10-13-13 Sermon: Conquer and Transform

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CONQUER AND TRANSFORM

The Invisible War Part 9

10-13-13 Sermon

We’ve been talking over the last 8 sermons about the invisible war. Over those weeks we talked about how life on this earth is rough.  That we face temptations and attacks from inside and outside.  And last week we talked about the fact that you should not go into a battle undressed.  We looked at what Paul had to say about putting on the armor of God in Ephesians 6. 

Reflecting on that it is important to understand that, yes, you must not go into a battle undressed, but you can’t lose sight of the fact that the purpose for putting on the armor of God IS to go into battle.  It is not just so you can stand there and fend off attacks of the devil when he decides to come after you.  It is not just passive waiting in safety and security clothed with the armor of God.  Most of the pieces of the armor that Paul mentions are pieces of defense, but he also mentions the sword of the Spirit.  A sword is an offensive weapon, not a defensive weapon.  The believer was not expected to wait for the battle to come to him/her.  The believer was expected to go into battle.  To seek out the enemy.  To pick a fight.  We aren’t just to defend ourselves, we are to go out and fight. Paul told young Timothy in 1 Tim 6:12 to Fight the good fight of the faith.  And then in 2 Tim 4:7, Paul, reflecting back over his ministry, wrote I have fought the good fight. In 2 Corinthians 10:4, Paul told the Corinthians The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.The point is, we have weapons, we are to fight with them, they are powerful and there are strongholds that we need to demolish. 

The point I want to make today is that, yes, there is certainly an invisible war going on.  But there is also a visible spiritual war going on. 

When did that war start?  Well, part of it started in heaven before God created Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden.  There was a war in heaven where Lucifer, a bright and powerful angel in charge of worship decided that he wanted to be on the same level of God and he got 1/3 of the other angels to join him.  [Think about this. If Lucifer was a worship leader in heaven, and he got thrown out and now he hates God and all that heaven stands for, it shouldn’t surprise you that he loves to stir things up with people regarding worship.  I don’t like those dusty old hymns!  I don’t like those modern praise choruses.  I don’t like choirs.  I don’t like recorded music.  I don’t like projecting words on the wall.  I don’t like videos in church.  I don’t like guitars or drums in church.  The pastor preaches too long.  The worship service is too long.  There’s too much singing at church. We shouldn’t have communion so often.  Where do you suppose all that fuel for worship wars in a church comes from?]

So Lucifer was thrown out of heaven with his allied angels.  One third of the angels fell.  That means that they are still outnumbered 2 to 1 by the Holy angels of God. 

Then we come to the garden of Eden and you all know the story of Adam and Even being approached by satan in the form of a serpent.  Adam and Eve were tempted and sinned.  Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the snake, and the snake didn’t have a leg to stand on!

This is the point where human beings were drawn into this war.  It is in Genesis 3 that we read of the fall of Adam and Eve.  It is also there that we read of  God’s declaration of war, the promise of a savior and ultimate victory.  Genesis 3:14-15 says ¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
¹⁵ 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.”

God curses the serpent, the devil.  He says to the serpent You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. That didn’t mean that snakes were going to eat dirt from now on.  It was an expression that meant I am going to humble and humiliate you and demonstrate my power over you.  Like in the old westerns on TV and in the movies where one character would hold another character at gunpoint and tell them to get face down on the ground and eat dust. 

Then God says ¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;.  Circle enmity.  It means hatred, hostility.  God was saying that now, not only will I be your enemy, satan, but human beings will also be your enemy. 

And then finally, God says he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel Even Jewish rabbis recognized that verse as a reference to the coming of a messiah.  There would be one who would come, and satan would strike his heel, he would nick him on the heel, something painful, but certainly not fatal, and this messiah would crush satan’s head.  That would be the final outcome of this declaration of war.  Satan would be destroyed. 

But satan is not destroyed yet, is he?  The battle rages on.  Jesus, referring to satan as a thief says, John 10:10 ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  Satan can’t touch God so he takes his anger at God out on the ones that God loves most, human beings.  He seeks to steal, kill and destroy everything that is good in life, but God vows to bring full and abundant life to those who turn to him.

In Luke 4, Jesus goes to church, the synagogue in his day, and there is a man there affilicted with a demon.  The text says: ³³ In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, ³⁴ “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”³⁵ “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.

Does it surprise you that Jesus would encounter a man with a demon in the church, in the synagogue?  It shouldn’t.  This war is going on everywhere, including in the church.  The effects of people being tormented by demons can range from mild to severe.  In the Gospels we read an account where it says that Peter’s mother-in-law suffered from a fever.  And it says that Jesus rebuked the fever and the fever left her.  Well, rebuke is a term that you address to a personal being not to an inanimate object or a medical condition.  Somehow Peter’s mother-in-law was being tormented by a demon which manifested itself in the physical condition of a fever. 

At the other end of the spectrum is the story in the gospels of the man who was running around a cemetery naked, cutting himself and having such strength that chains could not hold him.  It says that Jesus cast a legion, 6000 demons out of him and he was then sound, in his right mind.

And there can be all kinds of manifestations of demonic activity in between.  I believe that the devil comes to church every Sunday to see who he can distract, who he can make bitter, who he can cause to be critical, who he can make negative, who he can get to take up an offence, whose minds he can close, whose eyes he can blind.  Paul says 2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  I believe that the devil is still very active in the church today.

What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? The text makes it clear that Jesus had no desire to have a conversation with a demon, so he doesn’t answer the demon’s question about whether Jesus had come to destroy them—note that the demon says “us” rather than “me.”  Maybe there was really more than one demon there, or he was asking the question for all his friends as well.  But if Jesus were to answer the question he would have said, You betcha!  You’ve got that right!  I have come to destroy you.  1 Jn. 3:8 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

In Luke 4: 14-16, right after Jesus finishes his temptations in the wilderness in direct confrontation with the devil he goes t his hometown, Nazareth.  Goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he is handed the Isaiah scroll.  He unrolls it to the place where it is written:  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Freedom for those imprisoned by whom?  Healing for those blinded by whom?  And freedom for those oppressed by whom?  By the devil.  He was announcing that he had come to fight against the devil and to destroy all the devil’s works. 

That was Jesus’ mission.  But Jesus sent out his disciples on the same mission.  In Mark 3: 13-15 we read: ¹³ Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve—designating them as apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach ¹⁵ and to have authority to drive out demons. 

Mark says that he call his disciples apostles.  What does that mean?

A little boy came home from Sunday school and his mother asked what he learned that day and he told her that he learned about Jesus and the 12 opossoms!

No. not opossoms, but apostles.  When Jesus hearers heard him call his disciples apostles they would have recognized that he was using a military term.  For instance, a fleet of ships would sail into a new territory.  The lead ship carried the admiral of the fleet who was referred to as the apostle.  The ships in the fleet that accompanied him were referred to as Apostolic.  They were an invading force under a military assignment. 

And what was the assignment of the apostle?  The apostle’s assignment was to go into the conquered territory, occupy it and shape that territory to reflect the cultural superiority of the kingdom that the apostle represented.  So, Hebrews 3:1 says Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.  We are to fix our thoughts on Jesus the apostle, the admiral, the leader of this invasion force.  Heaven invaded earth.  Jesus led an invading force under a military assignment.  He came to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.  After he invaded earth he intended to shape it, to transform it to reflect the cultural superiority of the kingdom of God. 

This is what the Romans would do.  It is what a roman apostle would do.  They would invade a land with military force.  They would conquer the land and then they would shape that culture, they would transform that culture, to reflect what they considered to be the cultural superiority of the Roman empire.

So how would the Admiral, or how would the apostle know that he had accomplished the mission?  How would he know he had done a good job?  How would he know that he had met his goal?  Listen to this—he would know because the king would come and visit the region expecting it to be operating just like home!  The king would come and confirm that the government, the religion, the educational institutions, the culture was functioning like it did at home.  He would feel at home!

Hebrews 3:1 called Jesus an apostle, and as an apostle he came to conquer and to transform.  He came to take back this world, the earth that he had created, to take it back from the devil, and to transform it to look like the kingdom of God. 

Sometimes we sing hymn #144, “This is my Father’s world.”  Sometimes it seems to be far from our Father’s world.  Sometimes it seems like the devil is in control.  We need to be reminded of the 3^rd verse of that hymn that says:

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.  This is my Father’s world:  why should my heart be sad?  The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!  God reigns; let the earth be glad!

Yes, God reigns!  Our God reigns!  And he has sent Jesus as his admiral, his apostle, to lead an invasion force from heaven to reclaim earth for himself.  He intends to conquer and transform. 

But there is more!  Listen to this.  Not only did Jesus come to the earth on an apostolic assignment, he commissioned his church to do the same.  Jesus was an apostle, the admiral of an invading fleet, and Mark 3 says that he called his disciples and designated them as apostles.  They were to be admirals too.  They were to lead invasion forces as well. 

That is why in what we call the Lord’s prayer he told his disciples to pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Do you hear the apostle language there?  Pray for the kingdom of Jesus’ father, God’s kingdom, to come on earth as it is in heaven.  Pray for the will of God, the culture where God’s will is done all the time, to come on earth as it exists in heaven.  Therefore, as apostolic people we are to invade systems and structures with apostolic authority to create a culture that looks like home, that looks like heaven, that looks like the kingdom of God. 

Matthew 10:1 says that Jesus appointed the apostles and gave them authority to drive out demons, and to cure every kind of disease and sickness.  He gave them authority to drive the enemies out of the land and destroy the works of the devil.  And in verse 7 Jesus said, As you go, preach this message: ‘the kingdom of heaven is near.’  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.  The kingdom of heaven is near.  It is not something you only get once you die.  It is not something that only happens when Jesus comes again.  It is near and it is now.  The King of heaven has invaded earth and His earth is being transformed as the sick are being healed, the dead are being raised, those who have leprosy are being cleansed and demons are being driven out. 

Jesus gave them power and authority to do the same things he was commissioned to do.  In Luke 10 Jesus sends out 72 disciples to do the same things.  And then in John 14:12 he extended this commission to all believers.  There he says that those who believe in me will do what I have been doing.  And he says that in the context of a discussion of miracles.  We too are apostles.  We too are an invading force with the power and authority of the King sent to heal, free from bondage, cast out demons and shift the social order until this culture looks like the culture of heaven.  We are to bring the culture of the kingdom of God into regions and nations for the purpose of transformation. 

During WW2 there was a time when Nazi Germany conquered and transformed most of Europe.  There was Nazi power and authority almost everywhere.  And there was Nazi culture almost everywhere.  But then came D-day.  An allied force invaded Europe at Normandy and began to spread a new power and authority and culture.  It started relatively small, but it spread.   More and more invaders came in, beating back the axis of evil.  And the oppressed were set free and a culture of freedom was established. 

And God’s invasion force started small.  Jesus said in Mt 11:12 from the time of John the Baptist  [who preached that the kingdom of heaven was at hand] until now that the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing.  Jesus sent out the 12 and they did the stuff.  They healed the sick, they cast out demons.  Then he sent out the 72 and they healed the sick and cast out demons.  Then in the book of Acts we see that even more people were doing the stuff—Stephen and Philip and others.  Then you see in church history that Christians kept doing the stuff, even children.  And then you see the Methodists did the stuff.  And now it is your turn.  You can do it too, if you are a believer.  Remember Jesus said, whoever believes in me will do what I have been doing. 

Maybe you start with bringing the kingdom of God, the power and authority and culture of the kingdom of God into your own life.  And then you bring the kingdom of God into the life of your family.  And then the life of your church,  And then the life of your block.  And then the life of where you work.  And on and on.  Starting small but growing.  And the kingdom of God, the power and authority and culture of the kingdom of God forcefully advances. 

Our calling is more than to just be good people.  Our calling is more than to just be nice.  Our calling is more than to just be good church goers or church members.  We are called to be part of an invasion force from one culture invading another.  Remember Paul’s words to the Philippians in Philippians 3: 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.  We may have TN drivers licenses.  We may have American passports.  We may declare ourselves to be US citizens, but Paul says our real citizenship is in heaven.  We have been sent on a mission from heaven.  We come with all the authority and power of heaven.  We are to represent heaven on earth.  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  An ambassador lives in one country, but has their citizenship in the home country.  And within the embassy where the ambassador lives, the home country exists on a smaller scale.  The ambassador as the representative of the leader of the home country is in charge in that embassy.  The laws of the homeland apply in that embassy.  The culture of the home country is practiced in that embassy.  Paul says we are like ambassadors of heaven representing Jesus Christ and God the Father in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit in whatever earthly culture and country we find ourselves. 

But aren’t we supposed to preach the gospel?  Yes we are.  Our English word gospel is used to translate the Greek word for good news.  We are to bring the good news to people.  However it is very interesting that the English word gospel

was originally god-spell or good-spell.  It came from the time in the 500’s when St. Patrick and his band of Christians invaded England to conquer and transform.  There they encountered the druids who were using the powers of darkness to put curses on people and control people with the power of the devil.  Patrick and his friends came in there with the power of God and demonstrated the power of God with signs and wonders and healings and the people called that good-spells or God-spells.  The spells of Patrick were far more powerful that the spells of the druids and the people were freed from the powers of the devil.  The land was conquered and transformed.  That was good news!  That was the Gospel. 

And that is the same gospel that we are to be sharing—one to conquer and transform.  One to set people free from all the works of the devil. 

Will you let Jesus conquer and transform you?  And then will you let him use you to conquer and transform as part of his invasion force, a force from heaven invading earth? 

You are more than you know.  You are called to more than you think you are.  God wants to use you as part of his invasion force.  Will you enlist?  Will you report for duty?  There is a war going on.  Whose side are you on?