The Glory Of The Cross
Christ blessing the supper at Emmaus Painting by Caravaggio National Gallery, London
The Resurrection Proof Of Christ's Victory
The proof of Christ's victory over sin, death and Satan was his resurrection three days after being crucified, as he had promised and Scripture had prophesied.
The Promise of Resurrection Life
Before his ascension and return to heaven, Jesus told his followers to wait in Jerusalem and they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit as proof of his resurrection life in them and the power to take the Good News of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
In 2 Corinthians 1:22, 2 Corithians 5:5 and Ephesians 1:14 the Apostle Paul says that Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit to all believers is an arrabon - a Greek word meaning "a guarantee, a deposit or down-payment guaranteeing ownership."
[God anointed us,] set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 1:22
Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 5:5
You also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
The Born Anothen Experience As Proof Of Resurrection Life
In John 3:3-7 Jesus tells Nicodemus, a religious leader and member of The Sanhedrin, he must be born anothen, meaning both again and from above ie supernaturally.
Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit to all who put their faith in his death and resurrection is the guarantee we shall be with him when we die.
In 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 Paul describes the reality of resurrection life because Jesus died and rose from the dead.
Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
That's the best news any of us could wish for!
Jesus' Obedience To Death
Jesus' cry of anguish from the Cross Photo: Lightstock adapted
The Ultimate Obedience
Hebrews 5:8 reads: "Though Son (of God), he (Jesus), learned obedience through suffering." The ultimate test for Jesus was settled in The Garden of Gethsemane, when he cried three times in anguish of body, soul and spirit to Father God:
"Father, if it is at all possible, take this cup of your wrath (at all the evil and human sin) from me. Nevertheless, Father, not my will but yours be done."
Dr Luke tells us that his agony was so great he sweated drops of blood (Luke 22:44) - a rare medical condition called haematidrosis that is associated with absolute terror.
Jesus knew very well the horror facing him in going to the Cross for our sin and all the evil ever perpetrated by mankind since the rebellion in The Garden of Eden. That is why on the Cross he cried out in agony "Eli, eli, lama sabachthani" -- "My God My God! Why have you forsaken me?" A cry of utter abandonment by the God of the universe, who had planned this as the only possible way of redeeming a fallen creation and reconciling human beings to God and restore the intimate fellowship with him that Adam and Eve enjoyed before they disobeyed his instructions.
A Prophetic Picture Of Victory
When Jesus uttered this cry, he was quoting the first verse of Psalm 22 - a psalm written by King David a thousand years before Jesus was born. It consists of three sections:
A. An Anguished Cry of Dereliction vv 1-10
The cry of a person who feels abandoned by God, but who reminds himself and us that God has always been faithful.
B. A Prophetic Picture of Crucifixion vv 11-22
These verses contain a detailed picture of what the crucified man is feeling on the cross.
C. A Triumphant Shout of Resurrection vv 22-31
In these verses the crucified man utters a shout of triumph that God will raise him to life and vindicate his death, ending with the words in verses 30-31 -
"Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: 'He has done it!' "
Far from being a cry of abandonment, Jesus was telling those who were watching and listening that he would conquer sin, death and Satan by his obedience even to death on a cross.
The Gospel writer John tells us that Jesus' final word from the Cross as he died was: "Tetelestai!" - "It is finished! Mission accomplished!" (John 19:30)
Jesus' Victories Over Satan
The glory of the cross
Jesus' Victories Over Sin, Death & Satan
In John 14:6 Jesus made an extraordinary claim: " I AM The Way, The Truth and The Life. No one comes to the father except through me."
Only Jesus could make that claim because he had won the victory over sin, death and Satan, as can be seen from the table below.
In The Desert Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus answered Satan's misquoting Scripture with the truth of Scripture "It is written!"
In The Garden of Gethsemane Matthew 26:26-46 Jesus chooses obedience to God's will vs his own desire
At Gabbatha (The Stone Pavement where Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate) John 18:3-38 Jesus does not answer Pilate. But the anagram of QVID EST VERITAS? is EST VIR QVI ADEST "It is the man here"
At Golgotha John 19:30 on the Cross Jesus cried: "It is finished! Mission accomplished!"
In the Garden Luke 24:6 The angel said: "He is not here. he has risen! Remember how he told you, while her was still with you in Galilee."
At Olivet Acts 1:11 The angel says: "This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way from heaven"
Jesus' Strategy for Warfare
Following in Jesus' footsteps Photo: Lighstock
Lesson #1: Victory By Surrender To God
Jesus modelled the way of winning the war against Satan by surrendering to God the Father and taught his disciples to do the same.
" Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does." John 5:19-20 NIV
" I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it." John 12:49 NLT
"I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5 NIV
The apostle Paul learned this from his experience of almost dying, as he wrote to the Christians in Corinth.
" We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 NIV
And supremely, we see Jesus himself leading by example in the following verses.
"Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation (Greek: peirasmos=testing).” He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:39-44 NIV
Lesson #2: Maintaining Relationship with Father God
Jesus maintained his intimate relationship with Father God through
• Spending time alone with God in a quiet place
• Listening to God in Prayer, Bible reading, Meditation and Fasting
• Talking with God in Prayer
• Praising and worshipping God
Lesson #3: Doing What Jesus Did
Jesus's method of training the disciples was:
• He demonstrated how to do it while they watched
• They did it while he watched
• He sent them out two-by-two to do what he had taught them
Lesson #4: Binding the Strong Man
Jesus taught the disciples a parable about how to plunder the possessions of a strong man.
" When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armour in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.." Luke 11:21-22 NIV
The strong man fully armed = Satan, who has a panoply=whole armour. To plunder his possessions requires the power of a stronger man (Jesus).
In Ephesians 6:10-18 Paul says that to be able to win the spiritual battle, we need to put on the whole armour (panoply) of God that is to be found in Jesus.
Binding the strong man in practice means removing the legal authority given to Satan by sin, committed by us or against us, that has given Satan the legal authority to harass us. We do this by confession, repentance and renunciation of sin and by forgiving all those who have hurt us, Jesus says, if we want God to forgive our sins.
Lesson #5: Resisting The Enemy
James 4:7 Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. Surrendering to God and removing all the enemy's legal authority to keep us in bondage needs to be followed by aggressive resistance by exercising the authority and power Jesus gave his disciples.
Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Luke 9:1-2
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go........Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’......Luke 10:1,9
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-21
Demonic Oppression Is On A Continuum
Christ Healing the Two Demoniacs in the Country of the Gadarenes Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1681) National Galleries of Scotland
Demonisation: A Continuum of Demonic Activity
There is no word in Greek for 'demon-possession' as is often found in English language translations of the New Testament. Instead, individuals are said to 'have an impure or evil spirit,' 'having a spirit making mute,' 'be in (the grip of) an evil spirit' or to be 'demonized' (from the Greek verb daimonizomai). Such mistranslation has led to confusion about whether a follower of Jesus Christ can be affected by demonic spirits or completely controlled by them.
A careful reading of the New Testament will show that Jesus not only cast out demonic spirits from people but also gave his disciples his authority and power to do the same. But we can also see that individuals can be affected by demonic spirits from 0 (in the case of Simon Peter) to 5000 (in the case of the Gadarene demoniac named Legion because he was in the control of 5000 demons). It is important therefore to recognize different degrees or levels of demonic attack, which fall into three main categories.
Three Levels of Demonic Activity
A. AFFLICTION involving the attack of demonic spirits from outside a person. This is the most common form of enemy attack that can affect all three levels of a person - Body, Soul and Spirit. An example here is to be seen in Matthew 16 where, after confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Simon Peter moments later says he will not allow Jesus to go to the Cross. This earns the strongest rebuke from Jesus: "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." (Matthew 16:16-23) One moment Peter was speaking under the unction of the Holy Spirit. The next he was being used by Satan to try to abort God's plan of salvation!
B. INFILTRATION is where a demonic spirit, or spirits, have gained entrance inside a person through spiritual doorways, involving sin committed either willingly or unknowingly by or against an individual. These include generational iniquity (for example, occultism or idolatry down a family line); false religions; idolatry; sexual immorality; rejection; satanism; witchcraft; accidents and trauma.
C. INFESTATION where an individual is so demonized s/he is now controlled by a whole group or groups of demonic spirits. This is true of addictions and all spiritual activity that involves deliberate invitation to demonic spirits involved in the different levels of occult healing and beyond the third level of initiation in Freemasonry, Hinduism, New Age, Reiki, Witchcraft, Yoga or Satanism. This is the level of demonic control of the Gadarene demoniacs.
The Christian & The Demonic
It is clear from the above that a Christian who has been born anothen and filled by the Holy Spirit cannot be controlled by the unholy spirits, but can and may often find herself/himself afflicted by such spirits. S/he may even at times be infiltrated by demonic spirits, where the individual has willingly invited them in through deliberate sin. They can also enter unwittingly as a result of sin committed against the person by others, through abuse of various kinds, or through accidents and trauma.
The Christian Fights From Victory, Not For Victory
It is important to remember that Christ won the victory over sin, death and Satan by his death on the Cross for our sins and by his glorious Resurrection from the dead and Ascension back to heaven. Every born again Spirit-filled Christian has the authority and power over all demonic spirits when submitted to the LORDship of Jesus Christ and protected by the whole armour of God, as Paul describes in Ephesians 6:10-18.
In Revelation 12:10-11 we read: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."
A Prayer Against Demonic Attack
In the Name and authority of the LORD Jesus Christ I come against you wicked spirit, whoever you are, and command you to leave my body, soul and spirit, go to the place appointed for you by Christ and don't return.
I ask You, LORD Jesus, to deliver me from this enemy attack and fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit to expel whatever it is the enemy has been trying to inflitrate me with. I ask this in Your name, which is above every other name in heaven, on earth or under the earth and for your glory. Amen.