Spirit of Offense Part I

Matthew 16:13:23 – building God’s church centers on two topics:

1. v15-16 a proper understanding of who Jesus is.
2. v21 a proper understanding of what Jesus did.
When these are kept at the forefront, the gates of Hell cannot overcome the church. Jesus’ church always bears fruit and pushes the
boundary line – taking ground against the enemy.

Within this church there are three possible voices to lead the people:
1. v17 the flesh, which is broken down into philosophy, traditions, and basic principles of natural realm (Colossians 2:8).
2. v17 God, who’s primary teachings come through wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17).
3. v23 Satan, who’s primary attack against the fully functioning church is the spirit of offense.
Stumbling block = offense…Greek word skandalon. Means the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick.

What is the spirit of offense like?

Matthew 16:24-25 – makes you want to defend yourself. If you will defend yourself then God has no power in your life. You
become your own savior. So it was very important for Jesus to identify this spirit in the lives of the disciples.
Peter tried to defend Jesus from His destiny. This spirit has the power to make you miss God’s will.

Time and again during Jesus’ ministry He fights against the spirit of offense by openly speaking against it:
1. Matthew 11:1-6 – summarize through v15 then start at v16-17, summarize v18-24, start at v25-26 insults the people, insults
their towns, insults their intelligence…all to see if they listened (blessed is the man who is not offended by Me). v28-30
Jesus then gives them a choice – stay offended or come put your life in my hands.
2. Matthew 13:1-9, 21 – Satan’s attack at new believers. Get them offended. The church looks nothing like the world and
becomes an offense (Galatians 5:11 – don’t go here but “offense of cross”).
3. Matthew 13:53-58 – spirit of offense is able to keep God from being effective in your life. God can’t use an offended
person. In the church many are offended and useless.

(Picture Peter listening to all this, as we work our way up to chapter 16 where he’s called out for offense.)

Ok, so Peter messed up. How’s he do next time?

John 6 summarize 1-13, He feeds 5K. v14-15, Jesus is at the height of His popularity. Time once again to see if the people have
learned the lesson, “blessed is the man who is not offended by Me”.
v25-27, 34-35, 41, 43-59 OFFENSIVE!
v60-61 – does this offend you? Remember – blessed is the man…What do you think Peter is thinking right now? Buzz word
“offense”.
v62-63, 66 – they hadn’t learned the lesson. But did Peter? v67-69 – Yay! Peter you did it; once again talking through revelation and
not offense.

But does it last?

Mark 14:22-31 – Last Supper. Will Peter be offended? He defends himself and allows the spirit of offense to tackle him. Spirit of
offense is able to affect not only you but all those around you. Peter refused to accept that Jesus knows all things to avoid offense.
Can you imagine, you’ve just won against offense and then Jesus tells you that you’re going to be offended?

So how does this spirit work? It tries to make you defend yourself instead of relying on God. This is the one spirit Satan knew had
the power to keep Jesus off the cross; had the power to cause Jesus to sin – remember this is literally the trigger of the trap of sin.

Mark 14:53-61a – Now the spirit of offense tries to get Jesus to sin and fall victim to self-defense.
Mark 14:61b-65 – But Jesus overcomes and instead the spirit latches on to the people around Jesus and they all become offended!
Mark 14:66-72 – Jesus was right, Peter got offended and defended himself.
Jesus had told him “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

So who wins? Did Jesus get His church that overcomes Hell, or did Satan get Peter offended and remove him from his destiny?
John 21:1-3 – spirit of offense makes you return to the world (just like in the Parable of the Sower). This spirit creates groups of
offended.
But Jesus had told them, “from now on you will be fisher’s of men”. Satan wanted them back in the world through offense; Jesus
wanted them out of the world through revelation knowledge of who He is and what He did.
John 21:4-7 – Ah! The chance to make things right; to come back from being offended.
John 21:8-14 – Picture this breakfast scene. Jesus looks at Peter, Peter looks away.
Jesus cuts through the nonsense of offense – v15-17 – YOU KNOW ALL THINGS
Breakthrough – v18-19 – no longer defend himself; trusting in God. He learned, “Follow Me!” Never again do we see him offended.
Matthew 18:6-9 (KJV), Proverbs 17:9, 19:11, Isaiah 44:22