Star Wars Crusade, Part 1: The Rebellion Condensed (What is the controversy about?)

How did it start?

Ezekiel 28:12, 14, 15: Thus says the Lord GOD: “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 14 “ You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.

What is iniquity?

2 Peter 2:4: For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

1 John 3:4: Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

Matthew 7:23: And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Iniquity = sin = Lawlessness

What was the Law of Heaven? 

Galatians 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 

The Law of Self Sacrificing Love was the law of heaven

Why did he break the law?

Ezekiel 28:17: Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;
Isaiah 14:12-14:  How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,[b] son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

What is the Most High like?  Loving, merciful, good, holy. 

So, Lucifer believed he could be good, holy, and loving without God’s law.  He asks “Why do we need a law to tell us what to do?  By nature we are holy.  We are free, not slaves” He rebels against God's law and desires  to exalt his form of government over God’s. 

How does he try to accomplish this?

Ezekiel 28:16,18: By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading.  This shows there are sanctuaries / holy places in heaven and Satan intentionally desecrated the sanctuary.

Jeremiah 17:12: A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.  By defiling the sanctuary, Satan defiles Gods throne or his rule.

Revelations 12:4:  His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth  He deceives a third of the angels.

Why didn’t God just stop Satan? Get rid of him?  Then, all would serve God out of fear.  Satan’s accusations would have been proven true.  God had to let sin take it's course. 

Revelation 12:7-9, 12: And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them[a] in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him…..12 Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

How does humanity get involved?  God made man with free will.

Genesis 2:16:  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 3:4:  Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Humanity is deceived; Satan tells Eve “you don’t need a law to know good and evil”.  When Adam and Eve sinned, they fell under the law of sin and death.  Satan exalts his throne over Adam and Eve (the sign of being under Satan’s throne is that you run from God). 

Romans 8:2:  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

(The law of sin and death says: you must obey your flesh, you have no control over self, do as you please, live as you please)

This is what the controversy is about: a war of thrones.  Satan’s government is based on selfishness and results in sin and death.  God’s government is based the law of self sacrificing love.

God promises a deliverer to redeem us from Satan’s throne. 

Genesis 3:15  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed;  He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.  Jesus is to come and provide a way unto salvation. 

God is going to use a special gift to help them get back to the kingdom of heaven.  This gift would reveal:

1. The battle plans for victory for the human race.
2. A blueprint for truth in a world confused by sin. 
3. The key to deliverance from the law of sin and death. 
4. The Messiah earthly mission to save humanity and
5. The Messiah’s heavenly mission to save humanity. 
6. Satan’s fate
7. The focal point of the controversy
8. The law of self sacrificing love

Exodus 25:8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.  This was the very model of the sanctuary in heaven, a model of the government of God.

The sanctuary reveals the heavenly mission to save humanity. 

Psalms 77:13 Thy way, Oh god, is in the Sanctuary.  (But Jesus says I am the way.  How do these match?

The very way in which the sanctuary furniture was set up thousands of years before Jesus died forms a cross, showing the way He would come and demonstrate the law of self sacrificing love.  (Jesus is in the sanctuary.) 

Matthew 27:33, 51  And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull.  Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, (Head crushed, heal bruised.  Calvary/Golgotha in Greek = cranium)

Contrast the throne/law of Jesus and Satan.  Satan exalts himself.  Jesus humbles himself.

Philippians 5:2-8  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  

The sanctuary reveals the heavenly mission to save humanity.  Jesus is our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary.

Hebrews 8:1,2 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man

Hebrews 9:24  For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

The sanctuary reveals the fate of Satan

Psalms 37:20  But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

Ezekiel 28:18  Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you,  and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that beheld thee.

Recap: The Sanctuary reveals 3 major phases of salvation for humanity

1. Christ’s mission on earth as our sacrifice
2. Christ’s mission in heaven as our high priest
3. The origin and eradication of sin

The focal point of the controversy

Satan, a covering Cherub turned his back on the law and now wants you to do the same.  “You don’t need a law to be holy.”  This was a war against the earthly mission of Christ and is now a war against the heavenly mission of Christ.  It is a war against the plan to put an end to the rebellion.

How are we to overcome Satan?

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

You could only enter the sanctuary with blood, had to sacrifice an innocent animal (it was the ‘passport’ into the sanctuary).  We enter in through our confession of sins.  When we confess, God invites us to reign under His throne.  It is through the blood we overcome.

Hebrews 9:11,12 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come,[a] with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Ephesians 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Hebrews 10:19  Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,

This is how we overcome Satan.  God invites us into his sanctuary where we may be empowered to follow Jesus, changed into his image, break every addiction, have a clear understanding of truth, be fitted and prepared for the government of heaven.  God has given us a miniature government for us to get used to how heaven operates. 

Satan does on earth what he does in heaven.  Satan attacks, through the anti-christ, the sanctuary. 

Daniel 8:11.12  He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down….He did all this and prospered

Satan will cast down the temple of God (in your mind).  He will have you focus on a sanctuary here on earth instead of the one in heaven.  The results of rebellion against the God’s sanctuary are war and rumors of war, crime, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, floods, chaos. 

The result of obeying Christ’s sanctuary is that it produces a people who stand in opposition to the throne of Satan.  Rev. 6:12 Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God

Daniel 12:1-3 And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time.  And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book….and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.  Revelation Star Wars!

Revelation 12:17   And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 24:12,13  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  Endure in what?  The law of self sacrificing love

Revelation 15:2  And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark[a]and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

Revelation 20:3,4  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away”. (the last chapter of the Bible)  The rebellion began in heaven, where Satan, rebelled against the throne or the sanctuary of God.  He was cast down to this world and got man to do the same thing.  The entire war over each one of us is “who’s throne are you currently under?”