Ephesians 4:26-28

Christ Came to Bear Our Hostility
Ephesians 4:26-28; Genesis 3:1-7; Isaiah 53:1-6; 1 Peter 5:6-11
Jim Davis
Three months ago, 9-11-01, we witnessed an angry plot against our fellow countrymen at the world trade centers. It was the most horrific event that we have ever witnessed in this country.
We have witnessed an anthrax attack on our country.
A few weeks ago a murderous plot was uncovered where school kids were planning to massacre fellow students. They were seeking to make it a bigger event than the Columbine High School massacre.
Tuesday evening Mary and I were on Tyrone Blvd at the corner of 38th Ave. There was a wreck there at the red light. A woman was out in the middle of the road cursing a man out. She was about as belligerent as anyone that I've heard in a long time. At one point she told the man who ran into her, "If I had a knife I would slit your throat." Although she used more provocative language than I can use here this morning.
We live in an abusive angry world. There is road rage, child abuse, parental abuse, spousal abuse, sexual abuse, religious abuse, political abuse, drug abuse, etc. The list is infinite.
Why Are We So Angry?
Satan is provoking humanity to anger. The moment Adam and Eve sinned Eden became a hostile environment. Initially, Satan convinced Adam and Eve that God was depriving them of their greatness. They became angry with themselves, with each other and with God. It is impossible to separate sin from anger, for they are one and the same. It may not appear as such, but this is the way it is.
Ephesians 4:26-28
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need" (NIV).
Satan is out to get a foothold on our lives through anger. Paul knows anger must be channeled into something positive or Satan will persuade us that we are justified to do whatever is necessary to get what we want.
Satan's schemes are born out of his anger against God. He is angry because he wants the glory that belongs to God and God alone. This is why he walks about as a roaring lion seeking to devour those who share in God's glory--i.e. Christians.
1 Peter 5:6-11
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen" (NIV).
Do you want to know why I believe the first three chapters of Genesis? It is because they are true to human nature. They reveal our anger with God as we contemplate human freedom and the will of God.
Genesis 3:1-7
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves" (NIV).
Much of our anger is the result of our confusion about God. We wonder why God made us with the freedom to sin, and yet, we wonder why his will seeks to restrict our freedom. We want our cake and eat it too. When we violate the freedom God has given us we blame God for the circumstances he has placed us in.
Genesis 3:8-13
"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
"He answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.'
"And he said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?'
"The man said, 'The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'
"Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?'
"The woman said, 'he serpent deceived me, and I ate" (NIV).
We are angry because of the circumstances we have created for ourselves. The devil is busy convincing us that we deserve more. We do, but we have robbed ourselves of more. Adam and Eve believed Satan's lie in Eden and it stripped them of their God given dignity. They became angry at one another and God.
They refused to examine the source of their hostility. Each sought to blame something or someone outside themselves for their circumstances.
Have you ever noticed that how you place the blame for your anger upon something or someone outside yourself. We say, "He made me mad!" We say, "That made me mad!" However, we make ourselves mad.
Christ Came to Bear Our Hostility
Immediately after the fall in Eden, God spoke of Christ who would bear the hostility of this world.
Genesis 3:14-15
"So the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’" NIV
Satan is out to trip us up. He is a master at breeding hatred and anger, but Christ came to bring peace and good will on earth. Christ came to crush Satan’s head out of love for the lost.
Christ was presented as one who would resolve our anger conflict with God. Christ came into this world to call a ceasefire as he sought to bear the anger of an angry world.
Christ came to lead us through an angry world--he came to show us a better way. "Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope" (Matthew 12:18-21 NIV).
"A bruised reed he will not break." The reed is an emblem of feebleness, as well as of fickleness or want of stability. Have you ever noticed how tender a reed is? It is so fragile that it seems as though it can hardly stand-alone. Imagine how fragile a bruised reed is? Yet Christ deals with the word in such a gentle manner-- "A bruised reed he will not break."
The Lord's response to anger was that he did not openly fight his enemies. He refused to come in a proud and overbearing manner trampling down those who opposed him. He refused to treat them harshly or unkindly. Paul speaks of the meekness and gentleness of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:1-2).
A bruised, broken reed is an emblem of the poor and oppressed. It means that he would not oppress the feeble and poor, as victorious warriors and conquerors did. It is also an expressive emblem of the soul broken and contrite on account of sin; weeping and mourning for transgression. He will not break it; that is, he will not be severe, unforgiving, and cruel. He will heal it, pardon it, and give it strength.
The anger of our world did not desensitize God to our pain. When two people are angry at each other, they are probably both hurting very much. Both feel hurt by the other and the pain they feel is great. But they do not see or feel the pain of the other. Anger and our own pain seem to desensitize us from seeing the pain in the other. However, God came to feel our pain. He is not desensitized from the anger of sin. He bore the anger of our world but he was not desensitized to the anger we feel.
Vengeance Belongs To God
One day God will take his vengeance out upon sin, but for now he has chosen to bear the vengeance our sin deserves. Christ came to bear the hatred of sin as he faced the wrath of an angry mob crying--crucify him--crucify him.
Isaiah 53:1-6
"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (NIV).
Jesus came to heal an angry world, not to impose hurtful laws.
John 7:23-24
"Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment" (NIV).
Today when we suffer punishment from God for our sins, it is for the purpose of disciplining us. He seeks to discipline us to make us examine our lives.
Jeremiah 17:9-10
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
"’I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve’" (NIV).
When God rewards us according to the deeds we deserve, it is not out of anger. He does it to bring us to repentance. He wants us to understand the nature of sin.
Christ came to identify with us; He did not come to condemn the world.
John 3:16-21
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God" (NIV).
"Everyone who does evil hates the light" of God’s discipline. The light is not given to hurt but to help.
Titus 3:3-11
"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
"But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned" (NIV).
Conclusion:
Some want to take Christ out of Christmas. They had rather spell Christmas--Xmas. Some take issue with celebrating Christmas because we don't actually know the day of his birth. It seems that it would be wonderful to celebrate Christmas everyday.
I remember the peace Christ brought during the Vietnam War. On Christmas both sides would agree to cease firing shots at each other. Can you imagine the relief a soldier would feel being able to go for a whole day without worrying about being fired upon? It was a peace that only Christ could bring.
Christ wants to enter into every human heart to bring peace on earth and good will toward men. He came to bear the hostilities of a hostile world.