts.
In both temptations Satan was present who tempted and how those tempted responded to its temptations and was the consequences and their implications for all mankind.
Firstly, let’s look at Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
When Adam and Eve were tempted, they were in a situation of abundance and comfort in the Garden of Eden, where God had provided abundantly for them. But they failed and they surrendered to the temptation of the evil. They sinned against God and their fellowship with God was disrupted. God pronounced judgement against them, and they were expelled from the Garden of Eden.
The consequences were adverse and bad, not only for them but also for all mankind. As a result of their sins, we are now living in a fallen and corrupt world where mankind, usually tempted having the desires of the flesh, even when we can recognise it is damaging to our lives.
Secondly, Jesus Christ in the wilderness.
There we see that although the Jesus was in the discomfort of the wilderness and was hungry, having fasted forty days, yet He was able to overcome all the temptations that came upon Him from the devil. He was ready to go all the way to become victorious and that He did by His death on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins. He overcame Satan and the forces of darkness and opened the way giving us the chance to reconcile with God and receive the salvation, which is possible through His death and resurrection.
It is clear to us that Satan has its own ways and tricks to tempt us convincing to make bad choices and go after those things that seem desirable to us. As in Adam and Eves case, when they took the forbidden fruit, they felt that the fruit was good and desirable. Satan is always ready to attack on us, sometimes using tricks and making us desire to choose the wrong instead of the right. But we need to be alert and choose wisely.
Satan attacks in many ways and areas.
1. Casting Doubt and Confusion on the Word of God
In Adam’s and Eve’s case, we see that Satan tried to cast doubts and confusion in their minds. He said: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” trying to mislead the Word of God. It was totally different from what God had instructed, as recorded in Genesis 2:16, 17.
We see that God’s instructions to Adam and Eve were that they could eat from any tree of the Garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is very different from, “You shall not eat from any tree”. Satan wanted to confuse them and make them to doubt.
Today, casting doubts, confusion and distortion of the truth of the Scriptures is a very major area of attack which the evil and the powers of darkness in many forms seek to attack us. Once we start doubting, our daily faithful walk with God will be threatened. As Christians, the basis and foundation of our lives and actions are linked to our understanding of what God has revealed to us.
It is very important for us to be clear and accurate about what the Scriptures reveals and teaches, so that in whatever form the powers of darkness may try to confuse or disturb us, we will not be easily shaken.
If we reflected on the first temptation faced by Jesus Christ, we see that there is similarity
“If You are the Son of God…” – Satan starts with the first word is “If”.
Interestingly in Matthew 3, in the context of the baptism of the Jesus, the Father declared: “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Immediately after we see Satan asking the question: “If You are the Son of God”, trying to shake His confidence. And this is similar to what took place in the Garden of Eden. When we face hunger, difficulties and tempting situations we have a sense of lack. During such times, we need to be alert and careful. We may think it is understandable to have such thoughts during such times. However, we must be aware that this is a trick of the evil.
2. Contradicting Directly What God Has Said
We see a progression in the attacks of the evil. Once successful in casting doubts and confusion regarding the word of God, went to the next step and that is to contradict directly what God has said.
God had instructed Adam and Eve that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. Satan, however, told Eve: “You surely shall not die”. This is a direct contradiction to what God had said. Satan’s intention was not just to confuse Eve, but the goal was to make them disobedient by eating from the forbidden tree.
We may think what we are considering here is not applicable to us because we are very clear about the authority of the Scriptures, and we do acknowledge the truth it teaches. However, these things can take place and Satan can tempt us. This is a serious matter when we are tempted to misapply the Scriptures to justify wrong actions. We should be careful because evil, can quote the Scriptures to justify wrong actions.
Sometimes, the evil may seek to kill us and destroy us in the literal and physical sense just like when he tempted the Lord Jesus to throw Himself down. His intention was to cause Him to die but at the same time he was telling the Lord Jesus: “You will not die.”
The evil does seek to destroy the lives of God’s people in this way. He may tempt us to do things that may result in death. He may push us in a certain direction seeking to destroy us or may tempt us to do things that are dangerous that may result in our death. It comes in different forms and shapes.
We need to be aware that this is one of the tactics of the evil and we must be careful especially when thoughts enter our minds urging us to do foolish and dangerous things.
When Adam and Eve conceded to the temptation of Satan, they came under his bondage. Partaking of the fruit may appear nice and desirable but it resulted in spiritual death and bondage. If we give way to temptations of the evil, we are living according to the flesh and disobeying God, and we will reap corruption and move in the direction of spiritual bondage and death. Let us not be deceived by the evil into thinking it is alright and we will not die.
3. Casting Doubts on the Goodness of God
The evil was seeking to cast doubts on the goodness of God, claiming that God was withholding what was good from Adam and Eve, that is, disobedience to God was better for them. Satan told Eve God knew that if she ate the fruit, “your eyes will be opened and you will be like God”. However, God was withholding this from her, so disobeying God would be better for her.
We may think we are very clear that God is a good God, and we will never surrender to the temptation to doubt His goodness. In reality God’s children do surrender to this by the evil at some points in time in their lives. There are varying degrees of seriousness of failure in this area. In its more serious forms, our faith in God and confidence in Him can be shaken because we have real doubts about God’s goodness to us.
Generally, God’s children would affirm in their hearts that God is good and that He loves us. But, in various clever ways, the evil would proceed to attack us in ways we may not be very conscious of, causing us to begin to question the goodness of God and think that God is withholding good things from us.
In the third Temptation of the Lord Jesus, Satan offered attractive things outside God’s will.
Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me”. (Matt. 4:8, 9)
There is a certain direction in this temptation faced by the Lord Jesus which is similar to that found in Genesis 3:5.
Satan was trying to tell the Lord Jesus Christ: “I will give you many things, just worship me.”. In other words, it is as if Satan had good things to offer that the Lord Jesus was not getting from God the Father. The principle of operation here is along the line: “You worship me, it is better for you”.
The evil tries to tempt us in many different ways, along lines that are outside of God’s will, to do things that are clearly contrary to what God has revealed. Sometimes, it is through excess in things that in themselves may be alright but that is not how God wants us to use our time and energy, resulting in our moving further and further away from fellowship with God.
It is vital that we can say with deep conviction that we believe in a perfect God who loves us and desires the best for our lives, who will not withhold from us anything really good for us: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32) and “they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing” (Ps. 34:10). Paul says: “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim. 1:12).
Let us reflect in our lives and affirm that we believe in a perfect and good God. However difficult or unpleasant or however much we may be hesitant towards any particular issue or area relating to God’s instructions for our lives, it is important to bear in mind that God is a perfect God, He knows what is best and to submit willingly and joyfully.
We must realise that whenever we wander off from the instructions of God, we are surrendering to the evil. By working through the attractions in the world, by acting upon our flesh, the evil is always seeking to pull us away from God.
Let us recognise that the evil is behind the various temptations of our lives. He is plotting to bring about our downfall. If we wander and drift away from God’s instructions, it can never be better for us. It will destroy us. Many things may appear desirable and good, just like the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but it will be bitter in the end.
God grieves when we go astray and off track. He is our gracious and loving heavenly Father who wants to help us. He does not want Satan to take advantage of, control and destroy our lives.
He is reaching out to us. He is speaking to us.
Let us humbly cry out to Him for help and He will help us.
Let us do this as we move forward in our journey ahead in this season of Lent.
Amen!