Click on this slide and then press the spacebar to advance slides: ➜ (or swipe on a touch screen)
1. What God is like
How God is different to us
Qualities we share with God
Our experience of God
First the Old Testatment, then the New
2. God and the Spirit World
The Different Kinds of Beings in Existence
The Pagan world view and avoiding it
Evil & Suffering—It’s Origin & Destiny
Our Response
Pagan world view
God(s)
Angels & Demons
Ancestors (and their blessings and curses)
Priests/Shamans/Gurus/Witch Doctors
Ordinary people
Follower of Jesus
God
Created being with a body (humans)
Created spirit beings (angels & demons)
Plan for today
Something has gone wrong!
The source of the problem
Where we are now
Restoring a broken world
Living in victory over the same temptation
The Stanford Prison Experiment
“What happens when you put good people in an evil place?
Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?
These are some of the questions we posed in this dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in 1971 at stanford university.”
–Professor Philip G. Zimbardo
The Stanford Prison Experiment
“How we went about testing these questions and what we found may astound you. Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress.”
–Professor Philip G. Zimbardo
What went wrong
Adam & Eve, the first humans, were put in a perfect reality
A place of order, harmony, beauty and perfect love, but surrounded by chaos
Their task was to spread this harmony over the whole earth
The stability of this reality depended on them maintaining their allegiance to God
This enabled his life to be constantly flowing into them
They were given a very simple thing to mark their allegiance—don’t eat from a particular tree
Genesis 3:15
God said to Satan on behalf of Eve:
“…her offspring will crush your head”
Plan for today
Something has gone wrong!
The source of the problem
Where we are now
Restoring a broken world
Living in victory over the same temptation
2. Where we are now
So when humans first disobeyed God, it was more than a small mistake, it was an act of defiant rebellion that severed this relationship.
This perfect universe became spoiled and broken, sickness and death entered the world, and every child born inherited this brokenness.
What was most broken was the human spirit, now that it was separated from God. Instead we became centred on ourselves and often see God’s laws as restrictions, keeping us from happiness.
Common Grace
But every human carries the “image of God”
Beauty, creativity, love, self-sacrifice, sometimes in extraordinary ways.
Yet tainted by unwillingness to give allegiance to the God who gave these gifts
3. Restoring a broken world
How did God go about keeping his promise to Eve?
A new human re-runs the same test that Eve and Adam failed
Satan is a liar which is the root of his temptation
The three aspects of Temptation
1 John 2:
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
Genesis 3 has the same three kinds:
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
A. The Desires of the Flesh
All our physical needs and wants
Satan suggested that Jesus (like Adam) had a legitimate complaint against God
Jesus was hungry and God hadn’t provided bread for him—why shouldn’t he provide for himself?
Have you ever felt like that?
B. The Desires of the Eyes
Culture, art, science
houses, gardens
cars, home electronics
Films, literature, drama, music
education, technology
& the great achievments of mankind
C. The Pride of Life
To be worth something—to be recognized
This is to a large extent relational: wanting to be thought highly of
It is what is behind exaggeration
Gossip (“I am someone who knows lots of things about people—you will find me interesting to talk to!”)
Telling stories that set you in a good light
Desire for power, fame & recognition
We don’t need Satan to be tempted: James 1
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Answering temptation
There is more joy in Jesus than in anything this world has to offer. (Which is the answer to Satan’s lie).