12/20/10 SS CLASS... OUTLINE: What To Do With An Unwanted Jesus?
OUTLINE
Mary chose not to ABORT HIM;
Joseph chose not to ABANDON HIM;
Herod tried to ASSASSINATE HIM;
some Jews tried to ANNIHILATE HIM;
priests and soldiers tried to ANNUL HIM;
Islam tried to ABROGATE HIM;
Christ-less societies tried to AVOID HIM;
anti-Christ cultures try to ABOLISH HIM.
(I follow this through history).
NOTES
SATAN HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO CIRCUMVENT THE CROSS AND EMPTY TOMB
God had promised to save sinful humanity by the sacrificial death of His Own Son, Jesus Christ. This is seen in the first Messianic prophecy of the Bible (Ge. 3:15). The theme flows clearly through the Old Testament. Jews understood it and Satan understood it would mean his defeat. From the very beginning Satan has tried to keep the Son of God from getting to the cross and from coming out of the empty tomb.
This is why there has always been an attack on the Jewish people. The violence against Jews has not always been understood by the people involved, but it has always been Satan's plan to keep Christ from His salvific work. Examples of this anti-Christ conspiracy are seen in Cain's killing Abel, Pharaoh's having the Hebrew male children killed by the midwives and Haman's intention to kill the Jews in the days of Esther.
This intent to negate Jesus shows up in the New Testament also.
ABORT HIM
Abortion has been practiced for at least 5000 years, both with herbs and surgery. It is reasonable that someone would have thought that Mary should have aborted the Baby. Mary was stunned by her encounter with the angel other people would not be convinced that the Child was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Lk. 1:26-35). It would have been easier to think about terminating the Child than telling Joseph and family and facing a suspicious society. In line with this thought is the fact that it was later told that Mary had been seduced by a Roman soldier and that the Child was the result of that relationship. This lie has persisted with non believers until this present time.
I am not saying Mary considered aborting the Child; I am saying it would have been an option in those days, it would have been something that some people would have considered.
ABANDON HIM
Being espoused or betrothed was a legally binding relationship, though it was not consummated with physical intimacy. Joseph and Mary were legally bound to each other, though they had not come together physically.
When Joseph heard Mary was with Child, he thought that she had been unfaithful, which would have given him the right to divorce her on grounds of adultery, resulting in Mary being stoned to death, according to Jewish law. He did not want to do this, so he was willing to simply end the relationship without giving specific reasons (Mt. 1:19-20). This would have resulted in Mary and the Child being abandoned and raising the Child under hostile circumstances.
ASSASSINATE HIM
When Herod, the Edomite king of Israel (under Roman authority), heard that a Jewish King was born, he sent his henchmen to kill all babies in Bethlehem under two years of age. Joseph, Mary and Jesus were living in a house at this time, and it is safe to say that Christ may have been as much as two years old. Though there were not large numbers of children in this demographic, it was a horrible act of State terrorism, for the purpose of assassinating Christ (Mt. 2:3-18).
ANNIHILATE HIM
There were several occasions that the enemies of Jesus wanted annihilate Him. This was directly undertaken by Satan, while Christ was in the wilderness (Mt. 4:5-6). Jesus was so physically depleted through this encounter that angels came to minister to Him after Satan left (Mt. 4:11). Sometimes Satan agitated citizens against Jesus, who tried to kill Him, either by stoning or casting Him to His death (Lk. 4:29-30; Jn. 8:59; 10:30-33, 39-40)
ANNUL HIM
Since Satan could not kill Christ before the cross and could not keep Christ from the cross, he tried to annul the impact of the atonement by getting people to deny that Christ was either dead or that He was risen from the dead. For fear that His message would influence the people, the Jewish leaders and the Roman guards concocted the story that Christ's body had been stolen by His followers, and the Roman soldiers followed along (Mt. 28:12-15).
The denial that Christ died and rose again has taken various forms. One form says Christ did not die, but only swooned. According to this lie, His disciples recovered His injured body and doctored Him back to health, claiming He was raised from the dead. In 1976, Hugh J. Schoenfield published his blasphemous attempt to annul the death/resurrection account, titled, The Passover Plot.
ABROGATE HIMThe blood thirsty, pagan tribes of the mid-east were constantly at war with one another (some things never change). Mohammed saw the power of the Jewish people and the Christian community in believing in one God and having a book that held all believers together. He picked and chose select portions of Jewish and Christian teachings and taught them to these warring tribes. He also compiled a book, loosely relating Biblical ideas. However, since he was neither a Jew nor a Christian, he id not have a faith in the God of the Book, nor an understanding and commitment to the message of the Book. He changed some of his teachings as time went by. His position was, whatever came later abrogated the earlier writings. This is why some of the writings of the Koran are similar to Judeo/Christian concepts. However, he separated himself further from Divine truth, as is seen in the later part of the Koran.
For the Muslim, the message of the Koran basically abrogates the message of the Bible. They therefore have a different God, Jesus, message than the Christian has. President Obama mocked the Bible openly and then made reference to the “holy koran.” Our society is following the lead of Islam by trying to abrogate Jesus, that is, replace Him with a Jesus of their own making. Modernists, Liberals and now the Emergent Movement have all tried to abrogate the Savior as well.
AVOID HIM
During the Philadelphian period of Church history, from the late 1700s to the mid 1900s the gospel covered the world and brought about a positive response to Jesus. However, once we started to get past that period of Open Door ministry and worldwide evangelism (Re. 3:7-13), we started seeing people become more pluralistic and less evangelistic. Avoidance replaced the warm response to Christ. Lethargy and detachment replaced Bible commitment and loyalty to Jesus. In the western world it was not unusual for people to become embarrassed when the conversation turned to Christ and salvation. If fact, it became a social rule not to talk about politics or religion.
ABOLISH HIM
In these last several years we have seen Jesus abolished from many countries of the world, through communism, socialism, Islam and other forms of atheistic rule. In our own country we have seen Jesus removed from the educational, political and public arena, while every form of evil is allowed to advance.
