The strategies of the Adversary

Nearly 30,000 members participated in the divine service that Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider conducted on 3 April 2016 in Buenos Aires (Argentina). The service was broadcast to congregations in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The Chief Apostle based his sermon on John 16: 33:

Restoring our fellowship with God

“Peace in Jesus Christ does not mean that there are no conflicts and difficulties, that everything is quiet and we can enjoy life,” the Chief Apostle said. Peace in Jesus Christ, he went on to say, is distinguished by a special relationship with God: “Peace in God means perfect oneness.”

“Man was created to have fellowship with God.” But as a result of the fall into sin, man had to leave this fellowship. But the sacrifice of Christ has opened up the possibility of restoring this fellowship, and the gospel points the way.

The intentions of the evil one

“But there is a problem. We have an adversary,” Chief Apostle Schneider made clear. “He does not want us to have this peace in God and is doing everything to separate us from God.” It is very important that we recognize these machinations and resist them—based on the example set by Jesus Christ.

The Chief Apostle mentioned five specific points:

• The Devil uses the suffering of humankind to sow doubt about God’s love for man. “Sometimes we do not know why God allows the one or other thing. But let us not doubt the love of the Lord, but trust in His love.”
• Satan makes enticing offers, the Chief Apostle said. “All he wants is to lure us into sin because he knows that sin separates from God.” The antidote: being obedient to God, because we know that He can give us far more than the evil one.
• To further his cause, the evil one tempts us with our freedom of will: “This can become a problem if our ideas were to differ from those of God. That would mean we cannot have fellowship with Him.” Let us follow the example of Jesus and make the heavenly Father’s will our own so that we can do what we wanted in the first place: enter the kingdom of God.
• Another strategy of the Devil is to sow injustice in order to plant the desire for retaliation in us: “Such thoughts can grow in our hearts to the point where we are no longer prepared to forgive. But if we do not forgive,” the Chief Apostle continued, “we cannot be forgiven.” The antidote: “Because we want to obtain grace we forgive our neighbour.”
• Satan uses the weaknesses of our neighbour, of our brothers and sisters, to provoke us to stay away from the divine services by telling us: going to church is useless; it is full of sinners. “But”, the Chief Apostle says, “staying away from the divine services means separation from God, because then we no longer receive Holy Communion. And without Holy Communion we cannot become more like Jesus.”

“Let us recognize that Satan is behind all of this and wants to separate us from God,” the Chief Apostle said in closing. “But you and I have decided that we want to be one with God. That is why we put up a fight and look up to Christ, the Overcomer, and follow His example. And with Christ we will overcome.”