This Sunday marks the third week of our series, Jesus Wins. As we move deeper into our series to establish a sound context for spiritual warfare and our victory in Jesus, we come to questions surrounding the origins of evil and God’s response to Lucifer’s pride. Where did sin originate? Who is responsible for it? What possible relevance does sin’s origin have to you and me?
These are profound and necessary questions for every Christian to consider. Indeed, our culture asks these questions reportedly in the face of pain and misery.
See the following YouTube video of Dr. Ravi Zacharias answering a student’s question at a university forum. Just Google YouTube Ravi Zaharias “Who is responsible for evil?” to see this seven minute clip. It is a great set-up for Sunday’s message.
A quick review… Sermon #1 – “In the Beginning” – We saw that there is what the Hebrew call a “hard break” or a “full stop” at the end of Genesis 1:1. As we noted, this means that God’s perfect creation set forth in verse 1 is somehow radically altered before we get to verse 2. Somehow between verse 1 and verse 2 what was created perfect, as a function of the perfect One who created it, has become a shapeless void, or as the Hebrew describe it, “a wreck and a ruin.” So what happened? Sermon #2 – “The Son of the Morning” – Lucifer, the most glorious being God ever made (“the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty”), says in his heart, “I will make myself like the Most High.”(Isaiah 14:12-14) Both Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 explain the giant chasm that exists between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1. And so we examined in some detail, four elements of Lucifer’s proud rebellion against the Most High God.
But all of this begs a few questions: How did this happen? How did such wickedness find a home in Lucifer’s heart? Was it environmental? Was it the negative influence of the angelic court? Was it God Himself who placed in Lucifer this evil desire? Or, is there another answer? It’s to such questions that we turn our attention this week in a message entitled, “The First Fall”.
After last week’s message someone asked, “What Scriptural evidence is there to suggest that Lucifer was given other responsibilities besides ruler or king over God’s creation? You mentioned “prophet” and “priest”, but what biblical evidence is there to support such conjecture?” To which I replied, “Come next week.” As we will see in Ezekiel 28:11-19 this week, the sin of Lucifer was an abrogation of all three offices or roles – prophet, priest, and king. The sin of his heart causes him to violate each of these divinely ordained offices.
In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:
1. What was Diogenes’ relationship with Plato?
2. Consider the full meaning of verse 14 in other translations. (The Hebrew says, “You were anointed the cherub that covers…”)
3. What was the kaphor or the cover used in the tabernacle?
4. Whose office was responsible for the sprinkling of the blood on the cover?
5. What is the problem with traveling back to Genesis 3 for the answer to the question, “Where did evil come from?”
6. What does God mean in verse 16 when He says, “Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence and you sinned?
7. What was Lucifer’s “trade”?
8. How does I Timothy 3:1-6 relate to verse 18?
9. What is the correlation between I Timothy 3:6 and Lucifer’s sin?
10. What is the role of the prophet? How does Lucifer lose that function? (see verse 16)
11. What does it mean to say that God’s sentence on Lucifer has been passed, but not executed?
See you Sunday!
