My Pulpit Message Notes

Is it fake news?

My Pulpit Message Notes are extracted from the sermon preached at the Nairobi Baptist Church (NBC) Ngong Road on Sunday 10th April 2022. Preacher: Pastor Daniel Kemboi. Topic: Is it fake news? Scripture: Genesis 3:14-15

Many times we receive news from different circles and someone would tell you that is fake news or the truth.

- Fake news is news or stories created to misinform or deceive the readers. Sometime back you may remember there was fake news over the internet that Don Moen is no more. They even said that TD Jakes prayed for him before his death. People started sending condolence messages to the family until Don Moen came out and said he is alive and still serving God. That was fake news.

- Many in our world today believe that the death and resurrection of Christ is fake news. Even Christians have become too familiar with the idea that Jesus died for our sin. But with that familiarity it makes no impact in them because they are taking it lightly. - However, the Bible is not fake news because God’s rescue mission was fulfilled and many of us are the recipients of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is why we come to worship Him becausethis news is not fake news.

- From the passage Genesis 3:14-15, going back we see the creation story and as God is creating everything He says, ‘It is good”. When he created man, He said, ‘It is good’ but He also said, “It is not good for a man to live alone.” During that time God created another creature called a woman and God said, it is good. - Day one to six of creation God said it is good, but after creating man, we see God saying, “It is not good for a man to live alone.”

There will be conflict

- From the passage there is a shift and it shows the fellowship that was going on between God and the first people He created, Adam and Eve. It reached a time when a creature called the serpent is introduced. This is where we see the darkest verse in the Bible, because before, we read ‘It was good’, but when we come Genesis 3:15 it says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed; he will crush your head and your shall bruise his heel.”

- Enmity means conflict, chaos, hostility. God introduces another aspect of bringing enmity between the serpent and the woman. - Satan comes in the form of a serpent and deceived Adam and Eve. However, Satan’s rebellion began in heaven when he was still an angelic being.

Who was this serpent?

- Revelation 12:9

“And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole [d]world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

- The Bible points out that Satan was an angel who turned a third of the angels in heaven against God. He was cast down to the earth as

a result of his pride. His rebellion then continued on earth, eventually spreading through the world. Satan and his fallen angels became an organised network of powerful spiritual beings whose aim is to frustrate the work of God.

- Paul refers to him in Ephesians 6:12,

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

- This is why God said, I will bring enmity between you (serpent) and the woman. Enmity began before the creation of man and the struggle is real.

- We live in two parallel worlds. We have the physical world in which I can come and eat in your house, we can communicate and live life as usual and we have the spiritual world that you cannot see with your naked eyes, controlled by the angels, the demons.

- But we who live in Christ, He guides us on how we can operatein this spiritual world. - In fact, it is written in 34 books in the Bible the mention of angels. 103 times in the Old Testament and 165 times in the New Testament.

- You need to know your enemy and understand how he operates. If you don’t believe the existence of the enemy, he has already won, because his work is to deceive humanity that we do not believe that there is another world, a spiritual world that is frustrating the works of God.

- Once you receive Christ, the Bible says that we are not living here as the owners of this world, but we are sojourners, we are ambassadors of Christ her. This world is not our home. This world is controlled by the devil. The god of this world is controlling this world and that is why he is trying to frustrate us.

- In 2007 as a first year student at the university, the second month of the first semester we were chosen to go for a school mission. As we went there we started worshipping and preaching the gospel led some to the LORD as that is what we were called to do. Day one we preached and many girls gave their lives to Christ. Day two, as we were preaching and praying, this is when I realised there was some manifestation as people were behaving in a weird way. Some of my comrades were thoroughly beaten by the girls and one of them would say, ‘as much as I am a Christian I will fight you’ and that is when one of girls said, it is not her fighting, but the enemy is fighting you. I remember people praying and casting out demons and trying to deliver these girl who was very strong. I was also at my corner praying and as I saw one of my friends thoroughly beaten, I prayed, “God not me, let them be beaten, don’t allow that demon to come to me.’ As we continued to cast out that demon, one girl came to me and said, speak. I was really shaking. Three people had already been beaten. I repeatedly said, ‘In the name of Jesus,’ and the girl became still’ and was told that the demon had left the girl.

- The following day at 3 pm. we started praying for people to be delivered from the oppression of the enemy. It took long. Men were casting out demons and for many hours we tried casting out particular demons, shouting and sweating and nothing seemed to happening. Then a tiny, small girl by the name Zippy came and said, ‘Be still.’ She then said, ‘Demons, out in the name of Jesus’. She did not shout but just commanded in her small voice and the girl was delivered.

- I realised there are spiritual forces operating that we do not see with our naked eyes, but there is the power that we have been given by Jesus Christ to enable us to overcome the works of the devil and I can testify because Zippy did not shout, neither was she big or strong, but just commanded in her small voice, ‘demons out’.

- The world does not sympathies with you, agree with you, because in 1 John 5:19 we know that we are children of God and the world is under the control of the evil one. We are the minority and as that is why the devil tries to frustrate us. But you are right because God is on your side.

- Genesis 3 helps us to understand the root of the battle by highlighting there will be enmity between Satan’s seed and the seed of the woman. Though the word used in Genesis 3 says ‘seed’, it can be singular or plural, it is clarified with the word ‘he’.

“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” So it has been clarified by the word ‘he’ which is singular.

- The Bible progresses and reveals that ‘he’ is Jesus Christ who came through a specific lineage. Seth, Shem, Isaac, Jacob, David and eventually Joseph and Mary, the parent of Jesus. God says that he (Jesus) will crush your head.

- Even before Jesus was born, Satan attempted to destroy His lineage. It started in the garden of Eden and even after Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden we see that Satan incited Cain to kill Abel, but God raised up Seth as the seed (Genesis 4:8).

Satan caused evil to pervade the earth so that God destroyed it by flood, but God save one family to start again (Genesis 6:1-8). Pharaoh acted as Satan’s agent when he told the midwives to kill all the male Hebrew infants. God rescued Moses. Satan sent King Saul to haunt David and end the Messianic hope through his line (1 Samuel 21). Herman in the book of Esther attempted genocide against the Jews, but he was hang on his own gallow (Esther 7).

- In the New Testament, Herod acted as Satan’s agent when he ordered male babies in Bethlehem should be killed, but God helped Mary and Joseph to escape to Egypt (Matthew 2:16-18). Even as Jesus was about to begin His public ministry, Satan went in person to tempt Him in the wilderness. He told Him to throw Himself off the temple pinnacles. Jesus told him, ‘It is written…’ Jesus knew the Word of God. - All of Satan’s attacks have been attempts to destroy the seed of a woman.

There will be confrontation

“You shall bruise his heel”

This is an instruction given to the enemy, the serpent. That he will bruise the heel of Christ. - When Satan failed to destroy Jesus’ royal lineage he incited the Jewish leaders, mobs of people and the Roman government to crucify Christ. The conflict between Jesus and Satan moved to one final showdown.

- the coming One, Jesus confronted the serpent bringing Himself a temporary injury, the bruised heel that was fulfilled in the physical pain and the death of Jesus Christ. I know by then the enemy was so happy when he failed in trying to convince Jesus to sin, or follow his instruction, he went to the Jewish and Roman government and tried to crucify Jesus, of which he thought that he had succeeded.

- As Jesus was crucified and said, “It is finished”, I believe that the enemy was so happy. But they didn’t know that it was just a bruised heel which is a temporary pain. When Jesus died, the enemy was happy, but on the third day when Jesus arose, He assured us of victory, fulfilling this Word that He can conquer death and we will be living with Him. We will resurrect and be with Him forever and ever and the enemy will not have any dominion in our lives.

- Colossians 2:14-15

“having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

This is our Lord Jesus Christ. He overcame the devil assuring us, if we believe in Him, we shall overcome. Assuring us that if we believe in Him, we will be delivered. If we believe in Him, we will be saved. He who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

There will be conquest

“He will crush your head”.

Satan thought that he won, but his disappointment came when Jesus rose from the grave. The darkest day in human history gave way to the brightest hope, the resurrection. That is our hope and that is why we are celebrating Easter.

- Through the cross, there was victory for those who chose to believe in Jesus Christ. Satan no longer has power over those who follow Jesus Christ.

- If you have not encountered the saving grace of Jesus Christ,you are wasting your time. I beg you to believe in Jesus Christ so that you can win the spiritual war of victory and be with Him. So that you can be assured of eternity with Him.

- Satan still fights his destiny and the battle in spiritual realm spills into our world and life. It is for this reason that the Bible tells us to put on the full armour of God and stand against the enemy.

- Paul said that we should be aware of the devices of the enemy for us to overcome him.

- Genesis 3:14-15 portrays God’s ultimate redemption plan to send the Messiah to crush the rebellion of Satan and the fallen angels.

- Jesus said, the prince of this world will be driven out and be judged and through Scriptures we see that he will be cast into the lake of fire together with those who don’t believe, who do not follow his ways.

- I wouldn’t like anyone of us to miss this saving grace. We have been given an opportunity while we are still alive. -

Jesus will ultimately crush Satan’s authority over the earth not just over God’s people. - John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”

- Believe in Him. We have already seen in Genesis how the enemy tried to frustrate the work of God and to destroy lineage of Christ, but we see that he was not able. Even when they crucified Christ, He rose from the dead.

- If you have not believed in Jesus Christ, I invite you to accept Christ as your personal Saviour so that you will not be ashamed. So that you will not die in a lake of fire in future. I invite you to have a personal relationship with Christ.

- The gospel is true. For redemption of sin, for setting us free from condemnation, it is only Christ.

- The enemy comes to kill, to steal and to destroy. He wants to kill your joy, to steal your peace and freedom. He is really attempting to do that. He wants to steal your eternal life that you may die and be condemned in a lake of fire.

- Christ came that we may have life and have it abundance. This is the true gospel.